ă€ŠLost in the New Worldă€‹


 Deployment

    Harsh vibrations thundered through the large quadcopter, emitting worrying creaking noises and rocking the armoured soldiers within to and fro. There were nine soldiers in the bay. Eight of them wore industrial looking, thick, steel alloy armour with a detailed desert camo. Neat, organized wires peeked out from between the joints in the plates and a weird cylindrical structure protruded a few centimetres out from their backs. Chunky helms encased their heads with only two slits to give vision, but even those had a sturdy layer of tinted glass alloy. Their hands carried rugged, cannon-like rifles and magazines containing their oversized ammo had been plastered all over the body from the thighs, to the hips, to the sides and to the back.

    Yet the soldier at the head was an even stranger sight. The equipment worn was many folds more sleek and elegant, giving off a refined look. Unlike the other soldiers, the weird cylinder protruding from the soldier''s back had mysterious, intricate details carved in, with smooth parabolic curves connecting the rim of the cylinder to the back of the suit. The helm worn had a smooth surface, lacking even openings for vision. Instead, a crown, bearing the same desert camo as the rest of the suit, lay upon the soldier''s forehead. Tiny hidden cameras lay within the decorations on the crown, with 12 cameras, arranged in groups of 4, pointing towards the four cardinal directions, the system seemed to have a 360-degree field of view.

    ''5 minutes till deployment,'' announced a steady voice, soon drowned out by the roaring of the quadcopter.

    ''I guess this is it,'' stated one of the soldiers. The others nodded in response, the noise of the engines droning on without end.

    ''3,2,1, drop off,''

    The great bay doors fell open, revealing a chaotic battlefield. Cannon shells crisscrossed through the sky, their points of impact carved out great fuming pits into the landscape while bodies, rotted on the ground, their blood, forming great rivers that caused the soldiers on the ground to slip and slide. Thousands of soldier pushed through the thickening miasma against a tide of monstrous life forms.

    Soldiers, wearing minimalist exo-suits rained fire onto the towering figures and while many fell, a great amount of those monstrous figures were still able to reach the main lines to wreak havoc amongst the soldiers. The rattling quadcopter sailed over the battlefield and soon a grand mountain came into view. It was as towering as Mount Everest and just as imposing, yet its peak was devoid of snow, despite the way it seemed to pierce through the clear sky. It was after the quadcopter got halfway up the mountain was the troop deployed.

    The clamps released their grip and the soldiers within span through the sky. Wind screamed past the helmets of the skydiving soldiers and before long, their massive parachutes were deployed. Tens of similarly equipped squads had been scattered across the expansive blue sky, all heading towards the imposing mountain. In a few minutes the squad crashed into the side of the mountain, the parachutes that were afterwards cast aside, obviously could not reduce the momentum of the steel suits by a large enough margin. Bestial monsters surrounded the squad before they could even take a step forward.

    ''27 Rock Beasts, rank 0, our rifles can deal with their outer carapaces, they won''t be an issue,'' declared one of the squad.

    ''Roger''

    The team moved to form a grid-like formation, guns pointing outwards with the "crown" in the middle.

    ''Open fire!''

    Bright blue flames burst out from the barrels of the rifles, catapulting out massive .50 cal rounds, smashing into the armoured skulls of the Rock Beasts. Their rough outer carapaces, smashed apart, splinters flying out in all directions. Their blood congealed into small streams, flowing down the mountainside, evaporating into red, eerie mists in the dry, hot air. A few seconds later, the thundering of the guns had stopped. The rock beasts never stood a chance and because of their foolishness, their corpses littered the ground, fresh and red. With the blood of their enemies streaming down the curves their steel armour, they set forth and proceeded to ascend the mountain, each step propelling their bodies several metres forwards.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ''14 more kilometres to target''

    A soldier cried out in alarm, ''Reyla, watch out! To your left!''

    Without a moments hesitation, the soldier that was addressed as Reyla threw her body out to the left, narrowly dodging several two and a half metre long quills that then plunged deep into the rocky ground. The squad dispersed, finding cover amongst the nooks and crannies of the mountainside. The culprit of the attack was proudly standing on a tall cliff around 30 metres away from the squad. It looked rather like a gigantic porcupine, four metres tall and covered in long, viscous quills. Its eyes were deep red and its thick bone-like armour was camouflaged with the brown rocks around it.

    ''It''s a rank 1 cannon porcupine, we would waste a lot of ammunition if we shoot at it now, so we should wait until it launches half of its quills, then, we can shoot at its exposed body!'' yelled the soldier closest to the porcupine.

    ''Dirk, how many quills does it have?'' asked another soldier while dodging 3 more quills on his way to cover.

    ''Anywhere from 120 to 190, you''ll be fine as long as you don''t do anything dumb''

    Not but a few seconds later, the porcupine launched 20 quills at the addressed soldier, tearing apart his cover, forcing him to fall back behind another large rock behind him, only to have that cover destroyed again by another 30 quills.

    ''Good, at this rate we''ll get there in no time!'' joked a soldier who was huddling in a hollow of a cliff.

    ''Dammit Royce, screw you!'' screamed John in a high pitched voice as he rolled out of the way of several more quills, trying to get to "crown" as he had the nearest cover.

    ''Fel, help me!''

    In response, the crown, or Fel, angled his rifle towards the incoming quills. Brilliant blue lasers shot out of a secondary barrel on the gun, vaporising both of the quills that were approaching John and saving his life. He thrust out his free arm, grabbing John and hauling him to safety.

    ''Shelab, Reyla, Donnick, you''re in a good position, shoot it down!'' ordered Dirk

    ''Got it''

    Three high calibre rifles spewed searing blue flames, launching massive metal projectiles at the porcupine. The porcupine''s thick armour deflected two of the bullets while the other smashed into the exposed rear in of the porcupine, scooping out large sections of gory flesh. A second later they fired another volley. This time all three bullets hit the target, causing half of the porcupine to blow up into a mass of blood and gore.

    ''Target eliminated,'' declared Dirk. ''Take the core and continue towards the target. The target has moved two more kilometres away, we gotta move.''

    Royce leapt up to the porcupine''s corpse and shoved his hand into the quivering mass of flesh. After scrounging around in the putrid mass for a few moments he pulled out a burnt sierra coloured, semi-transparent, glowing, spherical object with a 15cm diameter. Without a second glance, he shoved it into his pouch and caught up to the group.

    Off in the distance, they saw another nine-man squad engaging in a fierce battle with a massive, 15-metre long snake. Massive bullets hurtled onto the body of the snake, however, a strange yellowish barrier that enveloped the entire body of the snake blocked every single one of the deadly bullets. One of the soldiers had his chest smashed in by a sudden swipe of the snake''s the tail and flew at breakneck speed to the side of the mountain. The impact was so strong that the ground shook, sending out a near solid cloud of dust and dirt. The clouds cleared, revealing a soldier lying still in a small crater, his valiant armour, decimated. The wires of his suit were broken, still fizzing in the air, his blood, dripping through fissures while strange, blue, flames burst out of the back of the suit. The suit ejected a weird cylindrical object that rolled away, carrying the blue flame with it.

    Reyla looked at the squad worriedly ''Should we help?''

    ''No time, we gotta keep moving.'' replied Fel, gritting his teeth under his crowned helm.

    Dirk, noticing their suffering tried to lighten the mood, ''Well, on that topic, we''re only eight kilometres away from the target!''

    ''Wait a moment, I meant 4, huh, wait, 3? ˇ­um guys, it appears to be directly beneath us, everyone, quick disperse!''

 Centipede Brawl

    The hard earth beneath Dirk''s feet erupted into a mass of rocky fragments and coarse dirt, blasting all of the soldiers back. A tall, ominous shadow loomed out from amidst the thick debris. Massive, deadly mandibles snapped up a scrumptious, metallic, snack while a hundred stubby legs squirmed in the air. As the dust thinned out, the form of a massive, 20metrelong, centipede showed itself, and in its revolting maw was the body of Dirk. His armour was like paper before the cruel mandibles of the gigantic centipede, completely unable to protect his fragile body.

    Grim-faced, the rest of the team unleashed their payload onto the great centipede, but, an odd, sand-coloured barrier, congealed around the body of the centipede, looking like a layer of illustrious lacquer. Even the oversized bullets, hurtling at the beast at a speed of 2000 m/s, couldn''t penetrate the strange barrier. Fel hefted up his own rifle, firing stunning blue lasers at the centipede, yet even those powerful lasers, previously able to vaporise the dense quills of a cannon porcupine, could only barely thin out the centipede''s barrier.

    Shelab yelled into her mic while hurriedly retreating away from the centipede, ''Fel, we''ve lost the initiative on the target, we have to switch to Plan B otherwise we''re doomed!''

    ''Very, well,'' replied Fel solemnly, ''Tsvan, Warren, George, initiate Plan B, we''ll cover you.''

    ''Yes, captain!''

    The determination in their voices was strong, yet the fear within was equally clear.

    Three figures dashed out from the encirclement. The soldiers behind them shot out red-hot bullets and brilliant lasers that flew past their shoulders and hurtled into the menacing centipede. Although the damage caused by the covering fire was minimal, it was at least able to distract the centipede for a few, precious, moments. The centipede sprayed out a cloud of green, glowing, and corrosive venom that encased most of the battlefield in mere moments. The figures plunged into the incoming death trap, ignoring their rapidly corroding armour. Before long the figures were only a few metres away from the great centipede. In the next moment, a mere arm-span. Warren himself was only a hands-breadth away from being able to grasp the centipede''s body, yet, just before he brushed the surface of the centipede''s carapace, the point of one of the centipede''s legs penetrated his back, crushing through the weird cylinder on his back and emerging out from his chest, pinning him to the ground. A towering pillar of bright-blue flames burst out from the hole in the cylinder, reducing both the centipede''s leg and Warren''s body to cinders. A swift stream of acid sprayed out from the centipede''s mouth at Tsvan but George shoved him out of the way, receiving the stream of acid instead. His already corroded armour couldn''t withstand any more stress and dissipated into the green mists around him, his body melting into a puddle of toxic green goo.

    Tsvan, the only one left of the three, finally reached the centipede after what seemed to be a lifetime. He hugged onto what he could of the centipede while the machinations inside the cylinder on his back cycled at blistering speeds, whirring crazily and emitting a mysterious light-blue glow.

    ''It was an honour to be with you captain,'' sobbed Tsvan, his straight face crumbling during his last moments.

    The whirring of the strange cylinder rose into a new octave, every nook and cranny of his armour began to emit blinding rays of bright-blue light. The centipede seemed to sense a great danger, twisting andwrithing, in an attempt to shake off Tsvan. But he had plastered himself to the surface of the centipede''s body, too close for its legs and acid to attack him without damaging itself. Thin cracks emerged across the entire suit, forming unique, web-like patterns. Moments later there was a sound of smashed glass and following that, was a massive explosion. An earth-shattering shock wave charged out, overturning immovable rocks, vaporising the ground and sending the centipede flying high into the sky. Unstoppable waves of brilliant, blue flames melted gargantuan boulders into insignificant puddles, forming a lake of molten earth within the crater of the explosion. The flames clung to the centipede as it flew through the air, chewing out its powerful barrier.

    Fel bowed his head and silently prayed, ''May we meet in a better place, in our next lives.''

    Kneeling on the ground, he hefted up his gun and flicked a well-disguised button. A whirring sound emerged from the rifle, not too dissimilar of that emitted by Tsvan''s armour during the last moments of his life. Bright blue light, only just visible and seemingly intangible, streamed towards elegantly concealed air intakes. Illusory bolts of semi-transparent silky cloth embraced Fel''s body, the resulting angelic image, contrasting with his aggressive militaristic equipment.

    The centipede smashed back into the ground, its impact spewing out molten rock everywhere that landed mere feet away from the soldiers. As if it could sense a great danger, the centipede scuttled through the molten crater towards Fel, desperately trying to interrupt whatever he was doing.

    ''Hold it back! We can''t let the monster interrupt the charged shot! Use your binding grenades to delay it!'' yelled Royce

    In response, the soldiers lobbed three dodecahedron shaped objects to locations around the centipede, forming a hexagonal formation. Strange white light flashed out from the gaps between the plates of the grenades, exploding into a magnificent light show. A high pitched sound, similar to glass breaking, rang out while thick white beams of light connected the grenades together, forming a 2d triangle above the centipede, with its face parallel to the ground. The centipede slowed down and looked around it, unable to make heads or tails of what was happening. The intensity of the triangular formation abruptly increased by tenfold and inside, thousands of fine grey-white lines flickered into existence. It was as if they had bound the space within, the centipede ground to a halt as if sealed by innumerable chains. However, in the next instant, the strange thin lines shook and bent while a deep rumbling permeated the soldiers'' surroundings, the dust at their feet dancing to and fro.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Fel had only charged his gun a few seconds ago yet, as a result, large amounts of molten stone had stained the landscape, the earth was rumbling as if the apocalypse was near and beams strange, grey and white lights were shooting out left and right as the fine lines within the hexagonal formation distorted. The formation suddenly fluctuated, releasing a powerful shockwave that roared out towards Fel. Shelab dashed out in front of Fel and slammed out her armoured fist towards the shock wave. The force behind thefistsplit apart the shockwave, protecting motionless soldier.

    ''Cheers Shelab, I''ve locked on to the target and am prepared to fire as soon as it destroys the binding formation,'' said Fel as he repositioned his rifle.

    ''Don''t worry, we''ve got your back,'' reassured Reyla, ''We''ll lay down suppressive fire as soon as the formation breaks, won''t we Donnick?''

    She got a rather gruff grunt in reply

    Miffed, she focused back onto the centipede but not before poking back at Donnick, ''As anti-social as ever.''

    ''Tch''

    ''What did yousa-''

    ''Now, now, we can sort out our grievances after we finish our mission? You won''t have to wait long, see? The target is about to break free!'' interrupted Royce, playing peacemaker as per usual.

    A sound of glass shattering rang out, not too dissimilar to the sound that heard when the grenades exploded earlier. A massive shock wave bloomed out with the now broken formation as its epicentre. With a mind to fight fire with fire, Donnick threw out another odd-looking grenade, this time spherical, with a perfectly smooth surface. Just before it collided with the shock wave, it exploded and, from within, another shock wave burst out. The two shock waves collided, causing the surrounding airspace to plunge into chaos with the air fluctuating like crazy, sending swirls of dust into the sky and distorting the light around it. However, because of this, the shockwave didn''t reach Fel, and the overall force of the distorting mess was not enough to cause their bullets to miss the massive target before them. At least, not enough for it to matter too much as long as they pumped out enough bullets.

    ''Ha Ha! Nice one Donnick! Open fire!'' applauded Royce with glee

    The centipede''s barrier was now too thin for it to be able to shrug off the incoming bullets, which allowed for the previously near-useless attacks to buy time so that the fluctuations in the air could die down. They did not want to take any risks with this as if Fel''s shot missed, they would''ve wasted all their effort.

    ''Everything is in order, firing charged shot, make sure you are not obstructing the projectile or you will disintegrate into a molecular state,'' joked Fel as he put pressure on the trigger.

    The sights were aligned and the trigger fully pressed in. Time seemed to slow. The rifle howled like a furious dragon and violent, piercing rays of bright blue light burst out from in between the plates on the rifle. Fierce, fast flames jetted out from the air intakes while large amounts of black-blue smog were shoved out along with the flames, kicking up sharp winds and catapulting small pebbles far, far away. An intense light travelled along the barrel of the gun. Only a thousandth of a second later, a dark, hulking bullet emerged from the barrel of the gun. It had mysterious blue lines carved on its surface that seemed to be artistic, yet deadly and practical at the same time. As it separated from the gun, a soft ring of bright blue dust expanded outwards from the tip of the barrel. Then, as if time had decided to work again, the massive force of the shot shoved Fel back, and the bullet pounced towards the centipede at a blistering speed of 4000 m/s. An illusory dragon formed around the bullet. Its body was long and snake-like, while its head was slim and sinister. Its roar was one with the sonic boom of the bullet and its power was infused with the will of the soldiers who had sacrificed themselves for this one shot.

    The centipede didn''t even have the change to react. Its body was blown apart by the sheer power of the bullet. The projection of the dragon seemed to open its terrifying maw, tearing apart swathes of the centipede''s flesh. Two massive halves of the centipede fell to the ground, the two ends seemingly wriggled around, emitting a sickly green glow. Yet before long, they burst into glorious blue flames, rapidly deteriorating into a mass of ash and soot. Half a minute later, the centipede was no more. The team could only hear the echoes of the explosion and the sounds of a distant cliff crashing down in the distance.

    Royce broke the silence first, ''Tsvan, Warren and George did not die in vain, we have eliminated a great threat to the main force!''

    ''We''ve got to get back to base, our Power Armour''s are getting low on charge. Royce, give Fel the porcupine''s core, it can never hurt to be too careful, this racket could''ve attracted trouble over,'' replied Reyla

    ''Sure, Fel, catch!'' saidRoyceas he tossed the brownish core to Fel

    ''Thanks,this''llonly take a moment,'' replied Fel as he strengthened his grip on the core. A potent energy ran up the armour on Fel''s limbs in thin, brownish, crisscrossing lines. The cylindrical structure on his back began to whir while some concealed exhausts in the armour coughed out a dark brown smog.

    ''No matter how many times I see it, Evolved Power Armour is truly miraculous. The ability to process monster cores and recharge your reactor on the go alone is amazing,'' praised Shelab

    ''It is nothing, after all, this armour is still in its experimental stage and still has a lot more polishing to do,'' replied Fel modestly. ''Anyways, we have to move, we''ve spent enough time here.''

    However, just before they could take a step forward, a silent scuttling sound echoed out from their surroundings. A great shadow loomed behind them with bright red eyes, full of rage and hate.

 Lost

    Boundless purple mists consumed the scarred mountainside, blotting out the sky, burying Fel and his squad in darkness.

    ''Fel, what i- h st-f, bzz,''Shelab''scommunication fizzled out.

    Warnings littered his vision and his Personal Assistance System activated, something that only happened in dire times.

    ''Alert, pilot cut off from the main network,systemrecommends to evacuate to safety.''

    ''Alert,pilotis within the corrosive cloud,systemrecommends to seal air intakes and use emergency oxygen supply and evacuate to safety.''

    ''Damn this thing''s annoying.'' Fel crawled over to cover to gather his thoughts, his suit hissing as it sealed its air intakes and engaged the emergency oxygen supply. ''I can''t just run away and abandon my mates. Without me, they''ll die without a doubt!''

    ''Reminder, emergency oxygen supply will last for five hours with a normal breathing pace, strong emotions such as anger and vexation will increase oxygen consumption.''

    ''You''re an increase in oxygen consumption'' grumbled Fel as he concentrated on the surrounding mists.

    Off to his side, he heard several muffled gunshots. Wishing to reunite with his squad mates, Fel crawled his way along the battlefield towards the disturbance, only to nearly collide into the side of a massive shadow mere moments later. Fel leapt back like a grasshopper and slipped under the shadow of a rock, blending into his surroundings. The shadow halted for a moment, hissing at Fel''s location, drops of venom melting small holes in the ground as they fell. The standoff continued for half a minute, only disturbed when several bullets rocketed towards it, causing it to rear up in a rage and slither off to its hidden foe.

    ''It must be the mate of that rank 2 Cursed Centipede judging from the length of the shadow and extensive use of poison. But a Cursed Centipede doesn''t have an ability like this, it must be a rank 3 monsters. In that case, it''s a Doom Centipedeˇ­ just how unlucky am I?'' Peeking around a boulder he checked his current condition, ''My energy levels are at 73%, I''ll need at least 90% before I can even think of fighting a rank 3 monster. I must find Royce, no, the core of the Cursed Centipede should''ve survived, that''s my best bet!''

    Although he worried about the rest of his squad, fighting head-on with the Doom Centipede right now would be just asking for death. Anyway, the surrounding gunshots weren''t lessening so they should all still be alive. With their power armour, they should be able to hang on for another half hour. It took ten minutes of manoeuvring through the battlefield to reach the corpse of the Cursed Centipede. There wasn''t another brush up with the Doom Centipede, but it never hurt to be careful. Fel took out a sturdy machete and wrenched apart the fractured carapace from the charred skull of the Cursed Centipede. Fel cut out a neat square in the bone and reached inside, rummaging around and taking out a glowing, sickly green sphere. Although a few shallow fissures that ran over its surface, it was intact.

    ''A little damaged and drained from the fight with only around 30% of its original energy left. Enough to get me to 90% charge. With Royce''s core, I could''ve gotten back up to peak combat ability. I guess you get what you get.''

    Fel gripped the orb and activated a few functions. His reactor hummed and whirred, drawing out the energy from the glowing orb, causing it to dim and lose its brilliance, deepening the fissures on its surface. A minute later, the fissures had dug right into the centre of the now dull orb that shattered like glass. The digital gauge at the edge of Fel''s vision showed that he was at 87% charge. Well, better than nothing.

    The sounds of the reactor died down and Fel, yet again, resumed his journey through the battlefield but before he could even take a dozen steps forward, a large figure barreled out of the mists and fell at his feet. A quick inspection showed that it was a suit of power armour with a small red wing on its shoulder plate.

    ''Reyla?''

    ''Haha, sorry Fel, it got me good,'' She rolled over, exposing a large gash on her chest plate. ''The mist got into my suit and corroded my energy pathways. It hasn''t got into my oxygen supply but I can''t move, half of my joints have melted!''

    ''Don''t worry, I''ll get you to a safe place, just hang on for now,'' assured Fel as he hoisted her up, tucked her body behind a solid-looking boulder. As Fel strode back into the open, he heard a faint whisper behind him.

    ''Good Hunting''

    Continuing onward, Fel stalked the battleground. This time it took five minutes for him to find the Doom Centipede, catching its silhouette off in the distance. After finding a flat section of land he reached around to a hidden compartment his back and took out eight octagonal plates. It was time to lay a trap. With the aid of his system, he placed each of them on the eight corners of a perfect octagon, half burying them into the ground and attaching them with a taunt, hair-thin wire. Fel strode to the centre of the formation and placed a cylindrical object on the ground, pressing a button on its side and running off behind a rock.

    As he took out a miniature detonator, that he had attached to the trap, the cylinder burst into an array of spectacular lights and loud, annoying sounds. The faint silhouette in the distance turned around and rushed towards the disturbance as if it had a personal vendetta against this light show. But as it entered the hidden trap, Fel pressed down onto the mini detonator that spurred his creation into action. The signal shot through the wire, activating the octagonal plates that pushed out vast amounts of yellow natural energy into the wires connecting them. Unlike the blue natural energy that Fel used, this new form of natural energy was harsh on the eyes, as if merely looking at it could slice you apart.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    In the centre of the formation, the Doom Centipede had just realised that it had been duped. The yellow light burned away the poisonous mist in its vicinity, allowing for the trap to show its true ability. Eye-catching lines of sharp, yellow natural energy burst out from the octagonal plates, connecting each of them and forming a mysterious octagram between them. In a matter of seconds, the yellow light was so bright, you couldn''t even see what was happening within, the natural energy clashing in the centre of the octagram, spiralling up into the air like a grand, towering pillar. The sturdy flesh of the Doom Centipede sloughed off its great body like clay, causing it to wail out in an eerie, hollow tone. By the time it crawled out of the trap it had lost a third of its body and its mighty barrier.

    ''The Exorcism Formation is as effective as ever! If only it didn''t consume so much energyˇ­'' Fel checked his energy levels that showed that he was only at 55% charge. A single activation of the Exorcism Formation had cost him over 30% of his energy, but the effects were worth it.

    ''I mustn''t lose this opportunity, I have to go in for the kill.'' Fel took a moment to take an inventory of his items, hoisting up a rifle at his side and retrieving a massive, lightsabre-like object from his thigh.

    ''Power at 55%, structural integrity at 96%, AWM Rifle, check, Energy Sabre, check, all systems functional. Powering up the reactor and Engaging rank 3 Doom Centipede.''

    Fel''s reactor whirred as he dashed towards the Doom Centipede. He propped up his rifle and pressed a button, causing the surrounding natural energy to stream towards the hidden air intakes, pushing Fel''s reactor to revolve faster and faster. Three seconds later, a massive bullet rocketed out of the barrel and smashed into the body of the Doom Centipede, smashing through it and crashing into a cliff behind it. The Doom Centipede''s maimed body split in half, leaving it unable to retaliate against Fel''s onslaught.

    Grim-faced, Fel tossed aside his rifle, taking up his Energy Sabre in both hands, flicking a switch on its side as he did so, causing the Sabre to kick into high gear, sucking in great amounts of natural energy from the reactor. The poor reactor revolved even faster, groaning and creaking as it did so. Even the suit rattled and cough out steam as the vast volumes of natural energy flooded its pathways, the Evolved Power Armour couldn''t handle this.

    But the suit held on, despite the immense amount of pressure it was under, allowing for the natural energy to converge and concentrate at the mouth of the Sabre. In the next moment, the concentrated mass of natural energy exceeded its critical point and burst out from the hilt,splayingout to a length of ten metres long.

    Pupils shrunk to a needle-like point, Fel brought the beam of natural energy down onto the Doom Centipede, vaporising its massive body. The excess energy ran amok, clearing out the poisonous mists, allowing the sun to touch the ground once more. After Fel''s eyes adjusted to the light, he took in the surrounding scene.

    His attack had carved out a deep trench into the ground, over ten metres long and a metre and a half in depth and width. It was still smoking and its surface was molten. The attack was devastating, it would be a miracle if the Doom Centipede survived.

    A synthetic voice disrupted Fel''s line of thought, ''Unit has re-connected to the nexus.''

    ''So annoy- oh wait, it''s not spamming me for once!''

    ''Notice, poison cloud has dissipated, unsealing air vents and recovering emergency oxygen supply.''

    ''Alert, units energy pathways are damaged, energy output restricted to 50%.''

    ''Alert, pilot overdrew the reactor, energy output restricted to 5%.''

    ''Alert, unit is overheated. Deactivating strength enhancing systems.Systemrecommends immediate repairs.''

    ''Why do I do this to myself?!''

    Fel cast his now red-hot Energy Sabre to the side. It was a useless lump of alloy now, he had ruined the thing by overdrawing its capabilities. Dropping to the ground in exhaustion, Fel opened his protective face-plate, breathing in deep gulps of air. He could finally take a breather.

    Fel lay on the ground, his body leaden and his mind worn. His rest was short, being disturbed by the voice of Donnick above him.

    ''Hey, you ok?''

    ''Yep, I''m fine. As you can see my suits... damaged, but with help, I should be able to get back to base.''

    Getting onto his feet, Fel closed his face-plate and walked over towards the tattered remains of the Doom Centipede. With luck, he might get something useful.

    As he approached the remains, Fel noticed a particularity large chunk of flesh left over, looking closer, Fel noticed that it was the Doom Centipede''s head, with its dull beady eyes, gazing out into the distance. The fact that it survived was a miracle. Fel''s eye saw that fine silver lines spanned across its smooth carapace, this wasn''t a feature of Doom Centipedes. This one had mutated. A carapace that could survive such destructive power would be worth millions!

    Fel took out his machete to pry the thick carapace from the Doom Centipede''s flesh but, as time would tell, it wasn''t an easy task.

    ''Damn. What''s with this?'' Going at it with a newborn fervour, Fel placed his leg on the grip of the machete, intending to use the weight of him and his entire suit of Evolved Power Armour as leverage. But before he got a proper foothold, a hint of life returned to the dull eyes of the Doom Centipede.

    ''Shit!'' Falling over due to his unstable position, Fel jumped back to his feet and resumed his escape.

    Without his suit''s strength-enhancing system, he was only a fit human being. Without his combat systems, he was only a rather skilled, fleshy soldier. As of now, the advanced piece of technology he wore was a deadweight, only able to protect him from the harsh environment and flying stone shards. A cold, piece of metal.

    This gave the Doom Centipede an opportunity. With a vicious glint in its eyes, it emitted an ominous glow. Only a second later, the glow encompassed its entire head, increasing in intensity and erupting into a massive wave of sinister, purple fire. Fel had only got a few metres away from the head at this point and the wall of fire was at his heels.

    As if some higher being had heard his pleas, the shock wave of the explosion, that had ridden ahead of the fire, had opened a crevasse in the ground. With a new burst of vigour, Fel soared forwards and dived into the crevasse, followed by a billowing gale of purple fire. But the crevasse was deeper than expected. Fel tumbled down the narrow crevasse for five, entire, minutes, crashing down into the corner of a dark cavern.

 Sea of Light

    Cries of worry floated down the crevasse from above, yet they were soon cut off as the crevasse closed like a healing wound. Now, Fel was alone. A little dizzy, Fel got to his feet, turning on his battered headlamps, taking in his surroundings. It was a cave of modest proportions with only a distance of ten centimetres between his head and the ceiling and the opposite side of the cavern was only a dozen short steps away. However, the cavern wasn''t desolate.

    In the centre of the cavern lay a pristine, circular and elevated platform made of smooth obsidian, engraved with complicated lines and intricate runes, with a perfect circle around it all. Surrounding the platform sat eight basalt pedestals with dome-like stone lamps upon them. The whole scene was almost occult, only lacking splotches of blood and a set of skulls. Wait, nevermind, there was a dusty skeleton in the corner. Huh?

    Fel doubled back to the dead skeleton to make sure he wasn''t tripping. Fel inched towards the skeleton as if it could leap at him at any moment. You couldn''t blame Fel, the thing looked terrifying! Although it was humanoid, it had six arms with long, slender fingers. An extra pair of eyes adorned its forehead, with yet another pair just below the cheekbones, crystal-like and still in their sockets. It''s skull, apart from the eyes, was alien in itself, being a tad too long, with a squashed jaw and the back of its skull protruding out a just an inch too far. To top everything off, mystic lines and tiny runes decorated into the surface of the bones while a black monastic robe covered his lower half and a rough stone ''donut'' pendant hung around its neck.

    Fel tossed a pebble at the inhuman skeleton. Nothing happened. Fel sighed in relief and walked right up to the skeleton. Up close, Fel noticed that there was a small, old, black leather book poking out from of a pocket. He fished it out and flipped open the cover, revealingˇ­ a mess of incomprehensible characters. But Fel didn''t give in and he continued to flip through the aged paper. Hours passed as Fel examined page after page. As he continued to read, the pages became increasingly decrepit; by the time he was halfway through, he could hardly make out the individual characters, further on, the pages were completely ruined. However, aside from the incomprehensible characters, the book also contained many strange and alien illustrations.

    On one page he saw an illustration of a three-eyed, goat-headed and legged demon with eight long, lanky arms that touched his feet, each of them covered in patches of ugly scales. The next page contained the blueprints of a sphere that contained thousands of miniature blades, each engraved with almost microscopic runes. As he continued to read, the content grew stranger and stranger, Fel was lost in the wonders of the book. Although they seemed to be ridiculous, he felt that everything in it was true but in the end, he understood nothing and gained little from what he saw.

    He clasped his hands in respect towards the skeleton and reached out to hold the skeleton, intending to give it a proper burial but as his finger brushed against the skeleton, the mysterious runes and lines seemed to peel off the lifeless skeleton and flitted over towards Fel. With little time to react, Fel hardly lifted a finger before the runes phased through his solid armour and body and branded themselves on his bones while the complicated lines seared themselves onto his skin. If being branded was painful, what was happening to Fel was ten times worse. The lines covered every inch of his body making Fel feel as if he had been set on fire while his bones were melting from the runes branding themselves onto him. This only lasted for a minute, but to Fel, it was an hour of fiery hell.

    Sighing in relief, Fel cleared his eyes of tears only to come face to face with six, hovering crystal eyes.

    ''Please, no no! I love my eyes, I really love them!''

    Fel''s pleas went unheard and the six eyes phased into his face, trying to fuse with him, scraping out the flesh in the way. This time, Fel lost consciousness. It wasn''t a sensation meant for humans.

    Fel woke up, his face, covered in blood. After wiping off the thick layer of dried blood, he lowered his faceplate to check the time. An entire day had passed. By this time his squad mates would of have given up the search and returned to base and he, he was stuck in this godforsaken cavern with this godforsaken skeleton.

    Stomach grumbling, Fel took out some rations from a hidden compartment. These suits had some serious storage space. As he brought a brick-hard biscuit to his mouth, he noticed something weird. Thin, golden lines covered his nose. Fel ejected himself from the power armour and tore off his own pilot suit, proceeding to inspect his body.

    ''My, god''

    That was all Fel could say. Golden lines crisscrossed his body while circles and a few delicate runes sat on random areas across his flesh, but there was a strange sense of order to their placement. Oddly enough, Fel didn''t feel that different even though he had gotten a full body tattoo. If he could see his shoulders and checked under his arms, he would notice four circles, crammed to the brim with golden lines and runes.

    Fel zipped up his pilot suit and hopping back into the power armour and turned on the selfie function to look at his face. His face wasn''t spared from the treatment and had gotten the full makeover, though his eyes looked the same as usual, no colour change or weird pupils. But one feature was out of place, if anything was at this point. That feature, or features, were the golden lines, painted across his face. One on each cheek and on either side of his forehead. A thought passed through Fel''s mind, causing him to shiver in fear. No way that would happen, he''s still human. Right?

    Fel pushed the thought to the back of his mind. It wasn''t something he wanted on his mind. More importantly, the skeleton! Eyes swivelling back to the skeleton, Fel saw only a pile of ash on a black monastic robe. A few ghost stories came to mind, but he dismissed them, it was obvious that the lines and runes were holding the skeleton together. It made perfect sense! Humans were very adaptable creatures.

    ''Well, since you seem to be a pile of ash now, you won''t need your worldly belongings.''

    Fel licked his lips and robbed the pile of ash of its robes, pendant a strange black feather and another small leather book he found hidden in the folds of the robe. Although he couldn''t wear the rings and bracelets in his power armour, he put the pendant on and stored the rest away in a compartment on his back. He also found an ink bottle among the ashes but he threw it away as it was useless to him.

    ''It was nice doing business with you!''

    Fel rotated on his heels and was about to walk away until he remembered where he was. A cave. A small, dark, sealed off cave. Mood dampened, Fel trundled off to the opposite side of the cave, as far as the pile of ash as possible. The trauma was deep. After awhile Fel browsed through his new book. He had nothing better to do.

    The first few pages only contained dense paragraphs of unknown characters but on the thirteenth page, he saw something interesting. A full body drawing of the skeleton, with flesh. The thirteenth page had the body standing up, arms splayed out while the fourteenth had one of it sitting in a cross-legged pose with its arms in meditative positions. Tens of tiny blue arrows flowed through both of the drawings, cycling around in a circular motion that expanded, escaping the confines of the body. The images were trippy, Fel could swear that they were moving but when he checked with his camera, they were normal arrows. Flipping the page, found another set of bodies in the same positions but with ten times the amount of lines that flowed in two different patterns, one expanding out and the other contracting inwards. He kept turning the page and discovered that there were eighteen different sets of drawings that were separated into seven different chapters, each set being more complicated than the last with golden, red and even white arrows being added into the mix.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    There were many other diagrams in the book, depicting detailed manuals for various martial techniques. There were six different techniques, each having eighteen variations. One of them depicted a six-armed man soaring cross-legged through the air while another showed the same person lobbing handfuls of lightning at a mountain. Even better, the manual preferred to use diagrams instead of words, as if the author feared that the person reading it wouldn''t be able to understand. The diagrams not only contained the poses of the martial arts but coloured arrows that pointed every which way.

    Another day passed. Fel had nothing better to do other than chomp on dry rations and examine the books and play with random objects he found. The books themselves were getting old because although they were fascinating, he understood nothing. To him, they were useless. He sat on the obsidian platform in the centre of the cavern, leaving his power armour standing at his side and thought of the image of the six armed man on the thirteenth and seventeenth page.

    Fel took a deep breath, calming his mind, closing his eyes and honing his focus. Half an hour later he lied on the floor and rolled back and forth, grabbing an empty ink bottle from his power armour''s hands, that he had been playing with, tossing it to the other side of the cavern. Nothing had happened during his little session and boredom was consuming him. Just as he was about to get back to his feet, he caught a small glint of light at the edge of his sight. Finally, Something interesting!

    Fel rushed over towards the anomaly and extracted the source of the glint of light. It was an Energy Stone. It was a resource that humans had uncovered when they arrived at the New World. Everything in the New World ran on it. Although there were the artificial Energy Crystals made before the discovery of Energy Stones, they were expendable, one use items. Energy Stones were rechargeable.

    This one seemed to be a high-quality one, being a light sapphire and emitting a dense, sky-blue light. The only reason he hadn''t seen it earlier was because it was buried in the wall, only uncovered when he threw the ink bottle at it. It was one sturdy ink bottle.

    Fel jogged back to the power armour, intended to give it some long-needed juice. Tripping on the way, he dropped it onto the platform. The dark platform absorbed the light from the Energy Stone, sucking it dry in a matter of moments. The blue light flowed through the intricate carvings on the platform''s surface, seeping out and drawing close to the eight pedestals. Alarmed, Fel hopped back into his power armour and stood on guard. Who knew what could happen.

    The stone lamps on the eight pedestals lit up, casting eerie shadows on the wall while the platform hummed. The fires in the lamps roared and the lights on the platform soared, the intense light drowned out Fel''s figure and when it all died down, he was nowhere to be seen.

    ''System detects a lack of oxygen in the area, sealing off suit and engaging emergency oxygen supply.''

