《(ON HIATUS) Immortal Mage》


 Chapter 1 - Departure

    Chapter 1 - Departure


    "I was not born on this planet," Aaron said seriously to the two people in the throne room. "In fact, I''m not even from this universe."


    Shock was visible in the two people''s eyes. None of the two even considered not believing his words. The Supreme World Sovereign never joked when he sat on the White Jade Throne. This was actually the very reason Aaron decided to reveal the truth to them like that.


    "You must have questions," he said. "Ask away."


    "Where did you come from?" The old male, clothed in colorful luxurious clothes, asked. "Why are you here? What-"


    "Forget that!" The young-looking female wearing a beautifully crafted armor interrupted. "Why are you telling us this now?"


    Aaron, who wore simple martial arts robes, smiled. Old Tom was a Bard and asked questions to help him compose a song to sing or a tale to tell. Lia, however, was a leader forged by him and considered the practical implications of his revelation before anything else. One looked to the past, while the other prepared for the future.


    "I come from planet Earth, located in an unnamed universe. As for why I''m here¡­" He sighed. "I was the most powerful being from that universe, so powerful that I could destroy entire planets with a mere snap of my fingers." He wasn''t exaggerating; rather, he was downplaying his power, for they simply couldn''t understand the dimension of his former strength. He had been the greatest energetic manipulator ever born, and in his spare time ¡ª which was plentiful ¡ª he had at mastered all Higher Professions. He had been a force to reckon with.


    "Imagine being immortal," he continued, "having lived for eons, with the power to get whatever you want, whenever you want. Imagine having experienced all you sought after, and even some things you didn''t just because you thought those things might cure you of your boredom." He hadn''t been actually bored, his willpower too strong for that, but he had certainly been missing a goal in his life.


    "I knew it!" Tom said with a laugh. "I always knew you were a descended god! I was right!"


    "Shut up, let him finish," Lia said.


    "One day, I... Stumbled upon a portal to this planet." That was a simple way of putting it but even he didn''t understand those circumstances entirely. He only knew a mysterious power wanted him to come and he ended up agreeing for the greater good. "I felt what was on this side of the portal by using my Origin Sense and what I found was heart-wrenching."


    He sighed, remembering that moment. "A universe isn''t a living being per se, but it''s also not entirely dead. It has a semblance of a consciousness, which resides in its Core. What I found out was that this Universe''s Core has been Caged and forced to do things against its nature. It was crying and screaming, in absolute pain and despair, begging for help from anyone powerful enough to heed its call." He made a pause. "This universe is slowly dying. Given a few extra billion years, it shall implode, and nothing shall remain."


    Tom had a frown, trying to understand where his tale was leading. Lia, however, had already understood everything and yelled in despair. "No! No, you won''t! You are not leaving!"


    Aaron smiled warmly at her, like a grandfather looking at a cute granddaughter. "I sympathized with the Core and came to save this universe, but when I went through the portal, I lost all my power. I recovered what I could, but in this world, the level cap is ten, the Overlord level, and I can go no further than it. I''m way off from my former power, which I require to reach my goals. World Sovereigns like us can travel to higher-ranked worlds, which have higher level caps, and I need to do so."


    "Why leave now? Why not sooner? Or later, for that matter?" Tom asked before Lia could say anything more. She had asked just that before and listened attentively.


    "When I came to this world, I was unsure if the Cage had someone behind it, or if whoever put it in place had already left. I also didn''t know whatever measures the Cage might have to prevent people from going against it. These past thousand years, after conquering this world and becoming a World Sovereign, I tested the Cage in various ways. Just yesterday, after my last test, I became sure enough that I can act freely, and the Cage won''t hinder me in any way as long as I follow its base rules, like not going above a world''s level cap, or only leaving by spending Destiny Points."


    Show Destiny Points, Aaron thought.


    Out of nowhere, a transparent white rectangle with golden borders and written text inside appeared before him. It was just like a videogame window from Earth.


    Destiny Points


    Balance: 19,276,378


    The Cage had turned the universe in a big game, or at least added lots of game-like features to the universe, like videogame windows. People were supposed to conquer worlds and use the Destiny Points they acquired in the process to change the world however they wanted. Of course, he had only learned about it after he killed the last World Sovereign and conquered the world, for it wasn''t in the World Sovereigns'' interest for someone to try and overthrow them, and so they kept the information a secret.


    Being a World Sovereign enabled him to spend the Destiny Points to do virtually anything, from creating a new race to making the world plane. Whatever one wanted, as long as one was willing to spend the points the Cage asked for, it would be done.


    This world''s former World Sovereign, for instance, had placed a Class System in this world, just like a videogame. Tom was a Bard, and Lia, an Empress. Aaron didn''t revert it because it would cost too much.


    He could also travel to other worlds by using Destiny Points. If he tried to leave through space, he would get a warning window, and if he didn''t heed its warning, he would die. However, using the Cage''s system to travel to another world had a huge letdown: it practically required one to be reborn.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Going as the current him, without being reborn, would cost him a hundred million points, something way out of his budget.


    "As for why I decided to go now," he said, "you know my Destiny Points have started to decay a few years back. The rate of decay is increasing by the day. Today, when I woke up, I had five hundred points less than yesterday. My guess is that the Cage, the one behind this entire system that you call Will of the Universe, doesn''t want people to keep reserve points; either you use them to change the world, or you leave the world. That way, World Sovereigns can eventually be overcome, else they would just keep using Destiny Points to kill all competition."


    He had asked once how much doing so would cost and was met with a game window asking him to define ''competition.'' When he said he wanted to kill all other Overlords in the world, he found that it surprisingly cost only a million Destiny Points. With how rare Overlords were, plus the fact that World Sovereigns couldn''t die from old age, he would be able to keep his power for a very long time with his nineteen million points without having to do any real work to prevent people from killing him.


    After a long silence, Lia finally spoke. "Are you coming back to us?" There was real pain in her voice.


    "Yes," Aaron said. No matter how much time he took to do what he had to, his two friends were World Sovereigns just like him, and they could wait for eternity for his return. "Just don''t die until I save the universe."


    She snorted, saying not with words but with this gesture what she thought about what he had said. As if she would ever fail to curb her enemies and die!


    They looked at each other for a long time, savoring their last moment together before his departure. Tom silently took a bottle of wine and three cups seemingly out of nowhere, poured the cups, then offered them to his two friends.


    Aaron and Lia accepted their cups and raised them.


    "We had a fun journey," Aaron said. "Thank you for your company."


    Tom nodded. "It was fun indeed. Safe travels, my friend."


    Lia kept silent for a moment but ended up speaking. When she did, a single tear rolled down from the Ice Empress'' left eye. If anyone saw it, they would doubt their own sight. "I love you, big brother."


    Aaron smiled widely. At last, the little troublemaker acknowledged him as his big brother!


    Without any further word, they drowned their wine in a single gulp and threw the invaluable crystal cup on the ground. No one would clean those crystal shards, for they symbolized Aaron breaking his bonds with them in his departure. It would be his job to repair the cups when he returned.


    Tom walked to the throne, Aaron rose, and they hugged in silence for a couple minutes. Lia waited for them to be done, then also hugged Aaron.


    "Do it," she said. He nodded and did so.


    Show Available Destiny Worlds, he thought, and a new videogame-like window appeared before him.


    Available Destiny Worlds


    (Sorted by cost)


    World ID #1 ¡ª Rank 1 ¡ª 320,000,000 points


    World ID #3 ¡ª Rank 1 ¡ª 120,000,000 points


    World ID #2 ¡ª Rank 1 ¡ª 100,000,000 points


    ...


    A list of worlds appeared before him. He scrolled them until he found the one he would be traveling to. Upon selecting it, the window content changed.


    Destiny World Selected


    You''ve selected WORLD ID #77932 - RANK 3


    Current environment: MAGE GENETICS VARIANT 2


    Max level: 12 ¡ª IMMORTAL


    Sovereigns: 7


    Dominant race: HUMAN


    WARNING: COLLAPSE IN 10,800 YEARS!


    DISCOUNT APPLIED - 8,000,000 POINTS


    Cost: 12,000,000


    Worlds were divided into ranks, and his current world, at the fifth-rank, only allowed him to go to level 10, while a fourth-rank would allow him to get to level 11, a third-rank world to level 12, and so on.


    What he hadn''t told his two friends was that besides testing the Cage, he had been waiting to get directly to a better-ranked world to minimize the number of times he had to be reborn. After all, each time he was reborn as a defenseless baby, his life would be at risk. He obviously didn''t want to do it over and over again.


    Going to a fourth-rank world only cost ten million points, while he had nineteen, but a third-rank world cost twenty million points! Thankfully, while browsing through the available worlds, he had seen a first-rank world costing only half its price because a calamity had befallen it. Thus, he had been waiting for a third-rank world to also get a discount, so he could get directly to it!


    And just the day before, he had found the perfect opportunity!


    He didn''t know what having the current environment set to ''Mage Genetics Variant 2'' meant but given his capabilities, he wasn''t overly preoccupied. Just to be sure though, he selected a few circumstances about his birth to make his life easier and safer in his earlier days.


    Race Selection


    You''ve selected HUMAN


    Variant #1: MAGE


    Cost: 4,000,000


    He had always been a human and it would be a big advantage to him if he kept to what he was intimate with, especially since the prior window said that the world''s dominant race was human.


    Due to the world environment being described as ''Mage Genetics Variant 2,'' he chose to be born a mage, which he didn''t know what meant. Alas, he would rather have it than not. It would be easier to purge it if it was an impurity than to get a gene in case he needed it.


    Background Selection


    You''ve selected ROYALTY OF MINOR COUNTRY


    Variant #1: MAGOCRACY


    Variant #2: POWER-BASED HIERARCHY


    Variant #3: BORN DISTANT FROM THRONE


    Points required: 2,000,000


    He also selected his place of birth. He didn''t want to be killed by a random thug or die of starvation before he could amass enough power to protect himself, so he chose to be born royalty. To his surprise, the variants ''Magocracy'' and ''Power-Based Hierarchy'' were immediately forced on him because of this pick. It seemed the social structure of that world was set on stone, or at least a royal mage could only be born in such countries.


    Becoming the direct descendant of a country would be too expensive and he lowered the cost by becoming just a member of the royal family that was born way too distant from the throne.


    It was also safer this way, for who knows who might want the direct descendant of the throne to die in his early days?


    Quirk Selection


    You''ve selected FIRST NAME


    Name: AARON


    Cost: Free


    Lastly, being able to choose his name was a nice quirk. It was free too and he would like it very much to keep the name he had had since he was born back on Earth.


    Confirmation


    Are you sure you want to proceed?


    Total Destiny Points cost: 18,000,000


    Your remaining 1,276,378 Destiny Points will be lost.


    He had already simulated the most optimal choices uncountable times, making sure he was getting the best value out of his points. It was a shame that he would lose the points, but he was confident in his choices, and there was nothing else useful that he could pick with that many points.


    Just to make sure though, he triple-checked everything and nodded satisfied.


    I''m sure, he thought, willing his thoughts to reach the system. The windows closed automatically and another one appeared with new text.


    Selection Completed


    Your soul will be taken to a temporary location to await reincarnation.


    He looked at his friends, put his hands on their shoulders, and smiled. It was for them too that he had to leave, no matter how much they would be saddened by it.


    "Goodbye, my friends," he said.


    Tom nodded.


    Lia allowed a couple of extra tears to fall from her eyes.


    Reality itself shattered behind him, a rift straight into the Void. His soul was pulled by an irresistible force, and then, there was only darkness.

 Chapter 2 - Brave New World

    Chapter 2 - Brave New World


    It was as if an irresistible ethereal hand of steel had grabbed his soul, pulling it from his body and then shooting through the empty space that was the Void at an astounding speed. He traveled for a long time, days turning into months, months into years, and years into centuries. As time passed, his power was slowly sapped from him, reverting him back into a mere mortal''s soul.


    After thousands of years, the hand seemed to pass through an invisible barrier, leaving the Void in outer space close to an enormous planet. The hand stopped briefly before moving towards one of the planet''s continents just as quickly as before.


    In that continent, there stood a big mansion with a pregnant woman. Unseen by anyone, the hand entered the woman''s womb, the soul was placed inside the future-stillborn, soulless fetus, and the hand disappeared.


    At long last, the soul had been reincarnated in a new world.


    Exhaustion from traveling for so long and being integrated into a new body overwhelmed Aaron, and he fell into a deep sleep.


    <hr>


    The first thing Aaron felt when he woke up was the amniotic fluid around his new body. The second, more important thing was the sea of energies around him, and it made him surprised.


    As the most powerful energetic manipulator ever born in his old universe, it was only natural that he had made sure to scan what energies this universe had before coming to it. It had been a pleasant surprise to find that both universes had the same four kinds of energies.


    This world, however, only had two energies in useful amounts, Origin Energy and another one completely new to him. Undoubtedly, that was due to the meddling of the World Sovereigns.


    He took a few moments to feel and ''taste'' the new energy. His first impressions of it were interesting.


    The four energies in the universe could be rated from most powerful to the least, them being Origin, Prime, Divine, and Spiritual. In this world, Prime Energy was nowhere to be found except for the eventual particle he felt now and then, while the new energy ¡ª which he named ''mana'' due to it being found in a world with mage genetics and things like magocracies ¡ª felt like a mix of Divine and Spiritual Energy.


    If classified by power, it would be between Prime Energy and Divine Energy.


    If classified by versatility, he felt it wouldn''t lose to Prime Energy, only it seemed to have completely different properties, which he couldn''t exactly pinpoint yet.


    That was all he could conclude with his mind being limited by his barely-formed brain, and it was already a miracle he could think so much. Thinking about this ''miracle,'' he realized something was wrong. He shouldn''t have been able to feel energies like that, or even think with such clarity in his current stage of formation.


    But before he could think further about it, overwhelming tiredness befell the fetus, and he couldn''t resist the allure of sleep.


    <hr>


    A couple months later, after countless brief moments of consciousness, he realized what allowed him to think so much despite being a fetus without a proper brain. In this world, the energies weren''t the only things that had been changed by the powers that be. Life itself had been meddled with.


    All living beings in both universes he had visited could be divided into five parts: body, spirit, soul, consciousness, and willpower. The body was entirely physical; the spirit existed both in the body and in the soul, linking both; the soul was an ethereal entity; the consciousness resided in the soul; and willpower resided in the consciousness.


    In this world, however, there was only body and soul. Life had been twisted in such a way that the spirit had become a simple glue between body and soul. As for consciousness and willpower, they had been merged into the soul instead of merely existing inside of it.


    He felt like an aberration. The universe''s division was perfect, or as close to it as possible, but the World Sovereigns of that planet had created something that could barely be considered a living being by his standards. It was akin to a human body being changed into an exposed brain and a deformed mass of flesh beneath it. His very self disgusted him.


    It didn''t help when he found out after self-examination that such ''construct'' had genes that could be used to limit or completely remove the ability to manipulate mana, which should be available to anyone. In fact, the ''mage genetics variant'' further disgusted him now that he understood what it meant. With his literal eons of experience, he could easily conclude these genes were a means used by the World Sovereigns to determine who would be the ones in power, and who would be the sheep.


    It was no wonder the selection screen had said this world was on the verge of collapsing, for twisting Creation itself had such consequences. At least he had got a good discount thanks to it.


    For now, he could do nothing about it. In time, he would save this world and then, he would save the universe from the Cage that made these disgusting things possible!


    ...but only after he took a nap.


    <hr>


    He was on his mother''s arms. She was a beautiful lass, about twenty years old, with blue eyes and blond hair. A newborn''s vision should be blurred, but he could perfectly see her due to this world''s changed body.


    She spoke something in a foreign language, tears rolling from her eyes. She seemed happy and longing at the same time. He did his best to smile to her.


    Soon, sleep found him again.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    That was the first and last time he ever saw her.


    <hr>


    It didn''t take him long to understand she had died. Moreover, with his limited brain curbing his thinking capabilities, it took him a few months of listening to the servants of his mansion to grab a hold on the local language, and a few extra months after that to learn the reason for her death.


    She had died to a magical variant of cancer.


    It wasn''t fatal to anyone who could use mana, but she had only been a klutz, as people who weren''t capable of manipulating mana were called. It was already considered incredibly lucky that she had managed to give birth to a healthy baby before passing away.


    He felt saddened. For a young mother to die after birth without being able to see her child grow up was a heartbreaking thing indeed.


    Even though he had lived long enough to literally see multiple stars born and die, and having a mother again after all this time would be awkward, she was his mother in this world. And she had been taken away from him in such a pitiful manner, a simple disease. Amid sadness, there was also rage for the World Sovereigns.


    Such disease could only exist in the twisted bodies they had created. If not for that, she wouldn''t have died.


    The night he learned about it, he swore revenge just before he took another nap.


    <hr>


    He crawled, walked, and started speaking at the right times for a baby to do these things. When he turned one year old, something he had been missing appeared before his eyes, the transparent white rectangle with fancy golden borders, filled with written content. The videogame-like window that people in this universe called the World''s Writ.


    It was written in a language that was directly added to everyone''s minds so that they could read it.


    HUMAN-VARIANT T-76620''s critical age reached!


    Setting permissions... Success.


    Initiating overlay... Success.


    He felt flabbergasted. His body was so unnatural that even the Cage didn''t consider him a proper human, but a variant instead!


    A moment after the World''s Writ appeared, something changed inside him and the same text from the window appeared on the bottom left corner of his field of view. It was almost transparent, but he only needed to focus on it for it to become opaque. By willing it, he could even enlarge the text or change its location.


    The text window had appeared only for a few seconds before disappearing, and he would be willing to bet that he was the first person to know that only at one year old would humans get access to the Will of the World, as the overlay was called.


    His objective was freeing the Universal Core from the Cage that created this game-like system, but until then, he would use it. Just like a man in a capitalist environment required money to survive even if he didn''t like capitalism, it was to his advantage if he used the tools available to him even if he wanted to get rid of them when the right time came.


    Show Full Status, he thought of the name of the Heavenly Skill, as the system skills were named, and the World''s Writ appeared before him.


    Full Status


    You''re trying to access your Full Status for the first time.


    Would you like to see the tutorial?


    Yes, he thought. Although he had done so in his previous world, it wasn''t like he had better things to do and this world''s system might differ from his last one.


    Full Status


    Name: Aaron von Valdivia


    This is your full name.


    Real names are powerful things and you should do your best to hide yours.


    In your lifetime, you can only change your own name once, except under special circumstances.


    To change it, use the Heavenly Skill ''Change Name.''


    Level: 1 ¡ª One Star Mage


    This is your level.


    The minimum level is 1, the maximum is 12.


    Levels have names. Level 1 is known as ''Klutz'' for those without mana-manipulating capabilities, and as ''One Star'' for everyone else.


    Since you have the mage gene and your level comes from your soul (more on that later), you''re a One Star Mage.


    To access the level name table, use the Heavenly Skill ''Show Level Name Table.''


    Elements: ¡ª


    This shows all the elements you can turn your mana into, besides Pure mana.


    Body: 1


    This is your body grade.


    Your body grade is determined by the average of your physical attributes, rounded down.


    All klutzes'' bodies are limited to the first grade. Humans whose level come from their bodies (more on that later) are known as warriors.


    Like levels, grades range from 1 to 12.


    ? Strength: 1 | Speed: 1 | Resistance: 1


    These are your physical attributes and their respective grades.


    Strength refers to how much raw power your muscles can deliver from a resting position.


    Speed is how fast you can move.


    Resistance is how well your body can resist physical attacks.


    Their grades also range from 1 to 12, with klutzes being limited to grade 1.


    * Soul: 6


    This is your soul grade.


    Your soul grade is determined by the average of your soul attributes, rounded down.


    This is the higher graded between your body and soul, as shown by the asterisk. Because of that, your level is determined by your soul attribute with the lowest level, as shown by another asterisk.


    ? * Mana: 1 | Control: 7 | Resistance: 12


    These are your soul attributes and their respective grades.


    Mana, also called mana pool, refers to the maximum amount of mana you have at your disposal at any time. It regenerates passively over time, or actively by other means, like consuming the right substances or meditating.


    Control is how well you can manipulate mana.


    Resistance is how well your soul can resist non-physical attacks.


    Aaron read everything without any hurry.


    It wasn''t a surprise that his soul resistance was 12, the max grade. His merged consciousness and willpower, which likely affected the control and soul resistance attributes, had been perfected in his eons of life, after all. The only reason his soul resistance was only level 12 was that his consciousness, willpower, and soul themselves were being suppressed by the Cage to the max grade allowed to that world, 12, else his soul resistance would have received an even higher grade.


    His lack of control, which was only level 7, was a bummer, albeit expected. He had never manipulated mana before, and it stood to reason that he couldn''t perfectly control it. In fact, it was already great that his understanding of energetic manipulation as a whole, and his great willpower, could boost his control that much.


    All in all, it wasn''t a bad status. He closed and opened it again, now without the tutorial text.


    Full Status


    Name: Aaron von Valdivia


    Level: 1 ¡ª One Star Mage


    Elements: ¡ª


    Body: 1


    ? Strength: 1 | Speed: 1 | Resistance: 1


    * Soul: 6


    ? * Mana: 1 | Control:7 | Resistance: 12


    He considered changing his name since it was supposedly important, something he had never experienced before, but he didn''t know if his family might need to know his real name to perform some ritual for his own good. What if they did, and his father found out that the one-year-old baby had changed his own name somehow? Therefore, it was better to postpone it.


    And as much as he wanted to experiment with mana as soon as possible, he also didn''t know if he would end up being exposed for it. The tall three catches more wind; there was safety in being unremarkable, as those who distinguish themselves attract attention, and the wrong kind of attention could be lethal. Until he got a better grasp on things and understood better the consequences of dabbling with magic, he would bide his time and take things slowly, rather than risk a calamity befalling him or his family.


    To his surprise though, the day after the Will of the World became available to him, his grandfather visited. The old man entered his room and, as soon as he saw Aaron in the crib, he spoke.


    "Well, boyo, it''s time to stop lazing around and grow your mana pool."

 Chapter 3 - Mana Pool

    Chapter 3 - Mana Pool


    "Ma-a po-o," Aaron pretended to be incapable of repeating the words, just like a baby. It stole a smile from the old man.


    Aaron''s grandfather was called Grand Elder Eminence Richard Firebringer. The Eminence in his name came from his level 8, just like Aaron was called a One Star Mage due to being level 1. His given name was Richard, and Firebringer was a moniker that had either been decided by him or given to him through different possible means, usually public recognition for something he had done. As for Grand Elder, that was his social standing in the family, which came from him being an Eminence.


    Richard was in his late hundred and twenties. He was bald, had a long white beard, and was visibly fighting death on a daily basis.


    From what Aaron had gathered in his first year of life, in this world, Eminences'' natural lifespans went up to a hundred and twenty-five years. Firebringer only hanged on because he was using expensive medicine to prolong his life.


    That was yet another consequence of the meddling with life itself from those in power. In the last world Aaron had lived in, Eminences lived up to five hundred years, but with the shitty bodies people were born with here, such vitality was reduced to one-quarter of its potential!


    "Yes, boyo, mana pool," Richard said, and a white light appeared on his hand, quickly materializing into a tiny metal ring.


    Check Item, Aaron used the common Heavenly Skill, and the World''s Writ appeared above the ring in the form of a tooltip.


    Check Item


    Name: Mana-Sucking Ring


    Grade: Higher Mortal Item


    Thankfully, some item names were self-descriptive, especially when they were mass-produced. He had no idea why his grandfather would put a Mana-Sucking Ring on him, but there was so much love in the man''s eyes that he didn''t feel threatened.


    In Aarons previous life, items were divided into four grades: Mortal Item, Magical Item, Artifact, and Relic. They were further divided into three subgrades: Lower, Higher, and Peak. It seemed this world followed the same rules.


    As soon as his finger entered the ring, he felt his body and soul stir. Mana was pulled from the mana pool in his soul, taken into his body, sucked into the ring, and then, dispersed into the air. It should be a startling and scary experience for a baby like him, so he acted accordingly by widening his eyes.


    Richard nodded, satisfied. "This is my grandson!" He said proudly. "Wait until I tell those old fools that you didn''t even let out a cry of surprise, much less cried in fear when I put the ring on you!" He patted Aaron''s head.


    After a moment, he turned and pointed at the maid currently taking care of Aaron. "You! Listen well! You''re not, under any circumstances, to remove this ring from his finger! Do you understand?"


    "Yes, Grand Elder," she said submissively.


    "No! You don''t!" He raised his voice. "You''re a klutz and you have no idea how important it is! Do you know what pubescence is?"


    Her eyes widened at his sudden outburst. "N- No, Grand Elder," she said fearfully.


    "It''s when boys¡¯ and girls¡¯ bodies start developing in a more mature way." His explanation was crude, but not incorrect. "Mages are special. The more mana we use before we reach pubescence, the more our mana pool develop. After we hit it, it''s incredibly hard to increase our mana pools even a little. Wait, you know what a mana pool is, right?"


    She gulped. "Yes, Grand Elder."


    "Good. So, listen well. This ring forces him to use mana. The more mana he uses, the better. If you take the ring off him for even a second, you''ll be putting his entire future in jeopardy. And you can imagine how unhappy the Valdian Family would be towards a klutz who crippled a mage, can''t you?"


    Before, she had been feeling a bit fearful, but when she heard about the Valdian Family unhappiness, she instantly paled.


    "Y- Yes, Eminence."


    "No, you don''t!" He yelled. "Your life won''t be enough to pay for it! Your family, friends, colleagues, everyone related to you in any way, even your damn pets will face torture and death! You''ll wish you were never born! Do you know how creative torture can be when we put a little magic in it?"


    Tears were forming in her eyes. "No, Grand Elder."


    "And you want to keep ignorant of it, don''t you?"


    She nodded repeatedly as if her very life depended on it. "Yes, Grand Elder!" She almost yelled.


    "Good." He nodded. "Do. Not. Remove. The. Ring. Not for any reason, no matter who may order you otherwise, or how much good you may think you''re doing. Even if you''re sure the ring is killing him, just keep the damn thing on his finger. Got it?"


    "Yes, Grand Elder."


    "Good, good. Tell everyone in this household. No, wait. I''ll tell everyone myself. Lass, don''t you dare mess with my boyo. People will offer you riches to do it, but believe me, no amount of money can save you or your family from my wrath." His eyes widened as if he had just thought about something. "Speaking of which, it''s time to bring the servants'' families to the mansion so they can''t be used against the boyo." He sighed. "A mage''s job is never done."


    He patted Aaron''s head one last time with a warmth that was unlike the way he had just acted with the maid and left the room. The maid immediately started sobbing.


    Aaron felt pity for her but being the source of her issues, he found it sensible not to bring focus to him by trying to be funny or cute. Instead, he looked at the ring.


    The amount of mana it had taken from him was pitiful. He focused on his mana pool, a kind of ethereal ball the size of a sand grain in his soul, and saw that the amount taken wasn''t even a tenth of what was in there. It took the ring over an hour to take another bit of mana, and by then, his mana pool had already been filled for the past fifty minutes, since people''s souls automatically took mana from the environment.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Deciding things were moving too slow and that he knew the limits of his own body and soul better than any ring, he took the improvement of his mana pool on his own hands. If he had a time limit increase to his mana pool, pubescence, he would make the most out of it.


    He touched the mana in his mana pool with his will, and pulled almost everything from the inside, soon releasing the mana in the air. Immediately, the World''s Writs appeared.


    New element learned!


    Element: Pure


    Pure mana is the most basic kind of mana and won''t be listed in your Full Status.


    Attribute improved!


    Attribute: Mana (Soul)


    Grade: 1 > 2


    You have leveled up!


    Level: 2 ¡ª Two Stars Mage


    His level was directly linked to his mana pool. As soon as its grade increased, his level followed suit.


    Inside his soul, his mana pool enlarged only by a bit, but its quality took a great leap. He speculated that it could now hold a hundred times as much mana as before! Due to his sudden usage of his mana without having ever used it before, it was a painful process, as if he had overworked a muscle, only it got stronger instantly, without the need to rest to repair it. The reason the ring took so little was probably to avoid scaring the baby by making the process much slower and the pain imperceptible.


    He had no time for that though, and immediately determined that he would always wait until his mana pool was ninety percent full before emptying it to the ten percent mark, which he determined was the safe threshold for him to not faint from the exhaustion.


    And so, his boring ''training'' started.


    <hr>


    He became a Three Stars Mage two months later, and a Four Stars Mage four months after that.


    That rate of growth surprised even him. Prepubescent mages had it ridiculously easy in that world and giving such a useless Mana-Sucking Ring to them was nothing short of crippling a kid''s growth.


    His family was really just from some small nation like he had selected, or they would never forgo a kid''s power growth for any reason, much less something like comfort. Babies would be babies, and there was no reason to avoid scaring them. On the contrary, the sooner a kid got used to having their mana going through their souls, the sooner they would get used to it and learn to ignore the sensation, no matter how scary or painful it might be at first.


    Of course, another possibility was that they didn''t know better and thought one-year-olds only had so much mana available to be sucked out of them, or even might not have the means to provide him with a better mana-sucking tool. But even so, they should''ve done their homework better and focus more on the young, for they were the future of the family! Stagnation always led to disaster.


    No matter how distant he was from the throne, crippling anyone from the royal family at all was stupidity.


    Either way, he already thought of his family as incompetent in his heart.


    <hr>


    Aaron learned very soon that his father was a good man, but a subpar mage.


    The three strongest people in his family were three level 9, Ascenders, followed by the seven level 8, Eminences, of which his grandfather was one. As the son of an Eminence, great expectations had been placed on Aaron''s father, but the man had barely been able to get to level 6, Notable Mage.


    It was a great shame to the man, and it was evident in how he looked sadly at the Mana-Sucking Ring from time to time. Nevertheless, Grand Elder Eminence Richard Firebringer loved his son dearly and had gone to great depths to get the man a commission in the army. Level 7, Champion, was required for the Major position, but Aaron''s father became the sole exception.


    Despite his shame, Major Notable Alphonse Firebreather was a cheerful man most of the time. He always played with Aaron when he was home and told the boy tales of his mother. He treated the servants like family, unlike how Firebringer did, maybe because of how he himself was treated by the rest of the family for being a failure as a mage.


    Aaron''s life was filled with love, and he ended up returning his father''s feelings, much to his surprise. For someone as old as he, love wasn''t something easy to come by.


    It was something very surprising indeed.


    <hr>


    When he was two years old, he learned how to escape his crib at night to visit the library. He was caught three out of every five attempts, either by servants or guards, but the instances when he managed to get to the library were fruitful.


    It was also a couple months after his second anniversary that he got to level 5, Five Stars Mage.


    The episode made him realize there was an obvious pattern to his growth. Starting from two months to become a Three Stars Mage, he had taken double the time as before to get to the next level.


    Meaning he had become a Three Stars Mage in two months after his prior advancement, a Four Stars Mage four months after that, and now a Five Stars Mage about eight months later.


    He liked that rate of growth very much. It everything went well, he would get to level 8, Eminence, a couple months after he turned twelve! He only had to hope pubescence didn''t hit him before that.


    <hr>


    On his three-year anniversary, his grandfather replaced his Mana-Sucking Ring with a better one, but it was only twice as effective as the old one and was almost useless to grow his mana pool, which was already grade 5.


    At that time, his greatest annoyance was that despite his readings, there were no books about magic theory in the library, and he had found no way of learning magic yet. When asked, his father always replied only with "It''s not time yet."


    <hr>


    On his fourth anniversary, when he was already level 6, Notable Mage, he was pleasantly surprised. He and his father were in the dining room, Aaron having just eaten a delicious birthday cake, when Alphonse spoke.


    "Son, it''s time for you to learn magic."


    "Magic, dad?" Aaron asked excitedly.


    The man smiled. "Yes, magic."


    As if his words had broken a damn, servants flooded the dining room carrying metal cubes about half a meter wide, placing them on the floor close to the walls. Each cube was exquisitely made, with arcane symbols drawn on them. There were tens of cubes, placed side by side, partially hiding the walls'' footer.


    Curiosity filled Aaron, while his father looked at his son''s bewilderment with a smile.


    When all the servants were done, Alphonse snapped his fingers. There was an energetic disruption in the air, and all the crystal cubes came to life at the same time.


    Each of them projected slowly-rotating holograms in the air. The images made Aaron remember neon lights of different colors, twisted in curves and lines, surrounding and surrounded by arcane symbols.


    "These are spell signatures," Alphonse told his son. "You''re too young to understand what exactly they are or how to use them, but they''ll be all around the house from now on. Eventually, you''ll memorize one and use it by accident. Either that, or you''ll be properly taught when you''re thirteen years old like I was," he said in a sad tone. "Anyway, the blue signature is for the First Light spell, green is for First Clean, yellow is for First Levitate Object, red is for First Mana Shield, white is for First Heat, and black is for First Cold."


    The boy made a face, pretending not to understand most of what the man said. Alphonse laughed self-deprecatingly. "Don''t worry, I''ll repeat it often." He kissed Aaron''s forehead. "Dad has to work. Have fun." He left.


    Aaron immediately turned to look better at the lights.


    Spell signatures!


    Magic in any universe was nothing more than using the right kind of energy to draw the right symbol, through the right medium, with the right intent behind it, then releasing it at the desired target. Five simple immutable steps.


    By using his experience and simple deduction, he concluded that in his current world, the energy was mana, the symbol was a spell signature, the medium was the very soul of the mage, and the will behind it was, of course, understanding and focusing on the spell results. The target depended on what the spell did.


    He now had six different spell signatures to study, which was exactly what he needed to understand how mana ¡ª that strange energy ¡ª worked. He had long been thinking about how mana would interact with his body, his soul, the world, and the universe, and now he could check if his assumptions were correct.


    Ignoring the delicious cake on the table, he devoted himself entirely to studying the spells signatures at his disposal.


    <hr>


    Three days later, he pulled mana from his mana pool into his soul and used it to perfectly draw the spell signature he wanted to use. He did so effortlessly, something only his level 7 control over mana allowed him to do.


    First Light, he thought.


    More mana was pulled from his pool without him willing it, and the signature flared, becoming a shapeless light inside his soul. He willed it into his body, his hand, and finally, targeted the air. A ball of light suddenly materialized a bit away from his open palm.


    New spell learned!


    Name: Light


    Element: Light


    Level: 1

 Chapter 4 - Spells

    Chapter 4 - Spells


    His success enlightened him on the nature of magic in that world.


    Before successfully casting his first spell, he had studied the signatures for three days, only to find that none of the theories he had come with made sense.


    The issue with each spell was that they required different elements besides Pure mana. However, he had no access to said elements and didn''t think any four-year-old would have. That being the case, what was the use of providing him with spell signatures that he couldn''t use? Was his father that failure of a mage, as to not realize the obvious issues with delivering him those signatures?


    However, now that he used his first spell, he understood that his theories did make sense, except he had been missing a key piece: the help of the world itself.


    As soon as he used the First Light spell but failed to provide Light mana to it, he felt an external force pull huge amounts of Pure mana from his pool and convert it to Light mana at a rate that he was confident was incredibly wasteful.


    First Clean, First Levitate Object, First Mana Shield, First Heat, First Cold.


    He tried all spells and the same automatic conversion happened. They also reinforced his idea that the rate of conversion was wasteful, for if higher level spells required that much Pure mana, they would be very limited in what they could do.


    As luck would have it, after observing each forceful conversion once, he knew what to do. Eons of experience and the title of the best energetic manipulator ever born in his old universe had to be worth something.


    He took a bit of mana from his pool and applied knowledge and pressure to it.


    Knowledge about what that mana should become, about how the process should happen, step by step. As simple as it sounded, it required the understanding of some secrets of reality itself, of the Laws of the universe.


    And pressure, willpower, for that mana to change the way he wanted it to.


    Lo and behold, his mana turned into Light mana. As he expected, the quantity of mana consumed in the conversion when he did it was one-hundredth of when the external force did so.


    The World''s Writ appeared before him.


    New element learned!


    Element: Light


    First Light!


    He used the spell again, now converting and providing the required Light mana himself. It worked much faster than before. He did the same thing with all the other elements and got access to Air, Fire, and Ice.


    Knowing what to do, in the next days, he then used his knowledge to convert his mana to all elements he could think of until the World''s Writ showed a pleasant message.


    All elements learned!


    You''ve mastered all available elements.


    Just to make sure, he tried to turn mana into other elements, like Void, but it all failed, showing that mana could only be changed in specifics ways. Satisfied, he went back to analyzing the six spells, trying to pry their secrets open.


    <hr>


    At his fifth anniversary, when he was still at level 6, Notable Mage, his father brought him a different kind of gift: a woman. It was a beautiful young lady, fifteen years old or so. Aaron could feel mana coming from her and was surprised to realize she was the very first mage he met outside his father and grandfather.


    Now that he thought about it, he had been living a very sheltered life, without having ever left the house even for a bit of leisure time. He had been focusing on studying, and since training for long periods of time without leaving his room was common in his past lives, he hadn''t thought about how unusual his upbringing was, until now.


    Even more uncommon was how long he had taken to notice it. He felt that something was wrong, and he would have to think about it, maybe even question his father at a later date.


    For now, he used a Heavenly Skill to check her level, regardless of being able to guess it just by feeling the amount and density of mana in her mana pool. Sometimes the Heavenly Skill would give different information than his conclusions, which in turn would have different implications depending on the situation.


    Check Level, he thought, and a tooltip appeared above her head.


    Level: 4 ¡ª Four Stars Mage


    In terms of level, hers was lower than his by two. In terms of magic knowledge, however, she was his superior.


    In the past year, he had studied and derived many things about mana and magic, thanks to the six spells available to him, but he doubted he could beat her in a direct combat by cleaning her clothes or by making her feel slightly cold.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The spells he knew were level 1 and had a limit to how much power they could deliver; it was impossible to set anything on fire using the ''First Heat'' spell or to freeze anything by using the ''First Cold'' spell. It only made sense, since they had been given for a four-year-old to use. Although he had theorized ways to create level 2 versions of those spells, he was still learning new things from the level 1 versions and had postponed investing time on advancing them.


    If he fought the woman, he would be like a bodybuilder who had never learned to fight facing a skinny MMA veteran, and the result would be his defeat. He had the strength but no way to use it.


    "Hello, little Aaron," she said with a sweet voice and lowered herself to get in front of him. "Nice to meet you."


    "Hi," he replied, pretending to be shy while wondering who the hell she was.


    "Son, this is Sara," Alphonse said. "She will teach you many things from today on."


    Aaron''s eyes shone. "She teaches magic, dad?"


    "Not yet," she said delicately. "You must learn your letters and math first. Only then will you be able to learn magic."


    "Don''t worry," Alphonse said when he saw his son''s face sadden. "I''ll bring you two new spell signatures tomorrow."


    "Thank you!" Aaron said happily and hugged the man''s legs.


    Alphonse smiled and patted the boy''s head. "Sara will start tomorrow. Today, there''s cake!"


    "Cake!" Aaron yelled happily and ate his fill as soon as the food got to his reach.


    It was only for nourishment purposes, of course. He was a growing kid and needed the energy. There was no way an exalted former Origin Immortal like him, who had feasted on banquets unimaginable by mortals, would ever find so much pleasure in eating cake.


    No way at all.


    <hr>


    "Asa," Sara said, pointing at a letter in a book.


    "Asa," Aaron repeated.


    "Aoli," she continued.


    "Aoli."


    "Akur."


    "Akur."


    <hr>


    "One plus one equals...?" Sara asked.


    "Two!" Aaron said excitedly.


    "Good boy!" She smiled. "You earned extra dessert today."


    "Yay!" He punched the air.


    <hr>


    Sara was a dedicated teacher, who didn''t seem to love teaching, but did her best and didn''t complain. By listening to her talking to his father, Aaron learned that she was a distant relative who was studying magic from a level 8, Eminence, from the family, but was having troubles to pay for her studies, and therefore had decided to teach kids.


    For one year, Aaron pretended to learn at a fast speed, but nothing that would alert anyone. He also pretended to use the Light spell for the first time, making his father almost explode in pride.


    The promised new spell signatures that were placed around the house were Second Light and Second Clean, level 2 versions of the First Light and First Clean. They made Aaron notice the words ''First'' and ''Second'' in the spells'' names denoted their levels. He loved having received level 2 versions of spells he already knew because they showed that his theories on how they should look like were on the right track. In fact, he believed he could create better versions of the level 2 spells than the ones he had been provided with, and when he put it to test, he succeeded.


    He wasn''t sure about the right speed to pretend to learn new spells though, so he decided to show one every three months. On his sixth anniversary, he showed his father the fourth of the six level 1 spells, and for a moment he was sure the man would physically burst in happiness right then, right there.


    "Amazing!" Alphonse yelled. "A heaven-defying genius! This is my son!" He laughed, took the boy, and threw him up. "This is my son!"


    By Sara''s astonished face, Aaron realized he might have been showing spells too fast, but when his dad stuffed a huge study room with nothing less than a hundred different spell signatures, Aaron decided it had been worth it.


    The spells were mostly levels 1 and 2, except for ten level 3 ones, and a single level 4 signature.


    "These eleven spells are for the future," Alphonse explained, talking about the higher leveled spells, "but it won''t hurt for you to take a look at them now."


    For Aaron, that was the best gift ever.


    His magic studies increased by leaps and bounds that year, and he was so distracted by it that he also ended showing a faster progress in his math than he should, which made Sara inform not only Alphonse but also Aaron''s grandad, Firebringer.


    <hr>


    Aaron, almost seven years old, was having lunch with his father one day when his grandfather came like a hurricane.


    "Alphonse! How dare you?!" Richard Firebringer yelled in pure rage.


    Aaron''s dad immediately paled. "W- What are you talking about?" He stuttered.


    "What I''m talking about?!" The old man yelled even louder. "You''re hiding my genius grandson from me! He learned all six base spells before he''s even seven! And Sara told me he can do math as good as her!"


    "She told you?" Alphonse said in disbelief.


    "Yes, and she did it two months ago." Firebringer crossed his arms. "I waited for you to come to me, but you''re deliberately hiding it, aren''t you?! I repeat: how dare you?"


    Alphonse gulped. "Father, I''m just trying to protect Aaron. If news of his potential spread, it might attract unwanted trouble..."


    "Bullshit!" The old man said. "You''re just afraid he''ll fail like you, so you decided to wait and see, didn''t you? You didn''t even contact any Eminence about teaching him! What was your great plan, hire low-wage students to teach him until it became clear if he took his magic talent from you or me?"


    Alphonse''s hand was trembling as he used them to hide his face in shame. Firebringer sighed and approached the man, putting one hand on his son''s shoulder.


    "Son," the old man said, "I told you to not let your failure in magic define you. You''re the best Major the Brigadier has ever seen. Did you know he put forth motions for your advancement to General in all Counsel meetings in the last two years?"


    Aaron''s father raised his head, his eyes wide in shock.


    "I''m proud of you," Firebringer said. "I''ve always been, and I''ve always told you that. You failed as a mage, yes, but you were a great husband to your late wife, and didn''t you spend all your savings, and even mortgaged this house, just to give your son more spell signatures to learn from? You are hard-working and you take care of your own. I value that in my son much more than your ability to cast high-level spells."


    For a few moments, Alphonse''s eyes shone bright, but he ended up lowering them and shaking his head. "We both know that without power I''m nothing to the family, and how much you''ve suffered because of that. Aaron is a genius, yes, but I was one too. And he''s my son. If he fails, too, it''ll only be proof that everything related to me is a failure. Even my wife died from a magic disease that having relations with an Ascender would''ve fixed, but I''m only a Notable Mage. I... Father, I can''t take more than that." Tears started rolling on his cheeks. "If I infect Aaron with my failure, too... My dear Aaron, my beloved son, the last memory of her... I can''t bear the thought of it. I just can''t."


    Firebringer stood silence for a long time as Alphonse cried. When Alphonse recomposed himself, the old man spoke. "Son, when was the last time you checked Aaron''s level?"


    Alphonse frowned. "What?" He looked at Aaron, and after a moment, his eyes widened. "What?!" He repeated, yelling in shock. "How?!"


    "Sara used the ''Check Level'' Heavenly Skill on him when he learned so fast," Firebringer said. "To her surprise, she discovered your son is already Champion Mage! A six-year-old Champion, who has never been taught magic before!"


    Aaron had just become level 7, Champion, about three months earlier, when he was six and a half years old. That would be his last level up for a very long time. The next level, Eminence, would only come when he became twelve years old, and only if nothing went wrong.


    Alphonse could say nothing, only stare at his son in pure disbelief.


    "He already surpassed you," the old man continued. "Even if he never levels up again, he''s already an asset to the clan, not a failure. Are you still afraid of showing him to the world?"


    Aaron''s father gulped and shook his head. "No," he whispered.


    "Good, because I''m taking him to the Three Towers."


    Alphonse''s neck snapped, so fast that he looked at his father. "Say what?!"

 Chapter 5 – Firestar

    Chapter 5 ¨C Firestar


    Aaron had learned in his clandestine late-night readings in the library that the Three Towers, as the Trinity Academy of Magic was commonly called, was a school for the elites of the Fire Continent. The children of the Saint Emperor himself attended it, and it was considered the best place on the continent to send a mage to study.


    "I''m taking him to the Three Towers," Firebringer repeated.


    "We have no money for that," Alphonse replied confused.


    "Five years ago, I received an offer to become an Assistant Teacher in there," the old man explained. "Eminence Watermaister invited me."


    "What?! How dare he ask you to become his assistant?!" Alphonse exploded in rage, showing there was bad blood in that relationship.


    Firebringer waved his hand. "He believed he was about to level up to become an Ascender and wanted to humiliate me. He''s too young and inexperienced, too focused on personal glory, instead of caring for his family, much to our own family''s advantage. Nevertheless, he''s well-connected and managed to get a job as a Junior Teacher there. As luck would have it, he failed to become an Ascender all this time and when I contacted him this morning, he said he would still accept me."


    "Why would you do it?"


    "You wouldn''t know, because the Three Towers is so beyond our scope, but when you still showed potential as a mage, I researched them and learned that all teachers can nominate geniuses to receive scholarships. These nominations are highly sought after, and when a teacher decides to sell them in the black market, their prices get ridiculously high. Alas, we won''t have to worry about pricing if I become an Assistant Teacher myself since I''ll be able to nominate a single person every five years. Coincidence or not, kids need to be at least thirteen years old before they join the Three Towers, and Aaron is six, almost seven."


    Alphonse was frowning. "You nominate someone, and they get a scholarship? Just like that?"


    "Of course not. Aaron will be tested, and depending on his performance, he might get anything from a one percent discount to full scholarship. As an Assistant Teacher, my family members also get an extra five percent discount. I checked the current fees, and as long as he manages to get a fifty percent discount, added to the five percent he gets from being my grandson, I can pay for two years of his education." Firebringer''s eyes shone. "Two years in the Three Towers! From thirteen to fifteen years old! We all know that a mage''s basic education can define his whole future. Imagine how strong he could become! The possibilities!"


    Alphonse was salivating at the thought. "But father... To wait until he''s thirteen... You''ll have to withstand humiliation for six whole years..."


    Firebringer snorted. "A small price to pay for my grandson''s and the family''s future. I have accomplished all I could in this life, I''m just an old man forcibly pushing death away. If I can buy my grandson a future with these tired bones of mine, it''ll be worth it."


    They stared at each other in silence for a long time. Aaron, who had watched the exchange in silence, engraved his grandad''s kindness in his heart. If he found a way to repay the old man in the future, he would.


    In the end, they agreed to send Aaron to the Three Towers and decided to hire a good private magic teacher for him for now so he could be better prepared for the test.


    Aaron was excited at the idea of entering the best magic school in the continent. That was just what he needed!


    <hr>


    The next day, when they were waiting for Aaron''s new teacher to arrive, one of the three level 9, Ascender, that ruled over the family came in person, much to everyone''s surprise, including Firebringer''s.


    "Junior Eminence Firebringer pays his respects to Ancestor Ascender Firestar," Aaron''s grandad said respectfully as he bowed deeply. He called himself junior even though he was older because power dictated everything in the family. As for calling the other man Ancestor, that¡¯s how Ascenders from the family were called by other family members.


    Firebringer was the only one who had the qualification to even greet the man, who looked to be in his fifties. Everyone else could only bow in silence.


    "Is this the boy?" Ascender Firestar asked, looking at Aaron from head to toe.


    "Reporting to Ancestor," Firebringer said, keeping his submissiveness to the maximum. "The boy is this one''s grandson, Champion Aaron, six years old."


    Just like how Eminences became Grand Elders in the family, a position that came with advantages and responsibilities, Champions became Elders. However, Aaron wasn''t referred as so because he hadn''t been formally introduced to the position yet.


    Firebringer continued. "If Ancestor is inquiring as to him being the one who this one will bring to the Three Towers, then yes, this is him."


    "That has yet to be decided," the Ancestor said dismissively. "Taking a family member to the Three Towers is not something you can decide for yourself. As to the obvious objections you''re about to make, on you being the one to sacrifice yourself, and the only reason you would do that would be because of your grandson, I''ll let you know that you either accept to have your grandson tested by us first, or we''ll simply forbid you to go at all."


    Firebringer''s face trembled in fury, but he controlled his voice perfectly as he asked. "Might this Junior inquire Ancestor about this testing?"


    Firestar nodded once. "You may. You contributed to the family enough that even considering your failure of a son, your grandson should still be given a chance. In fact, I am in full support of your grandson, and I''ll take him as my temporary disciple. Each of the three Ancestors will teach a kid, and in one year, the kids will compete against each other for the opportunity of being nominated to the Three Towers. We haven''t decided on what will be tested yet, but it will be a fair competition."


    Aaron''s grandad face was reddened by rage now that his son had been called a failure to his face. "May Junior inquire as to how motivated Ancestor Ascender Firestar is to win against the other Ancestors?"


    Firestar smiled. "You may not, but before you say anything like that again, I''ll let you know this: your patience and politeness are the only things keeping your grandson alive. If you had refused to go to the Three Towers or had been rude to me, I would''ve killed your grandson right now, as to prevent a genius from bringing us problems in the future for refusing him the nomination. We all heard at least one story of a genius taking down his own family in their path for vengeance." He turned without waiting for a reply. "You have until tomorrow to leave for the Three Towers. Bring the kid to my quarters before you depart."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    With the threat of Aaron''s death hanging on the air, the Ancestor left.


    No one said anything for a long time.


    <hr>


    Aaron was in front of huge double silver doors with a golden magic formation inscribed on them. The formation was a big circle full of arcane symbols and runes inside it, and it shone in a golden light.


    Most inscribed formations were based on existing spells. Mages would take the three-dimensional spells signatures and change them in ways that allowed them to be inscribed in two-dimensional mediums. The way specific arcane symbols resonated with the universe to affect the fabric of reality could be understood by a mage with enough knowledge and experience, depending on the level of the spell signature itself.


    Formation Mastery was considered a rather difficult school of magic. Even inscribed formations, which were the easiest of them all, required a lot of attention to details and years of study to merely begin to grasp their depths. Even the same symbol when used in different situations may not work depending on the materials used, the ratio of the materials, or even the materials'' quality.


    Aaron was a Formation Master though, which was a High Profession in his old universe. If it wasn''t for this world using mana, and mana interacting differently with the symbols and materials than the energies Aaron already knew, he would have no difficulty in thoroughly reading the formation, identifying its weakness, and maybe even bypassing it despite his low level!


    That wasn''t to say he was helpless before it. He could still easily tell that the formation on the doors was meant for protection. He had learned the Mana Shield spell up to its level 3 version. Based on it and his experience as an energetic manipulator, he could roughly guess how the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth level spell signatures would look like. Added to his experience in formation mastery and his newfound knowledge on mana, he could also roughly guess how spell signatures would turn into formations.


    He couldn''t do the conversion himself yet without a few weeks'' time, couldn''t tell how the intricacies of the formation before him worked, and couldn''t determine if there was anything other than protection in the formation, but guessing its general purpose when it was based on a spell he already knew was no challenge to him.


    "I won''t talk to the Ancestor, boyo," Firebringer, who was standing beside Aaron, said. " I don''t want to see his face, or I might do something stupid. I also won''t say any dramatic goodbye to you. See you in six years."


    Aaron found it amazing how the old man could be so sensitive with his son one day, and so brutish with his grandson the next day. Not to mention how much of a weakling he was showing himself to be despite of how protective he had been of Aaron when talking to the maid before.


    He vaguely felt that something was wrong, he just couldn''t pinpoint it exactly yet, like a memory that kept fleeing his mind.


    "Love you too, grandad," he said provokingly.


    Unknown to Firebringer, those words were also a subtle hint on how he could break through his difficulties with magic and level up. Sometimes, to increase the grade or an attribute, the right mentality was required. Aaron had identified an issue in how the old man dealt with his emotions and believed it to be the main obstacle preventing Firebringer from becoming an Ascender himself.


    "Yeah, yeah. Me too, boyo," Firebringer said, knocking three times on the door, and leaving without any further word.


    The doors opened by themselves a few moments later, revealing a huge white room bare of anything except Ancestor Ascender Firestar, who was sitting cross-legged in the center.


    "Come in," the man said.


    Aaron obeyed, stopping in front of the man. The doors closed by themselves as soon as he went through the threshold.


    "What''s your name?" The man asked.


    "This one is named Aaron," he replied as politely as he could.


    "Surname?"


    "Valdian," Aaron replied.


    "Not the family surname, your real one," the man insisted.


    The family called itself Valdian Family, and every member also declared to be surnamed Valdian when asked. But the real surnames, the ones that the Full Status tutorial warned about being dangerous when revealing to others, was never mentioned to anyone even if they were family.


    "This one asks for your forgiveness," Aaron said submissively but firmly, "but this one''s real surname is for this one alone to know."


    "We''re family, boy. We''re also master and disciple, albeit temporarily. There are secret techniques to increase your power but to use them I need your true name."


    "This one begs for forgiveness, but this one will keep this one''s surname to himself," Aaron insisted. Although he hadn''t changed his name exactly because of a situation like this, it was one thing for his father to do it, and another for the old man who had threatened his life to do it! He didn''t trust the man one bit.


    The man''s face twisted. "Boy! Tell me your surname at once!"


    There was a disruption in the ambient mana, and a crushing sensation befell Aaron. It was a sensation that affected his body and soul, forcing him to submit, to kneel. His body did kneel, but his soul... How could a mere level 9, an Ascender, have enough power to pierce through a grade 12 soul resistance, the grade of the Immortals? Aaron simply ignored the weak pressure in his soul.


    "Speak!" The man bellowed.


    The pressure increased. Sweating blood, Aaron had to put his hands on the ground to prevent his face from slamming on in. He used all his power to remain on all fours. He tried to speak, but a fit of a blood-filled cough prevented him from it.


    He became worried. He was just a kid, with limited blood in his body, and if he lost much more of it, he might actually die. And yet, he didn''t dare reveal his true name. He knew a lot about it now, after reading for years from the library, and anyone who knew his true name would have absolute control over him.


    He would rather die than become someone''s slave!


    "Boy! Tell me your true name!" The man yelled again.


    Dizziness was coming to Aaron, but he managed to speak a single word before passing out.


    "Never."


    The dizziness intensified, and blackness came to him.


    <hr>


    He awoke at the same place, feeling warm mana healing his body. Looking up, he saw that Firestar hadn''t moved from where he sat.


    The man saw Aaron looking at him and nodded once. "You''re just barely qualified enough to be taught by me. Sit down so we can begin."


    Aaron had seen plenty of brutal tests before but never something like that aimed at a six-year-old. With his experience, he knew that the man had been trying to make him submit or kill him if he refused to obey. But then, when Aaron neither submitted or died easily, Firestar likely became impressed with the kid''s resilience.


    It was also his experience that allowed him to finally realize something was terribly wrong. He should be absolutely furious, fuming with rage, mad with wrath for what the man before him had done to him.


    And yet, he felt only mildly annoyed, as if it was only a matter of course that he should accept being almost killed and repay it with kindness and submission just because the man was his superior.


    Looking back, he remembered when his father had locked Aaron in the house and he had taken so long to realize it, and even then, he had never felt upset about it, despite how useless the mansion''s library was for gathering data on magic. Also, regardless of his caution about revealing too much ability and knowledge before he could protect himself, he had felt way too safe in his environment, which led him to reveal greater progress in math ¡ª of all things! ¡ª than he should. And when his grandfather betrayed him by delivering him to a man who had threatened to take his life, instead of getting upset with his grandfather, he had ignored it and hinted at a way for his grandfather to grow stronger!


    Something was messing with his mind. Something way too subtle for him to see it clearly.


    As he thought that, he felt it. A particle of Prime Energy entering his soul without resistance.


    He had felt similar particles before, but they were so rarely felt and so weak that he considered them a leftover of a leftover from when this world had had the proper amounts of Prime Energy, before the World Sovereigns made it so scarce for unknown reasons. Therefore, he had never bothered to prevent it from freely going through his body and soul. He couldn''t use or absorb it, but it shouldn''t cause any damage either.


    Or so he had thought.


    Now, as he paid attention to it, the particle flared in his soul. It created a tiny portal from which more Prime Energy poured in. The extra energy immediately tried to erase his memories, dampen his feelings, and modify his way of thinking!


    It was a mind attack! An attack made by the world himself, aimed at forcing him to accept his place in life and just go on with it without fighting back.


    He wondered how many times he had been close to noticing the strangeness of his feelings and had his memories of his conclusions erased before he could do anything.


    This time, however, he counter-attacked!

 Chapter 6 - Meeting the Competition

    Chapter 6 - Master and Disciple


    An epic battle took place in his soul. There were no spells used, only raw Prime Energy trying to modify his mind, and his mind actively fighting back.


    The first thing he did was marking all Prime Energy as a hostile force. Merely doing so made his soul reject the energy, assisting him in the fight. The portal was immediately shut down, preventing more Prime Energy from directly entering his soul.


    New particles of Prime Energy tried to invade his soul from the outside, as inconspicuously as the first particle, showing no hostility towards him, but they were all denied entry!


    His soul resistance was grade 12, the max grade of that world. Since any attacks in that world were also limited to equivalent power, there was nothing his soul couldn''t resist.


    Since there was Prime Energy already inside his mind, his will fought the will of the world. How could a mere kid resist the world itself? It should''ve been impossible, his memory of the fight should''ve been erased, and he should revert back to being ignorant of everything.


    This was a perfect trojan attack, for he could only recognize it as an attack after the particle flared. Then, it didn''t matter if he realized it was an attack or not, no one should be able to go against the will of the world itself!


    But he was no mere mortal. His will had been tempered by eons of all kinds of situations.


    The two wills fought each other. Both had the exact same power, the maximum allowed in that world. Thus, the victor was decided from the way they fought.


    The world, something with base instincts but no real intelligence, used his will like a wrecking ball, amassing it in a formless mass and using it to hit Aaron''s will. Aaron, on the other hand, stretched his will like a burning web, both isolating the world''s will and damaging it from all sides.


    It was a complete loss for the world.


    While doing that, Aaron also hunted and captured the particles of Prime Energy in his mind, expelling them one by one. Eventually, he defeated them all, and finally, he found himself free of them.


    It felt like an eternity in his mind but outside his soul, a mere instant had passed. Firestar was still looking at him as if expecting the kid to hold no grudges after being almost killed.


    That''s what Prime Energy in this world was used for, to make sure the world''s status quo would be maintained at all cost!


    There would be no rebellion, no fight for power, no overthrowing the current world order. People would just get content with what they had and accept the rulings of their elders!


    The episode also explained why the world lacked Prime Energy. Changing it into something resembling poison had made the Prime Energy of the universe avoid that world. Whatever amount of Prime Energy the world had, it had been created by the world itself and was used to control everyone in it, that''s why it was so scarce. Especially coming from a world where the level limit was 12, right below the level that would allow people to produce and manipulate Prime Energy.


    As a former Origin Immortal, he had a deep appreciation for Creation itself, and he hated that Prime Energy had been twisted in such way. He hated the Cage that made such corruption possible. He hated the Word Sovereigns that turned free-thinking people into mindless sheep.


    What he hated more about the brain-washing was that it changed people in more ways than it intended. When people obeyed you and didn''t hate you no matter what you did to them, it was natural to disregard their feelings in the long run, and then, you simply stopped caring about those below you. Firestar, for instance, showed no remorse for what he had done as if it had been something normal to almost kill a child.


    As for love, one of the greatest forces in existence ¡ª not passion, but selfless love ¡ª it existed, but it was almost useless. Firebringer loved his grandson enough to live through torment for years for the boy but still couldn''t bring himself to fight against Firestar for the boy''s life.


    Humanity itself had been corrupted in a way that made Aaron feel an unquenchable hatred for the Sovereigns of that world!


    As for Firestar, while Aaron pitied the man for being born under such circumstances, and probably having lived a rather shitty life, he couldn''t just accept to be treated like that.


    It didn''t matter if this was the way of the world, he promised to pay back for the attempted murder in the future.


    For now though, there was no use in showing his anger. He knelt down and said meekly, "Disciple pays respect to Master."


    "Tell me everything you know about magic," Firestar immediately ordered, not expecting any resistance to his order.


    Aaron quickly assessed the situation. The old man likely just wanted to test Aaron''s knowledge so he would know what to teach. Aaron didn''t trust Firestar enough to reveal everything he knew, but he was already known to be too smart for his age, so he couldn''t limit himself to things that were too basic.


    Thus, he obeyed somewhat, limiting his speech to Third level spells. He included some of his own theories and suppositions, too, interested in how the Ascender would react to them.


    Firestar would usually barge in with comments.


    "The Sevenleaves theory was disproved long ago, where did you hear it?"


    "An interesting take on energetic manipulation, but how much control would that require?"


    "Hmm... Your father taught you that? Not bad, not bad at all."


    "Ha! Are you quoting Williams-Raymond now? Those men are nutjobs, I tell you! Nutjobs!"


    "Shut up for a moment, let me think about what you just said."


    The more Aaron spoke, the more the man became agitated and respectful towards the boy in front of him. Likewise, by Firestar''s comments, Aaron realized that the man was a studied one, having read far and wide to expand his horizons and move further in the path of magic.


    It didn''t change the fact that he had tried to enslave or murder a six-year-old though.


    It wasn''t a surprise to Aaron that most of his theories were credited to people whom he had never heard about. There''s nothing new under the sun, and people certainly had thought about his ideas before.


    Half a day later, Aaron stopped talking, and only because he limited not only the level of his speech but also its scope to spellcasting. If he entered the domain of High Professions ¡ª formations, artificing, alchemy, painting, beast taming, puppeteering ¡ª which he was a master of and had had insights on how to use mana with, he would''ve taken many days to finish.


    Seeing that Aaron was finally finished speaking, Firestar nodded, and there was a new warmth to the way he looked at the kid. "Not bad, boy. Not bad at all. It seems your father does have some capabilities, after all. Maybe the Brigadier wasn''t being as idiotic as we all thought when he said the man could become a General. Tell you what, kid. Win the competition against the other kids, be selected to go to the Three Towers, and get at least a fifty-percent scholarship, and your father will receive a promotion."


