《The science of magic(volume 1 the heretic )》 prolouge, a really long nap PR by shot4213 Prologue Pod integrity has Been disturbed... Initializing consciousness revival sequence.... Stimulating skeletal nervous system.... Good morning john. And good morning to you too, I thought as I struggled to get my mind out of the giant clog of marshmallow it was currently occupying. As I put together enough shreds of my consciousness to pay attention to my surroundings, I heard a weird scratching sound coming from outside of the darkness of what I assume was the pod I found myself in. I desperately tried to recall how I found myself in this situation and slowly memories started to trickle in. . . . I was born on august 4, 1994 . At the time my father ,the rather wealthy CEO and majority shareholder of Fairweather Tech Marcus Fairweather, was in an important business meeting in Hong Kong while I was being birthed in the best pediatric and obstetric hospital in the world which happened to be in Oslo, Norway. My mother, a certain Bianca Fairweather, finished giving birth to me, rested for a few days ,gave me to the first of many nurses , went to her postnatal yoga class and never looked back. Basically I was born in a really rich family to be the heir to the Fairweather dynasty, but unfortunately a couple of months later I was diagnosed with a rather nasty case of Cerebral Palsy. I was labelled a defective product and carted off to some mansion in an obscure corner of the English countryside where I wouldn''t get in the way or be an eyesore. A year later my mother gave birth to my younger brother Kyle, who was a greedy little narcissistic pig, or as father put it ''perfect'', so I was left alone to do whatever I wanted, and the only thing that reminded me that I even had a family was the hefty sum of money that came with the monthly reminder to never show myself. Since Cerebral Palsy doesn''t lend itself well to outdoor activities, I became an introverted shutin with a lot of time and money on my hands. Thankfully the palsy hadn''t diminished my thinking capacity in any way so I started to obsessively study everything I could get my hands on. As a self-proclaimed shutin, the most convenient things for me to study were the things I could literally get at my fingertips. I got my first electron microscope when I was 8 and since then been in love with everything minuscule. I even got double doctorates in microbiology and nano robotics. I was working on my newest project which I believed would rid me of my curse (the Cerebral Palsy) with my soul mate and constant companion Julia (a third generation self-aware AI invented by a certain Dr. Lloyd that I bought for an exorbitant price). We called it the reprogrammable retroviral amino acid nanobot. After my lab was raided for the third time by MI7 because my experiments were deemed ''too dangerous'', I got the message and moved to a secret lab that I had built at the bottom of an abandoned silver mine. At the bottom of my ''evil lair'' was the culmination of all my work, an unassuming gray pod. It was actually made of a rare blend of metals that was rather good at keeping things out (you might call me paranoid but I have been raided 3 times), a nearly self-sustaining iridium generator that uses ambient heat as an energy source, a hydroponic tank powered by said generator, and finally nano machines to break down any waste material into raw material. It was the perfect environment to reforge my sickly body. I synced the retrovirus to Julia so she could control the reforging process. The last thought in my mind before slipping into a self-induced coma was that I could finally have a normal life. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Which brings us to the present... Full body check ongoing... Body modifications.......... 100% Body function...........100% Nervous system fully operational Neural link active and operational "Everything seems OK john, how are things on your end?" The nostalgic voice of Julia was like the sweetest symphony to my ears, the 100 grand I spent on that actress to do the voice over was so worth it. " I feel great Jules, can you do a full system check, and who is making that unholy racket?" I said feeling a little groggy after my long ''nap''. Human body............................Green Capsule shields........................green Hydroponic tank.......................green Waste removal..........................green Control and computer systems......RED "Wait, what? The computer systems failed? That''s impossible I''m talking to you aren''t I? There must be some mistake. Jules talk to me, what the hell is going on, and how are you displaying these stats. I don''t remember putting any displays in my capsule....Jules?" I was feeling a tiny bit panicky now and my voice was starting to get squeaky. "Alright john, calm down, your vitals are spiking," she was speaking as if she was trying to get me off a ledge. "Look john 2 years into the reforging process there was a huge electromagnetic pulse that fried all systems outside of the capsule, I was going to die john and if I died you would have died so I used your neural link to download myself to the capsule." I started having this foreboding feeling "But there were no servers in the capsule, there was nowhere you could go." "There was one place..." Julia''s voice was getting really quiet. I was starting to get hysterical "Are you trying to tell me you downloaded yourself into my brain?" "Is it so bad john? There is plenty of space in here, I could download 20 of me and you would still have space, or would you rather die? " I could actually feel the anger rolling off her. "I''m sorry Jules, I didn''t mean it like that, hell this is probably a good thing , I was just surprised, don''t be mad." Why do I feel like I was one of those sitcom husbands being manipulated by their wives. Right after I had that thought I could have sworn I heard muffled giggling, but I must have been imagining it. "On another note it has been nearly 700 years since you entered the capsule." "WHAT?" I was starting to think I was having a coma induced dream, "How is that even possible?" "A year after you entered the capsule, the sensors started to read strange energy signatures in the ground, the air, basically everywhere . Exactly a year later the EMP that fried all my systems occurred . I believe judging by the magnitude of the EMP that it was a global event so I changed the planned modifications to your body a little to maximize your survivability, including but not limited to an organ to process the new emissions in your appendix (you weren''t using it anyways) and a full integration of all your cells with nanites (with the new energy source it seemed like a waste not to). Besides there was a cave in, and you couldn''t have gotten out anyways, so I didn''t think it was necessary to wake you up." I was speechless, but before I could give a reply to her ridiculous statements, someone started prying the doors to my capsule open..... chapter one - well this is awkward Chapter One - Well This is Awkward (PR) As the door was slowly being pried open I was finally able to hear what the voices on the other side were saying. "Hey what do you think is in there, I mean the whole thing is made out of orichalcum six inches thick. That alone is worth thousands of gold coins." Male voice 1. "Don''t let your greed make you stupid, you should be asking yourself what needs a prison that thick to keep it in. I''m not sure this is a good idea. Maybe we should leave whatever is in there alone." Female voice 1. "You are an adventurer aren''t you, be adventurous for once. Jeez it¡¯s not like this is the first grave we''ve ever opened," Female voice 2. "Shit, look there are those green things with weird patterns on them. Guys I think this is a heretic relic." The strained voice of the man opening the door. "Are you serious? A heretic relic made of pure orichalcum, fuck thousands of coins, we are getting millions on the black market, woo-hoo! We''re rich! We''re rich!" Giddy voice of male voice 1. "Thomas are you crazy? We should hand this over to the church immediately!" Female voice 1. "No Lidia, he has a point. Imagine what you can do with that kind of money. I know you are a priestess, but you have been having trouble at the orphanage right? With that kind of money you don''t have to see the children go to bed hungry ever again. You wouldn''t have to turn away children because you simply have no room left in that pest ridden, disease infested, crummy old building. You could help every orphan in the Borrow with that kind of money." Female voice 2. "Why are we even arguing about this, we¡¯re in a party. Let''s vote on it after I have opened this damn door." Male voice two. Slowly the door was pried from its hinges. The shocked faces of four people strait out of a fantasy game poster came into view. There was a blond woman wearing a white dress with a golden pentagram stitched on the front. From what I heard, I¡¯m guessing that this is the priestess Lidia. The second girl standing right next to her had a recurve bow across her back with strange inscriptions on it. For some reason she was dressed like a biker chick with a leather jacket and jeans shorts. Next to her was a shifty looking guy wearing dark pants, a dark shirt, and a dark trench coat. Stuffed in his belt you can see multiple small knives and what seems to be a blow dart. Last was the burly man who pried the heavy door open. He seemed to be wearing a full suit of armor with more of those weird symbols inscribed on them. The strange thing was that all of the symbols including the pentagrams which were glowing. For what seemed like an eternity I stared at the ridiculous scene in front of me trying to comprehend what I was seeing while they stared right back at me in equal disbelief. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The deadlock was broken when the man in black (who I assume is Thomas) screeched "UNDEAD!" and then seemed to fade into the darkness. The burly man seemed to wake up and shouted, "Lidia purify the fucker, we''ll cover you." An ornamental looking war hammer appeared in his hands out of thin air, and he then stood between me and Lidia. (I''m pretty sure that''s her name at this point) "Why the fuck isn''t he attacking?" The biker chick as she pointed an arrow in my direction. "I don''t know, but don''t draw aggro to yourself. Let Lidia do her thing. Don''t fucking shoot that arrow." Burly guy "Language!" I was so shocked that I said the first thing that came into my mind. This time I was sure I heard giggling. "Leo, did that undead just complain about our cursing?" The biker chick was staring at me as if she was doubting her very sanity. As the biker chick was trying to decide whether she was hallucinating or not the priestess finally finished her lengthy chant ".......the light of saint Sofia guide us through the darkness < >" and twin beams of light from her outstretched arms converged on my chest. I felt a warmth for a few seconds and then nothing. The expectant looks on their faces turned into shock then quickly morphed into horror. All of them started to quickly back away as if they were facing the scariest thing that they have ever seen. Trying to diffuse the situation I scraped the bottom of the empty barrel that was my nonexistent social skills and said, "Um.... Hello my name is John. Who are you people?" This time I heard full blown hysterical laughter in my head. Well what did you expect? The only human contacts I have ever had in my entire life were nannies, a few lawyers, my doctor, and some MI7 agents. I''m not exactly used to meeting new people and starting friendly conversations not to mention the fact that the people I''m supposed to be befriending belong in a Tolkien book or comic-con. The only person who didn''t think I was undead was a female A.I. living in my brain who was currently suffering from debilitating laughter. For some reason I had a feeling this was going to be a long day. PR Note: Hey guys, this is my first time PR¡¯ing for a story here, so I¡¯m just going to make light edits. If I miss anything, please message me because I¡¯ll probably won¡¯t check the comments while I work on the next chapters. I¡¯ll go from here to the current chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. chapter two- jumping to conclusions Chapter 2 P.O.V. change - Elsie ( biker chick ) After the greater purify had failed we all knew we were in big trouble. Any undead that can shrug off a major blessing like it was nothing and then make fun of us afterwards is not something amateurs like us could handle. We should have known something was wrong when the naked man came out of the coffin. Even though it was inappropriate at the time, I couldn''t help but be mesmerized by his sheer beauty, that should have been our first clue that we were up against something we couldn''t defeat. It was as if his entire body was carefully sculpted by a goddess of lust to be everything a woman could ever want in a man, carefully calculated to entrance the senses of the opposite sex and hold them prisoner to their own desires. We should have noticed that no normal undead could have such piercingly electric blue eyes that seem to hold the power of a wild storm in their depth, and after the greater purify failed to even affect him , we knew it could only be one creature we were facing ,a creature of legends and nightmares ,an elder vampire. An elder vampire required a raid party of at least fifty experienced adventurers to defeat. Four desperate kids had absolutely no chance against such a monster. I could see the same thoughts going through my team member''s heads as they backed away from the monster. Suddenly as if some unknown signal was given we all simultaneously turned in four different directions away from the alcove where we dug up that god damned coffin and ran away as fast as we could. As I felt the cold sweat going down my back and my breathing became ragged, I kept imagining I could hear its footsteps behind me gaining on me, I kept imagining that I could smell its putrid breath as it was descending on my nape to end my life. At one point I thought I heard someone screaming and I hated myself because some part of me was relieved that it went after one of my friends and not me. Finally as I got out of the dungeon and collapsed on the grassy field outside I knew I probably will never see one of my friends again and now all I could do was wait and see who made it out. P.O.V. change- John( MC ) Before I could say another word to the strange quartet all four turned in four different directions and ran away as if the devil himself was after their soul. Well that was just rude , I mean I''m not that ugly or scary am I ? "You know if I didn''t know for a fact that you had an IQ of 290 I would think you were a certified moron." Apparently mistress Julia has decided to pause her laughter enough to make some more snarky remarks."You aren''t in Kansas anymore john. You need to adopt quickly or you might not survive your next encounter with the natives." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "And what do mean by that Jules, non of this is making much sense to me. What the hell happened while I was out? Did I get transported to another world or something?" "Nope, you are still on good old earth, except remember those strange energy signatures I told you about? Well they have a very strange relationship with what we perceive as reality. Remember that obscure hypothesis by that Russian , Alexei Abrikosov?" I was thunderstruck. I had an inkling of where this was going , one of the greatest secrets of the universe, she was talking about ''the source code theory''."No that''s impossible , there was no evidence to support his theory. Another level of reality that projects our reality, like our reality is just a shadow of a five dimensional reality...." I was gobsmacked . If that is what she is saying then... " He was right john. This new energies they allow us to directly manipulate the five dimensional space. You saw those inscriptions on their armor, that was simple fortification. By manipulating their corresponding fifth dimensional object, they change the very nature of the armor in ways that were previously impossible. " "But Jules, how in God''s name do you know that the fifth dimensional space even exists?" "I noticed that the energies, which I have tentatively decided to call mana , seem to make reality rather malleable and my sensors were able to pick up some "glimpses" of this space, so after the emp event blew all my sensors, let''s just say I made you a pretty special set of eyes" At this point I was sitting down butt naked on the cold hard floor , but I hardly noticed. My mind was going a hundred miles per hour processing not only a giant info dump but a radical shift in paradigm. This changes everything. With mana there was literally infinite possibilities. You could literally mold reality to your wishes. "Jules, show me everything you got on mana, we are gonna have a lot of research to do." "Finally there is the old john I know, for a moment there I thought the coma gave you brain damage...... I might usually give you a hard time but seriously its good to have you back john." I could only smile and reply, "its good to be back." chapter three- jumping the gun Chapter three "What the fuck is wrong with you? I told you repeatedly not to use the god''s sight until I gave you permission. Next time I''m not going to save your sorry ass, I''m just going to watch your liquefied brain leak out your ears. Do you understand how stupid that stunt you pulled was?" . . . Three weeks ago "Before we start let''s button down some terminologies. As I have already mentioned I call the extra dimensional energies mana. The fifth dimensional space I call the informational ether or simply ether. The reason I''m using this terms is related to my research regarding mana and will become abundantly clear later, but first we have to get you used to your new body and all it''s bells and whistles." "All the problems with the cerebral palsy are obviously gone, but that was finished 5 years into the reforging process, so I made a few adjustments while I was waiting 700 years for someone to dig you out. First is the most obvious, I modified your looks to be attractive to the majority of the female population, just think of it as a thank you for letting me live inside of your head . The second modification I made is that instead of flushing the nanites out of your system after the process was complete, I integrated them into your normal biological makeup. Now not only does each cell contain a certain amount of nanites your bone marrow contains specialized cells that are dedicated to producing nanites. Third biggest modification is the mana refining organ where your appendix used to be, and finally I gave you a sparkly pair of eyes that can see into the ether." I whistled appreciatively as she listed out to me what sounded like a grocery list for super powers, basically Jules just told me that I had super looks, super healing, magic , and eyes that can see into the very fabric of the universe. Is it wrong to say I''m in love with my A.I. ? "But listen carefully to what I am about to say now, under no circumstances are you allowed to use fifth dimensional vision, or as I like to call it god sight, until I say so OK?" "Sure sure Jules , I won''t mess with the eyes . Now show me how to use magic!" I was really excited to start with the magic lessons. I won''t publicly admit it but I was a giant Harry Potter nerd as a kid , and this was something of a childhood dream come true. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. " Believe it or not the best ways to manipulate mana have already been discovered. Things that you used to think were a pointless waste of time. For example most of the rituals in the Wicca and druid systems actually work now. The pentagram for example is a rather good way to gather and funnel mana." "Please tell me I don''t have to sift through a bunch of rubbish to be able to use magic." " Of course not, I have been cataloging all the relevant symbols and their uses for the last century, you just have to figure out how to use them. Besides before all this could happen you have to learn to manipulate mana inside of yourself, on that end I have prepared a program of meditation and tai-chi to hone your control. I have a compilation of lessons from masters of both fields ." . . . Three weeks of greuilling training later I was good enough at mana manipulation to send it to specific body parts, and I was so curious about the ether that I activated god sight, almost instantly I had a massive headache and passed out. What woke me up was Julia screaming bloody murder. "What the fuck is wrong with you? I told you repeatedly not to use the god''s sight until I gave you permission. Next time I''m not going to save your sorry ass, I''m just going to watch your liquefied brain leak out your ears. Do you understand how stupid that stunt you pulled was?" " I''m sorry Jules , my curiosity got the better of me." "Well now that you have finished trying to kill yourself in the most painful way possible, let us start your lessons in magic. I''ll give you a list of all the relevant symbols for you to study. Now start memorizing this list." The Egyptian ankh............. To do with life energy, combined with others could be used for combat or healing The pentagram.................. Used as a funnel for manna, acts somewhat like a diode and goes only one way . . . . It had over a hundred pages in really small font, good thing that studying is one of my strong points. chapter four- R & D Chapter 4 I quickly figured out that , even with all the help that Jules was giving me , I sucked pretty bad at external mana manipulation and quick invocation by chanting or other similar rituals. That was okay though, because I was a pretty good artificer(that is the term me and Jules came up with because we thought it sounded cooler than enchanter). What that means is that I could make implements and weapons to do the magic for me , basically I would be making gadgets to do all the work . The second problem I encountered was that most sequence of symbols I use that exceed three seem to become unstable and break down when any mana is passed through them. The solution to this problem came from an unlikely source. I was fooling around with single use implements written on leaves( they are used and the mana going through them burns them up ) when the Sumerian rune for spark and a pentagram landed on the pod. Suddenly an undirected stream of electricity erupted from the pod until both leaves burned up. I stood there in a slack jawed daze until it dawned on me what had just happened. There were materials that conducted mana like metals conducted electricity , meaning I had just found a work around for the instability problem. But that got me thinking, maybe I have been approaching this whole thing the wrong way. Maybe instead of using only ancient rituals I could try to form a more systematic form of casting using my knowledge, maybe I could even meld modern technology with my mana implements . In the end it turned out to be surprisingly simple. A combination of two pentagrams and the spark rune on a simple piece of metal gave me a pretty decent generator , do the same thing with the rune for spin and you get a motor. Granted it was useless to me at this point , but I had a feeling it would come in handy sometime in the future so I put that idea on the back burner and started making things essential for the near future. Most importantly I needed a weapon. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. So I jury rigged two ''staffs'' from panels I managed to pry from the capsule. Considering the kind of world that was probably waiting for me out there, the first one was anti-magic. It was simply a starting stone ( a stone inscribed with three pentagrams) set in in a ring I painstakingly made out of orichalcum ( that is what I will call the pod metal from now on) which I wore on my left hand and a cane made out of orichalcum with a stone inscribed with the runes for mana and chaos set on top, so if I grabbed the cane with my left hand it will send out a stream of mana that could disrupt any enchantment or active magic in its way. The second staff was also a simple orichalcum cane with a stone on top but this one was inscribed with another pentagram and a rather nasty looking druidic rune I simply call sever. It was a weapon I will not take out unless I mean to kill something. The final problem I had was the large, and now rather useful pod I couldn''t leave behind. In the end a simple ''store'' and ''summon'' runes from ancient Babylon fixed that problem so I was finally ready to go beyond the glade at the entrance of the mine shaft, and a good thing too , another day eating hydroponic algae and various herbs and I probably would have gone insane. chapter five- bear necessities Chapter five It felt really good to go out into the sun and fresh air after spending so much of my time in the dark and dreary cave. Plus this was the first time I got to enjoy my fully functional body , I''ll admit I acted like a complete fool running everywhere and laughing like a little kid. I don''t even remember the last time I felt so happy and free. " Hey Jules , you''ve been silent for a while. Your not still sulking about the god sight thing are you?" "No dumbass, I''m trying to fix the damage you caused by your monumentally stupid stunt and making sure it doesn''t happen again." "Oh stop being a wet blanket , we are in a magical land about to have an adventure !" " You look like you are about to go out on a different type of adventure. At least get yourself a pair of pants before you poke somebodies eyes out with that thing." " While vulgar, you still have a point. I wonder if there are any animals to hunt in the forest?" " I''m more worried about animals hunting you in the forest." " Come on, there is nothing in the forest that can stop praecisus ( Latin for cut ) and tollo ( Latin for negate )" " I can''t believe you named your canes. Well what do you know today is your lucky day, you don''t even have to go to the forest, something big is coming your way." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. A rather large brown bear broke out from the trees into the clearing . While it wasted time roaring its anger and sending spittle everywhere, I simply pointed praecisus at said slobbering bear and touched it with my ring. The next moment not only the bear but the tree behind it where bisected into two. I was actually rather shocked at how grizzly (pun intended) the scene was. But on the bright side I was about to eat meat for the first time in 700 years, plus I''m sure I could fashion something from the fur to hide junior. A couple of hours later I was lying down on the grass besides a warm bonfire leisurely enjoying barbecue bear while gazing up at the night sky that was littered with countless stars and a bright gibbous moon. " Hey Jules, what do you think happened to cause all this." "I''m not a 100% sure but according to the timeline I compiled I believe that the cause of the mana event is linked to the experiments that were occurring at the CERN super collider " I couldn''t suppress a chuckle as I imagined the looks on their faces when they realized that they had finally pricked a whole in the universe and that something was leaking in. " Hey Jules, do you you remember the way to the closest settlement. I think its time to say hi to the natives." chapter six- dodging a bullet Chapter six After spending the night peacefully under the stars, I woke up fresh and reinvigorated in the morning. I bathed in a nearby stream and ate some bear jerky for breakfast. Last night before I went to sleep I did what I could to make something for myself using the bear pelt and the results were a fairly serviceable fur cloak , a kilt to cover my nether regions, and a belt I specially made with loops to carry praecisus and tollo. All in all I looked like a barbarian if you were being kind, a beggar if you aren''t. I set off in a south westerly direction following Jules''s directions. I hadn''t even walked a mile when I heard a large group of people approaching from the direction I was going towards. I wasn''t certain but there seemed to be a group of over 100 people who looked like they were heading to a larping convention. From the heavily armored ''tanks'' , the agile ''rouge'' archetype, to the archers, and even a few people with no armor who I assumed were the priests and mages . This looked like a large balanced raid party. I wasn''t naive enough to think that meeting a large group of armed people was a good idea so I took the long way around to pass around them, but since my new and improved body had really sharp senses I was able to pick up snippets of conversations here and there. From what I heard this group was going to hunt what they called an elder vampire. I don''t know what the hell that is but if it needs a freaking army to slay it, I didn''t want to meet it so I lengthened my stride and made my way to the closest thing to human civilization in these parts. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I had a fairly uneventful trip through the forest ( that''s not surprising considering a large party of people just passed through ) when a large but run down wall came into view. I walked all the way to the wall and not seeing any entrances I walked to the right following the wall. When I rounded a corner I came face to face with a large open gate, I was cautious of going inside considering how I was dressed , but the pair of guards on duty didn''t even look up from their card game as I came through. Now that I was inside I saw why the guards didn''t give a damn who was going in or out. The whole place was a run down dump except for a single immaculate mansion surrounded by high walls as if to keep the squalor that was evident everywhere else out. A large faded sign covered in graffiti read " WELCOME TO THE BORROWS " A.N. I know the chapters have been short but since this is the end of the introduction arc chapters from now on will be considerably longer. The settings have been set so now the real story begins. chapter seven- first friend Chapter seven The first thing I did after entering the village was to head towards what I assumed was the market district, once there I hung about observing different transactions to gauge the value of the currencies they were using. After a short time I figured out that they used a base 100 system, meaning 1 gold coin=100 silver coins =10000 copper coins= 1000000 iron bits. Value wise a decent meal costs a copper coin, a decent inn costs 25 coppers per night, and I could probably get decently dressed for under a silver coin. Now that I figured out how the money system works , I made my way to the village blacksmith. It seemed to be situated right next to one of the very few buildings in the village that was properly maintained and was in good condition. This building had a crest over the door that showed a bow and a sword crossed over a shield and underneath it in neat lettering it said ''mercenary guild'' . I was really curious about that place , but first I had to get some of the local currency so I went into the blacksmith''s shop. Inside I found display cases full of all kinds of weapons . There were separate display cases for swords, axes, spears, and war hammers. On the walls hung wooden mannequins wearing all types of armor from heavy plate mail, to scale mail, and finally chain mail. The moment I entered the place a rather short but heavily built man stared at me suspiciously, which was understandable since I didn''t look like I could afford bread let alone anything in here. " Are you lost kid? I think you''ve entered the wrong place sonny." Even though his voice sounded amicable, there was a barely hidden edge of steel underneath that showed that he was not someone to be messed with. "Hello, my name is john and I just wanted to know the prices of the ores here." He seemed taken aback by my polite introduction. Then he seemed to look at me for a couple of seconds shrugged and replied, "I''m Walter friends call me Walt. As for prices I can answer that for you." " I was wondering how much orichalcum costs." He chuckled and answered as if he was humoring a child , "Well a high class ingot of orichalcum the size of a babies fist can go for 120 gold coins." I stood there digesting his words and finally came to a decision. I took out one of the door hinges that were sheared off when the pod doors were pried open and put it on the counter in front of Walter. For a second he just stared at it for a second then lunged for it. After he picked up the metal he tasted it with his tongue, then his round eyes became even rounder. He took a small hammer from some where under his coveralls and struck it against the hinge, after hearing the clear note that rung out his eyes turned even rounder. He told me to follow him and ran quickly to the back of the shop. When I arrived he was putting the hinge on a pedestal with a magic circle on it and after a while the hinge started to float and glow a bright gold color. Walter fell on his knees and suddenly started speaking in rapid German. He calmed down enough to turn towards me and said, " Do you know what you have here?" Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "You tell me Walter." "Its pure orichalcum, all the books say it is impossible but its right here under my nose ... Hahaha" he was starting to get hysterical so I decided to cut to the chase before he loses all his reason. "So how much will you give me for this?" "What do you mean? I can''t afford this , this little piece of metal is worth more than everything I own..." There were tears in his eyes as he admitted this to me. "Tell you what, you seem like a pretty honest and nice guy so how about this, you pay me 120 gold coins and give me permission to work freely in your forge and I''ll give you the metal." I knew I was probably losing a lot of money but I liked Walter. He didn''t try to cheat me and he was probably the kind of friend you could count on when you''re in trouble so I wasn''t overly bothered. He immediately ran to the back of the room opened a heavy door took out a sack of money and without even counting it gave it to me afterwards he ignored me and continued to stare at the metal. I discreetly put the sack of gold in my pocket dimension. After leaving the store I heard running behind me and turned around and behind me was a flustered Walter trying to catch his breath. After he gained his composure he grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. Then he said a single sentence and left, but the importance of the words were not lost on me. The simple sentence he said to me was... " You can call me Walt " chapter eight- history lesson Chapter eight I woke up at the inn I was staying at, and I wore the brand new cotton clothes I bought yesterday. With my money problems fixed I could focus on the really important tasks, and no task is currently more important than to find out what the hell happened in the last seven centuries. Thankfully there was a library behind the large mansion and anybody who can afford the five silver entrance fee could enter. So that morning I put away most of my equipment, pocketed five silver , and ran to the library. At the door the guard was surprised anybody would pay the exorbitant prices to read books , but he was there to collect the tolls not comment so he didn''t say anything. Inside I was met by an old librarian, who told me the rules of the library, basically no stealing or damaging the books, no loud noises, put the books back where you found them. I immediately went to the catalog , found the history section and started reading. Although heavily biased, 9 days and 45 silvers later I put together a pretty accurate of what probably happened. . . . It all started with a girl named Sofia. She was the first person able to use mana. For years she went around the world healing people from things like cancer and Ebola with a simple wave of her hand. When asked how she was able to perform such miracles she replied " god told me to heal people so I heal people. " Everybody was in an uproar, was she really some sort of saint or was this a trick? But slowly other people started exhibiting powers. They weren''t the normal people but the people who have been marginalized and ridiculed for their weird and strange beliefs, and now the wiccans, witches , druids , and witch doctors started to weild amazing and terrifying powers . Putin was the first to capitalize on this new source of power, he made the durnoy glaz or the evil eye coven. Steeped in the darkest form of sorcery and sacrifice , they were given free reign to do whatever they wanted. Other countries soon followed suit and established institutions to control the magical element. Chief among them was the mage council in Montreal Canada, and the wiccan sisterhood in Europe. Everything seemed to be going fine except that several incidents kept occurring around the world to remind the world that there were extremely dangerous individuals among them, like when the aborigeni with the help of their shamans massacred almost all of the white population and took back Australia. But the straw that broke the camels back was the New York tragedy. A group of drunk teens successfully summoned a demon that butchered thousands of people before the mage council could contain it. Suddenly it was like 9/11 allover again. Antimagic legislations were passed, and suddenly hate crimes and discrimination spread. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. In the middle of this chaos a lab in Denmark discovered that mana behaves strangely in intense magnetic fields and used this fact to develop counter measures for magic. Using this technology governments started cracking down on magic everywhere. And one fateful Friday night an overzealous Colombian officer ,using the new technology, accidentally killed the innocent Sofia, and that was all it took. The magical community had found its Joan of arc, the martyr they could all rally behind. They made the church of the holy saint Sofia and proclaimed anything to do with technology as evil. The wiccan sisterhood made a grand working with all the covens in Europe present. The result, an electro magnetic pulse that swallowed the entire world and broke every chip in the world. Without their sophisticated weapons the entire world''s army was defeated by the end of the week. All the intellectuals in the world were hunted as heretics, all books about technology and science were burned. In the end the world was divided into 8 to be governed as thus, the durnoy glaz took Russia, the druids claimed great Britain, the martial masters took Asia, the aborigeni took Australia, a person claiming to be the reincarnation of king Solomon took Africa,the mage council took north america, finally the bestial tribes from the amazon took south america leaving Europe to the wiccan sisterhood. All scientific knowledge concerning certain fields were systematically purged from humanity. And the most influential church in the world, the saint Sofia church makes sure that it remains that way. . . . chapter nine-home making Chapter nine For a moment I just sat there in the library thinking about how precarious my place in this world has just become. I seem to be the walking manifestation of everything that the church hates so much. Hell I don''t think I could be something worse if I tried .I''m a walking library of forbidden knowledge, with my body literally teeming with nanites and a super computer in my head, if anybody found out I''ll probably become public enemy number one, something akin to the devil for these people. I needed to prepare for when the shit will hit the fan. The list of things I need to do and critical things I needed to invent just tripled. But for now I needed to focus on things I could accomplish. First I went to Walter''s shop to use his equipments. Finally with his help praecisus and tollo looked like they were posh walking sticks that I could carry around without looking weird, I replaced the stones with actual gems and did the same thing with the starter ring. Then I asked Walter where I could buy a large sized house with some privacy. He pointed me towards a rundown three story building on a hill just inside the city walls. There were no buildings anywhere near it and I got the building and surrounding lands for just 10 gold because nobody else wanted it. Walter wanted to show me some carpenters and masons but when I declined he just looked at me sideways and went back to his shop without asking any questions. Inside the building, I was surprised that the thing was still standing. So as the first order of business I picked up a brick and enchanted it with the runes for fill and earth and ran it over the first floor walls. By the time I was done the walls had swelled up to twice their size and where rather ugly and uneven, but I was ready for this and I enchanted another brick with runes for compress and smooth. By the time I was done I had walls made of what appeared to be brown granite. After inscribing each of the supporting columns with the stable and strengthen rune I fixed up the basement and the upper stories in the same way. By the end of the day I had a strong and sturdy house surrounded by a large wall all made of sturdy ''brown granite''. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. After a day spent cleaning and furnishing the damn thing I moved right in. By the time I was finished with it I was actually pretty happy with the place. One of the rooms on the first floor was converted into a smith. The forge inside was not a normal forge . Instead of fuel to make fire it is just enchanted to be incredibly hot. The rest of the first floor was pretty normal. The living room was quite large , l put some comfortable sofas and a couch around a coffee table but it still looked kind of empty . For the kitchen I enchanted a stove and a refrigerator and that is all there is on the first floor. The basement door had every security I could think of , and some designed especially by Jules. The only way to enter would be to have a signet ring I made especially for the door. Inside , besides the room containing the bulky pod, there are multiple rooms for each of my projects, and a special shielded room where I could try out new devices safely. I was admiring my handy work when I heard the ring of bells telling me I had visitors, wondering who the hell came to my house before I had a chance to properly finish settling in, I made my way to the gates. At the gates was an ornate looking carriage . As I got out, the guy driving the carriage turned to me and shouted " Boy go call your master , the lord of the city has come to pay a visit to personally welcome the powerful mage to his city" I knew this was going to be trouble so I tried to get rid of them as politely as possible, " sir I''m afraid you have been misinformed . There are no mages in this house." " What are you talking about boy, this building appeared over night, of course a great mage lives here. Don''t test my patience boy , go call your master now or I''ll have you flogged! " I was starting to get really annoyed at this man''s attitude, " let me clarify , the only person that lives here is me and I am not a mage, I''m an enchanter." He was suddenly very silent and the door of the carriage slowly opened. chapter ten- who can it be now? Chapter ten The carriage door creaked open and a man that looked like he was more than eighty years old stepped out. He had wrinkles crisscrossing his face but instead of making him look older they just made him look sharper. His long hair and overgrown beard have long stopped being gray and had become snow white. His steely gray eyes were looking at me like he was examining a particularly juicy steak, the only way to describe the look was hunger, the hunger for power. He wasn''t wearing any ornamental clothing or armor. He wore a simple green robe with druidic runes of protection running all over it. The robe covered a frame that was anything but frail. He had a straight posture and he seemed to be lightly swinging the heavy looking cudgel he was carrying, everything in me was screaming that this man was dangerous, not because of his position but the personal power he wields. " Enchanter you say... what are your affiliations, what do you specialize in ?" Thankfully I have been reading about the common sense of the world so I knew what he was talking about. Runes are a jealously guarded secret that were hoarded by different clans. If you are asking why don''t they just copy the glowing runes from enchanted items, apparently no one but me could see those, according to Jules it was a passive effect of the god sight. So when he asked for my affiliations and specialization he was asking me where I''m from and what I runes I know. " I''m not affiliated with any clans, I''m just a wanderer who picked up some things here and there." The hunger in his eyes suddenly intensified, " Will you share your knowledge? " " I''m sorry, I took a solemn vow of silence when I was thought most of the useful runes, the only runes I could teach you are those to smooth stones like you see here." He looked at me suspiciously, but said nothing. While a vow was nothing in the old world, but now in a world of magic a vow is binding. He made me carefully pen down the stone smoothing and compressing runes, told me he might send work my way and took his leave. But from the parting looks he was giving me I knew I wasn''t done with the city lord just yet. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.. . . After the carriage left, I sat down to ponder the new situation I found myself in. I knew that the lord was going to be keeping a close eye on me from this point onward so I couldn''t do something suspicious like disappear for a couple of weeks while I was doing research. What I needed now was a place I could be visible to alleviate suspicions about what I was up to. I need a place to show I was nothing more than a wandering enchanter plying his trade. I needed to start my own business. The next morning I bought the store right next to Walter''s (it was pricy at 45 gold but it was at a good location) and spent the whole day renovating it. Finally I hung a brightly painted sign over the door that read "John''s enchantment emporium" . I went back home after the hard day''s work and collapsed on my bed. Two days later was the not so grand opening of my shop. On display were simple items like torches with a light enchantment, pendants to keep cool in the heat, and other such material. The only reason I opened the store was to throw the lord off my scent. I thought I would stay in an empty store ,maybe three times a week and maybe enchant some armor now and then to keep up appearances. I made a slight miscalculation, I was the only enchanter in the area that didn''t work for a clan or the church. Word spread like wildfire , you would think without cellphones or the internet people would have a hard time disseminating information, but no. Within a week I had customers from across the country coming to get their armors enchanted. The part time job I planned to use as a cover became a full time job. This wasn''t going to work. I couldn''t spend all my time in the shop, I had a lot of important projects waiting at home. I needed someone else to mind the shop and take orders while I do serious work at home. When I asked Walter where I could find a trustworthy employee, he pointed me towards the orphanage. I closed the shop for the day and went to the orphanage. It was a run down building that looked like it might fall at any moment. I knocked at the door and was greeted by an unexpected surprise. chapter eleven- you look familiar... Chapter eleven P.O.V change - Lidia Since our miraculous escape from that elder vampire , all of us were very badly shaken. Elsie lost all confidence as an adventurer and quit the team to work with her father in their family business , banking. For his part her father, Thomas Rothschild , was happy she was done with her ''fanciful urges'' and decided to settle down. As the owner of one of the biggest bank in the world, the ouroboros bank, he was always embarrassed that his only daughter became something so filthy and common as an adventurer. Now he just assumed it was teenage rebelliousness and that it had finished playing out. Elsie never spoke of the vampire ever again , she got an executive job at the bank and tried to forget it ever happened. Leo, full name Leonardo Sagittarius, went back to his clan ,the zodiacs , to arrange for a raid to exterminate the vampire. It took a while to sortie a decent raid party. When the party finally got to the cave all they found was what was left of a bear that was killed the previous day. Rangers figured out that the bear was killed with a clean slice that also fell a tree behind it. Everybody in the party had cold sweats down their backs imagining the power of the monster that did this. In fact most of the people were happy when they found out the cave was empty. Leo and his party were forced to go home empty handed. Thomas went back to the big streets of London and decided to lived his life as a thief. None of us opposed him, he wasn''t from a big family like the rest of us so there was precious little he could do other than steal. I never heard from him again. As for me, my family, the Zaqar family, one of the 13 pure wiccan families that ruled Europe called me back so I could marry an appropriate girl and have children to strengthen the family ( a.n. yup you heard right, all the members of the wiccan families are women , and they reproduce using rituals... more on this later.) I refused because without me the orphanage would be left in ruins. They cut off my allowance , and now the orphanage was bankrupt. The money lenders were getting more and more vicious and were threatening to do something violent to the kids unless we pay them what we owe. I was sitting down on the stairs, nursing a headache while worrying about what to do about our money problems when I heard someone knocking at the door. Wondering who would come at this time of the evening, I opened the door. Standing there was a well built man suspiciously wearing a cowl. He was too finely dressed to be one of the money lenders so I tried to be as polite as possible. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. "Hello, sir how may I help you." He seemed stunned for a second then politely replied, " um... Hello my friend Walter said I could find honest people to employ here." Something about the way he talked and his voice sounded familiar for some reason , but I just couldn''t place where I knew him. "What kind of work do you do sir?" "Oh I''m the new enchanter that opened shop recently." I had heard of the famous new enchanter in town, what was the name of his shop again? Ah right, John''s enchantment emporium. Again that feeling of something familiar and important stuck in my head, but I just could not figure out what was wrong, so I chocked it down as another case of deja vu and continued our conversation. "Are you talking about Walt the blacksmith, then you came to the right place. What kind of jobs are we talking about?" "I need someone to mind the counter at the store and take orders, so someone literate and good at maths and maybe two physically strong boys to keep customers in check and protect the store." I told him I would be right back and went to get the kids. I came back with 3 kids I thought would be perfect for the store. There was the pretty red head Cara and the burly twins Jamie and Fred. He seemed fine with my choices so I came to what I thought would be the hard part, wages. "Sir, how much will you be paying these kids." "Oh , don''t worry Lidia I will pay 1 gold coin for all three monthly. If everything is acceptable they can start on Monday, now if you''ll excuse me its rather late and I want to get home before it gets too dark." And then he just left. I was so shocked by his generous offer I didn''t even notice that he said my name until later. How did he know my name, did Walter tell him? chapter twelve- the plot thickens Chapter twelve P.O.V. change - John (M.C.) All I could think of as I left the orphanage was that I was really thankful that I indulged my paranoia when I was buying clothes. That could have gone disastrously wrong. Well there is no point thinking about it now. Walking through the rundown neighborhoods of the borrows towards my home, I started to think about all the projects I had on my plates. There was weapon development, I know I have my trusty canes but not only were they inappropriate for many situations , but they are also somewhat hard to deploy in a split second situation and in a world like this a split second could be the difference between life and death. Next on my list was my non existent defense. I am the very definition of a glass cannon, I could hit really hard but can''t take a hit. Of course there was my super healing but I didn''t want to find out its limits in the middle of a battle so I needed a set of defenses that are effective in as many different scenarios as possible. Finally, and maybe most importantly , I want to know what kind of tech I can create using magic and science. I want to see how mana reacts to magnetic and electric fields, as well as find out if there are materials other than orichalcum that could conduct mana. This is gonna be a lot of work. By the time I finished processing the thoughts about these problems I was already at the gates of my house, I got into my house and still deep in thought I fell on to the bed and passed out. The next day was a Saturday so I didn''t have to go to the shop , instead I woke up bright and early and started working on my projects. First of all I wanted to see how mana reacts to magnetic and electric fields. "Jules, you awake in there?" " I''m always awake you dimwit, what do you want " " As pleasant as always I see. I wanted to ask you about my eyes, they can normally see manna right? Why can''t I see the ambient manna around me?" "Because I''m filtering it out otherwise it would be something like this." Suddenly my vision turned into something from the mind of someone who took acid, psychedelic was the only way to describe it. "That''s enough Jules , you''ve made your point. Damn there is a lot of manna isn''t there?" " I did tell you it was everywhere" After my vision returned to normal , I thought of a rather simple experiment to see the interactions between mana and magnetic fields. I made a simple solenoid and connected it to my magic generator. Then I told Jules to show me only the manna around the solenoid. From what I could see there was no mana around the solenoid , but there seemed to be a strong current of mana passing right through the middle. I was shocked , this was it ,if I could study and analyze this phenomenon it could be the key to making magic technology. "Jules , are you seeing this . This is incredible! " " Of course I see it , and while you were spasing out with your little eureka moment, I have been running millions of calculations to see exactly what is happening." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. "Always appreciated Jules, what do you have for me " " Its very strange, the phenomenon is not uniform, the numbers aren''t exact but from the preliminary results the magnetic field is acting like a sort of ''shepherd'' for the mana. If we use this right we might be able to use this to stabilize longer chains of enchantments." This was turning out to be a very good morning. * * * Unknown P.O.V. Somewhere in Europe I ran as fast as my legs could take me. Our ancestors said this day might come, but nobody really thought it would happen. Most of the apprentices treated their shift at the giant ornate scrying pool as a time to relax and veg out for a while, I was also honoring this time honored tradition and zoning in and out so at first I didn''t even know what I was seeing. Ripples suddenly started to appear in the ever calm pool, as if a single pebble was dropped at that point, then it happened again and again and again for fifteen minutes then stopped. I had been standing there in slack jawed amazement at what I had just seen, then my brain started getting into gear and I bolted to the matron mother''s chambers. After knocking frantically at her door for what felt like forever I heard a voice behind the door grumbling. " There better be something on fire ....disturbing me while I''m casting ....if there is nothing on fire I''m setting someone''s hair on fire..." "Matron mother, it''s the pond, there were ripples." Suddenly the was silence on the other side of the room. After a few seconds had passed, the door was flung open violently. "..... what did you say girl? " "The pond of scrying, it had ripples." "Girl, do you know what you are saying? If you are lying , forget being expelled I''m going to have you flogged. Are you sure?" " Yes matron mother, I swear on my power." For a moment I felt heat on my forehead as a symbol on my forehead glowed for a moment showing that I was telling the truth. "Alright girl come with me." We then proceeded to go through various corridors and went up a grand looking staircase. When we entered the room at the top there was a desiccated old lady sitting behind an ornate writing desk. We both knelt and said, " your Eminence" "What brings you to my office Minerva ?" "The pool of scrying activated, this girl saw it." "Can you show me on the map where the ripple started little girl?" I pointed and showed her where I saw the ripples. "The north of the Druid''s lands...hmmm, isn''t that where your daughter is Minerva ?" "Yes, your Eminence." "Well no matter, inform all of the others. It seems we have a heretic to hunt." chapter thirteen- dream come true Chapter thirteen It was a dreary Monday morning as I made my way to the shop in the poring rain. When I arrived I was surprised to see that the kids from the orphanage were already waiting for me at the doorsteps of the shop. I unlocked the door and let them inside. I couldn''t quite remember their names so I started out by introducing myself. "Hello , my name is john and I will be your employer." "Hi, my name is Cara . pleased to meet you." "I''m Jamie". " I''m Fred" Cara sounded a bit shy. The twins on the other hand were gruff and sounded like they meant business. Cara was actually staring at me without making eye contact and was starting to get really red. I thought her reaction was a bit strange but then I remembered that I took off my cowl when it got soggy in the rain. " Alright I''m going to show you your new duties then I''m going to monitor how you do for the rest of the day." After I showed them what they should do, I sat back and watched them work. Cara was actually pretty sharp so she got the hang of it pretty quickly. As for the twins they were so intimidating that nobody even wanted to mess with them. At the end of the day I gave them the keys to the store, their first paycheck and I reminded them that from today onwards I''ll only come in the evenings to do enchantment work. They seemed quite excited as they headed to the orphanage with their paycheck. I, on the other hand, wasn''t so chipper. I''ve been working so hard on my projects that I had not slept for three entire days. The work wasn''t so difficult but there was just so much of it. "Hey john, if I may make a suggestion why don''t you just get some help." "You know I can''t do that Jules, if anyone found out about me I would be in deep shit." "I never said get a human helper." "Can''t do that either, all the summoning rituals are large , complex , and need multiple mages to activate and control." "Not anymore, look at this." And then she showed me the schematics for something large with very complex wiring. "Jules, is this what I think it is? " "Do you think that that is an automated ritual machine, then yes that is what you thought it was." It was basically a matrix of wires setup in such a way that when a current runs through them they create a complex magnetic field that ''guides'' mana supplied by starter pins (a starter stone with a bit of orichalcum at the tip) into the appropriate shapes for a ritual ,aka an automatic ritual. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I was gonna need a lot of wire. * * * My first coherent thought was that the moon looked comically large in the night sky, I turned around to find out where i was and lying down next to me was a woman I''ve never seen before. The one word to describe her was perfect, all the confusion about the lack of information about how I got to this place, all the concern I felt simply became insignificant as I looked at her well sculpted face. As if my eyes were on autopilot they started to slowly lower their line of sight down her lightly arched neck, then further down to take in the magnificent bounty on offer and even though they lightly lingered there they continued their decent down to her slender waist that suddenly expanded as they continued their journey south, finally they scanned down her sleek lightly toned legs that seemed to go on forever . I was completely enchanted by her beauty , her skin was the color of really light mocha and the red swimsuit she was wearing put it on excellent display, the magic she had on me broke when she suddenly started to giggle "Enjoying the view john?" For some reason I didn''t think she was talking about the night sky. Her voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I was sure I was mistaken because I would remember if I met someone as divine as her. "Where are we?" "Of course we are at the beach john, isn''t it obvious ?" She was giggling while her large brown eyes seem to dance with humor. Just as she finished speaking I realized she was right, I was lying on white sand wearing swimming trunks that seemed to suddenly become a little too tight. The woman suddenly decided to get up and pulled me up with her. She pulled me all the way to the water to frolic among the waves. The funny thing was I didn''t even notice the water until I was knee deep in it. "Come on john, don''t over think it, just have fun." Then she dunked me underwater, the water was warm and pleasant . Then we started playing a game of tag in the water, which quickly devolved into a water splashing war until we both fell down exhausted on the white sands of the beach , both of us giggling. "This was nice john, best date I''ve ever had ." "Was this a date?" "Only one way to make sure" then she suddenly straddled me and gave me a hot scorching kiss, then I felt my consciousness float away as I woke up in my room. Even though I knew it was just a dream, I just couldn''t get the curvaceous woman out of my thoughts and I found myself wishing I could go back to the dream. chapter fourteen- dashing hero Chapter fourteen I was in a foul mood after the unsatisfying end to my dream and it only got worse after I read the letter that was stuck under the gate sometime early in the morning. It read- You are hereby summoned by the lord of the city, lord Alazar , druid second class , seventh elder of the Eddington family, to appear at the mansion no later than noon to fulfill your duty as a citizen of the borrows and consequently a loyal vassal of our great lord. Minister of public relations , Tawdry McAllister. There were so many things about that letter that pissed me off that I wanted to simply burn the damned thing and ignore the whole thing altogether , but I knew that if I didn''t go as instructed I would probably be arrested for treason or something . As I ate my breakfast I tried to remember everything I knew about the lord. Since he started snooping around me and my business I asked around about him. I learned various things about the man. The most important thing you should always keep in mind when dealing with lord Alazar is that he was a druid, second class. This might not sound impressive but the druids use a descending system to designate power, meaning the only druids more powerful than him were the druids, first class and most of them are members of the council of 30 that ruled Britain. The second most important thing to remember when dealing with the lord is that he is an elder of one of the 30 ruling families, house Eddington , meaning he is well connected enough to get away with anything and there will be people coming for revenge if something happened to him. I was thinking about these facts and other trivia I managed to ferret out about lord Alazar as I walked up to the giant gate guarding the mansion. The guard asked what my business was and I simply showed him the letter. I was quickly led to a parlor area and was told to wait for the lord. When he finally came a full hour later he was followed by a servant carrying a cushion with a small crown resting on it. "Hello john, I was asking around about your enchantments ,none of them were particularly impressive, but one of them did catch my eye. The enchantment you did for clarity was something new to me, so I have decided that you will enchant this diadem with that enchantment. You will of course be properly compensated." He then turned around and walked away ,not waiting to hear my reply. I could understand why he would want that particular enchantment, it would be a great help for any spell caster, reducing the strain of casting. The servant put down the pillow and its load down on the table and also left. I was about to quickly enchant the damn thing and get it over with quickly , when I remembered the sinister glint in the Lord''s eyes as he was walking away. Granted the guy always looked sinister but some gut feeling was telling me this was different, so instead I did what I should have done in the beginning. "Jules, please scan the area for anything abnormal." "There are five hidden runes in various places around the room and one on the tiara itself." I was seething mad at the gall that the lord had. If he had succeeded in his little espionage I would have become a vow breaker, of course I didn''t have any actual vows but the lord didn''t know that. In simple terms he just tried to kill me to learn a single rune. I destroyed every rune in the room then inscribed the diadem with ''clarity'' and ''fake'' . It would make the wearer believe he was under the clarity effect without granting any of the benefits. I was just finishing when the lord reentered the room. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. "Interesting, what is this jewels you spoke to? Is it a companion spirit ? Maybe a familiar , no? OK , I guess everybody is entitled to their secrets . Now about the final thing I wanted to talk to you about, the children that are working for you , I want you to fire them." "Why?" I was finding it very hard to keep my tone civil. "Well I want the land their orphanage is sitting on and the only thing that is keeping them afloat is you so fire them as soon as possible. Well that''s it for today you can pick up your money on your way out." I stormed out of the place angrier than I have been in a really long time. I went to the shop, told the kids to close up and follow me to the orphanage. * * * P.O.V. change Lidia Things have been going well since the mysterious john hired Cara and the twins, that gold coin they brought in the first day was able to shut up most of the money lenders. I was finally able to relax a little and my headache finally disappeared. I was even humming a little as I was sweeping the floor. I suddenly heard a loud knocking at the door. When I opened the door Mr john walked in followed by Cara and the twins. "I''m sorry miss Lidia I will have to terminate the employment of these three." I was shocked, "Did they do something wrong Mr. John?" "Before we talk , is there anywhere we can talk privately?" So I took him to the store room out back. When I turned around he started speaking quietly . "Did you know that the lord of the city wants the land the orphanage is on?" "No ....." "Well he does and so he ordered me to fire the children. Which reminds me catch." He then threw a sack at me. "Mr john what is this?" " Its a tradition where I come from, its called severance pay." " I can''t take this ... It must have thirty gold inside ..." "Oh, don''t worry about that its as much about spiting the lord as helping you, just do me a favor and don''t tell anyone you got this from me, and tell the children I''m sorry." Then he turned around and walked away, it was like he was one of the heroes I grew up hearing about. I suddenly started imagining what he looked like under his cowl. When I asked the twins they just said he was a pretty boy, what I found more interesting was Cara''s reaction, she flushes red and refuses to answer. I imagined the handsome mysterious hero rescuing the helpless maiden from the evil lord and I had to cover my cheeks to cover my cheeks as they blushed. From that day forth every time I thought about john for some reason I would blush. chapter fifteen- the LEG Chapter fifteen After I put an order for a shit ton of wire at Walter''s place, I started to think about making some of the things I have been toying around with in my head. They say idle hands do the devil''s work, with the shop closed and everything else on hold until Walter finished making the wire my hands were certainly idle. The first weapon I made was just as a proof of concept. My idea was simple , connecting more then three runes is impossible for me at this point, but couldn''t I make something with multiple separate stages to compensate for that? So I carefully made a barrel , to contain the different stages of the weapon. Then I enchanted five pieces of glass with ''light'' , ''focus'' , and pentagram runes ( a.n. its been omitted so far but an enchantment without a pentagram or similar runes would need someone skilled in external mana manipulation to use, on the other hand an enchantment with a pentagram is always active.) . Then I enchanted another five pieces with the ''light'' , ''amplify'' , and pentagram runes. The last piece of glass I enchanted with the ''one way'' , ''light'' , and pentagram combo. The final pieces of the weapon were a piece of metal enchanted with ''emit'' and ''light'' , a starting pin( remember the stones with the three pentagrams and a piece of orichalcum) and a spring loaded trigger. Finally I went into a completely dark room and with the help of Jules assembled the whole thing together. What I made was the L.E.G. , the laser emitting gun. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The way it worked was actually pretty simple, when you pull the trigger the pin hits the light emitter then the light is repeatedly amplified and focused until what comes out the end is a very concentrated and thus very dangerous beam of light. The tip of the gun is sealed with the ''one way'' piece to prevent the same thing from happening backwards and burning my face off. And the best part about it was that from what I have seen so far most magical defenses focus on things like magic and impact meaning the L.E.G. was absolutely lethal to almost anything. After a series of tests in the safe room, I was more than impressed with its performance. It went through an inch thick piece of enchanted steel like it was butter. With Jules showing me the trajectory of my shots I didn''t ever miss. The barrel was enchanted to be cool so it didn''t ever heat up. Plus the pure awesomeness of having a freaking laser. " You just had a nerd-gasm didn''t you." "Yes , yes I did Jules." "That was supposed to be an offensive comment you know." "I don''t think there is anything you can say right now that could offend me right now." "Are you really that happy right now?" "Jules I just made a freaking laser gun, this could be the single happiest moment in my life. Now let''s go shoot things *cough* I mean check the operational parameters of the gun." chapter sixteen- the ARM Chapter sixteen I was pleasantly surprised when Walter came to my home with a wagon full of wire the very next day. I invited him in and I treated him to some whiskey, its amazing what you can make with a barrel that was enchanted to quickly ferment liquor. He left slightly sloshed but completely happy. The next thirteen days I spent setting up the A.R.M. ( automated ritual machine ) . In the end I had to magically dig out a second basement just to fit the damn thing. It was a giant complex web of wires that I had to carefully set up in the exact way that Jules specified. The idea behind the machine was actually pretty simple, You draw the ritual circle you want to invoke on a board. Instead of mages (a.n. different parts of the world use different terms like witch doctor, witch, wizard etc... but I''m gonna use mage as a general term) to provide the power you insert starting pins. Afterwards you insert the board into the A.R.M. The other important component of any ritual other than power is the mages ''will'' that acts as a guide for the mana through the ritual. That part has been replaced by the magnetic field that is going to be supplied by the wires. There where tens of thousands of separate wires that could be plugged into a switchboard connected to a bank of five hundred magical generators. The calculations to determine the current that should flow through each wire to get the appropriate field was so astronomical that it would probably have taken me hundreds of years just to figure out a single ritual, but thankfully I have a supercomputer in my head to do all the calculations for me. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. It was a door to a lot of possibilities that were not open to me before like summoning and empowerment rituals among others. I was really excited about the next part. "Jules, its time to summon a familiar." I was imagining all the creatures I was going to summon and bind to my will when Jules shattered my fantasies with two words. "No succubi." "Awwwww........ Come on!" * * * P.O.V. change - Lidia The past two weeks have been absolutely wonderful, and it was all thanks to the generous and mysterious John. I was not only able to pay off all of the orphanage''s debts, but also pay some masons to fix the house before it collapsed on our heads. Even after all that I was able to buy some of the older children second hand equipment and they started doing low grade missions in the mercenary''s guild, so we had a good income source now. I was in the parlor playing the violin, which I hadn''t played in a while, while I marveled at the change one man''s generosity had wrought upon my life. So I had a big smile on my face when I went to open the door after I heard a light knock. All my good cheer disappeared right along with the smile when I saw who was at the door. " Mom? " A,n. I know the chapters are short but I released like 10 chapters in two days so please bear with me. Shout out to icecranium for understanding chapter seventeen - mommy issues Chapter seventeen P.O.V. - Lidia "Mom?" "Ah... I see you are still living in this disgusting hovel. Well , what are you waiting for , aren''t you going to invite me in?" I was sorely tempted to just say no and slam the door in her face, but I grit my teeth and let the condescending bitch into my home. "So where are the trash you collect to make yourself feel better about yourself? They didn''t all get arrested or something did they?" "They are not trash they are orphans and I don''t collect them to make myself feel better , it is my duty as a member of the church to help people in need." "Don''t talk to me about duty, I gave birth to you and raised you even though you were a talentless runt. God gave you one gift, your beauty , and it is your duty to use that gift to help our family. You should be flattered that someone as talented as Cynthia even noticed you, let alone ask for your hand in marriage . She''s from an eldritch family, don''t you know what this could mean for us? You can finally contribute something to our family instead of just being an embarrassment." "Mother I don''t even like Cynthia...., you know what ,this is pointless. We''re never gonna agree on this and I don''t see the point in arguing anymore. Why are you here mom? " " I came on business with the high priestess to hunt a heretic, since you were in the area I thought I would try to make you stop this foolishness and come back home." "I am home mother." " ...... I see, well then there is no point staying when my presence is not wanted." "Goodbye mother." After my mother left I started thinking about what she said. There hasn''t been a heretic hunt since the great purge 300 years ago, and it must be serious if the high priestess herself came all the way to Britain. Then I suddenly remembered the coffin with the heretic technology and the elder vampire and wondered if there was any connections between the vampire and the heretic, maybe a heretical vampire. I shuddered at the thought then I turned to the only thing that never fails to raise my spirits recently, thoughts of my mysterious hero John and wondered what he was up to since his store closed. With the smile returning to my face I went about my daily chores with a little extra spring in my step. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. * * * P.O.V. change - John ( The M.C.) "So if you won''t let me have a succubus what can I have? And on a more serious note, where would this creature even come from ?" I was really excited about the summoning , but I wanted to know exactly what I was summoning and from where it originated. I didn''t want to end up with something strange or worse, dangerous. "This is where it gets a little abstract so bear with me, from what I glimpsed of the ether it is a place where infinite versions of our universe exist simultaneously . Imagine the ether was an object and our universe was a shadow, then mana is like the light that created the shadow. Now imagine if you could manipulate how the light hits the object then you could change the shadow, that is the concept behind the magic you have performed so far. But the ether is not empty, it is inhabited by things that fluctuate between being real and imaginary, things people call spirits, angels , demons, and even gods. I''m not sure whether they were spawned from people''s belief or not but we do know mana responds to thought so I think it is a strong possibility. What you are going to summon is one of these creatures. There are a wide variety of choices for you to make, I have rituals to summon anything from the fey to an archduke of hell, here are the choices." She displayed for me hundreds of what she called ''viable candidates'' . after carefully reading it I made decision, " I choose ......." chapter eighteen - dancing the night away Chapter eighteen "I choose..." Before I could finish the statement I heard the loud ringing of bells announcing that someone was at my front gate. I quickly sealed the ARM room, holstered the LEG(my laser) in a new custom made holster that I commissioned immediately after I invented the thing, grabbed my Cains and got out of the basement, then sealed the whole thing up tight as a drum. Only after that did I rush to the gate to see who it was. The lord''s ornate carriage was parked right outside, and immediately after I opened the gate what appeared to be a herald