    Awoken to the mechanical voice of the assistant system, Fel opened his eyes to the sight of... darkness.

    ''Alert, unit energy supply at 8%.''

    ''Alert, oxygen supply will last for 3 hours.''

    ''Alert, large pressure detected, origin unknown. Aler-''

    ''SHUT THE FUCK UP!''

    Somehow, this worked.

    Fel was clueless of what was happening. He wasn''t able to do anything anyway. So, Fel continued to float through dark, empty space, until, he heard a crack.

    ''System? What''s happening?''

    ''Pilot ordered this system to ''shut the fuck up'' and so this system complied although this system was in the middle of dispensing important information''

    ''And so what, was that ''important information''''

    ''That the power armour could only resist the external pressure in this space for half an hour. Ten minutes have already passed.''

    ''If it was so impor-'' A massive crunching noise interrupted his outburst. Now, Fel was in deep shit.

    ''Everything''s okay, deep breaths, 1, 2, 1, 2. Wait a second, that''s not right.'' Under the threat of inevitable doom, Fel was panicking. If he could at least do something, he wouldn''t be so flustered.

    ''System recommends that pilot continues with the exercise, it is very suitable for the current situation.''

    ''Reminder, increases breathing pace and emotions such as rage and annoyance will increase oxygen consumption.''

    Fel felt like the system was getting back at him but it was just him. Just as his thoughts were coming under his control, a deep groaning noise seeped from the power armour. However, Fel couldn''t do anything. He was a fish in a barrel.

    In the next moment, one of the air vents folded, giving the outside pressure full access to his soft, human, body. As the system sent out warnings, Fel scrunched his eyes closed, preparing for the flattening of his being. His fears were, yet again, founded.

    A great hand wrapped and around him ready to squeeze him dry but in his most dire moment, the previously inert runes and lines on his body lit up as if they were about to fight against this pressure. Contrary to Fel''s expectations, however, the mysterious markings did no such thing, instead of welcoming the pressure in. Thus began Fel''s hour of hell.

    The markings somehow redirected the intense pressure that pressed into his body, preventing it from scrunching him into a ball. However, it still didn''t stop the extreme pressure from squeezing blood out of every pore in his body. Blood wasn''t the only thing that oozed out of his body. Along with the blood came a thick, black liquid. The stuff was far denser than blood and was like crude, blunt syringes as it oozed from his body.

    There was however, a hint of hope. As increasing amounts of black liquid poured out of every possible hole in his body, the pressure acting on him got less and less although, unfortunately, the same could not be said for the pain. Eventually, however, the last drop of black liquid was forced out and at that moment, everything changed.

    Although Fel''s eyes were bloodshot and his mind was teetering on the brink of insanity, he could feel a change. A deep, fundamental change. Wheezing out a sentence, Fel ordered the system to open a small window on the faceplate, allowing for him to look out of the suit with a naked eye. Though the suit was still being crushed into a pulp, Fel wasn''t able to feel anything and before him was a breathtaking sight. A sea of light.

    There were millions, perhaps even trillions of tiny points of blue light, packed so tightly together that they formed a massive sea of light. But Fel could feel in his bones that that wasn''t the end, there was something beyond, something even greater but for now, that was beyond him. As he wished that he could see it up close, thousands of points of light rushed towards him, teeming about him in joy. There were so many of them that instead of breathing in oxygen, he instead inhaled a large amount of these points of light.

    This reminded Fel of something. It reminded him of the diagrams in the mysterious book. Although he failed in his last attempt, this time, he believed that such a thing wouldn''t happen.

    Fel closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, inhaling swathes of the points of light into his body. As they entered his body, he concentrated them into the centre of his chest and when he could breathe in no more he, at a snail''s pace, exhaled. The points of light spiralled out, just like the blue arrows in the diagram, becoming smaller and smaller as they reached the surface of his body, dissipating into space and they exited, having no more energy spare to support their form. When he emptied his lungs, he breathed in another batch of ''light.'' Rinse and repeat. The exercise, unlike his pathetic attempt at it before, was fulfilling, pleasant, almost addicting. Fel descended into a trance, paying no attention to the river of time.

    Unbeknownst to him, the four painted lines on his face opened, revealing golden eyes that emitted rays of golden light. The circles around his shoulders seemed to stretch out, as if they had been squashed into a 2d plane all along, forming half transparent golden arms. You would be forgiven for mistaking Fel with an armoured Hindu god if you saw him from a distance.

    Five hours later, long past the point that his oxygen supply had run out, metaphorical chains fell from Fel''s body. The golden eyes and arms on his body exploded into rays of golden light, looking like a golden sun from the distance but before Fel noticed this change, the space around Fel distorted, and a strong force dragged Fel from the sea of light. His time was up. He was wrenched away from the sea of light, through the fabric of time and space and dumped into a cold, stone hall.

 Monochrome Forest

    A scrunched up power suit lay in an ancient, domed cathedral, lit by illustrious rays of moonlight that fell through fissures in a stone dome. Weathered carvings wrapped around crumbling pillars and walls while withered grey plants grew between the slabs in the floor. Fel lay on one of the eight obsidian platforms that sat in the centre of the building, still unconscious from his trip through the sea of light.

    Fifteen minutes later, the battered power armour twitched. It tore at its faceplate, getting a handhold on it, wrenching it off, revealing the face of a unique young man. He looked to be 19 years old, dark-skinned with golden lines tattooed across his handsome, sharp face. His eyes were inky black, with an alluring hint of gold that glittering in their depths. Wavy, raven black hair, of medium length, peeked out from under the protective helm, dirtied by blood and slimy black liquid.

    Fel hoisted himself up, resting an arm on a raised knee.

    ˇ®Where on earth am I?ˇŻ

    As Fel looked around, Fel saw stunning, yet ancient, carvings and architecture. The carvings depicted four winged angels warring against thousand-eyed mountains of sludge while the other side showed a great war with hundreds of different creatures, six armed men among them, fighting against rows of flying, armoured humanoids with great horns protruding from their skulls. After admiring the surrounding craftsmanship, Fel tried to reach around to his back to fetch a few tools but his armour seized up. The pressure from the sea of light had damaged the joints, it was a miracle he could even sit upright!

    ˇ®System, system! I had to rip off my faceplate because you wouldnˇŻt respond!ˇŻ

    No reply

    ˇ®Umm, activate emergency power supply!ˇŻ

    No reaction

    ˇ®Systemˇ­noooo! Your life was too short, you didnˇŻt deserve such an early death!ˇŻ FelˇŻs mourning, however, was short-lived.

    ˇ®I am here, how may I, bzzt, help-p-pyoou?ˇŻ Though the voice glitched out, you could almost taste the smugness.

    ˇ®Humph, who would want you? Anyway, get me out of here!ˇŻ

    ˇ®Of cour-coursse,acti-tivatingem-mer-mergenccydeqquipm-bzzt procedures.ˇŻ Following that spazzed out statement was the sound of clamps releasing and steel plates falling to the floor.

    Unfortunately, the system didnˇŻt have enough energy to complete the entire procedure, leaving Fel in a scrunched internal suit of armour. On the other hand, he could now reach around to his back and tear open a compartment to spill out a few tools.

    As Fel was dismantling the remaining parts of the power armour, he called out to the system.

    ˇ®Hey system, you there?ˇŻ

    No reply. This time, the system was dead. It had used both the last of its processing power and the power of the suit to complete one last task. Six tears slid down FelˇŻs face, but he wiped them away, he was in an unknown location with many potential dangers, the last thing he should do is to stay trapped in a metal cage like a sitting duck.

    Fortunately, the place was deserted. Even the loud clanking of metal falling to the ground attracted no attention. An hour later, Fel freed himself. He peeled off his pilot suit, revealing stinking, bloodied flesh. Every suit of power armour had a kit for those who got lost in the wasteland. So, when it came to hygiene, Fel had no worries. He opened a crumpled compartment, albeit, with a little difficulty, Fel fished out a metal spray bottle, proceeding to spray it all over his body. Blood, grime and repulsive black liquid slid off his body, creating a cesspool of muck at his feet.

    There was one last problem. Clothing. Even though Fel had his pilot suit, all sorts of disgusting substances had tainted it, even his miraculous spray wouldnˇŻt be able to fix it. Suddenly, something clicked together in FelˇŻs mind, the robe!

    After a little of scrounging through his storage compartments, Fel found it and covered his bare body, protecting it from the cold air. Fel was a tall person, towering over many of his peers at 189cm high. He was also rather muscular but not at the bodybuilder level as power armour pilots required both strength and flexibility, Evolved Power Armour pilots required ridiculously fit bodies to withstand the g-forces of their power armour. All in all, Fel was quite a hot guy. Paired with his friendly personality he was the object of desire to many. If only he wasnˇŻt as dense as a bag of bricks with only an eye for machines.

    Fel was a fine specimen in his black monastic robe, the only flaw being the fault of the robe itself. It had six sleeves. Fel had two arms. Yet, surprisingly enough, the additional sleeves didnˇŻt get in the way too much. The robe itself was a rather good fit so overall, it was a keeper. As Fel didnˇŻt feel that the area was dangerous, he walked over to his disassembled power armour, fetched his tools and got back to work. An hour later Fel had assembled a makeshift backpack out of the compartments and battered power armour parts. It wasn''t uncomfortable as you would think as he had bolted a layer of cushioning, that the inside of the power armour used as cushioning, to the backpack. He had also forced out the dents in the internal armour and used it as a base to put the compartments on, allowing for the ˇ®backpackˇŻ to fit snugly around his back. Fel had also hollowed out his reactor, taking out the useful Energy stones and using the empty space for more storage. Although heavy, it was a very functional backpack.

    As he sorted through the storage compartments, he found the items he had looted from the six armedskeleton, choosing to put on the accessories as they suited his current aesthetic. Save for the metal backpack on his back, Fel looked like a role model monk. Preparations complete, Fel decided that it was time, time to leave this ancient building.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    But just before he moved towards his closest exit, he noticed something strange. Blue points of light swirled around in the air, looking like those he saw in the sea of light. However, they were much smaller and duller compared to those points of light, not to mention sparser, they were so insignificant that you could hardly see them. Fel beckoned them to him and in response, they jumped about in excitement and swarmed towards him. As they approached him, the weirdest thing happened, something hard to describe. They, ''jumped'' out, increasing in size and brilliance. Although they were still smaller and fewer than the points of light in the sea of light, they were still larger than their earlier state. Fel decided that it was time to name these points of light. He chose to call them energy points, as he deduced that they were concentrated points of natural energy that floated through space, possibly even in another plane of existence.

    While Fel inhaled the energy points and circulated them through his body, he noticed that they didnˇŻt seem to do anything. They flowed through his body but encountered no resistance as he directed them out of his body. Hit by a sudden spark of inspiration, Fel changed the way he cycled the energy points through his body, drawing in points from light through the pores of his skin, cycling in inwards while inhaling in energy points, cycling it outwards. The pressure on his body increased and as the energy points travelled through his body, they forcibly fused with his flesh and bones. Not onlythat,but when the two opposing currents of energy points clashed, instead of fusing into his flesh, they instead fused together into a greater mass of energy that exploded out through his body, forming a reservoir of energy. As the energy didnˇŻt fuse with his flesh, he assigned it its own name, internal energy. Fel continued to cycle the energy points through his body but after an hour, the energy had saturated his body. Cycling the energy points had no more effect.

    But Fel wasnˇŻt done yet. He recalled simpler martial arts contained within the leather book. He twisted his right foot to a 90-degree angle and placed his left foot 30 centimetres in front, perpendicular to his right foot. After holding his palms by his head and hunching his head, he concentrated his internal energy in his heart, pumping the concentrated energy up to the golden ring above. When he concentrated all his energy within the ring, he propelled it out with a beat of his heart, sparking out strands of electricity as it went.

    A ninth of his energy pumped towards his head, opening his four closed eyes, revealing the robotic golden eyes underneath that spewed out beams of golden light. In FelˇŻs perspective time had slowed down and every shift in the air was visible to him. Two-ninths sped to his feet, and swirled around his soles, blasting out thunder and lightning, propelling Fel forwards at light speed. In the next second, Fel found himself by the wall of the cathedral with the last six-ninths of his internal energy rushing towards his two limbs and four circles by his shoulders. The burst of energy expanded the four circles into golden limbs and rushed through his two, fleshly, arms. In that instant, Fel had six arms, four made of golden light, two of human flesh. He flung out his fists and struck the wall in front of him, one fist after the other. His third fist blew the wall apart while the rest hit empty air. After he launched his sixth fist, his golden aura dimmed, his demeanour returning to normal as blacked out. Sucked dry of both stamina and internal energy.

    Unbeknownst to Fel, a pair of blood-red eyes was watching him from the shadows, gazing at his every move. When Fel fainted, the owner of the eyes snuck over to him, moving as if Fel could wake up at any moment. As it concluded that Fel was unconscious, it left the shadows, revealing the figure of a female, slender, monochrome dryad. Black leaves covered her ash skin, styled into elegant clothes and in her hand was a long spear made of petrified wood.

    ThedryaddidnˇŻt seem to want to kill Fel, instead, flipping the spear over and poking Fel with its butt, making sure he wasnˇŻt awake. After satisfying her requirements, the dryad packed the scrap metal of the power armour into a leafy bag and hoisted up Fel onto her shoulder, making off with Fel and his stuff.

    Fel woke up on a soft, fluffy bed in a monochrome room. As he sat up, he saw a dark grey table and chair, along with his makeshift backpack, to the side with an unlit hanging lamp on the ceiling, the only source of light was from a sizable window to the right of the bed. Fel walked over to the window and looked out from it. He saw a monochrome forest, lit up by the occasional shining blue crystal. Arching his head, Fel looked up into the sky but a moment later Fel realised that there was no sky. Only a dark, stone ceiling, twenty thousand metres above him, illuminated by moon-like crystals. The door behind him opened, tearing Fel from his thoughts.

    A handsome dryad stood in the entrance, bowing before him before speaking in a sing-song voice.

    ''Mal- er, i'' cora merna quen- a'' lle. Saesa Khila amin''

    ''What?''

    ˇ®Sehweet, sem coshiapeoo tel?ˇŻ

    ''I donˇŻt speak your language''

    The dryad began to gesticulate, eventually getting the point across. It wanted Fel to follow it, probably.

    Fel followed the dryad out of the room, walking out onto a wide platform by the side of a thick, petrified tree. Beforehimwas an entire village with circular buildings built around petrified trees, connected by swaying bridges. Everything was monochrome, save for the bright blue crystals that illuminated the entire village.

    As the guide led him across the grey bridges, the gazes of all the dryads in the village followed him, their electric blue eyes filled both with fear and awe. Before long, Fel was standing before the second largest building in town, built between three trees with a broad bridge that Fel had walked across to get there.

    The dryad ahead of him opened the door and invited him in. Inside was a room, split in half by a wooden wall and lit by hanging vines, embedded with glowing blue crystals. At the far end of the room was a lordly chair formed of black, intertwined roots and sitting on it was a female dryad with blood red eyes and flowing robes made of red leaves, decorated with ruby flowers.

    FelˇŻs guide stepped forwards, speaking his sing-song language,ˇ®Cora,i'' mal- er naa il- ablequen-i''nandinri'' i''autelambe, mani lyeuma?ˇŻ

    Thered robeddryad waved her hand, ˇ®Ta naailyaquel.ˇŻ She then dismissed the guide, waiting till he exited the room.

    When the guide had closed the door behind him, the red-robed dryad stood up and strode towards Fel, gazing into his eyes. She halted a metre away from him, eyes glowing.

    A rush of thoughts and images poured into Fel''s mind, converging into one singular thought,ˇ®Can you hear me golden one?ˇŻ

    ˇ®You speak Esperanto?ˇŻ asked Fel out loud

    ˇ®Silly, I cannot understand your tongue, you must send me a telepathic messageˇŻ

    Fel could see amusement written all over her face. She was smiling ear to ear while restrained giggling floated in the air. Thinking about what she meant, Fel remembered one of the martial art diagrams in the book that depicted something to do with the brain.

    He pushed a sliver of energy into his brain, directing it through the golden lines and runes within. As he did so, golden rings revealed themselves in his bottomless, dark eyes, making it hard to directly look at him.

    ˇ®Testing testing, 1, 2, 3''

    Laughterrung through Fel''s mind, ''Haha, what''s that?

    ''Something we do in my homeland''

    ''It works very well but now, we must get to business.''

 Steelwing Angel

    Fel''s eyes narrowed, ''What do you mean by business? I have nothing to offer''

    ''That matters not. My request is simple.''

    ''Ok ...'' Although her words confused Fel, it wouldn''t hurt to hear her out.

    ''I want you to leave this forest''

    ''What?''

    ''There''s no need to worry, we''ll provide you with all you need for your journey''

    ''That''s not the problem. I know nothing of this place. It''s not like I can just use telepathy to talk to everyone, they''ll sense that something''s fishy in no time!''

    ''We can fix that easily''

    ''I''ve no supplies''

    ''We can give you enough food to last for a decade''

    ''I''m guessing that credits can''t buy things here?''

    ''We can give you enough money to buy a town''

    ''I need weapons''

    ''We''ve enough weapons spare to equip a small army''

    ''I don''t even know where I am, how do you expect me to find my way?''

    ''We can give you a map of the entire first layer of the underground''

    ''I need the parts of my armour back, I didn''t see them in my room''

    ''Sure, they''re useless to us''

    ''Where am I even going to store all this anyway?''

    ''A ... spacial ring,'' the red-robed dryad''s tone betrayed her unwillingness to part with the item.

    ''One final problem''

    ''Fire away''

    ''It''s dangerous travelling alone.'' During Fel''s time in the military, he had learnt to value teamwork. He wouldn''t, no, couldn''t travel alone. Who would stay on guard during the night? Who would have his back in an ambush and who would be there to support him when he was down?

    ''We can give you a companion.'' The wording was odd, but as long as the person didn''t backstab him he should be fine. Besides, it seemed that the dryads really didn''t want him around. He felt that if he insisted on staying they wouldn''t be so nice.

    ''Fine then, when do I leave?''

    ''By the end of the week''

    After an unceremonious dismissal, they dumped Fel back into his room along with a sack of scrap metal from his power armour, a book and a strange, hypnotic orb. Fel tossed his sack of scrap to the side and disassembled his makeshift, pouring all of its contents to a large pile in the corner, save for a few tools.

    When he had completed his tasks, Fel picked up the orb and held it to his forehead. Before the dryads kicked him out of the leader''s house, they gave him the orb and told him he could use it to learn every language in the underground. The guide who passed him the orb gave him a withering look. It was definitely a precious treasure, but Fel still couldn''t figure out why they would give him so much despite obviously hating it.

    Manipulating his internal energy, Fel connected his mind to the orb and absorbed the information within. Waves of information poured into his brain, almost overloading it. Tel''Quessir, Celestial, Draconic, Common, Orcish, Elvish, all sorts of languages bore into his mind. If he were an ordinary human, he would of have long since died from the overload of information.

    An hour later, Fel, now covered in sweat, dropped the orb which crumbled into dust on the floor. Although he now knew every language in the underground, his head felt inflated, about to explode at any moment.

    However, Fel didn''t doubt for a second that the pain wasn''t worth it. It would''ve taken ages to learn all the languages without the orb, but for now, Fel had to rest, his lovely pile of metal scraps would have to wait for a little while.

    Fel woke up the next day. Surprisingly, there was a day and night cycle here. At daytime, the crystals above would light up, albeit dimly compared to the sun, and at night time they would lose their lustre, becoming inert at midnight. For a surface dweller like Fel, it was like an eternal night, but for the inhabitants of the underground, it was normal, natural even.

    More importantly, Fel had much to do. As he had learnt the languages of the underground, he could now read his books. He set out the three identical looking books before him and read their long titles, written in worn, golden Celestial letters.

    A Complete Encyclopedia of the Creatures of Planet Tasarr.

    A Manual on Devata Cultivation and Techniques.

    Being a Magus and of the Usage of Parivartana Lines.

    As Fel looked at the covers of the books, he noticed that something was out of place. A faint golden ring was drawn on each of the covers, just under the titles. They weren''t there before. Fel guessed that it had something to do with him being able to see the energy points in the air. Out of curiosity, Fel reached out to touch one of the circles. Fel still hadn''t learnt his lesson from last time.

    The three books flowed into Fel''s finger, transforming into a stream of information that viciously crashed into his brain to fuse with it. His brain turned to boiling lava and streams of blood oozed from his seven orifices. Fel''s last thought was that he was a certified idiot. Curiosity had indeed killed the cat, running it over before coming back to stomp all over its limp body.

    At midnight, Fel''s bloodshot eyes snapped open. He raised a shivering hand to his face to wipe off the blood, letting it fall to his side afterwards. For the next hour, he lay there, staring at the ceiling. Curse those books, curse everything that belonged to that six armed being!

    ''Connection established, how should I address the host?''

    Fel facepalmed, of all things he could''ve gotten it had to be another annoying A.I

    ''Fel Evenstar,'' he had learnt from his past experiences with A.I. You have to do everything by the letter otherwise, they wonˇŻt let you hear the end of it.

    ''Welcome to the Devata Library, I am your friendly book spirit Aerl! You have three books in your collection, would you like to read any of them?''

    Fel sighed in relief. It wasn''t another A.I, he would''ve stabbed himself in the gut if it was, ''Sure, I''ll read the Complete Encyclopedia of the Creatures of Planet Tasarr.''

    ''What would you like to know about?''

    ''Um, dryads?''

    ''There are 1209 search results, would you like to add a few more terms to narrow the results?''

    ''Then, grey looking dryads''

    ''Opening file on Monochrome Dryads,''

    <hr>

    Monochrome Dryad

    Affinities: Darkness (7), Nature (8)

    Life Expectancy: 2000 years

    Innate Abilities:

    1. Absorption

    Monochrome Dryads can absorb energy points from the earth and weaker life-forms with their main bodies.

    2. Avatar

    By separating a part of themselves from their main body, Monochrome Dryads can create a humanoid avatar[1] that they can manipulate at will and use to combat or communicate with other sentient beings. The one weakness is that the avatar weakens the further it gets from its main body.

    Additional Information:

    Monochrome Dryads are native to the first and second underground layers of planet Tasarr[2]. They have powerful main bodies and can recover from even grave wounds. Although they aren''t great at casting spells[3], they can cast basic dark energy spells and infuse their weapons with dark energy[4].You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Occasionally, red-eyed Monochrome Dryads will grow. These are the Royal Ash Dryads who possess superior abilities to their peers[5]. They can cast advanced spells, have a longer lifespan and complete immunity to fire[6]. Monochrome Dryads are also xenophobic and only tolerate small to medium-sized animals.

    <hr>

    Accompanying the file was an image of a grey male and female dryad who looked like the dryads in the village. However, were hyperlinks everywhere. Was this Wikipedia or something? Also, the sources were weird. When he clicked the one on ''immunity to fire'' it said, ''Tried to turn on into charcoal, didn''t work.'' Who on earth wrote that?

    Getting back on track, it seemed that the red-robed dryad was a Royal Ash Dryad, it was a good thing he didn''t try to mess with her. While Fel was at it, he thought he may as well look at the other books, but, before he could, the sound of a door opening interrupted his thoughts.

    A burly dryad stood at the doorway, clutching an armoured, steel statue by his side.

    ''We''ve retrieved your companion.'' He threw the armoured statue to the floor and slammed the door shut.

    The statue was steel grey with silver veins that spanned across its surface, depicting a young woman of about 20 years old. Magnificent, metal wings sprouted from her shoulders, twitching in the air.

    The statue lifted herself up from the ground, her silver, crystalline eyes, dodging Fel''s gaze. Breathtaking was the only way to describe her. Long, luscious, silver hair flowed down her shoulders and over her heavy armour. The armour itself was a work of art, with subtle embossing on its surface and fine, yet thick, chain-mail that covered her exposed joints. She didn''t wear a helmet, but Fel was willing to let that pass.

    The metal statue shifted, bowing to Fel before introducing herself, ''I am Siyla Coldwing... p-pleased to make your acquaintance.'' Her stammer almost made Fel chuckle a little.

    ''My name''s Fel, Fel Evenstar''

    They continued to stand there, facing each other. There wasn''t a common conversation point between them. To discover more about the other party, Fel asked for some assistance from the book spirit.

    ''Hey, Aerl, what is she?''

    The book spirit searched through the encyclopedia, dragging out a file.

    <hr>

    Steelwing Angel

    Affinities: Metal (9), Wind (6), Divine (1)

    Life Expectancy: 250-300 years

    Innate Abilities:

    1. Mercurial Halo

    A variant of the Holy Halo. The Mercurial Halo increases the strength of metallic energy in the user''s general vicinity and will buff strength of the Steelwing Angel (s) in its range.

    2. Metal Manipulation

    This ability allows the user to absorb various metals and manipulate them. This ability can form armour, projectiles, weapons and shields. Not only that but the metal can coat the skin and fuse with the flesh, giving strong protection while maintaining mobility[1].

    3. Steelwind Flash

    Causes a burst of steel-wind energy that can provide a boost to movement or be used as an offensive ability.

    4. Flight

    Gives the user the power of flight[2]

    Additional Information:

    Native to the surface of planet Tasarr, the Steelwing Angels inhabited the Steel Mountains in the Sky Isles[3]. They had low numbers, due, not only due to their long life expectancies and infertile bodies,[4] but also because their main way to advance their physical body is to absorb various rare metals[5]. Because of this, there were few powerful Steelwing Angels[6] as their physical bodies were usually much more powerful than their mental powers[7].

    <hr>

    Another Wikipedia-like entry. Although useful, it was rather jarring in this magical world. Fel also checked a few of the sources, discovering that they were as strange as before. Source number 2 just said ''duh.'' It kind of pissed Fel off.

    Siyla began to fidget. If she could blush her face would''ve as red as an apple. Fel had, after all, been staring at her for a while. Eventually, Fel walked over to his sack of metal scraps and poured its contents onto the floor to sort it out. He chose to avoid the situation. Siyla sat in a corner of the room and fiddle with a few metal beads she had created.

    An hour passed and Fel had sorted out and repaired the parts of his power armour. Some parts were unrepairable, he chucked those to a corner of the room. As Fel took out a foldable welder, that originated from a compartment from his disassembled backpack, Siyla had snuck over to the pile of useless scrap. She nodded in approval and walked over to Fel, tapping his shoulder.

    ''What is it?''

    ''Can... I have that metal, it looks... tasty''

    That was one way to describe it thought Fel, ''Sure, it''s not like I''m gonna use it or anything''

    ''Thank you...'' She slunk away towards the pile of scraps.

    Fel observed Siyla out of the corner of his eye and saw her reach out to the scraps and nibble on them like candy. Before long, the twisted alloy bar in her hand had disappeared. She snatched up another one and continued her campaign against the metal scraps.

    Fel found the sight rather amusing. He looked back at his project, contemplating on how to proceed. His welder ran on energy stones and he wasn''t familiar with energy manipulation. He had been relying on his golden lines to use his energy thus far.

    ''Aerl, is there anything on energy manipulation in the library?''

    ''Of course. Opening the Manual on Devata Cultivation and Techniques, chapter 3, Basic Energy Manipulation''

    A dozen pages appeared in Fel''s mind, all pertaining towards energy manipulation techniques. Following the manual, Fel activated the runes in his brain and eyes, causing a mysterious golden light to spill out from his eyes.

    Suddenly, a whole new world unveiled before him. Swirls of blue natural energy floated through the air while his internal energy revolved around his body. He could see everything.

    Not forgetting his task, Fel snapped back to attention and pooled a portion of his natural energy in his palm. He took out the energy stone in the welder and mashed his palm on it, forcing his internal energy into the stone. Although it was a primitive way of doing things and was rather inefficient, it worked. Yet it wasn''t good enough for Siyla''s standards.

    She frowned at Fel''s crude technique and strode over to him while munching on a flattened piston. She snatched the energy stone from Fel''s hands and suspended it between her palms. Before Fel could object, she pressed the surrounding natural energy into the stone.

    Unlike Fel''s crude technique, her''s barely wasted any energy, instead, the excess energy formed a sphere around the stone, forcing the natural energy within the stone to fuse properly with the stone. The sphere shrunk, pressing down onto the stone and, after ten minutes, the stone had absorbed the sphere of energy. Siyla handed the stone back to the gaping Fel and returned to the pile of metal, gobbling up her scraps.

    Fel ogled the energy stone in his palm. It was fully charged, emitting a steady glow. He inserted the energy stone back into the welder and continued with his task with Siyla''s skilful energy manipulation techniques replaying in the back of his mind. While Fel might not be as skilled as Siyla in energy manipulation, he had his own set of skills. In a little over an hour, he had reconstructed a fine pair of gauntlets, complete with vambraces and pauldrons.

    While he was at it, Fel had cut off the additional sleeves on his robe, leaving only a few non-intrusive flaps in their place to cover his skin. Although they weren''t a problem before, they would''ve hindered the mobility of his armour, so, they had to go. Fel looked back to his desk and saw that there was still a large number of unused parts. The night was still long.

    The next morning, Fel had used up the last of his parts and rebuilt much of his power armour. His new armour was very different to its previous state. For one, it was smaller than before. Previously, it was 202 centimetres tall with some parts being almost five centimetres thick. Now, it was only 192 centimetres tall, a full ten centimetres shorter than before and even its thickest section was only three centimetres thick.

    Although it was thicker than plate armour, power armour had an array of shock absorbers and strength enhancers under its protective alloy plates. Because of this, the pilot didn''t really feel the weight. Besides, humans in the New World were much more powerful than the ancient humans back on earth.

    But, the main reason that Fel''s reconstructed power armour was so much smaller than before was its lack of parts. The sea of light had crushed a quarter of his more complex parts, with another quarter being permanently damaged.

    Its reactor had been severely damaged and the compartments on its back had been detached, doing away with most of the bulk on its back. Making use of his resources, Fel covered the back with a patchwork of disassembled compartment plates. It was a makeshift solution, but at least it kept his back safe.

    Fel had also taken a laser cutter to the armouring above his heart, cutting out a small, circular section and welding in the core of the reactor. Although the reactor damaged and couldn''t supply power to the suit, it didn''t have to; it only had to distribute power across the suit, he could supply the power himself.

    He placed it above his heart that was where most of his internal energy was concentrated and what all of his golden lines were connected to. You could say that his heart was his hub of internal energy.

    As all the electronics in the suit were broken, he had to figure out another way to manipulate the energy within the suit. To solve this, Fel had hooked up all the energy pathways to the reactor core. From there, he only had to add gauges to each of the links that would restrict the flow of energy and, if he wanted to stop the flow of energy to a certain part, he could simply close the gauge.

    That meant that he only had to pour energy into the reactor core which would divvy up the energy at the correct proportions. This system had major flaws, but with no A.I or electronics, it was the best Fel could do.

    Finally, Fel cut out four flaps in the armour above where his four ''arms'' would be. It would be rather inconvenient if he had to smash out large holes into his armour every time he grew out his arms.

    Siyla looked over to Fel''s patchwork creation. There were missing sections of external plating, exposing the pistons and wires underneath. The back plating was a misshapen mesh of small, alloy plates that looked as if a single hit could smash it apart. I

    ts reactor core was frankensteined onto its chest and scores of dents and cracks covered the rest of the armour. To Siyla, Fel''s beloved power armour looked like a disgusting monster, unworthy of being wielded by any competent warrior.

    Ears fuming, she stomped over towards the suit and pressed a palm against it. A film of metal spread out across the suit, rearranging the mesh of plates on its back, forming elegant plates over the exposed sections and evening out the deformities on the rest of the suit. After she finished, the suit had a complete makeover.

    It had an alluring silver sheen with smooth, flowing plates that contemplated the futuristic aspect of the power armour while adding a magical touch to its design. There were no decorations on the plating, apart from a silvery disc that protected the reactor core, bearing a design of two wings wrapping around a long sword.

    If Fel could see its internals he would notice that Siyla had repaired all the internal parts. Although she didn''t know how the complex machinery worked, it wasn''t difficult for her to fill in the cracks and dents on them.

    ''It''s impressive and all but, can''t you make it look a bit more... rugged? It''s too shiny for my tastes''

    ''No.'' Siyla made her stance clear.

    Dejected, Fel walked up to the suit and pressed a palm on it, injecting a stream of internal energy into the suit. The suit opened, the pleasant sound of moving pistons filled the air. Siyla''s eyes widened at the sight, there was no concept of power armour in the underground. Fel hopped into the suit, closing the suit around him.

    Fel injected a surge of energy into the reactor core, kicking the suit into motion. Unfortunately, the energy provided to the strength enhancers was unbalanced causing Fel to tumble over in a mess of metallic limbs. Recalibration was in order.

 Leaving the Village

    Fel had spent the last hour tinkering with his power armour, adjusting the valves and power enhancers. Siyla looked over his shoulder, fascinated with his work. There was no concept of power armour in the underground. All the advanced equipment relied on runes and formations, not mechanical engineering. This system wasnˇŻt necessarily inferior to human technology, it just functioned differently.

    ˇ®How did you learn to do this?ˇŻ

    Fel puffed up his chest, ˇ®I was a mech pilot in the army, not only are we required to be able to use our power armour, we have to know it like the back of our hand! Especially an evolved power armour pilot like me, weˇŻre expected to be on long missions, sometimes weeks at a time, performing maintenance like this is basic stuffˇŻ

    He didnˇŻt mention that without SiylaˇŻs intervention, his power armour wouldnˇŻt have been half as functional, little better than ancient, medieval armour.

    ˇ®Siyla, would you like to learn about power armour?ˇŻ

    He received vigorous nodding in reply.

    Days passed and Fel had patched up his power armour as best as he could. Silya absorbed FelˇŻs teachings like a sponge and had even created basic mechanical parts. They werenˇŻt on par with standard power armour parts, being more on the level of a spring gun, but even that was impressive.

    After all, she had to create all the parts from scratch, although she absorbed them back into her body once she finished up with them. When Fel asked why she did that, she gave him a weird look and said she didnˇŻt have an infinite amount of metal.

    ˇ®Where did you live before you came here?ˇŻ

    ˇ®Mmm, I lived in the capital city of the United Front, the nation formed by the colonists of the New WorldˇŻ

    ˇ®Ah sorry. My people are new to this world and came from far, far away, all the way from the starsˇŻ

    ˇ®So you lived on the surface? I thought the war destroyed it?ˇŻ

    ˇ®War? Well, youˇŻre right about it being destroyed, itˇŻs a shit-hole. Wasteland as far as the eye can see with sandstorms that can lift even tanks! Not to mention that the place is crawling with monsters.ˇŻ

    ˇ®How do you live there then?ˇŻ Siyla made herself comfortable, stretching out on the bed, holding a bag of metal scraps, munching on them like popcorn.

    ˇ®Well, according to the records, the original colonists had to live in sealed shelters, growing their plants indoors, but they made the area habitable. Apparently, it was really hard to live back then. They landed on a peninsula so they could purify the sea water butfoodwas always a problem. It still kinda is. We now live outside but our buildings are made of thick steel and everythingˇŻs dustyˇŻ

    ˇ®So it isnˇŻt a nice place?ˇŻ

    ˇ®It wasnˇŻt bad, we had indoor parks that were nice. The worst part was the military service. Everyone had to serve 5 years in the military from 17 years of age to resist the monster hordes. We always warred against them for land, I worked my arse off to become a mech pilot, itˇŻs much safer than being a normal soldier. My parents celebrated that, wonder how theyˇŻre doing ˇ­ Anyway, IˇŻve been talking about myself for ages, what about you?ˇŻ

    ˇ®My life isnˇŻt that interesting.ˇŻ

    ˇ®Ehh? IˇŻm sure it is, cmonˇŻ

    ˇ®Well, the dryads kidnapped my parents. I was born in the village. Never left it, no idea whatˇŻs out there.ˇŻ

    ˇ®AhˇŻ

    ˇ®They kept us as servants to clean up the place and stuffˇŻ

    ˇ®IˇŻm sure that there were a few happy memoriesˇŻ

    ˇ®There was that time when the dryads found an adamantine sword on an adventureˇŻs corpse. The dryadˇŻs donˇŻt need metal, so they gave it to us. It was deliciousˇŻ

    Before Fel could respond, a dryad opened the door and walked right up to Fel, handing him a ring made of intertwined bands of gold, ˇ®HereˇŻs thespacialring, you have two days to sort everything outˇŻ

    He shoved a piece of paper into FelˇŻs hand and walked off, slamming the door behind him.

    ''Pleasant guy. I thought we got to stay for a week''

    ''They donˇŻt like other peopleˇ­ the dryads I mean. TheyˇŻre only doing this because of the debt''

    FelˇŻs curiosity was perked, ˇ®What debt?ˇŻ

    ''When the surface was destroyed, millions of refugees fled to the underground. They would''ve kicked the dryad''s off their land if it wasnˇŻt for the golden one, but he didnˇŻt do it for free. In return, the dryadˇŻs swore that they would safe-keep a few items for his successor, thatˇŻs the ringˇŻ

    ''Ah, so it wasnˇŻt out of their good will''

    ''YouˇŻre an idiot for thinking that''

    ''ItˇŻs called sarcasm. Anyway, why are you here? I thought the dryads hated outsiders''

    ''The golden one asked that they would give his successor a protector for his journey. ThatˇŻs me''

    ''Ah, so the whole kidnapping thingˇ­ sorryˇŻ

    ''ItˇŻsˇ­ not like you had a hand in it or anything''

    Silence descended, save for the clinking of SiylaˇŻs metal marbles.