    Aaron nodded back, unworried. Winning against kids? He might as well kill himself if he lost.


    More importantly, while Firestar wasn''t being nice to him, it was interesting to see that the man knew how to motivate Aaron. It hinted at the possibility of him being open to negotiations in the future.


    "For now, we need to work on your basics," Firestar said. "There are many holes in your education. I understand you know how to read?"


    "Yes, Master."


    The man waved his hand, and four bookcases filled to the brim with books appeared to the side of the room. "Start with these. If you have any doubts, ask me."


    Excited, Aaron obeyed. Finally, he had access to good books to learn magic from!


    <hr>


    Firestar would leave without warning at times and come back without giving Aaron any explanations. When the old man was in the room, he would read books or meditate in silence, only talking to Aaron when spoken to first.


    Aaron limited his questioning, apprehensive about showing too much intelligence. The few times he couldn''t find something in the books and ended up asking Firestar about it, the old man had to think hard about the answer. It wasn''t that the man didn''t know it, but that it involved many concepts that Aaron still didn''t know.


    It was as if a person who was learning to add in math suddenly asked about integrals. Firestar not only had to explain many new concepts to Aaron, but he also had to simplify them enough to not waste too much time in his explanations.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Yet, he never said something was too advanced for Aaron to learn. Rather, he seemed to be happy that the boy would think about such advanced topics while studying such basic books.


    Other times though, Aaron could see in the man''s eyes that what he was hearing was a complete novelty to him. Firestar tried to hide it but not too hard, probably because he thought a kid wouldn''t even try to read him, much less know how to do so.


    When that happened, Aaron felt tense for a couple of days, ready to try to escape if needed. Showing too much talent would sometimes make greedy people want to enslave the talented person, especially when they were young. Thankfully, Firestar seemed to have given up on such notions after failing the first time.


    Six months later, Aaron finally finished reading from the four bookcases. He had learned a lot, and he wanted to meditate on it all for a long while. Alas, it wasn''t to be.


    Firestar stood up and gave Aaron a necklace. "Wear it and come with me. It''s time for you to meet your competition."


    Check Item, Aaron thought as he put the necklace on.


    Check Item


    Name: Veiling Talisman


    Level: Peak Magical Item


    Just by its name alone, he wasn''t sure what it was used for, but Firestar didn''t look like he was willing to answer any questions now. It was a Magical Item, a peak one at that. Not bad for a backwater family like his.


    They walked the luxurious corridors of the family''s main castle. Every single person who saw Firestar bowed to him, while he kept looking straight, making it evident that he considered them below noticing. They would also throw curious glances at Aaron, who would smile back, wave, or even wink sometimes.


    Some people grimaced at his actions, others smiled back, and even more gave him speculative gazes. His was the royal family of a nation, and politics ran in the blood of everyone in the Royal Palace, be it a family member or a servant. Seeing a kid so close to one of the three Ascenders who ruled over the nation, it was only natural that most people would think of ways to use him.


    Aaron was grateful for not having any contact with politics in this life until now, for while he didn''t abhor it, it was way too distracting. He would rather keep his focus on magic.


    Eventually, the two of them reached a dining room with four people already inside, all sitting. There were no chairs, only cushions and small tables on the floor, two pairs of each close to each wall of the room, not counting the wall where the entrance was.


    The cushions on the side walls were occupied, leaving the ones in the wall directly opposite to the entrance vacant, much to Aaron''s surprise. He hadn''t known that Firestar was the most powerful of the three Ascenders, as evidenced by him sitting by the middle wall, almost like the head seat of a table.


    Such a dining arrangement was a common one. When too much power and not enough trust was involved, it was better to have some distance between different parties whenever they met, so they could protect themselves in case of an attack. Even the lack of chairs was common, as simple furniture could hide devious traps. The only reason tables were accepted were for their necessity ¡ª no one was willing to eat from the ground like a dog.


    At least, that''s how things worked in his old universe. In here, though, shouldn''t hierarchy be set in stone due to how Prime Energy affected people''s minds?


    Unless...


    Unless it wasn''t people''s level, elderliness, or social standing that decided who should be obeyed and who would have their feelings messed with. Instead, it had to do with how people perceived others. The other Ascenders in the room didn''t fully consider Firestar their superior, so they weren''t affected by the world rules that much.


    Likewise, Aaron had considered other people his superior in magic, but since he knew he was better than them in almost everything else, he hadn''t been blindly following them and still had kept some of his personality and thought process, which had allowed him to realize something was wrong.


    That was an interesting theory. The World Sovereigns could change whatever they wanted in the world, but since they themselves were all of the same level, 12, one of them might have bent the rules so the others would bow to him.


    Keeping those thoughts in mind, he walked beside Firestar to their cushions, four sets of eyes drilled on him, two belonging to old men, one on each wall, and two to the kids beside them.


    "You decided to take the failure in, after all, Leonard," one of the old men, who was wearing dark green clothes, said to Firestar. It was the first time Aaron heard Firestar''s given name. "You''re becoming soft with age."


    Firestar merely sneered and sat down. Aaron sat beside him in silence, ignoring the obvious provocation aimed at intimidating him. In the past, Immortals had kneeled submissively before him, Prime Immortals had begged for his attention, and even an Origin Immortal had died by his hands. How could he be intimidated by mere words spouted by mere level 8, Ascenders?


    That room was a social battleground. No matter how much he disliked Firestar and didn''t care about his Master''s image, Aaron had his own pride, and his teacher''s actions also gave him the excuse to act arrogantly. Since his teacher didn''t place the people in the room in his eyes, Aaron would likewise ignore them, as if they were ants in the background.


    His haughty attitude made the four people unhappy, especially the two old men, but he didn''t care one bit.


    "Brother, cousin," Firestar said. "This is Aaron, the grandson of Firebringer, my temporary disciple." Aaron took notice of the fact that his teacher didn''t disclose his level to those two.


    The other old man, who was wearing white clothes, laughed. "Not so soft as to take him as a real disciple, I see."


    Neither Firestar nor Aaron replied to that.


    Servants came bringing food, which Aaron didn''t touch. He didn''t know any poison-checking spell, and now that he was competing against disciples of two of the strongest people in the family, who probably wouldn''t be accountable for poisoning him, he''d better be careful about what he put in his mouth.


    Mages didn''t need to eat anyway, mana being enough to sustain their bodies. He had no reason at all to put himself at risk like that.


    Firestar didn''t share his caution at all and ate his fill.


    "He''s a shy one, isn''t he?" The green-clothed man said.


    "Don''t tease the kid, cousin," the white-clothed man interjected. "He''s just the son of a failure, after all."


    That comment made Aaron annoyed. He loved his father, even though he speculated that it had been partly due to the Prime Energy mollifying his feelings towards the man. Now that the feeling was already there though, he couldn''t just remove it before he became an Overlord.


    However, even if there had been hatred for the man in his heart instead, Firebreather was still his father in this world. He wouldn''t allow people to just offend his family like that.


    He looked at Firestar. "Master, Disciple asks for permission to comment on the behavior of your brother and cousin," he said submissively.


    Firestar shook his head. "That would be inappropriate. You''re just a junior, and a kid to boot. It''s not for you to comment anything about the family''s Ancestors."


    Aaron nodded. Since Firestar hadn''t directly forbidden it, only reminding Aaron of etiquette, there was no issue in speaking his mind as long as he was dodgy about it. "Disciple understands. Disciple will refrain from commenting on how pathetic it is for two old men to feel so threatened by a seven-year-old that they would go as far as psychologically attack him. Disciple will also remain silent about their lack of respect towards Master since offending one''s disciple is the same as slapping the master in the face. Disciple will not even talk about the deep respect disciple feels for people such as them, bold enough to offend Ancestor Ascender Firestar to his face."


    Firestar said nothing, but the two old men''s faces grimaced. "You dare talk to me like this?!" The green-clothed one yelled, slapping the table in front of him so hard that it broke in half.


    Aaron ignored him, silently looking ahead. On the corner of his eyes, he could see how the two other kids'' faces paled in fear from the outburst.


    Inwardly, Aaron sneered. Meet his competition? What competition? Those two kids who would shrink from the outburst of an old man?


    Seeing how Aaron remained composed despite his yelling, the man revealed surprise and looked at Firestar. "We agreed not to groom them about how to behave in this meeting," he said upset.


    Firestar shook his head. "I didn''t, brother. He was like this when I brought him in. You called me soft-hearted, but I almost killed him to take his true name from him, and he still resisted me. In fact, if it wasn''t for his unusually strong soul resistance, he would be nothing more than a corpse now."


    The men showed surprise at that and Aaron was even more surprised than them. Firestar dared to speak about it within Aaron''s hearing range?


    "You failed?" The green-clothed man said. "A six-year-old resisted you?"


    Firestar nodded. "It''s much more than that, brother. I could see in his eyes that he would rather die than submit, and it made me lose control of my temper, of which I''m deeply ashamed. I wanted to break him, to show him that resistance was futile in front of absolute power. He bled from his pores, he coughed blood, his inner organs were smashed into a pulp, and his heart almost burst open. I can only imagine the pain he was in and yet, not only he resisted me, the last thing he said before he passed out was a single word, ''never.'' He didn''t merely resist me; as I tried to break him, he spat on my pride, and showed me that in front of a strong enough heart, even absolute power is meaningless."


    Shock was evident in the men''s eyes. Firestar wasn''t done.


    "In the last six months, he read through the entire Basic Library and asked me questions that I never thought about before. Questions that made me wonder about things I never considered. Questions that made me meditate and advance leaps and bounds in my path." Suddenly, he released an aura of power that made the two other kids in the room immediately faint. "Brother, cousin, I''m not a mere Ascender anymore. I''m now a Quasi-Overlord."


    That aura was even more oppressive than what Firestar had used against Aaron, but it affected only the soul, and it wasn''t harmful. It was a kind of natural pressure that only allowed the worthy to stand in the presence of the powerful and made the weak either bow to it or fall unconscious. The kids succumbed to it, but Aaron''s soul resistance allowed him to completely ignore it.


    While the two men were even more shocked than before, Firestar stood up, got in front of Aaron, and bowed deeply. "Aaron, this one would like to beg for your forgiveness for almost taking your life."


    Aaron had seen a lot in his long existence, and it took a lot to do something completely unexpected by him, but Firestar managed to do it.


    The more powerful one was and the more authority one had, the harder it was for them to admit their mistakes to themselves and accept their failures. To ask for forgiveness towards a weak person was even harder. But to bow respectfully towards a weaker person and beg for the person''s forgiveness without being forced to do so? That was something so rare that Aaron had only seen it happen twice, and he had been the one to do it.


    He took a few moments to reply. Should he forgive the man? It might be some sort of trick, but he failed to see the purpose behind it.


    Eventually, he sighed and decided to give the man a chance. Not because of the world changing his heart, for no particle of Prime Energy had entered his soul after that day. It was simply because he understood that even he could err sometimes, not to mention mortals much less experienced than him.


    However, he would always require compensation with an apology. He still didn''t know what he would ask of Firestar, but that debt certainly wouldn''t just be forgotten just like that.


    "The resentment I had towards you in my heart has been erased," he said solemnly and paused before continuing with a humble manner of speech. "Now, Master, please stand straight. If Master keeps bowing, Master''s brother and cousin will never forgive Disciple."


    Firestar did as told and smiled slightly before turning to the two old men. "As you see, he is smart for his age. You all know Undercover Agent Five Stars Sara, who we sent to investigate Major Notable Firebreather before considering his promotion, and there should be no doubt towards her capabilities. She was impressed enough with Aaron to wonder if he had been possessed by a demon. I doubted his impressiveness at first, but as I just told you, I was proven wrong."


    It was the first time Aaron heard Sara was an undercover agent, and that she had advanced to become a Five Stars Mage. Last time he had seen her, she had been a Four Stars Mage.


    Firestar gestured for Aaron to stand up and talked further to the old men. "Prepare your disciples for failure, brother and cousin, for I have no doubt Aaron will be one going to the Three Towers."


    With that, they both left the room, under the aghast eyes of the two old man.

 Chapter 7 – Magic Studies

    Chapter 7 ¨C Magic Studies


    As soon as they were back in Firestar''s room, he closed the door and suddenly spoke in a heavy tone, something way out of character for him. "Aaron."


    Aaron''s heart started pounding in his chest and he prepared to cast the best protective and escape spells he knew. "Yes, Master?"


    Firestar looked the boy in the eyes. "I will never, ever, under any circumstances lie to you or hide anything at all from you." He made a long pause. "Do you understand?"


    Aaron frowned. "I think so...?"


    After another pause, the old man nodded. "Good. You can absolutely, completely trust everything I say without any reservations at all. Never, ever, doubt anything I say."


    "Okay...?" Aaron replied.


    There was no reason for Firestar to say that, much less out of the blue and right after he had gotten just a tiny bit of trust from Aaron by apologizing. Therefore, his meaning was clear: anything he said could be a lie and Aaron shouldn''t trust it.


    Aaron didn''t know why Firestar was saying that, or even why he wouldn''t say those words directly. Clearly, the old man had a set of circumstances that he couldn''t or didn''t want to inform Aaron about.


    Still, he was going out of his way to make Aaron aware of it as best as he could. Or at least, he was trying to make it look so.


    Whatever the case, Aaron would hold his cards even closer from now on.


    <hr>


    The next years were a strange experience for Aaron.


    Firestar would usually be all helpful and freely provide him with books and knowledge. Aaron, on the other hand, kept most of his knowledge and theories to himself. He was also careful about double-checking all information he received and asking questions about sensitive subjects, always doing so in roundabout ways as to not raise any suspicion.


    Once, he wanted to know why he had not found any attack spells that sucked the air out of the lungs of the victim. Even though mages might easily counter that, it could still be useful for mass execution of klutzes.


    Not that he expected to ever do that but having the knowledge of that possibility might be the very trigger that would lead to a creative solution to escape a tricky situation.


    However, a kid asking such questions would surely raise a red flag, no matter how much of a psychopath Firestar had shown to be when he tried to kill Aaron. Therefore, his way of asking was by leading a conversation until that question seemed natural.


    "Shouldn''t fish be made of water?" He asked.


    It was a dumb question, but he made sure to show the ignorance befitting a kid now and then, else who knows what his Master might think.


    "Of course not," Firestar replied. "What possibly gave you such notion?"


    "Don''t they ''float'' in the water like ghosts float in the air? Then, shouldn''t they be made of the same substances they float on?"


    Firestar snorted. "I fail to follow your logic, but I''ll entertain you. Are ghosts made of air?"


    "I... think not?" Aaron replied, pretending to be unsure.


    "No! Ghosts are made of something very similar to souls! As for fish, they ''breathe'' water but that''s not the reason they float. Humans breath air and we don''t go around floating, not without magic, do we?"


    "So, if we took the water from inside the fish, they would still be able to ''float'' inside water?"


    "Didn''t you hear what I said? They breathe water, or rather, the air in the water. It''s obvious that they would die asphyxiated if you took the water from their lungs, just like humans would die if you took the air from inside them."


    Aaron widened his eyes in surprise and a bit of fear. "Can people use a spell to do that to me?!"


    This time, Firestar had to think a bit before replying, showing that such concept was a novelty to him. "Not easily. Your soul permeates your whole body and your soul resistance is used against magical attacks. That''s why all attack spells usually have some sort of physicality to them. This way, even if the magic is resisted, the physical part of the spell would still damage your body.


    "If a spell tried to take the air from your lungs, your soul would notice the spell is hostile to you, and the spell would have to fight against your soul resistance for the air inside you. The same goes for poison, but of course, the poison would work if your soul didn''t detect the hostility in the poison, which is the whole point of poisoning someone...


    "But I digress. Yes, people might take the air from your lungs to kill you, but they would have to be stronger than you and fight your soul resistance. If they are already stronger then you, isn''t it easier to kill you by using the Air element to simply decapitate you with a Wind Blade, considering how long it would take for you to asphyxiate?"


    That answer had helped Aaron enough. He had theorized about soul resistance and internal magical attacks before but had found no books on the subject.


    Sometimes, however, Firestar would refuse to answer simple questions. He would usually make it very obvious too, speaking way too somberly all of a sudden and looking Aaron straight in the eyes.


    That was especially true when Aaron tried to find out more about the social organization of the world other than the name of the countries and geographic locations. Firestar had no issue in talking about international economics, but the moment Aaron asked about geopolitics, things would go south very quickly.


    The most intense episode was when Aaron, after gathering enough clues, tried to probe on who were the powers ruling the world.


    "I wonder what would happen if there existed an organization that hunts dissidents..." He said. In his previous conversations with Firestar, he had come to understand that such an organization already existed.


    Firestar immediately dropped the book he was reading and looked Aaron in the eyes. "There is no such thing. There never was, nor there will ever be. You should drop this matter."


    Aaron insisted. "What would happen if they found me to be a dissident? Would they just outright kill me? Would they call people to hunt me? Or would they investigate it better first?"


    "No one will kill you for a mere suspicion!" Firestar bellowed. Then, surprised at spilling the beans, he widened his eyes and tried to fix it. "Even if someone tried to kill you, you''re safe here. We would protect you at all costs. There''s no way someone would be able to force us to give you over. No one has such authority, because such authority doesn''t exist. Do you understand? Now, drop. The. Matter."


    Aaron understood it well enough. The family had overseers that were powerful enough to make Firestar frightened as a little kid. But Aaron wasn''t done. "What would be enough to make them interested in me, I wonder. Or how-"


    A sounding slap to his face made him shut up. There was real regret in Firestar''s eyes for a split second, showing that he didn''t want to do that, but Aaron had gone too far, too fast. He refused to talk to Aaron for the rest of the day.


    After that, Aaron never again forced matters too much. He kept his questioning going but was extra roundabout about it and only took small bites on the forbidden information, using Firestar''s denials to paint a proper picture of the state of affairs in the world.


    What he found, not only about the organization but also about the geopolitics in his region, made him realize he was in a whole lot of danger.


    A nomination for the Three Towers was way too valuable and the family spies reported that nearby nations were already mobilizing for the day of his departure. Simply getting to the academy would require a great force to protect him. The family would send half their military with him, and even so, it wasn''t guaranteed that he would arrive at the Three Towers.


    The consequences of that were two even bigger problems.


    First, to protect himself in the trip, he would likely have to reveal his prowess, which would attract the attention of the organization Firestar had tried to hide, a group of superstitious people with too much power who investigated any mage who showed too much potential. As of yet, he hadn''t learned their name and was calling them ''Asshats.''Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Second, having half the military gone would make the Valdian Kingdom vulnerable, and while he didn''t have much love lost for them, they were his family. He considered himself a logical person but he wasn''t completely devoid of feelings or a moral compass. People attacking his family wasn''t something he could simply ignore.


    Even not considering his feelings, weakening his family and allowing them to be attacked was a stupid move, since they were his only allies in the world at the moment.


    The obvious alternative was having his grandfather give up his position at the Three Towers and return. Aaron would then live isolated for a long time, conducting research on magic until he considered himself strong and old enough to brave the world without raising any suspicion.


    That would be a great idea if he had been born in the middle of nowhere without contact to the outside world. However, his existence was known by too many people, and Firestar had hinted more than once that the nearby nations had spies that would sooner or later learn about Aaron''s level, Champion, and report him to the Asshats.


    For whatever reason, reporting people who showed too much intelligence or talent was law set in stone, and the Asshats were adamant about having their rules obeyed. If the report happened and Aaron was found being sheltered by the family, without the family itself being the ones to report him, the family would face annihilation-level punishment. That''s how mighty and dangerous the Asshats were.


    And then, even if that hadn''t been an issue, Firestar himself was bound by unknown circumstances and he might be forced to betray Aaron.


    Aaron wasn¡¯t completely safe in the Royal Palace and he wouldn''t be safe on the road, but the palace held extra danger. While on the road he would face unknown dangers, but in here, he was at the mercy of Firestar.


    He didn''t like his safety depending on a person of dubious allegiance that had said Aaron shouldn''t trust him, that was keeping Aaron under surveillance at all times, and that was much more powerful than Aaron.


    Thankfully, after more probing, he learned a set of very interesting rules that the Asshats followed. Thanks to those rules, he formulated a rather ingenious plan for when he left for the Three Towers.


    He would put his plan in motion on the day of the competition.


    <hr>


    It turned out that he had too little time to learn magic before leaving. Fortunately, Firestar showed himself to be agreeable to negotiations as expected.


    At first, Aaron had tried to be given time in the form of a time-slowing formation as compensation for when Firestar had tried to kill him. While Firestar had accepted it, they disagreed on how long the formation would be kept up.


    Aaron wanted it up for six days, the limit that he could withstand due to what he wanted to do. However, Firestar explained that keeping the time-slowing formation up and running would consume too many resources. With his own personal means, he could grant Aaron two days at most, and that would make him almost bankrupt.


    Such huge resource consumption was only because the formation the family had was mediocre, but he wasn''t about to give them a better one. Such formations manipulated the elusive Laws of Time, which were rarely understood, much less by young kids. That might make someone, maybe even Firestar, report him to the Asshats before he was ready for them.


    Thus, after some negotiation, he found something incredibly simple he could to the Firestar and wouldn''t attract much attention. It could be explained as sudden enlightenment, wouldn''t reveal much of his capabilities, and would still be valuable enough to the family to justify Firestar pulling enough resources from the Valdian Kingdom to run the formation for six days.


    That something was improving one of their pathetic formations to make it actually usable.


    <hr>


    Aaron was using a magic chalk to inscribe a huge formation on the floor, discussing its details with Firestar. It resembled an eight-pointed star inside a double circle with lots of symbols all over it.


    "This rune would usually add fire intent to the formation," Aaron said, "but I believe that when doubled, combined with the water intent here, and connected to the aqua lines there, it would instead bring steam intent and its physical manifestation," Aaron said.


    "Why steam?" Firestar asked with a frown.


    "The Third Light Healing spell we''re trying to turn into a better-inscribed formation uses touch to connect the caster and the target bodies, and so does the current formation that our family knows," Aaron explained. "However, because of the delicateness of this formation, direct contact with it can disrupt its mana flow and make the formation useless. To counter that, the formation considers all kinds of variables when drawing the inscription. Is it going to touch a klutz, a warrior, a mage, or a beast? What will the level of the target be? What about the target gender, and thus, the yin and yang energies within it? What about its injuries, are they elemental, physical, or soul related? There are specific formations for each situation and using the wrong one could be fatal. But what if we used another way of connecting the formation to the target without having to care about each and every detail about whom the formation is going to interact with?"


    Firestar''s eyes shone. "By using magic-infused steam, no direct touch with the formation is required! That way, a single formation can be used by anyone without the risk of the energies in the person''s body and soul disrupting it!"


    Aaron nodded. That was the easiest way of making the Third Light Healing formation more practical for usage. By teaching this to Firestar, the man would also be able to use the same concept in other formations.


    Using steam brought different issues, but it was still way better than what the family had.


    "Indeed," Aaron said. "I bet turning touch spells into steam formations is a common thing to do, especially for attacking formations, like poisonous ones, but our family has only been around for eight hundred years and our magic research only has been going for four hundred years. Our teachings are crude at best and our way of thinking is too rigid. You really should start sending people to magic schools, both the young and the old."


    "We have no money to pay for the good schools," Firestar said with a sigh.


    Aaron shook his head. "I just told you: your way of thinking lacks fluidity. No matter how pitiful the schools you can afford might be, there will still be things to learn. If not from their libraries and teachers, from the other students. Small things, like turning touch spells into steam formations, might be considered simple to others, and thus freely divulged. And yet, it might be enough to bring a golden age for our family''s magical research department." He finished drawing a new rune. "Now, we only have to think on a way to make the steam intent into non-elemental steam, lest the fire and water intents that create the steam itself bring more harm to the injured."


    Firestar sighed. "A mage''s work is never done."


    After pretending to think hard for what felt like an eternity, Aaron exclaimed excitedly, "That''s it! Of course! We don''t need to make it non-elemental but add all elements to it instead. Or at the very least, the five elements, plus yin and yang. It will make the formation a bit more demanding on the mage creating it, but formation mastery is usually demanding anyway. It''s also worth noting that the elemental harmony will also help with the healing afterward, so it''s like killing two birds with one stone." He started drawing new runes and lines.


    A few hours later, Aaron used a last stroke of the chalk to conclude the formation. He crossed his arms and analyzed it for a while until he finally nodded satisfied. "It''s done." He could see a few ways to improve the formation, but even if he was willing to do so, the family was too weak to defend itself from the greed that a better design would attract.


    He turned to Firestar. "Will you honor your part on the deal, Master?"


    Firestar laughed. "I wouldn''t dare not to. I''ll send this design to our formation masters and they can think on how to adapt it to a plate. I''ll need one month to set everything up for the time-dilatation formation."


    "Disciple thanks Master," Aaron said and went to one of the hundreds of bookcases that now littered the walls of the room.


    <hr>


    "Here," Firestar said as he offered a spatial ring to Aaron that looked as if it was made of simple gold.


    "Thanks," Aaron said as he took the ring and stepped inside the small formation drawn on the floor. Firestar, on the outside, immediately used his mana to activate it.


    And just like that, time seemed to stop. Or rather, it was passing a hundred times slower inside the formation when compared to the outside.


    His body was adequately slowed, but his soul easily resisted the formation. He had theorized it would happen and willed his consciousness into the pocket dimension linked to the spatial ring.


    His vision shifted, and he found himself in a huge area filled to the brim with bookcases. It resembled a room with floor, walls, and ceiling made of thick white mist. There was no light source, but he could still see everything there. Despite gravity not existing in there, there was nothing floating around; it was a very cozy and clean room.


    The pocket dimension was like a fold in space, a spatial bubble created inside the ring. It had clearly been created by a weak or untalented mage since it lacked Light Laws, Gravity Laws, and many others, which made it unable to hold living beings.


    After willing his consciousness inside, he could travel freely around the room, and even manipulate anything inside at will, like taking a book from a bookcase and turning its pages.


    And so, he started studying to his heart content. His promised six days would translate to six hundred inside the time-slowing formation.


    Firestar hadn''t understood how that would be useful at all. If Aaron''s body was slowed, his soul should be slowed, too. Even if his soul could break free from the time dilatation due to its high-grade resistance, it should simply move at the same speed as outside formation.


    To him, Aaron''s body would be slowed a hundred times, going through those six days as if less than two hours had gone by, while his mind would normally live those six days as if it was outside the formation.


    What was beyond the old man''s knowledge was that souls didn''t reside in the material plane. Time and space were things of the material; as for the soul, it was and wasn''t inside the body, it existed in a kind of an alternate reality. Due to his grade 12 soul resistance, his soul was and wasn''t affected by the time dilatation at the same time.


    Meaning that time was going slower for his soul because it also existed inside his slowed body, but at the same time, his soul could function at the same speed as if it wasn''t affected by the time dilatation. It was as if everything was placed in slow motion, while his soul kept moving in normal speed in that slow reality.


    That was the theory. In practice, it meant that his soul, and thus his merged mind, were working a hundred times faster than outside the formation.


    Of course, such a miracle brought its own dangers with it. The strain on his soul and mind would be huge. If it wasn''t for his soul resistance being so great, he would never dare do something like this.


    Even with his soul resistance, he only dared to do it for those six days and then he would avoid doing similar things for a couple years or so to allow his soul to recover from the stress. It was a shame that the family didn''t have a time speeding formation for him to not need to go through this, only this slowing one.


    Be as it may, he had six hundred days ¡ª the equivalent to two years in that planet ¡ª to read and speculate on magic as much as he wanted.


    He intended on using each second to the fullest.


    <hr>


    Two years came and went inside the formation. After that, Aaron went back to his routine of studying and prying of information from Firestar.


    Everything went smoothly until he was twelve years old.


    That''s when the competition happened and he set forth his plans to safeguard his life and the family''s future.

 Chapter 8 - On Artificing

    Chapter 8 - On Artificing


    The competition was a grand occasion attended by the bulk of the family, hundreds of mages sitting around a raised platform in the Royal Palace''s courtyard.


    Aaron and the two other kids were standing on the platform, while the three Ascenders were sitting on three thrones on a dais to the side. An Eminence mage got on the platform and addressed the audience.


    "Brothers and sisters from the Valdian Family, welcome!" He said with a magically enhanced voice that could be heard everywhere despite the talks going on in the audience. "Six years ago, Grand Elder Eminence Firebringer went to the Three Towers, sacrificing his remaining lifespan to provide the family with a chance to send a young mage to study there. Today, the disciples of our three Ancestors will compete against each other for the opportunity of being nominated by Grand Elder Eminence Firebringer!"


    Despite the man''s excitement, almost every single spectator had a bored look on their faces. The competitors were only children, how entertaining could their competition be? The only reason most of them were there was that the decision would heavily influence family politics. Alliances would be created and get broken that day.


    Aaron was looking around, trying to find his father among the audience. He hadn''t seen the man in the last year, too busy with studying. Alas, he couldn''t locate him anywhere.


    "The competition will be divided into two phases," the speaking level 7, Champion, continued. "First, a test on magic theory. Each Ancestor will ask each competitor two questions and the competitor who is considered to be the worst will be eliminated. Then, the remaining will fight in a magic battle! A battle for the first place!"


    That brought interest from the audience. Not the fight but the questioning. The Ancestors were lofty existences in the family and even hearing them questioning kids was an honor most of the people present never dared to hope for.


    "And leeeet''s begin!" The Eminence said and left the platform.


    The three kids turned to the Ancestors and bowed deeply. "Present yourselves," one of the Ancestors said.


    "I''m Three Stars Theodore, fourteen years old, son of Elder Champion Wind Prince, grandson of Grand Elder Eminence Wind Monarch," one of the kids said.


    This immediately brought murmurs from the spectators. "Three Stars! A fourteen years old kid who''s already a Three Stars Mage!"


    "Unbelievable!"


    "Incredible!"


    Their shock was natural. Since they were using Veiling Amulets like the one Aaron had received, the power of those two genius children in the family had been hidden from the ''Check Level'' Heavenly Skill and any other level detection spells, for their own protection. If the world had learned of their talent before, it would surely have brought assassination attempts from the family''s enemies before the kids had had the time to grow their power up to their potential.


    Now, after not knowing the kids'' levels for years, everyone was incredibly surprised at what they were hearing.


    Aaron smiled at that and waited for the second kid to present himself. "I''m Four Stars Elliot, thirteen years old, son of Grand Elder Eminence War Emperor, grandson of the departed Grand Elder Eminence Warbringer."


    "A thirteen-year-old Four Stars Mage!" A woman yelled in shock. "How?!"


    "Genius! A true genius!"


    Finally, it was Aaron''s turn to present himself.


    "I''m Elder Champion Aaron, twelve years old, son of Major Notable Firebreather, grandson of Grand Elder Eminence Firebringer," he said.


    Ascenders were called Ancestors by those from the family, Eminences were called Grand Elders, and Champions were called Elders. Notables like Aaron''s father had no official social standing though, depending on their connections or jobs to rise in the social rankings.


    As soon as Aaron spoke, the excitement died, a heavy silence covering the courtyard. It was one of the Ascenders who turned to Firestar and asked, "He is lying, right?"


    "Aaron," Firestar said, "remove your Veiling Talisman."


    Aaron obeyed, taking the round-shaped white talisman off, and throwing it on the ground. Everyone immediately used the Check Level skill on him. No one could believe what they were seeing.


    Showing his level would attract the Asshats'' attention even if he pretended to be dumb as a door. However, by controlling both the timing of this revelation and the circumstances surrounding it, he could use that attention against the Asshats and in his favor instead!


    As for his thoughts on level gap between him and the Elliot, he considered it only natural. He had been pushing to use his mana since he was one year old, while the boy had to deal with the inferior Mana-Sucking Ring for many years until he was taught how to use mana by himself.


    "Isn''t Major Notable Firebreather the family''s failure?" One of the spectators said. In the silence that covered the area, he might as well have screamed. "And wasn''t his wife an even more useless klutz? How can his son be a Champion? And such a young one at that?"


    Aaron turned his head so fast his neck snapped, and his eyes locked on the speaker. Check Level, he thought, and a tooltip appeared above the man''s head.


    Level: 4 ¡ª Four Stars Mage


    "You," he said. "You dare offend the father of an Elder Champion, who''s a Notable Mage and a Major of the Valdian Army in his own right. For insubordination, I sentence you to twenty whippings. Guards, take him."


    In the Valdian Family and in the world in general, power reigned absolute. The powerful held authority and disrespecting them was always punishable, sometimes by death. It didn''t matter if Aaron was a twelve-year-old, he was an Elder Champion, and in the family of almost a thousand mages, there were only fifty people who were as powerful as him.


    Moreover, when more than one person was on the same level, the younger held the most authority, since it showed their talent was greater. It was the same with the three Ascenders, where Firestar, the youngest at seventy or so years ¡ª despite looking to be at his fifties ¡ª, was the one who held the most authority.


    Considering Aaron was twelve years old, he was the First Elder Champion, the one with the most authority of the fifty-one Elder Champions, and only the seven Grand Elder Eminences and three Ancestors Ascenders could overrule him.


    Still, his orders came as a shock to everyone. He was a kid, and he was sentencing people to whippings?!


    As for Aaron, he didn''t feel conflicted. The man had offended his immediate family in public and had to be made an example of. If Aaron let this go unpunished, every random passerby would think they could offend him, and it would lead to all kinds of trouble.


    If the man wasn''t so weak, Aaron would''ve challenged him to a duel and punish him himself. As it was, it was unbecoming for a level 7, Champion, to challenge a mere level 4. Thus, he used the family hierarchy to punish him.


    "The First Elder Champion has spoken," Firestar said, "and his words are fair. Why are the guards not obeying?"


    The man who had offended Aaron''s father didn''t beg for mercy, something natural in a world were Prime Energy made everyone compliant when dealing with their superiors. Not only was Aaron the First Elder Champion, but even Firestar himself had also ordered the guards to obey!


    Two guards came and accompanied the man for immediate execution of his sentence. The way people looked at Aaron changed from disbelief and admiration to fear.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "The magic theory testing will respect each competitor''s level. The questions will encompass only the knowledge they are supposed to have," Firestar said as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Let''s begin with Theodore. How does the Third Light spell differentiate from its lower-leveled versions?"


    The boy thought for a moment before replying. "It uses less mana but requires greater control. The Third Light spell can change colors at the caster''s choice, unlike the lower leveled versions. The colors available to the caster are the primary colors. The Third spell signature has ninety-nine symbols, twenty-seven nodes..."


    "What does the Casting Time Control Theory on Third Spells states?"


    "It says that Third level spells are the first ones that can use the full control of the caster to decrease casting time..."


    "What is the First Law of Third Level Spellcasting?" One of the other Ancestors asked.


    "The First Law..."


    Theodore was asked six questions, and he managed to answer them all. Aaron could see a few mistakes here and there, but nothing major.


    Of course, that was only when considering the books he had read. In his own practice, he had deemed most of those theories to be incomplete or downright wrong. His own evaluation of the boy was that he had answered about a third of his answers correctly.


    "Good. Eighty-five points," Firestar said and turned to another child. "Now, Elliot, when should a Four Stars Mage use Third level spells instead of their Fourth level versions?"


    Aaron was surprised at the question. Although it was considered something a Fourth Stars Mage should know, its difficulty was relatively much greater than the first question Theodore was asked, about the Light spell.


    "What are the Seven Laws of Forth-Level Spellcasting?"


    "What are the names of the twenty-three Emperors of the Fire Continent?"


    "Explain the Twenty-Three Key Fourth-Level Spells."


    As the questions came, Aaron frowned. Elliot was having difficulty replying, and it was clear that the Ascenders had agreed to eliminate him from the competition, but Aaron had no idea why.


    "Sixty-two points," Firestar declared. "Aaron-"


    "Wait!" Elliot yelled, angrily. "My questions were much more difficult than his!" He pointed at Theodore.


    That was all he could speak. His own master harrumphed and a hand made of bluish mana appeared out of nowhere, slapping the kid in the face. It was hard enough for the slap to be heard all around the courtyard and for the kid to fall on the ground.


    "Sorry, Leonard," the Ascender who attacked said to Firestar. "My disciple will remain silent."


    When Elliot rose from the ground, the mark of the Ascender''s magic hand was visible in his face, and he was crying copiously.


    Aaron ignored the scene, looking straight at Firestar. His plans depended on what the old man asked next.


    After confirming that the Asshats could use magic to check the past events of an area in their investigations, it became obvious that he couldn''t just tell Firestar what he wanted the old man to do, else his actions might implicate the family instead of helping them. Therefore, he had hinted multiple times at what he wanted to happen in this competition, but the reason or what came next had been left out.


    Now, half his plan depended on Firestar asking the kind of questions he was supposed to ask.


    "Aaron," Firestar called while also looking Aaron in the eyes, "describe how to forge a Lower Artifact Sword with twelve-percent fire element amplification."


    Aaron had to suppress a smile. It had worked!


    This phase of his plan required him to show two specific sets of knowledge, both magical and physical. He hadn''t told Firestar exactly what to ask, but this question was spot on.


    Even creating a normal sword would be something a young mage wouldn''t be taught, much less how to add elemental amplification formations to it. More than that, an experienced Champion might know about how to make Lower Artifacts, but only true masters would be able to make one that could amplify an element by twelve-percent.


    In his untalented family, even the Ascenders had no idea about how to do what he had just been asked.


    However, Aaron had naturally increased his knowledge of mana and magic by leaps and bounds in the past years. When added to his experience and capabilities as an energetic manipulator and master of all High Professions, he had created what he called the ''Myriad Arts,'' which involved everything that used mana in any way, from magical painting to magical war tactics.


    Due to the lack of research materials in the family, his Myriad Arts was only complete up to the Champion level, but in that range, his knowledge and capabilities were absolute. They also contained incomplete Eminence-level techniques, and even a few insights on the Ascender level, which were just barely enough for him to theorize how to create even a Peak Artifact, much less a Lower Artifact!


    Firestar''srequest would allow Aaron to show much more knowledge than he was supposed to have, while also not revealing the peak of what he knew.


    As a token of gratitude for Firestar being so damn perfect at his questioning, Aaron decided he would give everyone in there the best lesson on artificing of their lives.


    "Artificing is the art of working materials and creating treasures with it," he said. "What we call treasures are nothing more than magically enhanced items, and their grades are, from lower to higher: Mortal Item, Magical Item, Artifact, and Relic. Each grade can be further divided into Lower, Higher, and Peak quality.


    "The different grades provide different benefits. Lower Mortal Items are nothing more than common items forged using magical techniques, with no special effects. Even a common sword created by a klutz might be better than a Lower Mortal Sword, depending on the materials used, but from Higher Mortal Items onwards, things change. Not only the items effects get better on each grade, the techniques required to create them become much harder, and the materials involved become much more complex to work with.


    "Mortal Items provide bonuses based on the materials they are made from, and that''s all. Magical Items add magical formations to the fold. As for Artifacts... Well.


    "As you know, magic requires intent, and Artifact artificing is nothing but magical. The Third Imbue Intent spell is usually merely used to teach Three Stars Mages how to better control their mana by playing with magical puppets created for such purpose. But when creating an Artifact, the Third Imbue Intent spell or one of its higher leveled versions must be used at all times. From the drawing of the item on paper, which becomes an obligatory part of the process, to the picking of materials, the working of the materials, the addition of cosmetic details, and so on. The artificer must constantly ''tell'' the materials what they will become, which formation will be placed on them, and their final purpose. It may sound simple but creating an Artifact may take weeks or even months, and from the moment the mage starts, he can''t stop! Try telling a piece of metal how it will become an awesome sword day after day, without exterior contact of any kind as to not contaminate your intent! It isn''t a coincidence that many an artificer go crazy as time passes.


    "And that''s only one aspect of the technical part of it. When talking about materials, it''s obvious that simple steel couldn''t hold enough magic to become a Higher Magical Item, while low graded magical formations would be unable to get a hold in Dragon Leather.


    "Furthermore, some materials like Dragon Leather has its own elemental characteristics depending on the dragon it came from, and not only can''t it accept any type of formation, it can''t be assembled in just any item. Going even further, I just said how intent is important in the creation of Artifacts, and artificers capable of creating Artifacts must also consider the intent of the material itself!


    "Dragons are prideful beings and Dragon Leather would never accept to become some Lower Artifact, and even a Peak Artifact might be difficult to create with it. It would also never accept to become a toilet cleaning Artifact. I speculate that learning how to remove the original material''s intent from it, or how to better work with such intent, might be one of the differences between Relics and Artifacts... But I digress.


    "What you asked of me was to ''describe how to create a Lower Artifact Sword with twelve-percent fire element amplification.'' This task can be divided into four parts: intent, design ¡ª including the drawing, material selection, and formation imbuement ¡ª, forging, and formation placement.


    "First, intent. One must use the Imbue Intent spell with the final product, aLower Artifact Sword with twelve-percent fire element amplification in mind. So, let''s start with some details about the sword: who will use it, a warrior or a mage? What will the sword be used for, slaying foes physically, or only for fire element amplification while a mage keeps his distance? Is it a weapon intended for attack or defense?" He asked.


    "A mage, amplification only, attack," Firestar replied.


    Aaron nodded and used the Imbue Intent spell while focusing on the purpose of the sword. "So, the artificer must keep these things in mind from now on. Even more details could be thought about the item, which would bring forth even more potential from the product. It doesn''t matter much if the product ends up being used as intended or not, but the mage must will a product with such characteristics to come into fruition all times and he must believe in it with all his heart.


    "Second, design. Since it''s a test, let''s suppose we''re creating the item from scratch instead of just drawing it using the formula that was taught me." He said that, but he was obviously creating it right there, right then. "The pommel of aLower Artifact Sword could use many different materials, but only twenty-three of them could be used for fire element amplification. For the blade, there are forty-one possibilities. There are a hundred and two possible combinations of pommel and blade, however, the ones that not only can be used for fire amplification but should be used for it, are only fifty-two. Now, keeping these materials in mind, and the final intent of the sword, one must think about all the fire amplification formations that could be placed in such materials, and think on how they could be adapted to be put in the sword. Ancestors are fair, Disciple has already studied such formation before and believes that he already knows the answer. If Ancestors would be so kind as to provide junior with paper and pen..."


    Firestar waved his hand, and those materials came out from his spatial ring, appearing in front of Aaron.


    Aaron took the paper in his hand and used magic to mentally control the pen as it started drawing on the paper. Contrary to what he said, he had designed the entire sword including the formation as he spoke, and now he only had to do the final adjustments to it.


    He kept talking and drawing, and finally, he concluded his explanation, including how to smith the sword, and how to properly place the formation on it.


    To him, the most difficult part, keeping his Imbue Intent spell going without being contaminated by the audience, was extremely easy. His willpower had been tempered by eons of adventures. How could he fail in something as simple as that?


    "...and so, this Redstar Sword would be born," he concluded. "Disciple disrespected Ancestor''s orders and created a sword with fifteen-percent fire amplification instead of twelve. Disciple begs for Ancestors to be lenient when deducting points from Disciple."


    Everyone was looking dumbfounded at him.

 Chapter 9 - Seeds

    Chapter 9 - Seeds


    Those of lower ranks in the family might believe that he had read about that Lower Artifact ''Redstar Sword'' in a book but most of the Champions and even many of the Notable Mages, had no doubt that he had just created a Lower Artifact on the fly, in less than six hours, while explaining the entire process.


    The way he had spoken was proof enough of that. It was like the difference between a math teacher explaining a complex operation as he solved it, in contrast to explaining something he had solved previously.


    Even those who believed Aaron to have read about the sword somewhere were still impressed at his explanation. It was clear that he had not only memorized everything, he had also understood what he had read, which was a mighty feat for a twelve-year-old dealing with Lower Artifact artificing!


    "Not bad," Firestar said after a moment, downplaying Aaron''s achievement. "Explain the... The... Tyler-Grand Theory on how to translate Fifth level spells into Inscribed Formations."


    Aaron almost laughed. There was obviously no Tyler-Grand Theory, and now every Five Stars Mage had just been put in on the ruse. Transforming Fifth level spells into Inscribed Formations was something that was currently being studied by the best researchers in the family; if there was such a theory, everyone would know about it.


    He couldn''t stop his smile. "Of course. The Tyler-Grand Theory is based on the... Stewart-Little Theory of Elemental Equivalence for Inscribing, which is based on the Alphonse-Edward Theory on Alchemy," he said, bulshitting it all from the beginning. Then, he proceeded to explain his own theory on Alchemy, on Elemental Equivalence, and finally, on how it all related to translating Fifth level spells into formations.


    This lesson took almost twelve hours.


    "How can the Valdian Martial Arts be improved to allow warriors to advance beyond the Five Stars level?" Firestar''s brother asked.


    This time, Aaron did smile. Asking about Martial Arts would completely destroy the fa?ade of him being tested. No mage should be tested on warrior material, much less a kid on his way to the Three Towers!


    And it was just what he wanted. As soon as he answered this question, the game would be irrevocably on.


    He would have no trouble answering what was asked either. He had been a cultivator back on his old universe and his martial arts were only second to his energetic manipulation mastery. He had long understood how to improve the pitiful Valdian Martial Arts.


    Of course, revealing perfect Martial Arts like the one he knew was something that could bring disadvantageous consequences far in future, if it was ever used against him. He would mix something in it to protect himself, just in case.


    "To begin with, it''s already a miracle that any warrior manages to become a Five Stars Warrior at all by using the Valdian Martial Arts," he said without any finesse. "The Valdian Martial Arts have so many mistakes in them that the seventy-percent death rate before reaching the Two Stars level, and fifth-percent death rate before reaching Three Stars level is a blessing from the heavens! Let''s begin with the base belief included in it, that ''warriors are a power of nature created by the world to balance physical prowess against magic.'' This is ridiculous and stupid. Warriors are incomplete mages and pretending to be anything else is only detrimental to them. By pretending, they refuse to use the mage knowledge they could use and instead create bogus martial arts that strain their bodies beyond what they can take."


    A big commotion arose at that. There were many theories about the differences between warriors and mages, and the family had never chosen to officially support any of them.


    "Do you support the Yarns Theory on Genetics, then?" Firestar asked, the sound of his voice enough for everyone to remember his presence and shut up.


    "Obviously," Aaron said. "Any half-assed Champion Mage can use the Gene-Seeing spell and check the theory for themselves. Claiming the spell is only an illusion spell but not pointing any flaws in the spell signature is bullshit spurted by arrogant mages who don''t want to be related to warriors and prideful warriors who don''t want to be incomplete mages.


    "I''ll ignore the arrogant mages but as for the prideful warriors, I''ll let them know that being incomplete doesn''t mean they are necessarily inferior. There are many techniques that could make them compete toe to toe against mages in direct confrontations as long as they accept the truth.


    "Let''s start with the set of repetitive moves called ''weightlifting'' that are used to strengthen their bodies. They are stupid. Mages have long since created spells that tear their own muscles, infuse them with mana and regenerate them, strengthening them at a much faster rate than weightlifting. The spells that mages use and the martial abilities that warriors use are two different kinds of skills, but they are still closely related. It''s easier to translate one into the other than it is to translate a spell into a formation, which requires turning something three-dimensional into something two-dimensional, not to mention all the materials involved. Therefore, why not take the already existing mage spell and turn it into a martial ability? The spell signature for the First Muscle Strengthening spell is like this, and its equivalent martial ability signature would look like this."


    Aaron used a simple Light Drawing spell to draw the signatures on the air and show them to everyone.


    "See the similarities? Moving ahead, the martial moves in the Valdian Martial Arts are ineffective and dumb, almost useless in a proper fight. To make it better without going into a complete overhaul, I would change the first set of moves into this..." He started showing different moves on the stage. "...the second into this..." He went on.


    He took extra care to not allow his body to pull mana from his soul while he showed the moves. That would make him begin threading the warrior path and if he did so before pubescence, his prepubescent bonus on growing his mana pool would cease.


    "Finally, considering the martial abilities contained in the Valdian Martial Arts, it would be better if their signatures became like these, and their actual use changed to this and this..." He started explaining it all.


    "With these simple modifications," he said after three hours, "it won''t be difficult for an average warrior to reach level 6, Notable Warrior, with the talented becoming level 7, Champion Warriors, and the absolute geniuses among them, level 8, Eminences," Aaron said. This caused a huge commotion among the spectators. "Now, the question would be: is the family bold enough to allow its warriors to become that strong? It would bring about great change to the family''s structure. Junior believes it to be beneficial, especially since mages could also use these skills to improve their bodies without the previous risk of death, so only laziness would allow the warriors to overtake the family. But it''s up to Ancestors to decide."


    Even though this reply ''only'' took three hours, it was much more profound than the previous two. People started discussing his last provocation, even the Ascenders. Aaron just stood there, waiting for the next question while considering the consequences of what he had just done.


    Warriors were basically mages that couldn''t use magic outside their bodies. Although he hadn''t been able to pry all the details from Firestar, he knew that this world wasn''t one that looked kindly at warriors or at people who wanted to give warriors more power. He wasn''t sure about all the consequences of his actions except that he would be hunted down by the powers that be. But at least most warriors on the continent had just become potential allies for he had no doubt word about the Valdian Martial Arts would spread, which was exactly what he intended.


    Suddenly, he felt a pull on his sleeve and turned to see the slapped boy, Elliot, looking at him with awe in his eyes. "You''re amazing!"


    Theodore appeared behind Elliot and nodded. "Yes! Amazing!"


    Aaron smiled. "If you work hard, you can become almost as amazing as me in the future."


    "For real?" Elliot asked.


    Aaron nodded. "For real."


    The eyes of both boys shone as they looked at Aaron in veneration. He ignored them and went back to his musings.


    <hr>


    In the end, the Ascenders asked three more profound questions and declared Aaron''s score to be a hundred. The battle didn''t happen, for Theodore simply forfeited the match before it could even begin.


    Aaron was declared the winner of the competition, which took three days from beginning to end.


    As to avoid being in the Royal Capital when the Asshats came for him, he decided to start his trip to the distant Three Towers the day after.


    <hr>


    The morning was a cold one and a thin rain was falling from the sky. Despite this, most Ascenders, Eminences, Champions, and Notable Mages of the clan had all come. Even many lower leveled mages and a huge number of warriors were present.


    He looked around but was unable to find his father among those present.


    "Master, where is Disciple''s father?" He asked Firestar.


    "Didn''t I tell you?" The man asked with a surprised expression. "Last month, the Brigadier said that either we promoted Major Notable Firebreather or the Brigadier herself would retire. War is everywhere, and we couldn''t chance to lose her, so we bowed to her wishes, promoting your father. The same day he was made into a General, the Southern Tribes invaded, and he was dispatched to deal with it."


    Aaron looked south and sighed. Unfortunately, his own travels would take him west. "How''s the Three Towers treating my grandad?"


    Firestar hesitated a bit before looking at Aaron in the eyes and saying somberly, "He is perfectly fine."


    Aaron sighed again, understanding that Firestar was saying that his grandad was having issues. However, he didn''t dwell much on the subject.


    Each person had their own destinies, with their own obstacles on the way. His mother was dead, his father might die in the south, and his grandad was suffering to the west.


    As terrible as that might sound to the faint of heart, overcoming obstacles brought growth, and to mages, even those considered failures like his father, stagnation was worse than death. They pursued magic with their all, and magic couldn''t be chased if one''s heart was hindered by the lack of conflicts to overcome.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Firestar was a great example. Aaron hadn''t told the man the issues in his path towards the Overlord realm, he didn''t even know the man''s issues. And yet, by answering questions from Aaron, which were a kind of obstacles on their own, he had found something he missed and became a Quasi-Overlord, only one step away from becoming an Overlord.


    Of course, Aaron would intervene if certain death was involved or if things crossed his bottom line, like if his father was captured by enemies. He would also seek retribution if people close to him were killed, but for the most part, he would live and let live. The most he did behind the scenes was giving small tips here and there, like planting seeds that could germinate or not.


    The seed he left for his father was hiding the solution for his magical failure within the improved Valdian Martial Arts. After living with the man for six years, how could he have failed to detect the man''s issues in hindsight, now that he had so much knowledge of magic? Now, it only depended on his father to be humble enough to train as a warrior despite being a mage.


    As for his grandfather, the seed was planted the last time he saw the old man.


    And for his own gains, he had left plenty of seeds for the family by answering the questions on the competition, and in his discussions with Firestar over the years. Even if he had hidden most of his capabilities, just his questions had helped Firestar in becoming a Quasi-Overlord. As long as the old man wasn''t completely stupid, which he had shown himself not to be, the family would profit quite well from the bits that could be learned in their conversations.


    And depending on what happened until his return to the family, he might use the then-improved nation as his base of operations or discard them to look for a better ally.


    "If there''s nothing else, it''s time I leave," Aaron said.


    The journey would take at least six months, and there would certainly be many unexpected events that would delay him even further. He had to present himself at the Three Towers exactly in nine months to not miss his nomination, and even a few hours of delay might as well be the difference between arriving on time or being late.


    Or so he had insisted as an excuse to leave the Royal Capital without the Asshats thinking the family was deliberately helping him.


    Firestar smiled. "I said before I''d only be your temporary master, and I was right in more ways than I knew at the time, for you''ve long grown beyond my means of teaching. In the name of the Valdian Family, I''d like to give you a parting gift." He took his own spatial ring and presented it to the boy.


    Aaron smiled back, put the ring on, and nodded. "With this, our master-disciple relationship is complete. We part ways with neither ties of friendship or sparks of enmity."


    He briefly pushed his consciousness into the ring and checked its content. He wasn''t surprised to find that space inside was huge and there were already a few chests full of crystal-like coins in there. The family was paying him for everything he had done for them in the competition.


    He expected there to be bugs and tracking devices in the ring, whether Firestar was aware or not, and that worked just right for his plans. It was better to give the Asshats, who would undoubtedly be informed of him after his performance at the competition, a false sense that they had him in their hands.


    Firestar laughed awkwardly. "I feel like I should be the one saying those lines." He paused for a second. "And there''s one last thing I''d like to trouble you with."


    "Ask away," Aaron said.


    "Please, take a mage and a warrior with you, anyone you want. Train them for the family, without any hidden intentions behind it."


    This time, he said it in a clear voice, showing that there really weren''t any hidden intentions behind the request. Or at least, that''s what he wanted Aaron to think.


    In the years he had learned under Firestar, he had learned to read the man quite well. Firestar didn''t always speak somberly when he was lying to Aaron, but even when he was trying to hide his lies, Aaron could instantly tell most of the time.


    It didn''t seem like Firestar was lying this time and Aaron considered the request for a moment. Training people could be a good investment. In the future, he would need subordinates he could trust, and grooming them now would be the optimal choice.


    On the other hand, they could become a burden. He had a greater objective on sight, saving the entire universe, and he might have to abandon his followers if it became either him or them.


    He wouldn''t bring people with him just to abandon them, that just wasn''t who he was. However, any situation that would force him to abandon them would likely be fatal to him too, anyway. But he had to be realistic; it might happen.


    He almost said no to Firestar''s request, but decided to at least check the people available to him before replying.


    Check Level, he thought, and tooltips appeared over the heads of everyone. Many of them, however, had more than one level displaying on their tooltips.


    Level: 5 ¡ª Five Stars Mage (6 ¡ª Notable Mage)


    Level: 2 ¡ª Two Stars Mage (4 ¡ª Four Stars Mage)


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Mage (7 ¡ª Champion Mage)


    ...


    Thanks to his energetic sensitivity, which allowed him to feel the amount and density of mana inside their mana pool, he easily concluded that those people were hiding their levels. Their true levels were the ones inside parenthesis and he could see through most of their veiling spells and treasures.


    As for how he could pierce through their veiling spells, it was simply due to his soul grade, the average of his three soul attributes. If a veiling spell was grade 2 and his soul was grade 3, he could pierce through it. Likewise, many illusions and miscellaneous spells could be pierced with the system''s help if one''s soul grade was high enough.


    Naturally, he could see through most veiling spells even without the system''s help, but he didn''t completely disregard it, since having a means of double-checking things couldn''t hurt.


    All that was interesting but wasn''t enough for him to want to bring one of those people with him. That''s until he noticed a peculiar warrior.


    Level: 4 ¡ª Four Stars Warrior


    The man looked to be thirty years old and had a strong build like most warriors. He was wearing a plate armor and carrying his helmet under his arm as a sign of respect. He was behaving like all the warriors around him and there was no parenthesis in his level tooltip.


    However, Aaron could feel that the mana in his body definitely made him a level 5 warrior instead of the level 4 he was seeing!


    That attracted Aaron''s curiosity. Who was that man? Why he was hiding his level? How was he able to hide his level even from Aaron''s high soul grade?


    In his long life, he had learned to respect other people''s secrets, which had a double meaning.


    First, he shouldn''t try to forcibly take people''s secrets away from them, just like he had never questioned Firestar about his circumstances. If people wanted you to know about something, they would tell.


    The exception was when such secret was being used to hurt you. In Firestar''s case, Aaron simply wasn''t strong enough to force the old man to talk and he was concerned about the consequences of pissing Firestar off if he tried.


    Second, people with interesting secrets were usually the right people to keep around. Their circumstances were usually beneficial for those around them in the long run.


    Aaron pointed straight at him. "You. Come here."


    Confusion appeared on the man''s face but he obeyed. "Yes, First Elder?" He said respectfully, with a kind of deep gratefulness for Aaron visible in his eyes.


    "If I take you with me, are you willing to have your Martial Foundation erased and start from scratch?" Aaron asked.


    "Yes, First Elder!" He immediately replied, which surprised Aaron a little.


    "It will be a painful process. You might die," Aaron warned.


    "I''m willing, First Elder!" Mark insisted with the same excitement as before.


    Aaron nodded. "Good. What''s your name?"


    "Four Stars Mark, First Elder!"


    "Well, Mark, take your armor off. Being too protected will hinder your growth. From now on, you''re forbidden from protecting yourself using external tools unless I give you explicit permission. Better yet, leave your weapons back too. I''ll provide you with one when I deem you ready."


    "Yes, First Elder!" The man almost yelled and with looks of adoration on his face, he immediately removed his armor, becoming half-naked in front of everyone.


    Aaron laughed, he already liked the man''s readiness and decisiveness, but he didn''t want to walk around with a naked dude to his side.


    He ordered Mark to put some clothes on while taking his things into his spatial ring. Mark quickly left, returning a few minutes later wearing clothes that were much like black Army uniforms from Earth. In the Fire Continent, they meant the man was a warrior, albeit a poor one without money to buy a proper armor.


    As for the mage that he would bring with him, none of them seemed too interesting until he saw a familiar face on the corner of his eyes. It was a twenty-two years old girl, Sara, his former teacher and an undercover agent of the family.


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage


    Her growth was incredible. She had been a level 4 when he met her, level 5 five years ago, and now she was already level 7. Considering she had already left pubescence when he first met her, that growth speed was impossible without the family dumping resources at her.


    However, what made him take better notice of her wasn''t her growth, but the way she was looking at him. There was absolute hatred in her eyes, which disappeared into an innocent look as soon as he focused on her.


    "Did I wrong Sara somehow?" He asked Firestar.


    "Sara?" He sounded confused. There were many Sara''s in his kingdom, after all. He followed Aaron''s sight. "Oh, Elder Champion Sara." There was sadness in his voice. "I can''t get into details, but we wronged her greatly and now we''re trying to fix it. You shouldn''t take her with you, she''ll try to harm you even if we order otherwise."


    Aaron thought about it for a few moments, pondering at which problems could be solved by spending resources to increase one''s level, at why it was relevant enough to say that she would attack him even if ordered otherwise, at what was so terrible as to make even Firestar feel bad about something.


    There were a few possibilities, but the worse one made Aaron pity the girl greatly. He decided to check on it.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Soul Eye!


    Soul mana infused his eyes and changed the way he saw the world, allowing him to see everything that contained the soul element, people''s souls included. Or at least, the humanoid white parts of their souls that were anchored to their bodies.


    There were many twisted souls among the mages, most of them due to them using soul spells wrongly and thus hurting their souls, or due to experiments gone awry. Sara''s soul, however, was a monstrosity.


    It was deformed to the point that even Aaron couldn''t recognize it as a humanoid''s soul. At first look, it felt like it had been compressed into a ball then stretched in random points. Parts of it had been removed, other parts had been twisted, and it looked oily. It was gruesome.


    There were many reasons for a soul to turn into that, but the solution was always the same, strengthening her soul enough so the changes could be reverted without killing her. That would only be possible on level 9, Ascender, but due to how twisted her soul was, it would already be a great achievement if she ever achieved level 8, Eminence.


    It was noble of the family to dump resources into her to save her, but as things were, she would die of soul stress in less than five years.


    "I''ll take her," Aaron said. It wasn''t a logical decision, it was just something that had to be done. How could he claim to want to save the universe if he ignored someone who needed his help like that?


    As for her becoming a burden, she was at least a Champion Mage just like him. After he taught her, she would become somewhat useful and if she was even a little grateful for him saving her, she would also become a good subordinate he could trust with the right missions in the future.


    Not to mention that as long as his plans went well and he arrived at his first destination, a city to the west, he wouldn''t have to worry as much about Mark and Sara being a burden.


    "Are you sure?" Firestar asked with clear hope in his voice. Although he wasn''t certain about the full extent of Aaron''s capabilities, he knew that the boy was a genius and had a good chance of finding another solution to her issue.


    "Yes," Aaron said.


    "Thank you," the old man said with relief. "Take care in your journey, I wish I could help you more."


    Aaron smiled. That was the closest Firestar had come to outright warning Aaron about the dangers ahead.


    It was time for Aaron to trigger the next phase of his plan.


    "You may think I''m a possessed kid for all the incredible things I showed and did, but I''m not," he said, remembering what the man had said about Sara suspicious when he introduced Aaron to the other two Ascenders. "I''m a human and I love the family as much as the next guy. Rest easy, for I won''t bring doom upon you. Who knows, I might even help somehow."


    That was his way of saying he was aware of the dangers, that he knew the Asshats would come for him, and that he was prepared.


    He was also saying that he saw the family as a potential ally, but more than that, he expected the family to prove itself before he saw them as more than that.


    And finally, he was saying that if something good happened to the family in the near future ¡ª which would happen if his plan worked ¡ª, then Firestar better credit it to Aaron!


    Without waiting for a reply, he entered the luxurious carriage that had been prepared for him. It was pulled by four majestic white horses. "Elder Champion Sara, you''ll be attending me as my maid." He almost yelled to the distant girl in the crowd, who looked surprised at being called out. She looked at Firestar, and when the old man nodded, she obeyed. "Mark," Aaron continued, "you''ll be my butler and driver. Let''s go."


    There would be no bodyguards. He had made sure of that, else his plan wouldn''t work.


    Sara entered the carriage, Mark took the driver''s seat, and they started their long journey towards the Three Towers.

 Chapter 10 - The Immortal Crusade

    Chapter 10 - The Immortal Crusade


    The Royal Palace was located in the center of the capital. Leaving it, the carriage traveled the wide and well-maintained Imperial Road ¡ª an interesting name since Aaron had never heard about any empire ¡ª, which lead straight to the city gates and beyond.


    It was Aaron''s first time leaving the royal area of the capital, and even so, he had only visited two places in there, his father''s mansion and the Royal Palace. And yet, he couldn''t care less about the city or his newfound freedom.


    What sights hadn''t he seen before in his very long life? How could he not have gotten used to isolation after staying confined many times, either by choice or otherwise?


    Instead, he had more important things to care about. He had learned that true names were even more powerful than he thought. It was past time he changed his.


    Change Name, he thought and the World''s Writ appeared before him.


    Name Change


    Are you sure you want to change your name?


    You can only do so <u>once</u> in your lifetime.


    Yes.


    Name Change


    Please, state your new name.


    Aaron Earthborn.


    That was a name that properly told who he was, where he came from, and where he wanted to return once he was done with this universe. It was also something no one would be able to guess.


    Name Change


    Are you sure you want to change your name to ''Aaron Earthborn''?


    Yes.


    Name Change


    Your name has been successfully changed.


    Show Full Status, he thought, to check if it had really worked.


    Full Status


    Name: Aaron Earthborn


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion


    Elements: All


    Body: 1


    ? Strength: 1 | Speed: 1 | Resistance: 1


    * Soul: 9


    ? * Mana: 7 | Control: 10 | Resistance: 12


    He nodded satisfied when he saw his new name.


    It was also always good to see his progress in the soul control attribute in the last eleven years, from level 7 to 10. Due to the knowledge he had accumulated on mana and the experience working with it, he now had much better control over it.


    After changing his name, he also changed his rate of mana usage. The day the first Mana-Sucking Ring was put around his finger, he had decided to wait until his mana pool was ninety percent full, then use his mana until his pool got to ten percent full. Rinse and repeat.


    Now, while he still needed to keep using his mana before pubescence hit, so his mana pool could grow faster, he also had to be careful about situations where he might need to use more mana than ten percent. What if he got into a fight and died because of lack of mana?


    Thus, he changed his limits, ninety-five percent for the upper limit, ninety percent for the lower limit. The change would make things a bit annoying, as he would have to pay more attention to it, but it was certainly better than risking death.


    It was a shame that there was a time limit to the prepubescent bonus. He was still wondering if he should try to bypass it. Multiple mages had failed before but maybe he might find a way to keep the bonus for the rest of his life. Now, that would be great.


    He left his musings to see Sara sitting in awkward silence in front of him. Aaron nodded at her, then started to think about mana and magic.


    <hr>


    Sara looked at the boy in front of her. She could hardly believe he had selected her to come with him! What were his intentions?


    She didn''t trust him one bit, even though she had been present when Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar told all agents about his conclusions on the boy just last night.


    "Most likely, he isn''t possessed," Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar had said. "A demon strong enough to hide from a Quasi-Overlord wouldn''t choose to possess such a young boy. Even if it did, it wouldn''t expose its intelligence the way the way Aaron did. Moreover, it would take too good an actor to pretend to learn magic the way he did beside me. I''m most confident about him being just a rare genius."


    She, herself, had checked only to fail to detect anything wrong. Of course, it didn''t necessarily mean that he wasn''t possessed, it might just mean that the demon in his body was strong or cunning enough that not even the Ancestors could detect it.


    She would pay utmost attention to it during this trip. Demon-possessed individuals had brought great calamities to the world in the past and it was everyone''s duty to kill anyone who was even suspected of being possessed. She was tempted to put a knife in the boy''s neck right now.


    However, her orders, secretly given when Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar nodded to her in a specific way before she left, were to protect his life at all costs no matter what.


    Yet, she had to wonder if everything wasn''t a hidden plot inside a plot. What if Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar had influenced the boy to choose her, a Champion who specialized in assassination, to deal with him if the need arose?


    She had learned early that the Ancestors were like gods and their wisdom knew no bounds. She had to think hard about the nod Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar had given her. The nod to ''protect him at all costs'' was very different from the nod to ''be ready to kill him at any moment,'' but what if she remembered incorrectly? What if the boy was really a demon and had influenced her to see things incorrectly so he could deal with her in some other way?Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    She wondered if orders to kill him would be waiting for her when she reached the next city with an outpost of the Valdian Family.


    She sighed, took a book from her spatial bag and started reading. She kept aware of the location of her knife the whole time.


    <hr>


    Mark had only one thing on his mind: protecting the boy.


    The mages had ruled the world for too long, using their mighty spells to subdue all opposition. Now, the boy had given the warriors a way to stop being lackeys and becoming rulers of their own destiny.


    It didn''t matter if he was a demon or an Immortal, or if he was going to destroy or save the world. In him lay the path for the warriors, in him lay their hopes of freedom.


    Mark had checked around after he became strong enough; even the best martial arts used to increase a warrior''s level still killed one in three warriors before they could reach the Two Stars level and one in five before they could become Three Stars Warriors. He had never even heard about warriors leveling up without risk of dying.


    Just by removing the risk of death for young warriors in training, Aaron was already worthy of every warriors'' reverence. Mark wasn''t stupid and could guess that it wasn''t a coincidence that mages could level up without health issues, while warriors had to risk death or crippling. He had thought about it for a long time and it was evident that the mages had always limited the warriors, to keep the latter strong enough to be useful but weak enough to not become a danger.


    But the boy... His words in the competition, which had been recorded in secret, were now engraved in Mark''s heart.


    "Now, the question would be", the boy had said, "is the family bold enough to allow its warriors to become that strong? It would bring forth a great change to the family''s structure. Junior believes it to be beneficial, especially since mages could also use these skills to improve their bodies without the previous risk of death, so only laziness would allow the warriors to overtake the family."


    His words were much bolder than the boy himself seemed to realize. Mages training their bodies except if they were lazy? Speaking something like that was akin to lunacy! A mage family with warriors in key positions? That was downright heresy!


    But the boy had not only ''theorized'' it. He hadn''t said it in an academic way, merely stating the possibility, like many idealistic but weak mages had before.


    No. He had been direct.


    "Junior believes it to be beneficial."


    He believed in the warriors. He believed in a different world order.


    Word had spread. By now, in less than a day, most of the warriors in the continent should''ve heard it, including the pigs who spied for the mages, which meant everyone with any kind of connection should''ve heard the boy''s words.


    More importantly, every warrior should''ve seen the Valdian Martial Arts. Mark knew for a fact that Firestar had detected the recording device and was aware of the warriors'' news exchange network. And yet, the Quasi-Overlord had allowed the recording to be sent to the world.


    For that alone, the Valdian Family had earned respect from all the warriors and enmity from countless mage families.


    And it was all because of the boy.


    No, not ''the boy.'' Mark had to stop thinking like this.


    His name was Aaron, and he was the Herald of Change.


    <hr>


    A woman was sitting on a throne made of blueish transparent mana stone, looking bored at the hologram that came from a recording box. The hologram showed a boy talking about martial arts.


    "These are just the musings of a smart but naive boy," the woman said.


    "Queen Overlord Bloodvine, please, don''t be so quick to dismiss¡ª" A man, who had been bowing low since he entered the room to present the recording, tried to speak but was interrupted by the woman.


    "Enough!" The woman said. "I gave my verdict. Leave at once."


    The man suppressed a sigh and obeyed, leaving dejected.


    The woman kept looking at the boy, the same one whom her brothers and sisters at the Immortal Crusade had reported about. It seemed even Quasi-Overlord Firestar, who had allowed such recording to leave his family for unknown reasons, had his doubts about him being demon-possessed or not and had sought help from the Crusade.


    Then again, after the boy had shown so much knowledge in public, it would be suicide for him to not seek the Crusade, so he might just be pretending to care.


    There was even the possibility of Firestar being much more devious than he seemed. All Overlords in the continent were at least honorary members of the Immortal Crusade, which objective was protecting humankind, and all Ascenders also received direct orders from the Crusade even though they weren''t actual members.


    Now that the Crusade had been tipped off about the boy possibly being a demon, all the Overlords and Ascenders in the Fire Continent had been ordered to leave him alone until the investigation concluded, as the law dictated.


    Such law was in place to protect humankind from false accusations, to prevent people from using the might of the Crusade to get rid of their enemies, and she herself was a supporter of it, even though it could be abused sometimes. Of course, if she confirmed that Quasi-Overlord Firestar had been using the Crusade for his own gains, she herself would order the boy killed after the investigation concluded, be him a demon or not.


    She snapped her fingers and an Ascender seemed to materialize in front of her in a kneeling position. The person was covered by shadows as if darkness itself was warped around his or her body.


    "Yes, my Queen?" The shadow said with a genderless voice.


    "Go check if the boy is a demon or not," she ordered.


    "At once," the shadow replied and disappeared from where it had been kneeling.


    Bloodvine then used her best spell to completely seal the throne room and looked intently at the recording that was still playing at the center of the room.


    She had never even heard of a spell to tear muscles and strengthen it with mana, but the boy had shown its spell signature and it was simple enough for her to confirm its purpose, if not its efficacy. If the spell really worked, such ways of strengthening the body were something never seen in the Fire Continent before! It was akin to something the people from the hidden Heretic Continent would''ve devised, except it worked for mages too!


    As the Warden of the West of the Immortal Crusade, she was well aware of how the Fire Immortal had done his best to prevent the warriors from getting strong. The boy was lucky that the only level 11, Saint in the continent, the Emperor himself, had long since retired to his chambers for closed-door meditation and study, and no one had any way of contacting the Fire Immortal beside him. The Imperial Regent was a level 10, Overlord who also had to obey the Immortal Crusade, so he could do nothing against the boy either, not even in the Emperor''s stead.


    Well, he could, but then he would be in such a political shitstorm that his head would end up rolling no matter his backing.


    She stood up and did some warm-up exercises as the recording instructed. Power was always tempting, and riskless power was even more so. By now, every mage who wasn''t a complete moron would be training in the Valdian Martial Arts.


    Be the boy a demon or not, he was indeed what the warriors had been calling him, the Herald of Change.


    <hr>


    Aaron was forced out of his musings when his head hit the wooden door of the carriage.


    "Ouch!" He complained.


    Hearing him, Sara immediately stopped reading, put the book away and looked anxiously at him.


    "What?" He asked, massaging his head.


    "Aren''t you going to teach me?" She asked.


    Although she hadn''t heard the boy''s discussion with Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar when the boy was about to depart, everyone had been forewarned that the Ancestor would ask the boy to take a warrior and a mage from the family with him. Supposedly, there was much to gain from learning magic from him.


    As much as she didn''t trust the boy, she had standing orders to grow stronger. If she was careful about what he taught her, she would be safe enough.


    He suppressed a sigh. As much as he wanted to improve his Myriad Arts at his every waking moment, he had told Firestar he would train her, and anyone who was spying on him would be expecting him to do so. "Yeah, yeah. Tell Mark to stop the carriage, I must talk to you both."


    Sara obeyed, using a small slit at the carriage''s front to relay the message to Mark. The carriage stopped and soon, the three of them were standing to the side of the paved Imperial Road that crossed the continent.


    Aaron put his hands to the back and looked at Sara and Mark. "I can teach you both, but you must properly accept me as your master first," he said. "Kowtow three times and call me Master, then start acting respectful and all that."


    He said it in such a nonchalant way that both people looked at him as if this was a joke. Still, Mark eventually obeyed, putting both knees to the ground and bowing low enough for his forehead to touch the ground. He repeated the gesture three times, then said, "Master."


    Aaron nodded. "Good. You?" He asked Sara.


    She had her eyes open wide. "Are you serious?"


    "Do you remember me ever joking around?" He asked.


    Her eyes widened even more. Thinking about it, she realized that no, even when he was a small kid, Aaron had never played around. She felt a chill go through her entire body and a single word left her mouth in a whisper. "Demon."


    Aaron rolled his eyes. He had no patience for such people, even if he intended on helping them. "Narrow-minded. If you don''t work on your attitude, I''ll have to ask you to leave." He waved his hands.


    That''s when Sara attacked. There was no warning, only action.


    Aaron felt the mana disruption inside her a moment before a wind blade came his direction, aiming for his neck. A surprise attack at such close range might take the life even of an Eminence, to say nothing of a Champion like him.


    Sadly for her, even if Aaron hadn''t been expecting an attack from her from the beginning, he was always ready to protect himself.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Space ¡ª Seventh Barrier!


    Space itself twisted when he used the spell, hardening and creating an invisible barrier in front of him. The wind blade hit it hard, creating small cracks in the barrier that immediately regenerated.


    Sara was already moving to get some cover while grabbing her knife and casting a new spell. Aaron counterattacked with two spells of his own.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Double Elements: Earth, Space ¡ª Seventh Chains!


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Mana Lockdown!


    The earth from the ground rose in the form of chains, with a glint on them that revealed the reinforcement of Space mana. The chains almost instantly coiled around Sara''s entire body, making her stop in place. At the same time, Soul mana from Aaron entered her soul, cutting her access to her mana pool, making her as weak as a klutz.


    As she fell in a daze for being cut from her mana pool, her eyes were wide in disbelief.


    Had she been defeated just like that?!

 Chapter 11 - The Old Days

    Chapter 11 - The Old Days


    Mark''s heart was beating furiously.


    The Herald had almost died right in front of him without him being able to do anything! And then, while Mark''s mind was still registering the attack from the girl, the Herald had already defeated her!


    Genius wasn''t enough to define the Herald.


    ''Monster'' was more like it.


    <hr>


    Sara couldn''t believe what had happened.


    Had she just been defeated by a twelve-year-old less than a second after launching a sneak attack on him?


    She, a secret agent of the Valdian Family, trained on espionage and assassination from an early age?


    Actually... Had he cast three spells at the same time? And much faster than she could cast a second spell?


    What grade of control was that?!


    What kind of power was that?!


    Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar had said the boy was good but not that good!


    Amid her shock, she suddenly felt calm. Such control and power... It confirmed it to her.


    He was indeed a demon.


    Her decision to disregard her orders and kill him had been the right one. She only regretted that she had failed, not that she had tried.


    She could die in peace.


    <hr>


    Aaron looked at the chained girl in pity. The way her face went from emotion to emotion, as if she couldn''t hold a thought for too long, was a symptom of her twisted soul.


    Simply put, she was crazy, and probably could only be calmed down when the Prime Energy of the world made her submissive towards the family Ancestors. That''s why Firestar had said she would attack him regardless of any order he gave her.


    He would heal her soon enough, but for now, he had to keep her soul like that as to avoid suspicion. Also to avoid suspicion, he had to give a reason as for why he wouldn''t kill her. He didn''t know who might be watching right now, or if the Asshats might look into the past exactly where he was standing to understand the reasoning behind his actions.


    "Mark," he said.


    "Yes, Master?" The man replied.


    "First, get up." The man obeyed. "As my disciple, I''ll be teaching you about the old days, when people lived with honor and believed in increasing their own power to achieve their dreams instead of depending on others." Of course, he was referring to his own experiences in his old universe. He had found no such ideology in this world yet. "These teachings will also contain wisdom about how you should deal with your enemies and the first lesson you''ll receive in that regard is to never let an enemy alive if you can help it."


    Sara paled a little at that but said nothing. Mark looked at her with an understanding expression.


    "However," Aaron continued, "the first and foremost rule of the old ways is to always follow your heart. By following your heart, you have the potential of walking much further in the path for power. It doesn''t matter if your heart is wicked or pure, evil or good, as long as you follow it, your potential will be greater. And every time you do something contrary to what your heart asks of you... You''ll be only limiting yourself."


    He made a paused. "Of course, potential isn''t everything. Even with potential, you might still do something you shouldn''t when following your heart and may end up dead. For instance, someone much more powerful than you might take offense at your actions and kill you. But even then, you''ll be able to face failure head-on, because you did what you knew you should. Look at Sara, here. You probably can''t see it, but I can read her like a book, and she doesn''t regret trying to kill me. She wished she had succeeded, obviously, but she''s ready for her death."


    Sara''s eyes widened at Aaron''s revelation of being able to read her so easily. Then, it made sense to her. He was a demon after all, with plenty of life experience, not just a kid.


    Aaron continued. "Follow your heart above all else. But, of course, know that if your heart happens to be evil, I''ll slay you without thinking twice, for that is what my heart tells me to do." He smiled.


    Mark paled. The way Aaron looked at him made him feel as if a beast was looking at a lamb it was about to prey upon.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    "My heart also tells me I shouldn''t kill her," Aaron continued. "She''s just a frog in a well, incapable of understanding things beyond what she knows, including my existence. Her intentions were somewhat good, so I''ll give her a second chance."


    "Somewhat good?!" She yelled, suddenly angry. "I''m trying to save humankind! And the only second chance I need is for killing you!"


    "What you call humankind is just a travesty of nature," Aaron said disdainfully. "But if the little I read about demons is true, killing them is good any day, so that part of your intentions is good." That was added just in case the Asshats were watching. That would give them food for thought.


    He willed it and the earth chains surrounding her body crumbled into dust. "There''s no need to bind you physically, but until the day you ask for forgiveness and I believe you, your magic shall remain sealed. You can leave and try to free yourself in another way or you can keep serving as my maid." Considering her situation, he could guess what she would choosebut still had to pretend to not care about her after she had tried to kill him. "Think about it in the corner while your betters talk."


    He turned to Mark. "You''re a liar."


    "M- Master?" Mark stuttered.


    "You''re a Five Stars Warrior," Aaron said, "not a Four Stars one as you made Firestar believe."


    Mark''s eyes widened even more, then he kneeled on the ground. "Master, please, punish me!"


    Sara almost fainted from the surprise. She had barely recovered from being let free when she found out that one of the most powerful warriors in the family was actually even stronger than imagined but had been hiding his true power!


    Aaron waved his hand. "I''ll let this deception slide because it wasn''t directly targeted at me, but don''t you ever lie to me or there will be consequences."


    "Yes, Master!"


    "I said I would erase your Martial Foundation. Are you ready for it?"


    "Yes, Master!"


    "As I said before, the process will be quite painful and I can''t guarantee your safety. You might become a cripple, incapable of treading the warrior path forever." He sighed. "As a mere Champion, I simply can''t use a spell strong enough to make things easier for you."


    That was what Aaron hated the most about levels in this world: a mage could only use spells at the same level as him or below. It didn''t matter if he had enough control to use a higher leveled spell, it was simply impossible to use it.


    Even trying to exert a bit of extra control on a lower level spell to get more out of it was impossible. Each spell level had a limit on how much mana and control they could require, and the moment he went above the threshold, the spell would be considered of a higher level. Then, if Aaron''s level was lower than the spell level, the spell would simply stop being cast.


    Unfortunately for Mark, removing his Martial Foundation painlessly and without any risks would require Aaron to be able to cast a level 9 spell, only available to Ascenders. Even the level 8 version of the spell wouldn''t help much more than the level 7 version he could cast.


    "It doesn''t matter, Master!" Mark said.


    Aaron nodded. "Good, spoken like a true warrior. I can erase your martial foundation right now. Are you ready?"


    The warrior made a fist with both hands. "Yes!" He replied without hesitation.


    Satisfied with the resolution he saw in Mark''s eyes, Aaron used the spell.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Life ¡ª Seventh Martial Foundation Clearing!


    The first functional difference between mages and warriors were the way they accessed mana. Mages could freely access their mana pools and grow them, but warriors had to ''increase the mana suction'' from their bodies to get more mana from their mana pool.


    The second difference was that while mages cast spells in their souls, warriors used their martial abilities inside their bodies.


    Since the body was material, not ethereal like the soul, using martial abilities in the body changed it. As muscles grew stronger and bones more resilient, the martial abilities'' signatures that were used over and over ended changing the body structure in a fundamental level, making it impossible for a warrior to use martial abilities that weren''t compatible with their martial arts after they reached the Two Stars level.


    The best skills to perfect one''s strength, speed, and physical resistance were closely tied to martial arts, and so, these bodily-imbued signatures were called a martial foundation. That''s also the reason warriors'' skills were called martial abilities.


    As much as the martial foundation prevented the warrior from using different martial arts to grow stronger, it was also the martial foundation that kept the warrior''s body enhanced. It allowed their bodies to store mana almost like a secondary mana pool, and that mana fueled their martial abilities.


    As for clearing one''s martial foundation, the best example would be comparing the body to clay. Martial arts would wet the clay, change it, add a bit more to it, and dry it little by little, in a process that took years. The body was the clay, and the new format and volume would be the martial foundation.


    Clearing the martial foundation was the same as twisting the clay back while removing all the extra volume that had been added to it throughout the years, but in a single moment. The extra bit of clay ¡ª muscles included ¡ª also had to be removed because it was part of the martial foundation, and unlike the body, it couldn''t be reversed to a clean state because it was already created in an ''impure'' form.


    Thus, when Aaron''s spell entered Mark''s body and started changing it back, blood immediately poured from all the man''s pores. He gritted his teeth, refusing to yell, but moans could be heard now and then.


    Blood and bits of flesh started leaving the man''s body through his mouth and other apertures. Mark was visibly becoming thinner by the second, a terrible smell coming out from him. Sara moved away with a disgusted face, holding back the bile in her throat.


    Eventually, he finally fainted in pain, on a pool of his own blood and filth.


    A few minutes later, the spell was finally done with Mark. Aaron used a new spell to check on his condition.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Life ¡ª Seventh Health Check!


    The man was fine. He would be sore and weak for days, and only after a month would he be able to train again, but there was no hidden injury in his body.


    The martial foundation cleaning had been a success!


    Now, for another type of cleaning...


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Air ¡ª Seventh Clean!


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Air ¡ª Seventh Levitate Object!


    The filth that covered Mark was blown away in an instant, then he floated into the carriage.


    Although the average mage would use lower leveled versions of their spells whenever they could to save some mana, Aaron had such a great control, that it didn''t matter to him. He could simply input less mana into the spell when its full potential wasn''t required, using his control to modify the spell signature as needed.


    After placing Mark inside the carriage, he looked at Sara. "So, are you leaving?"

 Chapter 12 - Ambush

    Chapter 12 - Ambush


    Sara only laughed anxiously. "Leave? And go where? Back to the family, so I can tell Ancestor Quasi-Overlord Firestar how I disobeyed his orders and tried to kill you on the very first day of our journey? Or maybe I should try to run from the royal family in their own country, ignoring that they have eyes and ears everywhere?"


    Aaron shrugged. "I didn''t ask about your difficulties. You brought this upon yourself; you''ll get no sympathy from me." He lied. "My question was simple: are you coming or not?"


    "I''m coming, of course," she said. "But I''ll try to kill you at the first opportunity! You won''t corrupt me, demon."


    He nodded. "You can drive the carriage until Mark awakens, then." He walked to the vehicle but stopped at the door to look at her. "But make no mistake, Sara. If you try to kill me again and fail, I''ll kill you. Also, if you slow the carriage on purpose or bring it out of the right course, I''ll ditch you and leave you to your own luck."


    With that, he entered the carriage, closing the door behind his back. Once inside, he put Sara in the back of his head and resumed his musings about mana and magic.


    <hr>


    Sara was thoughtful as she stepped on the driver seat. She couldn''t stop thinking about how he hadn''t killed her.


    She knew demons were cunning and their ploys ran deep but even the most merciful mage would never forgive someone who had tried to go for his life like that. Even if he killed her, it wouldn''t be considered evidence against him!


    Moreover, despite being cunning, demons were also a proud race. He had said that killing demons is good any day, something no demon had ever said. The great human sages believed that it was because if demons went back to the Depths having said something against their race, things would get very unpleasant for them.


    And yet, maybe he was just such a powerful demon that he didn''t have to worry about reprimands. That no matter what he said, he would still receive no harm because no one could do anything to him in the Depths.


    Yes, that must be it! That had to be it! No other possibility could quench the hatred in her heart.


    Steeling her heart against the demon''s illusions, she took the reins and set the carriage on its course.


    <hr>


    Aaron finally finished a spell he had been working on for a coupleof days. It was his own version of the thing he missed the most: spiritual sense. By using Spiritual Energy, one could cover the surrounding area with a blanket of spiritual ''particles'' and be aware of everything the blanket touched.


    Sadly, both the Mana Sense that mages commonly used, and the spell he designed, Omnisense, required level 8 control, and thus the spell was a level 8 one. He couldn''t use it before becoming an Eminence.


    He sighed and looked through the window. It was nighttime already, but Mark was still sleeping and would do so for the next two days. The horses didn''t stop running, nor would they. They had been magically enhanced and could run for a whole month without stopping.


    Aaron wondered when the attack from the nearby countries would come. That was the whole reason he was in a shitty carriage without any bodyguards instead of taking a more expensive or secure means of transportation.


    He had made himself a target too valuable and vulnerable to be ignored.


    To begin with, there was the possibility of using him as a hostage for his captors to get one of their kids to be nominated in his place. Nominations for the scholarship were expensive goods and he was like a walking golden ticket.


    Then again, the nearby countries might also consider a hostage situation too difficult to hide and just try to get him for his knowledge instead. The capabilities he had shown in the competition would tempt those who needed better magic.


    Moreover, mortal enemies of the Valdian Kingdom who didn''t want the Valdians to get a kid to be taught Three Towers might simply send an assassin.


    Finally, anyone who wasn''t poor enough to want his nomination, wasn''t weak enough to want his knowledge, and wasn''t desperate enough to weaken the Valdian Kingdom might still send people at him as a principle, just because he was too defenseless.


    Whatever the reason that made him get attacked, people would do it regardless of the Asshats'' orders or anger. But exactly because the Asshats would investigate, only disposable agents that couldn''t be linked back to their senders would come.


    Definitely, no Overlords would come, for they were too powerful and too rich to need to do anything to Aaron. No Ascender would come either, for they were too valuable a resource in the nearby countries. As for Eminences, maybe a few might be sent by a slightly more powerful nation than the Valdian Kingdom. But the bulk of his attacks would be from Champions and those below.


    Aaron loved this part of his plan.


    By killing his attackers, he would weaken whoever had sent them, even if just by a little. If too many countries sent attackers and he managed to kill them all, the power balance in the entire region would tip in favor of the Valdian Kingdom, which was part of the reason he was doing things like this.


    And another more important part of the reason was that blood was pumped at the idea of getting a proper fight.


    No one could reach the top of the world without struggling, not even him! If he couldn''t fight his way out of the incoming battle, he would have no business thinking about saving the universe itself in the future.


    He waited anxiously for the violence that would soon come.


    <hr>


    Eleanor''s mission was simple: capture the boy before the Crusade had a chance to get to him. He was supposedly a Champion Mage in his own right, a genius at that. He was also only twelve years old.


    "Fucking waste of my fucking time," Number Two, a bald Champion Mage, said.


    "I feel you, my man," Number Three, a middle-aged Champion Mage, replied.


    Eleanor, who was Number One, mentally agreed with them. Furthermore, while the two of them were only wasting their time, she was also being humiliated. She, an Eminence, had been sent to capture a kid!The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Worse still, she would likely be disposed of after the operation was complete. And since she had been commanded by using her true name, there was nothing she could do about it other than obey.


    Even so, she had her pride and was trying to decide if she should feel happy for the company of the Champions in her last moments or feel further humiliated for nine mages being sent with her as if she wasn''t enough.


    Eleanor finished searching one of the fifteen corpses on the ground. Well, at least Number Four to Number Ten had been useful as cannon fodder to get rid of the competition. It felt like everyone wanted a chunk of the boy. Even the families, clans, groups, and lone mages who should be too weak to face the Valdian Family had come just because the boy was so poorly protected.


    And that was the icing on the cake of her humiliation. She was protecting the boy for the Valdian Family before she could capture him. It made her feel absolutely furious!


    Suddenly, she felt a carriage enter the area covered by her Mana Sense, about two thousand legs away. She could vaguely tell that there were two mages at about the Champion level and a klutz at the border of the area she could feel. It might or might not be the boy''s group, who could have gotten rid of the warrior in favor of the klutz for some reason.


    Anyway, she would have to check. She had nothing better to do anyway.


    "We''re moving," she ordered as she started walking to intercept the vehicle.


    Number Two spat on the ground. "Fucking waste of time," he repeated.


    <hr>


    It was the fifth day of travel. Mark was driving the carriage again, and Sara had chosen to stay outside with him instead of inside with Aaron.


    Aaron didn''t care either way. He was focusing on his own improvement when he felt the ambient mana becoming just a bit denser than it should and way too uniform. Mana density wasn''t always the same in all places, differing slightly every few tens of meters.


    It could only mean that either a formation or a spell was affecting the area. It could be something as simple as a mage''s Mana Sense or a much more complex trap.


    "Stop the carriage," he ordered and left it as soon as they obeyed. "Get to the side, duck, and do nothing," he said while climbing over the carriage with a levitation spell.


    They were in a huge plain, he could see far and wide, and yet, there was no one to be seen. But he trusted his mana sensitivity though and wouldn''t just accept what his eyes were seeing without even double-checking.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Space ¡ª Seventh Spatial Wave!


    All around him, space distorted, looking like a wave as it expanded in all directions. The wave eventually passed through an area that seemed empty, but the outlines of three people appeared for a split second. They were about nine hundred meters away from him.


    They might not be enemies but no person with good intentions would approach in stealth and keep it up without providing explanations even after being detected.


    Aaron smiled. Fun had finally arrived!


    Since they were nice enough to come to him, he would do the honors of opening the festivities.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Quad Elements: Fire, Earth, Air, Gravity¡ª Seventh Meteor!


    From the ground around Aaron, Sara, and Mark, the soil flew upwards like multiple streams of earth. The stream increased in speed and size until big chunks of earth came out of the ground too. The streams converged into a big deformed mass way above Aaron.


    A huge stream of flames seemed to come out of his body and fly directly at the mass of earth, filling all empty space, melting some rocks and wrapping everything into a ball of fire and lava.


    Before the attack even completed, the devastation on the ground was already huge since the ''meteor'' had about a hundred meters in diameter. The process took about ten seconds, during with the previously invisible people left stealth and magically raised the ground to create shields to protect themselves.


    They still hadn''t tried to talk, which made Aaron sure that they were enemies. He silently thanked them for the opportunity to fight.


    He calculated that their small earth burrows, which contained some elemental mana beyond Earth mana to them that he couldn''t feel with precision on this distance, should be about enough to protect them from his meteor.


    It was a big letdown. He wanted a more exciting battle than that! So, he increased the stakes.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Quad Elements: Fire, Earth, Wind, Gravity ¡ª Seventh Multiple Meteors!


    Earth and fire moved, and two new meteors appeared on the sky. By now, Aaron was standing on a kind of pillar in the middle of a big crater.


    The three meteors rose higher and higher but even so, they remained so hot that Aaron had to cast a cooling spell around Sara, Mark, and himself to not burn to death!


    Meanwhile, the defenses from the three people remained the same. That was stupid on their part, making Aaron suspect foul play. They might be moving underground, leaving the burrows behind as a distraction.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Earth ¡ª Seventh Geoscan!


    Small tremors left his feet, covering the entire region, magic converting whatever information the tremors brought back to something he could understand, almost like how bats did. As he suspected, he found that one of the mages had burrowed herself deeper into the ground than the others. She was done moving though, likely satisfied with how well protected she was that deep.


    With a devious smile, he made the meteors fly even higher, so they would have a good distance to accelerate, then linked them to the three burrows using Gravity mana. When dealing with such huge masses, making them ignore inertia and move fast enough was the hardest thing, but he overcame it by increasing gravity between that place and the meteor by a hundred times!


    That being said, the Meteors weren''t the best way to attack, he was only using them to show weakness; they were too slow to cast and way too ineffective mana-cost-wise. Although, from what he was seeing from Mark and Sara''s flabbergasted faces, opening the battle with three meteors might have been the wrong way of showing weakness.


    But it was already done. The meteors started rotating fast. Pushed by the wind and pulled by gravity, they descended at a fast speed! One after the other, they shot towards the three burrows.


    At the same time...


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Earth ¡ª Seventh Pillar Sling!


    From below the deeply-burrowed mage, earth rose at a ridiculously fast speed, shooting her upwards. The earth below her went through ground level and kept pushing, turning into a huge pillar that shot her into the air. A moment later, before she could do anything, she was hit by the incoming meteor.


    The first meteor hit first the mage, then the ground with a huge explosion that made everything tremble. Despite the distance, fire and debris would hit Aaron and his two subordinates if not for a simple bluish mana shield that he erected around them.


    The Meteor spell was not just a big ball of earth, fire, and molten rock, but it also had explosive properties!


    The second meteor hit the ground and exploded while it was still under the effects of the first, a ball of fire covering the area and expanding to all sides. Its explosion fueled the first explosion, closely followed by the third meteor.


    The scene in front of Aaron was apocalyptic. A fiery smoke mushroom rose to the sky and the shockwaves intensified so much that he had to add space element to the shield around him and his people.


    Dust filled the place and for a few seconds, he could see nothing. Worried about the fog of war in the mid of a fight, he used the Clean spell.


    This time, he added much more mana to the spell than when cleaning Mark. A strong wind left his body and instantly blew the dust away, revealing a huge crater filled with pockets of embers. Some of it alighted with fire again as the wind blew. The ground in the crater was so deformed that it was impossible to see anything in there, much less his enemies.


    Aaron frowned. The Omnisense spell would be so useful to detect his enemies now! Alas, he had to find creative ways of doing so. In such a deformed ground, the Space Wave spell wouldn''t do, for it wasn''t flexible enough to move up or down after leaving his body. The ground was also too chaotic for the Geoscan spell to work. So, he went with a third spell.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Dual Element: Wind, Water ¡ª Seventh Spying Drizzle!


    Coming from his general direction, droplets of water appeared and covered the whole area around him, including the crater. It was like a very thin mist had appeared out of nowhere in the region. He could feel everything the water touched and was surprised to find only scattered limbs from all three enemies. Not even one of them had been able to adequately protect themselves from his weak opening!


    Only one of them was still moving, surprisingly the woman he had shot at the meteor, but she had lost both legs, one arm, and was breathing with great difficulty.


    Aaron''s frown intensified. That was it? Was his fight already done?


    "Don''t move," he ordered Mark and Sara, placed a spatial shield around them, and went to check on his prey.


    The moment he made his first step, he felt the woman''s eyes widen and her head fall to the side. The mana disruption in the area disappeared at the same time, showing that its source had likely been her Mana Sense.


    Aaron shook his head. How could she faint from fear after feeling his approach? He had only used three meteors!


    What kind of weaklings were sent in black ops these days?

 Chapter 13 - The Truth

    Chapter 13 - The Truth


    Still using the cooling spell to protect himself from the heat, Aaron approached the survivor, seeing that her injuries had been magically sealed before she fainted. He recognized her as the one he had shot from the underground to meet the first meteor head on.


    This close, he could feel the density of her mana and the size of her mana pool, which allowed him to estimate her level. But doing so made him even more unsatisfied with his battle. Just to make sure that he wasn''t getting her level wrong, he used the Check Level Heavenly Skill.


    Level: 8 ¡ª Eminent Mage


    He had been right. She was an Eminence. But how the hell was she so weak, then?


    Unfortunately, she wasn''t in conditions to be interrogated. Fortunately, he could directly search her mind to find out.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Memory Search!


    In this world, the consciousness was merged with the soul and thus, the soul element was used to interact with it. Since she was an Eminence and he a Champion, Aaron wouldn''t have been able to search her memories if she had been healthy, even if she was unconscious.


    However, her willpower had been shaken to the point that she had fainted from fear after suffering a crushing defeat and losing three limbs. Her psychological state was fragile at best and his spell found no resistance at all as it crept into her soul.


    Suddenly, his vision shifted. He found himself in a dark place, looking at scattered crystal fragments that shone brightly. It felt like being amid a starry sky. Each shard contained a memory, and his spell allowed him to know the general content of each one just by looking at them.


    Every single memory of hers was there, bare before him. Searching one''s memory was something so invasive that Aaron would never do it except under extreme situations, or when the target of the search had tried to do something evil enough, attacking him for greed included.


    Anything else wouldn''t be enough for him to go to such extremes as to search someone''s memories, because he knew that if he didn''t draw the line somewhere, he would turn into something he definitely didn''t want to.


    The first issue was that searching someone''s memories was inebriating. The feeling of power, the knowledge that everything she was could be found out by him with his mere willing of it, that he would know every little secret about her, all her dark fears and all the right buttons to push to get her to do things he wanted her... That was a delightful sensation, something unique and impossible to explain.


    The second issue was that after becoming an Ascender, he would be able to absorb all of the target''s memories in a few minutes. It was like living an entire life, the good and the bad, in an instant. Feeling an entire life worth of sensations and emotions in such a short period of time was also something indescribably intoxicating!


    He had known of many people who lost themselves to memory searching, living like addicts, always looking for a good fix. And that was only the beginning. After enough memories had been searched, they would lose their own personalities and turn into mindless beasts incapable of doing anything but ''consuming'' other people''s memories.


    It didn''t matter how great his willpower was, he hadn''t lived so long by putting himself at needless risk. Even now, as he started looking around for the reason behind her weakness, he made sure to ignore all other memories.


    He soon found the shard containing the memory of their ''battle,'' if one could call it so. He focused on it his vision shifted again. This time, he found himself inside her body, seeing what she saw, hearing what she heard, feeling what she felt, and thinking what she thought.


    <hr>


    She was invisible, a thousand legs away from the kid, waiting in ambush when he stopped his carriage and climbed on it. That stupid action of his allowed her to confirm that he was indeed the one she had been looking for!


    The first thing he did was using a strange spell that seemed to distort space. Apparently, he had felt that something was wrong in the area and was trying to force possible enemies out with parlor tricks. Yes, parlor tricks, for even if he was using the elusive space element, there was no way it could affect her that far away.


    That thought died a second later when she felt a spell slam in her body and temporarily bring her out of stealth!


    Incredible! To comprehend Space Laws at all was already a great feat. To do so at such an early age, confirmed that he was indeed a genius as stated in her orders!


    As for his usage of a rare long-range spell, it was only slightly surprising. The Valdian Kingdom was much stronger than her own Czernian Kingdom and seeing that they had provided such a precious spell to a child was only further proof of that.


    But he was just too green. Yes, he had detected her, but what could he do now? Run away? If he did so, she would pursue. Come close to fight her? If he did so, he would have to show another trick to force her out of her own invisible spell, else he would have to fight a stronger and invisible enemy!


    While she was thinking about that, he cast another spell that made her amazed yet again. She could barely believe a twelve-year-old could create and control such a big meteor. That spell was certainly stretching the limits of the Seventh level!Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    She immediately made the earth rise with a spell, creating a shield around herself, while also casting another spell to hide underground, thus rendering his meteor absolutely useless. By doing so, she limited her Mana Sense''s range, making it impossible to feel the meteor, but she only had to wait for it to hit to know it was safe to leave her hideout!


    She almost pitied her target for wasting so much mana in such a useless attack. The Valdian Kingdom indeed had good long-range spells, but he was simply too inexperienced to open the battle with his strongest moves.


    But then, when she thought herself safe underground, came fear and confusion. The very ground she stood on shot her upwards so fast and so unexpectedly that she didn''t even have time to react before she was already being launched on the air.


    She couldn''t understand. What exactly had happened? Who was attacking her? Was it the boy? If so, how could he even use such a precise spell on such a great distance?


    While she was still trying to get her bearings, the huge meteor hit her face-first. She barely managed to create a shield in time when two new meteors came crashing at her, and their power wasn''t something she could defend properly against, not in such short notice at least. It wasn''t just their impact that was powerful, they also exploded in magic and fire, turning her surroundings into mayhem, trying to crush and burn her alive at the same time, all the while leaving her incapable of differentiating up from down.


    Instinctive use of magic allowed her to keep her life, but she lost three of her limbs and found herself almost completely out of depth. In time, she managed to cast a spell to stop the bleeding and clear her mind, finding herself in the middle of a burning crater.


    With the dizziness gone, she understood what had happened and felt desperate for a moment, just before realizing not everything was lost! Not only could her limbs be regrown later, but she also had over half her mana pool remaining! Meanwhile, such a big spell capable of creating three meteors had surely exhausted the boy! She only had to get rid of the Champion with him, then she would¡ª


    Her line of thought stopped when her Mana Sense felt the boy move. But he wasn''t fainting from mana exhaustion like she expected. No, he was breathing regularly and walking with ease, and even had a mana shield on.


    He had made her little more than a ragged doll but hadn''t lost a single breath to do so.


    Her arm and her legs were gone, but he didn''t even look excited about it.


    He had attacked her without mercy, but the look on his face was of annoyance as if she was a bug he had had to squelch before moving on.


    To her, he didn''t look like a kid anymore, but an enormous monster, a merciless bringer of fire and death, a reaper of death walking on earth.


    And he was coming for her.


    Sheer terror filled her mind and then there was only darkness.


    <hr>


    Aaron withdrew from the memory, even more confused by what he found. What the hell was that about long-range spells being rare?


    He quickly perused all the memories from the time she received the orders to capture him until now, watching them in a kind of fast-forward mode that still allowed him to get most of the information from them.


    What he found made him astonished and hungry for more information about this world''s mages! As fast as he could, he checked the memories of her being educated on the world and in magic, to discover what was considered common sense.


    He ended up positively stunned.


    The world... It was vastly different from what he had learned in the family''s library. Firestar was much more protective of information than Aaron had guessed. Knowledge of many things had been hidden from him, especially the social structure of his continent and how much power the mages in the region wielded.


    The world was divided in seven continents, of which the Fire Continent was the third weakest. That, Aaron had known. What he hadn''t known was that each continent was controlled by an Immortal.


    The very name of the Fire Continent came from the Fire Immortal who controlled it. It was also he who funded the Fire Empire that ruled over the entire continent. The continent was many times the size of Earth and there were a large number of nations in it, but every single one of them was a vassal of the Empire. They either pledged allegiance to the Empire or they were extinguished through brute force!


    The ruler of the Empire in the Fire Immortal''s stead was a level 9, Saint, called Emperor Saint. There had been many Emperor Saints in the Empire''s history, but they had always been mages, all appointed by the Fire Immortal himself. The Fire Immortal''s bias towards mages didn''t stop there; only mages were even allowed in the Imperial Capital. Moreover, imperial law dictated that no warrior was allowed to hold any official position in any nation under the Empire.


    While he had guessed that there was a higher power above the Valdian Kingdom, he hadn''t expected an empire that spanned the entire continent to be so meddlesome in the affairs of small fish like his family. He had pissed a foe greater than expected by helping the warriors, but he would be damned if he would get panicky because of it.


    He had defeated much stronger foes from a much worse position in his past lives.


    More interesting than the Fire Empire though was that he finally knew the correct name of the Asshats: The Immortal Crusade.


    The Immortal Crusade had been funded by the Fire Immortal and a few other Immortals with the sole purpose to find and eradicate demons by any means necessary.


    ''Titanic'' wasn''t enough to describe its power and influence. Every Overlord in the continent was automatically considered a member of the Crusade and had to respect the responsibilities and limitations that came with it. All Ascenders had to obey its orders without question. Everyone else just tried to stay out of its way.


    There were other large organizations in the Empire, filled with people that were nominally part of the Crusade but actually competed against it in the many areas where the Crusade''s laws were vague. Still, even the most powerful of those organizations, the Temple of Time, only had less than half the power of the Crusade.


    Fortunately, he had properly investigated the Asshats by asking Firestar and had expected them to be that big. His very plans depended on the Crusade name being great enough for everyone but the desperate to respect its rules.


    While the Crusade was after him, he would be safe. When the investigation concluded though, even if he was found innocent, the Empire would send people to hunt him down the next second due to his words promoting warriors in the competition. He wasn''t sure of what would happen then, but he wasn''t optimistic.


    The good news was that the West Region, where he was at, sucked big time. The Fire Empire was divided into four regions, and the West Region was the weakest, save for a few areas like the Three Towers. The Cage hadn''t been messing around when it said Aaron would be reincarnated as royalty of a minor country, focus on minor.


    Such weakness was easily perceived. In the Eminence''s memories, he had witnessed the great number of people she had killed to protect her mission. She wasn''t a bad combatant, but she was still ways off of what he considered an adequate way for a powerful Eminent Mage to fight.


    Even without taking into account her lack of long-ranged spells, which he now knew to be a rarity in the West Region, she was too introspective, her reflexes were too slow, her casting speed was outrageous, and her decision making was questionable.


    Such weakness had an explanation. Resources and mana itself were too scarce in the West Region. The most powerful people had emigrated to more fertile lands, taking their good spells and secrets with them, leaving only the unschooled, the weak and the stupid behind. Aaron''s own Valdian Family was an example, needing him to point out the possibility of using steam to make a better healing formation, something extremely simple to think about.


    As for why he hadn''t been told any of this, the answer was simple:


    Plausible deniability.

 Chapter 14 - Looting

    Chapter 14 - Looting


    In hindsight, it was quite obvious. Everything Firestar had hidden from Aaron was information that shouldn''t be given to enemies: the political organization of the Empire, geopolitics, intelligence on the Immortal Crusade, how the Empire worked, the limits of power from the mages in the West Region.


    Firestar hadn''t been sure if Aaron was a genius or a demon, thus he had allowed Aaron to learn the most he could, while also avoiding critical information just in case Aaron turned out to be a demon, and thus, an enemy of all mankind.


    As long as he could say he hadn''t taught Aaron anything but basic magic, he should be able to save his own life and safeguard the family if the Crusade came for them.


    Small details further pointed at Firestar being wary of Aaron, like when the Ancestors had made the second kid''s questions harder than the first kid''s in the competition so that the latter would be the one battling Aaron. If Aaron showed himself to be a murdering demon, they would most likely grab the second kid and flee, leaving the first kid as a sacrifice for the greater good.


    Firestar''s decisions made perfect sense as the ruler of an entire family whose decisions impacted the lives of hundreds of people, plus an entire kingdom to boot, but much more interesting was that Firestar had done for Aaron despite trying to save his own ass.


    Almost from the very beginning, he had made it clear to Aaron that information would be withheld, and just that would be enough for him to suffer in the hands of the Crusade. Of course, he had done so in a way that wouldn''t be found out unless a more thorough investigation was done, one that involved reading his very mind.


    He could also have denied Aaron''s requests, from creating the time-slowing formation to asking Aaron the right questions at the competition, so his deniability would be even more plausible.


    Some might argue that Firestar had done his best to help Aaron for his own interests. The man had spoken about geniuses who destroyed their families in revenge, after all, and he might have done his best not to piss Aaron off just in case he didn''t turn out to be a demon.


    However, outside the times when Firestar apologized to Aaron and when he had shown worry for Sara, there was a single reason that made Aaron believe Firestar was in fact on Aaron''s side.


    Aaron was alive.


    Firestar could have killed Aaron after the competition and made the whole Crusade''s investigation and the Empire''s anger disappear while profiting from everything Aaron had done for the family. Hell, he might even be rewarded for it! Instead, Firestar had paid for Aaron''s help with a lot of money and warned him to be careful.


    Although Aaron didn''t completely trust Firestar and never would, he still was a bit thankful to the old man.


    Anyway, all that was good and all, but it was time to move on before the Crusade got to him.


    About three hours after entering the Eminence''s mind, he left it, took a simple knife from his ring and cut her throat without hesitation.


    He felt nothing as he took her life. She had tried to kidnap him, and it was only proper that she got killed instead. She wasn''t a troubled soul like Sara, she was an enemy through and through.


    Done with his investigation and enemy disposal, it was time for pillaging.


    <hr>


    Sara had watched everything without believing it. She realized now that the reason demons were so dangerous was because they defied common sense.


    Aaron was a Champion, but he had enough control to create three huge meteors on the sky and control them at the same time! The meteors themselves were impressive Seventh level spells taken to their utmost limits!


    But there was more. It wasn''t rare for mages to take a roundabout route around the Spell Level Equivalence Law. Even though one was limited to casting spells at one''s own level, for those with a high enough mana control, it was possible to cast more than one spell at the same time, thus increasing the output power without increasing the spell level directly.


    And yet, the demon''s control was so great that it could cast six Seventh level spells at the same, the three meteors, the cooling spell, the shield around them, and the spell that shot an enemy at a meteor.


    That was simply inconceivable!


    As if it wasn''t enough, he could even attack people at a distance of almost a thousand legs! And he could do it all without fainting from lack of mana or even looking like he was tired!


    If she had any questions about him being a demon before, now, she was absolutely sure.


    After doing all that, the demon walked to the sole survivor of the devastation he had caused and just stood there, looking at her like a beast looking at its prey.


    What was he doing? Deciding if he should eat her body? Was he already consuming her soul? Or maybe he was waiting for her to wake up, so he could torture her?


    He had been at it for hours already. She even considered if she should try to kill him while he was distracted, but she doubted the warrior would allow it. She had seen how he had looked at her as if daring her to do something to the demon just so he could get rid of her.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    He might just be a One Star Warrior now, yes, but she was as powerless as a klutz with her mana pool blocked. Despite her training on physical combat as part of being an undercover agent, he had probably been better trained in it than her, being a warrior and all that. Even if she tried to kill him before going for the demon, he was always positioned in a way that would make stealthy killing him impossible, and a single scream of his would likely wake the demon up from his musings.


    Finally, the demon simply killed the poor Eminence, instead of ripping her ribcage open and taking her heart or something just as nefarious. Sara felt relieved, and even more so when the demon did something as simple as looting the dead. It made him look human, even though she knew the truth.


    What he did next though, made all the hair in her body stand.


    He came back.


    <hr>


    Aaron''s Spying Drizzle was still active and he focused on feeling mana-infused items in the area. Soon enough, he found all the treasures around, removing them from what had remained of the three corpses.


    In total, he found thirty-three undamaged spatial rings and some more that had been destroyed by the meteors. After searching the Eminence''s mind, he knew that most of the rings had been stolen from the corpses of people they had killed in the previous days while waiting for Aaron. There existed banks in this world, but mages seldom trusted others with their possessions and the safest place to put their most valuable treasures was in their own spatial items.


    The first thing a mage usually saved money to buy was a spatial bag if he was poor, or a spatial ring if he was a person of means. Bags, although considerably cheaper, could be easily stolen or even misplaced, but rings were much safer.


    People had tried using different objects as spatial treasures throughout the course of history, from hiding items inside the skin to using accessories other than rings, but each option came with some issues.


    At one time, hiding things in the body became popular, but it also became common for people to be kidnapped and cut open in search for their spatial items. As for accessories, earrings, chains around the neck, or bracelets, they could be easily pulled ¡ª and when they couldn''t, a thief cutting one''s neck or hand wasn''t unheard of.


    Rings, on the other hand, were safe against falling on their own or forgotten somewhere, couldn''t be simply pulled by a running thief on the streets and didn''t get in the way as some necklaces might, and could still be easily removed if needed without harm to the user. Even if a cruel thief cut the finger off, it was still better than being beheaded or losing a limb.


    Of course, many people still hid their spatial items in different ways, but rings were way more common.


    As for these three attackers, they had emptied all other kinds of spatial items from their dead enemies and taken only the rings with them. First, because rings were easier to carry, second, because rings were more valuable, and third, because none of the items they took on the mission would end up as theirs, being confiscated by their bosses instead. Therefore, they had no incentive to carry a big bag of spoils around, as spatial items normally couldn''t be placed inside each other.


    He checked all the rings and found a lot of money, about two dozen Mortal and Magical Items, and two Artifacts. Him being a Champion, Magical Items or lower had no effect on him anymore. At least there were the two Artifacts; a pair of black leather boots, and a pair of black leather gloves.


    Check Item, he thought.


    Check Item


    Name: Boots of Speed


    Grade: Lower Artifact


    Check Item


    Name: Gloves of Dexterity


    Grade: Lower Artifact


    Treasures grades were divided into Mortal Items, Magical Items, Artifacts, and Relics. Finding Lower Artifacts for free wasn''t too bad. Treasures of that grade were scarce even in his own royal family.


    The treasure''s names were somewhat descriptive, but he wanted to know more about what they did, so he used a spell.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting, Artificing, Formation Mastery ¡ª Dual Element: Space, Soul¡ª Seventh Item Analysis!


    Delicate strands of Space mana left his body to involve each item, allowing him to see and feel their minute physical details. Meanwhile, Soul mana entered them to analyze them from the inside, including any hidden formations they might have. He felt and studied them for a few instants and found out exactly what they did.


    Both items increased their wearer''s speed depending on the grade of the wearer''s own speed attribute. If the wearer''s speed grade was equal to or lower than 3, the speed grade was increased by two. If it was graded between 4 and 6, the speed grade was increased by one.


    Beyond that, the Boots of Speed allowed the wearer to jump higher, while the Gloves of Dexterity increased the wearer''s control over their hands to the most precise movements. As a mage who could fly and an experienced man with perfect control over his body, both effects were lost on him, but the extra speed was nice.


    Aaron put the treasures on, starting with the boots.


    Attribute improved!


    Attribute: Speed (Body)


    Grade: 1 > 3


    A surge of warmth came from the gloves, filling his body and changing it. To check on his new speed, he moved his arm as fast as he could.


    Immediately, there was a loud crack followed by a piercing pain.


    His hand had moved in a blur, too fast for his bones to resist due to his grade 1 body resistance. His muscle and skin were pierced by the broken bone, which was now visible.


    He had expected that and smiled as he used a simple healing spell to put his arm back in place. A moment later, the injury disappeared as if it had never happened in the first place.


    It wasn''t strange for such a treasure to exist despite its danger. It was much easier to craft a treasure that only improved a single attribute, and if self-injury was an issue, the wearer could simply use another treasure to improve their body resistance, too.


    Even knowing the certainty of injury if he used the extra speed, he still put the gloves on, too, because there might come a situation when it was better to break bones while moving quickly out of danger, instead of staying still and dying.


    Attribute improved!


    Attribute: Speed (Body)


    Grade: 3 > 4


    He felt his speed increasing again, making him capable of moving as fast as a Four Stars Warrior. From that moment onwards, he had to make sure not to move faster than his body could withstand. An average person would kill themselves if they were in Aaron''s place, but he had gone through similar things before, finding himself much more powerful one instant than the other, and was experienced in how to control his body to the last muscle with perfect precision.


    To finish with his business in the crater for now, he organized the content in the rings, choosing three rings for himself which held all valuables. Then, he passed a string through all the remaining rings and wore it as a necklace under his robes, not caring for the danger of a thief pulling it and running away. His wealth was all in the rings on his hands anyway.


    Finally, he walked back to the carriage.


    This little stop had been enlightening and profitable, but it was time to continue with his plans and his journey.

 Chapter 15 - Covering the Tracks

    Chapter 15 - Covering the Tracks


    The final part of his plan was disappearing at the right moment, and the right moment was now.


    Even before reading the Eminence''s mind he had already expected that he couldn''t permanently vanish from grasps of the powers that be, their power likely too great for that. Now that he actually knew how powerful they were, he was proven right. But he could delay them enough from getting to him to at least do some much-needed shopping in the first city he needed to get to.


    First, he freed the horses, as they could be used to track him. Next, he threw the carriage in the fiery crater, together with all his clothes and every single thing Mark and Sara possessed.


    Before removing everyone''s clothes, he placed dark shields around them to keep their privacy, but it didn''t prevent Sara from yelling in anger. The best reaction was from Mark, a veteran warrior who had seen thousands of naked men in the Army and hundreds of naked women in the brothels in his lifetime: he blushed and covered his sensitive areas.


    Aaron pitied them a bit for being forcibly unclothed like that, but their clothes might have been bugged, and he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. No time for explanations.


    He also threw the ring Firestar had given him in the crater, with everything inside. He wouldn''t resort to destroying so much wealth if he hadn''t looted a pile of cash, but since he could do it, it was best to be extra cautious. He couldn''t be sure about which items inside were being used to track him, not with the old man being a Quasi-Overlord and having access to much better spells than him.


    As for the rings and items he had just acquired, while they weren''t exactly safe, they were never meant to get to his hands and he had seen in the memories of the Eminence that she had already checked on everything, even the items in her subordinates'' possession, finding it all clear. While she was a weak fighter, she was still an Eminence with access to better spells than him.


    Just to be sure though, he focused his consciousness into to ring and scrutinized everything inside with his best spells. He found nothing wrong.


    Of course, Overlords or Saints might still have placed tracking spells on some items that could fool him or the Eminence he had killed, but people that strong could get to him regardless of tracking spells anyway, so there was no reason to become poor because of it.


    Finally, he summoned ten new meteors and threw them at the possessions, completely destroying everything he had thrown in the crater and making the latter much larger and deeper.


    He took new clothes from a few rings for him, Sara, and Mark, made the three of them float, created a bubble of invisibility around them, and used two last spells in the area.


    The first spell was to guarantee there was nothing to see there in the present.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Fire ¡ª Seventh Absolute Scorching!


    Scorching flames covered the entire crater, melting rock and metal and turning everything else, including the body parts and treasures into ashes.


    The heat was so powerful that he had to push much more mana into his cooling spell, else he burnt to death!


    The second spell was to guarantee there was nothing to see there in the past, either!


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Time ¡ª Seventh Moment Obliteration!


    Time shattered like glass in a one-kilometer range for a split second. It didn''t permanently cease to exist ¡ª he was not powerful enough to do that even if he wanted to ¡ª, and no damage was done to anything in the area. But that single moment was obliterated from the Rivers of Time.


    Any level 8, Eminence with access to Time mana could easily see what had happened in an area up to a couple hours by looking back in time, with level 9, Ascenders being able to go as far as hundreds of days. Due to the shattering though, seeing anything past that point became impossible.


    Of course, someone strong enough might be able to fix things but that would require at least an Overlord talented in Time Laws. Creation and healing were much harder than destruction in all facets of life, and magic wasn''t any different. Furthermore, fixing time was much harder than healing or fixing just about anything else.


    With that, as far as anyone but Sara and Mark knew, his tracks ended in that place. It was time to make them disappear, too. They were the last two ''things'' Firestar had touched, the last liability Aaron was ''carrying'' with him.


    Not by coincidence, the way of doing that was the same way of treating Sara''s soul.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting, Formation Mastery ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Soul Splitting and Binding!Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    A pain that couldn''t be described coursed through him as two bits of his soul were removed and placed in two of the spatial rings around his neck. Souls couldn''t live outside an adequate container and the spatial rings were terrible vessels. Due to that those bits would dissipate in less than a year, but they would do for now.


    He put the rings on his followers'' fingers and used another spell to permanently glue the rings in place.


    Because he wasn''t sure of his enemies means, this was the best solution he could come up with. By doing that, his own max grade soul resistance would disrupt any spells that were attached to their names, bodies, or souls. It wouldn''t be enough for them to pass up as dead, but it should be able to make them untraceable.


    Due to that world natural laws, his soul resistance couldn''t be used to prevent someone from using his real name to control him, but it was the perfect counter when dealing with someone else.


    He used the Soul Eye spell and confirmed that Sara''s soul was turning back to normal. It had been healed of its afflictions and just like a slime, it was slowly reverting to a humanoid''s shape.


    A moment later, his usage of the Soul Eye spell to check on things proved useless; Sara fainted from the shock she received from having her soul suddenly healed. Her soul would take about a day to recover fully and until then she would remain unconscious.


    He nodded satisfied. All he could do had been done. It had been very costly, with less than ten percent of his mana remaining. The soul splitting, especially, had increased the time he would require to become an Eminence by a month or so, but it was better than having people by his side that could be traced or possibly even controlled at any time.


    "We''re leaving," he said.


    Covered by an invisibility bubble, they flew away at Aaron''s will.


    <hr>


    In a room made of stone, a man was bowing in front of a lit fireplace.


    "Your Greatness," the man said. "We lost track of the boy."


    There was no answer, but a moment later, the man lost control of his body and it entered the fireplace by itself. His true name had been used far away from there, he simply couldn''t resist the order that had been given.


    Nor did he want to, for he had been ordered before to feel utmost pleasure in obeying every order given to him by his master, and the very chemicals in his body obeyed.


    As he was burned to death, his eyes rolled in ecstasy from sheer delight.


    <hr>


    After leaving the area, Aaron flew invisibly for a few hours, only stopping when he reached a forest. It was high night by then, the three moons shining brightly on the sky.


    "We''ll camp here," he announced as he and Mark landed, while the unconscious Sara was kept floating to his side. His mana pool had been nearly exhausted after covering his tracks and flying invisibly had taken care of the little left.


    "Master, that''s a bad idea," Mark immediately said.


    "Why?" Aaron asked.


    "This is the Unleaving Forest," Mark said as if explained everything.


    Aaron knew what the place was named. In his studies, he had seen maps of the continent with only a few inconsistencies so he wouldn''t learn about the Fire Empire, and even those had been properly corrected during his search in the Eminence''s memories. "So...?"


    Mark looked around anxiously. "There is something evil in this forest, Master. It started when klutzes told tales of their animals disappearing in the area. Then, whenever their women or kids spent the night in here, they would also disappear and-"


    "Why in the Depths would women and kids spend the night in a forest?" Aaron interjected, pointing at the obvious irregularity in the story.


    The warrior shrugged. "These are the tales, Master. But Duke Eminence Ninefingers sent a group of warriors to investigate and they never came back. That''s when the place was named Unleaving Forest."


    The Unleaving Forest was located in the West Dukedom, under the rule of Duke Eminence Ninefingers.


    "So...?" Aaron repeated.


    "So, no one spends the night in here. I heard that mages came to investigate too, only to never be seen again."


    Aaron considered his words for a moment. He had lived long enough to know better than to ignore such tales as baseless superstition, but he also knew that he shouldn''t take them at face value.


    "We''ll stay here, at the edge of the forest," he said. "That way, if I detect anything suspicious, we can still run," Aaron said.


    "Do you mean outside the edge, Master?" Mark''s voice was almost shaking by now.


    "No, inside," Aaron insisted. "Someone might use a wide life-scan spell to try and find us, but in the forest, we''re protected by the abundant life around us. Of course, they might still have a spell good enough to track us despite that, but we''d be in a better position to fight or flee in the forest, instead of in the open. Either way, staying here is the best course of action."


    Mark wasn''t happy about it, but he stopped arguing.


    Aaron took two sleeping bags from one of his rings and threw it on the ground. Seeing the questioning look on Mark, he explained: "They are for you and Sara. I''m a Champion Mage, I don''t require sleep. Instead, I''ll focus on regenerating my mana while keeping watch over us." He made Sara float into the sleeping bag. "Get to bed as well," he ordered Mark.


    Still uncomfortable about the place, the warrior got into the other sleeping bag and was soon snoring loudly. Despite his fear, he was a war veteran; he knew better than to pass up an opportunity to rest and could sleep anywhere, anytime.


    Aaron put both people out of his mind and used the two most cost-effective spells for a night watch.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Triple Element: Darkness, Light, Ice ¡ª Seventh Heat Darkvision!