    Fel turned back to his table and examined the paper the dryad gave him. It was a manual on how to use thespacialring. Several minutes later, he had activated the ring. An image of a menu appeared in his mind. It had 6 categories: weapons, armour and clothing, food, tools, magical equipment, materials and miscellaneous.

    In the top right corner was the volume of the storage space and of how much had been used while at the top left was the amount of money he had. A million gold pieces and ten thousand crystal coins. How much that was worth, Fel had no idea. When he asked Siyla she reminded him that she had been in the forest all of her life, even Aerl was lost. He said that crystal cards were used back in his time.

    The rest of the ring contained hundreds of steel weapons and armours, ten changes of clothes, a year''s worth of rations packed in tight boxes, a few racks of runic weapons and armours and, to the relief of Fel, a humongous pile of all sorts of metals. His supply of scraps was running short.

    Fel took a few assorted metal nuggets and tossed them into a basket, giving it to Siyla. The gift was well received, she said she was getting sick of the scraps. If only she knew that those ˇ®scrapsˇŻ were bits of superalloy worth an apartment for every ten kilograms.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Fel sat by his desk, ''Aerl, can I read ''Being a Magus?''

    ''Would you like to start at page one?''

    ''Nah''

    A leather book appeared in his mind and flipped open to the first page revealing a domineering line in the Celestial language.

    ''A magus stand above all others. No matter how much Qi a warrior accumulates, no matter how accurate an archer becomes, none can stand in the way of the Magus''

    Fel turned the page.

    ''Natural energy is ever present, all-encompassing. There is a myriad of attributes, each distinct and unique. We mages manipulate this energy to our benefit''

    An inky circle filled the rest of the page. Without thinking, Fel mentally touched the circle. The circle lit up with a bright blue glow and then faded into the page like nothing had ever happened. Moments later, rows of text appeared on the page, much to the relief of Fel who was cursing himself for his stupidity.

    <hr>

    FelEvenstar

    Level:1 (42% - Initial)

    Affinities:Energy (9)

    Life Expectancy:200 years

    Innate Abilities:

    1. Pure Energy Body

    The possessors of this constitution will have a high affinity with the energy attribute but cannot have affinities with any other attributes. Pure energy allowsforthe mage to advance faster than attributed mageshowever, they will have weaker capabilities than attributed mages.

    2. Parivartana Lines

    Parivartana lines can convert pure energy to other attributes at a small cost.

    Attributes Available:

    -Fire

    -Lightning

    -Divinity

    -Force

    <hr>

    Fel felt enlightened. No wonder he could only see light blue energy points. He also realised how important the golden lines were, without them he would hardly be able to do anything, you canˇŻt do that much with just energy after all. But, while the book was pessimistic about being a pure energy mage, Fel knew this occupation had far more potential than the book had ever thought possible.

    Although pure energy might not have the greatest raw power or some mysterious ability, it could do something none of the other attributes could. Charge power armour. Humanity always had trouble with finding a suitable energy source for power armour. They had resorted to mining rare fuels in distant planets and in the case of humans of the New World, take advantage of the natural energy in the air.

    These solutions were functional but expensive with a need for extensive infrastructure. Although the discovery of natural energy was a boon to humanity, it was still in its early stages of development and energy stones could only provide a limited amount of energy.

    By using himself as a source of energy he could charge power armour without the need for a charging station or monster cores. He had already dabbled in this with his own, modified, power armour, however, he now placed a lot more importance on its future development.

    If what the book said was true, power armour was his only way to stand toe to toe with the people of this strange new world. Although he could rely on his parivartana lines, the conversion would waste energy and be harder to control than the real deal, it would stab him in the back later on.

    Today was the day of the deadline. In the last four days, Fel had been practising with his parivartana lines, becoming somewhat proficient in the attributes of the four available attributes. At first, he thought they were useless to him, but he realised that, with these attributes, he could create a myriad of new equipment for his power armour.

    Right now he could only make minor tweaks to his power armour, without a proper workshop he wouldn''t be able to repair his power armour properly, his current set-up just wasn''t up to his standards.

    Siyla on the otherhand,sat in the corner as usual. She corrected his mistakes when he practised with his energy manipulations and took part in idle conversations. They were still awkward with each other, they didn''t have a common conversation topic and Fel wasn''t about to spill that he was a human, not a ''golden one'' or whatever.

    A dryad came to the room to escort them from the village. Fel donned his power armour and walked out of the room with Siyla. As they left the village, the world twisted around them before snapping back into place. They seemed to of have crossed a barrier of some sort.

    The dryad halted and tossed a compass to Fel, ˇ®Go south-west until you exit the forest, there should be a town at the border, from there on you can find your way,ˇŻ

    He turned around and walked to the village, ˇ®Also, you can chuck out the map, itˇŻs over 2000 years old. DonˇŻt get eaten by monsters!ˇŻ the barrier twisted around him, snapping back into place as he passed it. Hedisappeared,as if he never existed in the first place.

    ˇ®Siyla, what did he mean by the last bit?ˇŻ

    ˇ®If I remember correctly, the forest is rife with vicious beastsˇŻ

    ˇ®Anything more detailed?ˇŻ

    ˇ®Your guess is as good as mineˇŻ

    Fel and Siyla trekked down a narrow through the moonlit forest, dry, grey leaves crackling at their feet, exposing the ashy earth underneath. The forest was silent. So silent it was almost eerie. Fel was holding a heavypollaxehe had retrieved from thespacialring.

    It was one of the few weapons that had the right proportions to his power armour and didnˇŻt seem to require much skill to wield. Fel was a lot more adept with firearms rather than melee combat, his main melee weapon was the Energy Sabre, something that didnˇŻt require much skill to wield.

    A sleek shadow shot out from behind an ashen tree, hurtling towards Fel. Fel kicked his suit into action and swung out hispollaxe, crushing into the shadowˇŻs side, sending it flying over to Siyla. She side-stepped the incoming shadow and stomped up to Fel.

    The shadow crashed into the ground behind her, sending out a cloud ofashenearth. The clearing dust revealed the mangled body of an obsidian-black snake. Its body was as thick as amanstorso and its skull had caved in, leaking gooey brain matter, decorated by shattered bone-fragments.

    ˇ®Your skill with thepollaxeis pitiful! If I had been even a little slower that snake would''ve smashed into me!ˇŻ

    Fel felt miffedfromthese wrongful accusations, ˇ®Well sorry for that. ItˇŻs not like itˇŻs the first time IˇŻve ever used one or anything. Also, you didn''t seem to have much trouble dodging that...ˇŻ

    ˇ®Hmpf, look at yourpollaxeˇŻ

    Fel glanced at hispollaxeand noticed that a wispy shadow clung to its head, corroding the heavy metal. With a quick thought, he directed some lightning energy into it, purging the corrosive energy.

    ˇ®Ah, yes, I guess you wouldnˇŻt want a face-full of thatˇŻ

    Just before Siyla was about to retort, her face turneddeadserious. She splayed out her wings and congealed a white bow while staring intently at the trees behind Fel. Sensing the situation, Fel retreated to SiylaˇŻs side, exchanging his damagedpollaxewith a shiny javelin.

    Siyla knocked an arrow, ˇ®We''ll continue with this later.ˇŻ Fel wasnˇŻt inclined to disagree.

    A great, hulking panther stalked out from the trees, it''s bulging muscles rippled under its dark, velvet fur. Standing four metres tall, the panther stared the duo down, gazing hungrily at the dead snake behind them. They wouldˇŻve loved to let the panther have its fill, if only it wasnˇŻt on the only path through the forest. Who knew what lurked in the dark undergrowth. Their only way forward was to fight the panther.

    Fel took the initiative, hurling the javelin at the panther, accelerating it further with a blast of force energy. However, just before it sunk into the pantherˇŻs flesh, a thin, ashen barrier appeared. The javelin crashed into the barrier, causing it to distort wildly as it resisted the blow, just barely deflecting the deadly javelin.

    Before the panther could take a step forwards, Siyla launched a hail of metal needles at the panther. Half of the needles shattered when they collided with the barrier, yet the rest somehow slipped past, burrowing into the pantherˇŻs flesh.

    Howling in rage, the panther leapt forwards towards the duo, but it was at this moment that Siyla let loose her arrow. It flew at the pantherˇŻs eye, punching through the barrier and drilling through its eye, all the way through to its brain.

    Yet the panther did not stop and continued to charge towards the duo, relying on its instincts alone. Fel summoned a long-headed boar spear and planted it in the ground. The pantherˇŻs barrier had collapsed, it no longer had the power to keep it running.

    Brainlessly, the panther impaled itself upon the boar spear, the long shaft reaching down into its gullet. Although the panther tried to snap at Fel in its final death throes, the spear held fast. Eventually, the panther bled out, still skewered on the spear. He yanked hard on the pole-arm, its long shaft slid silent out from the panther''s body. A wispy shadow clung to the spear, slowly corroding it.

    Siyla, as obsessed with cleanliness as always, waved her hand and conjured a gust of wind, cleansing FelˇŻs bloody spear. Fel purified the spear and dumped it into his ring. He retrieved a two-handed Scandinavian axe and casually swung it onto his shoulder.

    ˇ®Now, letˇŻs go on shall we?ˇŻ

    Siyla crackled her knuckles, ˇ®We still have something to do, donˇŻt we?ˇŻ

    Sweat flowed in droves down FelˇŻs face, he was screwed.

 The Arrogance of Mages

    Fel and Siyla lay by the campsite, crowding around a luminescent red crystal that radiated waves of heat. The moon-like crystals, or star-stones as Siyla called them, had long since dimmed. Without them, the temperature in the underground plummeted, Fel wondered how hot they were when they were. He rolled over and faced Siyla, intending to strike up a conversation, they didn''t get to talk much during their trek in fear of attracting feral beasts.

    "How did you penetrate the panther''s barrier with such tiny needles?" This was one of Fel''s greatest questions as even shooting a bullet at 2000m/s couldn''t penetrate the barrier while simple sub-sonic needles could.

    Siyla congealed a needle and held it up to Fel''s eyes. When he examined it, he saw a thin, silvery mist spiral down its length. "This is a technique passed down from my mother, it uses spiralling metallic energy to disrupt and penetrate their barrier. When I shot out the needles, the first half weakened the barrier, allowing for the other half to slip through, a simple trick."

    That answered Fel''s question on why supersonic bullets weren''t able to penetrate the monsters barriers, they basically tried to brute force their way through the barrier. So many discoveries, if he could bring all this knowledge back to the United Front, the technology of humanity would advance by leaps and bounds. However, he was stuck in the underground.

    "So you attack from a range?"

    "Why put yourself in danger if you don''t have to? But if I run low on metal, I''m familiar with the spear, and we Steel-wing Angels are a sturdy race! How do you normally fight? You don''t seem familiar with any weapon at all."

    "I use firearms, well, energy-sabres too, but they don''t require too much skill."

    "What''s a firearm?"

    "A kind of weapon that launches projectiles with explosives, they punch hard and shoot fast! All you have to do is line up the sights and press the trigger."

    "I''ve never heard of those but aren''t they rather similar to a bow?"

    "In concept, yes, but it propels the projectile down a long tube instead of past the bow''s limbs."

    "Why not use a crossbow then?"

    "Ah..."

    ...

    Fel retrieved a heavy crossbow from his ring along with a handful of arrows and handed them over to Siyla. He wasn''t familiar with cold weapons, the closest he came to one before falling to the underground was a javelin, and that was only because it was a compulsory course in PE when he was in high school. It was in order for everyone to remember one of the ancient traditions of mankind, the Olympics.

    Siyla hefted up the crossbow and pointed to the spiral markings on its riser and limbs, "You see these runes? They''re called empowerment runes. They can store potential energy for the system. You can also inject energy into the runes to increase the potential energy and add an attribute to the next shot, I guess that''s not applicable to you."

    Fel further realised how disadvantageous being attributeless was. Perhaps, even his power armour may not be enough to cover that gap.

    Siyla took two different bolts, one oaken and another birch-like. She held up the oaken bolt and continued with her lecture.

    "This is an anti-barrier bolt, you can identify it by the disruption rune on the head. The spiral looking one. You can store energy in it and, when you fire it, the energy will ripple out and allow for the bolt to punch through barriers. It''s strong at 10-20 metres but its power drops off past that point''

    Continuing on, Siyla lifted the birch-like arrow, "This one is nasty, it''s a collapsing bolt. The wavy lines on the head direct your energy into the energy stream of the victim. The victim''s energy will reject yours and the conflict causes the victim''s body to collapse from the inside. Of course, it would take a few of these to take down, say, a large monster or something, but unlike the anti-barrier bolt, it''s effective as long as it can penetrate through the skin."

    Siyla returned the arrows to the pile, "Though, they don''t work too well against barriers. For your enemies I mean."

    Sweat trickled down Fel''s cheeks. That was one nasty bolt. But, there was more to do.

    Fel had been mulling over the close-ranged weapons he would use for the entire day. After all, he couldn''t always be at a range, and he couldn''t rely on his pure energy. It was garbage for offensive purposes. He had settled for a combination of a shield and one-handed war hammer. With this combination, he could get in close with the shield and hit hard with his hammer. If he used an attribute from the parivartana lines, now called line attributes by Fel, he could deal massive damage to his opponents.

    From amongst the large selection in his ring, Fel chose a shiny, solid, full-metal heater shield and a heavy war-hammer that had a steel grey shaft and a silvery, spiked, metal head. Both of the items had mystical runes carved across their surface, Aerl said the ones on the shield created a divine barrier, while the ones on the war hammer were tailor-made to destroy barriers. When he showed them to Siyla, he got a nod in approval. She even offered to teach him the basics, though he would have to puzzle out the rest on his own. However, Fel didn''t train that night, it was time for some well-earned rest.

    During the night, great shadows strode through the trees while red eyes blinked in the dark. None of them dared to approach the duo as a threatening aura oozed out from them. They smelt the blood of their brethren on their bodies. The bushes to the side of the clearing rustled, the sound of murmuring floated over to the ears of Fel and Siyla.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    They both leapt to their feet, Fel hefting up a crossbow and Siyla splaying her wings out wide while congealing a silvery bow in her hands. A small, armed, group stumbled out of the shadows. Two of them wore identical, heavy, metal armour, while another bore with a simple gambeson, holding a long-bow in his hands. Behind them was a black-robed person, wearing a pointed hat and bearing an oaken staff. The skin they exposed was dark, with the archer revealing long, slender ears beneath his kettle helm.

    Fel called out to them, "Who goes there?"

    The group apparently couldn''t sense the aura from the two before them as one of the armoured people in the group stepped forwards, an arrogant, deep voice boomed out from beneath his helm, "We are adventurers and the one behind us is an apprentice Mage, if you want to live I recommend you find another place to sleep!" He thumped his tower shield on the floor and brandished his sword in a show of force.

    Siyla couldn''t restrain a giggle, "A mere apprentice Mage and a small band of adventurers dare offend two Level 1 Mages?" Although she hadn''t been out of the village, her parents had kneaded the arrogance of Mages into her from a young age.

    "You can do better than that, for what would two Level 1 Mages be doing here? A true Mage would be further in the forest. Also, why would Mages be holding weapons and wearing armour? A real Mage could destroy us with a wave of their hand!"

    The armoured man was right, a small town lay deep in the forest, made exclusively for true Mages. Furthermore, they could teleport to and fro from the town to a myriad of other locations. There was no need for them to walk through the forest like an ordinary man.

    "Do you think all mages follow the arcane ways? Turn back before we turn you into pin-cushions!"

    The apprentice Mage spoke with a lofty, melodic voice, "What a joke, kill them"

    With a nod of their heads, the archer knocked an arrow while the armoured man charged forth. The other armoured person stayed by the apprentice''s side. Yet, before the archer could even draw his arrow, a dozen silvery needles riddled him with holes. He crumpled to the ground, eyes still disbelieving of what had happened.

    The armoured man didn''t even notice what had happened. The needles had travelled too fast and helmet restricted his view. A silvery arrow flew at his face. Though the man tried to block it with his shield, the arrow punched through it and blasted apart his head, killing him in an instant. His armour could do nothing to defend against Siyla''s offence.

    Fel charged a disruption bolt with energy and aimed it at the apprentice, pulling the trigger. The other armoured person flung out their body to intercept the arrow, paying no mind to their life while the apprentice Mage tried her best to cast a spell. Yet all was for nought.

    The bolt pierced through the armoured person''s body and drilled through the apprentice''s half-formed barrier, but before it dove into her body, a faint, golden light formed a shield before her chest. It deflected the bolt, smashing apart in the process. Although the apprentice tried to flee, Siyla shot her down with a handful of needles. In a matter of seconds, they had dispatched the entire group.

    Fel lined up their bodies on the ground and stripped them down for loot, revealing the corpses of dark elves underneath, while Siyla walked around, erasing the evidence with her steel-wind. They didn''t have much of value, with the main highlights being a backpack with an ''expanded'' space inside, the apprentice''s oaken staff and a broken pendant she wore around her neck. Fel supposed that it was the perpetrator of the golden light that deflected his bolt.

    Perhaps it had research value. He also found a coin satchel containing twenty crystal coins along with a hundred gold coins on the apprentice''s belt. There was also a strange insignia in the satchel, made of pure sapphire, twisted into the form of a soaring bird. The other people also had similar satchels, however, they only contained around three golden coins with most of the space being used up by silver and copper coins.

    Finally, was a map on the apprentice''s person. It mapped the entire forest, from places to avoid, locations with valuable items and clearings, such as the one they were in, that people could rest in. Fel compared it to the map the dryads gave them.

    Their map lacked such detail, with only a few major landmarks recorded on it, it was little better than just having the general shape of the forest. Fel noticed that on the apprentice''s map, there was a town drawn on the border of the forest. It was called Seiral, the town of adventurers.

    Above them, the star-stones lit up, announcing the arrival of dawn. The duo packed up camp and foraged onwards, towards the town of Seiral. According to the map, they were close to the town, only around ten kilometres away.

    As they approached the town, they encountered an increasing amount of armed people. A quick chat with one such group revealed that they called themselves adventurers and sought wealth in the Monochrome Forest.

    The party moved on and Fel turned to Siyla to strike up a discussion, "What did you mean by the ''Arcane Arts'' when you were talking to the apprentice?"

    "If what my parents said was true, most mages now rely on pure energy spells, unlike us who rely on our physical bodies and innate abilities. It''s powerful for sure, but takes awhile to cast and can backfire on the caster."

    "Also, what''s with that nasty apprentice?" Fel conveniently forgot Siyla''s equally arrogant actions.

    "Ah, my parents always taught me that Mages were above the common-folk and that if you don''t act arrogant, the people won''t believe you''re a real Mage."

    "That sounds... dumb."

    "Really? It sounds pretty normal to me."

    Before Fel could reply, they crossed the tree-line, revealing a tall, stone wall. The wall was rather new, perhaps only a few decades old. A large gate revealed a bustling town behind it with hundreds of people rushing about. Most of them had dark skin and long ears, the telltale features of dark elves.

    However, there were also beast-like humanoids and even horned people with pale skin and narrow, blue tattoos. Every now and then, Fel saw a few creatures that abandoned two legs, looking similar to scaled centaurs or even a mass of tentacles. Fel and Siyla walked up to the gate and were almost blasted away by the noise of the crowd.

    A burly dark-elf by a small gate to the side called out, trying to yell over the crowd, "Express queue! Only open to apprentice and true Mages!"

    The duo took the express queue. They didn''t want to take the normal one as it extended for around fifty metres out, security appeared to be tight in the town of adventurers. Hundreds of sets of eyes gazed at the two as they walked down the empty lane. Awe, envy, fear and even hate simmered on their faces, some even bore expressions of disbelief. They looked more like warriors than mages after all.

    As they reached the end of the queue, the burly dark-elf reached out a hand to stop them, "This isn''t a line for the ordinary folk, go back to the other queue."

    Fel examined the elf by powering the runes in his eyes, after discovering that he was a low levelled apprentice Mage, he took a page out of Siyla''s book, "A mere apprentice dares to block my way? Get out." Fel channelled lightning energy around his body, zapping the hand on his armour.

    The shocked elf clutched his burnt hand and scuttled to the side. He glanced at Siyla, but when he noticed the withering look in her eyes, he abandoned his ideas, even giving a deep bow as they walked past.

    "You''re good at this," whispered Siyla as they walking through the gate

    "To be honest, it feels awful, I''ll never get used to this."

    Oh how wrong he was.

 Dinner With New People

    Merchants called out to passersby along the wide main road of the town, with tidy wood and plaster buildings crowding in on either side. A warm red light filled the air in stark contrast to the blue light from above. Fel and Siyla strode down the road, their bright, shining armour, drawing the gaze of many. Siyla had formed a helmet over her face though, her wings garnered enough attention on their own.

    The glittering of blue, floating runes caught Fel''s attention.

    "Hey, Siyla, look over there!"

    In the distance, there was a lavish-looking building, made of smooth stone bricks with magnificent carvings decorating the walls. Little lights hovered around large, double doors made of great slabs of stone, while a sign, made of illusory, blue runes, floated in the sky. They displayed the words ''Mage House'' in the Nemmeth tongue, a language exclusive to the Mages.

    Siyla''s eyes lit up, though gaudy, the building looked far more secure than the other taverns she came across, the added comfort was a plus, She had never been exposed to high luxury and she looked forward to it. She grasped Fel''s wrist and pulled him along, moving in a bee-line towards the entrance. Yet, just before they entered the building, a trio of robed Mages burst out from the doors, almost colliding with Siyla.

    The leading Mage, a handsome dark elf, that looked to be around 25 years old, was almost knocked over. A dark mist appeared around out of nowhere while sharp needles poked out of Siyla''s armour. They took a second to calm down and dispersed their magic.

    "Sorry about that, I wasn''t paying that much attention to where I was going."

    The Magus was surprisingly polite, a stark contrast compared to the other people the duo had encountered.

    "No the blame is on me, I was walking too fast."

    The conversation came to a close, and they continued on their path. Overall, the encounter was, anticlimactic.

    Fel tossed a telepathic message to Siyla, "Hey, I thought people here were more... douchey."

    "My parents said that too, I guess there isn''t much benefit in picking fights with true Mages, the effort isn''t always worth it."

    They crossed through the door together, revealing a spectacular scene before them. The floor was a smooth slate, with a thick, red carpet rolled out along it. Large, flowing tapestries covered the stone walls while golden chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling above. It felt like the whole building was a show of wealth. Walking to a counter, Fel looked around, emitting a low whistle as he went. Siyla elbowed him in the side, his actions were rather embarrassing to her, though she herself was stunned by the sight.

    A receptionist attended to them, turning on a holographic screen, "How may I help you?"

    Fel looked at the floating runes above the counter, they recorded the different services the Mage House offered, and of their prices. "I would like a double room for the night and dinner for two."

    "Sure, that''ll be a quarter crystal coin and two gold coins"

    Fel fished out the gold coins and gave the receptionist a crystal coin. The receptionist tapped the coin, running a small amount of energy along the engraved lines on its surface, perfectly splitting it into four equal sections. She took a piece and took out a silver key.

    "You''re in room 12, you can get there by going up the stairs to your right and going down the corridor. We''ll bring your dinner to your room in twenty minutes, I hope you enjoy your stay!"

    As the duo left, the receptionist frowned at Fel''s direction. She couldn''t sense a smidgeon of natural energy from Fel, did the Mage behind him think she was only worthy of speaking to a servant? Even worse, did she intend to sleep in the same room with him? She shook her head and pushed the matter to the back of her mind. As an apprentice, she shouldn''t question the actions of true Mages.

    In the room, Fel took off his armour and lay on the bed while Siyla sat on a sturdy desk. Dark, oaken wood cladded the inner wall, with the furniture crafted of a similar material. At the side of the room was a king sized bed with a soft, feathery mattress and silken douve''s. Opposite to the bed was a long desk with a crystalline ink bottle and a stack of thick paper on top. There were other furnishings in the room, such as a small nightstand beside the bed and a rectangular dinner table with cushioned chairs around it.

    "Siyla, why don''t you ever take off your armour? Doesn''t it get inconvenient?"

    "It''s like a second skin, I feel safe in it. Besides, my job is to protect you, I must be prepared at all times!" The last part felt like a flimsy excuse.

    "You can''t do much in here with armour on. It''ll be far more comfortable if you just, take it off, it''s not like you can''t use magic without it right?"

    Reluctantly, Siyla retracted her armour, replacing it with a steely dress made of soft, flexible metal. She tucked in her wings and stretched out on a cushioned chair. After relaxing for a moment, they realised that they didn''t have much to do. In the end, they idly conversed till dinner, they were far too tired to talk about magic theory or mechanical engineering.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Exactly twenty minutes later, rapid knocking rung out from the door. Fel turned his head and called the person in. A lengthy food trolley cart, with over four trays stacked with multitudes of silver platters, bustled into the room. In a few minutes, the servants spread the platters across the dinner tables and placed down lovely ceramic plates and silver cutleries.

    However, the dishes weren''t what Fel was used to. There were grilled purple meats with a red mushroom sauce over it while fresh, grey vegetables and blue fruits were cut into a wonderful salad with a suspicious violet glitter in it. As the food service left the room, Fel spotted a familiar group of people through the door, causing Fel to throw his thoughts out the window.

    "Hey, you guys! Wanna come in and chat?"

    Siyla gave Fel a dirty look, making Fel remember where he was. Fel was a rather sociable person, the military encouraged tight bonds as you needed to band together on the battlefield. His bad habits had leaked through.

    Raising an eyebrow in surprise the dark-elf walked over to the waiter who was carrying the food-cart and tossed him a few gold coins while requesting dinner for three. He pulled out a chair and sat at the table along with his friends before turning to Siyla.

    "So what did your servant want to talk about?"

    Siyla almost choked on the air, "He-He''s not my servant, if anything, he''s my master."

    The dark-elf was stunned. How rich could that mortal be to be able to hire a Mage? He took a deep look at Fel, trying to discover his identity. Fel felt upset under the curious gaze of the dark-elf why did everyone think he was a mortal? Didn''t Aerl say he was a Mage? Exasperated, Fel lifted a finger, directing a sliver of lightning energy towards it.

    "See here? I''m a Mage, tada~"

    "But... you leak no energy... how is this possible?"

    This news confused Fel as well, he didn''t know that Mages leaked energy. He decided to consult Aerl for the answer, "Aerl, what does he mean by that?"

    "He must be referring to your parivartana lines. They have the side effect of restraining the leakage of your internal energy. The maintained high energy pressure can passively refine your body. Even when you aren''t actively cultivating!"

    "Is there any way to prevent this?"

    "Nope, but you''re a weird one, anyone else would be overjoyed if they heard this."

    Fel ignored the last statement, Aerl didn''t seem to understand the intricacies of society. He focused back on the dark-elf, wanting to eliminate the misunderstanding.

    Fel lifted his hand and pointed to the lines on his face, "These lines absorb my energy so you wouldn''t sense any leakage." A white lie, but he still kept Aerl''s statement in mind, if this ability was so valuable, it would attract a lot of attention.

    "An interesting ability, albeit, one that seems to attract trouble! Haha! My name''s Gorn, an initial Level 1 shadow Mage. I broke through earlier today, nice to meet you."

    Under Siyla''s incredulous gaze, Fel went with the flow and replied likewise, "Same to you, my name''s Fel, also an initial Level 1 lightning Mage. I broke through around a week ago."

    With a shake of their hands, Gorn introduced his companions, first pointing towards a young, female dark-elf to his right, "This here is Ferri, a peak apprentice shadow Mage, she may only be an apprentice but her energy control much better than mine!"

    He then pointed to a wolf-like man to his left, "And here is Harth, a middle apprentice wind Mage and a Grand Knight. Although he''s only a middle apprentice Mage, he can go toe to toe with peak apprentice mages!"

    Siyla joined in on the fun, "I''m Siyla, middle Level 1 metal Mage, nice to meet you."

    Gorn lay back in his chair, "I didn''t expect to find such company in this town, I was only here to get resources to break through! Usually, there are only low ranked apprentice''s and crass adventurer''s."

    "This is my first time being here," replied Fel, "I''ve lived most of my life in isolation so I''m not very used to the towns in this world, I hope we can get along well."

    Ferri cried out in an outburst, "You became a Level 1 Mage while in isolation?"

    "My predecessors left me some valuable resources, although I had to use them all up to get to this point."

    With a final, suspicious, look, Ferri let the matter go. Harth on the other hand, saw the power armour in the corner, eyes shining with curiosity.

    "I saw it before, but that''s really nice armour, where''d you get it?"

    "Ah, that''s something else my predecessors left for me. It enhances your physical abilities and runs of natural energy. Unfortunately, It''s difficult to craft so it''s a unique item, not to mention the rigorous training you have to undergo to even use it."

    "That''s a shame, I would''ve loved to take it out for a spin."

    "Why don''t we have a bite while we talk? We have more on the way after all."

    In the beginning, Fel was rather dainty with the new, strange food, but as he discovered that the meats were juicy, the vegetables fresh and the fruit delicious. Even the weird glitter was fantastic, providing a subtle crunch to the salad. As they ate, they spoke of many things. Gorn revealed that they came from the Onyx Tower, a Magus school that specialized in shadow and wind magic.

    According to them it was only a few weeks travel on foot from the town, laying to its south in the waste. Twenty minutes passed in a flash, another food cart entered the room and the empty dishes were cleared away. By the end of the day, Gorn and co were well acquainted with Fel and Siyla. Gorn gave Fel a red coin with a multi-eyed shadow carved onto it.

    He said it was a communication rune, and if Fel wanted to contact him, he only had to inject energy into it. With a final goodbye, Gorn and his friends left the room while slipping him a piece of paper that contained instructions on creating a communication rune.

    Siyla collapsed on the bed, spreading out her wings. The lengthy conversation had dried up her social capabilities. Even if she almost only nodded and smiled. Fel, on the other hand, was ecstatic. Finally, an event that resembled what he was used to back at home. But it had gotten late, and Fel changed into more comfortable night-wear he found in his ring and tucked himself into bed. Siyla also got into bed, scooting right over to the edge.

    Before they went to sleep, Fel got Siyla to create a black coin where he used his internal energy to carve in his personal insignia, or communication rune. While he did so, his mind drifted, his energy flowing aimlessly across the coin''s surface. By the time Fel had pulled himself back to reality, a mysterious image was carved into the coin.

    It was a black crow clutching a shining star. When Fel looked at it further, he noticed that there was something wrong with its eye; it wasn''t organic, it was forged of clear crystal with thousands of tiny gears clicking below the surface.

 Void Knights on the Horizon

    Stretching out in the soft, morning light, Fel rolled over Siyla''s outstretched wings. Before he could fully wake up, the wing shunted him off the bed, right onto the cold floor below. By the time Fel got up, he was met with Siyla''s vicious glare.

    "Err, your wings were... soft..."

    "Of course. I can''t be shredding the bed while I sleep. Although, I guess you wouldn''t mind the full treatment?"

    "It''s kinda hard to not lay on your wings when they cover half the bed! Besides, they''re made of bloody steel, it''s not like it hurts or anything."

    Fel got the silent treatment for the rest of the day. He never figured out why.

    While experimenting with his power armour after lunch, Fel heard a knocking at the door. He quickly finished up and opened the door, inviting the guest inside.

    Gorn shook Fel''s hand, "Good afternoon, how''s it been?"

    "Nothing really, we don''t have much to do."

    "Well, I''ve got news for you. Some adventurer''s discovered a new dungeon, hidden under the Cursed Fortress, a-ways west of here."

    "What''s so good about it?"

    "Here''s the thing. While the Cursed Fortress only has a mortal danger rating, they estimate that this dungeon has a Level 1 true Mage rating! There would be all sorts of things there; energy crystals, artefacts, perhaps even spell models!" Gorn''s eyes burned with fervour, this dungeon seemed to be of great value to him.

    Fel turned to Siyla, "Should we go?"

    She flicked her hand in response, still unwilling to speak to him. Fel figured that the decision was up to him.

    "Are there any dangers?"

    "Yes, most definitely. However, with the three of us true Mages, it shouldn''t be life-threatening."

    After a moment of thought, Fel agreed. They needed to have good relations with someone in this world anyway. This adventure would be a great opportunity to learn more about his surroundings.

    Gorn clapped his hands and grinned, "Great! I was worried you wouldn''t come. We set off in two days, you should go to the marketplace to get supplies. Let''s meet up in the morning at the gate."

    They exchanged a few more pleasantries before Gorn left, leaving Fel and Siyla to their devices. Of course, Fel''s spacial ring was chock full of goodies, so he didn''t need to purchase any supplies. In the end, he went down to the marketplace to buy two backpacks and supplies to go with them. This was all in order to conceal his spacial ring and got back to fixing up his power armour.

    There were many issues remaining with it, chief among them being the lack of strength enhancers, inertia and the makeshift energy distribution system Fel put in place. It was a mess, but Siyla still couldn''t create the complex mechanisms and Fel could only experiment with the energy system.

    Two days later, Fel and Siyla were waiting by the gate, both wearing full plate armour. Fel bore a shield and war hammer on his back, though he didn''t have much practice with them, they had a good threat level.

    With a little coaxing, Fel convinced Siyla to modify his armour. She created concealed vents that allowed Fel to redirect energy outside the armour. Previously, he could only rely on the conductivity of his armour to ''externalize'' his energy. But now, he could fire out high concentrations of energy that massively increased his damage output.

    Even better, Siyla had finally forgiven him and started to talk to him again. She got around the wing issue by wrapping them around herself and pinning them to the bed. Apparently, it was rather comfortable.

    Five minutes later, a large carriage pulled up alongside them. A hulking, furred lizard took the place of a horse in pulling the coach. It had thick, matted, grey hair and looked similar to a Komodo dragon.

    The ropes that bound it to the coach allowed for it to maintain a large distance from the coach to compensate for the lizard''s long body. As soon as the lizard came to a rest, the door was thrust open, revealing the rough face of Harth.

    "Sorry, we got here late. There were, unexpected, delays when we tried to hire the coach. But anyway, get on! Unless you want to walk all the way."

    Fel laughed, "Unfortunately, I''m wearing this armour. I doubt that there''d be much space left in there if I came in!" Though Fel had his spacial ring, no-one else he saw seemed to wear anything similar to it. Remembering the bitter looks from the dryad, he didn''t feel it would be fit to reveal it either.

    Harth fell into contemplation, "You''re right, I didn''t think of this."

    "It isn''t much of an issue, I needed some exercise anyway."

    "Are you sure?"

    "Yep!"

    "You''d have to walk for 300 kilometres."

    Five hours later, Fel was jogging through the endless, flat plains of the underground. His feet crushed the resilient, midnight-blue grass beneath his feet, exposing the rocky earth underneath. Every so often, he tripped on empty air, almost falling over.

    At this point, he was relying on his internal energy to keep him going. In front of him rolled a large, classy coach, from which he could hear leisurely, joyous laughter. But, while it didn''t look like it, Fel was having his own fun, chatting with Aerl. Though, somewhere along the line, it had descended into girl talk.

    "So Aerl, could you tell me about the crush you had on that other book spirit you mentioned before?"

    "Mhm, her name was Ismira, and she was the book spirit of the grand library. She was cute and err... really nice!"If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    "Eh, so what happened?"

    "... She got together with the book spirit of the neighbouring library. He was an absolute asshole! He always had this stuck up, douchey aura around him. Whenever I tried to talk to Ismira, he always found some way to humiliate me!" Aerl ground his teeth, veins popping up on his immaterial body. "Why do the nice girls always go for the assholes?"

    Fel felt like he had dug too deep, from the sounds of it, this wasn''t an isolated event. To his relief, Aerl salvaged the situation.

    "Enough about me. How about your love life?"

    "Let us not dwell on such dark times. More importantly, I want to read the Manual on Devata Cultivation and Techniques!"

    "Suspicious... I''ll let you read it when you spill the beans."

    "No. Please. There''s something I need to read in there."

    Holding the book in hand, Aerl continued to extort Fel, "I''ll give it to you once you tell me everything. It''s only fair."

    Defeated, Fel could only oblige, "My love-life was as non-existent as a desert mirage. By the time I cared about romanticism, everyone thought I only had an eye for machines, some rumours even said I was sexually attracted to them!

    The girls always hid behind corners at glared at me from afar, they were so disgusted with me they were red as tomatoes! Ever since then I kept a clear line between me and machines, but at that point, not a single girl around me would look me in the eye."

    Tears welled up in Aerl''s eyes as he tossed his book into Fel''s mental space, "Traitor!"

    Aerl didn''t speak to Fel again for the rest of the trip. Fel never figured out why.

    Fortunately, the coach before him ground to a halt and the passengers hopped out for a break. Fel sluggishly trudged over before collapsing down by the group.

    Siyla walked over to him and sat by his side. She had discarded her armour to fit in the coach and instead wore a dashing waistcoat with a pair of smart pants. With her metal manipulation ability, she had an essentially infinite wardrobe.

    "How did it go?"

    Fel groaned, "I feel like I''ve lost a few pounds, why does this armour have to be so bulky?"

    "To increase the stability, structural integrity, -"

    Fel crashed to the ground, opening up his face-plate. "-I know, I know. How was your trip?"