    The spell made his eyes completely ignore darkness and see everything within it, while also easily seeing heat signatures.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Double Element: Life, Soul ¡ª Seventh Enhanced Senses!


    Vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, and soul sensitivity; his senses were highly enhanced. Such a state would tire him if kept for long periods of time, but he could keep it for a few days without worry, to say nothing of a night.


    He sat on a nearby rock. Even with most of his focus on the forest around him, he still allowed some part of his mind to focus on creating new spells, on improving what he knew, and on trying to better understand how mana interacted with spells and everything else in the world.


    <hr>


    It awoke.


    It was happy, its domain safe. No intruder had dared to come for a very long time. It could go back to-


    It stopped itself from sleeping again.


    There.


    It could feel them.


    Intruders had come.


    A piercing scream reverberated through the entire forest as it moved towards its prey.

 Chapter 16 - Night at the Unleaving Forest

    Chapter 16 - Night at the Unleaving Forest


    Hours came and went.


    Aaron heard Sara''s heartbeat increase and her eyes open. She didn''t leave the sleeping bag though, so he just let her be. She certainly was confused and had to get her bearings before interacting with other people.


    The night was going by uneventfully. When his mana recovered enough, he cast a simple smelling spell to make nearby beasts think a powerful beast had laid claim to the area he was camped at, thus making them too fearful to approach. It wasn''t a long-term solution but it would do just nicely for a single night.


    Then, around midnight, he heard the infuriated screech. It was acute and piercing, just like something out of a horror movie.


    The scream tried to affect his mind but was brushed off without an issue due to his max grade soul resistance. Mark woke up, his and Sara''s minds also unaffected thanks to the soul-protecting rings they were wearing.


    Simultaneously to the mind attack, Aaron felt Space mana lock the forest not too far away, caging the three of them inside. He looked at the direction the screech had come from and saw the heat signature of a huge swarm of flies a moment before he could see them in the dark.


    He snorted at such a weak attack.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Double Elements: Fire, Air ¡ª Seventh Burning Barrier!


    The air distorted right in front of the swarm and alighted in fire. The swarm hit it head on and it was like an iceberg hitting the surface of the sun. It didn''t matter how big the iceberg might be, the heat from the sun was absolute, disintegrating all that dared near it. Likewise, it was already a miracle that some of the flies even flew close enough to touch the flaming wall before being incinerated to dust.


    Similar swarms of insects came from all around him and he dealt with them all the same way, soon finding himself surrounded by a circle of flaming walls.


    The smell of burnt flies covered the place, followed by a new screech coming from the distance, even angrier and much closer this time.


    "M- Master! Let''s leave!" Mark yelled in fright.


    "We can''t," Aaron said calmly as he made the fire walls disappear.


    "Why?"


    "This is the scream of a wraith," Sara spoke with a helpful tone to it, to the surprise of Mark, who didn''t expect her to be helpful. "Wraiths can create illusions around their prey, making them unable to leave."


    "Half-right," Aaron said. "This is indeed a wraith, but it went further and locked space around us."


    "What?!" Sara exclaimed, surprised. "Are you telling me..." She didn''t complete the sentence. Aaron nodded, and she paled.


    Mark looked from one to the other. "What? What is Master saying?"


    "Corrupted catharsis," Aaron explained. "Wraiths are ethereal soul-like beings born from the anguish, fury, and unwillingness people feel when they die. Those feelings are also what keep the wraiths alive; if they let go of them, they die. And yet, wraiths which manage to forgive and forget, and thus destroy themselves in the process, are commonplace in the world, or we would long have been overrun by all the anguished remnants of the dead." He smiled sadly, remembering something from his past life, but quickly shook his head to focus on the matter at hand. "There are also some wraiths that cleanse themselves of their negative emotions, but before they disappear, they get attached to a new thing, a territory. They bind themselves to a place and start feeding on living beings to strengthen themselves. If they aren''t killed quickly, not only do they get strong over time, they also gain absolute control over the territory. We, and by ''we'' I mean the Yarns School of Magic, call such process ''corrupted catharsis'': a name that makes no sense, for a being that shouldn''t exist."


    "It''s a demon," Sara said but there was doubt to her voice. It almost sounded like a question.


    Aaron rolled his eyes. "The unschooled masses believe domain wraiths to be demon-possessed wraiths. It makes absolutely no sense at all, but some people just like to see demons everywhere they go."


    "How powerful is a domain wraith?" Mark asked.


    "Like any other beast, it depends on its level. Judging by the power of its mind attack, it should be no stronger than a Champion or a weak Eminence," Aaron said as he detected hundreds of animals surrounding his group.


    "Are you sure, Master?"


    "No, but I''m confident enough."


    "If the mystery of the Unleaving Forest is just a beast, why didn''t Duke Eminence Ninefingers kill it?" Mark''s warrior mind seemed to be in perpetual search-and-destroy mode; find a target and kill it. The possibility of a beast being beneficial to the environment didn''t even cross his mind.


    Aaron smiled. "Wraiths aren''t considered real souls, but they still react the same as souls, magically speaking. Alchemy, formations, artificing, puppeteering... Whatever requires souls can use wraiths with the added bonus of not having the moral issues that using real souls brings. The more powerful a wraith, the better material it''s considered. My guess is that Ninefingers is waiting for it to become a bit stronger, and thus, a bit more valuable before coming to harvest it. It isn''t different from raising cattle, really." He had seen such a situation many times before, even though allowing people to enter the forest and feeding the wraith was immoral, to say the least.


    From all around them, animals started appearing. Foxes, wolves, tigers, rats, birds, squirrels, and many more.


    "See how there''s no One Star Beast or stronger among the controlled animals?" Aaron said. "The wraith isn''t strong enough to control beasts yet." The main difference between common animals and beasts was that the latter had access to mana. "With this, I''m sure it''s only at the Champion level, or maybe even as weak as a Notable despite its unusually strong mind attack." He looked ahead and smiled. "We''ll know soon enough."


    The animals parted, and a specter approached floating from between them. It was a horrid creature, with a removed jaw, hanging tongue and visible organs all over its body. Its arms and legs were broken and twisted, and it was impossible to tell if it had been a man or woman when alive. Wraiths kept the appearance their bodies had had at the moment of their death, and if it had suffered so much, it was no wonder it had a strong enough resentment to become a wraith.


    Check Level, Aaron thought.


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Beast


    Despite Aaron''s calm and what he had told Mark, dealing with domain wraiths was incredibly tricky. Having control over the forest gave the wraith an incredible advantage, and if it was already strong enough to create spatial barriers, not to mention its powerful mind attack, it was on the verge of becoming a Champion.


    If he didn''t kill it swiftly, it would likely flee into some powerful beast territory. While the wraith couldn''t control beasts, if both the wraith and Aaron entered a beast''s territory, the beast would prioritize Aaron as a target because the wraith was somewhat in sync with the forest itself.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Then, the wraith would have enough time to consume enough animals to break through to Champion level, and then, it would be too costly for Aaron to do anything to it as long as it kept its distance. Domain wraiths were that annoying to deal with in large territories like the forest, and it would require him a few days to kill a Champion Domain Wraith alone at his level.


    Once more, his lack of power frustrated him. If he had been an Eminence, the wraith would have no way of running from him for even a minute.


    "Intruders!" It yelled in a creepy voice. "Thieves! More thieves! All thieves! Came to take what''s mine and only mine!"


    When Aaron heard that he almost laughed. He had been wondering how to deal with the wraith without wasting too much time on it, else he would have to leave the forest. Thankfully, with its words and his knowledge in beast taming, the wraith had just provided him with an easy way of provoking it enough for his purposes.


    "Domain wraith," Aaron spoke, imbuing a bit of mana on his voice for it to come out firmer. "Leave and you may live! I want this domain for myself! Everything you have belongs to me now!"


    The wraith stopped in its tracks. "No! No, no, no, no, no! My domain! My! Mine!" Its voice was rising until it was screaming in sheer fury. "Only mine! Thief! Die!"


    Beasts were controlled by their instincts, and wraiths even more so, their last memories especially powerful. This wraith had likely died at the hands of thieves and its domain was its single possession. It simply couldn''t resist Aaron''s taunt.


    Enraged, it attacked. It shot like an arrow at him, slashing with its twisted hands. A soul attack assaulted his mind too and the space around him became locked.


    The wraith''s attack was ruthless. It had frozen Aaron in place and sent a mental attack to stun him. It followed the age-old wisdom that a lion uses its full might to hunt its prey; there was no underestimating enemies no matter how weak they might seem.


    "Master!" Mark yelled but as a mere One Star Warrior, he had no way of protecting Aaron in time. He tried to run towards the Herald regardless.


    Sara just shook her head. If Aaron had dealt with a trained killer like her so easily, what could a Notable Beast possibly do to him?


    Aaron smiled.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Spiritual Vanquishing!


    Soul mana left his body. The space barrier around him posed no issue, for the physical couldn''t affect the soul or vice versa. As the spell slammed into the wraith, it simply dissipated, like grains of sand blown by a powerful gush of wind. There was no battle, no reaction, it didn''t even have the time to scream as it simply ceased to be.


    The moment the wraith gave up on its advantage to directly attack Aaron, its weakness as a mere level 6, Notable, became evident in front of a level 7, Champion, like him with an understanding of soul attacks.


    As the beast disappeared, a small glass-like ball the size of a fingertip was revealed from the middle of its body, falling on the ground but not shattering despite its fragile appearance.


    Check Item.


    Check Item


    Name: Beast Core ¡ª Domain Wraith


    Grade: 6


    All beasts had beast cores inside them. These cores had many different uses and were valued by their grade and their properties, which depended on the beast they had come from.


    He put the core away into his ring. "New lessons for you," he told Mark. "First, never let your emotions get the best of you, for our logical mind is our greatest advantage over beasts.


    "Second, think about your enemies'' true intentions before acting, for being taunted into a disadvantageous position is stupid and fatal.


    "And third, always attack your opponent''s weakness, be it emotional, like I did with my words, or related to your enemies'' very self as I did by using a powerful soul-destroying attack against a soul-like being."


    "Y- Yes, Master," Mark said, still overwhelmed by what had just happened, and the speed with which everything was solved. The Herald always acted swiftly and decisively!


    Aaron sighed. "That will be all. You can go back to sleep."


    Knowing even Mark would have difficulty to do so after what had just happened, he used a spell to put them to sleep, returning to his watch right after.


    The animals and the forest itself were freed from the vanquished wraith''s control and returned to normal. Without the wraith to make them ignore their instincts, a few of the animals around started fighting against each other, but most of them just bolted out of there as fast as they.


    Not only animals instinctively avoided any being that could manipulate mana, but the smell of a powerful beast piss in the area also made them panic. Only some beasts could ignore the smell and even then, they had to have a reason to do that, like the domain wraith.


    Aaron didn''t heed thefewanimals any attention. The way the domain wraith had used mana was very interesting and had provided him with many insights.


    <hr>


    Duke Eminence Ninefingers, a thin old man with deep bags under his eyes, held a small girl who was bleeding from her neck, making sure that every single drop fell in the huge pool of blood in front of him.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t use a spell to dry all the kid''s blood from her, and thus there was some waste. Using any spell at all in that stone chamber would resonate with the blood and consume all the demonic energy in there.


    Despite being a powerful Eminent Mage, his body was old and weak and even holding the small child was a chore for his feeble physique. And yet, he felt elated. He had gotten the blood of the last virgin required. If the demon hadn''t lied to him, his poor daughter would finally come back to life!


    Thankfully, there was no reason for him to distrust the demon. It was due to a ritual given by the demon that his daughter, who died tortured by the hands of bandits, managed to forcibly become a domain wraith. And if his daughter came back to life, he would plead himself completely to the demon, going as far as telling it his true name! For his daughter, he would do anything!


    Finally, the kid stopped bleeding, and he hid her corpse inside the spatial ring.


    Now, all that was left was strengthening his daughter a bit by taking some people to die by her hands, then bringing her to this chamber. He used the communication earring, another gift from the demon, to contact his army. "Men, prepare to march!" He ordered. "Today, we''ll hunt and destroy the evil that haunts the Unleaving Forest!" He said deceptively.


    When the men stationed outside his castle cheered and hit their shields with their weapons, the walls of his underground chamber trembled.


    <hr>


    On the early hours of the morning, sunlight pierced the trees, reflecting on the morning dew. Owls and other nocturnal creatures went to sleep while birds chirped in a welcoming way towards the light of a new day.


    It was a beautiful sight of greenery and life.


    Aaron was still keeping watch when he heard first wake up again. She kept to the sleeping bag for a while, until she sighed and got up to approach him.


    "You''re not a demon," she said as soon as she got beside him. "And I was being controlled."


    Aaron deactivated his Heat Darkvision and his Enhanced Senses spells and looked at her. "Were you?" He wasn''t surprised, as that had been one of the possibilities for her soul to have become like that. He still was curious about her circumstances though.


    "Yes," she said, her voice filled with shame and sadness. "Since I was little. My parents ordered me to tell the Ancestors my real name when I showed some talent for magic. The Ancestors... Using my real name, they gave me many different orders." She made a long pause before continuing, tears silently rolling from her eyes. "Among them was to hate demons with all my might and to never take any chances."


    "Why would they do that?" He asked softly, already knowing the answer but also that it would be better for her to let it all out.


    "I was raised to become an intelligence agent living in the shadows, and so, bound to encounter demons. I have already killed real demons, weak ones, twice. What those two did before I got to them..." She sighed and looked at a monkey eating a fruit on a tree. "I only had to suspect someone of being a demon and I would become blind to reason, seeing their every action as evil. Now, I also realize I killed innocent people who I believed to be demons at the time." Her tears shone under the sunlight as they fell from her face and further wet the grass she stood on.


    Aaron understood better than her the consequences of long-term mind control. The person would gradually lose their capabilities to think straight and small orders that were given without much thought, like ''be mindful of everyone,'' could lead to the person distancing themselves from everyone until they incurred a complete mental breakdown!


    Sara had received so many opposing orders, in fact, that it had even led to her disobeying some of them, which further hurt her psyche and twisted her soul until it turned into a monstrosity. From what he could gather from her words at the time, she wasn''t supposed to attack him, at least not so soon, and yet she had done so because of her hatred for demons, which had made her incapable of listening to reason whenever demons might be involved.


    He didn''t know if she was the first kid to whom the family Ancestors did something like this, but the way they were throwing resources at her to fix her situation hinted at they not being aware of the consequences beforehand.


    Such actions by the Ancestors also made it look like Firestar had really changed from the cruel man he had shown himself to be when he almost killed Aaron. Maybe it had even been this change to his heart instead of Aaron''s questions that had allowed him to become a Quasi-Overlord. Like Aaron had told Mark, the heart was crucial in the path for power.


    Sara was reacting better than he expected to her sudden realizations. His soul was helping her to not go completely batshit crazy, but her calm showed she had taken it all in stride. She was showing to be a tough lady indeed.


    "I know how you got free from their control," he said, glancing at the ring he had given her. "But how did you conclude I''m not a demon?"


    "Besides showing too much power and knowledge for your age, you didn''t do anything demon-like," she said. "Even if your magic is advanced, it doesn''t show the slightest trace of Demonic Energy."


    "Demonic Energy?!" Aaron was suddenly much more interested in the conversation. He hadn''t heard about such energy before, and his Full Status told him that he knew all the magic elements in the world!

 Chapter 17 - Demonic Energy

    Chapter 17 - Demonic Energy


    "You don''t know about Demonic Energy?" She looked surprised at him, revealing her teary face.


    Most people knew very little about anything related to demons and he had never even heard about Demonic Energy. Knowledge of demonic things was so controlled in fact that even the Eminence he killed hadn''t known much about it. The only reason Sara was better informed was that as an intelligence agent she had to be able to identify all of the family enemies.


    Moreover, he was kept even more in the dark because he had been suspected of being a demon himself. If demons became aware of everything humanity knew about them, it would allow them to hide better.


    "Would you tell me about it?" He asked softly, unsure if she was that cool with him yet.


    She nodded once and looked back at the monkey on the trees. "Demons live in the Depths, sealed away from the world, rightfully sentenced to endure suffering for eternity." He knew that part, although no one seemed to have any idea about what they had done to deserve this. "They can''t use mana and so it should be impossible for them to leave the Depths, but they found a way. They use life itself, theirs and others'', to do their magic. This perversion leaves distinctive traces that we call Demonic Energy."


    Aaron''s excitement at finding a new kind of energy disappeared at those words. Using one''s own lifeforce to do magic was common knowledge in his old universe. However, the conversion rate was too wasteful and, in this world, the resulting energy couldn''t be directly used in spells. He knew it for he had tried doing so before. It was a roundabout way of doing magic, as effective as using chopsticks to hold a hammer to forge.


    Another method of using lifeforce, the best and most popular one, was using it to increase one''s level, but it required too much energy and thus, other people''s lifeforce too, the more the better. He, for instance, could use lifeforce to increase his level from 7 to 8, but he estimated that becoming level 8 for a mere few minutes would require the lifeforce of at least a million klutzes, leaving them dead or close enough in the process. To make the level up permanent, the lifeforce of billions of klutzes would be required. It simply wasn''t worth it.


    Even if he was willing to do so, convincing billions to give up their lifeforce for him would require a lot of time which he could use to level up by himself. The other options were mind controlling everyone or using force, neither of which he would consider, for those were evil actions that he would not abide by.


    The evilness of those acts was evident in calling the resulting lifeforce ''Demonic Energy.'' Lifeforce was so deeply connected to people''s inner selves that forcibly taking it changed it in a fundamental way, making it hold negative emotions and become even less effective than willingly given lifeforce.


    However, no matter how ineffective it was, it made sense for demons to use such energy. If the demons, whoever they were, had really been banished and sealed away, it wasn''t a gap of logic to guess that they had been denied the gene that would allow them to use mana. When the desperation of facing an eternity in prison hit them, it was a matter of course for them to act against their brethren and use forcibly taken lifeforce ¡ª Demonic Energy ¡ª to allow their souls to bypass the seal and leave the Depths, then getting inside a person''s body. And naturally, getting into a mage''s body would allow them to control mana and pursue their objectives in the world from an advantageous position.


    The catch was that their knowledge of magic wouldn''t be greater than any other person unless they had already possessed other mages before and had learned magic at the time. If a demon''s magical growth was too slow and it felt too impatient to further its own agenda, it would end up using Demonic Energy, which it was more familiar with, to increase its power, which in turn would sooner or later lead to it being discovered.


    "Oh," Aaron said, disappointed at the ''revelation'' of Demonic Energy, and changed the subject. "I''m glad you''re back to yourself for now. Just so you know, the only way to revert what they did to you for good is to change your name through some unknown mean. Either that or keep using soul-protecting treasures."


    She looked distressed at him. "What do you mean? Am I not free already?"


    He shook his head. "Sadly, the ring I gave you can only protect you for one year, tops. Until you change your name, you can only use similar treasures. Any idea where to find those?"


    Her answer to that question was to look in despair at him.


    He smiled weakly. "You can keep following me if you want. As long as you do so, I''ll not allow you to become a slave."


    He had already temporarily healed her. If she wanted more of his help or not depended on her. As for offering to help her, it was only natural to do it when it was within his means and doing so didn''t take him away from his path of saving the world. He wouldn''t go out of his way to individually help everyone he met, but he also wasn''t a psychopath who couldn''t empathize with others.


    Even considering how powerful he had been in the past, getting completely rid of empathy was too dangerous a route that almost always led to either eternal slumber since nothing mattered, suicide because there was no meaning to life, or great tragedies because if others'' lives didn''t matter, there were no limits to what one would do to others in their pursuit of power.


    After taking a moment to process his words, she immediately dropped to her knees and kowtowed. "Master!" She almost yelled, making Mark twist a little in his sleep.


    Aaron smiled. "I don''t require that to help you but I guess you also want to be taught magic."


    "Only if Master would be willing to teach this lowly one, who dared to try to harm Master before!" She said submissively.


    However, despite her tone, Aaron became even more impressed with her. She was willing to serve him, but she also had the ambition to hope for his teachings. Sara was made of even tougher stuff than he would have imagined.


    "Stand up," he said as he removed the Mana Lockdown from her mana pool.


    The moment she became his Disciple, it was for real. He wouldn''t accept anyone he didn''t trust enough to even keep their own magic. Of course, her change was sudden and she might be faking it, so he would be on guard at all times.


    And if she ended up betraying him after calling him Master, she would suffer a fate oh-much-worse than death. Oh, she would!


    "I understand that you were misguided," he continued, "and I won''t hold onto you for that, but it would be unfair to Mark if he started being taught after you. After all, he pledged loyalty to me before you did. Your lessons will have to wait until he can receive his first lesson, too."


    "This one understands, Master!" She said while getting up as ordered and raising her teary face that was dirty from touching the ground.


    Aaron nodded and looked ahead, ignoring her looks. "I don''t require such deep level of subservience, so you can refer to yourself as ''I.'' Now that you''re not a slave of the family''s Ancestors anymore, I bet you have a lot of things to think about. We''ll have breakfast as soon as Mark awakens." He said, dismissing her.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "Yes, Master," she said with a bow and left Aaron alone.


    He wondered if Sara would come to hate the Ancestors since she wasn''t under the influence of the poisonous Prime Energy anymore thanks to the ring containing his soul. He didn''t want to take her revenge from her if she so wished, but he also didn''t want for his potential allies to suffer for a mistake they had felt regretful about and had done their best to fix.


    He would let her get to her own conclusions and then talk to her about it in a few months, but he wasn''t sure what he would do if she became someone who wanted revenge at all. She was his Disciple, and he shouldn''t stand on the way of her retribution.


    He sighed. He would cross that bridge when it came to it.


    Putting such matters to the back of his mind, he resumed improving his spells.


    <hr>


    Duke Eminence Ninefingers, wearing his war armor, was filled with pride as he watched over his army of ten thousand klutzes, a thousand warriors up to the Four Stars level, and a hundred mages up to the Notable level.


    He had built his army from scratch over the last fifty years and today they would serve the best purpose yet: they would die to strengthen his daughter. She required the nourishment, for only after she became an Eminent Beast could the demonic ritual be used to restore her body.


    "March!" He ordered, and they all obeyed.


    <hr>


    Aaron heard Sara cooking, a grin coming to his face as he felt the smell of eggs and bacon in the air. His father had loved to cook it for him back on Earth.


    Most mages didn''t waste their time eating, but Major Notable Firebringer, Aaron''s father, had been different, having three meals a day. The man had picked up the habit from his klutz wife and had likely kept it as a memento of her.


    The boy turned to see Sara cooking on a floating frying pan that was kept hot with magic. The smell awoke Mark, who looked at the pan like a famished homeless child. He got up and approached Sara shamelessly.


    "I didn''t know mages could cook," he said provokingly.


    Sara looked annoyed at him, but it was Aaron who replied. "I didn''t know you were so thick-skinned. You do know she can kill you with a single thought, don''t you?"


    Mark paled instantly, all sleepiness gone from him, and his reasoning back to work. He wasn''t provoking a fellow warrior in an army camp but a violent mage instead! And now that he thought about it, it was obvious by the magic-fueled cooking that she wasn''t affected by the Mana Lockdown anymore. With him currently being as was as weak as a klutz, even a sneeze from her could kill him!


    He might not know why she was let free, but since his master seemed to be on good terms with her, the fear towards mages that had been deeply ingrained on him forced him to bow her direction.


    "Please, forgive me!" He said loudly, not even feeling ashamed. Mage politics was too complex to follow and it was common for a warrior like him to be forced to act friendly with those whom he had been ordered to kill just a few days earlier. Warriors lives didn''t matter one bit when mages wanted to play war against each other, and while he hated them for it and wanted things to change, he also wanted to be alive when the change came, not die before that because of a minor offense.


    Sara didn''t reply, which made Mark''s face twist in anxiety. Aaron laughed and interjected. "Don''t worry, she''s my maid and you''re my butler. If she does anything to you, I won''t be happy and she knows that."


    Mark relaxed a little at those words, but Aaron wasn''t done teasing the warrior. "But, of course, there are plenty of ways she could inconvenience you without me caring one bit about it. Mages can be very creative when they want, and very petty when holding grudges." Aaron shook his head. "If she''ll forgive you for this slight in manners or not, that''s between you and her."


    Mark paled again.


    Completely ignoring the warrior, Sara finished making breakfast and took three silver plates from her ring. She was practiced in her moves, clearly having received maid training before, which wasn''t a surprise considering she as a secret agent. When given his plate, Mark ate in silence.


    "This tastes good," Aaron said. "Thanks."


    "Thanks, Master," she replied with a polite smile, but he could see that her eyes were still haunted by her past.


    Aaron decided to give her some time before talking to her, and they broke off camp after breakfast.


    Their journey continued.


    <hr>


    Queen Overlord Bloodvine was training in the Valdian Martial Arts when a shadow materialized in front of her, soon turning into the Ascender that had been dispatched to check on the boy.


    "My Queen," the shadow said bowing, its voice genderless.


    She didn''t stop. The instructions given by the boy were clear: failing to complete the set of movements called ''martial forms'' by lack of strength or ability wasn''t harmful, but forcibly stopping an ongoing set might bring harm to the body due to the way mana circulated during the practice.


    After about five minutes, when she was done and had already used a spell to clear her sweat, she was happy to see the World''s Writ appear in front of her.


    Attribute improved!


    Attribute: Resistance (Body)


    Grade: 1 > 2


    A coldness ran through her entire body, making her feel as if she could take any hit and survive. It was opposite to the warmth she felt when an attribute leveled up as a mage, one of the things she didn''t understand about warriors.


    But then again, it was also beyond her understanding how practicing the martial forms could improve her bodily resistance, even though the movements had pulled mana from her pool into her body and used it somehow. The warrior path felt much more mystical to her than the mage path.


    Nevertheless, she felt elated! She had never known working the body could be so pleasurable. The boy had said a few things about rewarding chemicals in the brain, but the books on the topic that she had ordered had yet to arrive.


    Now, she was only missing increasing her speed to grade 2 to become as powerful as a Two Stars Warrior!


    The Queen laughed in delight. The thought of her, an exalted Overlord Mage, Warden of the West of the Immortal Crusade becoming a Two Stars Warrior was so ridiculous it was funny. Alas, it was the truth!


    Finally, she turned to the Ascender. "Report."


    "The boy disappeared," the Ascender said, and threw a small metal cube on the ground. A hologram appeared from it, showing a blackened area that had been completely obliterated by explosions. "I found this crater at the place where the tracking devices on him sent their last signal."


    "This is not a simple crater," Bloodvine said as she moved towards her throne. "Someone used very strong spells to destroy everything in there and cover their tracks."


    "That''s not all. My scrying spells failed."


    The Queen raised an eyebrow while climbing the dais. "Which scrying spell?"


    "All of them," the shadow said. "Name Scries using the true names provided by Quasi-Overlord Firestar allowed me to determine that the two people sent with the boy are alive, but not where they are. All tracking items Quasi-Overlord Firestar informed me about were destroyed, thus rendering my Object Scrying useless. Past Scrying didn''t work in the area, which I gather to mean that time was shattered in there, and I know no spell to fix it. When I used Past Scrying around the affected area, it showed the boy entering the area, but I could only see the horses leaving, and they only went back to their stables due to their training."


    "Someone shattered time?" Bloodvine sat on her throne, putting on a pensive expression. "The Timelords, the Heavenly Artificers, and the Temple of Time; only they are known to develop enough mastery over the Time Laws to do it. And yet, none of them have any reason to meddle in the Crusade''s business this time around. Is the boy a demon, after all, using his demonic arts to do things he isn''t supposed to be able to?"


    "He might be, but I detected no traces of Demonic Energy in the area."


    "The boy is known to possess keen insights on magic, and I suspect Firestar even underplayed how much of a genius the boy was. Who knows, he might have a way to mask Demonic Energy. Either way, he can''t leave the country in just a few days. Contact the Timelords and officially ask for their help in fixing time in the crater. Use the Immortal Crusade''s name if they refuse."


    "What if they still refuse after hearing the Crusade''s name?"


    Queen Overlord Bloodvine smiled wickedly. "Then, my darling, we go to war! They wouldn''t dare to fight against every Overlord and Ascender in the continent, and if they do, we''ll get rid of the festering wound that is the Timelords. Who knows, maybe the Temple of Time will join them and we can get rid of both. Go, I''m getting curious about this boy. Is he really a demon or is he the greatest genius ever born? Or maybe both?"


    "At once," the shadow said and disappeared.


    She snapped her fingers and a new shadow appeared, just like the one that had left.


    "Yes, my Queen?" The shadow had the same voice as the first.


    "Put observers on Firestar and the boy''s immediate family. Order everyone to keep a lookout for groups of three traveling together, especially those in the cities close to the crater. Let them know that the Crusade is willing to go to war against even the Timelords if they refuse to cooperate, much less anyone else who interferes with the investigation. And spread the word that whoever gives us information that leads to the boy''s capture will receive a nomination to the Three Towers. That way, they gain the same thing as capturing the boy if they cooperate with us and lose everything if they interfere in our business. Go."


    "At once," the second shadow said and disappeared just like the first.


    The Queen put two fingers to her chin, in deep thought. If the boy could evade even such search for a week, she would have to act personally.


    For his own good, he better not make her do it.

 Chapter 18 - Angry Duke

    Chapter 18 - Angry Duke


    Marquis Notable Ice Breeze, wearing white armor with blue gemstones, had one knee to the ground and was sniffing the air.


    "Eggs and bacon, three days ago," he reported to Duke Eminence Ninefingers, who was standing nearby wearing an impressive black armor with red gemstones.


    "Track them," he said in absolute fury. "I want their heads!" He bellowed, unconsciously releasing mana that pressured everyone nearby to lower their heads and get to their knees.


    Not one of the thousands of people knew why their Duke was so angry about other people having killed the forest monster. To them, not having to fight it was a great relief, not something to be upset about.


    However, whatever the Duke''s reasoning, it wasn''t for them to question their orders but to obey.


    And obey the Marquis did. Employing a spell that only he in the retinue was able to use, he sniffed his way to those who had wronged the Duke.


    <hr>


    "They are one day behind us," Aaron informed his group.


    He had detected the pursuers two days ago by the disturbances their search spells were causing to the ambient mana in the whole forest. Since then, the distance between them had been constantly decreasing.


    "Please, leave us and escape, Master," Mark pleaded for what felt like the thousandth time.


    Aaron shook his head silently. He didn''t mind the pursuit enough to abandon his people yet. In fact, he was curious about who was following him, and why.


    He was confident that it wasn''t the Crusade, for whoever was behind him now was simply too slow to catch up. This weakness didn''t match the powerful picture of the Immortal Crusade he had seen in the Eminence''s mind.


    The pursuers were also too many, his Geoscan spell having detected enough tremors to suggest hundreds of people, while the Crusade was known for acting in two opening ways, espionage or dispatching powerful small groups of less than five people to do its deeds. When those options weren''t enough, they didn''t send tens of people, then hundreds, and then thousands. Instead, they used a force strong enough to destroy a country and if that failed, a full-fledged continental war was declared.


    Unfortunately, the people after him were out of range for him to learn more than their approximate number. He was sure that they were after him though, for he had changed directions more than once and they kept following.


    "Should we run, then, Master?" Mark insisted.


    Aaron waved his hands dismissively. "Of course not, that would be rude. If we have guests, we should simply set up a welcoming gift for them."


    The wicked smile that Aaron showed made Mark shiver.


    <hr>


    The Marquis stopped right outside a cave within a big clearing with a frown to his face. Behind him, a hundred mages stopped, too. The klutzes and warriors had been left behind the day before as to not slow the pursuit.


    "What is it?" The Duke asked.


    "Something is wrong," the Marquis said. "The smell, the footprints, even the lack of animals in the area confirm they entered the cave, but something... I can''t explain it, it just feels off."


    "Lack of animals? What about it?" Ninefingers asked.


    "Wild animals avoid mages," Ice Breeze explained, "and most mages forget about it when setting up diversions. Finding undisturbed animals where a mage supposedly just went through is a huge tell sign."


    "You''re telling me that everything indicates they went inside, including the lack of animals that no mage thinks about, but you ''feel'' something is wrong?" The Duke asked impatiently.


    The Marquis nodded seriously, not caring much about the Duke''s tone. He had worked long enough under the Duke to know that the latter appreciated competence no matter how much it might go against his own plans.


    "Yes," the Marquis said.


    <hr>


    Aaron was watching the discussion from atop a tree some hundreds of meters away from the group of pursuers, right at the edge of the clearing. A magical bubble prevented Sara, Mark, and him from being seen, smelled, heard, or felt. They had briefly entered the cave, then used the bubble to leave unnoticed.


    He was surprised to see that his pursuers were a hundred and one mages, one of which was an Eminence, and even more surprised when the Notable tracker felt something was off with the cave.


    "What''s happening?" Sara whispered anxiously. She couldn''t hear what was being said and had been warned not to use a spell outside the barrier or it might be detected.


    "You don''t need to whisper, the barrier would prevent even screams from getting to them," Aaron said. "As for your question, I hid the signs of the beast living inside the cave, but the tracker''s subconsciousness is probably telling him that such a mana-rich cave would surely be occupied, even if his conscious mind doesn''t realize it yet." Aaron didn''t use a spell to hear the conversation, as it was too risky even for him. He had merely enhanced his vision and was reading the tracker''s lips.


    Plan A was to wait for everyone to get into the cave and for the men and the beast to fight each other. Aaron would then use the chaos and the limited space to defeat his enemies with ease. As for their identities, he highly doubted that a hundred and one unknown people would follow him unannounced with good intentions.


    Mark and Sara agreed with him. The mage society wasn''t one where people were that desperate to track others in the forest for good reasons, especially not at the cost of using up the energy stored in the gemstones of the armors that five of them were wearing. It would cost them a lot to replace the gemstones later.


    "I think the man in black armor is Duke Eminence Ninefingers," Sara kept whispering despite Aaron''s reassurance of safety. "I never saw his armor before, but the description matches, and only a Duke should have enough authority to command a hundred mages this close to the Royal Capital."


    Aaron put a hand to his chin. So, Ninefingers had come for vengeance, did he? What were the secrets behind the wraith? Aaron didn''t have enough information to get to a conclusion, but it was obvious that the wraith was more important to Ninefingers than just being used as a material.


    As for trying to negotiate, Aaron struck the idea off as soon as he considered it. The Duke was visibly infuriated, and Aaron never negotiated with infuriated people who had the advantage of level and numbers unless there was no better option.


    "What do we do, Master?" Mark asked.


    "We wait," Aaron replied.


    <hr>


    "Do you recommend we backtrack to find the right trail?" The Duke crossed his arms and asked.


    The Marquis shook his head. "I paid utmost attention all the way here and avoided all the false trails they left behind. I''m sure they went inside, it''s just strange. Now that I think about it, why did they enter the cave? They had no reason to do so. It..." His eyes widened in realization. "Wait, shouldn''t there be a beast in the cave?!" He finally realized what was bothering him.


    "Stop mumbling!" Ninefingers said angrily. "Are they inside, or not?"Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "I''m not sure," Ice Breeze said. "I''m confident they entered the cave, but they might have left using other means. Besides, with such rich energy in the area, there should be a beast inside, but I can''t detect any signs of it. It might be a trap, so I recommend we send a scouting party."


    The Duke snorted. "Just go with the recommendation from the beginning the next time." He turned back. "Group A, scout ahead!"


    Five mages, with a Notable being the strongest of the group, immediately obeyed and entered the cave.


    <hr>


    "Not good," Sara whispered anxiously. "They won''t spring the trap."


    Aaron smiled. "Oh, they just did." Plan A was a no go, but that''s why he had prepared plan B beforehand.


    Before she could ask him what he meant, a huge roar shook the very ground of the forest coming from the cave. The beast inside was pissed with the mages who had just invaded its lair.


    At the same time, Aaron raised and snapped his fingers.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting, Beast Taming ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Taunting!


    An even greater disturbance than the roar resounded in the nearby area, moving like a wave through the plane where souls dwelled with Aaron in the center. It was a vibration made of Soul mana in high frequency, something no mage without the right spell would detect.


    But plenty of beasts did detect it, and many other roars and cheeps came from all around the forest.


    <hr>


    "It''s a trap!" The Marquis said when he heard the beasts.


    "Defensive formation, now!" Ninefingers ordered.


    Almost before the Duke had finished giving the order, the mages swiftly divided themselves into groups of five and strategically positioned themselves around Ninefingers. Finding himself in the middle of the defensive formation, he used a simple spell to raise a small platform of earth beneath him, pulling him up and giving him a vantage point from where he could direct the incoming battle.


    Most of the mages had spatial treasures with them, from which they produced fist-sized orbs, head-sized orbs, metal staves, swords, shields, and all kinds of enchanted weaponry. The four armored people other than the Duke all stood close to him, forming a last line of defense around him.


    It all happened in an instant, and yet they had all barely gotten in position when the corpse of one of the mages who had gone inside the cave came flying out of it, leaving a trail of blood behind. The corpse, twisted and missing a limb, hit the ground like a broken doll.


    A lizard four times the size of a horse came running from the cave, roaring in a way that showed three rows of pointy teeth on the top of its mouth. Its black frill was open, and its red body was so hot that it even set air alight in some places.


    "Groups F through I, kill that thing," Ninefingers ordered through his communication earing and kept looking around, trying to locate the mastermind behind the trap.


    The massive lizard, a Notable Beast, got even angrier when it saw the men outside its lair and spat a fireball while still running at them. Twenty mages moved to intercept both the attack and the beast.


    While everyone was focusing on the lizard, a rhinoceros merely as tall as Aaron appeared on the other side of the group. It had a gray body that shone like metal and two bull horns on its head that not only looked like metal but were made of metal. It moved way too fast, like a blur, and slammed straight into a mage.


    The mage didn''t even have time to yell before his body was broken in two and the rhino moved towards the next target.


    From all around the group, more beasts appeared. Ice wolves shot ice spikes, electric birds shot lightning, monkeys threw rocks, and a bear twice the size of the lizard just bulged in like a mad bull.


    Under the command of Ninefingers, the mages counterattacked. They erected elemental barriers, from earth to wind, ice to fire, and even some spatial ones. They shot fireballs, ice spikes, lightning, and rocks back.


    Explosions of all elements shook the ground, poison in the air made the air unbreathable, and a maelstrom of spells colored the air in a kind of energetic rainbow that was beautiful to witness if you weren''t inside it.


    It was chaos.


    The beasts were too many and too strong. For every three beasts the mages killed, at least another mage died. The lizard and the rhino were especially devious, but a black bear, a Champion Beast, the strongest of the attacking beasts that appeared, died surprisingly fast.


    It had rushed straight at the Duke, and one of the four armored men protecting Ninefingers summoned tens of powerful lightning spikes in quick succession. All the gemstones on his armor overcharged as too much energy was pulled from them too fast and they all broke; thankfully for the mage, the job was done.


    The lighting spikes shot straight through the bear''s head, filling it holes, shocking and burning its brain. It died just like that.


    It was a Champion Beast, but the armor the Notable Mage was wearing increased his elemental power and provided him with more mana to power his spells, giving him the upper hand.


    Momentum kept the bear''s corpse going forward after its death, and the armored man was forced to erect a thick earth wall to protect the Duke. The corpse was stopped, but the armored man put his hands to his knees, breathing haggardly.


    Now that both he and the gemstones were exhausted, he had to hope no new Champion Beast appeared and charged his direction.


    All the while, Ninefingers didn''t use a single spell. Like a hawk, his eyes kept scanning his surroundings, trying to locate the three people he had come to find.


    The rest of the battle was quick and brutal. The lizard lost a limb and ran back to the cave. The rhino killed over thirty mages before facing strong opposition from an armored mage and escaping. Every other beast either died or ran away too.


    In the end, on the blood-covered corpse-filled battlefield, only thirteen of the hundred and one mages remained, seven of which were heavily injured. The armored man who defeated the bear was exhausted, and another armored man, who had defended against the rhino, fell unconscious to the ground.


    "Are you done, coward?!" The Duke yelled at the forest. "Come out! Face me like a true mage!" He was seething with rage.


    <hr>


    Aaron had watched everything with disappointment.


    The way those mages fought was just like what he had seen in the memories from the Eminence he had killed, way too weak.


    He would have to release a few didactic books when he finally reached the Three Towers ¡ª where he still had to go to save his grandfather and hopefully perfect his magic, despite people wanting his head ¡ª, or he would simply not have a strong enough army to attack the other regions of the continent when the time came, and then, the armies of the Immortals in the final war.


    As long as they didn''t show themselves to be complete morons, he would groom Mark and Sara to become his generals, but the three of them would hardly be enough.


    The very battle he had just witnessed was an indication of why he needed an army. The beasts had ranged from Four Stars to Champion level, and it was a miracle any mage had survived at all, considering their pitiful individual ability. The only things they had going for them, which had allowed them to survive, were that they fought well as a group, covering for each other, and that they had superior equipment.


    Now, he was waiting for those same mages to leave so he could safely go his own way.


    "Master, with all due respect..." Mark said tentatively.


    "Yes?" Aaron asked.


    "Why don''t you kill them?"


    The boy shook his head. "Three reasons. First, because even though I have the power to do it, there''s no guarantee they don''t have hidden cards that would lead to me being killed or captured. Second, because they have nothing that I can''t buy in the city we''re going next, so I''d be risking my life for no real reward. And third, because we''re still on the hide and it would be unwise to show ourselves. Who knows who might be watching, either in the present or in the future? The tracker exhausted himself enough that he won''t be able to use a spell for at least a week, so we''re safe just leaving." He sighed. "Even the little we did might have revealed too much already."


    "Oh," Mark said.


    Ninefingers chose that moment to release a huge wave of Wind mana around him. The wind died much before it hit the tree where Aaron was hiding, some three hundred meters away.


    When the wind failed to reveal anyone, the Duke activated his Mana Sense, but Aaron''s spell was good enough to hide them as long as he didn''t move.


    "As fun as killing your enemies might be," he said as if he wasn''t being actively hunted by an Eminence, "remember what I taught you a few days ago, you must never allow emotion to rule over reason. Unless, of course, you deliberately decide to do so, but only after weighing the pros and cons of such a decision."


    "I''ll reflect on your teachings, Master," the man said. Sara also had a thoughtful expression on her face.


    The Duke vented his fury by damaging the area around him for almost an hour before leaving, and Aaron waited for a few hours after that before moving on.


    <hr>


    "We believe we found him," the shadow said as soon as it materialized in the throne room.


    Bloodvine was sitting on her throne, breathing heavily. She had just gone through a bodily training session and it had been strenuous.


    "Where?" She asked.


    "Unleaving Forest," the shadow said. "Eminence Ninefingers was following a group of three people who killed the local Tyrant Beast. A few hours ago, he and his men were ambushed by local beasts, with eighty-eight casualties out of one hundred and one. We believe the three people he was following are the kid and its followers."


    "Good," the Queen said. "Get to the boy and confirm whether he is a demon as soon as possible. We''ve been trying to get to him for eight days already, and the others are annoying me to work faster. Just don''t break any law unless required."


    The old Warden of the East had been trying to get rid of her for the last fifty years. Already a hundred years old, he was still full of undying ambition and would attack at the smallest show of weakness. If she took too long to find the boy, she would suffer a political backslash, but if she was found breaking laws to hasten her search, she would also suffer a political backslash. It was all very annoying, but her own plans were in motion and he would soon lose his greatest support!


    "Yes, my Queen," the shadow said, but didn''t leave. "There''s one more thing."


    "Speak."


    "When our informant with Eminence Ninefingers told us about the three people, he also sent us another report. Children disappearing in the middle of the night with no real investigation being done. There was also no reason to take thousands of people into the Unleaving Forest to kill the-"


    "Spare me the details," the Queen said. "Are you saying Ninefingers is suspected of harboring or helping demons?"


    "Yes."


    "Investigate," she ordered.


    "At once," the shadow said, and disappeared.


    The Queen didn''t let reports of an Eminence helping demons take away the happiness she was feeling. Before her floated the World''s Writ.


    Attribute improved!


    Attribute: Speed (Body)


    Grade: 1 > 2


    Your body has improved!


    Grade: 1 > 2


    No change to your level!


    You''re already level 9 ¡ª Overlord Mage.


    Even though her level hadn''t changed, she had just become physically as strong as a Two Stars Warrior, and able to use any martial ability such a warrior could!


    She couldn''t stop smiling.

 Chapter 19 - Leaving the Unleaving Forest

    Chapter 19 - Leaving the Unleaving Forest


    "Look at these marks," Aaron said as he touched the scratches on a tree. "This is a Seven Elements Tree. It''s known for its resilience, enough to resist even Seventh level spells, and yet, a beast scratched it multiple times. Why would a beast waste its time doing so if not as a show of power and dominance? And why would it show power and dominance in such away unless it had some reason to do so? Finding such marks is one of the most obvious waysto determine a beast''s territory."


    He pointed ahead. "Look how the vegetation ahead is greener than in here? Just looking at the different shades of the same plant in different areas might be enough to estimate the density and quality of the mana in an area. Of course, the difference in shade might also be from other factors, like soil quality and sun exposure." He turned to Sara, who had just raised her hand slightly. "Yes?"


    "Master, if this method is so ambiguous, isn''t it better to use our mana sensitivity to determine the attributes of the ambient mana?" She asked.


    Mark was used to military hierarchy and silently absorbed everything Aaron said, while Sara had been trained as an intelligence agent and asked some questions now and then.


    "There are many situations where you might find yourself unable to use your mana sensitivity," Aaron replied. "You might be unable to feel ambient mana due to being poisoned; something might be hiding the true properties of ambient mana for whatever reason; you might be fleeing too quickly from a great danger, unable to analyze the mana in all places around you fast enough to choose the better path.


    "But even if you find yourself in a situation where your mana sensitivity gives you the right data about the properties of mana in an area, and you can analyze it without hurry, visual cues are still important. If the vegetation in a place is greener or browner than your mana sensitivity tells you it should be, you will know there is something else to be wary of in the area. Always double-check everything if you can."


    Sara nodded slowly, thinking of the ramifications of his explanation.


    "Anyway," he continued, "Places with more or better mana will naturally be fought for by stronger beasts. If you''re trying to gofrom point A to point B in a timely manner like us, you should avoid such places." True to his words, he turned to the left to avoid the greener area.


    For the past two days, Aaron had been teaching Mark and Sara how to identify plants, animals, beasts, and points of interest in a forest. He was surprised to see that not even Mark knew much about it.


    When he asked if this was something common or if the warriors from the Valdian Family were especially ill-trained for operations in the forest, Mark said he had never heard of warriors learning the ways of nature. Some mages did it, but warriors were only used to fight directly!


    The more Aaron learned about the way things were done, the more he realized this was a stagnated society governed by people who lacked in everything. They did what was needed to keep their status quo and that was it, there was no one pushing to innovate. Mages might do their best in their researches, but how could they advance if they didn''t travel to get inspired by the wonders of nature?


    Earth''s science could advance in a confined space, but when energetic manipulation was involved, power could only be achieved by understanding the mysteries of the nature, the Laws of the universe. One couldn''t simply develop valid magic theories in a closed space, without living new experiences to give them insights on the secrets of the world and the universe.


    He was the sole exception, someone who had risen to the top of a universe and knew all there was to know about it, except how to perfectly use mana. Even so, the moment he became a Champion, it took him less than four years to create every level 7 spell he required and if he ever found himself missing a spell to do something, he could create new Seventh spells in a few minutes.


    Still, four years was too much time. To speed things up, he had been theorizing on how to use mana at higher levels. He estimated that if he became an Eminence right now, he would only take two months to upgrade his Myriad Arts to level 8.


    He didn''t require insights on the universe to grow stronger, he required insights on mana usage. Those could be equally found in books and by witnessing new spells. Learning a new magic theory was just as helpful as seeing the wraith use mana in a new way had been.


    But that was him, everyone else required learning the Laws of the universe as much as how to use mana.


    However, in the Fire Continent, mages avoided danger, focusing on social status instead; warriors were limited by the mages so they wouldn''t get too powerful; mages from weaker countries were kept even more in the dark about certain magic theories; and klutzes were treated like sheep.


    Once, when exposing his ideas on how society should be and how mages should behave, he had heard Mark whisper, "Herald of Change."


    And he supposed he was that.


    He planned to change the hell out of the Fire Continent, and then, the world.


    <hr>


    Hundreds of ships flying the black cross of the Immortal Crusade suddenly blinked into existed on the skies above the Capital of the West Dukedom of the Valdian Kingdom. Each one was filled to the brink with mages and warriors.


    Duke Eminence Ninefingers had been found guilty of being in cahoots with demons due to a pool of blood filled with Demonic Energy being found in his basement. Punishment was to be delivered today.


    The people of the dukedom at large had lucked out this time. Since it was one of them who had informed the Immortal Crusade of the strangeness involving the disappearances of people, they were merely judged guilty of negligence for taking more than a week to report it, and not of complete treason by completely failing to notice demonic activities among them.


    Thanks to their partial innocence in the matter, only the Ducal Capital would be stricken by cleansing fire, and no torture would take place. The Valdian Kingdom would temporarily get under the Crusade''s direct authority, and a thorough demon hunt would begin, starting from their leader, Quasi-Overlord Firestar, up to the last klutz. Or so it was proclaimed.


    A humanoid shadow stood atop the foremost ship, looking down with deep thoughts. Things were moving faster than they had in a long time. The shadow could smell change, and it worried it. In the secret history of the Fire Continent, there was only one thing change was good for:attracting the ire of the Fire Immortal.


    The shadow could only do its best and hope that the Crusade could save the people in time.


    It sighed. If only it had been sent to investigate the boy, it could make sure that he would be found guilty. But the one who was sent, Shadow One... It was too soft.


    In its heart, the shadow prayed to the heavens that the boy was a demon, thus making Shadow One kill him, or things could get very messy very soon. Either that or that the boy showed enough of a potential that even the talent-lover Shadow One would understand how dangerous he was.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    For now, it put the boy out of its mind and looked at the Ducal Capital below.


    "Fire at will," it ordered. Fire and death descended upon the city.


    <hr>


    On the night of the third day after the ambush, and the tenth day since they left the Valdian Kingdom, Aaron, Sara, and Mark left the Unleaving Forest.


    "Not that unleaving, it seems," Aaron said with a smile.


    "I''m not sure there''s anything you can''t do, Master," Mark said. Sara nodded in agreement.


    "I can''t win against Ascenders," the boy said. "As long as they put a Ninth level shield around them, I simply won''t have enough power to hurt them. And no matter how good my spells are, I couldn''t defend against Ninth level spells, either."


    "But you can win against Eminences, while only being a Champion yourself, " Sara said. "That''s impressive enough."


    Aaron shook his head. He believed he could win against the Eminences he had seen so far, but if he found someone with good enough equipment or above-average capabilities, things could get tricky.


    Instead of replying, he focused on the city ahead. It had stone walls twenty meters tall that looked sturdy enough, with drawings of arcane symbols that glowed silver in the dark.


    "That is Lamia," Sara said. "A medium city of two hundred thousand people, all of them stuck into tiny cubicles they call homes. It''s the last city of the Inner Circle of the West Dukedom, which is under the care of Duke Eminence Ninefingers."


    Aaron knew that, but he didn''t mind her trying to help, and went as far as asking a question as to make her feel more useful. It was a good way to impart her the habit of helping him however and whenever she could, and it also served to take her mind out of her troubles. "Can we enter it without being seen?"


    "No," she said. "The city is protected by walls with Ninth True Sight Formations that can pierce through any invisibility and illusions spells of the Seventh level. Trying to make a hole on the walls is also impossible, for they are enchanted with Ninth Shield Formations that also make our Seventh level drilling spells useless. The walls are heavily manned at all times, too, so we can''t fly over them. The best we can do is try to mix with the klutzes in the morning and hope no guard is paying attention when the True Sight pierces through any veiling spell we might be using."


    Stealth spells were about hiding completely while veiling spells were about hiding partially. Hiding one''s level was considered veiling, thus the name Veiling Talisman on the treasure given to Aaron to hide his level while he was in the family.


    The item was valuable and had been taken back by Firestar though, so he didn''t have it with him. Not that he needed it to enter Lamia.


    Sara was thinking too much like a mage and was ignoring the fact that sometimes, fighting spells with spells wasn''t the only way to act. He only needed to gain some time before being found anyway, not to pass through the city completely undetected.


    "If I remember correctly, there''s an event once a week that might assist us to get inside, and it just happens that it''s scheduled to happen tomorrow," Aaron said as if he hadn''t timed his days in the forest to leave at the right time. "I need to buy a few things in the city, so we''ll have to get inside. Tonight, let''s enjoy the Lonely Maids."


    It was popularly said the two smaller moons were maids, called Lil and May, and the bigger one, a male called Lugh. Lonely Maids was the name given for when Lil and May were full, and Lugh was in the new moon phase.


    "I''ll prepare dinner," Sara said, taking her pan out.


    Aaron lay on his back and watched the moons and stars, his mind thinking about the mysteries of magic.


    <hr>


    That night, he decided to light a fire and order Mark and Sara to sit around it with him as they ate, to build some sort of companionship with them.


    Mark, used to a rigid hierarchical structure, felt extremely uncomfortable about sitting casually close to his Master like that and excused himself as soon as he finished gulping his food.


    Sara was also uneasy due to her own relationships with her former masters, the Ancestors, but she forced herself to look silently at the fire for a long time after finishing the food instead of leaving.


    After all, if her master wanted her company, she knew better than to disobey as the puny warrior had just done.


    "Master," she said after gathering enough courage.


    "Yes?" Aaron said, coming back from his musings.


    "Don''t you... Feel bad?" She asked shyly.


    Aaron frowned and considered what she might be meaning. It took a few moments, but he finally got it. "Are you talking about the ambush on the Duke?"


    She nodded silently.


    He shook his head. "Why should I? He tried to get me killed, I counter-attacked."


    "But his men had nothing to do with it," she insisted.


    Aaron understood where she was coming from. Even though she hadn''t gone crazy because of the influence of his soul, she was now realizing she had never created a unique personality or thought about morals by herself before.


    She wanted to know more about Aaron''s morals and way of thinking because despite living in a relatively cruel world, she wasn''t sure how she felt about her own unjustified killings.


    "Didn''t his men keep silent when the Duke was hunting for us, despite knowing nothing about us or if we were guilty of something?" He asked. "Didn''t they obey him when he told them to track me? Wouldn''t they have done his bidding if he had ordered them to kill me?" He asked.


    She thought for a moment. "Yes, but they were only doing that because of the Duke. He was the only one who made himself your enemy."


    "No one forced those men to obey the Duke and hunt me, they did it on their own will, for whatever the reason ¡ª probably money."


    "What if they were forced to obey?" She asked.


    Aaron smiled. "There''s no such thing as being forced to do something. Even if a man does something to avoid the pain of torture, or to prevent a loved one from being hurt, aren''t they just hurting others for their own physical or emotional comfort? Why should I also prioritize their wellbeing when they are trying to harm me for their own good?"


    "What about those whose true names made them obey the Duke?"


    Aaron shook his head. "Why should I feel bad for killing people who might as well be dead puppets controlled by their owner and were trying to kill me?"


    Sara''s voice became almost a whisper. "What about me?"


    He smiled. "Every situation should be assessed separately. I had already decided to help you beforehand and I was expecting you to attack me. Not to mention that you were alone when you attacked and I could safely subdue you. But if I start thinking about my enemies'' wellbeing in the field of battle, especially if I''m not strong enough to safely make them submit, I would just end up dead. Should I die just because other people have their circumstances for trying to kill me?"


    This time, Sara took longer to come up with an argument. "What about the greater good? What if their circumstance is that killing you could save billions?"


    "I would call bullshit on that," he replied with an amused expression. "Let''s say it''s a prophecy or any kind of future prediction that says taking my life can save billions... Well, prophecies are bullshit. Nothing is set in the universe, and anyone who claims to be able to determine all the possibilities in the future is lying.


    "Another possibility is an evil man asking for my life to stop him from killing billions. Who''s to say he won''t kill them anyway, or that I couldn''t save even more than those billions in the future if I''m not killed, or even that those billions might actually deserve to die?"


    He winked at her. "But let me humor you for a moment. Let''s say it''s absolutely certain my death would save billions in a way that there''s no lying evil guy, no catch, nothing spicy about it. I would still call bullshit, because billions of people would die anyway, one day, of old age or other reasons. The ''here and now'' is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Billions dying in one planet doesn''t even begin to touch a tragedy when you''re considering the galaxy, much less the universe. Likewise, losing all the people in a universe holds no meaning in the multiverse.


    "Moreover, even if everyone in existence in the multiverse simply dropped dead right now, life would still happen again, just like it happened in the beginning, when nothing was alive and still life came to be. Who''s to say such tragedy hasn''t already happened in the past, due to some evil ploy or even natural reasons, and we are just nature trying again? When you ''zoom out'' enough on space and time, you see that there''s no ''greater'' good, only you trying to kill someone for an idea that feels right to you in your limited existence.


    "In the end, everything is just a matter of principles. You might feel justified for killing a person to save billions, while I would call you a glorified murderer. Likewise, I feel justified for hurting anyone who intends me harm, and you might feel my morals are lacking."


    He lay on the ground with his hands behind his head, closing his eyes. "My way of living is simple: do the innocent no harm but take no shit either. And if someone tries to harm me, it''s an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. As for forgiving someone as I did to you, it all depends on what my heart tells me at the moment. As hypocritical as it might sound, it''s just who I am, and I''m comfortable with being like this."


    The silence stretched after his words, he simulated a yawn. "You''re on night watch today."


    She would surely not be able to sleep that night, anyway. She might as well do something productive while he focused harder on his Myriad Arts.

 Chapter 20 - Lamia

    Chapter 20 - Lamia


    A few hours after the start of the punishment, only debris remained where once stood the capital of the West Dukedom of the Valdian Kingdom.


    A mix of ashes and blood turned the ground muddy. Scavenger animals and beasts ate the little remaining meat of the charred corpses while humans hunted for treasures. The many merchants and other visitors who had come to the city looked in shock at the sight before them.


    No one in the flying ships, each departing to its own mission, seemed to care.


    <hr>


    The night had been a sleepless one, all of it spent thinking about magic. When morning came, Aaron still waited for a few hours before stopping his musings.


    He sat, seeing the remains of the firepit. Mark was standing with his back to a tree and Sara was cooking.


    "Good morning," Aaron said. "Let''s talk about how to face our journey to the Three Towers."


    Both people looked at him with interest.


    He continued. "One of the truths of the Old Ways is that the way you face everything in life matters. Let''s say a mighty beast is attacking you; whether you face it as certain death or as a challenge to overcome can determine the very result of the encounter. It can be the difference between life and death.


    "We''ve already found people with ill intentions towards us twice in this trip and we''ll certainly find more. Traps, betrayal, and even death can happen to us at any time, expected or not. However, if you allow these dangers to get to your head, they will change you for the worse. You''ll become paranoid, shut yourself from anything good that might happen to you, and harm those who don''t deserve it.


    "That''s why I beseech you: have a positive attitude. Be prepared for anything and protect yourself, yes, but don''t let fear control you."


    While speaking, he had looked deeply into Mark''s and Sara''s eyes.


    Mark frowned and looked down to think about Aaron''s words, obviously not expecting someone to tell a warrior to have a positive attitude in life. Sara nodded and went back to her cooking.


    Aaron was slightly expectant of what they would make of his lesson. Would any of them become an idiot and die for not paying attention to their surroundings? Or would they get too worried about becoming paranoiac and make this talk useless?


    His purpose was for them to get the mindset of an explorer who both look for the unknown and is cautious of it at the same time, for such was the perfect mindset for a mage. But how could he simply state something so important? He had to steer them towards this mindset little by little, as to make the realization theirs and thus make the change last longer.


    About one hour later, they left the forest to join the long queue leading to Lamia''s gates.


    <hr>


    Few were aware of Lamia being the Immortal Stronghold ¡ª the regional headquarters of the Immortal Crusade ¡ª of the Valdian Kingdom.


    The Seven Flowers of the West were part of the select few privy to that information. As members of the Temple of Time, the most powerful organization in the Fire Continent after the Immortal Crusade, they naturally knew many secrets that others would rather they didn''t.


    The seven girls, ranging from fourteen to twenty years old, visited Lamia once a week to be tested for possession by the Crusade since no one wanted a Prophetess on the demons'' side. They rode elevated golden palanquins covered by thick white curtains, each carried by four Five Stars Warriors. The seven palanquins were surrounded by nothing less than twenty Champion Mages, five Eminences, and an Ascender.


    Around a hundred people were in queue outside the closed city doors. Most of them were klutzes or weak warriors, clustering the doors with their carriages, bringing products from the nearby farms and distant lands alike to sell in the city. Despite mages being capable of raising plants and livestock almost instantly using magic, most of them believed such work to be beneath them and thus it was delegated to the weak.


    As soon as the flag of the Temple of Time appeared at the distance, an orange unicursal hexagram on a white background, every single person made way much before the palanquins could even approach. Such was the respect given to the Prophetesses.


    Helina was sitting in one of the palanquins. She was the Oldest Youngest, a contradiction of names but one that defined her position well.


    Every Local Temple in the world had been erected after being Envisioned by many Prophetesses throughout the ages. Each of them would select a thirteen-year-old girl every year to learn the mysteries of Time.


    The seven last girls to be selected were called the Youngest, and the oldest of them was called the Oldest. It wasn''t just a denomination of time served though, for it carried a heavy meaning with it.


    The very same day a new Youngest was selected, the Oldest was to become a Guide. History revealed that after the initial seven years as a Prophetess, it was incredibly rare to be Chosen.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    And the day to select a new Youngest was today.


    Helina didn''t see becoming a Guide as a noble task full of authority like she had been taught, but as the end of her hopes instead. Guides might hold a power in the Temple of Time that a Youngest didn''t, but what use was it? They were still nothing more than nameless people, forgotten by all no matter how much good they did to her sisters in the Temple of Time.


    She, however, wanted her name to be known by all for all ages to come!


    She sighed. She had always thought that she would become someone great, she had even been confident of that belief being a premonition sent by Time itself.


    In the end though, it had just been a juvenile''s dream.


    What hurt the most was that the Temple of Western Valdia, which she was from, was seen as a mistake. Since its foundation, eight hundred years ago, at the very same day that a man declared his public surname to be Valdian, a Prophetess had Envisioned a new Temple to be built in there.


    That Prophetess had been a Guide and Visions received by Guides were heavily investigated. However, due to the political currents of the time, the Temple of Western Valdia had been created without further scrutiny and ever since its creation, no Prophetess from that temple had received a single Vision! Now, she would be confirmed as another failure created by a temple that shouldn''t exist.


    Desiring to distract herself from such depressing thoughts, she opened the curtain of her palanquin a bit and looked outside.


    And then, it happened.


    As if attracted by a magnet, her eyes instantly fixed at a young boy about fifteen years old, blonde, with blue eyes.


    He seemed to notice her at the same time she saw him and the moment their eyes locked, she felt lost.


    It was as if his eyes contained an ocean of lights in them, an infinite universe of shining stars, of profound and boundless mysteries.


    He smiled slightly and as soon as he did, the ocean in his eyes became red, made of the blood of countless beings, human and otherwise.


    The lights in it became the tears of widows and mothers wailing in despair.


    The infinite universe became grief and sorrow; the shining stars, fiery storms of everlasting rage.


    And the profound and boundless mysteries... They became an endless void with a single thing in it, the boy himself, albeit with a different appearance. His hair was white, his eyes, red, and he looked to be twelve years old.


    However, he had the same smirk as before.


    He also had an aura of majesty that made the world tremble and all existences within it kneel. He was the undisputed Emperor of all that was, the Destroyer of all that had been, the Conqueror of all that would come.


    He opened his mouth and commanded her.


    "Helina," a genderless and timeless voice came out of his mouth. It came from everywhere around her and made her very soul almost dissipate from the sheer power it emanated. "You''ve been Chosen. Protect the child no matter what."


    Ice rushed into her veins and she found herself back inside the palanquin with curtains closed as if nothing had happened. She wasn''t even sure if she had imagined everything or if she had really had a Vision!


    Before she could think better about it, the World''s Writ appeared before her.


    ERROR!


    WARNING! CORE INSTABILITY!


    SUPPRESSING CORE. ADAPTING ERROR TO LOCAL CULTURE...


    She was still reading it when the content in the World''s Writ changed.


    You''ve received a False Vision!


    Demons have plotted against the Temple of Time and corrupted your Vision.


    Disregard whatever you might''ve seen in your False Vision.


    She was dumbfounded. Had she just witnessed what she thought she had?


    Had she seen the World''s Writ err?


    Her whole body trembled.


    Something like that had happened before to the very First Prophetess four thousand years ago. She had just established the First Temple when she claimed to have received a Vision so great that even the World''s Writ couldn''t withstand it and had given her an error message.


    The strangest thing was how adamant the First Prophetess had been about divulging it. No one believed her and yet the Timeless Rules stated that all Youngest had to learn of the Vision she had received at the time and of the World''s Writ error that followed it as soon as they were selected, and that it had to be repeated to them every year, even after they became Guides or were Chosen. The reason behind it was one of the unsolved mysteries of the Temple of Time.


    Now that Helina found herself in such a situation, the meaning behind those actions became clear. The First Prophetess had disregarded the error message and False Vision message that followed, choosing instead to turn that Vision into one of the fundamental reasons of existence of the Temple of Time!


    By divulging the information, she hoped that if any other Prophetess ever went through the same thing, that they might choose to do the same as her: trust the Vision instead of the False Vision message.


    Helina''s breathe hastened.


    She had received a Vision, she had been Chosen.


    However, now she had to decide if she would trust the First Prophetess or the World''s Writ. Never before had she ever considered disbelieving any of them!


    Her heart beat so fast she had to use a spell to calm herself and think about her future.


    <hr>


    Aaron saw a palanquin''s curtain open and looked with curiosity at it. To his surprise, he saw a young woman looking straight at him, and a moment after their eyes met each other, he felt something that he hadn''t felt since he came to this world, a disturbance caused by Origin Energy!


    It only took an instant and she closed the curtain right after. The episode intrigued him, especially due to her being from the Temple of Time. Unfortunately, now was not the time to investigate, for he had other priorities.


    The coming of the Prophetesses was the event he would use to enter the city unnoticed. The gates opened as soon as the Seven Flowers of the West approached. On the other side, two rows of warriors with the colors of the City Lord, blue and silver, were already bowing and waiting for the Flowers to go through.


    The esteemed group quickly disappeared into the city. The people on the queue followed suit, under a very loose check by the guards who were discussing an important event that should happen today.


    He entered without any issue, no warrior paying him special attention thanks to his disguise.


    Using plants from the forest, he had dyed his white hair blond and made use of a makeshift makeup to appear older. A thin vegetal membrane ¡ª perfectly cut using a spell ¡ª covered his red irises, making them look black instead.


    In front of him, Lamia looked like a standard magical medieval city. It was excessively clean, had magical illumination provided by light poles with magic crystals, and its streets were large.


    Mark, Sara, and he had decided to enter the city separately. Mark approached Aaron a few minutes later but they would only regroup with Sara at an inn much later in the day.


    It was a logical way of moving. The enemy knew he was traveling with a thirty-year-old Four Stars Warrior and a Champion Mage. But Mark was now a One Star Warrior and was also disguised, looking a fifty years old man with different hair and eye color.


    He had considered walking alone but a lone child would attract much more attention than a kid walking with a family''s servant by his side.


    "I''m here, Master," Mark said as soon as he got close.


    "Good. Let''s buy my insurance!" Aaron said excitedly.


    That was the last step of his plan. After he bought what he needed to better protect himself, he would feel much safer even if tens of Eminences attacked him!

 Chapter 21 - Shopping District

    Chapter 21 - Shopping District


    They walked the large streets with false leisure as to not attract attention to themselves yet.


    Now that they were out of range from the wall''s True Sight spell, Aaron used illusion spells to make minute adjustments to his appearance, especially his and Mark''s clothes, getting even more inconspicuous than before.


    "Master," Mark said eventually, "I''d like to discuss a delicate matter with you."


    "Yes?"


    "Isn''t it dangerous to leave the maid unattended?"


    Aaron smiled. This was a good opportunity to show Mark how to be relaxed and aware of everything at the same time.


    "The rings I gave you both can also be used for tracking you and listening in to your conversations," Aaron said.


    How could it not be so, since parts of his soul were in the rings? Unless the rings got thousands of kilometers away from him, he would be able to find them, listen in, and even get a sense of ''feeling'' of what was around them.


    Mark didn''t know whether to feel relieved or tense at the revelation. In the end, he relaxed and went with another question.


    "Master, I''m not saying you are a liar but when you captured the maid, you said anyone who can kill a demon is a good person..." He hesitated about going on.


    "Continue," Aaron said weaving his hand.


    Mark took courage and obeyed. "And yet, didn''t the maid have to explain to you about what demon-possessed people are and where they come from?"


    "Oh, that. I knew about demon-possessed people and what they did in the past, I was simply not aware of details. It''s similar to how you might recognize a wraith when you see one but have no idea how it was formed or how to get rid of one. You might also be aware of what spatial rings are capable of and how to use them, but not how they are created or how exactly they work."


    "But how could it be so, Master? Weren''t you curious about knowing what demons are and where they come from when you heard about their deeds?"


    Aaron shrugged. "To me, demons are just another evil race like many others, except for being a slyer one that can pretend to be humans. It would be just like any orc shaman using an illusion spell to look like a human, only that illusion can''t be pierced through unless the orc does something stupid and reveal itself. To me, any dead orc is a good thing, too, just like any demon."


    Orcs weren''t evil per se, their instincts were what made them not care about any living beings, themselves included. Which didn''t mean he should be understanding of them and pat their heads while they tried to eat him.


    "Oh, I see," Mark replied. "Thanks, Master."


    Right after the gates was the main street of the city, full of stores that were obviously more expensive than they should be due to their strategic positioning. Aaron pretended to be window shopping while moving to the Shopping District.


    <hr>


    The palanquins were brought to the Time Abode in the city, a kind of embassy for the Temple of Time. The Seven Flowers of the West left quickly and met in the dining room, except for one.


    Helina went directly to the Hall of Candles, an enormous room with nothing but seven statues of thirteen-year-old girls. Each of them held a real red candle in their hands. Crafted by magic, the candles were always kept lit without ever burning out.


    She went to the oldest statue, which held a candle composed by a mix of was and her own blood. She took a strand of hair from her head and placed it in the candle''s flame.


    The strand didn''t get on fire. Instead, it floated above the flame and was covered by a green light.


    When any Prophetesses did what she was doing, their hair would burn like expected. The exception was for the Chosen, who would have their hair glow green instead.


    That simple glow changed everything. She had studied the formations in the candles and knew how they really resonated with Time, having nothing to do with the personal beliefs of the First Prophetess. It confirmed that she had really been Chosen by Time and that the error message was the one in the wrong.


    It also showed that there was a hidden power sending illusions with fake error messages to some Prophetesses, a power that didn''t want the boy to be protected.


    She felt ecstatic. Not only she had been Chosen, but she was also part of something much bigger than she had ever hoped for!


    The green strand of hair would be enough proof of her Chosen status to whoever came to that room, and thus she left the Abode without anyone seeing. Her secrecy meant her Vision was a secret, at least for now, and that she had gone to take care of it.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    After all, she couldn''t know who was acting against her Vision and it might even be another Prophetess ¡ª Time forbids it! Unless she absolutely needed to, she wouldn''t ask the Temple for any help.


    As soon as she left the room, a World''s Writ tooltip appeared above her strand of hair, a red error message flashing in it.


    The candle turned black and not only her strand of hair but also the entire candle were instantly consumed by flames.


    <hr>


    The Shopping District occupied a good fifth of the city of two hundred thousand inhabitants. It consisted of a large group of streets, stores of the same kind sharing the same general area. Of course, there was the eventual odd store here and there but they were the exceptions.


    A huge open market could be found in the middle of the District. It had about a thousand stalls and thousands of people in it at any time. Even in the early hours of the morning, it was already filled with stalls and people. Aaron eventually arrived there and started looking around, getting a feeling for the prices.


    Mark, instead, looked at everything but the things on sale. A place like that was a den of thieves and he was determined to protect the Herald.


    After a couple hours, Aaron noticed someone tailing him and stopped in front of a small stall. "Seven loarts for that tiny gemstone?" He said loudly. "That''s daylight robbery!"


    The stall was full of gemstones of multiple sizes and colors. While mana crystals were simply crystals that could hold Pure mana, gemstones had elemental properties. Gemstones were much rarer and more expensive than mana crystals.


    The stall owner, an old fat man wearing expensive clothes, was sitting on a bench. He looked at Aaron, who was now using a veiling spell to look like a mere One Star Mage. "What do you know?!" The owner yelled angrily at being called a thief. "You''re just a One Star Mage! Get lost!"


    Aaron sneered. "Insolence! My master is a great mage and he taught me all there is to know about gemstones! This one is worth two pemags at most!"


    "Preposterous!" The man yelled even louder, attracting even more attention from the nearby people. "My gemstones are of the greatest grade! This is a legit void gemstone, the rarest of them all, and it''s already a loss for me to sell it seven loarts!"


    Aaron shook his head. "What void gemstone? You just used a Blackening Spell to color it, my master told me everything about it."


    The man showed shock on his face, not believing he was being offended like that by an insolent kid. A moment later, his face flushed red in fury and he stood up. "Who''s your master?!" He yelled even louder. "Bring him here! I''ll have words with him!"


    Aaron opened his mouth to reply when a melodious female voice intervened. "Forgive my useless disciple for his ignorance, good man."


    Everyone turned to see the most beautiful girl they had ever seen in their lives. She was about twenty years old, her skin looked soft like silk, her long black hair went up to her slim waist, and her light blue eyes shone brightly with life. Her clothes were simple, a white dress and white shoes, but such simplicity only seemed to add to her beauty.


    "Ignorant?" Aaron asked with a frown, barely noticing her beauty. "Who''s ignorant, you ugly old witch!"


    Every single eye around him widened. Who was old? Who was ugly? That was the most beautiful woman they had all seen!


    Aaron had obviously exaggerated. To him who had seen women so beautiful they would make mortals drop dead from shock, her beauty was passable at most, but she was still a far cry from being considered ugly.


    The reason he was treating her like that was due to recognizing her as the one who had been riding the palanquin and also the one following him.


    He had decided to cause a commotion with the stall owner to see how she would react but her coming to his aid could mean many things. The way she replied to this offense would narrow the possibilities.


    And she had widened her eyes and opened her mouth in pure shock. She was called the Oldest, but only the Oldest Youngest! She was still twenty years old!


    And ugly? How was that possible?! She was one of the Seven Flowers of the West! It wasn''t always that the Youngestof the temple were called Seven Flowers, but the moment she was chosen, seven years ago, they started being called that way, in great part due to her beauty!


    No one could even breath. No one had never seen such a shameless person like Aaron in their lives. Even the seller seemed to recover from his anger and was only staring in disbelief.


    She was the first to recover from the shock. "Impudence!" She yelled angrily and pressure came out of her body.


    In the Valdian Kingdom, Ascenders were considered the cream of the crop and the Eminences below them commanded immense respect. Even the royal family only had seven Eminences and the whole kingdom had less than twenty Eminences in total.


    And she was an Eminence!


    When she expanded her aura to pressure the boy, the mere left-over aura that befell the nearby klutzes was enough to make their faces pale and their souls tremble. That kind of pressure demanded submission or death and all of them, as one, kneeled.


    There were also a few warriors and even a couple mages around, including the stall seller, a Notable Mage on his own right, and they all either bowed or kneeled, too.


    In this world, the powerful ruled, and the weak obeyed.


    In the middle of them all, only the girl, Mark, and Aaron remained standing upright. Aaron, of course, could ignore the pressure with his soul, and the ring he had given Mark allowed the man to also barely feel the pressure.


    Aaron sneered again. "What is it, old hag? Can''t handle the truth, so you try to silence others with force?"


    <hr>


    Helina''s shock only increased when she saw the boy in front of her withstanding her pressure.


    Check Level, she thought for the hundredth time.


    Level: 1 ¡ª One Star Mage (7 ¡ª Champion Mage)


    The tooltip didn''t lie, he was a mere Champion Mage. When put under an Eminence''s pressure, Champions only had to bow slightly, but the boy was completely ignoring it!


    As if it wasn''t enough...


    Level: 1 ¡ª One Star Warrior


    Even the weak warrior beside the boy was ignoring the pressure! How was that possible?


    Could it be that the man''s level was being veiled by a Ninth spell cast by an Ascender so that her soul couldn''t pierce through it?


    What was the real identity of the boy she was supposed to protect?


    And more importantly, why the hell was he calling her an old hag?!


    "Stop calling me that!" She yelled. She had always been treated well and treasured by the Temple of Time since she was first considered a Candidate, when she was ten. No one had ever dared to even look at her the wrong way! How could he call her old and ugly?


    "Old hag, old hag, old hag!" The boy repeated.


    "Y- You!" She bellowed in rage, unsure of what to do.


    "Should I buy you a mirror to show you the truth? Huh? Is that what you want, ugly old grandma?" The boy asked with a smirk on his face.


    That was it. Helina couldn''t stop herself anymore.


    She stepped ahead, shortening the distance between herself and the boy, prepared to strangle him to death.


    But to her incredulity, the One Star Warrior besides the boy stepped between them and slapped her hand away.


    The sound of it resounded through the silent and shocked market.


    A warrior had slapped an Eminent Mage!

 Chapter 22 - Interesting

    Chapter 22 - Interesting


    Mark had been one of the strongest warriors in the Valdian Family and he had been trained accordingly. He was ready to give up on his life for his missions and protecting the Herald of Change was the greatest mission he had received in his whole life!


    That training was what made him step ahead and slap the Eminent Mage''s hand away the moment she moved with hostility towards the Herald.


    A moment later, when he understood his reflexive actions, his heart started beating furiously, filled by regret. Slapping a mage was a capital offense for any klutz or warrior, no matter the reason. He would die for it.


    And yet, Aaron''s words seemed to echo in his mind.


    "The first and foremost rule of the old ways is to always follow your heart."


    "Even with potential, you might still do something you shouldn''t when following your heart and may end up dead."


    "But even then, you''ll be able to face failure head-on, because you did what you knew you should."


    The Herald was right. How could he regret protecting him? How would he live with himself if he allowed the Herald to die without doing his very best to protect him?


    He might have been able to do nothing before hearing those words, but now...


    Now, regret left him, and only a sense of fulfillment for dying for the Herald of Change remained.


    <hr>


    Helina was frozen in place.


    She had been...


    Hit?


    A warrior...


    Had...


    Slapped...


    Her?


    Slapped her?


    Slapped her?


    Rage filled her. From the depths of her heart, it filled every fiber, every cell of her body. She had never been even spoken aggressively before, but now, a warrior dared to hit her, a Chosen Prophetess!


    She pulled mana from her mana pool and was prepared to obliterate the man in front of her into oblivion, when a voice entered her very soul and seemed to throw water into the fires of her fury, instantly quelling it.


    The cold went further inside, invaded her mind, and seemed to freeze it all!


    Helina found herself instantly dazed, her mind empty of any thoughts. All she could do was look ahead without any idea of what to do.


    <hr>


    Aaron nodded approvingly when he saw Mark act. That was how a subordinate should behave, and as the master, he would obviously not let a good butler die for protecting him.


    He felt the girl pulling mana from her pool to use a spell on Mark and acted swiftly.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Double Elements: Ice, Soul ¡ª Seventh Mental Stun!


    The spell left his soul, never entering the material world, and met the girl''s soul head on. It couldn''t invade her soul, its resistance too powerful for a Seventh level spell, but it didn''t need to.


    Instead, the spell instantly encompassed her soul into a layer of ethereal ice. Then, it hit her soul with a mighty wave of coldness coming from all sides. Her soul acted instantly to dispel the effects, but that single moment of freezing coldness was enough to stun her.


    The anger in her face disappeared, replaced by a blank expression.


    Aaron smiled satisfied. His spells couldn''t directly damage her soul but he had bypassed her resistance in an ingenious way. A mage outside battle simply wouldn''t be prepared for a sneak attack injecting a wave of coldness in their souls unless they were experienced, something a Youngest Prophetess wasn''t.


    Sadly, such a move wouldn''t work on anyone two levels above him because the coldness would be dispelled even before they properly entered their souls. Still, the effects of the spell on an Eminence and the speed which her soul had resisted confirmed some of his theories and would help him to create new offensive and defensive spells.


    If they got into a battle, he would be able to get even more valuable data. However, doing so would attract the authorities, something a mere disagreement with a merchant wouldn''t.


    Now that her mind had cooled down, all he needed to avoid a full-fledged battle was a little acting on his part.


    "Master, Master, I''m sorry!" Aaron said while bowing low to the woman. "Please, don''t be angry at Disciple! Disciple''s golem acted to protect me! Please, don''t take back Disciple''s golem!" There was absolute fright in his voice. "Please, Master!"


    <hr>


    If a warrior slapping an Eminent Mage made everyone shocked, Aaron''s words make everyone completely stupefied. It confirmed that the beautiful woman was the boy''s master, and furthermore, that the woman was rich enough to provide even her undisciplined disciple with a golem!


    Golems were expensive constructs capable of following sets of orders, with some of the best ones capable of something akin to human thinking. Although the one beside the boy didn''t look especially smart, golems were also valued by how much like human beings they looked. Even those that looked like groups of rocks glued together were already expensive enough that most Eminences wouldn''t be able to afford one, but that boy had one that looked just like a human!This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    If such a rebellious boy had been given such a high-quality golem that might cause even some of the poorer Overlords some envy, just how rich was his master?


    <hr>


    Helina was even more shocked by what had happened.


    The boy had attacked her soul and she had been completely unable to protect herself. It had been a sneak attack, yes, but even so, a Champion''s spell shouldn''t be powerful enough to affect an Eminence''s soul even for a moment!


    Not only was the boy in possession of a spell crafted to overcome stronger enemies, but he was also cunning. She believed that the One Star Warrior was no golem and yet, because high-quality golems couldn''t be detected by the Check Item Heavenly Skill, she had been given a way of retaining her respect in front of the people.


    After all, being hit by her own golem, given to his disciple for protection, only meant the golem was that good!


    Of course, this excuse also saved the man''s life, which was the boy''s real intention. To pay for the favor of her not killing the man, the boy was accepting her earlier attempt at public deception and pretending to be his disciple.


    Still a bit dazed, she faked impatience with a sneer and turned back. "Let''s go!"


    "Yes, Master!" The boy replied and they left the market.


    <hr>


    Aaron had a good impression of the woman. She had tailed him and tried to help him with the merchant for unknown reasons, but when she reacted to his words just like a spoiled Prophetess would, without controlling her emotions, he became confident that she didn''t have any shady intentions.


    Either that, or she was that good of an actress.


    Due to his experience, he didn''t think she was trying to fool him. Her reaction timing, her posture, her eyes, all of it told a tale of an entitled girl who didn''t know how to deal with a world that didn''t act as if they owed everything to her. Obviously, he could be wrong but the chances of that were small indeed.


    The only thing that remained was finding out why she was trying to approach him.


    Mark and Aaron followed her to a deserted alley. Once there, she turned back and looked straight at Aaron. "Who are you?"


    He smiled at her but before he could reply, Mark did. "How dare you?!" He said. "You interfere in my master''s business, pretend to be his master, tries to physically assault him, and only then you ask for his identity without even introducing yourself first?! From what uncivilized hole did you crawl from?!"


    Aaron nodded. "Indeed. But William," he said, using the fake name they had agreed upon beforehand, "refer to me as your young master from now on, or people might find it strange."


    Masters were usually adults and their children were referred to as young masters by their parents'' servants.


    "Yes, Young Master!" Mark replied immediately, without any of the edge he had shown on his voice when talking to the woman.


    "Good," Aaron nodded again.


    The woman was looking from Mark to Aaron as if she couldn''t believe what she was seeing. Aaron smiled. Indeed, for a One Star Warrior to call the Temple of Time an ''uncivilized hole'' was something even the strongest mind might take a few moments to come to terms with.


    Regardless, everything else the warrior had said was true. Even if they were mortal enemies, it was only proper to introduce herself before attacking.


    She breathed deeply and spoke. "I''m Helina Chosen," she said.


    "I am William Butler," Mark replied. Both Helina''s and his surname made it clear who they were. "This is my young master, Ted Bright-Star." As for Aaron''s fake surname, it spoke of a kid whose family thought would have a great future.


    Aaron raised an eyebrow, interested at what he heard. "Surnamed Chosen? You had a Vision?" He asked.


    She showed surprise. "How do you know that?"


    Mark was the one to reply. "While the masses might not know it, the meaning of your surname is not a secret for important mages. My... Master is a wise sage and has taught my young master here all there is to know."


    "Yeah, that," Aaron said with a mocking smile, not even trying to pretend that those words were true. He simply didn''t care about whether she believed him or not; it wasn''t her that all these lies were intended to fool.


    Helina started fidgeting with her dress, clearly controlling her anger at being so poorly treated. "I was Chosen to protect you," she said.


    "Really?" Aaron said before Mark could. "That''s interesting."


    During his time in the last world of this universe, a ''god'' sent one of his Devouts to protect Aaron. This time, in a world without gods, a Prophetess who adored Time itself said she had received a Vision to protect him.


    Once might be a coincidence, but twice?


    It seemed the Universal Core wasn''t completely suppressed, after all, and could still act through some minor mediums to help Aaron save it.


    "Very interesting indeed," he said with a pensive expression.


    <hr>


    Helina saw that Ted was in deep thought and believed it to mean he was impressed with her revelation. She had always heard to strike when the fire was hot and decided to impress him!


    "You''re a Champion at age twelve or thirteen," she said, revealing that she knew his real appearance. "This might awe some people but as a Prophetess, I know that this is actually harmful to you! Your mana pool channels have certainly been overused and must hurt every time you use some mana, right?"


    He looked strangely at her and she just knew she had hit jackpot! She kept going before he could reply.


    "This is likely the reason I was Chosen to protect you! Whoever your master is, he''s an evil man for pushing you beyond your limits and hurting you! But don''t worry, I''m here now. I have the means to heal your channels! It will take time, a few years, but I''ll protect you until then. So, follow me, I''ll take you to a safe place."


    But contrary to her expectations, he looked at her as if he was looking at a complete moron and asked, "Are you an idiot?"


    "W- What?!" She asked without believing what she was hearing.


    "Not to mention you diagnosed me without using any spell or even talking to me, you have such shallow understanding of how the mana pool is connected to the soul? There is no such thing as a mana pool channel. What you call ''mana channels'' are nothing more than threads of control created by a mage''s willpower! The facts that they only appear when the mage is casting a spell and that they have no fixed position should be proof enough for any idiot with a head. Wait, does it make you even worse than an idiot? No, no, don''t tell me you''re a headless idiot! Hey, old hag, is your head a fake one?"


    She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.


    "Really, I had so many hopes for the Temple of Time and you''re all just a bunch of amateurs in the end, huh?" He continued. "Disappointing. Look, I have more important stuff to do and because reasons I can''t have you following me around. Go to the White Lotus Inn, I''ll meet you there later."


    Without waiting for Helina to recover and reply, he turned around and left, followed by his butler.


    <hr>


    Aaron didn''t want to be seen with a woman about Sara''s age for long and quickly got rid of her. Although he was interested in what she had to say, his safety was a priority.


    He had already put her to the back to his mind, thinking about what he wanted to buy, when Mark interrupted.


    "Young Master," the butler said as soon as they were out of hearing range. "What should we do about her?"


    "If she''s really a Chosen Prophetess, we can only do two things," Aaron said. "Accept her protection or kill her. The Prophetesses are brainwashed from an early age, turning them into complete fanatics about their Visions. Only death can stop them from accomplishing whatever they are Chosen to do."


    Mark''s face paled. "Young Master, if she is really a Prophetess and you kill her..."


    Aaron waved his hands dismissively. "I have no reason to kill someone who wants to protect me. Not to mention that her company shall make things exciting for us."


    "How so?"


    They had just left the alley when the boy pointed at five Five Stars Warriors with clothes that had the symbol of the Temple of Time. Each warrior held a paper on their hands that they were showing to the passersby, who just nodded negatively.


    After a few moments, one of the warriors approached and showed the paper to Aaron and Mark. It showed Helina''s face.


    "Sir, have you seen this traitor?" The warrior asked.

 Chapter 23 - Shopping Spree

    Chapter 23 - Shopping Spree


    The warrior naturally spoke to Mark and not to the kid but it was Aaron who replied.


    "Actually, yes," he said sincerely. "She was just in this alley which we came from," he pointed back.


    The warrior looked at him stupefied for a second before it was replaced by disbelief. Then, he looked at Mark. "Sir, is the kid speaking the truth?"


    Mark''s face twisted in anger. "How dare you call my young master a liar?!"


    The Five Stars Warrior didn''t know how to reply to that. He had been so polite and yet he had been spoken like that by One Star Warrior?


    In the end, he thanked both of them and called another warrior to go check on the alley.


    Aaron didn''t wait to see what would happen and went back to the Shopping District instead. On the way, he heard a distant explosion and felt a minor tremor, probably from Helina''s business. He smiled.


    "Young master, I don''t understand what''s going on," Mark said.


    "The Prophetess that came to us seems to believe she was Chosen but the Temple of Time says she''s a traitor. What don''t you understand?"


    "How is that possible?"


    "Either she is crazy or there''s foul play involved." His smile widened. "How exciting will it be to have not only the Immortal Crusade but also the Prophetesses chasing us?"


    He had provided the warriors with her location to test both her battle prowess and how intent she was on following him. If she had faked being Chosen, she would just try to run for her life instead of trying to protect him.


    "Young Master... That''s dangerous..."


    Aaron shook his head. "People in this continent live too comfortably, and it hinders them. Without obstacles to overcome, you won''t be hard-pressed to improve, thus stagnating. If I keep depending on using my mana to improve my mana pool and become an Eminence, it''ll take me about three months. But under a potentially fatal pressure? It might force my soul to evolve or die and thus shorten the required time."


    "But Young Master, you''re still so young! Why the hurry?"


    "Destiny Points," he said. "The faster I clear this world, the more I get."


    Confusion was evident on Mark''s face. "What?"


    Aaron smile turned mysterious and he didn''t explain it.


    As soon as they got back to the open market, he went directly to the same stall as before. The fat old man in there made an ugly face as soon as Aaron approached but to his surprise, Aaron took a crystal coin from one of his rings and threw at the table.


    "Sorry for the trouble earlier," Aaron said. "I''ll take everything."


    The man looked at the coin with a stupid face for a moment before he took it, looking around to make sure no one was watching. "Of course, esteemed customer! Of course!" He quickly took a pouch out and began to fill it with all his gemstones.


    "Y- Young Master!" Mark said after he recovered from the shock. "That coin!"


    All coins in the Fire Continent were made of mana crystal of different grades. Each grade had different capabilities of how much mana they could hold in them, which determined the value of the coin.


    The coins were named for their grades as a treasure.


    Lower Mortal coins were coins that could only hold as much pure mana inside them as a grade 1 mana pool. They were called lomors.


    Higher Mortal coins could hold as much pure mana as a grade 2 mana pool. They were called himors.


    Peak Mortal coins were called pemors.


    Lower Magical coins, lomags.


    Higher Magical coins, himags.


    Peak Magical coins, pemags.


    Lower Artifact coins, loarts.


    Higher Artifact coins, hiarts.


    Peak Artifact coins, pearts.


    And finally, Lower Relic coins were called lorels. There was no coin more valuable than lorels and they were incredibly rare.


    Aaron had found a record saying that the coins were first called Lower Mortal coins, Higher Mortal coins and so on, and that their current names came to be after people got lazy and shortened their names.


    Each grade of coin was worth a hundred of the lower graded one, reflecting the difference between mana pools'' grades. A grade 10 mana pool ¨C which meant the mage was an Overlord ¨C could really hold as much as mana as a hundred grade 9 mana pools! It might not seem much, but coupled with superior control, it allowed for much stronger spells.


    That exactness, growing a hundred by a hundred, was another show of how the powers that be had changed the world to conform to their twisted vision.


    The coin he had given to the man was a hiart, with was worth a hundred loarts. Everything the man had on display was worth barely fifty loarts.


    Aaron smiled. "A mere hiart, nothing to make a fuss about."


    "But Young Master!" Mark insisted.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Aaron ignored him. The warrior had no choice but to silently collect the pouch containing the gemstones and follow Aaron around again.


    "Thank you for your patronage!" The old mage yelled excitedly and quickly left the market, afraid of someone robbing him.


    After buying the crystals, Aaron started a shopping spree.


    For Mark, he bought light leather armor that was worse than enchanted gambeson and provided worse flexibility, too. The material, however, was great, the hide of the Southern Earthworm, a Champion Beast. With a bit of enchanting, that armor could become amazing and Aaron would use such upgrades to progressively reward Mark if he worked hard.


    Besides the armor, he also bought him common boots, gloves, shield, and spear for him, his weapon of choice.


    From the moment Aaron had forbidden Mark from using external tools, he didn''t wield any weapons. Now, the man felt whole again.


    "Thank you, Young Master!" Mark said and bowed low, storing the spear inside his spatial ring with a thought.


    For Sara, Aaron bought a wooden staff. Mages in the Fire Continent usually preferred magical orbs or enchanted weapons but he knew that it was only because they hadn''t unlocked the potential of wood inscriptions.


    The wood of a well-made staff had to be fresh, which made it have both Life and Death attributes. Inscribing on it was very difficult, but the potential results of such material were amazing. He would use staff upgrades as a way to reward Sara, too.


    The staff he bought was exactly the same height as Sara, made of light beige wood that had been grown in a perfectly straight way. Its top had a place for placing a magic gemstone of the mage''s choosing. Any gemstone about half the size of a head would fit.


    Not coincidently, Aaron had already purchased all gemstones of a stall!


    He also bought all kinds of equipment for alchemy, artificing, formation mastery, martial arts, medicine, painting, poisoning, and beast taming.


    From test tubes to reagents, materials to anvils, formation flags to inscription tools, weapons to armors, herbs to acupuncture needles, pencils to brushing, dead poisonous insects to poisonous beast cores, special animal food to magical reigns, he bought it all.


    What he considered his best acquisition was a portable medicinal garden that he hung on his waist. It was like a spatial ring in that it was a place his consciousness could enter, and it could store objects. However, the medicinal garden wasn''t a completely separated space but a much more delicate work that was linked to the world around it.


    It used the very air around it, the sun rays that it received, the moisture in the air, and so on. The good thing about it was that it could hold living beings, something the spatial ring couldn''t.


    Thanks to that medicinal garden, Mark and Sara had just become much less of a burden. He could just pace them inside the garden and run for it if it came to it. It was thanks to such a treasure that he had known they wouldn''t be that big of a burden.


    The garden came with a few herbs and he bought even more to grow in there. The garden wasn''t too big, only about a hundred meters of radius, but it would do for now.


    Aaron also sold everything he considered useless from his rings. He kept the empty rings themselves for they could be useful as gifts but everything else, including the Mortal and Magical Items, were sold. If he ever required Mortal or Magical Items for himself or to gift his followers, he would rather craft them himself instead of using those shitty items.


    To finish his shopping spree, he bought food. A lot of it. Enough to feed ten people for two years.


    He also bought information about the Immortal Crusade to better understand his hunters and to make sure the right people would come for him.


    By now, every shopkeeper in the city had heard about him, the spending machine, and so had the authorities. He wasn''t worried though, since he felt safe enough with his new acquisitions.


    If he had been too hard to find for too long, the Crusade might dispatch people to find him that were too strong for him to deal with. Therefore, he had been just enough stealthy as to buy the items that would help in a fight before revealing himself.


    He was walking a thin line between smartness and stupidity, but he had no choice if he wanted to use the pressure from the Crusade to temper himself. By controlling the place and time of his appearance, he was giving himself an advantage. It was certainly much better than being found by the Crusade right after he fought a battle to the death against a beast and found himself lacking the mana to fight!


    Also, by doing things this way, he was showing that he wasn''t a great mastermind of evil that could hide for too long. He wasn''t humiliating or challenging the Crusade. He was a genius kid who had tried to hide and succeeded for a time, but ultimately failed the way most genius kids would.


    As he did his shopping, he was rather curious about which of the tens of people following him in the shadows would be the first to attack, if any. Part of him expected the Crusade to chase everyone away and to come for him first, but he hoped not. After his small cold play with the Prophetess, he was in for a bit of fun!


    Speaking of which. "Time to go to the inn," he told Mark, wondering if Helina had gone there or not.


    <hr>


    Sara was sitting at a corner of the inn''s common room, wearing a cloak that hid all of her features. Unfortunately, it didn''t hide her body''s curves, and time and time again an annoying man would come to try and flirt with her.


    It was all Aaron''s fault. For whatever reason, he had chosen to stay at that inferior place, filled with men dominated by alcohol who acted as if they had never seen a woman in their lives. The place was so lowly that it even lacked tavern wenches and the customers had to go to the counter themselves to buy their drinks.


    The White Lotus Inn had a beautiful name but that''s where all the beauty ended. It was small, the common room barely able to receive two dozen patrons, and it only had three rooms to rent, all of which had already been paid for by her.


    "Wa'' do ya say? ''ive himors vor ya pretty ass," the drunk said.


    He was calling her a whore and trying to buy her body. Sara was about to do the same she had done to the previous filthy men, use a spell to make him leave, when the doors of the inn opened up with a loud thump.


    The most beautiful woman Sara had ever seen entered the room, stopping close to the doors. Her beauty was so great that it made Sara very self-conscious and happy for her face being hidden. The woman looked to be around twenty years old and wore a simple white dress that was tainted by blood. Whether it was hers or not, Sara couldn''t say.


    The woman was breathing heavily. She looked around the common room, stopping for an instant on Sara before asking the innkeeper in a loud voice. "Is this the White Lotus Inn?"


    "Y- Yes, milady!" The man almost yelled, elated for being spoken to by such a perfect woman. He had been completely blinded by her beauty, incapable of seeing the blood on her clothes.


    "Is there no other place with the same name..." She stopped talking, looking out for a few instants. There was such a big mana disruption in the air that even Sara, who wasn''t very sensitive, felt it.


    Check Level, Sara thought.


    Level: 8 ¡ª Eminent Mage


    Sara''s jaw almost fell to the ground. She looked twenty years old and she was already an Eminence?! That had to be a lie! And she was a beauty, too! The woman had to be at least using a spell to hide her true appearance, right?! She couldn''t be that perfect, correct?!


    The woman looked back inside, now breathing even more haggardly than before. "Is this the only White Lotus Inn in the city?"


    "Yes, milady!"


    After looking around the common room one more time, she asked without any hope: "Is Ted Bright Star in here?"


    "Milady, I never heard such a name," the innkeeper said.


    Sara was barely able to hide her surprise due to her past training. How did that Eminence know of Aaron''s alias? Was he in trouble?


    The woman then stared straight at Sara, the only mage in the inn. "Do you know him?"


    Sara felt her heart beat fast. What was the correct answer? What was going on? Why did an Eminence covered by blood want to find Aaron?


    She hesitated for only a few seconds but it was enough for the woman to anxiously repeat her question. "Do you know him or not?!"


    "I... I..." Sara felt completely lost. Should he tell the truth? Should she lie?


    "She does," a kid''s voice said from the outside. Sara recognized it as being Aaron''s.


    The woman turned. "You! What did you do?!" She yelled in absolute anger right before leaving the inn.


    Sara stood up and ran to the entrance.

 Chapter 24 - City Lords Men

    Chapter 24 - City Lord''s Men


    Aaron''s amusement had increased on each step along the way to the inn. He saw warriors and mages marching together, showing people the image of the Prophetess and telling everyone how dangerous she was.


    His greatest surprise was seeing two groups facing each other and arguing. One had garments showing the symbol of the Temple of Time, while the other wore blue and silver, the colors of the City Lord.


    "We''ve always welcomed you with honors," a local mage wearing magic armor made of metal with imbued gems was speaking with irritation at one of the mages of the Temple of Time, who only wore enchanted robes. In Lamia, only the City Lord''s troops were allowed to wear high-end armor on the streets. "But today you''re overstepping your boundaries!"


    The other mage had an expression of absolute rage. "How can you say that?! There is a traitor in our ranks! Her potential for destruction is boundless! We must find her at once, for the good of this city itself!"


    "If she unlawfully betrayed you, you''re welcome to present evidence to the City Lord and await his judgment on it!" The local mage said. "This is not your temple, this is Lamia! You are not allowed to hunt anyone in here just because you say they are traitors!"


    "She hurt our warriors!" The Temple of Time''s mage replied.


    "She did, but our investigations showed her claiming innocence and your warriors insisting on capturing her!" The local mage was getting angrier. "All people in Lamia are allowed to resist unlawful capture! The City Lord has spoken, cease this nonsense at once or there will consequences!"


    The local troops left without waiting for a reply.


    "You''re harboring a traitor!" The Temple''s mage yelled. "We won''t allow this to happen!"


    Aaron had no idea where a mere City Lord found the guts to stand against the Temple of Time, but he liked it very much.


    As if that wasn''t interesting enough, at the alley where the inn was located, he found three men frozen in thick ice, with only the ice on their noses open so they could breathe. And at the door of the White Lotus Inn, Helina Chosen stood in a bloodied dress screaming questions at the people inside.


    Aaron decided to test her again, this time by using a spell to hide his presence.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Triple Elements: Space, Light, Soul ¨C Seventh Stealth!


    Light and space twisted around Mark and Aaron, hiding them completely. They couldn''t be seen, smelled, heard, or felt. Even Mana Sense would go around them if he stood still; unless a mage was actively focusing on the area they were and saw the mana going around something invisible, they wouldn''t find anything wrong.


    He had already used this same spell to hide from Duke Eminence Ninefingers but he hadn''t been stupid enough to test how close to the Duke he could get. Now, to Aaron''s happiness, Helina didn''t notice him even after he got right behind her, and she was using her Mana Sense! It seemed that as long as his opponent wasn''t paying too much attention to their Mana Sense, he could slowly walk inside its range without being detected.


    Hearing her questioning Sara, he dropped his stealth spell and spoke.


    "She does," he said.


    Helina turned immediately and looked in absolute fury at Aaron. "You! What did you do?!" She stepped out of the inn.


    Aaron raised an eyebrow. "I did some shopping...?"


    A cloaked Sara came from the inside of the inn and silently stopped beside Aaron.


    "They are calling me a traitor!" Helina yelled. "Me! A Chosen Prophetess!"


    Aaron shrugged. "So?"


    She was even more infuriated by his nonchalance. "It must be because of you! What did you do for them to call me a traitor?"


    "Look, girl," Aaron said with an unhappy expression. "First, lower your voice, I''m not your fucking dog. Second, you think I give a damn about you, enough to make your stupid group deem you a traitor? Third, even if I did want to do it, how the fuck would I make the Temple of Time call a Chosen Prophetess a traitor?" She opened her mouth to speak, but he didn''t let her. "If you didn''t notice, I''m a man, and your people would rather die than accept anything I said. In fact, if they heard a man saying there are three moons in the sky, they would publicly proclaim that there once was a fourth moon, only it decided to leave the sky because it couldn''t withstand the sight of men!"


    Mark couldn''t help but chuckle at that. Even Sara let out a smile. The Prophetesses thought of themselves as better than everyone else, but they were especially harsh against men. In their organization, men were only lackeys who were supposed to obey without giving their opinions on anything.


    Helina didn''t like it but Aaron''s words did make sense. Indeed, how could he make the Prophetesses turn on one of their own?


    "Anyway, I''m leaving the city," Aaron said. "You''re free to come with us if you want."


    He was already turning when she spoke.


    "Wait!"The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    He looked silently at her.


    "Aren''t you..." She started. "Didn''t I tell you they are calling me a traitor?"


    Aaron rolled his eyes. "Yeah. So?"


    "I''m supposed to protect you... But if I come with you, you''ll be hunt by people from the Temple..."


    Aaron sighed. "Listen, kid, take a hold of your emotions. You''re too volatile. You were ready to attack me a few moments ago and now you''re all worried about my safety. As I said, I''m leaving, you can come or not. I''m being hunted myself, so a few more pursuers make no difference at all." He looked straight at her eyes. "If I may say so, you would benefit greatly from following me. I recommend you don''t let go of this chance."


    He left unsaid that he would benefit even more by studying her and understanding how the disturbance of Origin Energy he had felt at the city gates could give her Visions.


    This time, he wasn''t stopped when he turned to leave.


    "Master..." Sara said not too long after that. "What is happening?"


    "Oh, she claims to be a Prophetess who was Chosen to protect me," Aaron explained. "But her people say she''s a traitor. No idea what''s going on."


    Sara looked back at Helina, who was following them as if she was completely lost and had no idea what was going on.


    "I..." Sara felt as much lost as Helina looked. She wanted to say something about it, but she had no idea what she should say.


    "We''ll talk when we have the time," Aaron said. "For now, pay attention to your surroundings, we might get attacked."


    "Should you really allow her to follow you?" Sara asked Mark.


    The butler shook his head. "There can be no progress without conflict. Overcoming obstacles will be good for our young master. Also, our young master isn''t stupid, he wouldn''t willingly attract any trouble he isn''t confident in dealing with."


    Sara had nothing to say after that and only looked around in high alert.


    Aaron didn''t use stealth or told Helina to change her appearance. He still hadn''t decided if he would turn the Temple of Time into an enemy or if he would help her clear her name. It would all depend on the interactions with the first people from the Temple who found them.


    <hr>


    Helina had no idea what to think. Who was that kid? How could he act so much like an adult? What was going on with the Temple?


    As they walked the streets of Lamia towards the gates, she kept her Mana Sense on a twenty meters radius around her. If she expanded her Mana Sense too much, people might trace it back to her. That distance was just enough for her to detect any stealth attacker.


    She also kept a Soul Disruptor spell active, preventing her soul from being tracked...


    Wait a minute! As she realized something, she almost tripped on her own feet in shock.


    She hadn''t been using her Mana Sense before! How had the boy approached her without being detected?!


    She looked at the butler. She had conjectured before that he might be an Ascender in disguise, but everything spoke of him indeed being only a weak warrior following the kid.


    Then, she looked at the cloaked woman. She could see that she was a Champion pretending to be a klutz. Helina hadn''t felt anything from the woman, so she shouldn''t have used a spell to hide the boy from her Mana Sense.


    That boy... Who, or what, was him?


    <hr>


    Aaron was walking the main streets of Lamia, disappointed at the Temple of Time. He was already midway through the gates and no one had appeared yet.


    And that''s when the City Lord''s troops appeared.


    They were a group of twenty. Aaron felt something wrong with their leader and immediately checked their levels.


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage (8 ¡ª Eminent Mage)


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage


    ...


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Warrior


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Warrior


    ...


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Warrior


    It was a force to reckon with. An Eminence hiding her level, four Champion mages, and fifteen Notable warriors. They all wore impressive metal armor, all of them blue with silver details, showing their loyalty. The five mages'' armors were even more impressive than all others, as they had imbued magic gemstones that shone in different colors.


    The leading mage, the one hiding her level, had a helmet open on the front, revealing her face. They stopped in front of Aaron''s group and she spoke directly to him.


    "Aaron Valdian, the City Lord sends his regards to the Royal Family and invites you to his castle."


    Aaron wasn''t surprised that they had found his identity after the amount of money he spent. He smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "I thank the City Lord''s kindness. Send him my heartfelt regards. Unfortunately, as the City Lord must know, I must make haste to the Three Towers."


    She didn''t blink at his reply. "The City Lord thought you might say this and told us to show you his respect by escorting you to the Three Towers." Her voice had a hint of a challenge to it as if she was daring Aaron to tell her to disobey her orders.


    However, Aaron nodded. Even if he wanted to get rid of them, he wouldn''t do so in the city. "Good. Let''s go."


    He barely stepped ahead when someone yelled from behind him. "Traitor! Surrender yourself!"


    Aaron turned and saw a group of ten people wearing the symbol of the Prophetesses. They might be half as many as the city lord''s men, but their levels...


    Level: 9 ¡ª Ascending Mage


    Level: 8 ¡ª Eminent Mage


    Level: 8 ¡ª Eminent Mage


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Warrior


    ...


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Warrior


    Five mages, five warriors, all of them wearing magic metal armor.


    One of the mages was an Ascender with an amazing armor, completely black, resembling a dragon with two horns on the helmet. Him being an Ascender made him powerful enough to speak directly to the rulers of the country, not to mention to purse an Eminence.


    "Miss City Lord''s Woman," Aaron spoke to the Eminence despite looking at the people from the Temple of Time. "I wasn''t aware that unlawful capture of people was allowed in this city."


    He was expecting either a weak agreement with him or a refusal based on the Ascender''s level. However, the local troops stepped ahead, standing between Aaron''s group and the Prophetesses'' men.


    "Stand down!" She yelled. "Showing yourself in metal armor is a breach of Lamia''s laws! Trying to capture someone without the agreement of the City Lord is another breach! Under the authority given to me by¡ª"


    She couldn''t even finish speaking before the Ascender pointed her finger at her and a black ray came out of it.


    The black ray went straight at the Eminence, trying to pierce her heart, but a white barrier appeared right between the ray and her armor. Her armor started to change as if it a layer of paint was slowly melting away, revealing an even more impressive white armor beneath, shining with blue gemstones. On the left breast of the armor, the words Immortal Crusade could be seen in bass-relief beneath the drawing of a black cross.


    The Ascender apparently wasn''t expecting that for he took a step back, stopping the black ray at once.


    The Eminence closed her helmet with a spell and a blue orb materialized on her hand.


    "Ascender William Horned-Dragon," she said, "you have attacked an agent of the Immortal Crusade. Surrender yourself at once!"


    The Ascender didn''t reply for a while. He looked at the Eminence, then to his sides and said with a trembling voice. "I didn''t know you were a Crusader!"


    She wasn''t moved. "For daring to talk back after being ordered to surrender, your offense has increased! Remove all your weaponry, present all your spatial items, and kneel! Now!"

 Chapter 25 - Battle

    Chapter 25 - Battle


    The five warriors from the Temple of Time immediately complied with the order, keeling and placing their hands behind their heads in surrender. They were just soldiers following orders; there was no way they would resist the Immortal Crusade!


    Ascender Horned-Dragon, however, was as decisive to attack as he was to flee. He immediately turned back and teleported away, reappearing a hundred meters away!


    His mage lackeys did the same, each one of them turning a different direction before teleporting. Or at least, they tried.


    When the Ascender left, the Crusader Eminence reacted with lightning reflexes. She cast a spell to lock the space around her, preventing all teleports from happening.


    "For resisting rightful imprisonment by the Immortal Crusade, you''re all deemed traitors of humankind. Your lives are to be relinquished at once!" She yelled and all nineteen people under her command moved into a formation.


    Maybe those four Eminences might have been reasoned with before, but when the Crusader declared then guilty, it made them even keener on fighting back or running away. They immediately raised magical shields around themselves, orbs materialized on their hands, and cast different spells.


    Three balls of lightning appeared in front of one of them, with lightning moving between the balls, forming a triangle. Then, the lightning turned into a circle and the three balls released lighting that met in the center of the circle, like a satellite antenna. Following that, the ball in the center shot lightning towards Lamia''s troops.


    The second Eminence shot a cone of fire directly ahead of it.


    The third Eminence focused on attacking the space lock using invisible space blades that Aaron could only feel but not see.


    The fourth Eminence created an ice wall around the four of them. The thick wall stood between the first two Eminences and their spells, but it didn''t hinder their spellcasting at all.


    Fire and lightning attacked the Crusader Eminence, the four Champions, and the ten Notable warriors. The Crusader Eminence created a wide mana barrier to protect all of them, while the Champions revealed their enchanted weapons, all of them swords with gems, and pointed them ahead.


    Every single sword shot Pure mana at the mana shield to strengthen it. It was the attack of two Eminences against another Eminence and a few Champions, so the two Eminences from the Temple of Light obviously held the upper hand. The warriors just stood ready to charge ahead or run away the moment they were ordered to do so.


    While the Crusader Eminence was being bombarded by fire and lightning, she was also creating big ice spikes above her head, readying them to shoot at her enemies, all the while also maintaining the spatial lock around the Prophetesses'' mages.


    Aaron and his group were being protected by the mana shield. He shook his head and sighed. "They look like bulls, stupidly using their heads to hit each other."


    His three companions looked disbelievingly at him.


    This was an incredibly dangerous fight that might be decided in a single instant and spell doom for them! The sheer amount of mana being used was corroding the stone tiles of the road, distorting the air around the battle, even cracking the walls of the nearby structures! People were running screaming on the street and sirens were resounding all around the city, alerting everyone to hide in their houses because a formidable enemy had invaded!


    And Aaron considered it... Stupid?


    He looked at Mark and Sara. "Look at them," he said with a condescending tone. "They have so much power that they get drunk in it. Their arrogance makes them unable to use more effective tactics to deal with their enemies. I bet if I explained to them how a simple earth-element spell could shake the ground and destabilize their opponents'' spellcasting, thus granting them victory, they would vomit some lines about a mage''s pride or something as useless as that. I wonder who benefits by keeping the mages so useless in combat." He sighed again. "Learn well, you two. When your life is on the line, there''s only victory or defeat, the means don''t matter. It''s better to be a dishonored living than an honorable corpse."


    Done with his speech, he acted. The four Eminences had attacked in a way that would take Aaron''s life if the Crusader Eminence hadn''t acted to protect him.


    It was time for payback.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting, Formation Mastery ¡ª Quad Elements: Earth, Space, Soul, Metal ¡ª Legendary Precise Earth-Space Spikes!


    Mana flowed from his body into the ground, traveled ahead and appeared underneath the four Eminences, who had simply not safeguarded the very ground they stood upon. Earth, strengthened by space mana, rose from beneath the stone road and shot towards the groins of the mages. Soul mana and metal mana analyzed and searched for openings in the metal armor while tiny spikes appeared from the big earth spikes, going directly for the openings that were found!


    The armors weren''t just for show and mana shields automatically appeared around them, protecting the weaknesses. But then, the spikes analyzed the mana shields themselves, which were made from formations and attacked the weak parts of them!


    Multiple big earth spikes appeared beside the first ones and soon, beneath and around each Eminence, there was at least eight big spikes, each one of them serving as the base from which the smaller, more precise spikes were created.


    The lightning Eminence''s armor was the worst. Its mana shield was easily burst by the spikes, which then found an opening on the armor itself, shooting directly at the man''s groin. Once the spikes tasted flesh, they kept increasing and reproducing inside the man''s armor and body! The soul mana of the spell also started attacking his soul, while the metal mana used the very metal of his blood to attack his arteries and destroy him from the inside!If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Strictly speaking, Aaron shouldn''t be able to attack an Eminence from the inside due to their soul resistance but there was always an exception, else mages would be nigh unbeatable even by others at the same level.


    When casting a spell, mages drew the signature inside their soul. As soon as the spell flared to light, it naturally required the soul to resist its power until the spell was released. It usually wasn''t an issue because the spell wasn''t targeted at the mages'' own souls and so they weren''t that damaging. Even Aaron''s most self-damaging level 7 spell would only use about eighty or so percent of a grade 7 soul resistance.


    However, it still used some of the soul''s resistance capabilities and, more importantly, it made the soul slower to resist attacks. The stronger the spell the mage was casting, the more vulnerable he became.


    Not only that, but Aaron was also using a dual attack, targeting both body and soul, to further overwhelm the man''s soul and make it slower to resist.


    It started a snowball effect and if by the time the man tried to use a spell to actively resist those attacks, it was too late. He died just like that.


    Aaron considered the armor of the lightning Eminence the worst because it still had defensive capabilities. However, unbelievably, the armor wore by the one responsible for attacking the spatial barrier was literally just for show.


    Except for the mana shield it created, which was a level 3 formation and easily overcome, it had no magical formations at all! It was there for intimidation purposes only. Aaron''s earth spikes directly pierced the armor like paper, going all the way through the man, coming out from his head.


    The Eminence responsible for the fire attack had the best armor and its mana shield resisted without a scratch.


    As for the Eminence responsible for the ice wall, his armor had one of the stupidest designs Aaron had ever seen.


    Magical armors were usually linked to the mage''s mana pool and it was obvious that safeguards had to be put in place to avoid it taking too much mana from the mage. The man''s armor, however, had no such safeguard and the magical formations in it consumed so much mana that he soon found his mana pool emptying at a ridiculously fast pace.


    Mere seconds after the spikes assaulted his mana shield, he found himself with less than half his mana! He wisely stopped concentrating on the ice wall, focusing instead on the spikes, using ice to freeze them in place.


    The Crusader Eminence felt the ice wall weakening at the same time the lightning stopped coming, even though she couldn''t see why. She immediately shot her two already formed ice spikes at the wall, which broke in smithereens; since the wall wasn''t being actively kept by a mage, it had become just common ice, which was easily destroyed by the mana infused ice spikes shot by the Crusader.


    Seeing the ice wall breaking, she started shooting more ice spikes while keeping some mana going into the mana shield around her, but just barely enough that it could hold against the fire cone when merged with the Champions'' mana.


    The fire Eminence stopped using his cone and created a fire wall to protect himself and his companions instead. That''s when he suddenly realized that two of them were already dead and the remaining one... Where had all his mana gone to?!


    Indeed, the ice wall Eminence had already lost most of his mana. The earth spikes attacking him were easily frozen, but more spikes simply came from the ground around the frozen ones. In the end, he decided to freeze the entire area, but due to his lack of experience, he simply forgot to step up as he did it.


    Due to that, he failed to create an ice barrier between his armored feet and the ground. He didn''t even think about floating! As such, the earth directly below his feet kept attacking his mana shield and consuming his mana.


    Not sure of what was happening or what he should do, he started taking out mana crystals to refill his lost mana, but the rate of absorption from the crystal wasn''t near enough to make up for the rate of consumption of his mana pool. Without any choice, he took out his last resort, a formation plate. It was a small metal disk with an inscribed formation that could be easily activated by inserting mana.


    He used what mana he had to activate the formation. It formed a strong mana shield around him, then his body shot away from there at a fast speed, almost as fast as lightning.


    Magical formations were the best way to bypass the level requirements for spells. As long as mana was provided, the formation would activate, regardless of the mage''s level. The formation he had just activated contained a grade 9 spell, something only an Ascender should be able to use!


    Indeed, he managed to shoot through the spatial barrier as if it wasn''t there but after mere fifty meters or so, his body dropped unconscious on the ground, completely devoid of mana. He had been too green behind the ears and too slow to use the plate.


    Finally, the fire Eminence found himself alone, fighting against another Eminence and four Champions. He didn''t even consider surrendering, for once the Immortal Crusade called upon someone''s execution, that person would be killed on sight!


    He, too, took out a formation plate and activated it. He was much more successful though, as his body shot away at fast speed, disappearing from everyone''s sight in a few moments.


    Although intense, the entire fight had taken less than a minute.


    And then, came the silence.


    Seeing there was easy loot to be had, Aaron acted quickly. His earth spikes moved inside the armors and took away the three Eminence''s spatial rings. He discretely moved them underground and took them without anyone noticing.


    He would love to also take their orbs and armors but when the Immortal Crusade marked someone, all their belongings were supposed to be turned to the Immortal Crusade. He wouldn''t push his luck even though they were technically his kills.


    Suddenly, Helina seemed to awake from her daze. She had never imagined the Temple of Time would attack the Immortal Crusade like that! And then, when she saw the first Eminence die, she had lost herself.


    Now though, seeing the three dead Eminences, she screamed. "No!" She put her hands to her head. "No, no, no!" She crossed her arms, hugging herself. "Nooo!" She crouched in a fetal position.


    Aaron looked at her with pity. Her whole life had been controlled by the Temple. Now, people from that organization had branded her traitor, had come to kill her, then died like that.


    Worse still, they were in the wrong for attacking Lamia''s troops without warning, then resisting the order to surrender when it was revealed that the woman was a Crusader, and even going as far as attacking the Immortal Crusade after that!


    There was no doubt about the Temple of Time being the bad guys in this instance, which was a heavy blow for her.


    "Well," he said to Mark and Sara. "That was a nice lesson for you. During your battles, be completely aware of your surroundings, since you never know where an attack is coming from. Let''s go. Helina, come, too."


    He called her out of pity. She should be given at least a night to recover before having to fight the Temple of Time again.


    Aaron turned to leave. Sara and Mark, as bewildered as they seemed to always be around Aaron, followed him in deep thought.


    The Immortal Crusade''s Eminence seemed torn between following Aaron, stopping Aaron, hunting the fugitive mages, or dealing with the warriors who had surrendered. In the end, she ordered her subordinates to imprison the warriors and await reinforcements while she accompanied Aaron.


    "Don''t you have to wait for reinforcements or something?" Aaron asked with a light tone.


    Her helmet opened by itself to reveal her face. It was disrespectful to hide one''s face during a talk if there was no enmity between the parties. "I respectfully remind you that you have no business in telling the Immortal Crusade how to deal with its own matters."


    "Sweet words," he replied sarcastically. "You know my name, what''s yours?"


    "You may call me Shadow One," she said.


    "Sweet name, too," he said with a laugh. "So, tell me, Miss Shadow One. Are you going to attack me, or not?"

 Chapter 26 - Phantom Realm

    Chapter 26 - Phantom Realm


    The Crusader Eminence had a dissatisfied expression on her face. "Most people treat the Immortal Crusade with more respect."


    "It''s not my problem what everyone else does," Aaron replied. "Are you attacking, or are you not?"


    She looked ahead and didn''t reply, but her firmly set jaws said enough. She was downright pissed with Aaron''s attitude, but he still hadn''t broken any law and she wouldn''t do it either.


    That was answer enough for him. She was just as bound by the rules as he had hoped; just like everyone else was forbidden from killing him while he was under investigation, so was she.


    Of course, he wouldn''t bet his life on that; that''s why he had bought enough counter-measures before allowing himself to be found by the Crusade. If she attacked him head-on, he had confidence that he had at least eighty percent chance of killing her and a hundred percent chance of fleeing.


    And he had no doubt an attack would come. He had learned in the memories he had watched, that the Crusade liked to use mind-reading to assert whether someone was a demon or not. He had a grade 12 soul resistance though and whatever spell she tried on him was bound to fail unless he allowed them to work.


    There was no way he would allow her to read his memories though. His value as an encyclopedia couldn''t be resisted by anyone and if his secrets were exposed, the entire world would compete for a piece of him.


    As for only showing her part of his memories, it was pointless, since she wouldn''t be able to determine if those memories held the secret of him being a demon.


    He was actually anticipating the battle, but first, he would try to lure her into a trap, which was difficult to set up without her noticing due to her being by his side. Especially since it wasn''t a simple trap, but one that could determine if she was friend or foe and force her to become a friend if it came to it or kill her if needed.


    As for the reason the Crusader wasn''t trying to read his mind yet, it was probably because protocol dictated that she tried a plethora of other spells first. As they walked, he could feel her casting the spells in a way that she thought was stealthy.


    Whatever the future held, he was prepared. For now, though, he kept moving toward the city gates.


    <hr>


    Helina Chosen had no idea why she was following the boy.


    Maybe it was the way he spoke, maybe it was the fear that had rooted into her heart when he effortlessly killed the two Eminences from the Temple of Time, or maybe it was simply that she had nowhere else to go.


    She felt dazed, as if she was living a dream, or maybe a nightmare. Her body moved, but her mind kept replaying the scenes from a few moments ago.


    <hr>


    Sara felt herself getting numbed to surprises the more she followed Aaron.


    He had an Eminence Prophetess whose destiny was protecting him? Nothing much.


    He, a Champion, had killed two fully armored Eminences and knocked out another one with a single spell? That was just natural.


    He, a twelve-year-old, talked to a Crusader Eminence without a care? There was no other way for him to talk to Crusaders.


    She couldn''t deny that a small part of her still whispered that these things could only be accomplished by a demon, even though she was free from the Ancestors influence. But Aaron''s had called her narrow-minded before as if whatever he was could be explained in other ways.


    If only he would explain it to her...


    <hr>


    Mark couldn''t stop thinking about the Herald''s words about honor and survival in battle.


    He had often wondered why he should care so much about the pride of his officers when his life was on the line. Why should he care for the shame of the mages to whom his life was worthless anyway?


    Now, the Herald had revealed how such thoughts only led to death and had also wondered out loud who benefited from it.


    If it had been a few weeks ago, Mark wouldn''t have cared about such thoughts. After all, it was just mage politics, nothing he should worry about, even though he had committed the stupidity of touching politics before.


    But now that the Herald had shown just how a bit of tactic could change a battle so much, Mark couldn''t stop himself from thinking that, indeed, maybe the mages weren''t as evil as he thought.


    Oh, they were evil enough, they cared nothing for the warriors. But they, too, were being used by powers greater than them.


    Mark had never even considered such a thing. In his heart, mages had always been almighty existences standing at the peak of the word.


    But the Herald was expanding Mark''s horizons. He kept changing the warrior with simple words.


    He was, indeed, the Herald of Change.


    <hr>


    The Queen was sitting on her throne, reading a few relatively unimportant reports just to make sure they were indeed unimportant; one had to make sure their subordinates were doing their jobs properly.


    A shadow materialized on the room, in kneeling position.


    "Yes?" She asked, without raising her eyes.


    "Shadow One found the boy," the shadow said with its genderless voice.


    "Oh." This time she did raise her eyes. "Elaborate."


    "Shadow One was in Lamia, running the information network to find him when he appeared in the city. He sold and bought many things, here''s the complete list." The shadow waved its hand and an envelope materialized on the ground.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The envelope looked inconspicuous but had been enchanted to only accept the Queen''s touch. Not even the shadow could touch it anymore, even though it had been the one who put the paper sheets inside.