    Siyla''s face froze for a fraction of a second, "Well, they had fun... but I... kind of sat in the corner and answered the occasional question. But I guess you didn''t have much to do either"

    Fel felt it was far worse than that, though he wouldn''t ever admit that he, in fact, had a rather talkative companion for the journey. In fact, Fel was right on the ball. Siyla had curled up her wings around her and pretended to sleep for the entire trip. If Fel knew that, he would never let it go. While Gorn and his friends had listened in to the conversation, they wisely kept silent.

    Harth strode up to Fel and gave him a small vial, "A stamina potion. Even though you can keep yourself going with internal energy, your body still gets tired, this''ll patch you right up." While it wasn''t an incredibly expensive item, it wasn''t cheap either. Harth only offered it because Fel''s physical performance impressed him.

    Even among true Mages, few could match the pace of a stagecoach for five hours straight. Stagecoaches travelled much faster than a horse driven one, 20 km/h on average to be exact. In those five hours they had travelled 100 km, if Fel didn''t have his internal energy, he would''ve long since collapsed on the road.

    "Cheers." Fel took the vial, opened his face-plate, and gulped it down. Sure enough, his weary muscles regained their vigour and colour returned to his face. Although his mind was still worn out, his felt much better than before.

    Grinning, Harth didn''t forget to leave a comment, "Don''t forget, you still have another ten hours of walking for the day."

    The group burst into laughter while Fel looked as if he had his living soul wrenched out of him. Half an hour passed by and Harth lifted himself up to get into the coach. Ferri and Gorn got in too, but Siyla stayed behind.

    She lifted Fel up and smiled towards Gorn, "Don''t worry, I''ll keep this loaf going."

    "Well, if you get too tired, you can just hop back in. Have a nice trip!" Siyla didn''t notice his forced grin as he shut the door and urged the coach on.

    Inside the coach, Ferri glared at Gorn who smiled hopelessly in return, "It''s just a passing interest alright?"

    Ferri lay back in her cushioned seat and gazed out the back window, looking at the armoured duo walking behind them. Every step propelled them multiple strides forwards. Although it looked like they were walking, they were travelling at a running pace.

    "I hope it is. I''m sure you realise that you don''t stand a chance."

    Harth chipped in, "Yea, and you''ve seen how hot that guy is right, your serious face doesn''t stand a chance."

    While Ferri shot a dirty look at Harth, he had his facts straight. Gorn had a long, plain face with an almost eternal serious look. Even as he laughed he had a ''serious guy'' aura about him.

    "Also, she only talks to Fel, if we put the two of you in a room, it''d be a one-way conversation. Think about it for a moment." At this, Ferri nodded in agreement.

    Gorn grumpily kicked back his feet and got into a more comfortable position, "I''ll take a nap, see you later."

    Ferri and Harth could only sigh. Gorn was a lost cause.

    In the next three hours, Fel learnt a new movement technique from the manual, allowing for him to easily keep up with the coach. It worked by compressing force energy underneath his feet and tilting himself forwards. This propelled himself forward and looked like he was rollerblading. He could only do this much, as the more complicated techniques would''ve required much more time to comprehend.

    Although Fel''s rapid development surprised Siyla, she went with the flow and used her own movement technique, extending her wings and emitting wind energy from under them; causing her to hover above the ground. When Ferri looked out the window, she nearly choked on her saliva.

    Such techniques weren''t rare, but lightning or metal Mages shouldn''t be able to use them. She concluded that they had dual attributes. Perhaps only 1 in 15,000 would have dual attributes and only 1 in 30,000 would have a high affinity with their second attribute.

    "Now he has even less of a chance," muttered Ferri under her breath.

    She lazily flopped her head onto the headrest and gazed out the window. Endless, flat, night-blue plains, disturbed only by the dry dust kicked up by the carriage and the thumping of the large lizard. As she kept gazing out the window, she noticed hazy shadows pop out from under the horizon. They closed in, and in ten minutes, Ferri could make out their details.

    A band of twenty men on lordly horses, wearing complete, heavy, black plate armour with long lances at their sides. Ferri recognised them. They were Void Knights, an elite regiment of the nearby Kingdom of Collesti.

    Each of them was at least an Initial apprentice Mage, but their powerful equipment boosted them to the strength of a peak apprentice Mage. Although Mages were powerful, even they would struggle to defeat ten of them, let alone a group of twenty.

    By that point, everyone had noticed the band of Knights approaching them. The coach crawled to a stop. Ferri and Gorn lept out of the coach, gripping their staffs while Harth loosely held an elegant shamshir at his side.

    Siyla and Fel landed on the ground, where Siyla congealed a complete set of plate armour while Fel put his power armour into standby and equipped his shield and hammer, ready to leap into action at any moment. It never hurt to be prepared.

    The group skidded to a rest around twenty metres away from the group while the lead Knight cantered onwards, stopping a metre or two from the group. Back, straight as a poker, he called out with a deep voice, "Greetings Mages, we are the Void Knight''s of Collesti, from where do you hail from?"

    Gorn stepped forwards, "Greetings Knight, we are Mages of the Onyx Tower while the two over there are loose Mages. We all hail from Seiral and are headed to the Cursed Fortress!"

    Nodding, the Knight replied, "Aye, we are headed that way as well. There are rumours that there''s a new dungeon. It is our job to investigate it. I suppose that you are also seeking the new dungeon?"

    "Yes, we are, do you have any new news of it?"

    "That we have. We hear it is an accursed place, teeming with devils and eldritch horror''s. Though, to the common folk, I guess any old skeleton would be an eldritch horror, haha!" The Knight guffawed before extending a hand,

    "While our mission is to investigate the dungeon, additional help is always welcome. Do you wish to join us?"

 Death Wave

    A small band of knights and wizards stood at the base of the Cursed Fortress, clutching their weapons under the milky light of the star-stones above. Impossibly tall walls loomed before them, made of weathered, basalt bricks that formed grand battalions with a long row of merlons atop them. There was no mortar between the bricks, it had long since turned to dust under the winds of time. Instead, wispy tendrils of dark mist held the bricks together, emitting a daunting and threatening atmosphere. The whole structure essentially holding up a sign declaring, "Hey, I''m really dangerous!".

    The Void Knights stepped forwards to the ancient portcullis and hoisted it up. Although the portcullis was ten metres tall and made of solid steel, before the void knights, it was a pushover. The rest of the band hurried under the portcullis, rushing into the eerie gatehouse. Behind them, the Void Knights slipped past the portcullis and let it fall to the ground. After the tremors from the impact died down, the group took in their surroundings.

    Ahead of them was a desolate courtyard, decorated with the occasional decrepit bird bath, withered tree and row of crumbling pillars, while above them were a set of deadly murder holes. No effort was made to conceal them. Usually, there were at least a few parties in the courtyard, however, there wasn''t a soul in sight. Siyla splayed out her wings and dashed towards Fel, leaving afterimages in her wake. She crashed into him, sending them both hurtling into the courtyard.

    The rest of the group was confused, but, before they could take another step, another portcullis crashed down in front of them and a dozen spiked, iron balls fell from the murder holes. Gorn gathered up Harth and Ferri while conjuring a glassy barrier. While the knights raised their shields and relied on their powerful bodies to fend off the danger.

    These were no ordinary balls. They were laced with an accursed energy that seeped into your bones and siphoned your vitality. A falling sphere crashed into the shoulder of an unfortunate Void Knight, distorting his armour into a crumpled mess.

    The group hurried over towards the courtyard to escape the hellhole while Gorn prepared a spell to destroy the portcullis before them. On the way, another falling ball crashed into the back of a Void Knight, though this time a spike penetrated his armour and sank deep into his flesh, sucking his vitality away.

    Gorn tossed a sphere of dark energy that blasted a hole into the portcullis allowing everyone to rush into the courtyard. While the Void Knights were still frazzled and disoriented, the lead knight, Brannen, raised his sword and cried out in alarm, "Shields up! It''s an ambush!"

    Ghostly skeletons leapt out from behind the weathered pillars and drew their bows, releasing their arrows in a staggered volley. The arrows pinged off their great armour while the accompanying deathly energy only left tiny dents on their surface. Brannen rallied his knights and charged forwards, tanking the arrows while the mages hung back and cast their spells.

    Fel equipped his crossbow and nailed a skeleton through skull while Gorn fired a dark laser at another skeleton, disintegrating it whole. Harth was more of a close ranged Mage and had run along with the knights, rending the fragile skeletons to dust with his wind coated shamshir.

    Before Ferri could join in on the action, a hundred strong swarm of sword-wielding skeletons, poured from the guard towers behind them and charged towards the group. Ferri waved her staff, sending out a few pulses of dark energy, blasting several skeletons to pieces, though for each skeleton that fell, two more took its place. The damage done was negligible. Fel equipped his hammer and shield, preparing to charge towards the horde while Gorn conjured a sphere of dark energy and tossed it towards the mass of skeletons.

    The sphere exploded in the middle of the crowd, disintegrating twenty odd skeletons while Fel charged into the foray, crushing them under his feet and tearing them apart with a swing of his shield and swipe of his hammer. However, as Fel tried to tank the swords in a similar fashion to the knights, he noticed that something was off. Though his armour deflected the incoming blades, the haunting, cursed energy that came with it corroded his armour, leaving great marks on its surface. The armour wouldn''t be able to handle much more abuse.

    Another explosion roared beside Fel, destroying another twenty skeletons in a go. At this point, there were only around thirty skeletons left out of the batch, yet they fought on as bravely as ever. Seeing that the swarm of skeletons was swamping Fel, Siyla spread her wings and fired out a hundred silvery needles that blasted the mob remaining skeletons apart. This annoyed Fel a little. He felt she could''ve done so far earlier, but before he could say so, Siyla pointed to something behind him.

    Ominous, great, dark, deadly. That was how Fel could describe the being before him. It was two-and-a-half metres tall and was decked out with full plate armour while holding a massive two-handed sword by its side. Cold, red, wispy eyes and ancient bone peeked out from the gaps in the armour, betraying its true form. Gorn conjured a crystalline mass of dark energy and hurled it at the skeleton, though a sudden, deep red flash intercepted it, blasting both masses into oblivion. Tracing the spell to its source, Gorn met eye to eye with a decrepit old skeleton on the battlements, clothed in tattered robes and clutching a scraggly staff in its hand. In its eyes were two balls of insidious, green flame seemed to flicker with malicious delight.

    Gorn called out to Fel, "You go get the Death Knight, I''ll fight the Mage!"

    He then leapt up to the battlements to engage in a deadly duel with the skeletal Mage.

    Siyla was about to help Fel out against the Death Knight, but she noticed a shadow around a corner. Though it was hard to miss, Siyla felt a powerful aura emanating out from it. She left Fel to his own devices and began to creep towards the danger, intending to eliminate it from the equation.

    Fel himself had no time to care about such things, plans tended to fly out the window when you have a two-and-a-half metre tall Death Knight charging at you. Kicking his power armour into full drive, Fel dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the Death Knight''s massive blade. But before he could do anything else, the Death Knight''s head swivelled around and sent out a cloud of jet-black fumes. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Pumping divine energy into his shield, Fel formed a divine barrier to disperse the gas while he kicked off the ground, shooting towards the looming horror. The Death Knight swung yet again at Fel, though its offence just barely missed. While Fel might not be able to take a direct blow, he could still avoid the Death Knights clumsy attacks. The Death Knight tried to get back into position to attack again, yet before it could, a powerful force spread out across its hip, knocking it off balance and fracturing its armour.

    He sent another strike to its elbow, smashing off the elbow piece. Though it didn''t harm the bone underneath, it bought enough time for Fel to send out yet another strike, this time at the back of the knee-cap. The strike toppled the monstrosity, sending it crashing to the ground; though not before it could send out a flailing swing at Fel, catching him off guard and crashing into his back, knocking him to the ground.

    The Death Knight reached out a skeletal hand, intending to grapple with Fel and use its superior size to its advantage. In a last-ditch effort, Fel squeezed out every last drop of energy in him, sending his power armour into overdrive while firing out bolts of lightning through his concealed vents. He flung himself at the Death Knight, thrusting a palm of lightning at the undead being. The palm struck the Knight squarely in its chest and sent the warrior flying back. Arcs of electricity ran through its body as it lay on the ground while a large, palmed-shaped, dent was displayed on its chest piece.

    Noticing that the Death Knight hadn''t fallen yet, Fel walked over to the fallen Knight and hoisted up his hammer, bringing it down onto its armoured skull. The strike had not slain it, but it had knocked off the Death Knights visor, exposing its malicious skull and red, glowing eyes. Fel rose his hammer into the sky yet again and brought it down on the nightmarish face. This time, it smashed through the ancient bone and crushed the skull to splinters. Silencing the persistent, red glow of its eyes. Fel struck the body a few times, just to make sure it was dead, then, once assuring himself that it was, took a look around the rest of the battlefield.

    It was a mess. Skeletons were pouring out from the main keep in an endless drove while the Void Knights crowded together in a mighty shield wall, somehow resisting the onslaught. Gorn had long since defeated his foe and was now assisting the Void Knights along with Harth and Ferri, blasting apart the skeletons wherever they went.

    Siyla was in the sky, battling a demonic life form. She sent out a thousand silvery needles only to have them deflected by an evil, red barrier and conversely, when the demon sent out a blast of red, demonic energy, she had to create a dozen shields to disperse the power. She was rapidly running out of strength and her metal reserves were running dry.

    As Fel kneeled on the ground, Aerl silently displayed a panel of information in his mind.

    <hr>

    Death Knight (Artificial)

    Affinities: Darkness (7), Death (8), Tenebrous (1)

    Life Expectancy: Infinite

    Level: Quasi Level 1

    Innate Abilities:

    1. Death Breath

    - The user sends out a cloud of corrosive dark energy

    2. Soulbound

    - The user''s soul is bound to a specific part of the body. The user will not die until that part is destroyed. For maximum control, the user is recommended to store the soul in the head.

    History:

    An abomination of nature created through dark rituals targeting both the soul and body. This pitiful being will be a slave to its creator and will have little intelligence besides its base instincts and abilities of its previous life.

    <hr>

    "I spent this much effort against a Quasi Level 1 being? How arrogant was I to believe I could stomp over everything here because of my power armour? Though it is strong, how did I expect that this damaged, incomplete mess could allow me to defeat such beings? I am useless without my combat assistants... I''ve been relying on them far too much." He was so distraught that he didn''t even question how Aerl got the information in the first place.

    Amidst the flames of battle, Fel sat there, staring into space. A stray needle shot past him, almost nailing him in the head. Fel rose his head and used whatever internal energy he had left to amplify his voice, "We must retreat! We cannot win this battle."

    Brannen looked over his shoulder towards Fel and nodded in agreement. The skeletons were about to overrun his knights, and, so far, there was no end in sight.

    "Retreat!"

    Whilst slowly backing up, the void knights continued to resist the infinite skeletal tide. Overhead, Siyla fended off the demonic spawn with silvery lances, using the last of her ability to keep it at bay. Fel had equipped his crossbow, but with his hands leaden with exhaustion, he had become a lousy shot.

    An hour or two later, the diminished band of Knights and Mages were gathered a few kilometres from the Cursed Fortress. Out of the twenty Void Knights, only 12 were left. Though their armour was near impervious to the skeletal blades, an exhausted Knight would reveal his weak points such that even the dumbest skeletal warrior could run him through.

    Brannen walked up to the group of Mages, "What''s with that place? Not mentioning that only the dungeon area should''ve been a Level 1 area, that place was far beyond even that! That was a Peak Level 1 area, if we were an ordinary band of adventurers, we would''ve been slain at the murder holes!"

    Gorn sat grimly on the ground, "Judging by the amount of undead, it could be a death wave invasion from the 2<sup>nd</sup> underground layer."

    Brannen jumped in surprise, "A death wave? If that is true, we should report this to the association!"

    "You are right on that one." Gorn got to his feet and patted himself down, "We will return to the Onyx Tower and report this to our superiors."

    He turned to Fel, wearing a weak smile, "It was a short meeting, it was nice knowing you. I recommend that follow the Void Knights back to the capital of Collesti and join the Mage Association. They can recommend you to a good Mage School."

    Fel nodded in return, "Very well, we will do just that."

    "You should also learn how to fight as a Mage. I don''t condemn your close ranged fighting style, but you have little control over your power, I believe Siyla can teach you a thing or two on your journey." He called to Harth and Ferri and hopped into their carriage.

    "I hope we can meet again."

    Fel grit his teeth, determination flashing in his eyes, "Yes, safe travels."

 Roland and Longinus

    The clashing of swords rung out across the plains, along with the thundering of gallant laughter. Fel drew his simple longsword next to his face and aimed the point at his opponents face, assuming a standard Orchs stance. It had been two weeks since the disaster at the Cursed Fortress, and ever since then, he had been travelling with the Void Knights.

    For the first half of the day, they travelled back to the capital while completing minor missions on the way. After that, Fel trained for two to three hours with the knights and at the end of the day, he practised magic with Siyla. Fel thrust out his sword, only to be easily countered, ending up with his opponent''s blade on his abdomen.

    Fel''s opponent, a young Void Knight, took back his blade before viciously berating him, "You''ve been getting better, but you couldn''t have made your stance more obvious. Even the wimpiest trainee would have seen through you in an instant!"

    The Knights had been teaching him the way of the sword because, according to them, it had much more potential for magic than a hammer did. Aerl agreed with this, he had only agreed with the war-hammer beforehand as Fel had well, little skill. They walked back to their starting positions and rested their swords on their shoulders. Although the stance appeared to be loose and casual, it, in fact, had few openings and allowed the user to move into more complicated and specialised stances without any difficulty.

    When there was a metre or so between them, Fel snapped out at the knight''s head, intending to take him by surprise. The knight shoved the blade out of the way, allowing for Fel to pivot his sword around to the other side of the knight''s head, bringing all of that lovely momentum around with it.

    The strike forced the knight to use all he had to defend against it, and Fel, sensing the opportunity, thrust out a hand and grappled the knight''s sword out of the way. Yet, before Fel knew it, the knight used Fel''s grappling hand as a pivot and smashed his pommel into Fel''s face. Though Fel was kitted out in full training gear, the impact knocked him off his feet and left him stunned on the ground.

    By the time Fel had recovered, there was a shining blade on his neck. The knight made all those ''mistakes'' to lull Fel into a false sense of security.

    "You should have noticed that my spine was still straight and I had planted my feet on the ground, even worse, you didn''t even try to keep your blade between us. Again!"

    The reason Fel was being pummelled into the ground every which way was to consolidate a strong foundation of swordsmanship from which he could build off to create all sorts of wondrous sword-arts. Everything was based on the basics. Even the greatest Mage couldn''t ignore the most basic energy manipulation techniques.

    In reality, swordsmanship was far inferior to magic, but, when fused together, they became the bane of all traditional Mages. Though powerful, spells consumed great quantities of energy, while magic-swordsmanship was far more efficient, though it was very reliant on equipment. Without a good sword, how could a swordsmaster fully demonstrate his capabilities? However, it was rumoured that one could eventually surpass the need for a physical blade.

    As the star-stones above dimmed, the knight finally let Fel go. Battered and bruised, Fel thanked the knight and limped back to his tent. Though the intricacies and practicalities of swordsmanship fascinated Fel, the mysteries of magic attracted him even more.

    Before he entered the tent, Fel took a moment to cycle some divine energy through his body to heal his wounds. He slipped through the flap and sat on a nearby cushion. Siyla lazed in front of him, sporting a long, sparkling robe while plucking metal nuggets from a basket.

    She had been ''cultivating'' her energy for most of the day, hardly spending any time practising actual spells and techniques. For better or for worse, she relied heavily on her powerful innate abilities and could spare much more time to increase her Level. But Siyla''s innate abilities were a part of her, unlike Fel who had relied on his advanced equipment.

    They faced each other and cycled energy through their bodies. Tonight''s session was on internal energy movement. It was an underrated skill as most Mages only cared about external energy manipulation. This was fine for traditional Mages as they ''weaved'' spells and launched them from afar, learning to micro-manage internal energy would only decrease spell-casting time. With their busy schedules, they shunted this skill down the priority list.

    However, for more physical Mages like Fel, and Mages like Siyla who had power innate abilities, this overlooked skill was a godsend. For them, efficiency was king. Perfecting this art would optimise their energy expenditure, decrease cast-times and even increase the power of their techniques.

    Siyla placed her palms over Fel''s to sense his internal energy. He was practising the ''energy thread'' exercise where he had to condense his energy into a long string and move it around it various ways; spiralling, zig-zagging or just erratically moving it around. Siyla was also an exceptional teacher and had made great strides in improving Fel''s technique.

    When he almost undid his energy string after forcing it into a sharp turn, Siyla intervened and forced the string back together through sheer force of will before setting his hands down and grinding the basic knowledge into him.

    "You know what happens when you move your energy at sharp angles right?"

    "Yes. It causes the energy to become more destructive and uncontrollable."

    "So what do you do after a sharp turn?"

    "Unless I''m preparing a spell, I should either eject it from my body or force it into a spiral to re-weave it into a string."

    "Now you''ve gotten that through your thick skull, let''s try that again."

    The days flew by. Noone approached them because of the void knights menacing aura and the missions they had to complete were simple. Slaying a Rank 1 monster here or retrieving a valuable resource there. They were more like glorified adventurers than anything. Fel had forgotten that most adventurers couldn''t even rival the weakest apprentice Mage. The void knights were the only force the crown had to deal with these life forms.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    By the end of the second week of their journey, before they set out from the camp, the knights declared they were only two days away from the capital, Collesti, and that they''d be at the highway by the end of the day. They wouldn''t be training today.

    Fel was very proficient at using his movement technique at this point. He had managed to create a large ball of spinning force energy he sat cross-legged on, allowing him to cruise across the flat plains whilst looking like a sagely knight. Exactly as the black book had depicted.

    Unbeknownst to the group, a cold, wispy pair of eyes gazed at them from the distance, so far away that not even Siyla could sense its gaze. Hours passed, the star-stones dimmed, and the group grew tired, their attention waning.

    A dense mist rolled in, carrying along with it, the harrowing cries of lost souls and weeping ghosts. For five minutes, the group rode through the haunted mist. As the knights conversed in hushed voices to each other, the earth split beneath their feet, opening up like a gaping maw. Siyla plucked Fel from his ball and drifted over the bottomless ravine while the knights desperately tried to ride through the devastated landscape. They leapt over the expanding obstacles and weaved through stone shrapnel and thick dust clouds.

    Pale hands rose from the earth, grabbing at the passing hooves of the knight''s horses. A desperate knight waved his sword at the skeletal limbs, sending out a cascading crescent of distorted space, destroying a wave of undead that would''ve otherwise dragged him to the depths. Yet another wave of undead took their place and piled onto the exhausted knight. They never saw him again.

    A few knights managed to outride the collapsing earth, leaving their unfortunate brethren to die at the hands of hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of undead. They rode and rode and rode; as far from the death-trap as they could. Yet they didn''t get far.

    A skeletal dragon burst out from the ground, landing before the fleeing knights and firing out a mass of grey energy at Siyla, forcing her to land on the ground.

    "Aerl, Aerl! Give me the info on this dragon!"

    "It''s at peak Rank 1, you have no way to fight against it!"

    Fel spotted the young knight that had trained him and the lead knight Brannen among the remaining stragglers, standing proud against the dragon. He grit his teeth, "Are you certain about that?"

    "Well... If you use your divine energy and the holy sword Roland in your ring... and toss Siyla the divine lance Longinus, you could, perhaps, defeat it."

    Without hesitation, Fel searched through his ring and took out a shining longsword. Its silver blade was wide and was longer than the average longsword while grand, golden wings wrapped around its hilt to form a magnificent cross-guard. A sacred, white leather, wrapped around its handle while a proud and aloof lion lay on its pommel.

    Cycling his divine energy, Fel tossed Siyla a simple, yet beautiful lance. Its entire body was made of seemingly pure gold and a divine halo glowed below its long and broad head.

    "Cover me."

    A blurry mass of golden steel that crashed into the side of the mighty dragons head, taking it by surprise. It teetered to the side, but only received a few cracks on its skull. But, before it could gather its thoughts, a streak of silver and gold rocketed into the cracked section of its skull, further damaging it, before flying off to a safer distance.

    Infuriated, the skeletal beast blasted out several bolts of deathly energy at the two points of golden light before charging at the one on the ground. Fel dodged the blast of deathly energy by pumping out force energy at his feet and swung a crescent of divine energy at the other. While the crescent destroyed the blast of deathly energy, the flow of internal energy in Fel''s body reversed, causing blood to spurt from his mouth and ooze from his pores.

    "Aerl, what''s happening?"

    "The Roland is a Tier 3 Artifact, even by using it''s weakest ability you''ll have to withstand a massive backlash. Power has a price."

    While distracted, a flying claw caught Fel by surprise and smashed him towards the death wave. Using all he had, Fel fired out vast quantities of fiery energy from the vents in his back, propelling him back to safety. The massive inertia exceeded the capacity of his dampeners and tore open his internal wounds, the pain almost made him lose consciousness and caused him to crash to the ground.

    Another claw swung at stunned Fel, but this time Siyla intercepted it and knocked it aside, jabbing out a dozen times, lightly damaging the skeletal claw. She then flew around to its damaged skull and thrust her lance through the cracked surface and used the spear as a medium to send out beams divine and metallic energy to destroy the skull from within.

    Skull riddled with fresh fissures, the skeletal dragon shook Siyla off and fired a beam of death energy at her. Siyla weaved through the sky, avoiding the grey beam of energy, however, it tracked her down and forced her to use her lance to fend it off. Though it was initially successful, the dragon flapped its wings and sent out a gust of wind, laced with death energy, causing her to lose her balance.

    The constant presence of the beam, along with her disrupted flight, caused Siyla to fall from the fly and become pinned to the ground under the beam, only able to desperately fend it off with her lance. Fel catapulted into the dragon and brought his blade down onto its skull. With another burst of divine energy, the skull crumbled apart and crashing to the ground.

    Dropping to the ground, Fel took another glance at the skeletal dragon. Its ancient bones shook, before falling apart and turning to dust, releasing large quantities of grey light into its surroundings.

    Seeing the wilting plants, Fel cried out in alarm towards the stunned knights, "Quick get away! It''s releasing all its death energy at once!"

    He sprinted over to Siyla and slung her over his shoulder. The excessive amount of death energy had penetrated her defences and was corroding her vitality, though Fel kept pouring divine energy into her, there was only so much energy he could spare. The cloud of death energy nipped at his heels, ignoring his thick armour and sinking right into his soft flesh. Unlike the energy used by the skeletons, this death energy was far purer and couldn''t tolerate any living being.

    Despite the moans of his body, Fel sprinted away from the death cloud until it gave up and dispersed into its surroundings. Fel lay Siyla on the ground and desperately pumped in all the divine energy he had into her, purging the contamination within. The void knights, on the other hand, were huddled into a small group, using whatever medications they had left to rid their own of the contamination.

    Out of the 20 knights that left the capital, they lost eight at the Cursed Fortress and seven at what could only be described as a death wave. Brannen, tired and battered from the event, walked over to Fel.

    "We must leave, that skeleton horde will soon catch up. One deathwave is a coincidence, a second is a sign. The highway is just up ahead, if we can get there, we can hitch a ride to Collesti."

    Fel nodded and hoisted up Siyla in his hands. He drew on his final dregs of energy and joined the knights in a final run to the highway.

 Association Exam

    Blinking her eyes, Siyla awoke in a sterile, wood-cladded room. She tried to raise her arms, only to discover that grey clamps were locked around them. Glancing at them, she noticed that there were small glass windows on the clamps, and inside them was a stream of silver liquid.

    Rotating her neck, Siyla looked around the room, trying to make out her surroundings. She was lying an adjustable, metal, hospital bed, with a comfortable mattress and clean white sheets. By her side was a large window that overlooked a calm, glittering river that lay past a sea of neat buildings made of clean-cut stone bricks, and around her were while cloth curtains. She herself was wearing a long white gown.

    A dark-elf nurse bustled through the curtain, holding a glass cylinder that contained silver liquid. She found that Siyla was awake and rushed over to her.

    ˇ°Are you feeling all right?ˇ±

    ˇ°Y-yes, IˇŻm fine. WhatˇŻs with these clamps?ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh, donˇŻt worry about those, theyˇŻre energy injectors. We canˇŻt feed an unconscious person right?ˇ±

    Siyla checked the energy flow of her body. Indeed, the clamps were injecting in a steady stream of metallic energy into her veins. Seeing it wasnˇŻt a threat, she tried to get up.

    "WhereˇŻs my companion?"

    ˇ°No no, you shouldnˇŻt move too much, youˇŻve been unconscious for four days. Your body was flooded with death energy, it took two days of radiation therapy to get rid of it all.ˇ±

    Siyla swiped away the hands and tried to get up again, ˇ°Where is my companion?ˇ±

    Exasperated, the nurse pushed her back down, ˇ°HeˇŻs in the bed over. His veins and arteries were ruptured and his bones were lightly fractured, not mentioning his exhausted energy supply. He just got out of the emergency bay earlier today.ˇ±

    Seeing the untrusting look on Siyla, the nurse drew open a curtain, revealing an unconscious Fel on the other side. He looked a little thinner and paler, but apart from that, he was fine.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt worry, heˇŻll be back up in a day. It was weird though, we couldnˇŻt seem to figure out his dominant energy type, so we injected pure energy into him instead. Nothing that the Association couldnˇŻt deal with!ˇ±

    ˇ°Where am I anyway?ˇ±

    ˇ°YouˇŻre in the hospital of the Mage AssociationˇŻs Collesti branch. You donˇŻt seem to be a registered Mage, so I recommend that you take the examination after you recover. Of course, itˇŻll take a bit till youˇŻre in tip-top condition.ˇ±

    Sure, IˇŻll consult my companion about this when he wakes up.ˇ±

    The nurse clapped her hands together, ˇ°Fantastic, would you like to eat something?ˇ±

    ˇ°Kaza nuggets and Trigis bars please.ˇ±

    A bead of sweat dripped from the nurseˇŻs face.

    By the time Fel woke up, Siyla was lazing in her bed, nibbling on bits of metals while reading a book. His movements attracted SiylaˇŻs attention, who slipped out of bed and walked over to him. Before he could even utter a word, Siyla filled him in with the information.

    ˇ°Cool, technology here seems to be much more advanced than I thought it was.ˇ±

    Siyla gave him a strange look

    ˇ°Nevermind, what have you been doing lately?ˇ±

    ˇ°Not much, IˇŻve just been eating, reading and cultivating. There wasnˇŻt much to do.ˇ±

    ˇ°I see, well, I guess IˇŻll be doing the same for a while!ˇ±

    Before they could continue on, the dark-elf nurse walked into their section, ˇ°Oh, youˇŻre awake too! ThatˇŻs great! Did your companion fill you in on whatˇŻs happening?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes.ˇ±

    ˇ°Good,ˇ± She pulled up a chair by the curtain, ˇ°Well then, it may be sudden as youˇŻve just woken up, but what do you think about joining the Association?ˇ±

    ˇ°What are the benefits?ˇ±

    ˇ°Well, the Mage Association is rather similar to the adventurerˇŻs guild, only a little looser. If you join the Association, theyˇŻll recommend you to a Mage academy and give you easy access to many of their services. Such as their mission board, exclusive market and access to hospitals, like this one, free of charge!ˇ±

    ˇ°Wait, free?ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, I forgot to mention, between the two of you, youˇŻve been in radiation therapy for a total of four days, used three cylinders of metallic energy and four more of pure energy cylinders, and youˇŻve used a litre worth of hemostatic potion.ˇ±

    The nurse paused for a while as she caught her breath, ˇ°That adds up to 105.5 crystal coins.ˇ±

    FelˇŻs face dropped, though he had 10,000 crystal coins, that was still 1% of his total wealth. Even he could tell that it was a rip-off.

    ˇ°Then there are the rare metals that your companion there ordered. That brings the total up to 120 crystal coins.ˇ±

    Fel sighed, ˇ°So, youˇŻve gone on about joining the Association and how good it is, whatˇŻs the catch?ˇ±

    ˇ°Well, the whole reason the Association was made in the first place was to prevent wars among the Mage Academies and to suppress the 2<sup>nd</sup> underground layer.ˇ±

    ˇ°The 2<sup>nd</sup> underground layer?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, theyˇŻve always been trying to invade our layer because we have a large amount of well, living people. TheyˇŻre mostly undead there. The layer beneath them is full of fire elementals, so they canˇŻt go there, but weˇŻre full of yet-to-be-converted flesh-bags, so they do all they can to take us over.ˇ±

    ˇ°Where is this going?ˇ±

    ˇ°DonˇŻt interrupt me. So, you see, the sole duty of Mages in the association is to band together and defeat the undead when they invade.ˇ±

    A burly horned man rushed into the section and whispered to the nurse.

    Looking agitated, the nurse turned back to Fel and Siyla, ˇ°Well, with that, I hope youˇŻll join the Association, have a nice day!ˇ±

    Without a second word, she rushed off along with the man.

    Fel looked over at Siyla, ˇ°So what do you think?ˇ±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ˇ°I mean, weˇŻve fought the undead before, and weˇŻll definitely have to fight them again, so I see no demerit to it.ˇ±

    ˇ°Fair point, they donˇŻt seem to restrict your freedom. To me, it feels like more of an alliance between the Mage Academies than anything.ˇ±

    ˇ°Mhm.ˇ±

    ˇ°And itˇŻll allow us to quickly integrate with this place, so I think itˇŻs a good deal. Shall we join them?ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻll have to agree with that, though we should recover first.ˇ±

    Two days later, they were discharged.

    ---

    ˇ°So, Siyla, 23, Middle Level 1 Metal Mage, Steelwing Angel right?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, thatˇŻs right.ˇ±

    ˇ°And Fel, 19, Initial Level 1 Lightning Mage, Deva?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yep.ˇ±

    ˇ°What, exactly, is a Deva?ˇ±

    ˇ°Umm, well, weˇŻre a rather ancient clan, who are reclusive in nature. Andˇ­ yea...ˇ±

    ˇ°Sureˇ­ IˇŻve never seen tattoos like those, so IˇŻll take your word for it. Take that hallway to the right and walk right and take the second door to your left, thatˇŻs where youˇŻll have your exam.ˇ±

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs in the exam?ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh, just a little combat test, to give you a ranking. We''ll rank you from F to A in terms of combat ability relative to your Level. To put it in simpler terms, itˇŻs a measure of your competency.ˇ±

    ˇ°What if youˇŻre not a combat oriented Mage?ˇ±

    ˇ°We have other tests for that, but youˇŻre a combat Mage, so you donˇŻt have to worry about it.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ok, ok. LetˇŻs go Siyla.ˇ±

    They walked past the reception and travelled down the hall. The AssociationˇŻs building was rather magnificent, with a ceiling that towered several metres high, supported by huge, thick beams that were decorated by mesmerising banners. In the underground, wood was a valuable resource. Buildings that were made of wood were of much higher status than those made of stone.

    However, despite its size and wealth, there were few people inside it. Apart from the staff, there were only around five people in it, all clothed in long robes. They kept to themselves, and every now and then theyˇŻd walk off to another part of the building. It was an odd sight.

    Fel opened the door to the examination room to reveal a long staircase that led to the basement. After a minute or two of walking, they reached their destination. The examination room. It was an expansive arena, but barren, save for a weapon rack and a few sets of armour in the corner, a chair, a table and a lanky man cloaked in a long, black robe, who was sipping tea from an intricate china tea-cup.

    Placing his teacup down, he grabbed the staff by his side and sauntered up to the duo, extending a hand. ˇ°Are you the examinees?ˇ±

    Fel took his hand and shook it, ˇ°Yes we are.ˇ±

    ˇ°I should introduce myself, I am Tresten, a high Level 1 Darkness Mage.ˇ±

    ˇ°Fel, initial Level 1 Lightning Mage.ˇ±

    ˇ°Siyla, middle Level 1 Metal Mage.ˇ±

    ˇ°I guess youˇŻve heard this is a combat test. As for the rules, you can only use the weapons on that rack over there, though you can conjure your own. Other than that, there are no rules. You must do your best to defeat me, and donˇŻt worry, if IˇŻm about to die, the formation will kick in and save me.ˇ±

    He walked towards the other side of the area, ˇ°WeˇŻll begin the duel once we get to the other side. Sorry if I havenˇŻt exchanged too many pleasantries, I find them to be a waste of time. To Mages, time is power.ˇ±

    As Tresten walked, Siyla and Fel got prepared. Fel went over to the weapon rack and took out a standard longsword and donned a set of plate armour while Siyla congealed a set of armour and a long spear.

    Fel stood to the left, while Siyla stood on the right, both sank down their centre of mass, ready to shoot out at any moment.

    Tresten was just a step away from the opposite side of the room, ˇ°Two physical Mages huh? ThatˇŻs rare, I guess IˇŻm in a bit of a pickle.ˇ±

    He set his foot down. Fel and Siyla rocketed out, closing in on Tresten in a pincer formation. Tresten launched a few dark bolts of energy while he weaved a magic circle around him. Fel dodged most the bolts and used a few strands of lightning energy to dispel the rest while Siyla congealed a silvery shield and tanked all the shots.

    By the time the duo were halfway there, Tresten completed his circle and placed it on the ground. Siyla launched a few projectiles to interrupt it, but Tresten let out a wave of dark energy that destroyed the incoming projectiles.

    The circle sucked up the colour in the room, turning it into a monochrome painting. A wisp of inky shadow hissed out from the centre of the circle. In the next instant, it unfurled into a hulking behemoth. It had a muscular upper body, yet it lacked any legs whatsoever, with only a wisp of shadow connecting it to the circle.

    ˇ°Fel, Siyla, meet Garagath, my Dark Djinni. Have fun!ˇ±

    The Djinn drew in dark energy from the circle and compressed it into a misty sphere between his hands. It then released it in a concentrated blast of energy towards Siyla, vaporising the grey floor as it went, Forcing Siyla to hurl herself to the side, only to leap around in a desperate attempt to dodge a round of TrestenˇŻs attacks. Fel raised his sword and cut it down on the dark djinn, though Tresten, yet again, released a volley of dark bolts to interrupt him.

    ˇ°Hehe, works like a charm.ˇ±

    Though the jeering annoyed Fel, he remembered that physical Mages were meant to have a low expenditure and outlast conventional Mages. If he gave in to TrestenˇŻs taunts, he would be quickly defeated, especially since Tresten had far greater firepower than he did.

    Seeing that Fel wasnˇŻt tricked, Tresten moved on to the next trick up his sleeve. He waved his staff and sent out half a dozen miniature magic circles that moved to surround Fel. With his other hand, he ordered the Djinn to bombard Siyla with bursts of dark energy to keep her busy.

    Wispy snakes slithered out from the circles and flew towards Fel. Along with them came a wave of dark energy, forcing Fel to discharge a large amount of lightning energy. He then coated his blade with a small amount of lightning energy and sliced the snakes apart before continuing to rush towards Tresten.

    In that time, Tresten had weaved several more circles that surrounded Fel yet again and blasted out streams of dark bolts like machine guns. Unlike before, Fel couldnˇŻt rely on his blade to cut them apart and had to form a barrier of lightning energy, making him waste even more energy.

    The only reason Fel was still standing was that lightning energy countered dark energy. Even though lightning energy had a high expenditure, only a strand of it could annihilate an entire ball of dark energy. Though it had to be noted that Tresten was two minor levels ahead of Fel and had a greater pool of energy.

    But Siyla wasnˇŻt lazing about. She pressed her index and pointy finger together than waved it in the air, letting a strand of metal trail behind it. The strand elongated, and when Siyla had completed her gesture, she cut it off and made it sail towards Tresten.

    It soared faster and faster, breaking even the sound barrier. Tresten rapidly directed the djinn to block it for him, but, while it managed to do so, the strand of metal sliced it in half. The upper half, now disconnect from the circle, dissipated in the air, forcing the circle to spend a large amount of energy to reform the djinn.

    Siyla stumbled and almost fell to the ground, her body, thinner than before, but she spread out her wings and launched a volley of needles at Tresten.

    Fel saw this opening and cycled the rest of his lightning energy through his lines. He expanded the circles on his shoulders, forming golden arms of light while his lines lit up, encasing him in an armour of lightning. Without a second to spare, he blasted out lightning energy at his feet and hurtled towards Tresten, leaving after-shadows in his wake.

    This caught Tresten by surprise, who mobilised his energy to form a thick, shadowy wall. But a wave of FelˇŻs sword tore apart it. Tresten ejected a cloud of jet-black mist to throw off Fel, who dispersed it with a strike of his golden fist.

    In a last-ditch effort, Tresten lit up the runes on his staff, instantly forming a dozen crystalline shards of dark energy before firing them towards Fel. Siyla''s arrows destroyed four of them while Fel''s golden fists and armour annihilated the rest.

    The concentrated dark energy invaded FelˇŻs body and gnawed him out by the inside. Fel didnˇŻt have the time to purge it and simply let his flowing lightning energy suppress it, choosing instead to continue to charge towards Tresten.

    Fel''s sword sliced apart yet another crystalline bolt, the great power shattering its blade. Lacking another option, Tresten shoved raw dark energy at Fel, not having any time to weave a better spell.

    From the distance, Siyla launched a hail of needles and arrows at Tresten, dispersing his wave of formless dark energy, allowing Fel to close the distance and launch a point-blank attack at Tresten.

    Spiralling lightning energy through his arms, Fel launched six, fierce punches, each connecting squarely with TrestenˇŻs weak points. Though Tresten tried to protect himself with crystalline plates of dark energy, dark energy was offensive by nature and couldnˇŻt resist the onslaught of lightning.

    The first and second crushed his ribs, the third his abdomen, the fourth his face while the last two arms grasped his throat and strangled him. Before long, bright beams of light burst out from the ground, separating him and Fel and healing their wounds.

    Coughing lightly Tresten sat up, ˇ°Well, that was unexpected, I guess you both get a Bˇ±

 Seven Elements Valley

    Trundling along in a wealthy carriage, Fel contemplated his previous examination. Tresten was more or less as powerful as an advanced power armour unit with a standard pilot, if Fel didnˇŻt have his lightning, even with SiylaˇŻs help, the fight wouldˇŻve been far more challenging. When Fel asked what TrestenˇŻs combat ranking was, he said he was B ranked. If Fel compared the combat rankings with the United FrontˇŻs, the nation of new humanity, pilot rankings, B rank should be about equivalent to an advanced pilot. Fel himself was an ace pilot.

    TrestenˇŻs methods were strange as well. Circles of light that spawnedˇ­ things, and a flexible arsenal of abilities. Pilots had to carry all sorts of grenades and ammunition to gain the flexibility to deal with different situations while Tresten had it all in his head. Fel salivated at the thought.

    Although technology at the United Front developed rapidly as they possessed thousands of years of humanities knowledge. He doubted that they would discover this, even in the next hundred years. They took two centuries to manufacture the first power armour unit that ran on natural energy and another century to invent Evolved Power Armour.

    Manipulating natural energy without, well, whatever medium they used here, was simply too difficult. Natural energy was tangible, yet intangible and was the source of frustration for many scientists. But enough of that, back to the present.

    The duo was on their way to their assigned Magic Academy, Seven Element Valley. It wasnˇŻt the most renowned Academy but certainly wasnˇŻt the weakest. Out of the thousand or so Academies, it was ranked 20<sup>th</sup>. Its main strength was that it had a diverse range of courses which catered to a variety of Mages, but its weakness was that it lacked a course for the most numerous type of Mage of the 1<sup>st</sup> underground layer; the dark Mage. Despite its weakness, the place was perfect for Fel and Siyla.

    ˇ°Siyla, are we there yet?ˇ±

    ˇ°YouˇŻve asked that seven times already, and no, itˇŻll take five more hours.ˇ±

    ˇ°Whyy, itˇŻs so boring! WeˇŻve been on the road for half a month already!ˇ±

    ˇ°Quit complaining, you still havenˇŻt completed your daily energy exercise.ˇ±

    Grumbling, Fel moved into a cross-legged position and cycled his energy. The trip was indescribably dry. Their driver was as silent as a grave and the journey so far wasˇ­ uneventful to say the least. Half a month of travelling with little to no occurrences resulted in an ever-drying pool of conversation topics.

    Fel had been occupying himself by reading the books in his mind-space, but while he had learned a lot, the dense paragraphs and bland vocabulary were enough to drive any reasonable person away.

    ˇ°If I was back at the Front, IˇŻd be able to whip out my holopad...ˇ±

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs that?"

    Fel flinched, ˇ°Umm, itˇŻs a sort ofˇ­ object that lets you do stuff.ˇ±

    ˇ°So descriptive.ˇ±

    ˇ°Well, itˇŻs hard to describe.ˇ±

    Silence.

    ˇ°What happened to those void knights, we never met ˇ®em again.ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh yeah, I forgot about them. I think the nurse said they were half dead by the time they got to the city so they were still in emergency care after we left the city. Guess the death energy was too much for their apprentice constitutions.ˇ±

    ˇ°Anyway, what Level are you at. ItˇŻs been awhile.ˇ±

    ˇ°I''m almost at high Level 1, just need a large dose of metallic energy to break through.ˇ±

    ˇ°Maybe theyˇŻd have that at the Academy?ˇ±

    ˇ°I hope so. It''d take another year to break through otherwise.ˇ±

    ˇ°How long does it take to advance anyway?ˇ±

    ˇ°It varies significantly. The talented can get to Level 1 in half a decade while others could take half a century or more. ThereˇŻs a similar story with getting to Level 2. It takes some only a couple decades and other a century.ˇ±

    ˇ°For reference, how old are you?

    Finding a long, silvery knife at his neck, Fel let the case go.

    The driverˇŻs voice called out from the front, ˇ°Almost there, just another hour to go.ˇ±

    ˇ°Time flies doesnˇŻt it?ˇ±

    ˇ°More importantly, he spoke!ˇ±

    Siyla lifted an eyebrow in surprise, ˇ°And so he did.ˇ±

    A massive stone wall, over 50 metres tall, loomed ahead of the carriage. It looked as if it was made of a single block of stone and had deep runes and circles carved upon its surface. The carriage headed towards an entrance that lied on either side, built into the great mountains on either side.

    They were stopped at the gate by half a dozen armoured men. After a quick exchange, the driver showed them a golden badge that depicted heater shield, with the image of an open book carved upon it, within a perfect circle; the symbol of the Association. A guard took out an identical badge and pressed them together. The badges emitted a crisp ringing sound and flashing lights before the guard handed back the driver his one and let them past.

    After they passed the gate, they encountered yet another massive wall, but this time with a single gate in the centre. It was wide open and was of massive proportions, around 21 metres tall and 13 metres across, following close to the golden ratio.

    As soon as they passed through the gate, the density of natural energy in their surroundings almost tripled. Fel had only felt such a sensation when he was in the river of light. It was very soothing. Almost every breath he made drew in large volumes of pure energy.

    The driver chuckled, ˇ°Good stuff right? WeˇŻre in the neutral zone so thereˇŻs only pure energy, but there are other, more, specialised zones.ˇ±

    Fel whispered in SiylaˇŻs ear, ˇ°IsnˇŻt he getting talkative?ˇ±

    ˇ°This part of the valley is rather small, only around 25km<sup>2</sup>, but the other zones are much more expansive. The earth zone is around 125km<sup>2</sup>! The entire valley is only around 475km<sup>2</sup>, but even then, itˇŻs large compared to other Academies, though not much of it is habitable.ˇ±

    They were moving through a densely populated town that seemed to be built in concentric circles. While the architecture of the surrounding buildings was nothing amazing, mostly simple stone houses around two to three stories high, the truly breathtaking buildings were in a far more interesting location. On the valley walls.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Marble structures protruded from the valley and were connected by thin, arched bridges. Unlike the torches that lit up the city below, the valley walls were lit up by large, spiky crystals that glowed blue under the radiance of the star-stones above.

    Siyla noticed something even more interesting ahead of them. A pillar of blue light in the distance.

    The driver noticed SiylaˇŻs amazement, ˇ°ThatˇŻs an energy pool. You couldnˇŻt see it from the outside because of the illusion spells. Every zone has one that corresponds to their main attribute. This one is a pure energy pool and the land around it is in high demand!ˇ±

    ˇ°WhyˇŻs that?ˇ±

    ˇ°Hehe, youˇŻll see soon.ˇ±

    The carriage encountered yet another wall though this one was only half a metre thick and only four metres tall. In comparison to the colossal walls from before, these felt like more of a formality than anything.

    A pair of guards walked up to the carriage, and the driver pulled out a letter, handing it to them. The guards read through it and signalled to the men at the door who let the carriage through.

    As soon as they passed through, the concentration of the surrounding natural energy skyrocketed, reaching around five times the concentration of the outside world. Fel felt his insides roil, forcing him into a state of deep meditation.

    Siyla leapt up in worry but the driver extended an arm to stop her, ˇ°DonˇŻt worry, this is a good thing. He had some remnants of energy within him. This place only acted as a catalyst. ItˇŻs not enough to allow him to break through, but itˇŻs certainly a boon.ˇ±

    The carriage continued on and Siyla noticed that the scenery around her changed. Unlike the packed town before, there were now grand mansions scattered about the place. Although they were spread out, Siyla saw that they followed a pattern, though she had no idea what it was.

    ˇ°Why would fewer people be in this area? WouldnˇŻt it be better if more people were in the place with a higher concentration of energy?ˇ±

    ˇ°YouˇŻd think so wouldnˇŻt you. But you see, you have to share the energy. The energy outside is merely the remains of what comes from here.ˇ±

    ˇ°Who lives here to deserve such treatment?ˇ±

    ˇ°True Mages and their direct disciplines.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, that makes sense.ˇ± Though the system was unfair, to Siyla who grew up with the teachings of her mother, it was perfectly acceptable.

    ˇ°So thereˇŻs a lot more apprentice Mages than True Mages?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yep, there are around 1,300 apprentices and 132 True Mages. So the ratio is more or less 10 to 1.ˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs a significant difference. How do they advance to Level 1 here?ˇ±

    ˇ°Well, most Academies use this system so I guess itˇŻs okay to let you know. We inject a large amount of energy concentrate into the body. While we have a few special inheritances, only core members can access them.ˇ±

    ˇ°You would have to have at least an 85% concentrate to do that. I heard that stuff can buy cities.ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh, thereˇŻs no way we could use that for everyone. We use aˇ­ special blend, though it comes with its side effects. But itˇŻs not like we have much of a choice. We canˇŻt entrust our secret inheritances to just anyone and it doesnˇŻt help that many inheritances were lost after the great war.ˇ±

    ˇ°Who are you anyway? YouˇŻve been silent for the entire trip but are now very talkative, not mentioning how knowledgeable you are. I doubt youˇŻre an ordinary driver.ˇ±

    ˇ°DonˇŻt worry, your curiosity will be sated soon. Look, our destination is just ahead!ˇ±

    They parked by a large, circular building that wrapped around the energy pool. The energy pool was rather large with a radius of around 25 metres, so the building, that wrapped around it, was nearly 200 metres long.

    It was fashioned in a renaissance aesthetic, complete with gargoyles, statues and fountains. However, as Siyla looked past the windows, she couldnˇŻt notice any activity. For all intents and purposes, the building was empty.

    ˇ°This is the administrative building of the neutral zone. ItˇŻs run by an artificial soul to eliminate corruption and to streamline the system.ˇ±

    ˇ°So, why are we here?ˇ±

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs a wing for foreign Mage recruitment. Usually only mortals or low levelled apprentices come, there are few loose Mages, so there are special processes we have to go through when a loose Mage joins. Mages are valuable you see.ˇ±

    Siyla nodded.

    The driver parked the carriage before the building and hopped off. He was middle-aged with short ruffled hair and a neat beard. Walking around to the door, he swung it open wide, ˇ°If you will Madame.ˇ±

    ˇ°What about my companion?ˇ±

    Smiling, the driver walked around to the other door and opened it before reaching out to FelˇŻs forehead and tapping it. A pulse of energy rippled across his body, releasing the last vestiges of energy, allowing it to flood out and refine his body. The sudden burst of energy almost brought FelˇŻs level to mid Level 1.

    ˇ°Not bad, he just needs to culminate another bout of energy to break through.ˇ±

    FelˇŻs eyes fluttered open. He looked around, disoriented. ˇ°What happened?ˇ±

    ˇ°Check your body.ˇ±

    Fel closed his eyes and cycled his internal energy. The energy flowed more smoothly than before. When Fel walked out and tried out an exercise routine, he found that his body was tougher and more powerful.

    ˇ°How?ˇ±

    ˇ°There were a few remnants of energy in your body. Encountering a place with high energy concentration loosened them up.ˇ±

    Fel was about to question the driver''s talkativeness but was interrupted, ˇ°Now, now, we have to do what we came here for right?ˇ±

    The duo were hustled over to the entrance, ˇ°I canˇŻt go in, but you only have to walk straight ahead. The soul will help you with the rest.ˇ±

    He then bid the duo adieu and strolled over to the carriage.

    The embossed doors opened by themselves, inviting them inside. Fel turned to Siyla.

    ˇ°Let''s go.ˇ±

    They strode through the doors intoˇ­ a medium-sized waiting room. Fighting his disappointment, Fel continued his venture to the reception desk. Though no-one was there, Fel saw a silver bell lying to the side.

    He tapped the bell, causing it to ring. A pleasant voice appeared out of nowhere, ˇ°Hello, how may I help you?ˇ±

    Fel and Siyla were stumped. They had no idea why they were there.

    ˇ°Uhh, weˇŻre the new Mages I guess?ˇ±

    ˇ°Fel Evenstar and Siyla Coldwing correct?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes.ˇ±

    ˇ°Very well, the Academy master would like to meet you.ˇ±

    ˇ°Eh?ˇ± Siyla elbowed him in the side, ˇ°Oh right, sure!ˇ±

    ˇ°I detect that you are confused. Do not worry. True Mages are well received anywhere they go.ˇ±

    ˇ°Thank you, so where do we go?ˇ±

    A blue wisp sparked into being behind the desk. The voice spoke again, ˇ°Follow this sprite. Master is in the east wing of the building.ˇ±

    The wisp flew over the desk and drifted over to a door to the right of the waiting room. The door opened, allowing for the wisp to continue on its way. It floated upstairs, downstairs, took a few right turns, and a few left ones. Before long, the duo were completely disoriented.

    ˇ°Why is the way so convoluted?ˇ±

    The pleasant voice echoed out again, ˇ°Apologies. This building is constructed to optimise the flow of natural energy. Is part of the reason why we have this sprite here to lead you.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, if it''s for that, then thereˇŻs no worry.ˇ±

    ˇ°Thank you for your input. Your destination is to your right. I hope you have enjoyed your trip. Please leave a review and rating on your way out.ˇ±

    The wisp dissipated, leaving them to their own devices.

    Siyla shrugged and took the lead, grasping the large door handle and opening it wide, revealing a large, neat office. A royal red carpet, complete with detailed golden decorations, donned the floor while ceiling height bookcases lined the floors. Further in was a long, mahogany table, and behind that, was a middle-aged man with short ruffled hair and a neat beard.

 Tour

    Fel stared at theˇ­ driver while Siyla stood rooted on the spot, frightened out of her wits. If the man before her was the Academy Master, he would be at least Level 2. People at that level demanded absolute respect, something she obviously didnˇŻt show on previous occasions.

    A heavy aura bore on the duo, forcing their thoughts into disarray and preventing them from thinking straight. The aura brought out a primal fear within them. Even the lowliest peasant would know the owner of this aura was a powerful person.

    To deal with the stress, Fel formed an exemplary military salute. A remnant from his years serving the Front and the only way he knew to respect his superiors.

    ˇ°It is an honour to meet you sir.ˇ±

    Siyla also dragged herself back into reality, falling into a deep curtsey while curling her wings in.

    ˇ°All respects to Master Mage.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ohh, you guys recovered quicker than expected. Few Mages bother to cultivate willpower nowadays, such a pity.ˇ±

    The duo remained in their positions. One out of fear of the threatening aura while the other out of habitual respect to their superiors.

    Amusement flashed through the manˇŻs eyes, ˇ°Fel, you have a rather, militaristic, greeting.ˇ±

    Beads of sweat trickled down FelˇŻs neck, ˇ°S-Master Mage, I have indeed served my time in the military.ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs pretty impressive that you managed to become a Mage then. Where did you serve?ˇ±

    ˇ°I come from a reclusive clan, so I wouldnˇŻt be so keen on revealing its location. We prefer to remain unknown.ˇ±

    ˇ°Yet you have, would I could only assume to be, an organised military?ˇ±

    The gears in FelˇŻs head spun faster and faster, ˇ°We may not be a large clan, but we value discipline first and foremost. Even if we are small, we believe we shouldnˇŻt laze about!ˇ±

    Smiling, the man let Fel go, ˇ°Well, you havenˇŻt lied per se. But your origins donˇŻt matter too much as long as you donˇŻt mean harm to my Academy.ˇ± He then turned to Siyla, ˇ°What about you?ˇ±

    ˇ°Master Mage, I hail from the dryad village in the Monochrome Forest.ˇ±

    The man''s brows rose in surprise, ˇ°What business would the monochrome dryads have with me?ˇ±

    ˇ°My companion has strong ties with the dryads. IˇŻm tasked to protect him.ˇ±

    ˇ°So I suppose that you wouldnˇŻt want to be separated?ˇ±

    ˇ°That would be in my best interests.ˇ±

    The man dispersed his threatening aura, ˇ°Ok. Also, you guys can stop calling me Master Mage, itˇŻs too formal. Call me Jarvis.ˇ±

    Fel and Siyla glanced at each other. The man was laid back despite being an esteemed Master Mage.

    Jarvis took out two sheets of paper and two fountain pens, ˇ°These are contracts. Read through them if you wish, it contains a list of your expected duties and a statement that if you sign this, you confirm that you have no intentions to harm the Academy.ˇ±

    Fel and Siyla took the contracts and trudged through the dense fine print.

    ˇ°Of course, if you break the contract, there will be consequences, depending on how harsh your breach was. This is an Astral Scale contract after all.ˇ±

    Hearing this, Siyla inspected the contract all over again. She noticed that the yellowish papyrus had a faint, silver sheen to it and that in the corner of the page was a small silver scale. Seeing that Fel was confused, she sent him a mental message to fill him in on some basic knowledge.

    After reading through the contract a few times, they found that the contract had three main points.

    Firstly, the signer must defend the Academy when it faces danger.

    Secondly, the signer must complete three Level 1 assignments per year, otherwise, they would be on grounds for expulsion.

    And thirdly, the signer must report their progress to the Academy every month.

    There were few restrictions. Jarvis told Fel and Siyla that the assignments werenˇŻt very challenging and that the Academy was overall a rather neutral faction so they were rarely at war.

    Fel frowned, ˇ°What is the purpose of this Academy?ˇ±

    A warm smile bloomed across JarvisˇŻ face. He was rarely asked such questions and took joy in answering them.

    ˇ°You see, with the rampant popularity of darkness magic, other forms of magic are being shoved into the corner, especially those with rarer sources of energy. Our Academy, in particular, seeks to conserve and develop elemental magic to prevent it from falling being darkness magic. The field of magic should remain wide and diverse.ˇ±

    ˇ°How do you cover the expenditures for this research?ˇ±

    The smile grew larger, ˇ°We gather most of our resources from the valley itself and sell off the excess. We have cash products as well. Our seven element pills are incredibly popular in the outside world.ˇ±

    ˇ°And the main military force are the Academies students?ˇ±

    ˇ°YouˇŻd be correct on that one. This is a harsh world. We all need to protect ourselves and there are never enough resources. While we may not be militaristic, we''d never shy away from a fight! We even have a specialised course for combat Mages that IˇŻm sure youˇŻd find interesting.ˇ±

    ˇ°Can we have a look around the academy?ˇ±

    Jarvis rose from his seat, ˇ°Why not?ˇ±

    He proudly strode to the door and swung them open, only to find himself face to face with a young woman.

    She wore simple, pale blue robes and a low hanging hood. Below the hood, Fel saw a pair of shiny glasses and strands of electric blue hair. Fel swore that it was glowing, though it was hard to tell from the few strands that were visible.

    Jarvis froze before regaining his composure, ˇ°Imira, nice to see you! I was just about to lead these Mages for a tour around the Academy.ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm sure you are. But youˇŻve disappeared for a few months and your work has piled up, besides, IˇŻm sure that you donˇŻt need to recruit Mages personally.ˇ±

    JarvisˇŻ shoulderˇŻs sagged, ˇ°ItˇŻs not like it canˇŻt wait a few more hours right?ˇ±

    ˇ°There are four matters that require your immediate attention and 86 you need to address before the end of the day. Not mentioning the 749 matters that can only wait for another week.ˇ±

    ˇ°Hahaha.ˇ±

    ˇ°Did I forget to mention the thousand or so things that you need to solve by the end of the month? If Mages werenˇŻt too bothered with time, youˇŻd be in far more trouble.ˇ±

    ˇ°In my defence, IˇŻve brought in two exceptional recruits!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, and an exceptional amount of trouble to me. Now, back to your desk and get everything done. IˇŻll give the recruits a tour.ˇ±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Imira shoved Jarvis back into the room before beckoning Fel and Siyla forward. Walking down the hallway, Imira gave the duo an apology, ˇ°Sorry for Master. HeˇŻs a free soul and hates formalities. When he finds someone he likes, he transforms intoˇ­ what you saw before.ˇ±

    ˇ°No problem. I found it easy to talk to him. If he were stiff and overbearing, I couldnˇŻt have done the same.ˇ±

    ˇ°If he were stiff and overbearing, youˇŻd be talking to an ambassador instead.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, before I forget, hereˇŻs a map of the Academy. You might want to look at it later.ˇ±

    Imira walked through a doorway into a stone room with a full-body mirror to the side. She led the duo onto a smooth, grey platform with strange formations carved on it, ˇ°Soul, transport us to the Lightning Zone.ˇ±

    A familiar grey mist leaked out from beneath the platform, wrapping around the trio. The mist grew thicker and thicker, so thick that their every breath took in volumes of the stuff, allowing for it to flow through their bodies.

    Suddenly, the mass of mist imploded and their vision went black. In the next moment, they regained their vision, finding themselves in another grey room. They stumbled a little as they tried to walk off the identical grey platform, but quickly overcame their disorientation and cleared their swimming vision.

    Imira patted down her ruffled robe, ˇ°You might want to check yourselves in the mirror, weˇŻre still perfecting this.ˇ±

    Sure enough, their clothes were all over the place and their hair looked windswept. They fixed up their appearances and combed their hair down with a few appliances provided by Imira.

    A few minutes later, they exited the room into a metal hallway. As they walked through it, small tendrils of electricity reached out to them, only to be swatted away by Imira.

    ˇ°You might want to form a barrier, it gets rather annoying here.ˇ± She then turned to Fel, ˇ°Although I doubt itˇŻd bother you.ˇ±

    She was only half right. Fel discovered that the situation wasnˇŻt too hot for him. He couldnˇŻt absorb the lightning energy, only manipulate it to a certain degree. The best he could do was to prevent it from invading his body. It seemed that the energy conversion was only one way.

    Seeing the layer of lightning energy accumulating around his person, Imira shot Fel a questioning look.

    Fel could only give a flimsy excuse while desperately waving his hands, ˇ°ItˇŻs a special technique I practice.ˇ±

    Though still bearing her suspicions, Imira let it go, there was no use to pry.

    They made their way through the winding corridors. There still wasn''t a single soul in sight. In fact, for the rest of the tour, they never spotted anyone in the administrative buildings.

    Siyla lightened up the mood by asking a question, ˇ°Why canˇŻt they just insulate the place?ˇ±

    ˇ°Well, itˇŻs like this so that the lightning energy from the energy pool isnˇŻt hindered. So, for maximum efficiency I guess.ˇ±

    Imira was about to continue, but they had arrived at the front doors. She paused and took out a few pairs of earplugs, ˇ°Put these in, youˇŻll need them.ˇ±

    As soon as she opened the wide double doors, an earth-shaking explosion roared out, the vibrations shaking up the duo. It was a full-on storm beyond the doors, complete with dark, looming clouds, flashes of waist thick lightning and hurricane-like winds.

    Imira tried to yell over the sounds of the thunder before giving up, sending a mental message instead, ˇ°As you can see, it took quite an extreme environment to create a stable lightning zone.ˇ±

    She pointed to one of the metal pagodas scattered about the place, ˇ°We use specialised buildings to concentrate the lightning to specific points. If we didnˇŻt have them the lightning would just fly everywhere, though because of this, everyone prefers to stay indoors.ˇ±

    As she was describing the uses of the various features of the place, a stone grey carriage pulled up in front. When Fel looked closer, he discovered that it was, in fact, akin to concrete.

    ˇ°I assumed that youˇŻd prefer an insulated place, although we have a few moreˇ­ shiny carriages if youˇŻre interested.ˇ±

    She received rapid shaking heads in response.

    While Fel walked up to the carriage, he admired the creature that pulled it. It looked similar to a deer, only twice as large, with long, thick, lightning yellow fur that waved in the wind. Its horns were as long as swords, with horns that grew out jaggedly, like the bolts of lightning. It was a magnificent beast. Fel was thoroughly impressed.

    Imira shut the door behind them, the thick insulation quelling the incessant thundering outside.

    Everyone sighed out in relief.

    ˇ°Now let us get on with our journey.ˇ±

    She pointed out the various facilities as they rolled around the inner zone. There were laboratories, workshops, libraries, testing fields, even an arena; pretty much everything a Mage needed. According to Imira, there were other facilities such as training halls in the outer zone. This was because True Mages rarely need to practice such basic techniques.

    Fel suddenly felt the urge to look out the window.

    Time moved on and they found themselves back in the grey, stone room.

    Imira turned to the duo, ˇ°So, how did you like it?ˇ±

    Fel answered first, ˇ°I think itˇŻs pretty good, I donˇŻt think IˇŻll lack anything. Although, the lack of people about the place is kind of, disappointing.ˇ±

    ˇ°About that, when it comes to the True MageˇŻs, most of them prefer to shut themselves in anyway, so itˇŻs a common sight. The outer zone is far busier, though the quieter environment helps with that.ˇ±

    She then turned to Siyla, ˇ°What about you?ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻsˇ­ interesting. I donˇŻt like the storm, but itˇŻs Fel whoˇŻs going to stay here, so itˇŻs his problem.ˇ±

    A little giggle floated out from Imira, ˇ°Well then, letˇŻs go to the metal zone.ˇ±

    They walked onto the platform and allowed the grey mist to carry them away.

    Patting themselves down, they exited the identical grey room into yet another metal hall.

    It was a peaceful journey to the front doors. There were no weird tendrils of electricity. But at the doors, Imira paused and asked Fel to conjure a barrier.

    Sharp, painful winds howled through the door as she opened it. They discovered that they were in an expansive cavern with the ceiling being a hundred metres tall. Fel sent a telepathic message to Imira as the gale would have torn the words from his mouth.

    ˇ°Why are all these places so extreme?ˇ±

    ˇ°We tried to create miniature energy pools in every building, but we discovered that it is, in fact, really difficult to restrict such a massive amount of energy.ˇ±

    ˇ°So you just let it run free?ˇ±

    ˇ°We optimise its movement, but other than that, pretty much.ˇ±

    ˇ°I guess that works too.ˇ± Muttered Fel under his breath.

    Imira acted like she heard nothing, ˇ°But some other zones, like the nature zone, arenˇŻt life-endangering, so itˇŻs not all that bad.ˇ±

    This time, the carriage before was made of solid metal with a hulking being pulling it along. It looked like a cross between a lizard and beast that was armoured with thick sheets of shiny armour. Unlike the elegant deer, this beast was like an unstoppable tank.

    Unlike the pagodas in the lightning zone, the buildings in the metal zone rose in in tall spirals. The metal winds spiralled up them and converged at an odd looking room at the top.

    Siyla gave the structure a disapproving stare, ˇ°CanˇŻt they nibble on some metal?ˇ±

    Imira burst out in laughter, ˇ°Not all metal Mages can do that. Most of them can only absorb pure Metallic energy and metal wind just happens to be rather efficient. Liquid Metallic energy is better, but itˇŻs super expensive.ˇ±

    ˇ°ˇ­ Wimps.ˇ±

    ˇ°The people here arenˇŻt wimps so much as maniacs, look at that guy over there!ˇ±

    Atop one of the spiral buildings sat a bare-chested muscular man. He spun the metal winds into long needles that he plunged into his body, literally injecting Metallic energy into his body. Thick globules of blood leaked out of the punctured flesh, only to be sliced away by the metal winds.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs Bas, one of the more, extreme, Mages. He believes that the true path of a Metal Mage is to temper the body. I guess itˇŻs been working pretty well as heˇŻs broken through to peak Level 1 at a rather young age.ˇ±

    ˇ°Not badˇ­ I guess.ˇ± Internally, she was nodding in approval.

    They continued on and found that, apart from the metal winds and spiral buildings, the facilities were almost identical to the lightning zone. Though Imira said there were mines dug into the walls of the cavern. The metal zone supplied large amounts of well, metal, to the fire zone who fashioned them into a myriad of products, including the lightning rods for the lightning zone.

    While all the zones were of the extremes, they complemented and supported each other. The only reason that the Seven Elements Valley could exist was because of these constructive interactions.

    Awhile later, they teleported back to the neutral zone and walked to into an empty office. Imira sat behind the desk while Fel and Siyla pulled up a chair each.

    Imira took out two contracts and fountain pens, ˇ°You can stay a little longer and tour every zone, perhaps even go into more detail, or, you can sign now.ˇ±

    ˇ°If you want to decline, we can talk to the Association and find another Academy for you, but the process will take a week or two.ˇ±

    Fel and Siyla discussed the issue for a bit before coming to a conclusion. They had perused through the Academy list on their way here and found that there were no other reputable Academies that had specialised courses for both Lightning and Metal Mages.

    Looking at a map of the Academy that Imira had previously provided, they noticed that the lightning and metal zones were next door to each other. According to Imira, the teleporters were expensive to use. So if they wanted to move between zones, they would use carriages instead making this proximity even more important.

    They nodded towards each other and picked up the pens.

    Imira smiled, ˇ°I see youˇŻve decided to join us. Press the nibs against your finger and sign the contract in blood. A little scary I know, but a necessary procedure.ˇ±

 Tutors

    Fel groggily rose, clutching his head, trying to cope with a blistering hangover. Through his blurry eyes, he saw a well-dressed maid clearing up a chaotic mess. Crystal cups littered the floor along with all manner of miscellaneous items and about a dozen inert bodies that reeked of alcohol. The fact that the maid could so calmly clean up the place was a testament to her training and dedication.

    ˇ°The fuck happened here?ˇ±

    A muscular man with ruffled hair flopped over, ˇ°Yo Fel, youˇŻre up? Wild night eh?ˇ±

    Rubbing his temples, Fel was catapulted back up the river of time.

    ---

    It was a few hours after Fel had settled into his new home; a pagoda south to the lightning pool, when he had heard a knocking at his door. He had answered the call and opened it up, finding himself face to face with a bustling group of Mages. Most of them wore fashionable, lightning yellow robes, while others wore long, plain ones. Two of them, a muscular man and a tall woman wore more casual clothes instead.

    The muscular man slapped FelˇŻs shoulder, ˇ°Hey new guy! IˇŻm Verres, nice to meet you.ˇ±

    Before Fel could reply, Verres pressed on, ˇ°We thought, yˇŻknow, that you might want a little celebratory greeting, so here we are!ˇ±

    A smile stretched across FelˇŻs face, ˇ°Why didnˇŻt you say so earlier! Come in!ˇ±

    Fel was never one to reject a good party.

    Verres looked back to the group, ˇ°We got the go-ahead, bring in the drinks and snacks!ˇ±

    Fel stepped out of the way, allowing the flood of people through. Most of them had elvish features while others were far stranger, possessing entirely black eyes, bird heads and even goat heads. Other than their humanoid bodies, they were a diverse bunch.

    As Fel was occupied with his thoughts, the gang had already set up camp in the living room, whipping out a crate of crystal bottles and light snacks out of nowhere. Though the building looked oriental from the outside, it looked western within, with large sofas, coffee tables and cabinets, lit up only by faint tendrils of lightning that drifted through the air.

    Verris poked his head from around the corner, ˇ°Hey, you coming?ˇ±

    Fel gave a loose smile and walked over, ˇ°Sure sure.ˇ±

    After Fel made himself comfortable, Verris continued to chat, ˇ°Sorry that only ten of us came, the other eight are old buggers who prefer holing up in their hovels!ˇ±

    He then procured a crystal glass out of nowhere and filled it up with a semi-transparent yellow liquid, ˇ°Diluted lightning essence, doesnˇŻt do much for your cultivation but sure as hell tastes good.ˇ±

    Before he could even taste it, a young girl who looked to be around 15, with short, curly gold hair with streaks of sapphire in it, sidled up to Fel while holding a massive bottle full of an amber liquid. She swiftly confiscated FelˇŻs cup and shoved the bottle into FelˇŻs hands, ˇ°DonˇŻt drink such weak shit, heard youˇŻre from the countryside, so let me tell you, that stuffˇŻs like juice to us Mages, have this instead.ˇ±

    Verris looked worried, ˇ°Hey, Milli, not everyone can drink Baelfire yˇŻknow?ˇ±

    Unfortunately, VerrisˇŻ warning came a little late. Fel had already taken a sip. A fiery heat spread out within him. Initially, it was soothing and warm, but it grew stronger and stronger, before running rampant like a herd of wild horses, tearing his body apart. Fel cycled the energy through his body to quell the wild energy, eventually calming it down. He let out a long breath, letting out a small puff of impurities. Though he felt as if a thug had beaten him with a baseball bat, it was definitely effective.

    With a gleeful expression, Milli patted his back while grinning at Verris, ˇ°See, he was fine.ˇ± She then turned back to the pale Fel, ˇ°WasnˇŻt too bad eh?ˇ±

    Under the pitiful gazes of the gang, Fel forced out a smile, ˇ°It was great! Though IˇŻve had a long day so a softer drink would suit my palate better.ˇ±

    As Milli turned to rummage for more drinks, a goat-headed man stretched out an arm and stopped her, ˇ°Lightning essence is special in its own way, he doesnˇŻt have beast-blood, well, at least I donˇŻt think he has.ˇ±

    ˇ°I''m pretty sure I don''t.ˇ±

    ˇ°See?ˇ±

    ˇ°Fine then Maevin, IˇŻll settle with shockberry wine.ˇ±

    A woman with black and white hair, separated by a gold streak down the middle, chipped in, ˇ°Why are you trying so hard to get him drunk?ˇ±

    ˇ°Rana, you donˇŻt get it. You only get to know a guy when heˇŻs stoned on the floor.ˇ±

    A sliver of sweat dripped down RanaˇŻs face, ˇ°You really are something.ˇ±

    ˇ°Before you complain, look at the corner over there.ˇ±

    In a corner of the room was a full-blown party. In fact, it was a miracle they went unnoticed so far.