    The shadow also didn''t dare use a spell to send the envelope to the Queen, as doing so was an offense punishable by death. Only the spells that made the shadows appear and disappear were allowed in the Throne Room.


    The Queen, who was obviously exempt from her own rules, used a spell to make the envelope float to her and started reading its contents.


    The shadow continued with her report. "His butler''s martial foundation is gone, and the boy is now also harboring a traitor Prophetess for unknown reasons. It led to a... Situation."


    Again, the Queen raised her eyes with interest, and now they were shining. It was rare for her darlings to hesitate when giving a report. Speaking about ''a situation'' was an obvious way of stalling for time.


    "Explain," the Queen demanded.


    "Shadow One was disguised as a local Champion Mage from Lamia and promised to protect the boy on his way to the Three Towers, when a group from the Temple of Time appeared, intent on capturing the Prophetess.


    "Shadow One chose to act on behalf of the boy, since he is under investigation and thus under the Crusade''s protection. The Temple''s group attacked Shadow One without forewarning and resisted imprisonment when they failed. There was even a battle, which revealed Shadow One''s status as a Crusader. She''s now overtly following the boy for investigation, only hiding her true level. Overlord Azure Silver is very upset, I heard that he might push for war against the Temple of Time in the next seating of the Immortal Council."


    The Queen put a hand to her chin. "Interesting. Not the war; such a minor offense like this cannot escalate that much. At most, the Temple of West Valdian will be eradicated, nothing much, but it''s only proper for Overlord Azure Silver to verbally announce adequate fury when being humiliated like this in his own city. Where was him at the time of the battle?"


    "In a pleasure house."


    "I imagined as much. His life is coming to an end and he just wants to be left alone. If he doesn''t push for war after such offense, he won''t find the peace he so desires since everyone will think they can play with him. Now, about the traitor..." She closed her eyes, getting in deep thought for a long time, then opened them. "Kill her. Overlord Azure Silver is old, but he still has connections that might benefit me. I want to present the traitor''s head to him as a gift."


    "The traitor is an Eminence, the only way to swiftly kill her is for Shadow One to show her true power as an Ascender," the shadow said.


    "An Eminence?" The Queen asked in surprise. "Wait for the investigation to complete first, then kill her."


    "What if the boy is found innocent but tries to protect her?"


    The Queen smiled in a malicious way. "We can''t touch him while he''s under investigation, not with the Warden of the East watching us so closely, but if he dares to stand against the Immortal Crusade after such protection is removed, only death awaits him."


    "Doesn''t it mean he''ll die either way?" The shadow asked with an approving tone.


    "Probably," the Queen said, "but the rules set by the Immortals are not to be questioned, only obeyed. Anything else?"


    "The purge of the capital of the West Dukedom has been completed. Shadow Two has the Valdian Kingdom in lockdown. Quasi-Overlord Firestar is cooperating fully."


    "Unfortunate," the Queen said, the meaning obvious for the shadow.


    A Quasi-Overlord was only one step away from joining the upper echelons of the Immortal Crusade. The Queen wanted nothing more than for him to do something stupid like resisting the Crusade and getting himself killed before he could become a political opponent.


    "Order Shadow Two to provoke him in non-incriminating ways. Nothing over the board, however, for the Council is paying close attention to the Valdian Kingdom. What else?"


    The shadow hesitated before speaking. "The Orb of Skellage was recovered by Overlord Fleeting-Leaves." Its voice was whispered in fear.


    "What?!" The Queen yelled, raising from her throne. "How?"


    She was counting on presenting the Orb to the Immortal Council to get rid of the Warden of the East once and for all.


    "We''re not yet sure but everything points towards the Seven Isles betraying us."


    "War!" The Queen yelled. "Ready the troops, we''re removing the Seven Isles from the map!"


    "At once, my Queen," the shadow said and vanished.


    <hr>


    Aaron went to the city gates only to find out that the city was in lockdown due to the situation with the Temple of Time.


    "Can you help?" He asked Shadow One.


    She said nothing, only looking ahead without any emotion visible on her face.


    "If you aren''t going to make yourself useful, could you just leave me alone?" He asked, only to be met with the same response.


    He sighed. If he had to stay in a city which had an agent of the Immortal Crusade on the city troops, he would rather do it on a safer environment. As for forcing his way out, it would expose his strength too much, he wouldn''t do so unless needed.


    He turned back without saying anything and went directly to the White Lotus Inn.


    "We''re finally sleeping in a bed!" Mark whispered excitedly as they approached the place.


    "Why did you choose such a bad place, Master?" Sara asked with disgust in her voice.


    "First, because this was plan B," Aaron replied. "Second, because I must teach you that there''s always more to things than meet the eyes."


    "Plan B, Young Master?" Mark asked, interested.


    Aaron smiled as they entered the inn. "We left the Royal Capital without extra protection for my own reasons, but there are some safe houses waiting for us on the way to the Three Towers in case we need it."


    The moment they entered the inn, every single one of the nine drunkards and the innkeeper looked at them then faked disinterest. That didn''t go for long though. Aaron raised his hand high, snapped his fingers three times and said, "Cell activation!"


    It was as if he had cast a spell that made magic armors immediately materialize around the bodies of the ten people. One of them pushed a table out of the way and pulled a fake section of the floor to reveal a stairway downwards, a few others locked the door and windows, and then, they all stood at attention in a row in front of Aaron.


    "Reporting for duty, First Elder Champion Aaron!" The innkeeper said.


    Check Level, Aaron thought.


    Level: 7 ¡ª Champion Mage


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Mage


    ...


    Level: 6 ¡ª Notable Mage


    The leader was a Champion, the other nine were all Notable mages.


    "What''s your name?" Aaron asked the leader, who wore an armor with common metallic color and white gemstones.


    "I''m Intelligence Agent Champion Darkfox, sir!" He said, almost yelling.


    Aaron nodded. "You''re a very professional man. Don''t it bother you to take orders from a kid?"


    "Yes, sir!" He replied with honesty. "But I was informed of your brilliant mind and I''m willing to give you a chance."


    "Oh," Aaron said and smiled. "Aren''t you worried that I might be a demon?"


    Darkfox smirked. "I''m usually active outside the Valdian Kingdom, sir. I''ve seen stranger things than a genius kid who thinks like a grown man."


    "Did you, now? What kind of things, if I may ask?" The boy asked curiously.


    "In the White Forest to the north, every tree can speak while they eat you. Is the entire White Forest filled with demons? On the Endless Desert to the west, the sand itself can take human form and use innate skills to show fake skin. Is a walking, talking, and thinking sand creature necessarily a demon? Dwarven kids are born with the size and knowledge an adult should have. Are all dwarves demons? Sentient herbs and medicine, beasts that can understand human speech from the moment they are born, fire elementals that can win in chess against human masters; this world is filled with things we don''t understand, sir, and the Crusade doesn''t seem to care about them. There are demons too, but just because something is different, it doesn''t mean it''s a demon."


    With a smile, Aaron turned to Sara. "See? A wise man once said there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy."


    And it was in a much more boring world than this, too, he completed in his mind.


    Shadow One sneered. "This talk is borderline treason. It''s because of people like you, who think like this and don''t take the right precautionary measures that demons managed to run rampant in the past."


    "Oh, right," Aaron said. "Darkfox, meet Shadow One. She''s with the Immortal Crusade, as showcased by the black cross and the ''Immortal Crusade'' written on her armor. Shadow One, meet Darkfox."


    They stared at each other without saying a word.


    "Darkfox," Aaron continued, "I hope you can protect us this night."


    "Yes, sir!" The man said.


    "Good. Down we go, people. This is a one-use-only safe house, especially now that it has been exposed to the Crusade. We better use it to the maximum. I heard you have mattresses and pillows made of Wind Fairy Wings in here?"


    Aaron started going downstairs, closely followed by Darkfox.


    "Yes, sir!" The man replied. "A lucky side acquisition from an operation in the Phantom Realm."


    "Oh, Phantom Realm?" Aaron said with interest. "That spatial realm controlled by the Dreamers? Tell me everything about it!"


    "Everything pertaining to the Phantom Realm is confidential information, sir."


    "Not anymore!" Shadow One suddenly said from behind them. "The Valdian Kingdom never received permission to enter the Phantom Realm! Under the authority of the Immortal Crusade, I order you to tell me everything you know about this unlawful invasion!"

 Chapter 27 - A Moment of Respite

    Chapter 27 - A Moment of Respite


    Darkfox shook his head. "You didn''t get my meaning, miss. Confidential information means only the Ancestors know about it. If I to have operate in the Phantom Realm, I''m told things about it prior to the job and then I get my memory wiped when I get back. Standard procedure."


    "Is that so? Then how do you know where the Wind Fairy Wings are from?" Shadow One asked with suspicions.


    The man shrugged. "That''s what the Ancestors told me."


    The Crusader was about to speak something else when Aaron barged in. "Or it might be just some random material and the Ancestors lied to him. Before you confiscate the pillows, let me remind you that he''s an Intelligence Agent, bound to live in the shadows most of his life. He takes these little comforts to heart and he''ll fight you to death to protect it. Is it really worth it to fight over a few pillows without the hope of getting any useful data out of it?"


    Just as he finished speaking, they finally got to the end of the long staircase, finding themselves in front of a small corridor and a closed metal door. Aaron could barely feel some mana disturbance coming from it, revealing it was an enchanted door.


    Darkfox went ahead and touched the door with his hand. It started to slowly open by itself.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting, Artificing, Formation Mastery ¨C Double Elements: Space, Soul ¨C Seventh Item Analysis!


    Aaron wanted to check on the door, to use his space and soul mana to check every millimeter of it in both the material and the soul planes. However, his mana went out of his control when it approached the door and he could find nothing about it.


    To be able to nullify his spell, this door had to be at least a Higher Artifact, something considered to be on the level of Eminences.


    Check Item, he thought.


    Item Check


    Name: Arl?in''s Door


    Grade: Peak Artifact


    Despite its annoyingly non-descriptive name, he found out that the door was even better than he imagined! A Peak Artifact was something highly valued in the family, something that was carefully protected by the Ascenders.


    Which made Aaron stop walking.


    There was no way such a good item would be in a temporary safehouse like that, especially when the undercover agent in charge was only a Champion. The most likely possibilities were that the door could veil its true grade to pass up as a higher graded item or that the safe house had been compromised, its people replaced, and Aaron was, in fact, walking into a cell created by them.


    "You don''t need to concern yourself with how fruitful my investigation will be!" The Crusader said and walked to stop in front of them. She pointed her finger to Darkfox. "I gave you a chance to cooperate willfully and you didn''t take it. This is your last chance, open your mind to be read by me right here, right now, or I''ll take you by force!"


    Aaron would normally try to prevent her from doing it since who knows what secrets an Intelligence Agent of the family might hide. But that was actually a very good way of removing his suspicions.


    Unless, of course, the woman was in on it and was making a scene to give Aaron a false sense of security after she ''checked'' on Darkfox and confirmed he was ''clear.''


    He sighed. He hated situations like this. He just wanted to get over with this world, not waste time and effort to figure how likely a simple door was to be a deadly trap. Even if he had to do it, he would rather not have to deal with potential turncoats and the like.


    But life wasn''t perfect, he couldn''t just ignore what was happening in front of him.


    Objectively speaking, it didn''t matter if the man was an impostor or not, since they would only spend the night in there and likely never see him again. Aaron just had to make sure whether the door, which might or not be a Peak Artifact, was a trap. And the best way to do it was to request the door for himself.


    If the man refused to give the door up, Aaron could simply leave. If he did present Aaron the door, it wouldn''t matter if he was an impostor or not. After all, if the man was an impostor strong enough to kill Aaron without subterfuge, he would''ve done it already, so the door had to be part of his ploy.


    The only issue was the Crusader. If the man was indeed an impostor who wasn''t in it with the Crusader and her actions blew his cover, Aaron wouldn''t be able to get the door, as everything related to a man under investigation would belong to the Crusade if something happened to him.


    To prevent potential loot from leaving his hands, Aaron ignored her and told Darkfox, "I want this door. Give it to me, then obey the lady."


    That order had the extra advantage of making Aaron seem compliant to the Crusade despite how he had treated the woman previously. Confusing one''s enemies was usually a good thing to do.


    Now things got complicated for real. The man might or not be an impostor, might or not be in it with the Crusader, might or not attack, might or not run for it, and might or not acknowledge Aaron''s orders.


    The Crusader looked surprised at Aaron, not expecting him to give the man the order to obey. And Aaron mimicked her expression when Darkfox nodded once and the door dematerialized.


    Then, he gave a small spatial bag to Aaron and sat on the ground.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Why the surprise?" He asked with a smug expression. "People like me have no such thing like privacy. Golems might be trusted for this line of work since they can''t betray their masters no matter what, but you never know when an agent might become a turncoat. My memory hasn''t belonged to me for a long time."


    That... Was something very strange for the man to say out of nowhere. Not his lack of privacy, but his bit on golems. It made Aaron wonder if the man was hinting at the Crusader being a golem.


    Such a thing was crucial information. Spells, formations, and traps to deal with humans were different from those that dealt with golems. More than that, if she was a golem and he couldn''t detect it, it meant that either whoever created her was a very talented Artificer, or that the golem itself was too strong for him and was only pretending to be a mere Eminence!


    Even though Aaron was confident that he could glue the clues together of her being a golem by himself in a few days ¡ª for instance, she had a high concentration of Earth mana inside her ¡ª, now that he was directly considering it, finding out the truth would be easier and faster. More than that, if the Crusader was a golem and attacked before he had even considered that option and a stronger one than he expected at that, he might actually die!


    Darkfox might just have saved his life! That was invaluable information and, in the future, Aaron would have to reward him for it.


    Unless he''s an impostor, Aaron thought and sighed. That was way too tiring.


    "Why didn''t you obey the first time?" Shadow One asked as she put her hand on Darkfox''s head. It seemed her curiosity was big enough that she couldn''t help herself from asking that even though she would have the answer in an instant.


    "I was told to obey the First Champion," Darkfox explained. "At first, he didn''t seem to want me to obey you."


    Shadow One closed her eyes and Aaron felt a mana disruption around her. Darkfox''s eyes rolled back on his head.


    "This is terrible," Helina said in trembling voice.


    Aaron looked at her. If her story was true and she was indeed a wronged pious Chosen Prophetess, she was going through a lot of things after being hunted by her own people, then seeing some of them killed, and now witnessing the ruthless of the outside world.


    Yet, that hadn''t shaken her faith in her Vision, following Aaron even in her state. Blind faith was both a scary and wondrous thing.


    "Let''s go, this mind-reading may take a while," Aaron said and went through the empty doorframe.


    They found themselves in a big common room made of metal walls. Aaron didn''t feel comfortable in such a cage-like environment, but at least the walls weren''t enchanted, and he could dig his way out of there if needed. Just to be sure, he used his Geoscan spell to check if there weren''t any objects, magical or otherwise, hidden behind the walls, ceiling, and floor. He found none.


    There were multiple doors in the common room, most of them leading to bedrooms containing two bunk beds. Everything was illuminated by a dim light coming from some crystals on the ceiling.


    Aaron chose the room furthest to the entrance of the common room. That was the best position in case they were attacked, as it would provide him with extra time to react.


    "This one is mine," he said as he approached it. "We don''t know when we''ll have the chance to sleep in a safe environment again, so sleep well tonight. Tomorrow, we''ll talk about our travel plans since it''s obvious that reaching the Three Towers won''t be easy." He made sure to say that aloud, so the Crusader would hear it.


    He got to the door, stopped, and said: "Oh, and Helina, clean yourself, yes? It''s not very hygienic to go around covered in blood." He closed the door as she lowered her head to check on her clothes.


    He lay on the bed and set up some wards, which is how alarm spells were called, and recalled all he knew about golems, from their creation to their weaknesses.


    <hr>


    Mark was feeling lost. Everything was just moving too quickly for him.


    He felt old and tired, his legs and back hurt after walking all day, and if it wasn''t for him having some willpower, he would have fainted from exhaustion already.


    The reason for his state was obviously the crippling of his martial foundation but knowing it didn''t make things easier for him. In fact, after seeing how the Herald of Change didn''t respect the Crusade one bit, he was having mixed feelings.


    That was another confirmation of Aaron''s identity as the Herald of Change since no one had ever dared to treat the Crusade like that that he knew of, but Mark also didn''t understand why he was collecting powerful enemies.


    Maybe it was because of the wisdom about obstacles helping with growth, something Mark had never heard of even though he had repeated those words to Sara as if they were a universal truth. He wondered if the Herald wasn''t just messing with him.


    He couldn''t forget that the Herald was a mage, after all.


    What if he was in it with the Immortal Crusade, the Temple of Time, and other mage organizations for some nefarious reasons? What if his aim was to hurt the warriors? His Valdian Martial Arts might be just a ruse for something bigger!


    Maybe the changes the Herald was about to bring weren''t beneficial to the warriors at all.


    Mark shook his head. He was thinking too much like a mage. He had kowtowed to the Herald and called him master. Unless the Herald did something that showed he was plotting against the warriors without a doubt, Mark would keep obeying the man.


    He got to the nearest bed and slept almost before his head hit the pillow made of Wind Fairy Wings. His last thought was that his head was hitting a paradise of softness.


    He dreamed of clouds.


    <hr>


    Sara felt relieved that they would talk the next day. She had many questions for her master.


    Every word from him up until now had contained interesting new teachings, from ''following your heart,'' to how to identify beasts from their markings in the forest, to how to track people without using spells, to how to fight in a ruthless way, and now, how obstacles helped with growth.


    He hadn''t been the one to speak about obstacles to her directly, but she knew that her master doted on the warrior for some reason and she had never heard the warriors in the family preaching such things before, even when she did an undercover operation among them.


    Aaron''s teachings resonated deeply within her. Literally. She was feeling it in her soul.


    She had been shackled by her true name for too long, her beliefs and understandings on magic and on the world twisted by all kinds of orders. Now, she felt her soul getting stronger each day.


    From a young age, she had been selected in a cutting-edge experiment. Lots of resources had been used on her to see how fast she could grow, and she became the youngest Champion in the family''s history at the age of nineteen ¡ª not that anyone but the Ancestors knew that, and now Aaron had surpassed her, anyway.


    But then, her growth had simply stagnated. Now, she recalled that a few weeks before anyone noticed the issue, she had gone on a mock mission, and it was the first one in which she was forced to kill an innocent just because she was ordered to for political reasons.


    That had affected her heart and thus became an obstacle for her growth, one that was unsurpassable unless she could free herself from those who had made her do it. Now that it had happened, she was growing again.


    That''s what made her start thinking of him as her master even when he wasn''t nearby and she was forced to call him so. Her stagnation that not even the family''s Ancestors could understand, he had pointed out as if it was just some common teaching that could be found in any place.


    Not to mention that he had saved her life from what she was beginning to see as unjustified enslavement.


    Even if he turned out being a demon, wasn''t he better than every other human on the planet who had never done anything for her?


    He was the one who freed her, not anyone else! The family had shown a bit of goodwill towards her, but what did it matter when their goodwill couldn''t save her? When such goodwill came after she was placed in danger because of them?


    That night, she vowed to serve and protect him as long as he didn''t do anything that she considered truly evil. Even if he was a demon, she didn''t care as long as he didn''t behave like one.


    But first, she would take care of the Prophetess on the ground, who had fainted just after realizing how much blood she had on her.

 Chapter 28 - Night Visit

    Chapter 28 -Night Visit


    When Helina heard the boy talk about her hygiene, she looked down, saw her blood-covered dress, and puked.


    She was already so socked from everything that happened her entire day, that seeing herself in such a humiliating state was too much for her.


    She passed out on her own vomit.


    <hr>


    Aaron awoke to a sound just like an alarm clock from Earth that only he could hear. Someone set his wards off, which meant someone had entered his room!


    He regretted for a millisecond that he hadn''t set up an attacking formation. Doing so required either too much mana or materials that were too expensive to be used every time he went to sleep.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Octuple Elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness ¡ª Seventh Quasi-Absolute Barrier!


    Two-fifths of his mana was spent with such speed and strength that it almost injured his mana pool. The rate with which the complex tridimensional signature of the spell formed in his soul was so fast that it was a feat of mana control. While doing so, he also rolled to the side of the bed.


    Eight layers of elemental shields appeared around him. Most of them weren''t just created out of nothing since doing so would require much more mana than he had.


    Metal and Wood were taken from the structure of bed he had been sleeping on.


    Water came from the air humidity and also some from his own sweat and blood.


    Fire was created from the heat of his own body and the friction of air.


    Water was taken from the air humidity and also some from his own blood.


    Earth came from the ground.


    Wind, Light, and Darkness were already in the air of the room and were bent to his will around him.


    Each layer was thin, especially the water one since he could only give up so much blood, but they were strong, and all of them were strengthened by space mana.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Wind ¡ª Seventh Floating!


    Since attacks could come from the ground, he used the Floating spell to avoid touching the ground, thus allowing his defensive layers to also cover him from that direction.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Double Elements: Space, Soul ¡ª Seventh Spatial-Soul Wave!


    Waves of space and soul mana left his body to all directions, disrupting any kind of stealth that might be used by the enemy, and also hopefully weakening any spell that might be coming his way.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Triple Element: Darkness, Light, Fire ¡ª Seventh Heat Darkvision!


    Any mage could easily see through their spells, even metal barriers because spells were an extension of their willpower. But Aaron went ahead and also cast Heat Darkvision to be absolutely sure he would be able to see his enemy.


    He became able to see anything in the room, no matter how dark it might be. Even if it was invisible, his heat signature might give it up!


    And as if that still wasn''t enough...


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Dual Element: Wind, Water ¡ª Seventh Spying Drizzle!


    Droplets of water appeared all around the room, allowing him to feel anything inside. It was the same spell he had used after sending the meteors on the tree people that wanted to capture him. The water also came from his blood, the last bit he was willing to give up for his defensive spells.


    It wasn''t that he was being paranoid about seeing his enemies, but that whoever had come for him was likely going for an assassination, and thus would most certainly be well versed in stealth spells. And if he couldn''t locate his enemy, he couldn''t attack them. Information was power, and in a battle, it might mean one''s life.


    With his defense taken care of, he prepared three different spells in his soul, one made of fire and ice, another of lighting and earth, and the third of time and space. He didn''t release them, only created their signatures in his soul with a tiny part missing, thus without igniting it with mana. He would see what was in front of him before choosing which spell to use.


    All of that happened in an instant. Meanwhile, he had curled himself into a ball as he floated in the air to decrease both the size of the target he created and how much mana was required to maintain his barrier. He was also floating himself to the side of the room to maybe dodge attacks that might already be incoming his way. Half his mana pool had been burned just like that.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    And yet, when he detected the invader, he discovered he had just might had wasted all that effort for nothing.


    Not that he would''ve done anything differently. That was his default way of waking up if he felt anything might be wrong ¡ª and sometimes even when everything was alright, just for practice.


    Helina was standing in there with eyes wide open.


    <hr>


    Helina woke up on a soft bed with the softest pillow she had ever used. It took a moment for her to remember where she was and what had happened, but when she did, she winced in psychological pain.


    Opening her eyes and looking around, she noticed she was alone in a bunk bed. Someone had brought her there and cleaned her dress.


    The room was underground, but all mages could more or less tell the time if they tried. Even those with the worst soul perception could feel the fire mana coming from the sun up in the sky unless they were thousands of legs underground or if it was night.


    And it was indeed night. She thought about all that had happened and put her mind in order.


    She had never experienced anything like that. Being hunted like an animal, betrayed by those who had treated her with the utmost respect, attacked without any consideration for her words.


    She had never killed before today.


    Helina hid her face in the pillow, crying copiously. Ever so slowly, she recovered her peace and decided what to do.


    It wasn''t a hard decision. She would keep doing what she had told to. She would protect the boy.


    Even if the Temple of Time had betrayed her, she still mostly believed in the First Prophetess, the one who started everything. She had done a lot to make sure whoever got a special Vision like Helina''s would choose to follow it. And even if the Temple had betrayed Helina, she still believed in most ¡ª if not all ¡ª of the things they had taught her.


    It had been people who had betrayed her, not her ideals.


    But first, she would need to talk to the boy and have him agree to have his soul investigated. He was too strange, a twelve years old kid who behaved like a merciless adult. She had to confirm that he was indeed not a demon.


    And if he refused, she would have to force him, for his own good. She was a Prophetess, which made her a True Guardian of Time and a Timeless Defender of Humanity. She believed in the First Prophetess, but that didn''t mean she would just blindly follow a kid who behaved like a demon without confirming his identity first.


    She got up, cleaned her face, ironed her clothes with a couple of spells, then went to find the boy.


    As soon as she opened the door to his room, she saw a flash of fire and a spatial-soul wave hit her hard, forcing her to step back. Thankfully, they weren''t attacks, or they might''ve hurt her badly.


    A mere instant after the waves, mist covered the bedroom and immediately extended to cover about a third of the common room, too. She could barely feel some mana in the mist that wasn''t a mist, but more like hovering droplets of water.


    And then, when she recovered from the flash of fire, she barely saw a ball of darkness levitating on the corner of the room.


    A voice came from inside it, containing a mix of curiosity and aggressiveness. "What do you want?" She recognized the boy''s voice.


    She was surprised at what she had just seen. He had reacted as soon as she approached! He had probably even set some wards beforehand, which she hadn''t felt. Even if he was a Champion, he was so young that he should barely be able to use a few Seventh level spells, much less with such speed. He had way too much control, too, for she couldn''t feel any mana being wasted on the casting of the spells.


    He had acted as fast as a seasoned warrior to protect himself, using at least four spells in an instant, the dark shield around him, the invisible wave that hit her, the spell to make him float, and the one to cover the area with the droplets of water.


    He definitely wasn''t a common child. In the day before, she might have immediately declared him a demon, even though Prophetesses didn''t like the Crusade.


    But now... Hadn''t the Prophetesses unjustly declared her a traitor without listening to her words, without investigating adequately?


    She had been humbled by the experience, learned from it.


    Also, she had been in a kind of daze when she came to this place, but she could vaguely recall a man speaking something about incredible creatures all over the world. Indeed, in her studies, she had read all about it. There was even some theory about magic mutations to try to explain it all.


    If other beings could mutate, why not humans? Why declare any different human a demon without thoroughly investigating it first? She understood the dangers involved, but wasn''t it best than attacking innocents, like she had been attacked?


    Anyway, it wouldn''t matter as long as he allowed her to check his soul.


    Recovering from her surprise, she said, "We need to talk."


    "Indeed," the boy said. "I know I have irresistible beauty, but you shouldn''t just come to my room in the night like this. I''m just a kid!"


    Her mouth almost dropped on the floor while her cheeks flushed and a deep sense of indignation filled her. She had forgotten how insufferable the boy was!


    "Shut up!" She yelled. "I have no interest in a boy like you!"


    The dark barrier around the boy opened, revealing a light barrier beneath it. It also opened, revealing a wind barrier, then an earth barrier, fire barrier, water, wood and finally, metal. They didn''t open completely, only enough for her to see the kid''s face looking at her with eyes that shone brightly, obviously filled with mana.


    She was even more surprised seeing that. What kind of spell could create that much defense with the mana pool of a Champion?! More importantly...


    How many elements was the boy able to control perfectly?!


    Helina herself only knew five elements, time, light, water, ice, and fire. And some of them she controlled so badly that she might as well not know them!


    But the boy... He had perfect control over eight of the ten Lower Elements! Defensive spells couldn''t just open like that unless the caster had perfect control over them, after all. And he had also used Spatial ¡ª a Higher element! ¡ª and Soul ¡ª another Lower Element ¡ª mana in the wave.


    She gulped. Mutation or demon? Which one of the two was the boy?


    For her own good and the good of humanity, she had to know.


    "Well," the boy said with a smirk, "since you dared to yell in indignation that loudly, it seems you didn''t come to assassinate me. I accept your request for talking. Leave the room, I''ll recover my mana and meet you in the common room in a few hours."


    She didn''t want to do it, but she could see the boy was already on the defensive against her and she wanted to give him at least a chance to open his soul to her before forcing it on him. To create a better impression, she complied.


    "I''ll be waiting," she said and left.


    But if her goodwill didn''t work, she wouldn''t mind showing her power as an Eminence.


    No Champion would resist her!

 Chapter 29 - Planning

    Chapter 29 - Planning


    Aaron canceled all his spells and sighed. Whatever the Prophetess wanted to talk about, he would probably not like it. He wanted to make sure he had as much mana as possible during that talk, just in case things went awry.


    Mages recovered their mana in two ways. First, passively absorbing ambient mana from around them. That way would allow Aaron to recover his mana in around two hours. Second, actively absorbing from any source. The source could be the very environment around them, too, or any place that had mana.


    The rate of absorption differed for each source, the kind of mana it contained, and how compatible the mage was with that mana. As a master of all elements, Aaron didn''t need to care for the kind of mana or its compatibility with him. Only the source mattered to determine how fast he could absorb it.


    Obviously, he had prepared for a situation when he quickly needed to absorb mana. The mana crystal coins were valuable also because they allowed for a relatively quick mana absorption rate, and he had many loars ¡ª Lower Artifact mana coins ¡ª at ready.


    Each loar could hold as much mana as a Champion''s mana pool and he could absorb it to recover his own mana in little more than ten minutes; in any world, money, or the right resources, equaled to power. He had ten loars prepared, so he was somewhat covered unless he was forced to spend mana fast enough that not even mana crystals could restore it.


    This time, he would just let his mana recover naturally. No need to waste his resources if there was no clear danger in front of him.


    He also wouldn''t waste the chance to give everyone false data on his regenerative capabilities. Four hours later, double the time he actually needed, he left the bedroom.


    Helina and Sara were sitting on a metal chair by a table in the middle of the common room. That furniture hadn''t been in there before, so one of them had taken it out of their spatial treasures. Since the furniture was too crude, he didn''t think it belonged to the pampered Prophetess.


    He guessed that the reason Sara was there was that the yelling from before had awoken her. If she had even slept at all, of course, as mages didn''t require sleep.


    Shadow One and Dark Fox were nowhere to be seen. Aaron hoped the man hadn''t been killed for knowing too much, or he would have to avenge him in the future. Killing Crusaders was bad business for a Champion though.


    Mark was also not there, but his snoring could be heard coming from a bedroom. Aaron smiled. The man should be absolutely exhausted. If it wasn''t for the slow walks on the Unleaving Forest, which Aaron used to help with his physical conditioning, Mark would''ve probably fainted from the walking and the heat the day before.


    Aaron went to the table and sat on the remaining chair.


    Sara stood up and bowed slightly. "Good night, master," she said with a smile.


    "Good night," Aaron replied with a nod. "Oh, right. As I told William," he used Mark''s fake name, "you should call me young master, not master, or people might find it strange."


    She nodded back. "As you will it, young master."


    "Good." He looked at the Prophetess, while Sara stood behind Aaron, a little to the side, exactly like expected of an attending maid. "So?" He asked Helina.


    Helina looked upset at his tone but replied with a pleasant voice of her own. "Would you care for enlightening me as to how a small kid like you can act like a grown man?"


    Aaron raised an eyebrow. "You woke me up for this? Couldn''t you have waited until morning?"


    The Prophetess at least had the decency of blushing, realizing her impatience. "It''s done already," she said without offering an apology. "We might as well get it done."


    He sighed. "Very well. I can''t tell you everything, for I''m too weak and my enemies would crush me in an instant if they discovered me." The Cage around the Universal Core was sentient and wouldn''t just allow him to live if he admitted to being against it. "What I can tell you is that I''m not a kid, I''m not possessed, and I''m not a demon."


    "That explains nothing," Helina said.


    "I know," Aaron said. "But what you think of me doesn''t matter to me. If you decide to attack me, the Crusader will crush you. At least I hope so since she seems keen on protecting me, enough to face three Eminences at once for my sake."


    Helina shook her head. "I want to help you, but I need to confirm you''re not a demon," she said.


    "If my word isn''t enough, what is?"


    "Your soul," she said. "Allow me to check it, together with your memories."


    Aaron laughed. He remembered the last person who had tried to read the memories from a being with eons of existence. The person had got so overwhelmed that he became crazy, literally. Luckily, with his grade 12 soul resistance, he could resist any mind reading and he would do so for the sanity of the Prophetess.


    "What are you laughing about?" She asked with displeasure.


    "I have no problem with it," he lied. "Sadly for you, there''s no way you can do it. You''re welcome to try if you want. Look, I''ll even remove all my items, just so you''ll be sure I''m not depending on any of them to resist you."


    He stood up and removed his clothes, his necklace of spatial rings, and the rings on his hands. Completely naked, he sat on the table. He only left a couple loars on the table beside him, just in case he had to defend himself and restore his mana while on it.


    "Oh, you''re welcome to try too, Miss Shadow One," he said, looking nowhere in particular. He couldn''t feel her, but he had no doubt at all that she was watching him from somewhere. There was no way she had been reading Shadowfox''s memories until now.


    Just as he expected, she appeared out of thin air, still wearing her armor that only showed her face. She had been standing in a corner of the room the whole time.


    Helina''s eyes widened yet again, seemingly not believing Aaron had agreed just like that.


    To be fair, Aaron should be upset by anyone asking for him to lay his soul bare for them, but Helina''s request was perfect for him to check on Shadow One''s soul. She would have to use her own soul to try to invade his and he might use it to determine whether she was a golem or not.


    Besides, he expected her to check on his soul sooner or later. It would be better if she tried to do so in a controlled environment.


    Thirdly, he had a hypothesis about her true power and it might be the chance to confirm it.


    The Crusader wordlessly touched his head, Helina hurried and did the same.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Aaron felt wave after wave of mana entering his body and soul, scanning every single part of it. Some of it was painful, some of it injured his body, and some of it tried to injure his soul, too.


    Helina''s and Shadow One''s soul were completely different. It wasn''t about form, both would look humanoid if he looked at them. It was about what they were made of, their textures, how they felt when touched.


    Helina''s soul behaved like a human''s. It was malleable, flexible, had some softness to it.


    But Shadow One''s power was like a huge rocky mountain hitting him! It didn''t necessarily mean she was a golem, but golems'' souls were constantly tempered by the Earth and Metal Elements that the golems were made of, and thus they tended to feel like those elements.


    What he felt next though, was even more important than Shadow One being a golem.


    Helina only showed an Eminence''s level of power. But Shadow One''s power completely overshadowed Helina''s.


    She was an Ascender!


    That was his hypothesis. When he saw Shadow One the first time and used Check Level on her, he saw that she was an Eminence with a veil to pass up as a Champion. However, during her fight, she managed to create a barrier to lock space that resisted the Eminence trying to destroy it, another barrier to resist the attack from two Eminences, and still mounted a counterattack.


    She had tried to act burdened by the fight, but even Aaron wouldn''t be able to do something like that if he was fighting other Champions in the same situation. There was simply no way he would have enough mana to withstand the all-out attacks from three other Champions in two different fronts, which showed that either he mana pool was too large or she had access to a treasure that aided her with it.


    There was also the very strange fact that the Temple of Time''s Ascender had immediately run away without even trying to save his companions as if he wasn''t confident in being able to do so.


    Since then, he had suspected her being more powerful than the average Eminence, and now he had confirmed it!


    She was most likely a golem though, not a Mage. Her soul was likely from a human, which had been put in the golem, but she was like a beast, with access to magic in a different manner than humans. What magic exactly depended on many factors he didn''t know of, like the materials used on her construction, the formations placed on her, what kind of core she was using, her elemental constitution, and even how long she had been functioning.


    What he did know was that she had only shown Eighth-level spells when going against the Eminences, but Ninth-level spells when trying to infiltrate his soul. Maybe she didn''t think he would recognize soul spells, or was too anxious about doing it, or even only had access to Ninth-level spells of the Soul Element.


    Regardless, her mana pool was Ascender-level and she was bound to have some cards on her sleeve.


    All of that meant he had to change his plans.


    To begin with, he wouldn''t be able to talk her into betraying her master and joining his side; golems were absolutely loyal to whoever controlled them. If she had been a Champion Golem, he might have tried to ''hack'' her and forcibly take control of her, maybe even an Eminent Golem, but he couldn''t do so to an Ascending Golem.


    Also, the trap he required to deal with her should be fit for an Ascending Golem who might be a human Ascending Mage, and it had to be infallible, or she would kill him the moment it failed. But the only way to achieve that with his Champion power was by making her trust him enough to analyze her and understand what she was made of, so he could adapt his trap to her.


    He...


    He wasn''t sure he could make her trust him. He had ways to improve his chances, but he couldn''t be sure.


    He would plan for it, but he would also look for an opening to flee from her. Plan C would be borrowing an uncontrollable external power to deal with her while he fleed.


    Thus, he formulated plan A, plan B, and plan C, and he just had to luck out with one of them to survive. Unfortunately, luck had to be part of his plans.


    Meanwhile, Helina and Shadow One assaulted his mind repeatedly. He didn''t protect himself; he merely didn''t open his mind, and his soul resistance protected him passively. Strong dizziness and mental pain befell him while they tried to weaken his mind to invade it. If his soul was any weaker, his mind would''ve been broken by the powerful attacks.


    In fact, despite Helina''s attacks being of the Eighth-level, her attacks were almost as effective as Shadow One''s Ninth-level spells. Aaron could vaguely feel that her mana wasn''t coming from her body and guessed at her using a treasure to achieve that.


    The process took hours. It had been a long time since Aaron was put under so much pain for so long, and he found it... Interesting.


    Pain. He had long forgotten how horrible it could be. How effective its usage against weakly-willed people was. If he was just a demon and not a reincarnated Origin Immortal with eons of experience lapidating his willpower, he would''ve failed to resist the drilling spells.


    As it was, he ignored it and used the opportunity to analyze all the spells that were used on him. Even though he couldn''t see their signatures, by feeling their power, the mana they were made of, and their effects, he could analyze them to a degree and be inspired by them.


    About three hours later, Helina gave up. Blood was coming out of her nose and ears and she was whiter-than-white pale. The failed attack had cost him dearly.


    Two hours after that, Shadow One was the one to take her hand off of Aaron and step back. She, however, was looking perfectly fine.


    Aaron immediately used a spell to heal his body, stood up and put his clothes back on.


    "This is impossible," Helina whispered, then said aloud, "I saw what she did, how could you resist it?" She turned to Shadow One. "The power you used was-"


    "Prophetess!" Shadow One said, interrupting Helina. "You will stand out of the Immortal Crusade''s business, or I''ll make you!"


    Helina, who had recovered a bit in the last hours, paled again and shut up. Aaron confirmed then that Shadow One didn''t think Aaron would be able to detect her true power through her soul attacks.


    He finished clothing himself. "I told you that you couldn''t do it." He smiled and decided to lay the bait for his trap before Shadow One became frustrated and attacked him directly. "Now, can we discuss the plans for the future? I''m sure the Immortal Crusade must be dying to know what I plan on doing with my life." He said provocatively and hoped it would keep her interest. "Sara, wake Mark and get Darkfox to prepare breakfast for us."


    "Yes, young master," she said.


    Shadow One frowned while looking at Aaron but didn''t attack. He considered that a success.


    <hr>


    Less than half an hour later, Aaron, Mark, Sara, Shadow One, Helina, and Darkfox were sitting around the table, which was filled with all kinds of food.


    "This is delicious," Aaron told Darkfox. Although the food couldn''t compare to some of the things he had eaten when he stood at the top of the universe, it was still great.


    "Thank you, First Champion," Darkfox said.


    Sara poured Aaron some juice as soon as he emptied his cup.


    Aaron was surprised at her recent docility, but he had seen stranger things. The mind of people could work in mysterious ways sometimes.


    Shadow One wasn''t eating but looked more anxious by the minute. Aaron believed that he had postponed her next attack by speaking about his future plans, and now that her mental state was unstable it was time to lay the second, most important bait.


    "Alright, people," he said with his mouth full. "Tomorrow, we''ll start our journey to the White Sea."


    Although it was called a sea, the White Sea was, in fact, a huge area covered by salt as far as the eye could see. Some believed it was a natural geographical feature, while others believed it had been created by magic. It was brimming with Earth and Metal mana, and many smith artificers had set up their workshops in there to increase the quality of their items.


    "Are we visiting the Flying Continent?" Sara asked excitedly.


    The Flying Continent was, as its name suggested, a huge landmass that floated somewhere in the almost endless oceans of that world. Each continent had portals that led there, with the portal of the Fire Continent located at the White Sea City. The portal was a big source of revenue for the city.


    "No," Aaron lied; the Flying Continent was the escape plan he had decided upon, and a fort city on the way had the power he wanted to borrow. "I seem to find an enemy every other step of my journey and the best armor at a relatively close location can be found there, so I''ll go and buy one. If I''m lucky, I can also find a flying ship with good defense. I miss my carriage dearly."


    He turned to Darkfox. "I want you to deliver Firestar a message for me."


    "I''m sorry, but I can''t, sir," he said with an apologetic voice. "I have other matters to attend to."


    "It wasn''t a suggestion," Aaron insisted. "I''m ordering you as the First Champion, in the name of the Valdian Family, using the Urgency Protocol."


    The Urgency Protocol was a tool available to any Notable Mage or stronger in the family, which allowed them to control any other person in the family as long as it was a life-threatening situation. It could override any other order except if an Ancestor told the family member receiving the order to ignore the protocol.


    It wasn''t an absolute order; both the people giving the order and the one receiving had to agree that it at least might be a life and death situation. If it wasn''t, the one who gave the order would pay the consequences for it, and pay dearly. On the other hand, if it was but the person receiving the order didn''t consider it so, that was the one who had to pay.


    It worked that way to discourage fake usage of the protocol, while at the same time encourage family members to help each other in case of great need.


    Dark Fox frowned at that. "I don''t see any urgent issue in here, sir."


    Aaron didn''t hide his displeasure. "Are you kidding me?"

 Chapter 30 - Onward to the White Sea City

    Chapter 30 - Onward to the White Sea City


    "I''m being hunted by the Temple of Time for harboring someone they consider a traitor," Aaron said, "an Immortal Crusader is following me and actively investigating me, I was ambushed twice before reaching the city ¡ª once by an Eminence, another time by beasts ¡ª, and hunted by a crazy Duke of the family. Is that proof enough of my life being in grave peril?"


    The man stood straight at his chair. "Hunted by a Duke? Which Duke?"


    "The Duke of the West, of course. I killed a domain wraith in the Unleaving Forest, and he showed up a few days later with an army to kill me. I was lucky that they provoked a lot of beasts in the forest before they managed to get to me."


    "So it was really you," Dark Fox said.


    "Me what?"


    "The Immortal Crusade decided to investigate the Duke after he sent an army hunting for three people without apparent reason. They discovered him to be in cahoots with demons, there was even a pool filled with blood in his basement. The Capital of the West was vanquished by the Crusade, the Duke is missing, and the entire country is under lockdown for investigation purposes."


    It was Aaron''s turn to frown. "What do you mean, lockdown?"


    "Flying ships filled with Crusader Mages are stationed all around the country, maintaining a mighty spatial formation that prevents anyone from entering or leaving unless they have special permission from the Crusade. The Ancestors themselves are behaving like lap dogs to the Crusade, doing whatever they can to please them so they leave as soon as possible."


    Aaron turned to Shadow One. "You can get us past the barrier, right? I must get to the Three Towers and if I have to wait, I won''t be able to visit the White Sea City first."


    "The investigation will probably end in a week or so," the Crusader explained. "It should take us longer to get to the country''s borders."


    White Sea City was two weeks away from Lamia.


    "How so?" Aaron asked. "It will only take one week to investigate the entire nation?"


    "There are more formations being used than just a spatial lockdown one," she replied without providing more specific information.


    That made sense. It seemed that finding demons who hadn''t yet used demonic magic was very difficult, as seen by the Crusader who was personally investigating him, but a simple formation allowing people to spy anywhere in the country, and enough people to do the spying, and the chances increased considerably.


    Not to mention that a formation to detect demonic magic would do wonders to find the demons who weren''t that good in hiding, especially if news about the investigation was kept suppressed. Aaron, for instance, had spent an entire day in the market and heard nothing about it.


    "Even if it''s not complete by them, they don''t want to waste more resources keeping us in lockdown for much longer than that, unless they find something big, or the Ancestors piss them off," Dark Fox said.


    That also made sense. An Overlord might be powerful enough to fuel a formation to lock space around a nation, but it was unlikely that he would waste his time like so. Thus, equivalent mana energy had to be spent, be it by using Ascenders or mana crystals.


    In either case, even by wasting an Overlord''s time, the Immortal Crusade wouldn''t want to just keep the spatial lockdown going on forever, especially in a small unimportant country like the Valdian Kingdom.


    Aaron nodded. "So, not only was I ambushed by the Duke of the West, but he''s also a demon-lover fugitive wanted by the Crusade. It should be enough to prove my life is in danger, right?"


    Dark Fox nodded. "Yes, sir. Even though the Immortal Crusade is required to protect you for at least three days, that''s not enough time in your circumstances."


    "Wait, the Crusade is required to protect me?" Aaron wasn''t aware of that, Sara had said nothing either, and even the Eminence hadn''t known it.


    It was clear that Dark Fox was a very special intelligence agent. The door, his identification or knowledge of Shadow One being a golem, his knowledge of the Crusade rules despite being only a Champion, everything pointed to there being more to the man than met the eyes.


    "That''s enough," Shadow One said.


    Dark Fox looked at Aaron. If the latter ordered the former to disobey the Crusade, Dark Fox would, but he would rather not.


    Aaron shook his head. "Anyway, the message to Firestar. Will you deliver it?"


    "Yes."


    "Alright," Aaron said. "Tell him to go fuck himself."


    Everybody in the table, including the Crusader, froze in surprise.


    "I..." Dark Fox started.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Aaron smiled. "Don''t worry, he''ll understand. It''s a code between us."


    It wasn''t a code between them, but Firestar would understand. After losing control over Sara, and probably over Mark too, then being told to go fuck himself, Firestar would be aware that Aaron had figured some of the man''s ploys and wasn''t happy about them.


    "Alright, sir," Dark Fox replied without much conviction. It just wouldn''t be healthy to tell the most powerful man in the family to go fuck himself even if it was a coded message, and Dark Fox was already regretting having agreed to deliver it.


    "Good." Aaron turned to Mark. "I found something in the market that will allow us to begin your training sooner." He produced a black flower from his spatial ring.


    "What is this, young master?" Mark asked, his eyes gleaming in happiness for being able to get strong faster.


    "A simple Dark Moon Flower, a fifth-grade ingredient. It can store an ability signature inside, which can later be forced upon the body of a warrior, speeding the process of learning new martial techniques. Sadly, using it consumes it, and although its grade is low, its rarity makes it expensive. Only wealthy warriors end up using it."


    "It will allow me to learn a technique before my body is fully healed?" Mark asked, trying to guess how it could help him.


    Aaron shook his head. "No, we''ll try to test a conjecture of mine. As you know, one of the reasons warriors fail to learn Martial Arts, sometimes dying in the process, is that their bodies have muscle memories that affect their movements. The new Valdian Martial Arts change that by using both martial movements that are more familiar to anyone and completely different movements that won''t be affected by faulty muscle memory.


    "Now, your body is healthy enough to keep walking for an entire day, but I still won''t allow you to practice Martial Arts. Why? Because a big part of your life was dedicated to the faulty Martial Arts that you learned previously and you still have muscle memory from that time. Although the new Valdian Martial Arts are harmless for a newbie warrior to learn, the same cannot be said for people who already learned different Martial Arts before. Your mind is almost hardwired to work in different ways.


    "Originally, I''d need to completely erase your memories from the faulty Martial Arts for you to be able to learn the new Valdian Martial Arts, but since your whole life as a warrior of the Valdian Family was based on the faulty Martial Arts from an early age, erasing that many memories would leave you almost like a toddler, incapable of even walking straight.


    "By giving your mind one month to create new memories of how to walk, run, eat, and so on, you''d be able to act like a proper adult after I removed the memories from the Martial Arts from you. And even if such walking and eating are somewhat based on your existing muscle memory, they should be different enough from the Martial Arts themselves for you to be able to learn the new Valdian Martial Arts without any risk."


    Aaron fidgeted with the flower for a bit. "But then, I found this Dark Moon Flower. The way it acts is by affecting muscle memory, making it seem as if you practiced the ability signature many times before, thus making it easier for you to learn it. But what if I give you an empty flower? It was tested before, but only on a warrior with an existing martial foundation. If I give it to a warrior whose foundation was crippled though... I believe it will destroy your muscle memory without having to remove your conscious memories."


    Muscle memory was a fancy name to the unconscious mind. Sadly, only Ascenders had enough control over their spells to affect the unconscious mind, so he could only use the right medicine instead.


    "But there''s a risk," Aaron said, lying. "Are you willing to risk it?" He wanted to test Mark''s conviction.


    "Yes!" The man almost yelled, then lowered his voice, embarrassed. "Yes, please, young master."


    Mark didn''t refuse it due to the high cost of the flower, despite thinking about it. It was only proper for a subordinate to accept his master''s care without making it embarrassing for the master. Of course, the subordinate also had to engrave that kindness to his heart and do his best to repay the master.


    Aaron smiled, and made the flower float to Mark. "Crush it."


    Mark obeyed. A black aura covered his body for a mere moment and quickly faded away. It was only a low-grade item, after all, despite how useful it was.


    He looked unsure at Aaron. "I... I feel different."


    "How so?"


    "I''m not sure..."


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Air ¡ª Legendary Levitate Object!


    Aaron used the spell to shoot a tiny pebble at Mark. The warrior saw the pebble coming, his eyes widened. And that was it. Mark didn''t try to dodge, didn''t get tense, or did anything that a man with decades of training should do. He just stared at the pebble as it hit his forehead and bounced harmlessly out of it.


    "It worked," Aaron said. "We start your training this night. Let''s finish eating and see if we''re allowed to leave this city."


    <hr>


    Aaron bought four common horses for him and his companions, Shadow One said she would rather walk.


    Even though the city was still in partial-lockdown, Aaron''s identity as a member of the Valdian Family allowed them to leave this time.


    Of course, he had to remove his disguise, but not even Helina was surprised by his true identity. It didn''t matter, though; the only reason he had used it was to prevent immediate capture when entering the city and delaying the Crusade finding him for just enough time to buy the right things.


    Aaron told Helina to keep her Mana Sense spell going at all times since the Prophetesses could come for them at any moment. He also kept using Spatial Waves every now and then as to prevent any stealthy enemies from approaching.


    The White Sea was located northwest of Lamia. To reach that place they would ride in a straight line there, using a wide road created and maintained by merchants. At the end of the road, they would reach the Wyvern Pass Fort, the border town of the Valdian Kingdom.


    Wyvern Pass Fort stood at the foot of the mountain range that marked the end of the Valdian Kingdom, and the start of the White Republic, as was called the small country that made the White Sea its territory.


    Death''s Shadow was the ominous name of the mountain range. The survivability for Champions traveling through it was one to ten, and for Eminences, one to five. Even so, the rewards for merchants who survived going through it twice, forth and back, were among the most profitable in the entire continent. It was a great temptation for the brave and the desperate.


    The White Sea was the perfect bait for a golem. It was a place filled with Earth and Metal Mana, where golems received a boost to their power. Now, Aaron only had to show Shadow One how awesome he was, so she wouldn''t dare to attack him before she had the perfect opportunity.


    Finding out from Dark Fox that he had two extra days to amaze Shadow One had been a blessing, albeit not one he really required.


    Throughout the entire day, they saw only a few people traveling the road paved by yellow stones. Nothing noteworthy happened, except perhaps for the great food Sara cooked. Aaron kept silent, thinking about spells, formations, and his plan to get rid of Shadow One. At night, they set up camp to the side of the road.


    "It''s time," Aaron told Mark. "Let''s begin your training."


    And also begin impressing Shadow One, he thought.


    "Yes, young master!" The man replied, filled with anticipation.

 Chapter 31 - First Training Sessions

    Chapter 31 - First Training Sessions


    Aaron had to impress her in an inconspicuous way that could also hint at being a good idea for her to allow him to analyze her. The best start was by showing great theoretical knowledge on things other than magic and philosophy that could also be useful for golems.


    He put his hands to his back, standing straight in a regal position. "I told you before that following your heart is the most important thing to unleash all your potential and grow strong, and that starts with deciding if you even want to become a warrior!"


    Mark, who was in front of Aaron, looked at the boy with confusion. Everyone else, who were scattered around the two of them, also had at least a frown on their faces.


    Aaron could guess what they were thinking and continued. "Just because a man has the talent for music, it doesn''t mean he must become a musician. What if he wants to be a baker? Just because a person with the mage gene can learn spells while others can''t, it doesn''t mean he should focus on magic. What if he has a humble heart and wants to grow a crop to feed the poor? And likewise, just because you can train to become a powerful warrior, it doesn''t mean you have to do that. If you try to do something that goes against your heart, you''ll eventually hit a bottleneck that will prevent you from growing further. Even if you get strong and rich enough, you will be miserable, living an unhappy life, incapable of finding peace and fulfillment. Therefore, the first thing you must ask yourself is: do you want to grow stronger? Do you want to become a powerful warrior? Is that what your heart truly aches for?"


    As simple as Aaron''s words were, they came as a shock to everyone in there. Mark looked astonished at the Herald. "I... Don''t need to become a warrior?"


    That concept went against everything everyone had ever heard. Sara had been trained from an early age to become a powerful mage, Helina, to become a Prophetess, and Mark, to become a warrior serving the Valdian family.


    Shadow One had been created to be a powerful servant!


    In a world where power defined everything, where the Immortals reigned not because they were the best to lead humanity, but because no one could oppose their strength and decisions, it was absurd to even think about not pursuing the path of power if one could, especially those with the mage or warrior genes.


    They had obviously heard about some Inepts choosing what to do with their lives, but for a mage to choose not to pursue the magic path or a warrior to choose not to pursue the martial path... That was unheard of.


    Those words made Mark''s heart tremble. Did he want power? Or did he want something else? What did his heart yearn for?


    Silence befell the area, only broken by a carriage that passed by the road not far from where they were. After a long period without an answer, Aaron spoke.


    "As we travel, you''ll test your hand in anything you feel even vaguely curious about. If you want to know how it feels to be a waiter, you''ll tell me, and we''ll arrange it for you to work as a waiter for a day or two. It''s the same for trying to be a farmer, a miner, a lumberjack, a smith... I''ll also force you to try some professions that I believe might be a nice fit for you, like a butler."


    Aaron winked. "That doesn''t mean that you must give up on training as a warrior, as it could still help in other ways. How more effective can a farmer, a miner, a lumberjack, or a smith be if they have the power of a warrior to help them? Even if your life goals change, it doesn''t mean you can''t also strengthen your body on the side when you have the time. And at this moment, you have nothing but time."


    Aaron''s serene face turned into a serious one. "So, stop lazing around and get in horse stance! Put your guard up! Punch! Punch! Punch! Your back is not straight! Punch! You''re too high up, lower your stance! Punch!"


    The next hour was the harshest training Mark ever went through.


    <hr>


    The road went through small forests and a couple towns.


    Mark felt grateful for the horses, for his entire body was sore. Although riding was physically demanding, it was better to not have to walk.


    To everyone''s surprise, no one from the Temple of Time came after Helina. Even Aaron had expected some sort of confrontation.


    Aaron took the silver door from his ring a few times. He used small strands of mana to try and feel the boundaries of the magic formation that prevented him from analyzing the door. If he could feel the boundaries, he could try to find a weakness. Alas, he failed every time.


    The formation was that good. Sometimes, it allowed Aaron''s mana to get closer. Other times, it would be stopped meters away from the door. The only way for him to feel the door would be by binding it to him.


    Bound items could only be used by the one who bound them, and the user got total control over the item, which would allow the Aaron to stop the formation that prevented him from feeling the door with his mana. Binding items was usually as simple as placing a drop of blood or a bit of spiritual energy in the item.


    However, a person could only bind items when the grade was equal or lower to his level, considering the Level-Grade Table. To bind a Peak Artifact, he would have to be an Ascender, something that was way out of his reach, for now.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    He kept trying to find the formation''s boundaries but focused the most on improving his Myriad Arts.


    <hr>


    On the third night after leaving Lamia, when Mark was getting used to the simple movements of keeping an instance and punching ahead, Aaron started Sara''s training.


    Which, of course, would also showcase how being analyzed by him could be fruitful, to plant a seed of doubt on Shadow One''s heart.


    "Open your soul to me," he told her, "and cast the spell you believe you''re best at. I''ll check how it goes."


    "Yes, young master," she said with a bit of shyness.


    One''s soul was an intimate thing that one simply didn''t open to anyone. Sara wasn''t really willing to obey, but the promise of greater power was too tempting to refuse.


    Aaron cast a spell.


    Myriad Arts ¡ª Spellcasting ¡ª Single Element: Soul ¡ª Seventh Soul Check!


    As with all his spells, this one''s name was simple and self-describing. Soul mana left him and entered Sara''s soul, filling every part of it, allowing Aaron to feel exactly what was going on inside.


    "Cast the spell," he ordered, and she obeyed.


    Inside her soul, her mana pool was like a shining ball filled with mana, like a miniature white sun. When she cast the spell, tendrils of transparent white light appeared all around her mana pool, pulling mana from it.


    The pulled mana formed a complex spell signature in her soul. Aaron recognized it as being the signature for the Sixth Warband Song Spell, a spell that affected the enemy mind to make him believe he was standing before a mighty army that was about to crush him.


    She took a few seconds to form the spell, correcting wrong lines here and there multiple times, sometimes even replacing right symbols with wrong ones before bringing the right symbols back.


    When she was sure she had got it right, she activated the spell. The signature shone bright, becoming a kind of shining white gas, that was then removed from her soul and sent on the air, targeting a nearby tree.


    Outside her soul, the spell was invisible, so except for noticing the disruption in the ambient mana, no one was able to tell she had cast a spell.


    Aaron stopped his own spell and looked at Sara.


    "What a mess," he said. "You''re a Champion, so you should be using your grade 7 mana control to the utmost, but the drawing of the signature is pitifully slow and inaccurate. How many times a day do you even practice drawing the signatures in your soul, if at all?"


    She blushed, embarrassed. She knew she wasn''t the best mage around, but Aaron''s evaluation of her was even worse than she expected. He hadn''t said much, but he had said enough. As to his question, she could only lower her head in shame.


    "Less than I should," she replied.


    "From now on, practice all spells you know until you can cast them in one second at most."


    "Yes, young master," she replied weakly.


    "How many elements do you know?" He asked.


    "Five," she said with some pride, but also fear of his evaluation.


    "Not bad," he nodded, "but you can do better. From now on, at all times you''ll be either increasing your spell casting speed or trying to understand new elements. Forget about everything else, including becoming an Eminence. Even if you become an Eminence, your capabilities will be so weak it won''t matter."


    She nodded.


    "I recommend focusing on one element at a time," Aaron continued. "Come to me if you have any doubts and I''ll answer them to the best of my ability."


    Seeing Sara wordlessly nodding again, Aaron suppressed a sigh. If even an undercover agent like her couldn''t take criticism, this world''s mages were worse off than he thought.


    Without identifying one''s weakness, it was much harder for one to improve. He was doing her a big favor in guiding her like that, even if he was a bit too blunt.


    The best way for her to learn was to cope with it though, so he didn''t offer her any comforting words.


    <hr>


    Timelord Overlord Fleeting Moment arrived flying at the scene of a big battle. A great crater was on the ground, and soot was everywhere.


    He was a man with a big black beard and long black hair held in a bun. He wore a black robe with silver details, and the symbol of the Timelords ¡ª the outline of an hourglass ¡ª was sewn in orange on his left breast.


    On the ground below him stood a man clothed like him, but he was a mere Ascender. Fleeting Moment landed and the man bowed low, saying, "Master."


    "Waters of Yore," Fleeting Moment replied. "Why did you call me?"


    "The Immortal Crusade asked for help in reading the past in this place," Waters of Yore replied.


    "I''m aware. Why am I here?" Fleeting Moment was an Overlord, and even kings would pay incredible sums for mere moments of his time. And yet, here he was, using his valuable time to help his disciple for free.


    Waters of Yore gulped. His master''s temper wasn''t good, and if he decided Waters of Yore had wasted his time, the punishment would be harsh.


    "At first I thought someone had used a time spell to veil the past in here, but that''s not the case," Waters of Yore explained. "Time here... It was shattered." Fleeting Moment didn''t reply, and Waters of Yore got anxious and kept talking. "The responsible is supposedly only a Champion, and I could easily see through any veil at Seventh level. But no matter how much I try to see back in time, I hit a place that my spells consider the very beginning of time in this place. I''ve never seen anything like this."


    Fleeting Moment raised his hand, silencing Waters of Yore, and cast a spell.


    Tenth Revolution of Existence!


    Space and time trembled. His consciousness was ejected from the material plane, and he found himself in a dark place filled by uncountable streams of light that moved like rivers without beginning or end. They floated everywhere in the darkness, sometimes twisting themselves around each other in complex ways, although they never touched. The minimum distance from a river to another was of about thousands upon thousands of legs, while sometimes they are as distant as billions of legs.


    The Rivers of Time came from the past and traveled to the future. The future was hidden by fog and hard to navigate, but all he had to do to read the pas was look back.


    He focused on the river closest to him, where the history of the entire world lay. In the waters, he saw myriad images containing scenes of everywhere around the world right at this moment. He focused further, and the river turned into the union of uncountable streams connected to each other. His focus kept going until he found the stream that showed images belonging to the place his body was at.


    However, a session of the stream had been damaged, shattered, which blocked his vision from going further back. The stream still floated, as if that missing bit wasn''t important for the continuity of time itself, but the Timelord knew better. The mage world was fragile, and if a few thousand such shattering happened without being fixed, the world itself might crumble! The main mission of the Timelords was to watch over the Rivers of Time and prevent that.


    Thankfully, with a mere twist of his will, the stream was fixed, and he saw everything that happened there.


    Most importantly, he saw the one responsible for doing that to time.


    Damaging the time-continuum of the world was the worst offense one could make towards the Timelords. The second worst offense was using the time element without the guidance of the Timelords or the Temple of Time!


    That boy had committed both offenses.


    He had to die!

 Chapter 32 - Wyvern Pass Fort

    Chapter 32 - Wyvern Pass Fort


    "I''ll report this matter to the Immortal Crusade myself," Fleeting Moment said and flew away without giving any explanations.


    Waters of Yore let out a breath he hadn''t noticed he had been holding.


    <hr>


    Six days after leaving Lamia, they reached the border town located at the foot of the rocky Death''s Shadow Mountains.


    Wyvern Pass Fort received its name from the mountain pass it oversaw, the Wyvern Pass, one of the least dangerous routes to be found in the mountains.