    Verris strode over to the trio and picked them up by the collars, ˇ°This is supposed to be for the new guy, get over here.ˇ±

    He plopped them down on a nearby sofa where they immediately began drinking and chatting again. A platinum haired woman, who was sipping lightning essence in the corner, rubbed her forehead, ˇ°God you guys are hopeless.ˇ±

    Fel sunk into his seat, ˇ°Are you all like this all the time?ˇ±

    Milli tried to sling her arm around FelˇŻs neck, but found that he was too tall and so instead dragged him down to her height, ˇ°WeˇŻre usually holed up in our pagodaˇŻs researching new spells and cultivating. We only get to let loose at times like these.ˇ±

    ˇ°Sounds depressing.ˇ±

    ˇ°Not really, you lose track of time when you get in the zone. Speaking of which, I forgot to ask. WhatˇŻs your name?ˇ±

    ˇ°Fel, Fel Evenstar.

    ˇ°Nice, what level? How old?ˇ±

    ˇ°Err, Initial Level 1, 19 years old, though thatˇŻll be 20 in a week.ˇ±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Milli clapped his back again and yelled out to Rana, ˇ°Hey, youˇŻre no longer the youngest in the group!ˇ±

    Rana rolled her eyes, ˇ°Sure, at least youˇŻll stop taunting me about that.ˇ±

    ˇ°Wait, Milli, how old are you?ˇ±

    Milli puffed her chest out, ˇ°25 in dark-elf yearsˇ±

    ˇ°Though 38 in standard years.ˇ± whispered a hooded figure from the corner

    ˇ°Hey, Mysvain.ˇ±

    ˇ°Yea?ˇ±

    ˇ°You want me to pummel your emo face to the other side of the underground?ˇ±

    ˇ°Ok, IˇŻll shut up now.ˇ±

    ˇ°Good.ˇ±

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs this about standard and dark-elf years?ˇ±

    Maevin, as helpful as ever, filled Fel in, ˇ°Every race has a different life-span. Out of all the sentient races, dark-elves have the shortest one, 200 years at Level 1, so everyone uses it as a basis to compare their ages. Standard years are well, normal years.ˇ±

    ˇ°So itˇŻs like how humans compare dog years to human years,ˇ± thought Fel

    Another round of laughter roared out from the trio on the sofa causing Maevin to roll his eyes, ˇ°LetˇŻs ignore them for now, youˇŻll get to know them later.ˇ±

    ˇ°Is lightning your only affinity?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes.ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh, thatˇŻs rare.ˇ±

    ˇ°Why would that be?ˇ± Fel panicked, his whole plan was to not stick out too much and sneak back up to the surface.

    ˇ°Lightning is rather rare in the underground and few creatures down here are pure lightning beings. For the most part, only those with mutations get a significant affinity with it.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, thatˇŻs interesting.ˇ± Fel thought it would be best to take the honest route. He couldn''t hide it forever, ˇ°Well, to be honest, I didnˇŻt want to stick out too much, so I only listed lightning as my attribute. IˇŻm also an energy Mage.ˇ±

    ˇ°Type A or type B?ˇ±

    ˇ°???ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, sorry, are your affinities similar in strength or is one weaker than the other?ˇ±

    ˇ°I would say theyˇŻre about equal.ˇ±

    ˇ°Mmm, why did you choose list lightning in the first place?ˇ±

    ˇ°It was cooler.ˇ±

    Verris, who had been sidelined up to this point, roared out in laughter, ˇ°HeˇŻs got his priorities straight. IˇŻll give him that!ˇ±

    ˇ°Now, enough serious talk, weˇŻre here to party!ˇ± He said while pouring out another round of drinks, this time with a strange, purple hue.

    ˇ°Nis, stop hiding and join us!ˇ±

    From the shadows emerged a woman with solid black sclera, who took a glass and sat down to the side, ˇ°Sarcayn wine? How did you get this?ˇ±

    ˇ°From a friend of a friend of a friend, donˇŻt mind it too much, drink up!ˇ±

    It was from that point onward did the situation slide downhill. Maevin, who was surprisingly susceptible to alcohol, went down first while Nis, who was very silent until this point, suddenly changed her dark eyes and hair to gold, with tendrils of lightning hovering above her skin. Though, in the next moment, she followed Maevin to the realm of dreams, the gold receding from her person. Not long after, all hell broke loose, with the aloof Mages performing all sorts of idiotic acts, though fortunately, they retained a shred of decency.

    After the last person had fallen, the room was an absolute mess, with all manner of things strewn about the place. The maid, who arrived early the next morning, almost had a heart attack from the scene. She thought a burglar had made his way in. Though it was impossible this deep in the Academy.

    Now back to the present.

    ˇ°Are all parties like this here?ˇ±

    ˇ°Nah, those water zone Mages are all about ˇ®etiquetteˇŻ and prefer tea parties over proper liquor.ˇ±

    ˇ°What about the metal zone?ˇ±

    ˇ°Them? TheyˇŻre even worse than us. Because of their strong bodies, they drink Baelfire like water. God knows what they drink to get purposely drunk. Bunch of muscleheads.ˇ±

    ˇ°Says the musclehead.ˇ±

    ˇ°What?ˇ±

    ˇ°Nothing. So what do we do here?ˇ±

    ˇ°I forgot about your situation. Right. Normally, by the time you become a Mage, you have already mastered a specialisation, so youˇŻd take on your own research. But in your caseˇ­ how much do you know?ˇ±

    ˇ°Combat techniques and cultivation.ˇ±

    Verris smashed his palm onto his forehead, ˇ°God, thatˇŻs like, the bare minimum. How did you even become a Mage?ˇ±

    ˇ°No idea.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ok then, since itˇŻll be embarrassing for you to study with the apprentices-ˇ±

    ˇ°-actually I donˇŻt mind that-ˇ±

    ˇ°-but we do, weˇŻll have to give to some private tutoring.ˇ±

    He then whipped out a roll of parchment from his robe.

    ˇ°Jarvis said you mightˇŻve needed this, I thought that you wouldn''t need it, though I realise why now. This is the list of all the available courses, tick off as many as you like, though unless youˇŻre a masochist, I suggest you only choose three at a maximum.ˇ±

    Fel took the list and unfurled it, finding a massive wall of text. There were around fifty courses on it, each with a quick description to go with it. Sucking in a breath of air, Fel got to work, sifting through the rows of dense ink.

    After about an hour or two of reading, Fel chose his courses. Artificing, physical combat and energy conversion.

    At this point, most of the crew had woken up, all of them clutching their heads in pain. They swore that theyˇŻd never party again, yet theyˇŻd leap at the next opportunity to go to another at the drop of a hat.

    Verris walked up to three figures in the pile and pulled them out, dragging them up to Fel. Fel recognised the figures to my Mysvain, Rana and one of the trio, a woman with large black horns on her forehead.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre familiar with Mysvain and Rana. Mysvain is an artificing expert and Rana is an energy conversion expert. Nis is too, but her area of research isˇ­ special.ˇ±

    ˇ°This one on the other hand,ˇ± said Verris as he pointed to the horned woman, ˇ°Is Lisby, sheˇŻs the expert at physical combat.ˇ± He then whispered in FelˇŻs ear, ˇ°Try not to die.ˇ±

    ˇ°Wait, what?ˇ±

    Verris acted as if he hadnˇŻt said anything and turned towards the group, ˇ°Alright guys, time to get moving. Keyla, donˇŻt you have a seminar to conduct? And Nis, you still havenˇŻt prepared for your mission next week havenˇŻt you?ˇ±

    Fel looked at Verris, impressed. In Fel''s eyes, Verris was keeping everyone together.

    ˇ°Mysvain, youˇŻre free right?ˇ±

    ˇ°Hmm? No.ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you have to do then?ˇ±

    ˇ°I still have to complete my chaos sphereˇŻs.ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh, those things, canˇŻt you let Fel watch and explain a few things as you go?ˇ±

    Mysvain turned to Fel, ˇ°Why do you want to learn artificing?ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs simple. If you encounter someone with a weapon, and youˇŻre weaponless yourself, how will you win? Even if you have spells, what if that weapon can cast powerful spells with the flick of a button? You wouldnˇŻt stand a chance?ˇ±

    ˇ°You got a point, though my reason was to create cute automaton maids. Well, doesnˇŻt matter too much, weapons of mass destruction are fun too. Follow me.ˇ±

 Power Armour 2.0

    Walking to the door, Mysvain popped in his ear-plugs, gesturing to Fel to do the same before swinging the door wide.

    They walked through the apocalyptic landscape towards a neglected corner of the inner zone. Most of the area had well-maintained flora, coming in the form of lightning trees, grass and flowers, that ate up the lightning bolts like a tasty treat, but the corner they headed towards was different. Unlike the well-tended to shrubbery before, the corner was more of a wilderness than anything, with dense bushes and scraggly trees. The only way through it was an overgrown dirt path.

    ˇ°Hey, Mysvain, you sure weˇŻre going the right way?ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh yeah, donˇŻt worry, I just like being alone.ˇ±

    ˇ°There doesnˇŻt seem to be many people around though?ˇ±

    ˇ°There are, theyˇŻre just good at staying out of sight.ˇ± Mysvain pointed over to a garden in the distance, ˇ°Look over there.ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs, a garden?ˇ±

    ˇ°No, no, by the tree,ˇ± he said while pointed to the only tree in the area.

    Squinting his eyes, Fel spotted a crouched figure, only barely visible, watering the plants with a yellowish liquid, ˇ°I see, but why would you care if theyˇŻre people around if you donˇŻt notice them?ˇ±

    A quick glare from Mysvain shut him up.

    After breaking through the neglected bush, they were invited by the sight of a clean pagoda, ˇ°So, howˇŻs this place so clean compared to the rest of the place?ˇ±

    "I''ve got a few automatons to clean the place up, I have at least some self-esteem yˇŻknow?"

    ˇ°CanˇŻt you get them to clean up,ˇ± Fel pointed to the jungle behind him, ˇ°That?ˇ±

    Walking up to the door, Mysvain turned back to Fel, ˇ°HereˇŻs a question. Would you approach a place surrounded by something that looks like that?ˇ±

    ˇ°No.ˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs the point.ˇ±

    He then turned back to the door, unlocked it and walked through it with Fel following closely behind. Looking around, Fel saw it was neat and tidy, without a thing out of place. Except for an untitled book that lay on a table. Walking by the table, Fel stealthily flipped through it.

    It took only a few seconds for him to slowly close the book and leave it be. There were many kinds of people in the world. Damn weeb.

    Thankfully, Mysvain didnˇŻt notice the understanding look that Fel wore on his face and continued to unsuspectingly make his way towards the basement. The basement, unlike the floors above, was a mess. Runed metal plates were heaped up in towering piles while half-finished prototypes lined the walls. There were a few workbenches scattered about the place, but only the one in the centre had anything more than bits and bobs on it.

    Mysvain went to a pile of runed plates and adjusted it a little, forming something that resembled a seat, ˇ°Sit here and just watch me work or something. IˇŻll just explain how everything works as I go.ˇ±

    He then walked to the workbench and picked up a half-finished spherical object, ˇ°This is the project IˇŻve been working on for the past year or two, the chaos sphere. IˇŻm not too talented when it comes to combat, but with the death invasion approaching, I thought I''d better be prepared.ˇ±

    ˇ°Wait, death invasion?ˇ±

    ˇ°You donˇŻt even know about that? Well, you donˇŻt need to know it for now. LetˇŻs continue.ˇ±

    ˇ°I feel that I should-ˇ±

    ˇ°-So, this thing is supposed to hover about and shoot lightning at selected targets. Of course, I should be able to control it manually too.ˇ±

    Fel stood up and leaned over MysvainˇŻs shoulder, getting a better look at the sphere. It was rather large, almost double the size of a watermelon. It lacked any outer plating, allowing for Fel to see its innards, that comprised hundreds of thin, runed plates with a few black marbles set into it and an empty core in the centre. Strangely, there didnˇŻt seem to be any moving parts.

    ˇ°How does this work?ˇ±

    Mysvain, noticing Fel leaning over the shoulder, quickly shuffled away, ˇ°The runes manipulate the natural energy to do various things. The plates are bunched up in groups, packets if you will, each with their own purpose.ˇ±

    He pointed to a block of plates to the back of the sphere, ˇ°That oneˇŻs in charge of the hovering part, it still needs a little work and can hardly even stay in the air.ˇ±

    ˇ°How does it hover anyway?ˇ±

    ˇ°The basic idea is to hook onto the energy plane with the four nodes you can see in the corners,ˇ± he said pointing to the black marbles. Mysvain glanced at Fel and found that Fel had a lost look on his face, ˇ°Did you learn nothing about Mages?ˇ±

    ˇ°Pretty much.ˇ±

    Facepalming, Mysvain gave a brief explanation, ˇ°This is rather important, but IˇŻll only say it once. Natural energy comes from the energy plane, a plane that overlaps our world. The higher level you get, the closer you can get to the energy plane and the more power you can draw from it. We level 1 Mages can only see a few nodes in the air, but IˇŻve heard Level 2 Mages can see streams of energy in the air. Although Mages can only the energy they have an affinity with.ˇ±

    Fel glanced around the room, seeing twinkling blue points, similar to what he saw in the temple. As expected, he could only see pure energy.

    ˇ°So how do these nodes work?ˇ±

    ˇ°Dunno, found them in a ruin somewhere and they just, happened to work that way. I put them under a microscope and found thousands of runes packed in them, how on earth their creator did that, I have no idea.ˇ±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ˇ°Is it linked to the destruction of the surface?ˇ±

    "Wow, you actually know something! Yeah, itˇŻs related to the great war. Almost all ancient knowledge was lost and the surface was sealed off. To make things worse, thereˇŻs a death invasion from the second underground layer every century, destroying dozens of Academies. ItˇŻs only recently that the Association was created in order to fight back."

    ˇ°Wait, you said something about the death invasion.ˇ±

    ˇ°Hah, IˇŻll fill you in with the details later, for now, just watch me work.ˇ±

    Hours passed and Fel grew bored with MysvainˇŻs eternal tinkering with the runed plated. It was comparable to the coding of the Front, except far more tedious as you had to physically extract and replace the plates.

    ˇ°Mysvain, how rare are spacial rings?ˇ±

    ˇ°The small ones, with a 10m<sup>3</sup> storage or so, arenˇŻt too rare among Mages, or even rich nobles, but the better ones are far more expensive. I heard the number 1 Academy only has a 100m<sup>3</sup> ring.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, I see. IˇŻve never seen anyone wear a spacial ring, so I thought they were rare.ˇ± Fel conveniently forgot about how large his own ring was.

    Mysvain fished out a fine chain necklace from his neck and showed the ring hanging on it, ˇ°We donˇŻt wear them on our fingers, too easily stolen.ˇ± He then glanced at FelˇŻs ring, ˇ°Though you donˇŻt seem to have that worry.ˇ±

    Fel let out a long sigh, ˇ°Guess I made it too obvious.ˇ±

    Getting back to his work, Mysvain wore his necklace again, ˇ°YouˇŻre terrible with subtly asking things, I know you know little about the world, but itˇŻll get you killed someday.ˇ±

    ˇ°Fine, IˇŻll read up on a few things when I get time.ˇ±

    ˇ°Good.ˇ±

    ˇ°Um, before you get going again, can I use these parts?ˇ±

    ˇ°Eh? Sure, theyˇŻre useless to me.ˇ± He rummaged under the table before extracting a worn out book, ˇ°Read through this while you mess around, itˇŻs a brief tutorial on how runes work. Just take whatever workbench you need.ˇ±

    Looking at the dauntingly large book, Fel thanked Mysvain while getting Aerl to archive the information. Only a book spirit would want to read that thing.

    Losing interest, Mysvain got back to his work while Fel swept off a workbench and dragged a random pile of runed plates over. He then took out his suit of power armour and lay it on the table. Mysvain, engrossed in his work, filtered out the loud clanging and scraping of metal.

    With the assistance of Aerl, Fel deciphered the functions of the various plates and sorted them out into a few different piles. Most of them were reinforcement plates that grew harder when they were fed energy, while the others could absorb, emit or even convert energy into different attributes.

    Days passed, and the duo were at work as hard as ever, only pausing to grab a bite to eat. During this time, Fel learned quite a lot from both the book and Mysvain, crafting several rune plates, that, while simple, were rather useful. Though Mysvain eventually noticed the power armour, Fel used the tried and tested story of his strange, isolated village to wiggle his way out of explaining anything.

    During this time, their projects had made much progress. But, while MysvainˇŻs project looked almost identical to its previous state, FelˇŻs power armour had changed vastly in appearance.

    He switched out the elegant, silvery plates with large sheets of grey plates. Fel had faced the smooth side out, to prevent the runes from being damaged, and had tried his best to shape the plates using force energy, though unfortunately, his talent with sculpting was pitiful at best. He would need Siyla to give it some finishing touches.

    The outside appearance wasnˇŻt all that had changed. The internals had changed even more. He had switched out all his shock-absorbers and power enhancers with a complicated slew of energy absorbing, emitting and converting runes. The shock-absorbers absorbed the impact and converted it to pure energy while the power enhancers took that energy, or energy from other sources, and converted it into force energy.

    However, Fel still wasnˇŻt satisfied. Power armour wasnˇŻt powerful because of brute force alone. It had many assistance systems that helped the pilot along. Balance assists, aim assists and even HUDˇŻs, the list went on and on. But, without the A.I, and like, a computer and screen, he would be without it.

    Though he wanted to ask Mysvain about how his mini-plates could help with it, he found that Mysvain was completely immersed in his work, not even paying the slightest attention to FelˇŻs pleas. Choosing to take the next best option, Fel decided to perfect his reactor and power distribution system.

    Time passed slowly and Fel grew bored yet again. Fine tuning the system was boring while Mysvain refused to communicate. He flipped through a few of his books and entertained himself for a bit before the dense words glazed his eyes over. Fel was a curious person who loved learning things, but everything had a limit.

    Eventually, while chatting with Aerl, he came up with an amazing idea. He had an A.I right by him, Aerl! Though if Aerl could hear that, and knew what an A.I was, he''d be seriously offended.

    ˇ°Hey, Aerl, would you like to control this armour and fight cool battles?ˇ±

    It was AerlˇŻs dream to be a cool warrior, even if he was just a suit of armour, ˇ°Sure! But how?ˇ±

    Fel fished out a power stone, the very same one that teleported him to the underground, and jammed it into the reactor. He had read that spirits could live in crystals and other valuable objects, from highly reliable sources of course, and didnˇŻt see why it wouldnˇŻt be the same in this case.

    ˇ°Hop in.ˇ±

    ˇ°What?ˇ±

    ˇ°Go into the crystal.ˇ±

    ˇ°Why would I be able to do that?ˇ±

    ˇ°Why would you be able to hang out in my brain?ˇ±

    After some thought, Aerl found he may as well give it a shot. He flipped through his books and, after an hour or two, came up with a plan.

    ˇ°Do you have another crystal or something?ˇ±

    Fel searched through his storage ring, finding a few crystals, though none of them were up to AerlˇŻs standards. He continued to rummage around the ring, taking out whatever was small and looked valuable, eventually coming across an old, stone pendant. The one he found on the six-armed skeletonˇŻs person.

    ˇ°Aerl, would this work?ˇ±

    ˇ°...ˇ±

    ˇ°Hey, Aerl?ˇ±

    ˇ°Huh? Right! This will work great! WhereˇŻd you find this?ˇ±

    ˇ°The golden one err, gave it to me. What about it?ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs a spirit weapon!ˇ±

    ˇ°A spirit weapon?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yea! A weapon made for spirits!ˇ±

    Fel sighed, what did he expect?

    ˇ°What can you do with it?ˇ±

    ˇ°To be honest, IˇŻm not powerful enough to do a lot with it, but IˇŻll be able to launch a few psychic attacks with it. But thatˇŻs not the best part. If I can stay there, IˇŻll be able to temper myself and grow more powerful!ˇ±

    "Can you manipulate energy with it?"

    "It would be hard to do so without it."

    Fel wiped his brow at how close he came to an embarrassing failure, ˇ°Sounds good, so, what do you need me to do with this?ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh right, you need to insert it into the forehead of your helmet.ˇ±

    ˇ°You realise that I canˇŻt do anything that delicate right? I can hardly sculpt a pauldron!" Fel paused, "IˇŻll need to get Siyla for this.ˇ±

    Looking at the ˇ®pauldronsˇŻ that Fel sculpted, Aerl could only agree with that statement, yet, before he could even reply, an arrogant voice rung out through the house.

    ˇ°Fel Evenstar, I, Invicta Silverwheel, challenge you to a duel!ˇ±

 Rearming

    Hair scraggly and eyes worn, Fel dragged himself upstairs, along with Mysvain who wanted to give the intruder a piece of his mind. Fel ran his fingers through his hair and took a cloth to wipe the grease and dust off his hands.

    Now at the door, Fel reached out to the handle, twisted then pulled, revealing the pretty, yet exceptionally punchable, face of Invicta, along with the irked face of Siyla; she looked like she was about to run the sod through.

    ˇ°So youˇŻre Fel Evenstar!ˇ± He swept his white hair aside with practised hands, ˇ°A pig such as you thinks himself worthy of the hand of Siyla?ˇ±

    Behind him, Siyla looked infuriated, spreading her wings wide and congealing a large, dark war-hammer, her eyes burning with a profound hatred. Even though there was no wind, her hair and robes waved in the air.

    Invicta pivoted back towards Siyla, ignoring the wrathful glares directed at him, ˇ°Look at him. Look at those oily hands, his unshaven face and scraggly hair. Look at the large bags under his red eyes. Do you not find him to be crude and barbaric?ˇ±

    Siyla snapped, bringing down her hammer on InvictaˇŻs delicate skull. The sound of broken glass rung out and a rainbow screen appeared out of nowhere, deflecting the blow.

    ˇ°You coward! Can you only hide behind your pathetic wards?ˇ±

    Invicta pushed his palm to his forehead and arched his spine back, looking distraught, ˇ°One''s riches are a part of their strength, indicative even. It pains me that you find me to be a coward.ˇ±

    Congealing another hammer, Siyla swept them across InvictaˇŻs body, only to be deflected by another set of rainbow screens, ˇ°And so you earned that money yourself? Stop being pretentious! FelˇŻs only initial Level 1 and youˇŻre middle Level 1, yet you still want to duel him and use it as an example, if you arenˇŻt cowardly then what are you?ˇ±

    Looking aggrieved, Invicta turned to Fel, ˇ°WeˇŻre about the same age, yet youˇŻre only at the initial stage? How pathetic. I dare you to accept my challenge.ˇ± He took a sidelong glance at Siyla, ˇ°Or else, well, itˇŻs up to you.ˇ±

    A fist appeared out of thin air, smashing into InvictaˇŻs abdomen, sending him flying, ˇ°Get out.ˇ±

    Collapsed on the ground, Invicta sneered at Siyla, ˇ°If you get in the way, you know whatˇŻll happen to him.ˇ±

    Hissing, Siyla stood down. But although she stopped attacking him, her hatred of him only increased.

    Fel looked at the scene in disbelief, he has never seen Siyla so agitated and enraged. He thought she only had a cool beauty mode. However, he pushed those thoughts to the side, while Ares-Siyla was a surprise, there were more concerning topics at hand. It seemed that Invicta was threatening Siyla somehow and that he would force Fel to duel him whether by hook or crook.

    He wasnˇŻt ready to fight yet. His modified power armour hadnˇŻt been tested yet and he wasnˇŻt proficient at swordsmanship and magic, at least, not to the point that he could fight a middle Level 1.

    "Why should I fight you?"

    "I guess you''re fine with everyone knowing of your cowardice." He reached out to Siyla, only to be slapped away, "And I''m sure you care about her."

    Fel grit his teeth, while he believed Siyla could protect herself, Invicta''s confidence in the matter worried him.

    "When is it?"

    A cruel grin spread across InvictaˇŻs face, ˇ°Next week.ˇ±

    Fel sent a telepathic message to Mysvain, ˇ°Buy me some time, the more the better. If I can get at least half a month, IˇŻll be able to accrue enough power to fight him.ˇ±

    ˇ°How? Are you close to a breakthrough? Even then, your knowledge in magic combat is so pathetic itˇŻs almost embarrassing.ˇ±

    ˇ°No, not that. I have another way, something youˇŻll be interested in.ˇ±

    Curiosity perked, Mysvain thought it wouldn''t hurt to give it a shot. Besides, Invicta annoyed him to no end.

    He turned to Invicta, ˇ°You see, FelˇŻs assisting me with a project at the moment and weˇŻre at a critical juncture. HeˇŻs proven to be invaluable and without him, IˇŻll be unable to proceed.ˇ±

    Invicta washed the nasty grin from his face, replacing it with a dramatic facade, ˇ°CanˇŻt that wait?ˇ±

    ˇ°I wish, but if he were to take even a day off, IˇŻll lose my momentum, I doubt even youˇŻre willing to disrupt the research of a fellow Mage?ˇ±

    InvictaˇŻs eyes narrowed, that was indeed an unwritten rule amongst Mages, ˇ°How long will it take?ˇ±

    ˇ°A month or so.ˇ±

    Fel sent another telepathic message to Mysvain, ˇ°I also need Siyla to stay, without her, I wonˇŻt be able to do much.ˇ±

    Mysvain, hearing that, continued on, ˇ°Also, Siyla''s critical to this part of the project. She was supposed to have come here tomorrow, but I guess you were nice enough to get her here earlier.ˇ±

    Invicta raised an eyebrow, ˇ°How would you even know of Siyla? She only arrived a few days ago.ˇ±

    ˇ°This fella over here told me. IˇŻm sure you know few can rival the metal manipulation ability of a steelwing angel?ˇ±

    ˇ°CanˇŻt you invite another metal Mage then?ˇ±

    ˇ°What right do you have to prevent a Mage from doing her job? SheˇŻs being paid good money to do this.ˇ±

    Siyla, getting the message, walked over to the pagoda. Though Invicta wanted to protest, he couldnˇŻt do anything. While he pushed his weight around, he could only go so far. Noticing a few recording devices hidden around the place, he stepped down. He had a poor reputation and he couldnˇŻt afford to damage it any further.

    Mysvain smiled at Invicta and waved goodbye, ˇ°WeˇŻll be seeing you in a month.ˇ±

    Flicking his cuffs, Invicta adjusted his white, renaissance-esque clothing before striding off through the forest. Not forgetting to leave one, final remark, ˇ°Yes, IˇŻm sure itˇŻll be a time to remember.ˇ±

    After Invicta strode off out of sight, Fel invited Siyla in while walking to the living room, ˇ°WhatˇŻs his problem?ˇ±

    An ugly expression simmered on SiylaˇŻs face, ˇ°He wants me to be his concubine or something. Thinks he can get anything he wants just because heˇŻs the first son of a high-ranked Mage family, he threatened to use his influence to screw you over if I disobeyed. The most I could do was to play for time.ˇ±

    ˇ°Disgusting.ˇ± Fel sat down at the table, ˇ°Anyway, letˇŻs put that behind us for now, we have things to do.ˇ±

    He pulled out a large sheet of paper from his ring and spread it across the table before taking out a pen, ˇ°Mysvain, you have a ruler or something?ˇ±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Mysvain jogged downstairs, appearing back at the table in half a minute with an array of rulers, straight, curved, even circular, ˇ°Here you go.ˇ±

    ˇ°Also Mysvain, can you help? We canˇŻt do this alone. I know you''re busy, but I''ll make your time worth it.ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻll do it for free if your idea is interesting enough, IˇŻve no love for Invicta.ˇ±

    Fel took the rulers and began drawing out blueprints with a deft hand. He planned to build firearms, but he couldnˇŻt use the ones he was familiar with, those were specialised for monster slaying and, though powerful, had a low fire-rate and werenˇŻt suitable for hitting small targets. He also didnˇŻt have enough time to design a complicated firearm, so he had to settle for something simpler. What he lacked in quality, he could make up in quantity and variety.

    Two days later, with the help of Mysvain and Siyla, Fel pieced together a few different blueprints. They''ve never seen a gun, but with their smart brains, they got the general concept. An assault rifle, sub-machine gun, shotgun, sniper-rifle an explosive grenade and, courtesy of Mysvain, an energy disrupting grenade.

    Though the sniper rifle looked out of place in the lineup, Fel had a few plans with it. Even better, he could place the equipment in his spacial ring so it wouldnˇŻt get in the way.

    The foreign designs inspired Mysvain, who couldnˇŻt wait to get back to his project to apply his new ideas, but restrained himself and continued to assist Fel. Fel on the other hand, found MysvainˇŻs help invaluable. Only he had the experience in handling these foreign materials and techniques.

    In the next week, they used the materials in the basement to construct the prototypes. Siyla was particularly busy at this stage. Mysvain said you couldnˇŻt engrave runes on conjured Metal as it would be contaminated with will traces, whatever those were, so Siyla had to mould every plate into the delicate gun parts.

    Even then, Mysvain sprayed the plates with a clear liquid to rid it of the ''will traces.'' She also had to make the power armour presentable, as it had the aesthetic wonder of cow excrement, by the end of it she collapsed in the corner, her work finished, for now at least.

    Taking the prototypes to a range under MysvainˇŻs pagoda that he created to test his chaos sphere. Fel took an assault rifle and aimed it at an artificial barrier in the distance that Mysvain calibrated to mimic a middle Level 1 MageˇŻs barrier.

    With his familiar weapon in hand, he fired out a stream of hot metal at the barrier causing it to slightly distort, though it didnˇŻt collapse. Even several magazines couldnˇŻt penetrate the barrier.

    The story was similar with the sub-machine gun and shotgun. Only the sniper-rifle got closer to destroying the barrier. The grenades almost popped the barrier, though it would be a feat to blow up a grenade in a Mage''s face.

    Fel pondered for a while before remembering what was missing. He cycled lightning energy around the barrel of the assault rifle and poured pure energy into the bullet. After sustaining this state for around a second, he pulled the trigger and released the bullet that soared forth at almost 2500 m/s, significantly distorting the barrier.

    ˇ°How on earth did you do that?ˇ±

    ˇ°Technology from my homeland, it uses magnetic fields and current to project a force. The principles are simple, IˇŻll teach you once weˇŻre done, but, as you can see, the shock wave disperses the lightning field and I canˇŻt charge the bullet fast enough.ˇ±

    Mysvain didn''t know of electricity, but he was eager to learn. Though that was something to do later, now, he had to come up with a solution, ˇ°The materials we used were rather ordinary, by Mage standards anyway. Though itˇŻs enough to throw an initial Level 1 Mage to the deep end, itˇŻs not good enough for a middle level 1 Mage.

    "There are several materials that can enhance certain aspects, we can clad the barrel with a lightning-attracting metal and lace the bullets with depleted energy crystals. Engraving runes on everything will help too.ˇ±

    ˇ°We should also get another type ofˇ­ ammunition that specialises in taking down barriers. Using brute force isnˇŻt good enough. IˇŻll guess weˇŻll have to bite the bullet and order in better materials.ˇ±

    An expert was an expert. He knew what to get with only a glance.

    ˇ°What materials should we get?ˇ±

    ˇ°Thunder-fire powder should be able to propel a projectile to a suitable speed. We''ll have to make the... bullet, out of something both tough and can penetrate barriers. An alloy of lesser metal essence with traces of mithril and orichalcum will work. For energy disruption, we can use a middling grade of MageˇŻs bane and lace a few rounds with it.ˇ±

    "But itˇŻll cost a crystal coin for every half-dozen, can you afford it? IˇŻm not paying for it. Also, the sniper rifle ammo will cost even more. WeˇŻre just talking about assault rifle ammunition here"

    Looking at his hefty balance of near 10,000 crystal coins, Fel wasnˇŻt bothered about the cost, ˇ°No problem, what about the rest?ˇ±

    ˇ°If we use an alloy of standard metal essence with 2% orichalcum, we should be ok. Same story with the bullets though. Using the assault rifle as a reference point, it should cost about 500 crystal coins if we use this alloy. We can clad the barrel with enhanced thunder-steel, but thatˇŻll cost around 50 crystal coins on its own.ˇ±

    ˇ°That isnˇŻt a problem. How much would a sword cost to make? Just curious.ˇ±

    "A Rank 1 sword with no unique traits costs around 600 crystal coins, but if you want something special, it could cost anything upwards from 1200 crystal coins, the truly impressive ones can be in the tens of thousands. While our prices seem cheap in comparison, they''re only for the prototypes, or at least, the most basic combat-ready version."

    ˇ°Got it. How about the grenades?ˇ±

    ˇ°TheyˇŻll cost about 20 crystal coins a pop, but the energy disrupting ones will cost 80. Also, get these orders through fast enough, weˇŻll have to pay a little extra, 50 coins should do.ˇ±

    The trio knocked their heads together to think how much to get. In the end, they ordered enough materials for each of the guns and a healthy amount of ammunition. Altogether, it cost 2,250 crystal coins, more or less a quarter of FelˇŻs wealth.

    It took half a week for the materials. They took the time to rest and improve the designs, working as crazily as ever. It wasnˇŻt easy to bridge the gap between an initial and middle Level 1 Mage with weapons alone.

    When the materials arrived, the trio tore into them. Although they were familiar with the procedures by this point, Siyla found it difficult to manipulate the new materials. It took the rest of the week for Siyla to construct the new prototypes.

    Once she finished, she collapsed on the spot. Fel picked her up and moved her to a bedroom. The days were too draining on her, out of everyone, she was the one working the most. While she worked, he and Mysvain could only work on Mysvain''s project.

    Moving to the range, Fel picked up the assault rifle and aimed at the barrier. He cycled lightning energy around the barrel and injected pure energy into the bullet. This time, the process was far smoother than before, being completed in a fraction of a second.

    He fired the bullet that rammed into the barrier, significantly distorting it. In quick succession, he fired another round of bullets. It didnˇŻt even take the entire magazine to destroy the barrier.

    He had only used basic ammunition in that magazine, yet the results were worlds apart from the last prototype. Taking up the rest of the guns, he found similar results, with the sniper rifle and grenades being able to take it down in a single shot.

    "Hold the celebrations, the barrier is the bare-bones defence of a Mage."

    Mysvain walked up to the barrier-projector and fiddled with it for a bit, "This simulates a basic defence spell of a middle Level 1 Mage."

    He walked away, the projector conjuring a bright screen behind him.

    Nodding his head, Fel raised his assault rifle yet again, firing a few rounds into the screen. Fine fissures spread across the screen, but the red-hot bullets couldnˇŻt bring it down.

    ˇ°Try using the disrupting bullets.ˇ±

    Fel exchanged his magazine with a marked one and fired at the screen again. Small puffs of blue dust burst out as the bullets struck the shield, but the results were similar to before.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt stop, keep going.ˇ±

    Hearing Mysvain, Fel continued on, firing bullet after bullet on the screen, each shot smashing new cracks into its surface. The last bullet flew from the muzzle and hurtled into the bright barrier and blasted it apart.

    Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he put down the gun. Though he was overcome with joy, he thought about his examiner back in the capital, it didnˇŻt take nearly as much effort to take down his barrier. He had been going easy on Fel.

    ˇ°You ok?ˇ±

    ˇ°Mm? Ah, yes, IˇŻm great. I was just thinking that middle Level 1 Mages sure are something.ˇ±

    Mysvain rubbed his nose, ˇ°Why thank you.ˇ±

    A silvery figure walked up to the duo, ˇ°So, howˇŻs it going?ˇ±

    Before Fel could give her the thumbs up, Mysvain interrupted him, ˇ°There are several optimizations to be made, and we can get a more suitable material to use, but, other than that, weˇŻre good to go.ˇ±

    He then turned to Fel, ˇ°Now, letˇŻs test out the grenades.ˇ±

 The Power of Nobility

    Standing at the far end of a dusty arena, Invicta sneered at the approaching mech, ˇ°So you didnˇŻt chicken out? Good for you.ˇ±

    The mech didnˇŻt reply, moving over to its designated position.

    ˇ°Too scared to speak eh? Well, you hole up in your tin bucket, youˇŻll need it.ˇ± He looked up at the stands, watching a line of robed apprentices and Mages filing in.

    ˇ°You see, IˇŻve invited as many people as I could so that everyone knows of how weak and pathetic you are.ˇ±

    Among the spectators were the lightning Mages and Siyla, who went right up to the front seats and glowered at Invicta. When Invicta sent a flowery smile to Siyla, she ran her finger across her throat. She looked as if she was about to take Fel''s spot and fight Invicta herself.

    ˇ°Heh, at least someone has confidence in you.ˇ±

    Glancing at the stands, Fel nodded at Siyla, giving her the thumbs up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the lightning and metal Mages at a stand-off, though most of the metal Mages hung back. It seemed that Invicta wasnˇŻt popular, even in his own circles.

    A referee walked into the arena, wearing a metal visor around his eyes. If you looked closely, you could see faint runes and lines flickering across its surface with blue circles that tracked the two contestants.