    The fort''s architecture was a blend of Earth''s medieval architecture and magic. The stone walls surrounding the fort were tall and thick, and the fort itself resembled a vertically elongated box.


    Each stone was enchanted for resistance, and defensive formations were drawn on the walls and fort proper using gold.


    Enchantment was nothing more than another name for formations. Mixing formations was a complex job that no one in the Valdian Family was capable of, yet that one belonged to the Valdian Kingdom. In fact, that fort had been built by the Fire Emperor himself after the family paid him ten lorels, the Lower Relic coins, the most valuable of them, for it. It had bankrupted the family and they still hadn''t recovered from it even after a hundred years.


    The reason for the fort location wasn''t the White Republic on the other side of the Death''s Shadow Mountains, but the monsters coming from the mountain itself.


    Indeed, just as Aaron''s group saw the fort at the distance, they also saw hundreds of small wyverns flying over it. Once in a while, one of them would try to attack the fort, but a transparent dome would materialize from the walls and repel the attack.


    That was the common state of affairs in the fort, forever under siege, always being tested for weaknesses. Yet, Aaron thought the beasts looked more agitated than usual.


    There were hundreds of people a bit ahead on the road, mainly merchants, with some farmers and a few mercenaries here and there.


    The moment they saw Shadow One, a big commotion issued.


    "Crusader!"


    "The Immortal Crusade is back!"


    "We''re saved!"


    People looked at her as if she was God incarnate. Aaron made a gesture to Mark, who inclined his head to listen to Aaron''s command.


    "Learn what happened," Aaron ordered.


    "Yes, young master."


    Mark disappeared among the crowd. Meanwhile, Shadow One ignored everyone, and no one had the guts to approach her on their own accord.


    A few minutes later, Mark reappeared and reported: "Flying ships belonging to the Immortal Crusade appeared about one week ago. They killed the wyverns in the area and rebuked new attacks from bigger and more dangerous beasts. They left yesterday, and since then, the wyverns are attacking anyone who tries to enter or leave the fort. And if they get attacked, they cry for help, bringing a massive beast attack from every direction."


    Aaron nodded. "Typical animal behavior. A mighty beast probably claimed the mountain range and wasn''t happy with the Crusade''s show of force. It now wants to make a point to us and to its subordinates, else they believe the territory lord is weak, and start having ideas about taking the territory for themselves."


    "Aren''t you assuming too much?" Helina asked.


    Everybody looked at her. She had said almost nothing since they left Lamia, and it was a surprise for her to offer an opinion now.


    "Explain," Aaron said.


    "I mean..." She crossed her arms defensively. "You only received a brief report of what happened. How can you conclude there''s a beast who wants to show its power to its subordinates?"


    Aaron nodded. "Good question. I have great knowledge concerning animals and beasts in general, and I have studied uncountable different situations. There are other possibilities, of course, but the one I described is the most likely to be the right one."


    "How old are you? Twelve? Thirteen? How can you have studied ''uncountable different situations''?" She insisted.


    He was getting tired of this. "I find it amazing that in a world filled with wonders of magic and ruled by mages who can make rain fire at a whim, people can''t think of time-dilation spells and formations as a possible solution to questions that plague them. You let your logic from when you were common humans define you, instead of evolving your mind together with your magic and power. I can think of three different ways a twelve-year-old like me would have lots of knowledge and behave as a human. Moreover, none of these three possibilities was what happened to me, so there are at least four different ways for it to happen. Stop being lazy with your suppositions and investigations! You''re a fucking mage, start thinking like one!"


    His sudden lashing was delivered in an angry, loud voice. Everyone around, including the strangers, stared at him with different expressions, going from astonishment to nods of agreement.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    He sighed. "We have wyverns to kill. Let''s begin."


    "Young master," Mark said with a hesitant voice, "isn''t it better to try to go for a different route?"


    "A warrior mustn''t be fearless," Aaron said, "for it will lead to his early demise. But a warrior also shouldn''t retreat in defeat before even seeing his enemies." He pointed at the spectators. "If these bunch of weaklings lived to tell the tales of such magnificent attacks, including beasts surrounding anyone who approaches, this means their tales are exaggerated at the very least or fabricated lies at the most. We''ll kill some wyverns and see what else comes at us. Then we will decide what to do.


    "Fear is useful, but only when you don''t run away at every accounting of danger you hear." He shook his head. "Those in power want you all to behave like dumb cowards, and to survive, your unconscious minds have submitted. But I need real people, with their own thoughts and some guts. Remember that."


    Without further ado, he dismounted and stepped ahead.


    The crowd opened a path for the conceited kid who talked like an arrogant adult, their faces betraying their dissatisfaction with his words. If he was calling his own servants dumb cowards for not wanting to attack the wyverns, didn''t it mean everyone in there were the same? Who did he think he was?


    Most of them would''ve physically assault a child who talked like that to them, but that kid was different. He was accompanying a Crusader, had an Eminence and a Champion as companions ¡ª even daring to offend them without being punished for it ¡ª, and was a Champion on his own right. Whatever was going on with that group, it was obvious way beyond those merchants and mercenaries to interfere with.


    Aaron walked fearlessly between everyone, speaking loud and clear: "No one, beast or otherwise, shall stand in my way and leave unscratched!"


    The formerly clear sky suddenly became heavily clouded, the clouds seemingly condensing out of nowhere, all of them heavy with water. Thunder sounded repeatedly, while a show of lightning lighted the skies and the earth below.


    "Myriad Arts," Aaron said, to make clear for everyone who was the responsible for the incoming attack, "Spellcasting, Triple Elements: Water, Wind, Lightning." He made a pause as he raised his arm in the air for dramatic effect. "Seventh Lightning Storm!" He lowered the arm quickly, like the falling blade of a guillotine.


    As if following the movement of his arms, lighting descended upon the wyverns from the skies. Everything happened so quickly that they had no time to even decide if they wanted to run from the forming storm or not. Thousands of lightning rays rained at them, all of them hitting the wyverns without a single miss.


    It took only an instant for the wyverns to get attacked and die crying in pain and terror for the unforeseen deaths, but the storm didn''t disappear. At the same time, the wyverns'' bodies fell and hit the transparent dome on the fort, hundreds of lightning rays hit the sideways of the road leading to the city, stopping a few meters away from Aaron, who protected himself with magic.


    It was a statement of mighty, a threat to any beasts nearby who wanted to attack him.


    The lightning storm took a bit over ten seconds, but that was enough to almost blind and deafen anyone who didn''t protect themselves. The wyverns corpses fell without they managing to protect themselves.


    "Learn well, my butler, my maid, and my... protector," he spoke sarcastically about Helina''s position in the group. "Beasts only respond to power, and power you must show. Even if you want to parley, that only comes after you prove that you are the one on top."


    The speed of the coming of the clouds and the power of the lightning defied the laws of physics. For the skies to be covered like that, water had had to be created out of nowhere, and indeed, Aaron had done just that. It cost him seventy percent of his mana pool to cast that spell, mainly because of the conversion of mana to matter ¡ª which also didn''t follow common laws of physics ¡ª, but it was worth it.


    Especially due to giving a reminder to the Crusader that she would better wait for them to get to the White Sea before she made a move on him!


    "Let''s go," he said, without turning back to see if his group was following.


    <hr>


    The moment the Champion kid before her cast the spell that controlled the weather so well, Shadow One concluded that he wasn''t a demon.


    She knew more than many in the weak West Region, including the theories of long-range spellcasting. She couldn''t use such spells for fear of the weaklings of the West Region being enlightened by her and rising to heights they weren''t supposed to, but she knew how they worked, and they required an incredible amount of control, the least of which being perfect grade 7 control.


    Her knowledge also allowed her to be aware that demons simply couldn''t cast long-range spells without using demonic magic. Not because they didn''t have the potential to learn, but because the better the control a demon got, the more mana itself escaped it, a paradox only solvable by demonic energy. Those were the rules of the world, set by the Immortals themselves, and no Champion demon could bypass them.


    The control the kid showed in the bedroom, and now the control to cast the spell he called ''Seventh Lightning Storm'' were proof of him not being a demon.


    And they were proof that he needed to die.


    The Immortal Crusade was officially created to hunt demons, but its secondary and secret purpose was to prevent new Immortals from appearing. New Immortals were supposed to be groomed by the current Immortals from an early age, with the rules of the world adequately drilled on them, else they might rebel.


    The current Fire Emperor was an example. He was the only Saint in the Fire Continent not because he was the only talented person who could achieve Sainthood, but because all other mages were told, as soon as they became Ascenders, that becoming a Saint meant certain death on the hands of the Immortal Crusade!


    Sometimes though, the culling had to be done from an early age, as soon as a mage showed too much potential. This kind of people was too proud and often disregarded the warnings of the Immortal Crusade. Many a crusade had been declared because a genius became a Saint. Officially, of course, it was said that the Saint was a demon.


    At first, a small part of Shadow One wanted to spare Aaron, because she had a soft spot for warriors, and he was their ''Herald of Change.''


    But now...


    Now, every fiber of her was decided on killing him.


    A mage such as him would undoubtedly have thought of emergency measures to escape. Even her being an Ascender herself, she wasn''t assured that he might know some secret spells that would allow him to flee from her, and he hadn''t shown any special attachment to any of his followers, which made kidnapping them to pressure him a dubious line to follow.


    So, she would wait. Wait until he delivered himself to the place where she would be the most powerful, the White Sea.


    It wasn''t far, now.


    As soon as they got a few hundred meters into the White Sea and she became capable of defending herself even when fighting against Overlords, while also easily blocking all his routes of escape, she would attack swiftly and certainly.


    But first, she had to get to Wyvern Pass Fort and sent word of her decisions to her master, the Queen.


    Shadow One''s beloved creator.


    <hr>


    When Aaron arrived at the gates of the fort, no beast had appeared to try and stop him. Everyone in the road, plus his original companions, followed him in silence, most of them fearful of the lightning that would hit the ground now and them.


    Many times they had to circumvent the smoking corpse of a fallen wyvern.


    However, they didn''t expect that as they approached the gates, it would remain closed.

 Chapter 33 – Colonel Eminence Deadfire

    Chapter 33 ¨C Colonel Eminence Deadfire


    Aaron looked at Mark and nodded with his head. The butler understood what that look meant, bowed slightly and stepped ahead.


    "Open the gates!" The butler yelled.


    No one replied. Aaron frowned and lightning befell the fort, stopped by the transparent dome.


    Mark swallowed and turned to Aaron. "Young master, I..." He yelled over the deafening sound of thunder. "The fort is not manned by wild beasts... To act this aggressive..."


    Aaron said nothing. Lightning kept falling for a few minutes. When he finally stopped it, he spoke. "The Wyvern Pass Fort is commanded by Colonel Eminence Deadfire," he said loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, and anyone using a hearing spell over the walls, too. "He is not part of the Valdian Family but was granted his command in recognition of his services. And yet, not only he refused to come at the rescue of people who wanted to enter his city but were besieged by beasts, he now bars the way of the First Champion of the family! He is no wild beast, my butler, he is something much worse. A traitor!"


    As soon as he finished speaking, the gates of the fort screak, opening slowly. Not the smaller gates that common people used on a daily basis, but the large ones, almost as tall as the walls themselves, that only opened in situations such as when armies were leaving to battle for glory.


    And indeed, on the other side of the gates, a battalion of fighters stood ready.


    At the head of the battalion, an Eminence mage was mounting a Horned Nightmare Wolf, a Five Star black wolf the size of a horse, with red eyes that seemed to release a kind of fog and pointed antler-like horns on its head. The man wore an impressive red armor with red gemstones that seemed to release flames, an optical illusion that showed that they were high grade fire gems.


    Behind the man, on black horned horses that were Three Star beasts, stood five lines of five men, all of them Champion mages wearing enchanted plate armor. Further behind, on foot, five hundred mages, from Five to Three Stars in level, stood ready, wearing armors that looked a mix of leather, with some plate parts here and there. Finally, behind the mages, there were thousands of warriors in all kinds of armor.


    To the sides of the army, one story houses made of solid iron and inscribed with magic served as an extra layer of protection in case of an invading ground army. The magic in them included self-destruction formations, as to prevent the enemy from using them as cover.


    Other than the battalion, the streets were empty.


    "Who dares call me a traitor?!" The man at the head bellowed.


    "Look at your army, traitor!" Aaron replied without any fear. "You''re allowed to have five Champions at your call at most!" That was the whole reason for the family to commission the fort, so they could defend the mountain pass with a small contingent. They naturally wouldn''t allow anyone to amass such a strong army without supervision, especially on the edge of the country! "But you have twenty-five! You can have a hundred mages at most, but you have five hundred! You can have a thousand warriors at most, but let me guess that you have five thousand! You can hire five times your numbers in case of an emergency, but do you expect me to believe people this strong, and even their mounts, just happened to be in the fort while it was besieged, and thus closed to outsiders? Do you dare lie to my face like that, Colonel Eminence Deadfire?!"


    Although the man was a Colonel and an Eminence, Aaron was part of the ruling family. He was royalty, and as First Champion, his position was way above Deadfire, who wasn''t a Grand Elder due to not being a Valdian. Firestar had also taught Aaron some political intricacies of that world, especially concerning the family, and Deadfire was known to be on the verge of rebelling.


    They couldn''t even do anything to him before he actually betrayed the family because he was an honorary agent of the Immortal Crusade, which made him untouchable unless he acted against the rules of the Crusade itself. There was a difference between forced membership, like what happened to all Ascenders, and being an agent, even an honorary one, which had a much greater status. Overlords, on the other hand, were big figures in the Crusade, even more important than agents.


    Of course, since Firestar didn''t seem to care about it even on the verge of losing such an expensive gift, the expensive fort, Aaron could guess that it had hidden mechanisms to allow the family Ascenders to easily get inside and get rid of opposition. But now, the man had acted against Aaron.


    Not protecting the fort and its commerce, even with such a formidable army, was already reason enough for anyone in the family to be pissed with Deadfire. For him to dare to not immediately open the gates as soon as the First Champion was seen, was an enormous slap to the face of the family!


    Photos of every Eminence and Champion in the family were sent to all corners of the kingdom, and it was law that every person should know them, to guarantee that they would be properly received. The Valdian Kingdom was ruled with an iron hand, and although Aaron didn''t agree with every rule, he wouldn''t allow anyone to just rebel against his family like this!Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    After all, there was a chance that he might have a use for the family in the future. He didn''t want it to weaken before then.


    The man yelled furiously. "You dare insult me again, kid?!" His horned black dog stepped ahead and seemed restless. "You dare say that to my face?!"


    "Are you still not kneeling in front of the First Champion, traitor?" Aaron crossed his arms. "This is your last chance to beg for forgiveness before I get tired of your insolence, officially declare you a traitor, and enact your punishment right here, right now."


    Normally, only an Eminence could punish a Colonel for treason like that, but as a First Champion, it was Aaron''s prerogative, too.


    There was a long silence before the man raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Three extra mounted Champions, almost a hundred new mages, and countless new warriors appeared from the nearby houses.


    Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Are you opening rebelling, then?"


    Deadfire sneered. "A kid with the power of a Champion, a child speaking like a man. As an honorary agent of the Immortal Crusade, I declare you a demon!" He said confidently. "To be purged immediately!"


    Before he could do anything else, a snort was heard coming from everywhere, and Shadow One stepped to the side of Aaron. "I accuse you of using the Crusade to further your personal goals," a genderless voice said, filling the ambient. Aaron guessed it came from Shadow One. "Do you plead guilty?"


    Deadfire turned his face slightly to look at her. "Who in the Depths are you?"


    "I''m Shadow One, an Extended Agent under an Overlord whose name you''re not worthy enough to know," she said, and in the even longer silence that followed, even Aaron got worried for his future.


    In his questionings about the Crusade in Lamia, he had learned a lot about it. Overlords ruled the Crusade in the absence of the Emperor Saint. These Overlords ever so rarely sent Extended Agents to act on their behalf, who had the same rights and duties as the Overlords themselves.


    At first, Aaron thought Shadow One was just a common Crusader, but now, she had declared herself to be much more. When he killed her, the Crusade wouldn''t just show some weak anger at losing such a precious treasure like her, but an actual leader would get downright pissed at Aaron for killing their Extended Agent!


    He suppressed a sigh. She had to go, for she hadn''t cared for his safety when reading his memories and would''ve killed him if his soul resistance was slightly worse. For him, that was as good as attempt murder, and he wouldn''t just forgive her for it. Fortunately, now that he knew what to expect after he was done with her, he decided to use the most decisive of the escape plans he had drawn.


    "Speak, Honorary Agent Eminence Deadfire!" Shadow One said, still using the genderless voice that came from everywhere. "Do you plead guilty?"


    "I..." Deadfire was lost on how to act. "Senior Agent, he is a demon!" He pointed at Aaron. "Help me get rid of him!"


    "Not only you use the Crusade to further your personal goals, you even dare to try to beguile an Extended Agent!" The voice said, filled with fury, then emotionlessly proclaimed: "Die."


    And die Deadfire did. His body suddenly fell from his mount, hitting the floor like a potato sack. There was no mana disruption that Aaron could feel, so it should be some remotely controlled spell or item placed on Agents'' souls to guarantee their obedience.


    "This fort is now under lockdown by the Immortal Crusade," the genderless voice said, and the gates suddenly closed with a loud boom. "Everyone inside will be investigated and properly judged. Until then, the people outside might either go back or accompany me as we cross the Wyvern Pass."


    It wasn''t a surprise to Aaron that she could easily control a place created by the Emperor Saint, who obviously wouldn''t want something he created being used against his group.


    It also wasn''t a surprise that Shadow One prevented Aaron from taking control of the fort and the people inside. She didn''t want him using them against her. As for the merchants and mercenaries, they didn''t matter; they were just weaklings that could be used as cannon fodder as they traveled the Wyvern Pass.


    Most of them weren''t suicidal though, and only a single man decided to follow the group through the mountains. He was a short thin young fella with a messy beard and worn out leather clothes. It was the first time Aaron saw someone wearing glasses in this world, which together with the very subtle mana disruption he felt from it, made him immediately want to identify it.


    Check Item, he thought.


    Item Check


    Name: Double Spectacles


    Grade: Lower Artifact


    The name of the item said nothing about what it was used for, but the fact that an Inept was wearing a Lower Artifact ¡ª something around the level of a Champion ¡ª, told tales of either a powerful background or overwhelming amounts of money. Or both.


    He was carrying a backpack filled to the brim and had two spatial rings, something way beyond the means of any common Inept. More importantly, to guarantee his life despite showing such wealth, he should also have many live saving treasures with him.


    The youngster had a tired expression, and despite being an Inept, he didn''t seem to fear even the lightning that was still falling everywhere from time to time.


    Aaron distrusted him greatly.


    "I''m Lo," he said as he joined the group. "Nice to meet you," he continued, still without feeling any awe when facing the First Champion of the Kingdom, or even an Extended Agent of the Immortal Crusade!


    "Aaron Valdian," Aaron presented himself and everyone did likewise, except for Shadow One.


    Aaron felt a bit frustrated for not entering the fort. His original plan required him to use a formation, and he had wanted to take the time in the fort to inscribe a formation plate, a disk of metal especially made for being scribed.


    Now, he would have to do things the hard way. He hoped enough beasts attacked his group, so he could gather enough of their blood for his purposes!


    "Leave the horses," he said as he stopped his Lightning Storm, taking mana coins to fill his mana pool as they stepped towards the Wyvern Pass.


    <hr>


    Mark didn''t know why the One-Who-Serves had joined the group.


    Although the mages knew almost everything the warriors did in the shadows, there were some shadows that only select warriors were privy about, like the man wearing double spectacles!

 Chapter 34 - The Wyvern Pass

    <h1>Chapter 34 - The Wyvern Pass</h1>


    Mark himself, even when he was a Four Stars Warrior, wouldn''t be qualified to know the man if he wasn''t the strongest warrior in the Valdian Kingdom. It had been the One-Who-Serves that had ordered Mark to hide his strength from the family, for unknown reasons. At first, Mark hadn''t been keen on doing that, but after he understood who exactly the One-Who-Serves was, all his hesitations left him.


    Seeing the man, Mark''s heart was in disarray.


    What if the One-Who-Serves went into odds with the Herald of Change? What if one of them ordered him to attack the other?


    He would obey any order from any of them, as long as it wasn''t aimed at hurting the other! But if he refused any such order, it would be the same as picking a side and falling out with the other party.


    He only hoped this day never came.


    <hr>


    The Wyvern Pass was a narrow passage on the rocky Death''s Shadow Mountains. It went up and down a few mountains until it reached the top of the tallest peak around, then it went directly downwards.


    Going over the peak was a gamble. A mighty Ascender beast lived there, but it sometimes let people pass. No one knew why, as there had been no survivors, but people speculated that it was due to its irregular hibernation periods that it didn''t kill just everyone who went through there.


    It said a lot about the Death''s Shadow Mountains where a place where certain death might come depending on the erratic sleep patterns of an unknown beast was part of a relatively safe path.


    "I''ll go first," Aaron said when they reached the narrow path. "Mark comes after me, then Sara, and finally, Helina."


    That was the best arrangement possible. Mark, the weakest one, would be the one with the best protection, followed by Sara. Helina, whom Aaron considered kind of a part of the group, but not entirely, was the strongest of them and would obviously be responsible for protecting their back.


    He didn''t consider the Crusader''s position because he couldn''t boss her around and she would just do whatever she wanted. As for Lo, Aaron didn''t trust the man, who wasn''t his guest anyway. As long as the two of them didn''t try to get between Aaron''s own group, or backstabbed him, he wouldn''t care about them.


    They started going up the first mountain at around midday. It was a steep path that usually required them to actually climb, always with stone walls to both sides that provided protection from the beasts in the mountain.


    It was a hard climb, and about five hours later, Mark was panting, barely able to continue forward.


    "Let''s eat," Aaron ordered as soon as they reached a flat area where two people could sit side by side.


    Sara took out cooking utensils, but Helina intervened. "Cooking will attract beasts," she said.


    "No problem," Aaron said. "I can protect Mark, and you two need the practice if you want to be any use to me."


    Helina''s face twisted. "I''m not your underlying."


    "But you want to protect me, don''t you?" Aaron said. "After everything you saw me do, can you honestly say I need your protection?"


    Her face got even angrier, but she said nothing. Aaron smiled and turned to Sara. "I want something tasty."


    "Yes, young master," she replied submissively.


    He then turned to Mark and sighed. "I wanted to take a few days in the city for you to become a One-Star Warrior. I''m sorry we couldn''t."


    Although frustrated, Aaron didn''t blame Shadow One for doing her best to isolate him. After all, they were bound to enmity, and she was doing what her position required of her. He wouldn''t blame the lion for eating the gazelle, or the gazelle for trying to avoid her fate. To him, the Crusader was nothing more than a gazelle whose future had already been decided for her, and she was simply struggling as best as she could.


    "Young master, it is no issue at all!" Mark said quickly. "It''s my honor to be able to serve you even if I''m as weak as an inept. I''m sorry for slowing you all down though."Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Aaron waved the butler''s concern away with his hand. "Nonsense. As much as I say you should become stronger to better serve me, it''s also a master''s obligation to care about his subordinates. You''re doing your best, and that''s all that matters."


    His words won him looks of admiration from Mark and Sara, and of deep thought from Helina. Only Shadow One and Lo, who were walking behind the group, seemed to not care about it.


    "Young master, may I ask a question?" Mark asked a few moments later.


    "Sure," Aaron replied.


    "Why are we going through the Wyvern Pass? With the power of all mages in the group, you could surely create a much safer underground tunnel."


    Aaron nodded. "Good thinking, but the true danger in the Death''s Shadow Mountains lays in the underground. Long ago, a dwarven city was located down there. The dwarves abandoned it for an unknown reason, and they were in such a hurry that they left many natural resources behind, the kind that can attract even Ascending beasts for their strengthening properties. For yet another unknown reason, the city was occupied by beasts before we humans were even aware of the dwarves emigration. After many failed expeditions, mages understood that only Overlords have any hope from returning alive from down there."


    Mark paled at that. "I... I...."


    Aaron smiled. The butler had just suggested his master do something that would undoubtedly lead to his master''s death, and right after his master showed care, too. Something like that would be considered treason and be punishable by death even when dealing with the kindest employer.


    "You''re ignorant," Aaron said. "Not because you want it, but because you were made like this by the mages who ruled over you. I won''t punish you for being it, especially considering you intended well with your suggestion. On the other hand, I do expect you to do some research on the potential dangers of any place you suggest me to travel in the future."


    As innocent as that mistake was, it could have proven fatal. Aaron was one to forgive unintentional mistakes the first time they happened, teaching better ways as he did it. But if Mark didn''t learn better, it showed he either didn''t care about it, was incompetent, or had bad intentions. Therefore, from the second time onwards, punishments would have to be delivered.


    "Thank you, young master," Mark said, filled with gratitude.


    <hr>


    They ate without any issue, and no beast appeared for the remaining of the day. Even as they stopped for the night, Helina hadn''t detected any beasts nearing their positions.


    "Young master," Sara said after they also ate at night. "I have a few questions about the elements."


    "Ask away," Aaron said.


    "I''ve been thinking... Of the five elements I know, fire is the one I''m most comfortable with," she said. "But the more I think about it, the more confident I get that I wouldn''t be able to create a fire hot enough to molten such a large amount of rock as your Meteor spell did. Why is that?"


    The boy nodded. "Good! Very good indeed! I''m very satisfied with this question, Sara. Why did you think of it?"


    She blushed. "You told me to focus on one element at a time, and because I hope to be able to use the Meteor spell one day, I''ve been focusing on earth. As I understood it better, I became aware of how powerful your flames were at that time."


    "My answer to your question has two parts. The first is that there are different levels of understanding of the elements. It might sound obvious, but when most mages know enough about an element to convert pure mana into elemental mana, and thus the element is added to the list of known elements in their Full Statuses, they cease trying to improve their understanding on it. This, of course, leads to them hitting a bottleneck when they become Eminences, preventing them from Ascending. That''s when they find out how shallow their understanding was."


    Now that Aaron was aware of Firestar''s ploy, he could easily identify which of the books he had read had come from his knowledge, and which had already been in there. In the old books, he had read no mention about mages trying to deepen their understanding of the elements, which was proof enough that at least most of the family was ignorant of it.


    "As for the second part, it''s related to the first, but also to something new. The world works in two ways: naturally, and spiritually. By naturally, I mean a world without the influence of mana, and by spiritually, I mean when mana is involved. Without mana, the world follows certain rules of physics that makes it so that a rock is a rock, nothing less, nothing more. It has set properties that cannot change beyond the rules of physics.


    "But when dealing with mana, the more a mage understand about earth, the more he can influence it in ways that should be naturally impossible. One of such ways is to lower the temperature required for a rock to melt or increase the temperature of a flame beyond what should be naturally possible. Using either of these two ways or a little of both, I can easily create the meteors you saw."


    She looked lost at his explanation, and he didn''t blame her. Separating the natural and the spiritual for him was easy, but for someone who had never experienced a world without mana, it was a difficult task indeed.


    Sara breathed deeply before her next question. "This ''natural world'' is connected to that ''atomic theory'' you tried to explain to me before, isn''t it?"


    He nodded.


    She swallowed. "Can you... Explain it again? Please?"


    "Of course," Aaron said. "The natural world is a world without the influence of mana. Think of it like this..." He proceeded to explain to her basically how everything on Earth worked.


    It was a lengthy explanation, and although he kept it simple for the most part, he also brushed on the subject of transforming motion energy into electric energy so she could understand how the elements were much more natural than spiritual in nature, and how wonderful magic really was.


    By the end of his explanation, everyone had stopped to listen, even the Crusader. He then proceeded to explain the differences between natural energy and mana.


    "Natural energy is what matter is made from, and by dividing the tiniest bits of matter, called atoms, you can generate such a big amount of natural energy that you can level entire cities with it. Following such knowledge, it should be easy for a mage to do this by using magic, but that''s where the Natural-Spiritual Collision comes into play."

 Chapter 35 - On Energies and the Universe

    <h1>Chapter 35 - On Energies and the Universe</h1>


    "As all mages know, there are Laws that govern the universe, two sets of them being the Material Laws and the Energetic Laws," Aaron said. "There are many rules to them, but for this lesson, what matters is that both sets of Laws limit what different kinds of energy can do, including natural energy and mana, which means both can only affect the world in certain ways. You already know that matter is natural energy, but mana has some relationship to matter too. For instance, it''s possible for me to create matter using a spell, and even to disintegrate objects, but the moment I try to divide an atom, the universe itself prevents it."


    "You speak as if the universe is sentient," Mark said.


    "Of course it is," Helina intervened. "Why else would the Prophetesses adore Time itself?"


    "You''re two are both right and wrong," Aaron said. "The universe can ''think'' within its Laws, yes, but it isn''t sentient. The universe has instincts that can be turned into Visions for the Prophetesses, yes, but it''s dumber than a five-year-old. And adoring Time is stupid, but because of it, you end up with a deeper understanding of time mana, which is a plus."


    Helina didn''t like that answer and snorted. "Time talked to me in my Vision. And if the universe isn''t sentient, how can the world be? You do understand that the World''s Writ is real, right?"


    Aaron shook his head. "Besides Laws, there are Truths, and those can be touched by the universe when it wants to interact with anyone." Helina opened her mouth but he raised his hand to stop her. "We can come back to this topic on a later date. For now, let me focus on energies."


    She didn''t keep quiet. "If you''re wrong about Time, how can you know anything about ener-"


    Aaron had had enough of her insolence!


    "Myriad Arts," he said in a low voice, but it was enough for Helina to shut up and pale a bit. "Spellcasting, Double Element: Time, Space. Legendary Severing Blade."


    On Aaron''s hand, an invisible sword made of pure spacetime was created. It had no visible form but a slight distortion to the light, but everywhere present, even Mark who had no control over mana, felt some dread from it as if its very existence was antagonistic to reality itself.


    Helina was so shocked she created a mana shield around herself and stepped back, only to hit a stone wall and find herself cornered.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Single Element: Water ¨C Legendary Water Condensation!


    Ambient humidity was pulled into a ball of water the size of a fist, floating above Aaron''s head. He stopped supporting in in the air, and as it fell down, he hit it using the Severing Blade.


    Where the blade went through, water was severed from the time-space continuum. A kind of long thin blade of water was kept on the air.


    Aaron extended his hand, trying to push it, but his hand went through the water as if it wasn''t there, and in fact, it wasn''t. It wasn''t part of their reality anymore. It was only Aaron''s mana that kept it somewhat anchored to the universe and visible.


    That was impressive, but it wasn''t enough for what he wanted to do.


    "Myriad Arts, Spellcasting, Double Elements: Time, Space. Legendary Spacetime Transcending Touch."


    Aaron extended his hand again, and this time, his hand touched the water and pushed it away from him. However, instead of the blade of water changing position, it extended. It had been severed from time-space, and so, the Laws of Time and Space didn''t affect it, which allowed it to occupy two places at the same time.


    After he pushed for a few centimeters, the blade of water had turned into a block of water, and over half his mana had been depleted. The universe was jealous of its own matter, and it didn''t allow things to be simply cut from its time-space. To definitely sever something from the universe, Aaron would need much more power and mana. All he could do for now was to temporarily sever matter from the universe, and while the universe kept trying to bring it back, Aaron continuously used mana to keep the matter away.


    What he did next, though, almost depleted his entire mana pool.


    "Myryad Arts, Spellcasting, Double Elements: Time, Space. Legendary Reality Patching."


    He let go of the Severing Blade at the same moment the new spell involved the water block and reattached it to his reality. The entire block of water came to being and fell on the ground as if nothing had happened.


    However, everyone there felt something they couldn''t explain.


    It was like a soundless scream of pain coming from their very beings. Reality had been meddled with right then, twisted in front of their very eyes, defenestrated by a simple Champion mage!


    That sensation took only a split second but it would be forever remembered by their souls. No one had never felt that, and of those presents, only Aaron was likely to feel something like that again in his life.


    A moment after the scream went away, beasts from all over the mountain let out sounds of agony, resonating with the universe. They had felt that pain too, and they instinctively mourned for what they felt.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    As for Aaron, he had less than five percent of mana remaining, and a single tear of blood left his eyes, as his soul had just almost been crushed after being found responsible for such atrocity, while his body mourned for being host to such a terrible soul.


    "Now, Helina Chosen," he said amidst the howls and cries of countless beasts. "If you understand Time enough to do something like this, I''ll listen to your theories about what Time is and how sentient it is. Until then, just shut the fuck up when your better is speaking."


    He immediately realized that had been a mistake on his part. He was a being so old that he could count his age in how many stars had been born and died in his lifetime. He had experienced so many things, that nothing should be able to make him impatient.


    And yet, Helina had affected him. Or, more precisely, the brain of a kid in the body he now had, was affecting his mind much more than he believed it should be possible. Kids didn''t like to be contradicted, and he had acted accordingly.


    It wasn''t a surprise for him; he knew that no matter how powerful his willpower was, it couldn''t stand flawlessly against his physical instincts. Although his consciousness resided in his soul, it was through his brain that he could control his body unless he used mana, and the brain chemicals could also affect the mind in return. The issue was that it had been a terrible time for something like that to happen.


    Because the Crusader was present, and if she tried to kill him now, he would be as powerless as a fish in a barrel.


    As his heart started beating furiously, he took a few leons and started replenishing his mana as quickly as he could.


    Meanwhile, everyone was looking from the water on the ground to Aaron''s face in complete disbelief.


    <hr>


    Helina had felt it clearly.


    The boy had used time mana in the water, and then the blade of water felt inexistent. She couldn''t control space mana, but she could feel some different energy mixed with time, and if his words could be believed, it had been the space element.


    To mix time and space in a spell was impressive enough. And to cut something from the time-space continuum like he seemed to have done was against everything she had been thought.


    It was impossible.


    But she had been using her Mana Sense, and she felt it, when that water simply ceased existing in his Mana Sense despite her being able to see it! Even the time mana that had been directed at the water when Aaron used his Severing Blade stopped being in there!


    It was the strangest thing because she could feel Aaron''s mana pool emptying, but she couldn''t tell where the mana was going, as if it was simply ceasing to exist, which of course, was also impossible.


    When his hand went through the water, it confirmed to her that the water wasn''t in her reality anymore, even though she could somehow see it. But when he used a spell to touch it, and the blade of water became a block of water, she felt as if her mind was being blown.


    That water was in a place devoid of spacetime! Or rather, with different rules, for if it lacked space, it shouldn''t even exist. Or at least, so she thought.


    And then, when he brought the entire block of water back, and the universe itself reacted to it, she became sure: he wasn''t a demon.


    No, he was the Herald of Time!


    She didn''t know why he said Time had no sentience, but it didn''t matter. Only the Herald of Time, who would one day come to lead humanity in a war against the demons, could have such understanding of time, enough for him to even cut spacetime itself!


    "Now, Helina Chosen," he said, awakening her from her reverie. "If you understand Time enough to do something like this, I''ll listen to your theories about what Time is and how sentient it is. Until then, just shut the fuck up when your better is speaking."


    She looked from the wet ground to him, his words only confirming her conclusion. He was her better; he was the Herald!


    She didn''t need to understand him. She only needed to obey.


    Without further ado, she knelt on the ground and lowered her head. "Helina Chosen pays respect to the Herald of Time."


    <hr>


    Shadow One was about to attack the boy, despite his possible defenses. He was even more dangerous than she believed! He had to die as soon as possible!


    But that''s when the Prophetess knelt and called him Herald of Time, and that changed everything.


    She knew one in there could feel it, not even the Prophetess, but Shadow One could. The invisible thread of inverted mana that came from the Prophetess, connecting her soul to the First Temple, had just sent a massive spike of energy to it.


    The Prophetess declaration wasn''t an empty one. Names in this world had power, and the name ''Herald of Time'' had special meaning to the Prophetesses. If Shadow One killed the boy now, they would find out, and war between the Temple of Time and the Immortal Crusade would follow.


    Now, that wasn''t a problem by itself, but no matter how much the Timelords tried to pretend otherwise, they were allies to the Prophetesses and had a great interest in the Herald of Time. If both the Temple of Time and the Timelords joined against the Crusade, things would get tricky. Other enemies of other Crusade might decide to rebel then, and this would cause the Fire Continent''s Immortals to intervene.


    If they intervened and found out that Shadow One had been responsible for the war, both her and the Queen would have to pay with pain and blood. If only she hadn''t secretly sent a message to the Queen while in the fort, there would be no tracing back to her, but that was already done.


    For now, she kept her plans of disposing of him in the White Sea, for once there, no one save an Immortal would be able to track his death back to her!


    She looked at the Prophetess with a cruel smile. For making things difficult for Shadow One, the Prophetess would beg to die soon enough.


    <hr>


    Mark and Sara had found it impressive but had no idea what they had just seen or heard meant.


    They only knew that their master was even more impressive then they believed, and felt their respect for him grow by leaps and bounds.


    <hr>


    "Now, as for the energies," Aaron said after a few moments, ignoring Helina because he had no idea what the Herald of Time was supposed to be. The beasts were calming again by now. "Both natural energy and mana can be turned into matter, but mana is much easier and requires less quantity than natural energy. On the other hand, matter can only be turned into natural energy, and because of the Laws of the universe, doing so is absolutely impossible unless one uses Origin Energy."


    Humans creating atomic bombs using technology in any world with an abundance of Spiritual Energy, or its variants like mana, was impossible. Only on the Solar System, where the Laws of the Universe worked differently, could such a phenomenon happen.


    Aaron still had no idea why it was so, but he refused to believe he wouldn''t ever be strong enough to find out!

 Chapter 36 - Deaths Shadow Mountains

    <h1>Chapter 36 - Death''s Shadow Mountains</h1>


    "Origin Energy?" Mark asked.


    "A kind of energy of a higher tier than mana," Aaron replied. "No one in this world has access to it. You only need to know it exists." He paused to wait for new questions. When none came, he continued. "It might sound as if natural energy is more powerful than mana, but natural energy is inflexible, especially its relationship with mater. Mana, however, is different. It can''t divide an atom, but it can soften and change matter in many other ways, including changing an atom of a type into another, which allows a mage to turn air into water, for instance, or to change the properties of a rock to make it easier to melt.


    "On the other hand, natural energy is exactly as its name suggests, natural. Spiritual Energy, or mana, is what allows the supernatural to happen. Mana reacts to a mage''s will to shape reality however he wants, even allowing him to sever reality completely if he''s powerful enough!"


    "And what about warriors?" The butler asked.


    "Don''t you have access to mana too?" Aaron replied. "Warriors are mages, only with a limited area of influence, your bodies. Such an area of influence also needs to be used differently than how a mage casts spells, but that''s all. For instance, if a warrior can freely affect his body using mana, and he learns a teleportation martial ability, doesn''t it mean he can freely teleport behind his enemies and kill them? Why are warriors considered much weaker than mages, then? The answer is simple: a lack of knowledge and weaker skills!"


    If his previous demonstration made everyone impressed, his words now opened a whole new world for all of them. Indeed, if warriors were nothing more than mages that could only affect their own bodies, they could do wonders in battle!


    The silence that came was broken by Lo. It was the first time he spoke since they left the fort gates. "But to teleport, doesn''t one need to affect the targeted area using mana? And doesn''t one need to be an Overlord to do that?"


    "Yes and no," Aaron replied. "It depends on the skill being used, and on the understanding of the Laws of Space that one has. It''s easier to teleport affecting the destination with mana, yes. And the minimum mana requirement would indeed only be reachable by having an Ultimate mana pool, which is only accessible by Overlords. But an Overlord warrior could still teleport without affecting the targeted area if he understood the Laws of Space well enough."


    "There''s no Overlord warrior in the world," Lo said.


    "For now," Aaron replied. "And I was only giving an example. There are plenty of other ways for warriors to contend against mages. Which, of course, depends on knowledge." He smiled. "But as everyone knows, knowledge is expensive. The free class is over, whatever more I have to say on these topics are for the ears of my disciples alone."


    "If money is the issue..." Lo started.


    Aaron interrupted him. "I''m not selling my knowledge yet. Sleep well, everyone. We have six days ahead of us until we reach the White Sea, and even we mages might need the rest. Helina," he spoke to the still-kneeling woman. "You''re on watch today."


    She raised her head. "Yes, Herald!"


    Aaron stopped himself from shaking his head. He would have to be very cautious about this Herald of Time thing. As long as they apologized for trying to kill him, he wouldn''t pass up a title that might increase his standing with the Temple of Time. But first, he had to know what a Herald of Time was supposed to do. What if they wanted to sacrifice him to appease the Laws of Time or something? He had seen crazier things in his life.


    Intent on providing his infant brain with some rest that night, so he would have better control of himself for the days to come, he lay on the ground, placed some alarm wards around him, and was soon sleeping soundly.


    <hr>


    In a place filled with nothingness, a sound invaded.


    It was a knock so muffled, seemingly coming from somewhere so distant that only a miracle could bring it so far.


    But it was enough for the woman floating into nothingness. As much as she wanted to keep her mental training session going, she had never been interrupted before. Her children wouldn''t do it now unless the First Council convened and concluded that it was absolutely necessary.


    She opened her eyes and let a slip of mana out of her body. With that, she came back from the empty space it had been in, slipping into a dusty wooden room. It was the inside of a cozy cabin, with furniture that might be seen in a grandma''s house: a sofa, an armchair, a fireplace with a few 3D projectors above it, a rug made of the fur of a Saint beast.


    She smiled when she saw the rug. That had been an old enemy of hers, but she had triumphed over it in the end.


    For a moment, she thought about what appearance she should show. A Saint like her could easily change her appearance at will, her mortal shackles long removed from her body. But even so, whatever appearance she showed would be remembered by her children, and teachings would be deduced from it. Last time, she showed a grandmotherly appearance to match her cabin, and she became very amused at her children''s reactions. It was good for them, too, as they realized time wasn''t something to be conquered but to be respected.


    With a simple spell, she cleaned the room. With another, more complex one, she checked the River of Time for what had happened in the world while she was gone, focusing on the First Temple.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The lesson from her last appearance had already been forgotten. Only women with smooth skin, boasting their ruling over time with their appearance, could be seen nowadays.


    She sighed in disappointment; it was no wonder no new Saint had appeared from the Prophetesses for such a long time. They didn''t understand anything. However, it was also a victory that they had a few Overlords among their rankings, and that their temples had multiplied while keeping her fundamental teachings to heart.


    If she was being honest with herself, she had to admit she didn''t like to show an old appearance either. She liked the looks of admiration she got when she showed smooth skin, perfect hair, white teeth, and everything else a revered Saint should have. But for her children, she would once again endure the looks of confusion, and even some of the repulse, that would come to her.


    Her body turned into an old, wrinkled lady, with a homely smile. She didn''t go as far as walking incurvated, for no mage would. Her clothing was a plain white tunic. She opened her cabin door.


    Five Prophetesses had one of their knees to the dirty ground of the forest outside. Their heads were lowered, and their right fists were closed, touching their left breast, where the symbol of the Prophetesses could be seen drawn over their black tunics.


    "Rise, children," she said with a comely voice, and they obeyed. When they looked at her, she saw from shock to pity, repulsiveness to curiosity in their faces. "Yes?" She asked with a smile, despite feeling a bit sad on the inside.


    "First One," one of them. "A Herald Candidate has been found."


    The First Prophetess smile died. "Explain."


    "A... A traitor... She..."


    The Overlord was having trouble speaking, and the First Prophetess realized she been so surprised, she had unwittingly let out some of her aura escape her control. How could a mere Overlord resist the aura of a Saint? It was understandable that the woman could barely breathe.


    "Thanks," the Overlord said after the Saint suppressed her aura. "An Oldest Youngest betrayed us in the Temple of Western Valdia. She ran from us, resisting imprisonment, even going as far as hurting the warriors we sent to bring her back. We had no choice but to sentence her to death and send an executioner team after her. However, the team was stopped by the Immortal Crusade. We lost three Eminences in the battle."


    "Nothing you said makes sense to me," the First Prophetess said. "Where is Valdia?"


    "The Ralphian Republic ended about a thousand years ago," a second Overlord explained. "And about eight hundred years ago, the Valdian family took firm control over a small region of the old republic. That''s also when a Prophetess Envisioned that we should place a temple on its western region."


    The Saint nodded. "Why was the Oldest Youngest branded a traitor?"


    "Her Life Candle turned black and burned entirely," the first Overlord said. "When we tried to reverse time to see what had happened in there, we found out the Time Stream in the Hall of Candles had been completely destroyed."


    "What did you find once you fixed the Stream?"


    "We couldn''t fix it," the Overlord said, ashamed.


    The Saint frowned. "Did any of the five of you try?"


    "I did," a third Overlord said. "I''m the most accomplished of us in dealing with Time Disruption. But I failed."


    "Did you ask the Timelords for help?"


    The first Overlord frowned. "Sorry, First One, but we saw no reason to."


    The Saint sighed, disappointed. "Did she ever admit to being a traitor, or gave out reasons for leaving her Temple? Or did her actions ever suggested she might betray us?" When some of the Overlords shook their heads, she continued. "Why didn''t you consider she might''ve been Chosen? That would explain why she would not come back to a Temple unless ordered so by a member of the First Council. Did any of you try to talk to her?" Not even waiting for their denial, she kept going. "When did my laws became optional?" She couldn''t hide her anger anymore. "I explicitly said no one should ever be judged in their absense, so that their memories could be read! How many of my children have you sentenced to death like this?"


    "But, First One, she resisted arrest!" The first Overlord said.


    "So she should be killed for it?" The Saint stopped restraining her aura, and the Overlords felt as if the world was trying to crushing them. They fell to their knees without resisting it. "What if one of you gets blackmailed, and is forced to keep away from the others, while an enemy blackens and burns your Life Candles? Should you be killed for it, too? Oh, I know what you''re thinking. No one would dare do this to you, but she was a Youngest! She should be cared for and protected! Every one of my children is valuable! And you try to kill her without investigating it thoroughly?! How dare you?!" She was yelling at this point. "Answer me! How many died like this?"


    "T- Three," the First Overlord said.


    The Saint retracted her aura, and her voice came out frozen cold. "You will all deliver yourselves to the Time Prison for three days." They paled. Each second in the Time Prison felt like an eternity. They would probably all come back crazy from it. "Because you''re also my children, I''ll be merciful. I''ll send a golem to give you a whipping each day."


    Those three whippings would be the only indication they would have about the passage of time. They would wait anxiously for it every day, feeling tortured the more they waited, and then feeling a release in the terrible pain the golems would deliver to them.


    Mercy? The First Prophetess had no idea what that word really meant, nor did she care to learn. No one killed her children and walked free.


    At least they didn''t beg for forgiveness, else the three days would''ve turned into three weeks.


    "I''ll personally go fix that Time Stream and solve the issue about the Youngest later," she said. "For now, tell me, why did the Immortal Crusade kill three of our Eminences?"


    "We didn''t know at the time we sent the team," the first Overlord said with a dispirited voice, "but the traitor-"


    "She''s no traitor until I say so," the Saint interrupted.


    "Sorry, First One," the Overlord replied and bowed her head apologetically. None of them had risen after they were forced to kneel by the aura. "The Youngest had allied herself to a boy who''s being investigated by the Immortal Crusade on the suspicions of being possessed. When our team arrived, she was beside him, and the Crusade considered our actions an interference to their laws. They got into a fight, and three Eminences died before they could activate their escaping treasures."


    "Who exactly killed them?" She asked with murder in her eyes.

 Chapter 37 - On Prophecies

    <h1>Chapter 37 - On Prophecies</h1>


    "Queen Overlord Bloodvine''s Extended Agent," the Overlord replied. "The Queen is the current Warden of the West, the one responsible for the investigation."


    "I''ll kill her later," the Saint said as if it wasn''t something that would enrage the Crusade and bring war upon the Temple of Time. But for her, it didn''t matter even if another Saint did it, no one killed her children! "And what does any of this have to do with a Herald Candidate being found?"


    "The girl who found the Herald Candidate... It''s the Youngest we sentenced as a traitor."


    She couldn''t hide it anymore; she let her disappointment appear on her face. "Even if it''s just a false Candidate, it''s the first in our history, and it counts as an important mark. It''s likely that the Youngest was framed by a power who didn''t want us to find the Herald Candidate. Either that or our enemies want us to believe so. What about the other three girls, I wonder? What could they have done for us if you hadn''t killed them?" She sighed and changed the subject. "Do you have any idea if anyone ever learned I became a Saint?"


    "We believe the world is still ignorant of it, First One," another of the five Overlords replied.


    "Good. Call back the pursuit of the girl, then you can deliver yourselves to the Time Prison. Don''t worry, I''ll personally deal with everything."


    She looked at the direction of where once stood the Ralphian Republic and directly teleported there.


    A Herald Candidate being found in such strange circumstances... It reminded her of her own strange experience when she received an error message telling her to disregard the Vision that showed her that one day, the Herald of Time would come.


    Afraid, she had hidden the real importance of him to the Prophetesses and the world and even completely disconnected the creation of the Prophetesses as an organization to his coming. No one but her knew the only reason she created the Temples was to find him one day.


    As she appeared above the old capital of the late Ralphian Republic, she thought about the images she had Envisioned. He brandished the time-space itself like a sword and stormed the River of Time with mayhem. He severed reality and brought everything back to origin. He conquered the Seven Continents, and only seven, for he destroyed the other two.


    He would kill the ruling Immortals and bring that world back to a pure state, and in his wake, he would leave a trail of blood and pain.


    He was the Herald of Time, for he would bring that world back to a time before the mages existed.


    And Time forbid anyone ever found out about it. She had to get to him before anyone else, or everything would be lost.


    <hr>


    Immortals didn''t dream, for even when they slept, they kept their minds ¨C including the unconscious one ¨C under control. You never knew where an attack might come from, and arts that invaded and controlled others'' dreams were common in lower levels of power exactly because weak people didn''t know how to adequately protect themselves.


    But that night, for the first time in a very long while, Aaron dreamed.


    <hr>


    He was back on Earth, sitting under a tree. It was lunchtime on his freshman year at school, but he had learned the hard way that he wasn''t welcome to sit with anyone else.


    They weren''t especially mean, they simply avoided him. If he sat with any of them, they got up and sat somewhere else. If he tried to start a conversation, they would just ''remember'' something else they had to do somewhere else.


    All of that was because of a simple conversation he had had with the girlfriend of the school bully, a boy called John Grint. Aaron saw her by coincidence when he first arrived at the school and didn''t lose any time in trying to get close to her. She was beautiful, after all, and he had had some luck with girls in his old town.


    However, Grint saw it. Contrary to Aaron''s expectations, no fight issued. Instead, he became the persona non grata of the town. Absolutely no one would talk to him, and that included the girl. The influence of the Grint family was that encompassing; no one wanted to go against the boy''s order of shunning Aaron from all social circles.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Six months had already gone by since then, and Aaron kept to himself. That day was going on just like any other, but then, the bully appeared, and he was walking straight to Aaron.


    Aaron stood up, fear holding him by the guts, his back to the tree. He wasn''t skinny, but the bully was almost three times his size, and all of it looked like a muscle.


    "You faggot!" Grint said, punching Aaron''s stomach. "What the fuck did you do to my girl?"


    The punch made Aaron lose his breath and instinctively bend down. But Grint was having none of that and pinned Aaron''s shoulder to the tree. "Answer me, bitch!" And then, he slapped Aaron in the face.


    "W- What?" Aaron whispered, doing his best due to his lack of air.


    "She broke up with me, you piece of shit!" Another slap. "She said I was too fucking cruel with you!" Slap. "Did you think so, huh? Did you cry because of my cruelty?" Slap. "I''ll show you real cruelty, you son of a bitch!" He punched Aaron hard on the nose.


    Aaron could do nothing as he was beaten up. Even his feeble attempt at protecting his head only earned him a broken arm and even more pain.


    He didn''t understand anything. Kara Summers hadn''t talked to him since that day, and just like everybody else, she didn''t seem to care a bit about what was happening to him. Why would she break up with Grint so suddenly?


    As he lost consciousness, he could do nothing but wonder what the hell was going on.


    <hr>


    Aaron woke up to the smell of pancakes.


    There was no cold sweat, no accelerated breathing. He had long since gotten over those memories, and all he felt was a mix of pity and gratitude towards Grint. Pity, for that boy had been but a product of the environment he had been raised on. Gratitude, for, in the end, all that violence, both social and physical, had been partly responsible for Aaron finding his path towards immortality.


    The five of them had slept in an upwards slope, tall stone walls to both sides. Mark was showing small signs of claustrophobia, but from what Aaron had read, they would soon get to one of the more dangerous areas of the pass, where there were no natural walls to protect them from attacks by all sides. Which, for Aaron, was a good thing.


    "Good morning," Aaron said. "This is smelling good."


    "Good morning, young master," Mark said. He stood between Aaron and Sara in the narrow passage, so he kept sitting to not block the boy''s vision towards Sara.


    "Thank you, young master," Sara replied, as she made bacon pancakes. "I remembered you liked to eat this when I worked in your house."


    "Good morning, Herald," Helina said with a voice filled with veneration.


    Lo also replied with a "Good morning" of his own, albeit with much less enthusiasm, while Shadow One just kept quiet.


    "So, Helina," Aaron said, "tell me about this Herald of Time thing."


    "Of course, Herald!" She said excitedly. "It is a Minor Likely Prophecy that states-"


    "You already lost me," Aaron said. "Minor Likely Prophecy?"


    "Oh, sorry! When Prophetesses receive Visions, they can be both an immediate order, like me being told to protect you, or a telling of the future. Those who are ordered to do something become Chosen, like me. Tellings of the future are called prophecies and are classified based on their impact upon the world and when they will happen.


    "On their impact, we have Sacred Prophecies, that can change the whole world and are only known by the person who received it and the First Council; Major Prophecies, that can change an entire continent, and are only known by the person who received it, its Temple, and the Councils; Minor Prophecies, that can change a small region, and anyone can know about them to some extent, like on how to identify their coming; and Passing Prophecies, that will change only a small community or even a few people''s lives, which are also known by all to some extent."


    "Wait," Aaron interrupted. "If this Heraldry of Time is only a minor thing, why do you know about it?"


    "Because it was Envisioned by the First Prophetess! All of her prophecies are studied and memorized by all Prophetesses. No one knows what you''re supposed to do, only that your coming was Envisioned four thousand years ago, a few years after the founding of the First Temple, and the establishment of the Temple of Time." She said excitedly. "You know, if everyone knew what you''re going to do, it might affect the Rivers of Time, so all prophecies are kept on a need to know basis. Anyway, most Prophetesses dream of one day identifying a prophecy from the First Prophetess; it''s a great honor!"


    Aaron frowned. He knew he his soul had been kept suspended on the Void for a long time as the system waited for his incarnation conditions to be kept, but because he was in the Void, a place devoid of both time and space, he had had no way of knowing how much time had passed in the world outside. He would be able to find out when he became an Overlord, but he hadn''t expected to have been kept ''on the freezer'' for over four thousand years!


    "Is it common for Minor Prophecies to take four thousand years to complete?" He asked.


    "No! And this makes yours special since it''s the only Minor Prophecy to have ever been classified as Likely!" Seeing his confusion expression, she explained: "As I said, prophecies are also classified on when they are expected to happen. Imminent Prophecies are, like the name says, bound to happen at any minute. Close Prophecies are expected in a short period of time, usually within ten years. Possible Prophecies should happen within a couple of hundred years. Anything over than that and the prophecy is classified as either Likely or Unlikely depending on the analysis of the First Council."


    Aaron had never been one to like prophecies. Their scope was limited, usually to a planet, and they were finicky at best, useless in most cases.

 Chapter 38 - Asserting Dominance

    <h1>Chapter 38 - Asserting Dominance</h1>


    Take a prophecy about the end of the world, for instance. With enough knowledge about the political and economic undercurrents of the world, even without knowing everything there was to know about every inhabitant in the planet, it wasn''t difficult to guess that a huge war might be on the way within some hundred years. Even if one of the powers involved might change how it did things, there was so much involved in such a huge happening, that too many threads had to fail to unravel to prevent the rope from snapping and the world ending.


    If it was going to happen anyway, what was the good of prophesying it?


    Now, take a prophecy about a stripped cat named ''Tom'' being born on a farm. It could be reasonable to make such prediction based on intimate knowledge about the cat''s parents, the farmworkers, the animals and insects that might or not interact with the cat, the kids who liked to kill cats in the region, and so on. But only if it was to happen in a few months at most. Anything over than that, and way too many things could go wrong and prevent the prophecy from coming to fruition: the farm could be burned, the cat''s parents could die, no one might be around the farm to name the cat ''Tom,'' one of the fore-parents of the cat might decide to leave the region, a locust plague might happen, among many other possibilities.


    Again, what was the meaning behind prophesying it, if it might not even happen due to minor details?


    But as little as he liked prophecies, they came from the Universal Core itself. No one really knew why it sent Visions to some people, but it did, and ever so rarely, it had its uses.


    "How did you identify me?" He asked.


    She smiled. "It has been Envisioned by the First Prophetess, the Herald of Time will come," she recited like someone who had repeated those lines multiple times, "He shall brandish time-space like a sword, and sever reality as one who knows all secrets of the universe. Treat him well."


    He frowned. The second part was vague enough that it could mean multiple things, and the first part could be accomplished by anyone who had enough knowledge on the Laws of Time and the Laws of Space and knew how to create spells.


    However, it was likely him. He had used a technique in his previous world to create a similar blade in multiple occasions, so it fit his knowledge on prophecies that the Universal Core might use that fact about his past to predict what he might do in the future. Severing reality was too broad to define, but ''one who knows all secrets of the universe'' could only be him.


    Well, it could be an incredibly powerful being who decided to travel to this shitholy planet, but the likelihood of anyone that powerful doing so was minimal. It was nothing short of a miracle that a former Origin Immortal like him was here, and he didn''t expect even Prime Immortals to also come one day. Anything below that, including Immortals, simply couldn''t be considered to know all secrets of the universe. For him, it was already a stretch to even include Prime Immortals.


    "What does ''treat him well'' means?" He asked.


    Her smile faltered a little. "I''m not sure. But it goes well with my own Vision that ordered me to protect you, see? I''m sure there was no error on that!" She said excitedly.


    "Error?"


    "Nothing," she said hurriedly.


    Aaron''s curiosity was picked, but he wasn''t close enough to her yet. He could force her to speak, but there was no urgency in finding more about the Temple of Time and his prophecy. Soon enough, he would be out of the reaches of both the Temple and the Crusade alike. Then, he would have more than enough time to talk and try to figure things out.


    After breakfast, they resumed their journey.


    <hr>


    "This is a good place," Aaron said as soon as they reached the first open area of their travel. It was a flat land without narrow walls. The rock gave way to earth and low vegetation, with a single overgrown trail amidst it. The area around the plane went up and down, making it hard to see what was beyond the immediate area.


    "A good place for what, young master?" Sara asked.


    "Training and baiting. You both get to it." He turned to Helina. "How far can your Mana Sense go in this terrain?"


    Mana could go through the earth, but it was costly. Mana Sense, much like his own Omnisense, was most commonly used as a blanket to cover the surface, plus the air up to some height. It was like a thick blanket that could feel whatever it touched.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    But just like a blanket, if there were toys in the bed, it would either fail to touch the mattress ¨C thus creating blind spots in the Mana Sense, which was stupid ¨C, or it would end up covering a smaller radius because of the rough surface.


    "Two hundred legs," she said.


    Aaron frowned. "What? Explain." That was way too low. An Eminence should have one thousand legs ¨C or one kilometer ¨C of coverage on a clean surface. How could her Mana Sense''s range be of two hundred meters?


    "If I go further than this and enter some powerful beast''s territory, it could take offense and attack us," she explained.


    "We want to offend them. Extend it to your maximum range for now. Let me know when we get company."


    "Herald, this..." She said with uncertainty. "One doesn''t simply provoke beasts in Death''s Shadow Mountains."


    "Good thing we''re six, then."


    "That''s not what I meant."


    "I know," he said. "I also know I''m not in the habit of repeating myself. Do as I say."


    She frowned. "Herald... As much as I admire you... I was ordered to protect you, not obey you."


    He smiled. "You''re not telling me something, girl. You pay me respect one time, but then says I''m just a minor character from some obscure prophecy. You call me the Herald of Time ¨C which, let me tell you, is not some minor title, especially when coming from people like you who worship Time ¨C, but when I tell you to do something, you say you''re not supposed to obey me. Your actions and your words are at odds with each other."


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about," she said.


    Aaron stepped closer to her. "You kneeled before me, girl. You don''t do this when you met someone who was prophesied. You get excited, yes. You might even hug me, or jump in happiness, or shed tears of joy, but not kneel. Now, I don''t care too much about your secrets, not enough to disrespect your privacy. But don''t you fucking take me for an idiot." He used a simple spell and started floating, putting his eyes to her eye level.


    She paled a little. "I was told to protect you-"


    "I can take an obedient liar with me," he said, interrupting her, "but I won''t take a useless one, no matter how good your intentions may be. Obey me, or get the hell away from here."


    He was starting her training already. Following someone without agreeing on conditions beforehand was stupid. Lying to someone stronger than yourself without the ability to do it well enough was akin to suicide.


    She had been too pampered as the Youngest from the Prophetesses; it was time to teach her worldly wisdom. Her obeying him was just a welcome plus.


    <hr>


    Helina was completely lost, she simply didn''t understand just what was going on.


    Where had that conversation come from?


    When did he notice her lying to him?


    More importantly, why was he doing that?


    No one had ever treated her like that. Even in the Temple, when she was being punished, people would do so with the proper decorum befitting a Youngest.


    "Well?" He asked after some time of silence.


    His face was stern, and as he floated in front of her, she felt she liked him more when she could look down on him.


    She felt conflicted. On one hand, the Herald of Time was supposed to bring humanity victory against the demons, but on the other hand, he was just a Champion for now, and she had been ordered by Time to protect him ¨C no matter what he said, she just knew Time was sentient.


    But his ultimatum... Obey him or leave? Leave where? She was in the middle of the Wyvern Pass! They had lucked out for not being attacked the day before, but she had no hope of surviving if she walked alone.


    Wasn''t he being too unreasonable? Too overbearing?


    "Why?" She asked. "Why are you doing this?"


    He smiled in a wicked way. "Isn''t it obvious? Because I can."


    She shook her head intensely. "I don''t believe it." Her voice was full of doubt. "You won''t expel me in such a dangerous place."


    His smile widened, but his eyes were cold. "Will you bet your life on that, girl?"


    Her heart beat furiously. Would she bet her life on a boy she barely knew caring about her? He might have a glorious future in front of him, but all heroes had dark histories in their past. No one was born perfect.


    Could she chance becoming just a footnote of a dark past in the Herald of Time''s glorious history?


    She couldn''t get a grasp of her feelings. There was fear, there was regret, there was unwillingness. She felt like a trapped animal being forced to do whatever his new human owner wanted, like a powerless kid who wanted to struggle against her parents'' orders, but knew she shouldn''t.