    ˇ°I ask that the contestants remain quiet before the match begins.ˇ±

    Ignoring the request, Invicta called out to the crowd, ˇ°IˇŻm glad that everyone has arrived to this glorious occasion. Today is the day I, Invicta of house Silverwheel will demonstrate the difference between a noble Mage family and the common folk.ˇ±

    Irked at this blatant disrespect, the referee extended his arm and emitted a terrifying aura, bearing down on Invicta and forcing him to the ground, ˇ°If you continue to ignore my rulings, I''ll disqualify you.ˇ±

    Not knowing his limits, Invicta tried to rise again, but the pressure doubled, smashing him to the ground.

    ˇ°Last warning.ˇ±

    ˇ°YouˇŻre just at peak Level 1, thatˇŻs nothing in my family. Wait till I catch up,ˇ± muttered Invicta internally, though he tapped his hand on the ground, signalling defeat. Soon after, the referee dispersed the pressure.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs better. Now thatˇŻs over with, letˇŻs get to business.ˇ±

    ˇ°The rules are simple. Whoever canˇŻt fight further, or surrenders loses. You can use artifacts and weapons as you desire and you canˇŻt attack the loser once theyˇŻve lost. Of course, you canˇŻt charge any spells or techniques before the match begins. Also, donˇŻt worry, IˇŻll shine a red light if I deem a party to be defeated.ˇ±

    ˇ°The stake is a single, irrefutable demand of the loser. Are both parties in agreement?ˇ±

    Both parties nodded.

    ˇ°Very well, the match begins in 10 seconds.ˇ±

    Fel clenched his fists. He wasnˇŻt talking, not because he felt fear, but because of his current financial situation. While his prototypes performed excellently, his power armour was less impressive, as it only used the basic materials found in the workshop. With Mysvain''s assistant, he substantively improved it, however, it came with a great cost. As of now, he had a grand total of 200 crystal coins, a far cry from his initial balance of 10,000 coins. He felt that if he spoke now, he would burst out in tears. But a soldier, especially in the face of battle and danger, must stay calm.

    ˇ°The match begins in 3...ˇ±

    ˇ°2...ˇ±

    ˇ°1...ˇ±

    ˇ°Fight!ˇ±

    Before the refereeˇŻs voice had even faded, Fel gathered his energy and blasted a bolt of lightning at Invicta.

    Yet, the sudden offensive didnˇŻt faze Invicta, who remained calm and congealed a metallic wheel that drew in the lightning and discharged it into the ground.

    Not missing a beat, Fel took out his sniper rifle and charged a shot. Yet unlike his previous tests, he allowed for the lightning to run rampant and spill out to his surroundings.

    Invicta took out a crystalline vial and poured out the contents to the ground, ˇ°Are you stupid? You think using a tool to concentrate your lightning will do anything? Dream on!ˇ±

    He waved his hands, levitating the pool of mercurial liquid into a large, silvery wheel that looked rather similar to a chakram, ˇ°Come, give it your best shot. IˇŻll defend with the most basic spell of my family!ˇ±

    Seeing that Invicta would let him do his thing, Fel continued to charge his shot for ten whole seconds, kicking up a storm of energy due to the intense concentration of lightning and pure energy within the rifle.

    Without warning, he fired the shot at Invicta, lightning still clinging to the bullet.

    With an arrogant smirk, Invicta revolved his wheel, planning to use the same strategy as before. However, though the wheel drew away from the lightning, the bullet remained unaffected and continued to charge towards him.

    The sound of glass breaking rung out and a cloud of dust erupted into the air. Not waiting to see the end result, Fel stowed away his steaming sniper rifle and took out his assault rifle, firing a few rounds into the cloud, while tossing in a grenade for good measure, before making a swift retreat. He didnˇŻt believe such a simple trick would defeat Invicta, especially because of those wards he had.

    Surely enough, the dense dust made way to a rainbow mist with Invicta safely nestled within, a sour look smeared across his face.

    ˇ°That was a Level 1 ward I used there, do you know how expensive those are?ˇ±

    ˇ°Nope, but I guess youˇŻll need another.ˇ±

    ˇ°Huh?ˇ±

    BOOM!

    The sound of breaking glass rung out yet again, this time in a chorus, conjuring a dense cloud of rainbow mist though the grenade''s blast and shrapnel stripped it away. Seeing that there was no red light, Fel saw nothing wrong with unleashing a stream of lead onto Invicta.

    Invicta, simmering with fury, congealed his mercurial metal into a dozen silver chakrams and threw them at the bullets, slicing them all to shreds. He retrieved the chakrams and cycled them around his person like a school of fish.

    He twisted the school of tiny chakrams into a tornado, slicing apart the incoming projectiles. Though each bullet smashed apart half a chakram each, the tornado bought enough time for Invicta to congeal flying wheels under his feet.

    Fel was just about to toss out another grenade before Invicta suddenly disappeared.

    AerlˇŻs voice cried out in FelˇŻs mind, ˇ°Dodge!ˇ±

    Leaping out of the way, Fel avoided being steamrolled by a mass of silver chakrams. Looking back, Fel saw a long line of white fire that lead to Invicta, who had a wheel of silver chakrams cycling behind him.

    The flying wheels turned to dust, causing Invicta to drop to the ground, his face a pale white and eyes narrowed with contempt. It was obvious that the move took a great toll on him.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ˇ°You fucking bug. Just sit still and let me crush you!ˇ±

    He dashed towards Fel, fusing his chakrams into one and sending it flying at Fel. Seeing that the fight was drawing close, Fel exchanged his rifle with an SMG and dodged the person-sized chakram.

    ˇ°Behind you! Get on the ground!ˇ±

    Fel dropped to the ground, avoiding the chakram that had circled around like a boomerang to take another shot at him. While he jumped up, he began shooting at Invicta again, taking every opportunity to grind down his defences. InvictaˇŻs defences were far more powerful than the one on the range. He couldnˇŻt let up the offense for even a second.

    Invicta stopped the chakram before his palm and flicked his wrist, dividing the circle into several parts, ˇ°Stop dodging and die already!ˇ± He screamed while sending the chakrams flying towards Fel. They orbited Fel and closed in, cutting off every route of escape.

    Just before the chakrams descended onto him, they went awry and swerved off course, allowing for Fel to retreat and leave a few ˇ®giftsˇŻ for Invicta, not forgetting to fire off a few shots.

    Clutching his head, Invicta had lost control of his chakrams and only had his barrier protecting him. The perpetrator was in the stone on FelˇŻs forehead that was glowing with a subtle lavender light.

    Invicta quickly regained control, conjuring a minimal defence before the grenades exploded, stripping it all away and triggering several wards.

    Hair flying in the rising metal-wind and his face and clothes blackened, Invicta abandoned his arrogant demeanour, ˇ°THE FUCK WAS THAT? IˇŻLL KILL YOU!ˇ±

    This was supposed to be a one-sided fight. It shouldnˇŻt have posed any problem. The fact that this peasant was giving him so much trouble was a humiliation.

    He heard gleeful cheering from the stands. His rage muddled his senses, but he could tell they werenˇŻt in his favour. The middle finger Fel was brandishing in his direction worsened his word even further.

    ˇ°Very well, IˇŻll grant your request, IˇŻLL FUCK YOU RIGHT UP!ˇ±

    He took another vial of liquid that looked like pure silver and poured it on the ground, ˇ°CONTROL WHEEL, CONGEAL!ˇ±

    The liquid rose and formed a circle around his hips that thickened out to form something akin to a platform. Blue lights flickered above its surface, merging into a slew of dense runes, buttons and meters. Though Fel tried to interrupt the sequence by tossing out several grenades, the spell had kicked up a dense storm of metallic energy that blew up the projectiles mid-air.

    InvictaˇŻs fingers flew across the ˇ®keyboard,ˇŻ metal in the air dancing to his beat. Suddenly, he slammed his hand down on the wheel and spun it, sending blue runes spiralling into the air.

    All the metallic energy in the surroundings charged at FelˇŻs position who tossed out a handful of energy disruption grenades, escaping through the smoke.

    Invicta slammed his palm on the wheel again, sending it spinning in the opposite direction while he inputted commands at a lightning pace.

    The dispersed metallic energy clumped together and catapulted toward Fel. Invicta wasnˇŻt about to let up the initiative any time soon.

    ˇ°Aerl, do something!ˇ±

    ˇ°I canˇŻt, I barely have enough energy left to control the energy within the power armour, let alone launch a mental attack!ˇ±

    Without another option, Fel flooded his reinforcement formations with energy, put away his SMG, and crossed his arms, hoping to ride out the storm. In the next moment, the train of metal energy crashed into him, dragging him along and smashing him into the arenaˇŻs wall.

    Though he had charged his defence formations to a maximum, InvictaˇŻs attack had mangled his gauntletˇŻs armouring that had taken the brunt of the damage. The spell scoured the rest of the suit with deep cracks and dents, some exposing the machinery underneath.

    Fel got up and dashed away, expecting another attack. However, it didnˇŻt come; the spell had dried up all the surrounding metallic energy from the first layer downward. Invicta had miscalculated.

    Sensing an opportunity, Fel took out his assault rifle and charged toward Invicta, firing rounds at him as he went, though they were blocked by Invicta''s barrier.

    Invicta, on the other hand, stood still and spread his arms wide.

    ˇ°Initialize phase 2.ˇ±

    The control wheel split in two and the mercurial liquid covered his body, forming a thin, defensive layer that fused with his barrier. Now, didnˇŻt care about eloquence, he only wanted to destroy this pretentious bastard.

    A large medallion floated out from his vest and pumped out a never-ending tide of metallic energy into his armour and control wheels. The thin layer of metal grew out, forming stylish plates with blue runes flickering on its surface while metallic twisters spiralled around his split control wheels.

    On the stands, Mysvain stood up in shock, ˇ°How are there runes? There should be an insane amount of will traces on that metal! Dammit, thatˇŻs not the strength of a middle Level 1 Mage, thatˇŻs bordering on peak Level 1!ˇ±

    ˇ°This, this is why us noble Mages are far superior to you commoners. The fact you people could become a Mage in the first place is a miracle.ˇ±

    He gazed at Fel, like an immortal looking down on the dirty world below, ˇ°Your achievements are formidable, for a peasant at least. But this is where your journey ends.ˇ±

    Fel switched out his assault rifle with a shotgun and pointed it at InvictaˇŻs distorted face, speaking his first words since the beginning of the match.

    ˇ°Shut up.ˇ±

    He pulled the trigger and fired a wave of metal fragments at Invicta. Invicta didnˇŻt even try to dodge, taking it head-on. The fragments shredded apart the armour. However, Fel was met with an inner layer of armour underneath.

    Before Fel could continue, Invicta absorbed the metallic energy from the medallion and instantly regenerated the damage. Without a care in the world, he locked onto Fel, ˇ°Now itˇŻs my turn.ˇ±

    He rose his arm, the control wheel segment hovering along with it, and cycling the twister around it at increasing speeds. After the spiralling metallic energy had reached its peak, Invicta brought down his hand, sending down the segment like an executionerˇŻs glaive.

    Under his thick visor, Fel was smiling like a madman under the pressure of death, ˇ°Aerl, release the stored force energy.ˇ±

    ˇ°All at once?ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻve no other choice. Do it.ˇ±

    Grimacing, Aerl let loose the pent-up energy. The capacitors were almost overflowing with the stuff, being hit with a freight train of metallic energy did wonders for it, however, if he released all of it at once, the force would injure Fel. Inertia dampeners can only go so far.

    The force blasted the power armour off-course, flying clear of the descending cyclone of metallic energy. Fel dug his heel into the dirt and kicked off toward Invicta. Although the insane inertia strained his bones, and a trail of blood leaked from his lips, he ignored it with grim determination.

    Surprised that Fel dodged the attack, he swung his other segment at him and retrieved his other segment from the massive trench it left in its wake.

    Resorting to his own reserve of energy, Fel blasted force energy from his back, driving him near the ground and allowing him to avoid the incoming segment. From his low position, Fel exchanged his shotgun with an armful of grenades, all he had left, and tackled Invicta to the ground.

    He injected his arm guards with force energy and shed them from his arms, letting the stored force energy to press Invicta down. Dropping the grenades on InvictaˇŻs person, Fel took heel and legged it.

    Invicta tried to struggle out of the gauntletˇŻs grips, but even though his spells and techniques were exceptional, he neglected training his body. How could such a ˇ®nobleˇŻ Mage sweat blood and tears like the peasants below him?

    ˇ°What are you doing? What is this?ˇ±

    As Fel ran out of range, the pile of grenades erupted behind him. Half a dozen bouts of rainbow mist burst out, yet even those were instantly blasted apart. A massive cloud of dust and grit erupted out, consuming half the arena in an instant.

    Yet no red light was in sight. Instead, a golden glow emerged from the cloud. In among the billowing dust clouds, Fel could make out a floating figure emitting a harsh golden glow, whatever the symbol was, however, Fel couldnˇŻt tell.

    The golden glow expanded and drowned out the dust cloud, melting them apart. Now that Fel had a clearer look, he could make out a golden knight, made up of ancient runes, hovering above InvictaˇŻs body. It lacked a lower body and held a massive, two-handed sword by its chest. Behind it were nine golden rings, one behind the other, each larger than the last.

    The knight gazed at InvictaˇŻs devastated body before plunging its sword into his chest, injecting waves of divine energy into him, stitching together his deep wounds and replenishing his energy.

    ˇ°Whoa whoa whoa, isnˇŻt this a bit unfair? I went through all that effort for nothing?ˇ±

    Fel took a quick inventory of his equipment. No gauntlets, damaged suit, no grenades and low assault rifle and SMG ammo. He felt like he really shouldˇŻve added a handgun in the lineup, it wouldˇŻve come really useful with his current situation. But you get what you get, so Fel took out his sword, gripping it tightly in both hands. His arms couldnˇŻt withstand the force of the sniper rifle or shotgun.

    The golden knight turned to Fel and locked eyes with him. Though the knight''s aura made Fel apprehensive, he could only sense great sorrow from its eyes, it had no intention to harm him. Soon after, the knight dissolved and vanished to the winds.

    ˇ°What was that?ˇ±

    Invicta rose from the middle of the small crater, clutching his head. Although his clothes were shredded, he had no wounds on his body, looking as strong as he was at the start of the battle.

    ˇ°Youˇ­ actually madeˇ­ me use my, cough, lifesaving artifact? And howˇ­ how are you still, argh, alive? My ancestors'' projection shouldˇŻveˇ­ killed you!ˇ±

    With a final insult, InvictaˇŻs eyes rolled back into his head as he fainted. It appeared that while the projection healed his wounds and regenerated his energy, it didnˇŻt do anything for the worn mind.

    Half a minute later, the referee gave a deep nod and waved his hand, bathing the arena in a warm, red light.

    ˇ°The victor is lightning Mage Fel Evenstar!ˇ±

 Invasion

    Fel dropped to the ground, it was a close fight. If Invicta hadnˇŻt telegraphed all his attacks and wasnˇŻt so lax in his defence, Fel wouldˇŻve certainly been defeated. The difference in raw power was simply too great. He had to use his entire stock of grenades to make up for the difference in fire-power; they were supposed to last him the year.

    The referee took off his visor, exposing a penetrating set of blue eyes, ˇ°So?ˇ±

    ˇ°Erm, IˇŻll leave it up to Siyla. This was her problem in the first place, I only helped out.ˇ±

    ˇ°Very well,ˇ± He turned to Siyla on the stands, ˇ°What would you like from Invicta?ˇ±

    A gleam of appreciation flashed through SiylaˇŻs eyes, she really wanted to get even with this persistent asshole. But, what exactly she should do, that was a difficult question. While she could go as far as she wanted too, looking at InvictaˇŻs backing, it wouldnˇŻt be a good idea to go too far. She had to leave some for them.

    Extending a graceful finger, she pointed at the medallion lying on InvictaˇŻs face, ˇ°I want that.ˇ±

    An uproar consumed the stands. That medallion was a bona fide Tier 2 artifact from the ancient era, ranked #12 among the Silverwheel familiesˇŻ belongings. Siyla however, thought it was only a quasi Tier 2 artifact as Invicta suffered no backlash from using it. Unfortunately, that was the very aspect of the artifact that made it so valuable.

    A bead of sweat dropped down the refereeˇŻs forehead, this girl had a fierce appetite, ˇ°W-well, if thatˇŻs what you desire then it is done.ˇ±

    The crowd grew even rowdier. A few richly clothed youths even banded together and confronted Siyla, ˇ°Wench, take that back now. DonˇŻt reach too high.ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs only a medallion. WhatˇŻs the big deal?ˇ±

    ˇ°Only a ¨C are your eyes blind? Can you not recognise a true treasure even if itˇŻs laid bare before you?ˇ±

    ˇ°Of course I can. ItˇŻs an artifact that automatically absorbs and refines metallic energy, storing it for future use.ˇ±

    One of the young youths patted his companion''s shoulder, ˇ°LetˇŻs not talk to this country bumpkin any further, her ignorance will taint us. SheˇŻll learn in due time.ˇ±

    The companion brushed off his companionˇŻs hand, swirling a wisp of flame around his finger, ˇ°No, these commoners have become too rebellious in recent years. If we donˇŻt teach them a lesson now, then theyˇŻll get out of hand.ˇ±

    From below, the referee shook his head, ˇ°These nobles never learn do they?ˇ±

    Snapping his fingers, he conjured a blast of air, sending the stubborn youth flying.

    ˇ°The stands arenˇŻt an arena you know? If you want to fight, fill in the correct applications to the administration.ˇ±

    That seemed to shut them up. Whether it was it strength talking, or they just stuck to the rules, it was hard to tell. While the nobles seemed to be unruly on the surface, they followed the guidelines closer than anyone else. Though, seeing the dirty looks the nobles were giving her, she knew that she had to keep her guard up in the future.

    Clapping his hands, the referee called for everyone to disperse. The show was over. As everyone was filing out, he shook Invicta awake and requested that the medallion be handed over.

    With an eerie silence, Invicta undid the wards on it and tossed it over. His face was listless, eyes gazing into the void. After he surrendered his artifact, he stood up and trod off into the distance, swaying from side to side, a haunting shadow looming over him. Fel didnˇŻt know why, but he was far more fearful of Invicta in this state. In his eyes, Invicta didnˇŻt seem to be a broken person at all, instead, a man filled with grim determination with pure spite driving him onward.

    However, while InvictaˇŻs strange behaviour offset the duoˇŻs mood, it was quickly shoved to the corner of their minds, replaced instead by endless joy.Mysvain made a killing off his betting and offered to cover the costs for repairing FelˇŻs equipment. He had learnt much from redesigning it with Fel and had even implemented a few of its designs in his own work; it was the least he could do.

    When they arrived at FelˇŻs pagoda, Fel was half-expecting a sudden invasion of his lightning Mage friends, however, they never appeared. They went straight back home from the arena. Verris was serious when he said Mages were busy people.

    Sitting together with Siyla at the table, he poured a cup of tea and laid it to the side, beginning to chat about various topics, like what they did before they met up at MysvainˇŻs place and what happened during the duel. However, after a little while, Fel discovered that they didnˇŻt have much to talk about. While they were companions, they were pretty much mashed together and had little history together.

    Fel took a sip of tea, putting it down, ˇ°Siyla, why do you keep following me? ItˇŻs not like youˇŻre contractually bound to or anything.ˇ±

    Siyla froze in place.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ˇ°I mean, with your capability, you could be successful wherever you go. I''m not very powerful at all, as I''m useless my tools and donˇŻt even know what a spell is. You could do much better than-ˇ±

    SLAP

    Fel was almost fell backwards from his seat.

    As FelˇŻs vision cleared, he found Siyla to be weeping silver tears with her face blushing a metallic ivory.

    ˇ°Shut up.ˇ±

    She leapt up from her chair and stalked off to a random bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

    Fel placed a hand on his stinging cheek, digesting what had happened. Strange, he had just stated facts, yet Siyla slapped him in return. Dejectedly, he sipped the last of his tea and made his way to his room, wondering why his heart skipped a beat as he saw SiylaˇŻs distressed appearance.

    In the corner of FelˇŻs mind space, Aerl was glaring daggers at Fel. Sighing at his scientifically impossible level of denseness. Though Fel bragged that he was a social person, he definitely wasnˇŻt.

    In the midst of night, Fel heard a knocking at his door. Panicking, Fel whipped on some clothes and got to the door, opening it up, revealing a depressed Siyla. Her cheeks were plastered with powdery, dried silver tears and her large wings wrapped around her person.

    ˇ°Umm, come in."

    She made her way to a cushioned seat with short, quick steps, plopped herself down and cradled her knees. Fel on the other hand, walked over to his bed and sat opposite to Siyla.

    ˇ°Sorry,ˇ±

    ˇ°What?ˇ±

    ˇ°I said sorry ok.ˇ±

    ˇ°Um, sure.ˇ±

    Siyla looked as if she was about to slap Fel again.

    ˇ°Just donˇŻt say ever, ever again.ˇ±

    ˇ°Sure.ˇ±

    ˇ°Do you know why?ˇ±

    ˇ°Ye-ˇ± A sliver of killing intent wafted over to Fel, ˇ°No, no clue.ˇ±

    She walked up to Fel and grabbed him by his collar, pulling him close, ˇ°You really are an idiot.ˇ±

    ---

    Fel jolted awake, wrapped in soft, steel-grey feathers with a silver-haired head nestled on his shoulder. Oddly enough, they werenˇŻt under the douve, and were instead lying on top of it. When Fel tried to extricate himself from SiylaˇŻs grasp, the wings only tightened around him. He could only wait for Siyla to wake up.

    Soon after, Siyla eased her eyes open. Coming to her senses, and noticing how tightly she was hugging Fel, she quickly let him go, though this time, she didnˇŻt shunt him off the bed.

    ˇ°Morning.ˇ±

    Siyla blushed and looked away, ˇ°IˇŻll get something to eat.ˇ±

    ˇ°You can cook?ˇ±

    Ignoring this, she dashed through the door, slamming it behind her.

    Not a second later, a headache-inducingwave of, high-pitched screeching flooded FelˇŻs mind, almost incapacitating him.

    ˇ°Aerl, what the fuck?ˇ±

    ˇ°You lucky bastard, I bet you didnˇŻt even remember what happened last night.ˇ±

    ˇ°I didˇ­ vaguely. Maybe itˇŻs a little hard to remember in between your screeching?ˇ±

    ˇ°Tch, IˇŻm not gonna talk to you for a week.ˇ±

    ˇ°CˇŻmon, we just hugged for the night, whatˇŻs the big deal?ˇ±

    ˇ°Hugged? More like cuddled! And thatˇŻs further than IˇŻve ever been, and IˇŻm over a thousand years old!ˇ±

    ˇ°WerenˇŻt you sealed in a book or something for a good portion of those years?ˇ±

    ˇ°Shaddup, even without counting those years IˇŻm still around 100!ˇ±

    Ignoring AerlˇŻs cries, Fel got into something more presentable and walked to the living room, thinking of how childish Aerl was. Though as he contemplated on how he and Siyla only hugged, albeit for extended amounts of time, he gained quite the blush himself, inciting another round of screeching from Aerl.

    Sitting at the dinner table, Fel found an array of dishes presented upon it. However, when Fel looked at the ˇ®foodˇŻ he found that, though it was arranged in an appealing manner, the meal consisted of metal, shaped as steak and various vegetables.

    The perpetrator walked out of the kitchen with a jug of grey liquid.

    ˇ°Siyla, you know that I canˇŻt eat metal right? I mean, youˇŻve seen me eat organic food right?ˇ±

    ˇ°No, those are mine,ˇ± she pointed to a corner of the table with a few, very much edible, dishes on it, ˇ°Those are yours.ˇ±

    Moving positions, Fel dug into his food, finding that it was pretty decent. It was an impressive feat considering that SiylaˇŻs main diet consisted of various unknown metals. On the other side of the table, Siyla was skillfully using her cutlery to slice apart the pieces of metal and bring them to her mouth. How she did that with metal was a mystery.

    After several minutes of dining, Fel broke the silence, ˇ°So what do we do now?ˇ±

    Siyla poked at a fruit-looking piece of metal, ˇ°IˇŻll stay here, itˇŻs boring in the metal zone. Invicta and his goons are there too.ˇ±

    ˇ°There isnˇŻt much metal energy here though.ˇ±

    ˇ°No worries, IˇŻll just have to eat more physical metal then. Besides,ˇ± She took InvictaˇŻs medallion from her pocket, ˇ°This thing might come in use.ˇ±

    ˇ°Fine, but about last night-ˇ±

    Before Fel could complete his sentence, the earth trembled, throwing furniture to the floor and sending plates flying from the table. Looking out the window, Fel saw great fissures spread across the air, revealing a large barrier over the Academy.

    Soon after, the earthquake settled and a howling alarm rang out along with a cold, mechanical voice.

    ˇ°Alert, large-scale Death Wave has erupted 1km from the Academy. Non-combatants, evacuate to your nearest shelter. Combatants, assemble at the energy zone.ˇ±

 Archaios Neolaia

    Soon after the alarm, Fel heard a tinkling in his mind, somewhat resembling a ringtone.

    ˇ°SomeoneˇŻs trying to contact you, the incoming wavelengths match the white-haired referee. Want me to accept them?ˇ±

    ˇ°As long as they arenˇŻt harmful, go ahead Aerl.ˇ± Though Fel found this method of communication interesting and rather nostalgic, he didnˇŻt have the time to worry about such things for now.

    A soft, elegant voice echoed in his mind, ˇ°Bzzt¨CHello, hello? Is this Fel Evenstar?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, youˇŻve got the right person.ˇ±

    ˇ°Ah, how rude of me. IˇŻm Wyvern, the referee from before and 2nd Lieutenant of Seven Element ValleyˇŻs Combat division. Nice to meet you.ˇ±

    ˇ°Same to you. Are you calling about the Death Wave?ˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs right. ThereˇŻs an issue about your situation. You havenˇŻt been formally integrated into a Combat division, and youˇŻve also just undergone a duel and still need to recover. Therefore, I''ll excuse you from duty.ˇ±

    ˇ°Thank you very much.ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻll send you a map to your nearest shelter. I believe Siyla must be by you. SheˇŻs excused too. Make sure you get there safely, the barrier isnˇŻt in its best state right now.ˇ±

    A stream of information entered FelˇŻs mind, forming a detailed map, after which Wyvern cut the line, leaving Fel to his own devices.

    Siyla looked at Fel, ˇ°What was that?ˇ±

    ˇ°The referee contacted me, weˇŻre excused from duty and gotta get to the nearest shelter.ˇ±

    ˇ°You know where to go?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, youˇŻre ready to go?ˇ±

    Walking to the door, she turned her head to Fel, ˇ°YouˇŻre the one with the spatial ring.ˇ±

    Awkwardly rubbing his head, Fel walked over, taking out segments of plate armour, ˇ°He said we might encounter dangers on the way. May as well be prepared.ˇ±

    Fel paused for a moment.

    ˇ°Ah right, how do I put this on?ˇ±

    Sighing, Siyla grabbed the segments from him and strapped them on, ˇ°Keep your arms up, god youˇŻre useless.ˇ±

    Though they finished up quickly, compared to power armour, it took far too long to don plate armour. Even worse, without his power armourˇŻs inertia dampeners, his arms wouldnˇŻt be able to withstand the force behind his firearms. It would tear them from their sockets.

    ---

    Fel and Siyla walked past the luxurious pagodas, thick bolts of lightning descending all around them. According to the map, the entrance to the nearest shelter was the ˇ®inner shelterˇŻ next to the lightning pool. However, as FelˇŻs pagoda was at the inner zoneˇŻs southern fringes, it was quite distant from their current location.

    Overhead, the barrier trembled, a few more cracks visible on its surface. However, while tendrils of death energy made their way through, bursts of lightning swiftly dispatched them. Every so often, a flash of light soared across the sky, clashing overhead, erupting into splendorous explosions. The force they let out definitely wasn''t a good sign for the barrier.

    Fel could only imagine what the situation was like at the gate.

    ˇ°If you didnˇŻt know better, youˇŻd think it was the Armageddon. Look that crack looks large enough for someone to fit through.ˇ±

    ˇ°I swear, if you jinx us...ˇ±

    ˇ°No worries, I had great luck in the military. How else could I be promoted to an EPA pilot and team captain in 2 short years?ˇ±

    Siyla raised an eyebrow, ˇ°What are you talking about? Well, anyway, hope your luck holds up. How much longer have we to go?ˇ±

    ˇ°About 15 minutes. You sure you donˇŻt want to pick up the pace?ˇ±

    ˇ°With your jinxing, thatˇŻs a good idea.ˇ±

    ˇ°Please, shut up.ˇ±

    ---

    A thin figure crept through the nooks and crannies of the ValleyˇŻs wall. It hoisted itself onto a stable rock formation and turned to his left. In the distance, a fierce battle raged, with a horde of skeletal creatures besieging the grand walls of the Academy.

    Vast magic circles glowed on its surface, nullifying incoming spells and deathly energy as they collided. The Mages on top didnˇŻt use spells, rather, they manned small, cannon-like objects on the walls and heavy crossbows, raining hell upon their foes.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    However, while a hail of projectiles and energy blasts tore apart the enemy ranks, the endless tide of undead never let up and on both sides, robed Mages hung back, observing the scene. The situation didnˇŻt seem like it would change anytime soon.

    Looking away from the battlefield, the figure dusted himself off and continued onward. It wore a long, flowing robe, as black as a pool of ink and wholly unsuitable for rock climbing.

    The figure reached up for another handhold, only for the rock to crumble under its grip, almost causing it to fall all the way back down.

    ˇ°Fuck, why did the only affordable enchanted clothing have to be this damn robe. Why do Mages have to wear robes anyway? TheyˇŻre so unpractical, IˇŻd much rather wear a tunic.ˇ±

    Clambering onto another protruding rock, the figure sat down, pulling his hood back. It revealed a sharp, handsome face, with a set of cloudy grey eyes and spiky platinum hair, blemished only by his paper white skin that made him look gaunt, almost threatening.

    He stretched out, preparing for the next leg of the journey, ˇ°Good to be out though, the 2nd layer is just so stifling and stagnant. What else would you expect from an undead empire though?ˇ±

    Patting himself down, he went back to climbing up the mountainous cliff. Even if undead didnˇŻt get tired, every move of theirs used up death energy. Only high-ranking undead could move away from sources of death energy and even then they have to ration their supply.

    Not long after, a gloved hand appeared on top of the cliff, and following that, a long-robed figure. He looked back down the cliff, spotting a small crack in the air by its base. Looking at it again made the robed figure recall how he got through the barrier. While his undead figure was truly stick-like, the same couldnˇŻt be said about his robe.

    Clenching his fist, he looked away, instead turning to look down into the valley. At the basin was a large yellow plain, dotted with large formations of dark, magnetic rock. In its centre was a small town with a great lightning pool in the middle. A multi-storied building fully encircled the pool while around 20 pagodas, all very distant from each other, separated by thin forest and gardens, littered the surrounding area.

    Past that was a dense residential area, crammed full of pagoda-inspired buildings with long lightning rods reaching out from their roofs. Separating the two districts was a low wall, so low that one could even vault it was enough dedication. Yet the dense runes carved on it emitted a frightening aura. This was the basic town template followed by every Academic town in the valley, only the style of building varied.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs like a bloody fortress within a fortress.ˇ± He touched a badge by his heart, ˇ°Good thing I brought this ward with me.ˇ±

    Examining the town, he found that most of the apprentices and Mages had already evacuated, with only a few stragglers left behind, rushing to their closest shelter.

    ˇ°Cautious bunch.ˇ± He looked up towards the lights flashing in the sky, ˇ°But I guess that a stray spell from them would heavily injure even a Level 1 Mage.ˇ±

    ˇ°Yet, despite the risks, this is the only way for me to gain merit. Well, as long as I don''t do anything too flashy, IˇŻll remain undetected.ˇ±

    He crawled to the edge of the valley and climbed down, reaching the base and making his way to the southern part of the energy pool. At this point, Fel and Siyla had only just set forth from their home.

    - - -

    ˇ°How much longer?ˇ±

    ˇ°Just 10 more minutes to go.ˇ±

    They were walking through a more foresty section of the inner zone. This area was often used to farm high-quality lightning-attributed wood and was often tended to, so few leaves lay on the ground. The treesˇŻ branches were laden with dense leaves, flat and wide, so as to catch as much lightning energy as possible, yet casting deep shadows below.

    ˇ°Fel, incoming projectile!ˇ±

    Without hesitation, Fel leapt to the side, tackling Siyla to the ground and covering her body, just in case it was explosive.

    Not a moment later, a flash of deathly energy flew past, missing the duo and striking a tree instead. Tiny runes crept up its trunk and spread along its branches. When the tiny runes completely covered the tree, it withered up and collapsed into a pile of ash in the blink of an eye.

    Fel instantly took out his trusty shield, projecting out a large shield composed of divine energy, after which he equipped the Roland in his right hand. Although he suffered recoil every time he used it, it was his lowest tiered divine-attributed weapon.

    Seeing that the duo had turtled behind their shield, a robed figure strode out into the open.

    ˇ°Ancient artifacts, thatˇŻs rare. You only ever find glorified fireworks in these barbaric lands.ˇ±

    ˇ°Who are you?ˇ±

    The robed figure bowed and took off his hood, revealing a handsome, pale face and a set of cloudy grey eyes, ˇ°Archaios Neolaia, call me Arc for short. I hail from the 2nd underground layer.ˇ±

    ˇ°Nice to meet you, what business do you have here?ˇ±

    ˇ°Well, I just happen to need a few Mage heads of the 1st underground layer. Would you mind lending yours?ˇ±

    Arc extended his arm and splayed out his palm, from which a stream of tiny black runes erupted. They swirled around in the air, forming the hazy shape of a scythe. He then injected the structure with death energy, filling it out.

    Fel charged his blade with vast quantities of divine energy, swinging it out, launching a crescent of golden energy.

    With his scythe now complete, Arc swung it out in return, clashing head-on with the golden crescent, causing a massive explosion of golden and black light. Despite divine energy being the counter to death energy, the two forces were equal in power. The small explosion only forced Arc to take a few steps back.

    The clearing dust revealed Arc''s disappointed face, ˇ°I thought IˇŻd have a little fun in this barbaric land. Yet even with an ancient artifact, a barbarian remains a barbarian.ˇ±

    ˇ°How can you form runes out of energy? I was told it was impossible.ˇ±

    Arc glanced at his scythe, ˇ°Oh, that. I suppose you barbarians wouldnˇŻt know of it. IˇŻm guessing you canˇŻt even overcome the will traces, pfft, those are only a problem if youˇŻre¨Cah, right, IˇŻm not supposed to talk about this.ˇ±

    He raised his scythe, ˇ°Well, itˇŻs not like youˇŻll need it where youˇŻre going.ˇ±

    Without warning, Siyla launched a volley of swirling needles and silver arrows, followed up by two crescents of golden energy. They immediately turned tail and dashed towards the shelter. They were no match for the death Mage.

    Arc formed a complicated black seal above his palm and launched it at the hail of metallic projectiles while he faced the crescents head-on with his scythe. However, a few needles still made their way past the seal and continued their path towards Arc, only to bounce off his robe.

    ˇ°I guess this robe has its uses. After all, death energy is almost useless in defence.ˇ±

    Arc gazed through the hazy dust cloud, ˇ°Whaddaya know, death energy is also useless for mobility.ˇ± Tiny black runes flew up from under his feet, twisting into a tornado around him, ˇ°Well, that only applies to low-ranked trash.ˇ±

    The runic tornado tightened around Arc whoˇŻs body swiftly disappeared in the darkness. The tornado continued to tighten, until it collapsed, without even a trace of Arc in sight. Soon, even the runes vanished into the air.

    ---

    ˇ°Fel, how much longer?ˇ±

    ˇ°5 minutes, weˇŻre almost there.ˇ±

    Without even AerlˇŻs warning, a shadow solidified behind Fel, a deathly scythe cleaving down unto him.

 Heavenly Spear

    Slipping on a hidden stone, Fel barely avoided the descending scythe. Feeling the wind slash past his neck, Fel twisted his head, discovering the reaper hovering behind him, eyes simmering with annoyance.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre like a fucking cockroach arenˇŻt you?ˇ±

    Archaios readied his fist, fortifying it with complex runes that linked together to form a massive, archaic gauntlet that radiated the very essence of death itself, causing the surrounding plants and trees to wither.

    Before Fel could even prepare himself, the gauntlet rocketed into his abdomen, shattering his armour and sending Fel flying back, his runic armour disintegrating around him.

    A dozen black runes stuck to Fel''s person and feasted on his vitality, wrinkling up his flesh and turning it a sickly grey.

    ˇ°What level are you?ˇ± Coughed Fel as he spat out a glob of blackened blood, glaring at Archaios as he raised his scythe high over his head.

    ˇ°Level 1 middle.ˇ±

    Then, the scythe fell.

    ---

    Blood splattered on the ground, the stunning silver contrasting with the dark, bare earth. At one end of the trail of silver blood was a slender arm with a steel sheen and white-silver veins, being slowly chewed on by long, black tendrils of deathly energy.

    At the other was a metallic angel who looked as if she had leapt out of from a painting, with limpid, quicksilver eyes and long wings, full of metal feathers, that looked as if God himself had taken his time to sculpt each and every one of them to perfection.

    Yet the image was marred. An ivory hue flushed the angel from head to toe. Her face, contorted in pain as she tried to move her missing right arm, cut cleanly off at the shoulder, silver blood flowing through the thin, black, mist that hung around the gaping wound, sinking into the earth beneath.