    She could try to rebel, yes, but could she deal with the consequences of doing so?


    Her shoulders fell, her head lowered. She extended her Mana Sense as ordered, and said only one word. "Done."


    Never before in her life had she felt so impotent.


    <hr>


    Aaron felt a bit of pity for her, but it was better for her to face reality in a controlled environment than deal with people who really wanted to take advantage of her.


    "Good," he said and landed on the ground. "Let me know if we''re attacked. We''ll stay here until tomorrow."


    "Why are you doing all of this?" Shadow One asked. "I thought you were going to the White Sea to get better equipment."


    "I am, but Mark is about to become a One-Star Warrior. Both him and Sara need the training, and what better training environment is there than a place filled with beasts, but with an Ascender at disposal to protect us?"


    Shadow One would be gone soon enough if he had it his way. Why not take advantage of her while he could though?


    Before she could reply, the sound of bones breaking could be heard together with a grunt of pain.

 Chapter 39 - A Test

    <h1>Chapter 39 - A Test</h1>


    They turned to look at the source of the sound: Mark. He was in horse stance, having just broken through to the One Star level.


    Mages had it easier; they could slowly build up each of their Physical attributes and painlessly level up, be it as mages or warriors. Those without the Mage gene though had to do it the hard way. All three of Mark''s body attributes ¨C strength, speed, and resistance ¨C had just improved at the same time. The stress on his body was so great it broke his bones and torn his flesh for a moment before they were regenerated by mana.


    He was healed quickly, while his bones, muscles, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, joints, tissues, and everything else also improved, becoming a better conduit for mana.


    Meanwhile, impurities were also forced from his body. Excess fat and toxins were expelled through his skin, creating a kind of black goo layer over him.


    It took a few seconds, and then it was done. He had become a One-Star Warrior.


    "Congratulations," Aaron said with a smile, as he cleaned the man with a spell.


    Mark bowed. "Thank you, young master!"


    "Attack incoming!" Helina suddenly said before Aaron could reply. "Five... Ten... Twenty... Fifty-two beasts coming from the north!"


    "Finally," Aaron said. "How strong are they?"


    "Twenty of them are Five Stars beasts, thirty are Champions, and two are Eminences," she said with a trembling voice. That was a power to be reckoned with.


    "That''s almost tailor-made," Aaron replied without worry. "Seems like there''s an intelligent power controlling them, and it''s only sending a probationary force to test us. Sara, you''re the vanguard. Mark, you fight whatever beasts you can.


    "Helina, you take care of Sara and Mark. Protect them if you think anything will go wrong. We''re fighting a defensive battle, guys. Focus on your battle awareness, and on staying alive while doing the most damage you can. I''ll be ready to defend you if something happens, but then, you''ll have failed my test."


    "Test?" Sara asked, surprised.


    "Of course. Fighting for what you want with your own hands is the way of the universe, and I won''t spoil you. As long as you keep proving your worth, I''ll keep teaching you. Fail me enough times, and I''ll send you back to Firestar."


    They said nothing, which displeased Aaron a bit. Later, he would have to remember them when to speak ''Yes, young master!'' He only forgave them because they were anxious due to the sudden pressure placed on them.


    Shadow One just crossed her arms and watched everything in amusement. As an Ascender, she would have no trouble killing all fifty-two of the incoming beasts, but she didn''t seem intent on doing so.


    As for Lo, he had unveiled interest in what was going on, looking at everything and everyone with clear curiosity on his eyes.


    <hr>


    Sara was controlling herself not to tremble. She had felt so proud when she became the youngest Champion in the history of the Valdian family, but since she started this travel, she felt nothing but worthless.


    The family had only seven Eminences, but Eminences seemed to grow like cabbages wherever Aaron went, trying to kill him as if it was the most common thing in the world. They even had two Eminences in the group, a Prophetess and a Crusader!


    And now, her, a mere Champion, was supposed to hold herself when fighting against two Eminences and thirty Champions, with only a One-Star Warrior to support her? And Aaron called it a test?


    To make things worse, beasts were usually stronger than humans on the same level. It wasn''t any difference in their attributes, but that they had better control of their power and innate abilities that were hard to predict.


    At least the Prophetess was supposed to help, but only if things got out of control. And if everything went to hell, the young master himself would intervene.


    She focused on controlling her nerves, telling herself repeatedly that the young master could save her no matter what happened.


    <hr>


    Mark had no idea how he could help in a fight against beasts that were, at the very least, at the Five Stars level. But he would stay sharp and look for an opportunity.


    He willed his spear out of his spatial ring and gave it a good look.


    Item Check


    Name: Blue Diamond Spear


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.Grade: Peak Mortal Item


    It still amazed him that he had been given a Peak Mortal Item back at Lamia, and a Blue Diamond Sword to boot! As an elite soldier of the Valdian family, he had had access to Lower Magical Items before, and even another Peak Mortal Item weapon, too. But Blue Diamond was the stuff of legends.


    Usually, the better the grade of a treasure, the more expensive it was. However, there were exceptions, and Peak Mortal Items made of Blue Diamond was one of them. They were as valuable as Higher Magical Items simply because weapons made of Blue Diamond were that great in cutting things, not to mention they had great resistance.


    If it wasn''t for the fact that Blue Diamond couldn''t be enchanted, it would surely be classified as something much better than a mere Superior resource.


    He wanted to test it, and if things went his way, it wouldn''t be long before he got the chance!


    <hr>


    Aaron watched disapprovingly as Sara just looked north without doing anything. Not asking Helina for more information on the incoming enemies, not using any scouting spell herself, not boosting hers or Mark''s attributes, not casting protective spells, not even flying to get on an easily defensible position! She just stood there, waiting for his enemies to make the first move!


    Mark, on the other hand, crouched on an overgrown patch of grass close to Helina, one of the best places he could get to, really.


    Helina herself was doing okay. She cast a Mana Shield on Mark, that looked like a transparent blue-purple-violet bubble around him. She also took a white orb from her spatial ring and was channeling some mana through it, while she created traps all around the area.


    Those traps were small pockets of time mana that would slow down any being that touched them, a great choice for the situation.


    Besides time-slowing traps, she also filled her surroundings with ice and wind traps of multiple purposes, from hindering to killing. Those would be a danger for any unaware person, too, but Aaron approved it; awareness of one''s surrounding was the basis of a battle, and if someone stepped on those traps, they had only themselves to blame.


    A few moments later, the beasts appeared.


    <hr>


    The two Alphas had hated each other for their whole existences, but now, the Ancient had sent orders: kill the invaders.


    All bests in the mountains knew why the Ancient allowed some humans to go through the mountain, but not others: the Ancient''s mate. Whenever she was around, he liked to impress her with carnage, but when she was gone, he just went to sleep.


    It was a waste. Both Alphas liked to send their pack at humans, it was a great way for warriors to prove their worth to the pack, but now, the Alphas themselves had come.


    Almost in unison, the two of them who had been leading the pack at the soft-skinned apes stopped and howled. Their fifty subordinates increased their speed onwards.


    <hr>


    Aaron looked at the incoming tens of beasts. They looked like wolves made in hell: three pairs of yellow eyes, three rows of sharp teeth, three tails each. They had been named Triad Wolves for obvious reasons.


    The differences between them were in their size and pelt colors.


    The twenty Five-Star Beasts were two meters tall, with red pelt. They left fiery footprints onto whatever they stepped on, even solid rock. They were called Fire Triad Wolves.


    The thirty Champion Beasts were three meters tall, black striped red pelts. They also left footprints, but theirs burned in black fire. They were called Stripped Triad Wolves.


    And finally, the two Eminences were about five meters tall, their pelts were black, and they left no footprints at all where they walked upon, even if they did so on mud. They were Shadow Triad Wolves.


    Aaron was disappointed. He expected more of the probing beasts, but that was way too easy. Beasts were considered stronger than their human counterparts on the same level, except for elemental beasts. Those were vulnerable to elements opposite to theirs, enough that even a Champion like him would have no trouble fighting an Eminence if he used the right elements. It didn''t mean he could easily kill them, but he would have no trouble defending himself from the Shadow Triad Wolves as long as he used spells based on the light element to do so ¨C and his mana wasn''t depleted.


    The two Eminences stopped running and howled. It made the fifty other wolves much more aggressive. They attacked as if they were seeing the tastiest meal of all.


    It was then that Sara surprised him.


    A moment after the howling, she attacked. Her body turned into black smoke and shot forward at the Eminences. Her smoky self stopped a few meters away from the wolves, midair, and started shooting wind blades at them while moving around.


    Not bad, he thought. She had made herself immune to darkness spells and attacked the most powerful enemies. Sadly, that showed her narrow mindedness, for she had ignored the rest of the battlefield.


    In the end, she passed. This test was one for courage and technique. She had shown some measure of both.


    The attacking wolves didn''t stop to try and help the Eminences. About half of them hit time traps and were slowed to a crawl, making them look like they were running in slow motion. Of the remaining half, ten went at Helina, only to freeze in place when they hit the invisible time bubble around her, and the other fifteen went at Aaron.


    He sneered and flew on the air high enough that no wolf would get to him.


    Most of them tried to jump at Aaron anyway, only to land awkwardly on the ground. Others opened their mouths and released fire streams at him, but he simply dodged without difficulty. A few of them went for Shadow One and only one at Lo.


    Aaron walked interested at the Stripped Triad Wolf going at the inept. He wanted to find out which secrets the man was hiding, but Mark let out an aggressive howl and Aaron had to check on the warrior.


    Mark had run behind one of the frozen wolves who had tried to get to Helina, stupidly yelling all the while, and thrust his spear with all his might but without any spearmanship. As soon as his spear made contact with the beast, the time freezing effect connected to it, and then, to him. He was also locked in place.


    Everything happened in a few instants. Sara''s Wind Blades reached the Eminences and did some superficial damage. This enraged the beasts. One of them opened its mouth, showing its three rows of teeth, and shot multiple balls of dark fire at the fog that was Sara. The other jumped to the side and barked, releasing a sonic wave that pushed Sara''s fog almost ten meters back. While being pushed, Sara''s human form appeared for a moment, showing a bloodied nose and ears.


    She didn''t stop though and kept attacking.


    Aaron was satisfied with the results. Even in her narrow mindedness, Sara had shown better judgment than Mark. Helina had been the one to shine the brighter, and he decided to see just how good she was.


    "Helina, get rid of these vermin," he ordered.

 Chapter 40 - Fly, You Fools

    <h1>Chapter 40 - Fly, You Fools</h1>


    Helina''s face twisted in unhappiness for being bossed around, but she obeyed. She chained mana into her orb. It shot hundreds of ice shards, small enough to look like bullets and rotating on top of their pointed tip for better penetration power, attacking all wolves but the Eminences.


    It was a massacre. The wolves failed to dodge, and even those who shot fire at the ice bullets didn''t manage to melt it. The ice hit them like real bullets, at least ten for each wolf, penetrating their hides and easily killing them.


    Aaron raised an eyebrow at the ice bullet. It was the best attack spell he had seen yet in this world. Instead of releasing a cone of ice, she had used her mana much more effectively!


    However, as much effective as it was, she had less than twenty percent of her mana pool remaining. He wondered how she would get rid of the Eminences.


    She moved to the side and released her time shield, which made not only the wolves who had touched it unfreeze but also the hundreds of ice bullets that had also frozen when touching the beasts. When released, everything kept the momentum they had had before, the wolves moving forward, the bullets piercing their bodies, and Mark stabbing with his spear.


    The wolves barely had time to think before they died and their bodies fell. Mark awkwardly lost his balance but used the spear to keep up. He looked around, confused, only to show astonishment at seeing everything dead. Since he had been frozen in time, for him, he had just attacked the wolf and the next moment, everything had changed.


    With everything under control, Aaron glanced at Lo, but as expected the beast that attacked him was dead, with no visible wound. The wolf who attacked Shadow One though had been blown to bits.


    Seeing that, the Eminences got pissed, and finally decided to attack for real.


    One of them shone in a black flash and all its wounds were healed. Then, it shot at Helina. The other also healed itself, but then, two huge black wings made of magic appeared on its back, and it flew straight at Sara.


    Helina shot tens of ice bullets at the Eminence coming for her, but a transparent black barrier appeared in front of it. The bullets turned into tiny bits of ice when they hit it, which impressed Aaron; beasts with barrier-like spells were a rarity.


    Sara just ran. She had less than half her mana already, her fog form taking a lot from her, and she also stopped attacking the incoming flying Eminence. By now, all she could do was try to survive.


    The Eminence going for Helina opened its mouth midway to her, and a huge wolf even bigger than it ¨C and it was five meters tall! ¨C, made of darkness and fire, shot for the opening, going for the Prophetess.


    She released a light and ice barrier, which should''ve made her defense easy, but the moment the huge ''apparition'' opened its maws and ''swallowed'' her, it exploded in darkness and fire, making her instantly lose half of her remaining mana. And the Eminence was still coming.


    As for the one going after Sara, it shone in a transparent white light ¨C wind mana, Aaron recognized ¨C and its speed increased so much that it was just about to reach Sara. There was nothing she could do.


    Aaron was impressed with the Eminent Beasts. They were much better than most, if not all, of the Eminent Mages he had found until now. Sadly, it was time for him to act, and thus, for them to die.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting, Formation Mastery ¨C Triple Element: Light, Wind, Space ¨C Legendary Piercing Light Bullets'' Stream!


    To show Helina how to use a real bullet-like elemental spell, he cast that spell twice. In front of him, two bullets made of yellow light formed, its shape perfect for piercing armor and to ignore air resistance as it went ahead. They were the size of his closed fist and rotated ridiculously fast.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Double Elements: Ice, Space ¨C Legendary Small Ice Explosive!


    A small ball of ice appeared inside each bullet. It was pure ice but condensed to an absurd degree by changing ice itself and using space magic.


    Helina had created hundreds of bullets, shot them, then created hundreds more, attacking in waves. Aaron shot his two bullets, using wind mana and space mana to make them move even faster. Directly behind them, in a distance of a couple of centimeters, two new bullets appeared, already shooting forwards. Behind them, new bullets appeared, and so on, until a stream of light bullets could be seen moving at each of the wolves.


    His two spells had been cast as soon as he detected danger for Sara and Helina, and bullets moved way too fast, especially homing bullets like his.


    The Eminence going for Helina had a dark shield around itself, which protected it from fifteen bullets ¨C which just disintegrated into nothingness ¨C before one of them pierced it.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Usually, a spell wouldn''t be able to pierce a barrier; magic worked differently from a simple shield, and as soon as an area weakened, it would take mana from the rest of the barrier or from the wolf to regenerate itself, until either the entire barrier crumbled or the wolf exhausted its mana.


    But Aaron''s bullets had tiny formations in them; he had cast it using his knowledge in formation mastery, after all. Since there was no good medium ¨C light mana sucking for this purpose ¨C, the formation could only flare to life for a moment before disappearing, and even so, its power was so feeble it could barely be perceived. But when tens of it hit a barrier made with the element opposite to it, it was just enough to pierce the thing.


    With its barrier pierced, there was nothing to protect the wolf from the incoming stream of bullets. The same was true for the one going for Sara.


    When the first bullet hit a wolf, it pierced its flesh for less than a centimeter before being stopped. That''s when the ice bomb exploded, a small explosion of ice dust, which dealt localized damage to the wolf without disrupting the new incoming bullet, which pierced the same spot, only a bit further, and exploded in ice as soon as it was stopped, too.


    Eminent Beasts had tough hides, and that was all Aaron could do to harm them. It was easier for him to show a feat of magic like piercing a barrier than to pierce their hides!


    But there were too many bullets, and they hit exactly the same spot over and over again in the wolves sides. The small explosions were just enough to make them move sideways and guarantee the safety of Helina and Sara.


    The Eminences whimpered in pain. The unexpected pain and attack made them confused, and there was already a hole as deep as thirty centimeters inside them when they realized they recovered from their confusion and realized they had to heal themselves.


    But Aaron acted first.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Single Element: Soul ¨C Legendary Spiritual Vanquishing!


    When he used that spell against the wraith, it was like sand being blown by a strong wind, easily dissipating into nothingness. This time, things were much more complicated.


    Aaron could attack the wolves directly, but it would be a soul attack from a Champion against an Eminence that wasn''t near as mentally weak as the woman whom he had searched the memories were. The wolves would easily resist him.


    Unless, of course, he attacked from the inside. Body and soul were connected, and they were in pain, which affected their souls a little. More importantly, they were surprised and confused, which weakened their minds. So, when his soul mana entered their bodies, and then their souls, it was like a Trojan Horse!


    The spell then started attacking the souls of the wolves with all it had. Their souls weren''t immediately destroyed, but the damage was big and painful enough that they whimpered again. Their power decreased just like that, the barrier around one and the wings on the back of the other disappearing.


    Aaron didn''t stop. The spell kept going, and the wolves had no way to defend themselves except for counting on their innate soul resistance. That should be enough if it wasn''t for the initial damage from the sudden attack. Meanwhile, the bullets kept going, ravaging their insides.


    Their bodies fell to the ground while they whimpered in pain. And finally, after a couple of minutes, they died.


    In the silence that followed, Aaron spoke. "I told you before, my dear subordinates, always go for their weakness."


    The first Eminence he fought couldn''t deal with long-ranged attacks; the wraith was weak against soul attacks; the Duke was surrounded by beasts; and the Eminences from the Temple of Time had faulty armors. In all of his fights, Aaron had attacked his enemies weakness, even if the first time had been a coincidence.


    But before he could explain his words better, a mighty roar resounded through the area. It had soul mana imbued, directly attacking everyone in there. It hit Helina hard, making her fall to her knees. Aaron''s soul resistance, on the other hand, protected Mark, Sara, and him. Shadow One and Lo seemed unfazed by it.


    Thousands of others roars and shrieks followed, and the very grounded trembled. Aaron immediately understood what had happened: they had pissed the boss by surviving, and it was throwing everything in the mountain against his group.


    He decided it quickly. "Time to fly!" He yelled.


    Before coming, he had decided flying above the mountain range would be nonoptimal, both because it would attract attacks from all flying beasts that saw them, and because he wanted to temper his underlings by making them fight the beasts.


    But now, all flying beasts were already coming, together with all terrestrial and underground ones. He had no hope of surviving them with his limited mana pool. It was a shame for his subordinates, but they had to bolt!


    A simple spell pulled Mark, Sara, and Helina close to him. "Don''t resist!" He ordered, placing them in his miniature garden, which unlike his spatial ring, could take living beings. With them out of the way, he would be able to maneuver better and hopefully dodge incoming enemies.


    Next, he shot through the skies at fast speed. He didn''t look back to see if Shadow One and Lo would follow.


    He had overestimated his enemies when he first saw them. Killing the Eminences had been ridiculously easy, and the tales of beasts being usually stronger than their human counterparts was only true because their human counterparts were so weak. But still, the feat had taken him forty percent of his mana pool.


    Aaron took a few coins from his ring and started taking mana from them. He only hoped he would have enough to escape.


    <hr>


    Shadow One was doing her best not to smile. If the boy died without her having to do anything, things would be much better!


    Especially now that he had run away from her! If he had kept close, she would''ve had to protect him, as the Immortal Crusade should do when investigating someone. But now, she had just the perfect excuse to do nothing as the beasts killed him!


    Better yet, he was still going to the White Sea. He would arrive there even weaker than he was, and dealing with him would be a piece of cake.


    She lazily began to fly after him, keeping distant enough from him as to be actually unable to help in case something happened.

 Chapter 41 - Chase

    <h1>Chapter 41 - Chase</h1>


    Aaron flew full speed ahead. An Eminence might be powerful enough to break the sonic barrier, but as a Champion, he felt his speed lacking.


    Magic galore came from the ground trying to hit him, like a display of fireworks, all of which he dodged. He kept a mana shield close to his skin to absorb shockwaves and anything he failed to dodge.


    When flying beasts tried to close on him, and there were hundreds which tried, he would use wind magic to prevent them from getting too close or to send them away.


    Things were easier than they should be, but way too costly, and getting worse. In less than an hour, he already had less than half his mana pool remaining, and keeping flying creatures away was getting much more difficult.


    He had kept his wind magic somewhat close to him. Although he could use it far away, it cost more the farther from him his mana had to affect. By trial and error, the beasts had gotten the gist of it, and were keeping just outside his range of willingness, sending magic from there and waiting for him to show weakness.


    Wyverns were the most common of the beasts, followed closely by four-eyed black birds the size of a cow, and fat birds the size of his fist that moved incredibly fast. Many other kinds of birds were present ¨C by now, he had tens of thousands of beasts surrounding him in the air ¨C but none that had the numbers of those three.


    His flying speed slowed as he was forced to dodge more and more spells. The birds kept accumulating. Anyone who saw it from afar would only see an enormous ball of flying birds, so big that even Eminences would feel uncomfortable fighting against, and even Ascenders without the right spells would avoid.


    At a point, Aaron was forced to stop and hold his ground.


    <hr>


    Shadow One looked excitedly at the encircled boy. He had flown fast enough, and his aerial maneuvers could''ve been enough for him to escape even from her. It had been the right decision to not try to attack him without certainty of her advantage, or things could get tricky.


    But now, he was about to die. Surrounded like that, even an Ascender like her would''ve to spend over twenty percent of her mana to deal with the tens of thousands of beasts in there, maybe more if they attacked intelligently, and her mana pool was ten thousand times the size of his!


    And yet, as much as she wanted to declare him dead and leave, she waited. He was a genius, after all, and the Immortals know what devious spells he had at his disposal to deal with the beasts.


    She didn''t have to wait long. A few minutes later, he acted.


    <hr>


    Aaron had less than forty percent of his mana remaining when he decided to spring his trap.


    From the moment the first beast realized how far it had to fly to avoid his attacks, he had known he wouldn''t have been able to simply fly away from his problems, and prepared a trap. He slowed his flying speed even more than it should and showed difficulty in dealing with the incoming spells.


    Now, it was time for some cheap magic.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Quad Elements: Light, Fire, Space, Soul ¨C Legendary Complete Illusion!


    Light mana distorted the air, creating a figure just like his. It wasn''t just any illusion; it had a heat signature just like his and space even vibrated to release sounds like his, all the while also creating a solid feel to it in case any spell tried to check. Even soul mana was present to fool all spells.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Triple Elements: Space, Light, Soul ¨C Legendary Stealth!


    At the same time, he made himself invisible and got to the side. He started controlling the illusion, showing it struggle more and more. The beasts were getting excited, bloodlust making them even more susceptible to the illusion.


    The moment a wyvern attacked, he finished his trap. He created a new illusion. This one was of Shadow One.


    She seemed to appear out of nowhere and touch him, which made him disappear.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Single Element: Fire ¨C Legendary Fire Stream!


    Then, she seemed to shot a huge stream of fire one direction and fly inside. The stream was huge and powerful, but not even enough to burn half of the beasts in there. All the same, it was enough to kill tens of beasts and burn many others. They shrieked in pain and rage, while the illusion of Shadow One entered the hole created by the spell.


    As soon as the illusion got to the edge of the hole, it also disappeared.


    Then, Aaron stopped screaming altogether and waited.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    With their prey gone, the birds searched elsewhere for the mysterious invader. It wasn''t hard for them to look back and see the distant Shadow One flying in there.


    The firsts to see her shrieked in even more rage for having their prey taken from them, and as one, the huge mass of flying beasts moved at her.


    Aaron did his utmost to dodge all incoming beasts. It wasn''t as difficult, for as flying beasts, they couldn''t fly touching each other without disrupting their flying patterns, and there was some space for maneuvering.


    The harder part was to avoid mana from disrupting his surroundings, but filled by bloodlust and anger, and controlled by stronger beasts, almost none of them paid attention to the mana disruption even if they felt it. The few who paid attention, quickly concluded it was created by some other beasts and kept going, afraid to not be able to help in killing the human and bringing the displeasure of the Ancient.


    As soon as everything was clear, Aaron flew away, this time, invisible.


    <hr>


    Shadow One didn''t know why the beasts suddenly turned to look at her, or why they attacked, but she was sure it had nothing to do with the boy''s death. He had done something, and she was the target now.


    With a thought, he made her helmet close, while suppressing a sigh. As much as she wanted to show some finesse in dealing with those beasts ¨C she was an Ascender, after all, and couldn''t just brute-force through everything ¨C, she didn''t have the time.


    She took her Spectral Eye of Blackwing out of her spatial ring. It was a Peak Artifact orb made from the eye of a Blackwing dragon, an Overlord Beast killed by the Queen herself. It boosted her death magic by twenty percent, something very difficult when dealing with her level of power. The stronger something was, the harder it was to improve on its power.


    And she was strong indeed.


    She extended the Eye towards the incoming beasts, murmuring: "Forbidden Embrace of Sweet Despair."


    She formed the spell not inside her core, but inside the orb. From there, it shot towards the beasts.


    They saw nothing though, only felt overwhelming despair a moment before they felt the grip of death itself filling their bodies and souls.


    One moment, tens of thousands of beasts were flying towards Shadow One. The next moment, their corpses all started falling to the ground like puppets that had their strings cut.


    Shadow One regretted having to kill them, but they were being controlled by a stronger beast, and it was either killing or momentarily freezing them. Unfortunately, killing was more cost-effective.


    As the corpses fell, she couldn''t see Aaron, and used a new spell. "Waves of Existence."


    This time, the spell was formed inside her core, then was released around her. Instantly, she knew everything that existed in a ten thousand legs radius to her, including the invisible boy.


    She used Mana Sense next, paying attention to the void created by the stealth spell from Aaron, making it impossible for him to escape her.


    Having spent little more than twenty percent of her mana pool, she resumed her pursuit.


    <hr>


    Aaron felt death mana. He had read nothing about that kind of mana in the family''s books, although he knew it existed because he had control over all elements, including that one.


    Death was a tricky element to even become aware of, much less comprehend or control, not to mention anything about developing spells with it.


    There were only two exceptions, and one of them confirmed for him what he believed Shadow One to be.


    He turned just in time to see dark spectral arms, with claw-like hands, and many times as long as common arms, evolving each beast.


    The arms sunk into them, consuming all life from the their bodies and souls. They all instinctively used life mana to protect themselves, but the sheer power from the Ascender made it impossible for any beast to resist. They died and fell like flies.


    Then, she used a spell made of space mana. That made Aaron much more worried than the death spell. Fighting against an opponent with control over space was much harder than fighting a mere death mage.


    Now was the best time to attack. Now, that she had just attacked and was feeling safe. Now, that she had detected him, locked on his position, and was feeling under control.


    But he couldn''t. Because he had enough knowledge about beast taming to know that a beast powerful enough to make so many weaker ones behave as aggressively and mindlessly as those was not a beast he wanted to have a three-way fight against.


    So, he kept flying full speed ahead, and after a couple of seconds, his worst fears came to life: a roar.


    It wasn''t just any roar though. It was even stronger and more furious than the one from before, and it was carrying an actual soul attack with it instead of only residual soul mana. It was also a sonic and a spatial attack.


    As soon as Aaron felt the disruption in the ambient mana caused by it, he knew he would die if the attack connected. There was no defending against it, no smart trick to use, if it touched him, that would be it. It was just like one might see a punch before it reached one''s face, except it used his mana sensitivity instead of his vision.


    So, he did the only thing he could; he ceased existing.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Double Elements: Space, Time ¨C Legendary Reality Shift!


    He blinked away from existence as the attack passed through where he had been. The timing was almost perfect, him disappearing for less than a second as the mana-infused sound waves went through where he had been.


    The next moment, he was back, and he was bleeding. All apertures from his body were bleeding, his very soul had almost extinguished itself, and the universe was crying in anguish. He had less than ten percent of his mana remaining ¨C removing a living being, body and soul, from existence was that costly ¨C and had to use all his willpower to simply resist the urge of killing himself that the universe was sending his way.


    For he had sinned against all creation. He had committed the greatest heresy. He was worse than evil, a stain darker than black in the perfection of existence itself. He was ashamed of himself, ashamed of simply being. Why? Why should he continue existing if he was such a shameful thing? Why¨C


    Suddenly, he was back to himself. Shaking his head, his mental faculties were slowly recovering from the backslash caused by the jealousy of the universe ¨C whatever was inside it belonged to it and would not be taken away!


    He noticed he was hurting all over, his stealth was gone, and he was free-falling.


    But at least, he was alive.

 Chapter 42 - The Ancient

    <h1>Chapter 42 - The Ancient</h1>


    Aaron willed Helina out of the garden, and gave her a single order: "Fly us away as fast as you can!"


    Before she could react, he glued the garden to her using a simple spell, then entered it.


    The inside of the garden was an area of around a hundred meters of radius and three meters of height. While the inside of the spatial ring only had fog surrounding it, and no gravity, here there was a proper floor, made of earth, and the fog on the sides and ceiling was shaped like a cage, through which everything outside could be seen.


    He appeared in the middle of the garden, which had almost two hundred different species of plants planted. Marcus and Sara were looking anxiously through the grates of the foggy cage.


    Not paying them any mind, he sat on the spot, close to a couple of Redwarter Roses that had petals as big as his arm, took some leons out, and started absorbing mana.


    He had to recover his mana quickly, or they would die.


    <hr>


    Helina had been looking at the Herald''s struggle from inside the garden and would''ve left the garden had she known how, when everything went dark. It wasn''t just her vision, she couldn''t feel anything, be it her mana or even her own body. Even thinking, her sense of being was absent, much like a state of dizziness, only she still existed in a way she couldn''t explain.


    Then, as suddenly as she entered the void, she was back. She felt such a great sense of welcoming from all around her as if the creation itself was celebrating her return to existence.


    That''s when she realized where she had been. She had been cut from spacetime and the very fact that she hadn''t ceased existing when in a place devoid of the very concept of space was way being her comprehension.


    Before she could think about it though, she felt her body being pulled and found herself falling down at high speed.


    "Fly us away as fast as you can!" The Herald ordered before disappearing, probably into the garden.


    Adrenaline shot through her. The ground was approaching too quickly! She did her best to focus on her mana and casting the only flying spell she knew.


    Crane Gliding Through the Skies!


    A big transparent pink crane made of mana appeared below her, between her legs. Mounting on it, she willed it to fly in the same direction the Herald had been flying, although she did so at half his speed. Sadly, that wasn''t a spell intent on speed.


    She didn''t know why the Herald had left the current spacetime continuum, but from how wounded he had gotten from it, she could only conclude something even more dangerous was around, and she had no wish of seeing it.


    <hr>


    Shadow One barely had time after detecting the incoming attack and close her armor helmet when the roar, and the attack within, hit her like a Hairless Multi-Horned Mammoth.


    Her body was shot back at a great speed, parts of her core were wounded, and her very consciousness was having difficulties in keeping awake.


    It took her a few moments to come back to herself, and when she did, she discovered she had hit a tree, went through it, and through two others, before she finally hit the ground, where she left the mark of her body.


    Ten percent of her mana had disappeared just like that, pulled by the armor to keep her alive from both the attack and absorbing the fall damage. Some of the soul attacks had gone through the armor, yes, but that was the single weakness the armor had, and it had even greatly decreased the attack before it got to her core.


    The first thing she did was expand her Mana Sense around and locating the now fleeing Prophetess. The boy was gone, probably inside the spatial treasure he had had on his waist and was now on the prophetess herself.


    How the hell had he survived whatever hit her was a great mystery, but it made her happy. Happy for not attacking him before, since he clearly had a lifesaving emergency spell or treasure to rely on that might''ve allowed him to escape her; happy for it being revealed; and even happier for it not being absolutely safe, after all, the only reason for him to use the Prophetess to flee at half the speed as before was because he had most likely been heavily injured.


    Now was the perfect time to kill him!


    Not having detected whatever had attacked her, she shot at the Prophetess on full speed, before the attacker got to her. She still couldn''t kill the boy, the Temple of Time was too powerful a backing, but she could get them away from there before killing him, and before he recovered.


    It would even give her a great alibi; she had just saved the boy, so why would she have killed him?


    Like a comet, she went towards the Prophetess.


    That''s when she saw it.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    <hr>


    Helina was flying as fast as she could when the shadows covered the ground to her side.


    She looked up and what she saw made her heart almost stop.


    <hr>


    Aaron was focusing on healing and absorbing mana when he heard Marcus and Sara.


    "By the Depths," Marcus said astonished.


    "Immortals above," Sara whispered.


    He looked outside, and he also couldn''t help but speak, "Shit."


    <hr>


    Shadow One watched as a dragon appeared from behind a mountain peak, flying towards them. It was huge, almost five hundred legs from head to tail, with hard red scales that glistered on the sun, and black and gold eyes filled with fury, that gave her the chills.


    Despite its size, the dragon was flying way too fast. Not as fast as her, but close.


    She hated herself for her previous plan. She had wanted to save Aaron to avoid suspicions when she killed him later, but if she hadn''t already moved towards him, she would''ve been able to simply flee without an issue. After all, she didn''t have to do her best to save anyone from a Quasi-Overlord Beast! Facing a Young Red Dragon, he would''ve died without a doubt.


    Now, she was already committed. Anyone who looked back would be able to tell she had the time to get to the Prophetess and still attempt to flee without any issue. At least her original plan was still good, and he would die anyway.


    Distracted by the dragon, the Prophetess only sensed Shadow One and turned back at the last second. By then, it was too late. As she passed by the Prophetess, Shadow One grabbed the spatial treasure that could hold living beings, forced the Prophetess inside with her will, and kept flying.


    Straight towards the White Sea, the future tomb of Aaron Valdian!


    <hr>


    Aaron had also been surprised by Shadow One when Helina appeared and instantly fell unconscious.


    The Crusader hadn''t been gentle when she willed Helina inside; since Helina hadn''t been forewarned, she had instinctively resisted the Crusader, and the crash of will injured her.


    He couldn''t understand why the Crusader was saving them, but it was the worst situation possible. Helina might be able to bargain with the dragon ¨C Aaron had a lot of knowledge that any beast would love to have, after all ¨C, but he doubted Helina would be willing to negotiate. If she would, she would''ve already hinted on it in their days together.


    So, he went back to doing the only things he could: absorbing mana from the coins and healing himself.


    Meanwhile, he began elaborating a plan. A few minutes later, he hoped the dragon would chase them all the way to the White Sea, for his best plan counted on it, and his very life might depend on it.


    <hr>


    Helina kept flying full speed ahead. The Young Red Dragon was a Quasi-Overlord Beast, yes, and an aerial one at that, but its natural flight skills were not top-notch. Red dragons were skilled in the fire element, not in the air one.


    Besides, her flying spell had been taught to her by the Queen herself and was simply the best one available in the Crusade. Only Overlords using the same spell could fly faster than her!


    Despite that, she couldn''t get a lead on the dragon. It was a Quasi-Overlord after all, and it could brute force spending more mana in a worse skill to not allow her to flee.


    She wasn''t worried though. If it really followed her all the way to the White Sea, she would simply kill it too.


    Fast as they were flying, it would only be a matter of a quarter of an hour or so to get there. The closer they got, the more excited she felt.


    The White Sea... Oh, how she had missed that wondrous place.


    Other flying beasts tried to get on her way, but she easily killed them all. The dragon trying attacking with new roars, but this time she had a mana shield around her that completely protected her.


    The flying spell and the defense consumed some mana, but when she got to the White Sea ¨C an endless blanket of salt covering the ground ¨C she still had over half her mana remaining, and it immediately started refilling at a fast rate. He got only a little over a thousand legs into it, then stopped midair and turned to see if the dragon would follow her inside even after he felt the earth mana rushing into her from the salt.


    She wasn''t surprised when the enraged beast did. But she was surprised when it stopped its flight and roared. The clouds parted and a pillar of light came from the skies, piercing its head. Immediately after, a huge shockwave of energy came from the beast.


    The dragon grew in real-time, getting twice its previous size at a ridiculously fast pace. Only someone who had ever seen something a thousand legs large fly could understand the sheer wonder that it was.


    As it grew, its scales became brighter, and the black in its eyes was pushed by the gold until its eyes were like huge golden balls with black outlines.


    The light pillar didn''t disappear disappeared as quickly as it came, but its effects were everlasting.


    Show Status, Shadow One thought as her body trembled.


    Level: Overlord [10]


    It had just leveled up. It was now an Overlord. She was dead.


    There was only one thing she could do, now, detonate her core. She would die, but she would take the boy with her, and the now Mature Red Dragon wouldn''t profit from killing her.


    She regretted failing her maker, but it was better to die like that than to become her enemy''s strength. Just as she was about to do it though, a voice came from the spatial treasure she was holding.


    "We can kill it," the boy yelled from within, which converted to a kind of mosquito-like voice. "I have a formation to kill dragons!"


    Shadow One''s heart would''ve beaten fast if she had one. It was a trap, it had to be. A formation capable of killing an Overlord Beast? And a dragon on top of that? Dragons were on the top of the food chain, sometimes even in equal footing as humans, for a reason. How had he come in contact with such a formation, much less in the small Valdian Family?


    But it was a chance. Her destruction would be a blow to the Queen. Not a big one, but not a small one either.


    Her emotions battled her logical mind. Everything she knew about Aaron told her she had to ignore him and detonate her core. But her emotions...


    Her emotions told her to cling to any hope of keeping living!


    Humans died and reincarnated, or so they believed. At least they had souls that proved there was something more to them than mere matter, but she only had her core. When it detonated, that would be it. Everything she was would be just gone, erased from existence, impossible to go on in any form or manner.


    Hating herself for her weakness, she spoke.


    "Tell me what to do."

 Chapter 43 - Supreme Dragon Slaying Formation?

    <h1>Chapter 43 - Supreme Dragon Slaying Formation?</h1>


    "Give me control over your body," the boy''s voice yelled from inside the spatial treasure.


    "Never!" Shadow One immediately yelled back.


    "We don''t have enough time!" He yelled desperately. "I''ll just send a part of my consciousness with knowledge on the formation, and you can absorb it! That way you could cut me out the moment you think I''m doing something harmful to you!"


    She felt pressured. The dragon was flying, staring down on her like a king staring at an ant. There was curiosity and amusement in that look as if it was just waiting to see where she would run to, now that it had an overwhelming advantage over her.


    As for Aaron''s proposal... Him sending a part of his consciousness was beneficial to her. If he indeed saved them with it, she would be able to destroy the consciousness later, which would gravely injure him. That way, she would be much more confident in killing him afterward.


    She considered showing mercy to him for saving her, but he was just too dangerous to that. Just like someone wouldn''t show mercy to a mass murderer because he saved one person, she wouldn''t just allow a calamity like him live because of his kindness! Not to mention his kindness was only so he could save himself; he had tried to flee alone earlier, which showed he wouldn''t save her if given the option.


    But even better, she had an instinctual fear of allowing his entire consciousness into her body. She knew her willpower had to be stronger than his, no matter how much of a genius he was, but she would rather not risk it. But if only a tiny part came, no matter how strong, she would be able to shut it down if needed.


    "Decide quickly!" He yelled again.


    There was no way she would be able to set a formation she had never studied before, so she had no choice but to accept his proposal.


    "Fine," she said.


    <hr>


    Aaron had to do his best not to laugh out loud. That was it, her fate was sealed!


    At the pursuit, he had coaxed the Young Red Dragon into following them by promising it that he could make it breakthrough to an Overlord and protect it for one year afterward. As much as the first part of the deal was nice, it was the second part that sealed it.


    Overlord Beasts were hunted as soon as someone heard of them. Be it for their taste, the quality of the materials their bodies became, or even because of the potential danger they represented if they ever became Saint Beasts, no Overlord Beast was ever left alone, with formations set all over the world to detect them.


    However, if it had one year of guaranteed safety, it could stabilize his recent breakthrough in power, and thus become able to protecting itself even if a Saint came in-person to kill it. It was a dragon, after all, and from the Overlord level onwards, the suppression of the world started weakening.


    But he had proven to it that he had great means by surviving its assault as a Champion, that he was too weak to lie ¨C after all, he couldn''t survive another such attack, and if the dragon even suspected him of lying, he would die ¨C, and by showing his knowledge on how to make a dragon increase its level, he had proven that he had knowledge no one else in the world had.


    He had been somewhat lucky that even in such a bad situation, the enemy that showed itself was a dragon. Dragons were beings blessed by the universe and no matter how much the Immortals ruling the planet might change humans and other races, it could do very little to dragons. Therefore, all he knew about dragons from his past life, coupled with his knowledge on mana, allowed him to easily understand how to make the dragon level up.


    The hardest part had actually been talking to it using a thread of soul mana without being noticed by Shadow One. Now, that was true, overwhelming luck. It also showed how desperate Shadow One was feeling about getting to the safety of the White Sea, enough that she had been holding the garden all the time without putting it in a safer place, from which Aaron wouldn''t have had any means of contacting the outside world.


    Now, he only had to draw four huge formations.


    The first one, was the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation, to forcibly take blood from the dragon. It had to be forcibly taken, for it had to be filled with negative emotions of betrayal and anger when it happened.


    The second one was the Supreme Earth Poisoning Formation, which had to turn the White Sea area where they stood into a place that instead of being beneficial to Shadow One, would poison her from the inside ¨C thus the need for forcibly taken blood.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    The third one was the Supreme Golem Core Removal Formation, which would take the core from Shadow One. Yes, she was a golem!


    And the fourth one was the Supreme Spacetime Sealing Formation, which would seal all the area and prevent anyone from leaving or entering it unless an Immortal personally came, or a couple of Saints united to forcibly destroy it. Since the Fire Continent supposedly only had the Fire Emperor at Saint-level, that was almost impossible to happen in a year.


    Three formations based on betrayal would fuel the fourth, spacetime sealing one! He couldn''t have lied to the dragon, after all, and had to deliver what he promised. He had only omitted the fact that the process would be painful to it.


    However, he couldn''t do it in a way that the dragon would believe it was only a spacetime sealing formation, and Shadow One would believe it to be ''merely'' a Dragon Slaying Formation.


    There was only one solution: spicing things up.


    He sent a sliver of his consciousness into Shadow One. It was a tiny part, but it had knowledge on how to set the four formations, how to link them together, how to use spells as a golem, and how to fight somewhat effectively.


    Dividing his mind like that was a painful but quick process. As soon as his consciousness entered her body, she scanned it in all way possible, and finding no evil intentions within it, allowed it to take control of her.


    As soon as that happened, he sent a message to the dragon.


    "She''s a golem!" He sent mentally. "She''ll try to use the abundant earth energy in the White Sea to defy you!"


    As expected, the dragon roared in fury and attacked.


    <hr>


    Aaron-Two was just a confused being. It knew what it knew, its purpose in existing, how to do many things, but its mind was lacking. He felt small, weak, vulnerable.


    But the body it found itself controlling... It was nothing but weak!


    Shadow One ¨C Aaron-Two now knew what the golem''s name was ¨C was a work of art. It was an Ascender Golem created by putting an inscribed monster core into a human corpse, which was no small feat. The body itself had become scarred and ugly, almost useless, and only an Immortal would be able to heal it without affecting the synchronicity between the body and the core. But the state of the body didn''t matter for a golem; the face was okay, allowing it to pass as a human, and everything else could be covered by the great it was wearing. Aaron-Two even suspected it to be a Lower Relic!


    The core had also lost little power when transferred into the body, becoming an Ascender from its original Overlord level. He felt his original consciousness would have a way to bring the golem''s original power back to effectively kill the dragon above them, but for some reason, that knowledge had not been given to him. It seemed it was better for his original consciousness that the golem not become too powerful, and Aaron-Two could indeed feel some hostility from the golem towards him.


    He willed it and the golem''s arm moved. He opened and closed its hand. He also controlled its armor through its soul binding, opening and closing the helmet at will. Lastly, he pulled some mana from its core and cast a simple Light spell. It was weird, for the golem had no soul upon which to draw the spell signature, but he had. It was like using two different souls to do a task.


    And then, before he could do anything else, the huge dragon on the skies roared.


    It wasn''t just a roar, but an attack filled with spatial mana, soul mana, and flaws. He had all the information his main consciousness had about the dragon since it had expected to fight it.


    Before, as a Champion, no matter how good his perception, analyzing an incoming attack from a Quasi-Overlord had been beyond him. Now, as an Ascender, seeing how unrefined the attack from the just-leveled Overlord dragon was, was way too easy.


    In fact, the attack was so bad, he had five different ways of dealing with it, three of which he could''ve done as a Champion instead of almost killing himself by blinking away from existence.


    He pulled mana from the core and created a simple spell with it.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Double Elements: Space, Soul ¨C Supreme Drill!


    An invisible drill made of space and soul mana distorted light in front of him and drilled a weak spot in the incoming roar attack. Due to the difference of power, there was still some impact, which he felt in both his soul and in the core, but nothing he couldn''t ignore. Just like that, the roaring attack dissipated into nothingness.


    He had no time to lose. Before the dragon could react, he willed the armor to open the area around his wrists and used a simple spell to open a cut on both of them. Then, another spell started using the blood to draw a huge circle of blood on the White Sea, while a third spell kept creating new blood in the golem''s body.


    "What are you doing?!" A female voice, supposedly the golem''s, said in his mind.


    "Drawing a formation," he explained nonchalantly.


    "Why are you doing this with my blood?!" She demanded, and he felt his control over the golem''s body decrease.


    "Stop resisting!" He yelled in his mind. "You''re a golem, and have a great affinity with the earth element. We''re in the White Sea, a place covered by salt, where earth mana is abundant. There''s nothing better to act as an inscribing material than a golem''s blood! It''ll allow the formation to absorb a lot more energy without energetic conflict!"


    Before she could reply, the dragon seemed to realize something had gone wrong with his attack, since Shadow One hadn''t dropped dead nor showed any other reaction to it but to use a simple spell.


    It became even more enraged, and its claws came crashing at her.


    "Damn!" Aaron complained. "Stop slowing my job! Now I have to dodge the attack and prevent it from damaging what I already inscribed!" Struggling full control of the golem back from Shadow One ¨C she didn''t resist ¨C, he cast another spell.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Single Element: Earth ¨C Supreme Gigantic Hand!


    Just as he had said, earth mana was way too abundant in the area. Controlling it required more willpower, but less mana from the mage, which was perfect for him.


    The space-strengthened salt raised from the ground and created a huge white hand that interlaced with the dragon claw. The impact of a claw from a being of a thousand legs long meeting a solid hand of the same size created a mighty shockwave.

 Chapter 44 - Formation, Activate!

    <h1>Chapter 44 - Formation, Activate!</h1>


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Double Elements: Earth, Space ¨C Supreme Earth Dome!


    A small dome made of space-strengthened salt rose from around him to protect him. As soon as the shockwave hit it, he got rid of it, only to find himself in an area being showered by salt.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Single Element: Wind ¨C Supreme Breeze!


    A strong wind was born from him and blew all the salt in a thousand legs radius from him, in a perfect circle. Not losing any time, he resumed his formation drawing while taking to the air.


    He couldn''t make it easier for the dragon. It would have to decide if it wanted to attack him or his formation!


    He flew fast, soon finding himself at eye level from the dragon. It was looking confused at the enormous hand of salt holding it, as if not believing his newfound mighty of a Mature Red Dragon could be so ''easily'' stopped.


    <hr>


    Shadow One was feeling as dumbfounded as the dragon, but for another reason.


    She had thought that in the White Sea, her affinity with the earth element would''ve allowed her to completely crush Aaron. But now, seeing his knowledge about the earth element, and his affinity with it, made her realize how wrong she had been.


    It hadn''t been a coincidence that he had suggested they come here, to the White Sea. And it had been right after the Valdian Family''s undercover agent had told the boy how he had no privacy, that only golems could be trusted for such line of work.


    Had the boy knew since then? Had it all been a plot to make her feel overconfident, and thus follow her here?


    That gave her a foreboding sensation. All she wanted to do was flee away from there as soon as possible!


    But just as she was about to destroy his consciousness, throw the spatial treasure away from her, and flee at full speed, she realized with pure terror that he had already laid the formation down!


    How? Just how?! Everything, from the roar to his flying to the dragon, and now the conclusion of the immense drawing of blood on the ground, had taken less than a minute? She would''ve never believed a perfect formation could be drawn so quickly, but he seemed confident in it.


    For he was already activating it.


    And he was using her own mana to fuel it.


    The formation, a red circle filled with arcane symbols, on a white background, resembled a work of art. When he infused mana into it, the blood lit in bright red, and sheer power came from it.


    She took control of her core back from him, but it was too late.


    <hr>


    Aaron-Two willed the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation to activate, and it obeyed. Salt flew to the skies in such a fast speed it created small sonic booms. It formed into a huge white sword just above the dragon, and then, it fell on the beast.


    Its red scales were hard and protected him well enough. Any spell from Aaron-Two wouldn''t have been able to pierce the scales, but formations were different. They could draw from the energy in the place, and the blade was made of space-infused salt, which drew extra power from the earth element in the White Sea.


    Extra power and extra energy. Aaron-Two had used a lot of mana to activate the formation ¨C over half of the remaining mana in the golem ¨C, but the end result was much greater. As the scales resisted the initial contact, salt kept going over the dragon, and the blade seemed to keep trying to pierce through them.


    He felt as Shadow One removed his control from her body and core, but it was already too late. The formation had been activated and it was now fueling itself on the earth energy on the place. It would take a few days for it to consume the energy in the area and stop; until them, it would keep trying to take blood from any dragon that entered the area!


    She then did the next best thing she could: she tried to destroy the formation. But when he felt her pulling mana from her core, he stood against her.


    He could feel her shock when her core failed to obey her; when she realized her willpower was nothing in front of his. Oh, he would end up dying in a war of attrition, he was just a tiny part of his original consciousness, after all. However, he could hold for a few minutes against her, and that was all he needed.


    From the beginning, he had been willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of his original consciousness!


    He hoped it wouldn''t be necessary, but just as he had almost died to survive the first roar attack, he saw nothing wrong in damaging his soul to guarantee he kept alive! Damage could be healed, but once he died, it would be all over.


    While he struggled against Shadow One, a few moments after the activation of the formation, the blade finally pierced the dragon scales. It yelled in pain, fury, and regret. Its feeling of betrayal was almost palpable as it realized it had been played, and that was just what Aaron needed.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    <hr>


    Aaron willed himself out of the garden as soon as Aaron-Two started struggling against Shadow One. He was still bloodied; he had been focusing on healing, but not on cleaning.


    Without losing any time, he used a spell to pull the blood from the dragon, and another to create two flying formations around Shadow One!


    The formations were like spell signatures, a bunch of arcane symbols in a spherical pattern around Shadow One. First, he activated the Supreme Earth Poisoning Formation.


    Shadow One yelled in pain.


    Her golem body had such great affinity with earth element that it had been automatically getting mana from the White Sea from the moment she arrived. When he poisoned that connection, the shock of receiving poisoned mana would''ve been enough to kill weak-willed Eminences!


    She didn''t die, but that moment of shock and the poisoning of her core was enough weakening for him to activate the second formation he had drawn around her.


    Supreme Golem Core Removal Formation, activate!


    There was no way for her to defend herself. The core was pulled from the middle of her body, teleported away, and appeared right outside the two formations around her body.


    Aaron used a spell to cut his own hand and created the fourth and final formation.


    The dragon was still roaring in pain, trying to resist the huge sword that hadn''t stopped attacking it. Everything had happened too fast for it to react, especially since it had just leveled up and hadn''t gotten used to its new power and size yet!


    Aaron drew the fourth formation, which fit perfectly into the first one, transforming it from the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation into the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation the Supreme Spacetime Sealing Formation.


    Then, he forcibly pulled mana from the golem core to activate it.


    And the dragon disappeared.


    The blade of salt became formless, the salt falling harmless on the ground. The blood and the formations were gone, too. Only Aaron remained, flying, holding Shadow One''s core in one hand, and using a spell to hold her body flying, too.


    Now, he only had to check if she had indeed bad intentions towards him, and what the hell the Immortal Crusade actually was.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting ¨C Single Element: Soul  ¨C Legendary Memory Search!


    Without a body, the core might have a consciousness, but it was defenseless in front of him. He read everything he wanted from Shadow One''s memory, and what he saw made him realize one thing: he had to flee as fast as possible!


    For the moment Shadow One''s core had been removed from her body, her maker, Queen Overlord Bloodvine, the Warden of the West of the Immortal Crusade, had felt it. And she was coming for him!


    As much as he wanted to experiment with the core, it would be used to track him. So, after recovering his consciousness from it, he dropped the core, and it disappeared into the Supreme Spacetime Sealing Formation that it was fueling. Next, he willed Shadow One''s body into the garden and started flying full speed ahead towards the White Sea City.


    There lay the portal to the Flying Continent, and it was his only chance of escape!


    <hr>


    The Queen was reading some documents when she felt that Shadow One, her beloved first creation, had been defeated.


    She frowned, and that was enough for nine Shadows to appear in front of her, in kneeling position.


    "Recover Shadow One''s core," she ordered.


    As much as she would''ve wanted to personally deal with it, now wasn''t the time. The war with the Seven Isles was going worse than she had expected, and she might be needed at the battlefield at any time. There, in her throne room, she could teleport to any place in the Fire Continent, but if she left, it would take her at least five days to come back to this room, and by then the war might''ve already been lost.


    But she was confident her Royal Guard could take care of it. Shadow One had reported what she had found on the boy, but no matter how much of a genius he might be, he wouldn''t be able to deal with ten Quasi-Overlords Golems. Even her would die in their hands if it came to it, much less, him!


    Putting the matter to the back of her head, she went back to reading the documents on her hands.


    <hr>


    When the Royal Guard arrived at the place they were feeling Shadow One''s core should be at, they found a grandmotherly figure in white clothes looking at nowhere.


    The Check Level Heavenly Skill showed her to be an Overlord. They immediately got on guard, closing the helmets of their armor.


    "Madam," the head of the Royal Guard said, "who are you? What are you doing here?"


    The grandmother looked at them, and they felt as if she could read them like an open book. She smiled slightly. "Oh, I was just reading Time to understand what happened here, pardon my manners. Are you here to recover the core from the one named Shadow One?"


    As one, all members of the Royal Guard took their magical orbs from their spatial rings. "Surrender yourself, right now!" The head of the guard yelled.


    "I see," the grandmother said. "Just like I saw in the past, you''re a bunch of arrogant insects with no respect for others. It''s no wonder you dared to attack my children."


    "Attack!" The head ordered, and spells intent on stunning and subduing the grandmother came from all ten golems.


    And all of them failed to connect. They all were kept held in place around the woman as if frozen in time.


    "From time to time," the grandmother said, "cleansing war comes to this world. And what fuses it is always the death of some nobody that had a great background. You killed my Prophetesses, and now I''ll kill you. Neither them nor you should be important enough to bring war, but I consider my children important enough, and if what I read from the memories of Shadow One is true, your master also considers you important enough." The Royal Guard tried to move or even speak, only to find out all of them had been frozen in time. "But worry not, your beloved maker, Queen Overlord Bloodvine, will soon accompany you to the Depths!"


    They felt nothing; one moment they were alive, and the other, they had ceased to be.


    <hr>


    The First Prophetess was satisfied with her catch. Ten Quasi-Overlord Golems would help protect her Temple of Time just nicely, she just had to find the right cores to replace the ones she had destroyed.


    She looked at the direction the Herald of Time had fled. She had also seen in the Rivers of Time as he modified the portal to the Flying Continent and entered on it. From there on, not even she could guess where he had ended.


    Maybe it was for the best. She had a war to wage, and he, as the reason for it, was best left off in a more protected place.


    Taking the golems with her, she teleported back to the First Temple.

 Chapter 45 - Flying Continent

    <h1>Chapter 45 - Flying Continent</h1>


    Aaron flew until he saw the huge white walls of the White Sea City. It was beautiful, filled with formations that might as well be works of art. But he ignored it all in his hurry; he was not there to sightsee but to avoid death.


    He stopped anxiously at the door of the city, paid the toll to enter, then ran straight towards the place where the portal was located. His family''s library had contained maps from all over the continent, and even some from other continents, including detailed maps from key locations like the White Sea City. He had naturally memorized them all.


    There was a long line of people by the portal, that was nothing more than a slightly raised large platform made of black stone with silver inscriptions. Every time the portal was activated, mages would double-check the wear on the inscriptions, repair as needed, and only them about ten or so people would be allowed in to be sent to the Flying Continent.


    Aaron would obviously not wait. As he ran, he activated his Legendary Stealth. There were five mages working on the portal, one of which was an Ascender, and two Eminences. Only the Ascender detected Aaron when the boy stepped on the platform, but only barely, as he looked at Aaron''s direction with a frown, unsure of what his senses were telling him.


    After stepping on the portal, Aaron quickly read the formation, which was nothing more than a mere Supreme formation. Usually, only Overlords using their Ultimate spells could teleport, but when formations were involved, Ascender could do it using their lower leveled Supreme formations, too.


    As for Aaron, he had no issue reading the formation and understanding what it did. Basically, it was soul-linked to another formation in the Flying Continent, and once activated, whatever was over it, touching the platform, would be replaced with whatever was over the Flying Continent''s platform.


    Just as he felt the Ascender pulling some mana from himself to prepare a spell, Aaron acted. He had bought many materials in Lamia, including silver ink, which he pulled from his ring and used to cut a symbol on the formation in half.


    Doing so revealed him for the senses of every mage around. The Ascender''s eyes widened in surprise, which made him stop his spell casting. That second was enough for Aaron to also pull three suons ¨C Supreme coins ¨C from his ring, place them with mana on the circle outlining the formation, and use a new spell.


    Myriad Arts ¨C Spellcasting, Formation Mastery ¨C Single Element: Soul ¨C Legendary Energetic Link!


    The coins connected to each other and to the formation, and the latter activated. It flashed in bright light, and when the light was gone, so was Aaron.


    He felt his body being twisted, bound in ways that weren''t natural, but it wasn''t painful. It took only a few moments, and then, he materialized elsewhere.


    He was on the Flying Continent.


    However, he wasn''t on the portal where he was supposed to be. When he used silver ink on the White Sea City''s formation, he suppressed its connection to the Flying Continent''s portal, but not to the Flying Continent itself. It was as if he had sent a letter without informing the street, house number, or even the city or state, only the country where it was supposed to be delivered to.


    He looked around, finding himself at the top of a snowy mountain. He couldn''t see anything below, clouds covered everything like a peaceful mantle. The skies above him were blue, and the white sun of that planet shone brightly.


    There was no immediate danger around that he could see, and that''s just what he needed. Finally, he allowed his body some rest, releasing his tight control over it, and immediately it demanded he coughed. And with the cough, came some blood.


    He was still heavily injured from the reality shift, and using spells in that condition hadn''t helped. He cleaned the blood away and took Helina, Mark, and Sara from the garden.


    "I need some rest," he said. "Helina, do not use your Mana Sense, we don''t want to be found, or even worse, provoke whatever beast might be around. But do set up some wards around us, in case something invisible enters our range, be it a sentient being or a spell. Sara, Mark, keep practicing. I''ll need a month of rest before I can concoct some healing pills, don''t talk to me until then."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "I... Have some healing elixirs..." Helina said hesitantly. She wasn''t sure how she felt about the arrogant Herald who had threatened to abandon her at the Wyvern Pass, but she still had to keep him alive.


    He nodded. "Let me see."


    She took a small bottle out of her spatial ring. It looked like a fancy crystal perfume bottle from Earth, with a golden liquid inside.


    Check Item, he thought. Two tooltips appeared, one for the bottle itself, and the other for the liquid inside.


    Check Item


    Name: Alchemist Elixir-Holding Bottle


    Grade: Low Magical Item [4]


    Check Item


    Name: Golden-Grass Healing Elixir


    Grade: High Magical Item [5]


    He took the bottle with a smile, opened it, and sniffed the contents. Still smiling at her like a kind grandfather who had just witnessed his grandaughter do something stupid but cute, he offered the bottle battle.


    "I appreciate your care," he said sincerely, "but the yin element in Golden-Grass-based elixirs is just too intense. What''s more, the purity of this elixir is of only thirty percent, and its impurities are also of the yin element. Women would be fine with all this, as their bodies and souls are yin-aligned; even the impurities would be naturally, albeit slowly, eliminated from their bodies over time. As for men, while this elixir might heal them in the short term, it would also poison them! And a double poison at that, for not only the yin-aligned impurities would be an issue, but also the healing itself, since the healed parts of the men''s bodies would be infused with yin element, too.


    "If a Champion Warrior used this elixir, he would be unable to use any martial abilities for at least ten years, the time needed for his body to expel the impurities and correct the incorrect ratio of yin and yang in it. That, of course, would be the same as killing the warrior, since no master would take a useless warrior, and someone who used to live for fighting would be hard-pressed to find any other kind of job, especially if he had no money saved-"


    Everyone paled a little as he spoke, especially Helina. "I didn''t know!" She said quickly, interrupting him.


    Aaron shook his head. "That''s both a truth and a lie. A truth for you probably didn''t know how harmful it was, and a lie for I bet you were told to never give this elixir to a man unless it was absolutely necessary. This came from the Temple of Time, after all, and its official members are all women. It''s natural that they would develop a medicine that would be better for them, and detrimental to possible thieves. Not to mention some Prophetesses might want to make some money on the side, and by making sure about half the world population would be harmed from consuming this elixir, the upper echelon is also making it harder to sell the elixir, or at least making it less profitable."


    Helina opened her mouth to speak, but he raised his hand to silence her and continued. "That being said, it wouldn''t be as bad for a mage. At the worst, he might develop some minor and easily curable yin-attributed disease, besides being unable to train as a warrior. Of course, since mages bodies are usually weaker, it would take them about a hundred years to naturally expel the poison, and sick mages are mocked by their peers, but nothing major.


    "Now, for me, personally, things are different. The only reason I haven''t started training as a warrior is because I''m awaiting puberty, but after then, I would very much like to do so. It would inconvenience me to no end to have to wait a hundred years to do so. However, I obviously also have the means to both detect the imbalance in my body and to correct it, but that would also take two months, which is longer than my own plans of healing."


    He had been smiling until now, but suddenly, his smile dropped and he looked dead serious at her. "However, a poison is a poison, no matter if it works or not." Helina paled even more, and he kept speaking. "As for the reason I haven''t killed you for trying to poison me, it''s because I believe you were trying to help. But just as I told Mark, you must take care of your suggestions in the future, especially those that might be harmful to me. Contrary to his suggestion though, you had information about the elixir not being supposed to be used by someone other than a Prophetess, but you withhold it from me. If you ever try to harm me again, be it by ignorance or willfully denying me knowledge, there will be consequences, Helina Chosen, and you will not like them."


    He didn''t think she could pale even more, but she found a way. He felt satisfied seeing that she had gotten his point, and felt it very interesting how impactful his words were to her. It seemed that Herald of Time thing was even more important to her than he thought, and likewise, harming the Herald of Time was something she dreaded.


    "I''m sorry," she said with a weak voice.


    Aaron nodded, sat in a lotus position, closed his eyes, and started tending to his wounds.