    Eyes swivelling into focus, Fel witnessed the scythe descend, the flash of metallic wings and the splatter of brilliant silver, along with the fall of Siyla, who was now struggling on the ground, a haunting grim reaper stood above her, scythe rising into the air yet again, hungry for its meal.

    Something, something deep, deep inside the depths of FelˇŻs mind broke, like a sledgehammer to a padlock. A golden circle shone into existence on his forehead, and a blood-red tint descended across his vision, that was quickly replaced by a thunderous gold as his veins turned to an identical colour.

    His internal energy converted itself into two other energies. One jerking with bolts of lightning, and the other glowing with a divine light.

    The internal energy kept converting to these energies until not a single drop of internal energy was left behind

    The strands of converted energy fused together into a thunderous sphere that emanated a dense, suppressive aura that oozed through every pore of his body. It was so dense and powerful that his body could hardly withstand it. So much so that his body was falling apart, his organs rupturing under the all-encompassing pressure.

    While his parivartana lines gave him a certain resistance towards lightning and divine energy, it did no such thing towards this thunderous sphere.

    To bring the situation under control, Fel pulled on the sphere, extracting as much energy as he could from it. He sent it hurtling through his lines, and out of his body, sending bolts of lightning in all directions, disintegrating the plants around him and ripping apart the earth.

    Seeing they were approaching Siyla, Fel stopped discharging the energy and pulled it back towards him. But Fel wasn''t being suicidal, instead of taking it into his body he compressed it into a layer above his skin, like a suit of armour. He kept on compressing the layer as it absorbed more and more lightning, even as the pressure tore his body apart. Before long, the layer was so dense it was almost solid, as if it made of a milky-gold metal.

    Archaios took a step back, extending his black, runic armour over his entire body, drawing out an ancient scythe, made of weathered, jet-black steel, a short spike protruding from the end of its handle. Flicking his hand, he conjured a dozen, large, black runes, and let them rotate around his person.

    Without a word, Archaios disappeared in a shadowy blur before appearing before Fel, curving his scythe behind Fel''s neck then pulling it back towards him, trying to behead him in one shot.

    Yet the scythe couldn''t penetrate the ''armour,'' and could only tear it slightly, from which a spurt of lightning erupted out, like blood from an artery.

    In the next instant, Archaios, flipped the scythe around, jabbing at Fel''s chest with its end. Yet the jab only penetrated the armour slightly, from which an eruption of lightning leapt from, this time right at Archaios.

    Swinging a large rune before him, Archaios blocked the blast of lightning, only for a flurry of thunderous fists to push him back.

    A few metres away from Fel, Archaios dispersed his now ruined rune, "Tch, how does your lightning restrain my death energy? To such a degree as well..."

    Opposite Archaios, Fel redirected the majority of his new energy into a sphere above his palm, extending it into a long javelin. The mere radiation from the javelin fried his palm, whilst its pressure compacted the earth beneath him to stone.

    Fel held the javelin in place, compressing as much energy as he could within it, so much so that tiny, milky-gold runes flickered into existence around it. One would only need a glance to know these runes were the embodiment of this new energy, of this Heavenly Lightning.

    Archaios tried to run away, he knew he couldn''t block that javelin, but found that he couldn''t move at all. He was rooted on the spot, locked down by the rune''s aura. The Heavenly Lightning completely suppressed his death energy, so much so that he could hardly revolve the death energy within his body, even his runic armour was melting away.

    After Fel had compressed all the lightning energy he could into the Javelin, he drew it back, made sure it was aimed dead on at Archaios, then hurled it forth with all his might.

    The javelin''s pressure tore apart the earth, annihilating even the smallest speck of earth as it flew by. Yet, even though it consisted of lightning, not a single spark flew from it, only an endless ocean of pressure.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Seeing the approaching javelin, Archaios used all his strength to mobilise a smidgeon of his death energy, just enough for him to take a stone token from his spatial storage and smash it between his fingers.

    The stone fragments evaporated into a grey mist that wrapped around him, condensing into a dense fog that obscured his person before closing in, vanishing from sight, taking him with it.

    The javelin hurtled through the air, and kept going, till it struck the distant valley wall, around six kilometres away. All the compacted energy was released in the collision, resulting in a giant explosion, so great it rivalled that of a conventional missile. The milky-gold runes followed suit, and while their explosions weren''t nearly as large, they released a strange form of radiation that clung to the compacted earth. Neither undead nor mortal would be able to tread that land for half a century.

    The technique had syphoned every last drop of energy from FelˇŻs body, so much so that his weakened body couldnˇŻt even support itself and began to collapse under its own weight. An illusory figure appeared within the circle on Fel''s forehead and waved its misty arms around. Fel''s parivartana lines moved in response, wriggling around like golden worms.

    Aerl, who was spectating from within FelˇŻs collapsing mind-space, could only look on in panic as FelˇŻs parivartana lines went insane. Strangely enough, he couldn''t sense the illusory figure. Yet, as Aerl looked on, he found that the lines were moving to a more orderly state.

    After the lines had settled, the illusory figure let out a sigh, before dissipating to the winds. Its work was finished.

    No longer were they a mess of lines, circles and runes, seemingly branded arbitrarily across his body. There were was now a clear symmetry with two distinct layers that overlapped to form a greater formation. The two of the four, dense, circles around his shoulders had vanished, with the other two moving to the flats of his shoulder blade.

    Scanning FelˇŻs body, Aerl found tiny golden strands littered across the top of his skin, leftovers from the ˇ®evolutionˇŻ or perhaps, ˇ®optimizationˇŻ would be a more suitable term.

    Thinking it would be bad if someone walked by and accidentally brushed off the golden strings. Aerl kicked his brain into overdrive to find some way to use them. Paravartana lines were precious things, their ability to grant their users affinities to various energies was priceless.

    Glancing at SiylaˇŻs unconscious body, Aerl knew exactly what to do. Searching through his tattered books, he found a technique to manipulate the parivartana lines and form them into various seals.

    Hopping into the spirit weapon he twisted the golden strings into the only complete seal in the book: a sacred-attributed seal. Though it was complicated, parivartana lines were renowned for being easy to manipulate.

    Aerl then took the seal and embedded it into SiylaˇŻs heart. Compared to FelˇŻs lines that spanned his entire body, SiylaˇŻs lines only stretched over her heart. However, the seal was unique because it would grow over time as it was supplied with energy, in this case, sacred energy. If given enough time, it could grow to be just as extensive as FelˇŻs.

    Giving one last glance over the situation, he found that FelˇŻs situation had stabilised. His body glowing with a soft, heavenly light as the golden lines set in. While the two were half dead and vulnerable to any passerby, they were alive.

    But Aerl couldnˇŻt leave them like this, he had to do something. Hijacking FelˇŻs communication rune, he sent an emergency signal to all his contacts, obviously, without voice input. It was only then Aerl could lie back. He had done all he could.

    ---

    Eyes flickering open, Fel regained his consciousness, finding himself in a large room, plastered in white with a cold, blue crystal, hung in the middle of the ceiling, being the sole provider of the light. Fortunately, the crystal was rather bright, so the room was well-lit.

    Images of silver blood and thunderous lightning flashed through his mind, followed by a looming reaper. Then, nothing. He jerked up, sitting with his back as straight as a ruler as he scanned the room, sighing in relief as he spotted Siyla at the other side of the room, softly sleeping under clean sheets, wearing a crisp gown.

    He was about to walk over to her before he noticed something wrong. Something very, very wrong. The blue points of light, that had always hovered at the edge of his vision, were gone. Without so much as a speck in sight. In fact, he couldnˇŻt sense any energy around him whatsoever. Yet, while his body felt fine, he himself was drained of energy. It was a new feeling. One of complete emptiness.

    Yet, he had to push this aside for now. It was more important to check on Siyla. Silently shifting over, Fel made it to her bedside. He reached out to her missing limb, face dark, before retracting it. He didnˇŻt want to wake her up.

    ˇ°Aerlˇ­ what happened?ˇ±

    From within FelˇŻs mind-space, Aerl, tossed the book he was trying to decipher to the side, not forgetting to leave a bookmark for later, ˇ°Oh, youˇŻre finally awake. You good?ˇ±

    ˇ°I am, she isnˇŻt. Is he alive?ˇ±

    ˇ°N-Yes, he got away. Though I assure you he wonˇŻt be coming back any time soon.ˇ±

    Fel clenched his fist, ˇ°I wish he would.ˇ±

    A faint voice floated up from the hospital bed, ˇ°Is that you Fel.ˇ±

    The clouds of fury melted away from FelˇŻs person as he replied, ˇ°Yes, itˇŻs me.ˇ±

    Siyla grabbed onto the side of the bed with her arm and hoisted herself up.

    ˇ°No, no, you really shouldnˇŻt be doing that!ˇ±

    In response to FelˇŻs worries, Siyla out to FelˇŻs head, burying her hands in his hair before abruptly clutching his head and throwing him to the ground.

    ˇ°IˇŻm not a damsel in distress!ˇ± Cried Siyla, grinning widely, tossing aside her sheets and rolling out of bed. Pinning FelˇŻs head under her feet to prove her point.

    Seeing that Siyla was still going strong, FelˇŻs mood lifted, his mouth curving up in a small smile.

    Yet, at the most inopportune moment, a yellow-robed Mage creaked open the door, bearing witness to a joyous Siyla pressing her heel down on a grinning Fel''s head.

    ˇ°W-well, you do you.ˇ± With a bead of sweat dripping down his chin, the emo-haired Mysvain shimmied out of the room.

    He paused, going back to the door, edging it open, ˇ°By, the way, once youˇŻre done, you can eat in the hall, here''s a map of the shelter."

    Blushing bright ivory, Siyla set down her foot down and pulled Fel up, ˇ°LetˇŻs go, before he gets any ideas.ˇ±

    Fel held in his retort ¨C he probably already had a lot of ideas.

    ---

    Sitting in the mess hall, the duo took the menu and ordered the first thing that caught their eye. While the lightning Mages called it a mess hall, it resembled a high-class restaurant more than anything, you could even order food to your room if you wished.

    ˇ°Say, arenˇŻt your tattooˇŻs a little different?ˇ±

    ˇ°Are they?ˇ±

    Siyla congealed a mirror, pointing it at Fel.

    ˇ°Ah, so they areˇ­ Speaking of which, I do feel a little different.ˇ±

    ˇ°Aerl, youˇŻve been moping around for awhile, show me my status.ˇ±

    ˇ°CanˇŻt help it. ItˇŻs not like to sideline me for Siyla or anything.ˇ± Aerl let out a long sigh, ˇ°Here you go.ˇ±

    <hr>

    Fel Evenstar

    Level: 1 (98% - Middle)

    Affinities: Lightning (9), Divine (9)

    Life Expectancy: 275 years

    Innate Abilities:

    1. Heavenly Thunder Constitution

    Grants the possessor high affinities with Lightning and Divine energies, along with the ability to create and manipulate Heavenly Thunder. However, the possessor must cultivate with both energies at once, otherwise, the possessorˇŻs body will not be refined.

    2. Parivartana Lines v2

    Allows for the possessor to easily channel internal energies and fuse them into compound energy. The Possessor can also channel energy into armour or wings. Energy runes can be substituted for this process for increased effectiveness.

    <hr>

    ˇ°What the...ˇ± His status screen was almost unrecognisable, hardly resembling its previous state.

    Not only was he at the middle stage, but the Parivartana Lines had a completely different function, it was more like an artifact than anything.

    Seeing FelˇŻs frown, Siyla reached across the table and shook his shoulder, ˇ°You alright?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, I just have to double check something,ˇ± replied Fel as he mentally turned to Aerl.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs up with this?ˇ±

    ˇ°I can explain your new constitution. You see, the pure body constitution is more of a blank slate, and your lines kept that slate blank. But when you exposed it to a large amount of high-tier energy, you coloured it in.ˇ±

    ˇ°However, I''ve no idea why your lines changed. While I know a thing or two about parivartana line manipulation, I canˇŻt create anything that intricate.ˇ±

    ˇ°Fel~ you there?ˇ±

    "Ah, sorry. Look over there, dinner''s here!"

 Present Giving and New Inventions

    Devoid of clothes, Fel sat on a circular platform in a small, white room with a strange device hanging above him.

    "Activate lightning chamber 3A."

    A cold voice rung out in response, "Lightning chamber 3A activating in 10 seconds."

    The device lit up with a harsh, yellow light that rapidly grew in intensity.

    "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1ˇ­ releasing lightning."

    A solid pillar of lightning thundered down onto Fel, enveloping his body. Within the pillar, Fel was using his parivartana lines to refine the lightning into strands of divine energy.

    Lightning was closely linked to the divine, and although it was inefficient, it was currently his only source of divine energy.

    When he converted his energy before the change, it didn''t remain as such for long. Without his attention, the converted energy unravelled, turning back into pure energy. He could do the same now, but he needed permanently converted energy to refine his body, it also wouldn''t be any good if his energy pool was to disperse as he slept.

    After several hours of circulation, Fel''s reservoir 30% full of heavenly thunder. If he was using pure energy, he could''ve reached this state in only around an hour. Divine energy was simply far too rare. It would take two more days for him to be full, and that''s if he didn''t use the energy to refine his body. The thought was rather depressing.

    Deactivating the chamber, Fel donned a yellow robe and walked through the door into a plain corridor. He had been in the shelter for almost two weeks and the siege above had no sign of abating, despite reinforcements being due a week earlier.

    There really wasn''t much to do in the bunker, except for dull cultivation and endless experimentation with new weaponry.

    Opening the door to his right, he was welcomed to the sight of a humble workshop, with clean white walls and simple, wooden workbenches, a hooded figure looming over one. Kicking the various scraps on the floor out of the way, Fel made his way over to the bench.

    "How''s it going?"

    Mysvain clamped the outer-plating of the chaos sphere together then turned to Fel, "Almost there, just fixing out a few kinks in the system."

    He stretched out, clicking his spine into place, "So, I''m guessing you''d like to work on your project now?"

    Fel let out a light laugh, in return for being Mysvain''s assistant every now and then, Mysvain would help him out with his own projects and cover part of the costs. Right now, Fel was stunningly broke.

    He walked over to a workbench in the corner of the room and placed the frame of a mechanical arm upon it. It was Siyla''s replacement arm. Though she could create her own, she would have to expend energy to maintain it. She needed a more permanent solution, and this was it.

    "You''re going to quite the extent to hide this from her though. You even hired the fire-zone blacksmiths to manufacture the partsˇ­ How did you even get those materials? Core-steel for the outer casing and mithril for the innards, and that''s not mentioning all the other artifacts you sold to cover the costs."

    Fel avoided Mysvain''s eyes, he couldn''t tell him they were Siyla''s snacks. He only dared to use them due to the circumstances. As for the artifacts, it wasn''t like he used them anyway.

    "Well, it doesn''t matter." Mysvain reached over and picked up a few parts, "Now we got the parts, we can get to work. Good thing the couriers are still going.

    While he put together the arm, Fel struck up a conversation, "About the siege, how''s it going?"

    "Still at a stalemate. While they haven''t received reinforcements, we don''t have a large enough force to sally out, and the Association hasn''t done shit to help us so far. So much for the oathˇ­ Ah, would you look at that, one last panel and we''re done."

    Just as Mysvain clamped in the last panel, Fel shot out his hand and swiped the arm, stuffing it into his ring, right before a metallic angel burst into the room with a small, wooden chest under her arm.

    "Fel, I finished putting together all the bullets and this handgun thing you wanted."

    She walked up to the workbench and set the crate down, "By the way, what were you guys doing?"

    Fel hoisted himself onto the bench, "Just having a quick break, Mysvain''s chaos sphere is a time sink."

    Siyla got onto an opposite bench, "Can I join in?"

    "That would be great, but, with the bullets here, why don''t we move to the testing range?"

    Yes, this was another of Fel''s projects. After he had heard about spell-matrices from Mysvain''s, formations of runes that could cast spells when supplied with energy, he knew exactly what he had to do with them. Of course, it was to create a spell-bullet.

    There were two types of spell-matrices. Rechargeable and one-use. An example of a rechargeable spell matrix was Invicta''s control panel where the spell matrix was stored in mercury and kept the spell going for ages.

    One-use matrices, on the other hand, could only last for a few seconds at most. As few people had vitality or life energy, they were often used to create one-use heals crystals as few people had the right type of energy to recharge those types of matrices.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    So the difference could be summarized as such: Rechargeable spell-matrices were the swords of the Mage world while one-use matrices were akin to arrows, really fragile ones. Both deadly, just one was deadly for longer than the other.

    He got Aerl to design a simple spell-matrix, that was suited to his heavenly lightning and got Siyla to carve them out. You didn''t need an understanding of how runes worked to carve them, only a deft hand, or in Siyla''s case, a flying scalpel.

    On the way to the testing range, Fel charged the empty bullets with his newly acquired heavenly lightning. The crystals used as the matrix''s base were small and cheap, only able to contain 0.1% of his total energy. Though for now, power wasn''t his top priority.

    At the range, Fel went over the handgun prototype, making sure that all was in order while Siyla watched from the side.

    "What''s this gun? It''s rather small compared to the others."

    "This? Ah, right. If I tried using the other guns without power armour, they''d fracture my arms. This is a handgun. Doesn''t pack as much of a punch, but will help you out in a pinch. Especially when you don''t happen to have a functional suit of power armour at hand."

    Loading the gun and pulling back the slide, Fel aimed it at the metal dummy at the distance.

    BANG

    A thin stream of gold flashed through the air, piercing into its head and melting a quarter of it into metal sludge. Tapping the trigger in quick succession, Fel reduced the rest of the dummy to molten metal.

    "It feels like everything''s weak as shit without a barrier protecting them."

    Mysvain walked up to Fel, "Means they work. By the way, how much of your energy did you insert into these bullets?"

    "0.1%, What about it."

    "ˇ­ your previous bullets impressed me, but these, these are something else. While they only have the power level of a high apprentice, the raw materials only cost 30 gold coins apiece. That''s nothing. Apprentices would drool over this."

    "So how much do you think an upgraded version will cost?"

    Taking a bullet in hand, Mysvain gave his opinion, "If we improved the design and used better quality crystal, we could make middle level 1 tier bullets for 200 gold coins each. Still dirt cheap."

    He paused for a moment, "But still, even lightning isn''t this powerful. What kind of energy did you use?"

    Siyla placed a hand on Mysvain''s shoulder, "Every Mage has their secrets." She didn''t quite trust Fel to would keep his mouth shut.

    "Fine then, let me present you with a deal."

    "For a 15% cut, I''ll manufacture the handguns, bullets, and handle the distribution and sales. All you have to do is provide me with the blueprints and matrices, and fill the bullets with your unique energy."

    "15% is rather generous for my side."

    "The only reason these bullets are so powerful is because of your energy, and I don''t want a swindler''s reputation under my belt. Also, there are over 10,000 apprentices in the Academy, that''s a massive market."

    "If we create a bullet at the level of a peak apprentice, we could sell each of them at over 100 gold coins a piece, hell, even 150 isn''t a stretch. Most matrices with that kind of power cost a crystal coin or two at the very least."

    It was a tempting offer. If every apprentice bought a single bullet, he''d make 1.5 million gold coins. If he sold them in sets of 12, he''d only need to make 830 sales for the same profit. To his knowledge, a crystal coin was worth 1000 gold coins, that was 1000 crystal coins in profit. And that''s a conservation estimate.

    But at the moment, it was incredibly difficult to create heavenly lightning, before he could take part in this venture, he''d have to secure a larger source of divine energy first. He couldn''t afford to spend weeks of his time to create bullets at the expense of his cultivation time.

    "I''ll have to think about this further. Maybe once we''re on the surface."

    "Sure, it''s not like we''re in a rush or anything."

    They continued experimenting for an hour before Mysvain left, moving back to his workshop, while Fel and Siyla walked over to another part of the shelter, the arena.

    ---

    "How much energy do you have Siyla?"

    "About 25% how about you?"

    "28% I guess we''ll just have to work with it."

    Siyla was in the same predicament with Fel, if not even worse as her parivartana lines weren''t fully developed. Sacred energy was a branch of divine energy and specialized in buffing and defence. When fused with her metal energy, it could create a powerful defence energy: Sacred Steel.

    However, sacred energy couldn''t be easily converted from metallic energy. On the other hand, peaceful and beautiful locations such as small groves and pools could naturally convert various energies to sacred energy.

    It was a similar case for divine energy, which would naturally form in grandiose locations.

    But in the shelter, there wasn''t much of either, only endless blank corridors and rooms.

    Siyla congealed a set of light armour along with a steel spear, all sparkling with silver rainbows.

    Opposite her, Fel took out a simple longsword, compressing his heavenly thunder around it. They both didn''t have enough energy to go all out, so they made the best of what they had.

    Dropping her centre of mass, Siyla dashed forth, lunging out with her spear.

    When Fel swung his sword around to defend, Siyla retracted the spear into her body, waving her hand to launch out a crescent of sacred steel after Fel had overextended before digging her heel into the ground, launching herself back, sending out a volley of needles as she went.

    In response, Fel met the crescent with a thunderous fist, the immediate impact completely disintegrating it while the shockwave continued on to destroy the incoming needles.

    Propelling himself with a blast of lightning, Fel appeared before Siyla, sword already descending onto her skull. Her hastily made shield slightly deflected the sword, just enough so she could swerve to the side and snap out with a long dagger.

    They made exchange after exchange, rarely using any ''expensive'' techniques, trying to conserve as much energy as possible.

    In this regard, Siyla had the advantage. Not only did Fel''s lightning cost more energy, but Siyla herself was more experienced in melee combat. Slowly but surely, she was pushing Fel back.

    Though it may seem stupid for them to fight at such a time, it was, in fact, a very effective training routine. Not only could they gain experience and adapt to their new powers, but their bodies were refined as they expended their energy. It was hitting three birds with one stone.

    Finally, after almost an hour had passed, both Fel''s sword and Siyla''s armour dispersed simultaneously, their energy pools had run out. The battle had ended in a draw, though there were more injuries on Fel''s body than there were on Siyla.

    Panting, the duo sat down and took a towel to their sweat.

    Looking at a clock mysvain gave him, Fel found that it was 11 pm. If he was his previous self, it would''ve been a could idea to turn in for the night, to keep his body in tip-top condition, but now he was a Mage, a being that could stay up for days on end.

    But to get Siyla''s arm prepared and kept her busy in the meantime with the handgun, he had stayed up for an entire week. Even a Mage would feel tired by this point.

    "So, a quick shower before we go to our room?"

    "Sure, why not."

    ---

    In the room, Fel was wrapping up the arm with colourful, silken ribbons. Yet, even though he gave it his all, the end result looked as if someone had vomited unchewed spaghetti onto it. Fel could only hope that his feelings got through.

    Hearing the shower had stopped, Fel hid the arm behind his back and kneeled by the bathroom door, planning to give her a surprise.

    The door creaked open and Fel raised the arm above his head, like a knight offering his sword, feeling a strange resistance as he did so.

    "Surprise!"

    An entire minute crawled by, bogged down by large, iron weights. Seeing as there was no response, Fel inclined his head, catching only a glimpse of heaven before an iron fist pummeled him into the ground.

    Calmly, Siyla reached down and took the arm, "Viewing tax."

    Despite her cold reaction, she didn''t keep her wings between them that night.

 First Mission

    Attaching Siyla''s mechanical arm to a new, shiny harness, Fel gave it a final pat down to make sure all was in order.

    "I will never get used to this," sighed Siyla, rolling her prosthetic shoulder.

    "I''ll try to get you a proper socket as soon as possible. Hopefully, they have good enough surgical skill hereˇ­ I''ll have to design a socket as well."

    "Socket?"

    "Yes, it''s like the harness, but connects directly to your skeleton. However, I''ll need a medical professional to design and attach one."

    "Mmm, well, I guess we can ask around, I''m sure Verris or one of the lightning Mages would know. Though we''d have to wait for them to get back."

    With a deep stretch, Siyla hopped out of the bed and walked to the door. But just as she was about to open it, a rapid knocking rang out from the other side. Opening it, Siyla was met with Mysvain''s excited face.

    "Guys, guys! The siege has lifted!"

    "Hm? Wait, what. How?"

    "The Association finally sent a dozen Mages to assist us. We sallied out and crushed the death wave in a pincer attack!"

    "Just a dozen Mages?"

    "Yes, a dozen. But don''t underestimate them, among them were 2 master Mages. The main reason we couldn''t break the siege was because those damn undead could enhance their spells with runes, so even though they had lesser numbers, their strength equalled ours, so we could only hole up under our barrier."

    "But, there''s no way a single undead master Mage could repel four master Mages, no matter how powerful he is. Without a master Mage''s protection, and under the assault of 4, there''s no way the death wave could hold up."

    Fel got up from the bed, "Master Mages seem to be rather powerful."

    "Powerful is an understatement. A decent master Mage could defeat 10 level 1 Mages at the same time! But there''s no time to waste, let''s pack up and get out of this dull shelter. I may enjoy isolation, but they could at least put some d¨¦cor in this place."

    Attaching Siyla''s mechanical arm to a new, shiny harness, Fel gave it a final pat down to make sure all was in order.

    "I will never get used to this," sighed Siyla, rolling her prosthetic shoulder.

    "I''ll try to get you a proper socket as soon as possible. Hopefully, they have good enough surgical skill hereˇ­ I''ll have to design a socket as well."

    "Socket?"

    "Yes, it''s like the harness, but connects directly to your skeleton. However, I''ll need a medical professional to design and attach one."

    "Mmm, well, I guess we can ask around, I''m sure Verris or one of the lightning Mages would know. Though we''d have to wait for them to get back."

    With a deep stretch, Siyla hopped out of the bed and walked to the door. But just as she was about to open it, a rapid knocking rang out from the other side. Opening it, Siyla was met with Mysvain''s excited face.

    "Guys, guys! The siege has lifted!"

    "Hm? Wait, what. How?"

    "The Association finally sent a dozen Mages to assist us. We sallied out and crushed the death wave in a pincer attack!"

    "Just a dozen Mages?"

    "Yes, a dozen. But don''t underestimate them, among them were 2 master Mages. The main reason we couldn''t break the siege was because those damn undead could enhance their spells with runes, so even though they had lesser numbers, their strength equalled ours, so we could only hole up under our barrier."

    "But, there''s no way a single undead master Mage could repel four master Mages, no matter how powerful he is. Without a master Mage''s protection, and under the assault of 4, there''s no way the death wave could hold up."

    Fel got up from the bed, "Master Mages seem to be rather powerful."

    "Powerful is an understatement. A decent master Mage could defeat 10 level 1 Mages at the same time! But there''s no time to waste, let''s pack up and get out of this dull shelter. I may enjoy isolation, but they could at least put some d¨¦cor in this place."

    "So we can leave whenever?"

    "Pretty much, the restriction has been lifted, says so on the signboard too."

    Fel felt the Academy was quite lax at times, there wasn''t even so much as an announcement.

    While walking through the blank corridors, Fel conversed with Mysvain while Siyla got used to her arm, "We never met another Mage did we?"

    "Most lightning Mages are combatants, lightning isn''t suitable for creation. Among the lightning Mages of this Academy, I''m the only dedicated crafter."

    "So aren''t you the only Mage here apart from us?"

    "ˇ­ Yes. What about it?"

    But before Fel could retort, the trio found themselves at the end of a corridor, facing a solid, stone wall.

    Mysvain strode ahead and touched the wall, muttering a long string of words before injecting a sliver of his energy into it. A few seconds later, the wall lit up with hundreds of yellow runes before smoothly sliding into the floor.

    Not a moment later, a flood of thunderous explosions crashed into the trio''s ears, along with the familiar sight of dense, torso-thick thunderbolts. Yet to Fel, the scene was completely different from before.

    Before, he could only see an apocalyptic and chaotic mess, but now, now he could see rivers of yellow energy swim between the rain of thunderbolts, and perhaps more importantly, streams of a grand, golden energy, arrogantly striding through the thunderous pillars of doom.

    "Mysvain."

    "Yea? Remember the deal you mentioned a few days ago?"

    "Yep."

    "I''ll take you up on that."

    ˇŞ-

    A few weeks later, Fel was injecting energy into the last few spell-bullets, a new type that contained the power of a Level 1 middle spell. It was time for him to complete his first compulsory mission of the year. He was already halfway through the year, and it was about time for him to get off his arse.

    Taking inventory of his items, Fel thought of how well the spell-bullets and handguns sold. He almost killed himself trying to keep up with the demand. Eventually, he and Mysvain had to inflate the price to ? of a crystal coin a bullet which calmed down the situation. With the relatively abundant source of divine energy, Fel could saturate his body once a day, enough to fill 1000 bullets, but compared to the more common types of energy, this was mind-numbingly slow.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    With the money, he repaired his power armour and upgraded everything to suit his new powers. Now thinking about it, Fel found that his finances fluctuated quite a bit. One day he was stinking rich, and the next as poor as the beggar next door. Well, money was made to be spent anyway.

    As Fel was lost in his thoughts, absent-mindedly checking his firearms, a silver figure appeared behind him, reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder.

    "You done yet?"

    "Mhm? Ah yes, all''s good, are we going now?"

    "We were supposed to leave 10 minutes agoˇ­ the carriage has been waiting in front for ages."

    Shoving his equipment into his ring, Fel got to his feet and marched off towards the front door, flicking back his robes, "Very well, it is time to be off."

    Siyla ground her face against her palm, "This idiot."

    In the carriage, Fel looking out the window as the trees and buildings moved past.

    "Can you remind me of where we''re going?"

    "You can''t even remember that? You''ve been rather absent-minded lately."

    "Sorry about that, there have just been a few things on my mind, and spending the last few days storing my energy really took it out of me."

    "I forgot about that, I guess you won''t be near any sources of lightning energy for a while. But anyway, since we have the time, it wouldn''t hurt to remind you."

    "We''re going to the recently uncovered Telos ruins. Only half the apprentices who entered the ruins escaped, and even then they didn''t get much. However, what they did get was fairly valuable. Ancient writings from the pre-invasion era, even better, with a dialect similar to our common language. If we can get our hands on more, we could surely deepen our understanding of magic."

    "If I remember correctly, the ruins contain a dense, darkness attributed energy. Why are we being sent there?"

    "Because your lightning energy restrains darkness energy, you shouldn''t be in much danger there as long as you bring enough supplies. As for me, well, we''re pretty much a package deal."

    "Hehe. So how long is the journey?"

    "It should take half a week to get there. It''s impressive that it stayed hidden for so long despite its close proximity to the Academy."

    Soon after, the carriage passed by the gates, still damaged from the death wave. Though a few weeks had past, small fissures and holes scoured the inner walls, not to mention the outer wall that had endured a hammering. Not an inch of it had gone unscathed, and the earth around it, well it was like the surface of the moon, peppered with deep, gaping craters.

    Fel could feel traces of death energy even from within the carriage, the battle was obviously fierce, it was a shame he missed it. He remembered that even Verris and the crew were injured during the fight, and had to hole up in their rooms to purify their bodies of the death energy.

    It was strange that simple runes could turn the tide of battle so much, even when outnumbered, the undead could rival the Mages here, simply because the undead knew how to conjure runes while the Mages weren''t capable of that.

    "Say, we haven''t got much news from the outside world have we?"

    "Yes, I heard there were a series of death waves that almost crippled the association. It was no wonder that reinforcements turned up late."

    "I wonder if it will be a peaceful trip."

    "Why do you say that?"

    "Well, when we left the village, we were ambushed twice, and we encountered a death wave on our way to Collesti. The only uneventful trip was when we went to the Academy, but we were with Jarvis, no doubt that master Mage was pulling strings in the background."

    "Who knows, but what happens, happens."

    Three days later, midday, the carriage sped down a long, dirt path with a dense forest to either side. Despite travelling as fast as a car, the uneven terrain didn''t obstruct the carriage in the slightest, it seemed a sort of pressure rode ahead of the carriage, ironing out the road before it. Though the Mages of the 1st layer couldn''t rival the undead, they were ingenious in their own right.

    Suddenly, a dark explosion tore into the carriage, sending Fel and Siyla flying out while instantly slaying the driver while gravely injuring the deer-like steed.

    "Dear Mages, I hope you''ll leave behind your belongings. We have you surrounded with 20 apprentices and 2 true Mages."

    "What are you doing you idiot! You probably blew up all their stuff!"

    "That''s where you''re wrong, they''d keep their most valuable belongings on their bodies, behind their barriers. I''m sure that whatever is left on them will net a sweet profit."

    Hidden in the smouldering ruins of the carriage, Fel and Siyla patiently observed their surroundings, taking note of their opponents positions.

    "Siyla, why would there be such a large group of rouge Mages?"

    "Their Academy probably fell to the death wave, though if they wanted to, they could find another Academy to study in. I don''t think they''re respectable people."

    "Fel, there''s four apprentices to the south, six to the west, six to the east and four to the north. The true Mages are at the south and north."

    "Thanks Aerl."

    "Siyla, I got their positions."

    "Here are a few grenades, there''s six to the east," Fel paused to point out their exact positions, "I''ll take out the west. After that, we rush to the west so we won''t get caught in a pincer attack by the Mages to our north and south."

    On the other side, the rouge Mages were getting impatient.

    "Hey, you think we killed them?"

    "No way, an apprentice couldn''t afford such a carriage, they''re definitely Mages, and such a spell can''t injure a Mage. But I see where you''re coming from, what kind of Mage would deign to remain in such rubble."

    Suddenly, several camouflaged spheres flew from the wreckage, landing at the feet of various apprentices.

    The apprentices weren''t stupid and turned heel, erecting a barrier as they fled. But they weren''t fast enough. The spheres erupted with heavenly lightning, the pressure it emitted alone was able to freeze the apprentices in place, allowing for the milky lightning to wash over them and burn them to a crisp.

    Immediately afterward, two figures shot out from the wreckage and dashed to the west, firing out flashes of gold and silver at the remaining apprentices. Though the rouge Mages erected barriers to protect their apprentices, the gold and silver flashes flew through them as if they were paper and slew the apprentices. Such hastily prepared barriers couldn''t even slow down the high tiered energies.

    Now rid of the apprentices and in a better position, Fel and Siyla hunkered down behind the dense trees, donning their armour and equipping their weapons.

    "What? How did they kill all the apprentices so quickly?"

    "Shut up Dirth, use the emblem, we can''t contend with them."

    Fel steadied his rifle, setting his sights on Dirth, "So unprofessional."

    With the flick of his finger, a flash of milky gold light flew from the rifles'' muzzle, bearing down on the panicking Dirth who tossed out a circular, metal emblem with 7, large, dark crystals revolving around it.

    Streams of dark energy were syphoned from the crystals and absorbed by the emblem, light that cycled the energy through its dense runes, mashing the four streams into one before blasting the mass at the incoming milky gold lightning.

    The two spells collided in midair, the resulting outbreak of energy tearing up the earth and almost uprooting trees. Despite the mass of dark energy being over twice as large as the flash of golden lightning, the two forces were even and cancelled each other out.

    Seeing that the emblem was charging another shot, Fel waved at Siyla, "Form a shield, we''re ploughing through, I don''t have many of these bullets in stock."

    Nodding in response, Siyla congealed a large tower shield that shined with prismatic light and charged toward the fleeing Mages, ignoring the hovering emblem, with Fel following closely behind.

    Another mass of dark energy blasted towards the duo and crashed into Siyla''s shield. The force sent her staggering back and smashed a large dent into her shield. But she regained her balance, repaired the shield and erased the remaining traces of corrosive dark energy with her prismatic lights.

    Two more bolts of dark energy smashed into Siyla''s shield, though they were equally ineffective against her. The crystals around the emblem dimmed and fell apart, with the emblem itself falling to the ground, four shots was all it had.

    Soon after, Siyla and Fel caught up to the comparably unfit Mages, who, sensing their arrival, twirled around and launched their spells at the duo. Moving swiftly, Siyla intercepted them both, easily shrugging them off.

    With a grim face, one of the rogue Mages took out a brilliant red crystal and sacrificial dagger, before taking the dagger in hand and stabbing it into the crystal. The dagger sapped the crystal dry, taking the red glow of the crystal for its own and burning so hot the air around it writhed around like a pit of snakes.

    Taking aim, he hurled the dagger at Siyla, watching as it burst into flame, forming an almost solid ball of flame around it, so concentrated that the shadow of runes glimmered within it.

    Siyla congealed several more shields, one in front of the other, all glimmering with prismatic lights. However, this time, the prismatic lights couldn''t restrain the incoming spell, forcing the steel to face the danger alone.

    The first shield gave little trouble to the dagger and was melted away like wax to a candle. The second almost stopped the dagger, allowing for the third, final shield, to stop the dagger in its tracks. However, the dagger, despite losing its momentum and falling to the ground, didn''t go without a final struggle.

    Its flames travelled along Siyla''s barrier, chewing away at it, with the ensuing heat growing so hot that the parts in her mechanical arms almost melted together. Though the flames dissipated not long after, Siyla found it rather difficult to move her arm.

    The ''divine'' energies were highly effective against darkness and death, however, they didn''t have such an advantage over other energies.

    Seeing that the dagger was somewhat effective, the rouge Mages weaved another round of spells and hurled them at Siyla, intending to take her down once and for all.

    At this moment, Fel stepped forward and fired a shot at the incoming spells, blasting them away. He then fired another two shots at the Mages, destroying both their barriers and them.

    "I was going to spare both of you for questioning. But after you pulled that stunt, I didn''t feel like it anymore."