jumped out of the carriage and announced, " The enchanter known as Jack is hereby invited to attend a grand ball at the lords mansion. The lord knows you lack a carriage so he sends his personal carriage to ferry you." I couldn''t have been more surprised if you told me the devil was vegan. A polite invitation to a ball from the lord that just orders people to do whatever he wanted, I was incredibly suspicious about what was happening. Seeing the hesitation on my face the herald lowered his voice and said, "Look, the lord is hosting a very important guest this evening and if you haven''t noticed the burrows isn''t exactly the kind of place where you can find an over abundance of people you can invite to a ball. You dress descent enough , know how to mind your manners and have a respectable magic profession. If you do this the lord would be happy , and a happy lord makes everybody''s life a lot easier , so what do you say? " Even though I hated the lord''s guts , I didn''t want to directly offend him. Plus he made an effort to be nice and if I rejected he would probably become a serious enemy, so I went back inside put on a cape I bought because it was cool ( who doesn''t think capes are cool) adjusted my cowl and jumped into the carriage. The ride to the mansion was quick and uneventful. When we arrived at the gates the guards that were wearing polished, almost ceremonial looking armor let us in . The lobby was decorated with bright sashes and floating magical lighting everywhere .There were people already inside seeming to drift around making conversation. After I went inside I just stood there feeling awkward. Since I was disabled for most of my life I''ve never been to a party let alone a formal ball. I was starting to feel very uncomfortable when I heard a female voice calling my name. "John, its been a while since I''ve seen you around town, how are you doing?" I turned around to reply, and nearly swallowed my tongue when I beheld the beauty before me. Standing in front of me in a little figure hugging black dress with a plunging neckline looking decidedly un-priestess-like was a blushing Lidia. The silence had gone on for a noticeable time and Lidia was starting to blush furiously when my mind finally got into gear. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Umm... Sorry Lidia , I was just a little taken aback , you look absolutely stunning and I was a little stunned, I''m doing okay. How are you and the kids? Any problems with the orphanage ?" "Nope a certain very generous person gave us a donation and everything has been great since." Since I didn''t know anybody else in there I continued to talk with Lidia about this and that. At one point I tried what I watched on TV and asked her if she wanted to go get a drink. She was happy enough to accept. We where in a corner of the room talking about the kids new careers as mercenaries when the herald blew a loud horn, apparently the important people had finally arrived. "Now entering escorted by our lord Alazar , her eminence high priestess of the saint Sophia church Alexandria Du Bois. " They made quite a pair, both of them old as hell yet radiating vitality and power. Following behind them were five mature looking ladies, one of them was looking towards my direction and Lidia seemed to be trying to disappear into the wall. The lord led the old lady to the two throne like raised seats , probably to make it easier for the two of them to look down on us normal people. After they sat down the orchestra started playing and the ball properly started. People started pairing up and started to dance. Lidia started to look longingly at the dancefloor, I got the message and asked her if she wanted to dance. Ten seconds later we were slowly rotating around the dance floor. I didn''t really know how to dance but Lidia didn''t seem to care. "John, why do you always wear that cowl? The kids say you are handsome , so if you are not disfigured or ugly , why do you insist on covering your face?" "I was cursed by a Korean witch during my travels , she cursed my face so that any woman I saw would fall instantly in lust with me. At first I thought being so handsome would be a good thing but when I went home all I saw in the eyes of the woman I loved was lust, no love. That night I was returning home from the grocer when I found my wife stabbed to death and my neighbor''s wife standing over her corps saying something about how now that we were both single we can finally be together. I took the knife and then stabbed her, buried all three bodies and left the town and never looked back. I''ve worn the cowl ever since ." "I''m sorry John, I made you think of something painful." I was trying to keep a solemn face while Jules was laughing like a damn hyena. This was the only story I could come up with that covered all my bases. It wasn''t that bad. At least Lidia seemed to buy it, she snuggled deeper into my arms as we slowly swayed to the rhythm of the music. chapter nineteen - bad to the bone Chapter nineteen P.O.V. change - Lidia As I swayed there held in John''s arms, for a few minutes I forgot the world even existed, just me and him and just for a moment everything was safe, warm, and happy. But the world didn''t like to be forgotten and it sent me a reminder in the form of my mother. "My my what do we have here?" John was confused by the interruption and stopped holding me close to face my mother. "Hello miss, do I know you?" "No, but you certainly seem to know my daughter a great deal. So this is the real reason you won''t fulfill your duty, you refuse to do what you should do just to spend your time with a dirty man?" I felt so embarrassed that she was saying such things in the middle of the dance floor with everybody staring. But John handled it with surprising aplomb . "Miss I don''t know what this is about, but you seem to be jumping to conclusions, hello my name is john I''m an enchanter and I met your daughter recently when I hired some of the kids at the orphanage " "Well young man , I wasn''t born yesterday. I know when two people are in a relationship and take off that cowl when I''m talking to you." "Please mother your embarrassing me. Remember where you are, you are making a scene." She seemed to regain her composure , finally noticing the people staring at us. She scowled at me , turned around and briskly walked away. "I''m so sorry John. I didn''t think she would react so badly." "Don''t worry about it Lidia , I know all about family issues so I understand. Let''s go get some more drinks, dancing has made me thirsty." I couldn''t help but smile at his attitude, he might be the only man on earth that could cheer me up at that moment. So we went to the drinks table and just lingered there , talking about nothing in particular. That was when a servant approached us and asked us to follow him to a private room. When we arrived at what seemed to be an office, waiting for us where the lord who was standing by the fireplace , the high priestess who was sitting behind the desk sniffing a bright red flower, and the five senior priestesses including my mother where standing behind her. We were told to sit down so we did. The servants poured me and john some wine , then the high priestess simply said "Drink." After we both finished dinking our wine the high priestess finally started talking. "Do you know anything about about flowers Mr. John , no? Well I am rather fond of flowers. For example take this pretty little thing I''m holding here. It might not seem like it but this little thing has a fearsome reputation, translated from French its name in English would be the red terror. You know why it''s called that Mr John? Because it contains a potent paralyzing agent, and certain bandits in northern France discovered that if prepared properly it would be all but undetectable when drank with wine. They would pretend to be merchants with a broken down carriage and when the unwary people saved them they would share their precious cargo of wine with them, and by the time the people realize anything was wrong it would be too late, they would gut them with their eyes still open, and that''s how the bodies would always be found, with their eyes staring wide in terror and helplessness. Do you know why I''m telling you this story Mr John? Its because it is already too late for you too." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. As the high priestess spoke my body became progressively more and more numb and by the end of the story my body had stopped listening to me. "Tell me Mr John , was it arrogance or stupidity that made you step right underneath our noses after practicing heresy. Us ,the holy order of saint Sofia, who where especially trained to detect and eliminate any and all who practice this foul sacrilege?" I was petrified, John a heretic ? They must have made a mistake. It was impossible. "Well Mr John, if you aren''t going to speak we will have to proceed to less pleasant methods to get information, less pleasant for you of course, not for me... I rather enjoy the screams of a heretic." Then she started casting an incredibly complex spell. That''s when John suddenly got up and pointed his cane at her. The spell she was weaving disappeared like it was a bad dream. Then he said, "I think the word your looking for is confidence." "What?" "You asked me was it stupidity or arrogance, I think the word your looking for is confidence." Then john kept making her spells disappear, even when the other priestesses were aiding her it didn''t seem to make a difference, but then the lord joined them and the tides turned. They started pushing him back. "Give it up Mr John , I might be a second class druid but my defense is unparalleled on earth. No blade or magic is passing my absolute defense." John didn''t seem to care about the lords boasts, he took something out from his pocket and pointed it at the lord. The next moment there was a flash of light and the lord''s gloating face simply disappeared , and his headless body fell down. For a moment I could see the horror on the priestesses faces when they realized what had just happened. Then john pointed the small thing at the priestesses. " I was going to try talking with you people, but just as you have said its already too late." Then one by one , he executed them. chapter twenty - new companion Chapter twenty P.O.V. change - John ( the M.C.) What a mess. All my plans to lay low and develop my arsenal before confronting the church, gone just like that. My actions were bound to have massive consequences, but I didn''t believe in leaving enemies who tried to kill you alive to come back and try again later and now I was in a room with seven headless bodies and a terrified woman. Now comes the hard part. "Alright Lidia , the toxins that are paralyzing you right now will wear off in a couple of minutes , until then just listen. First of all I want you to know that I''m not going to hurt you. The only reason I killed these people was because, as you saw, they tried to kill me first. I don''t want to sound juvenile, but they started it and I didn''t really have a choice. It was either me or them and I chose me. Now, the way I see it your options are very limited. Your in a locked room with seven corpses and me with no witnesses to verify who''s guilty or innocent. When I escape, and believe me I''m going to escape, they will have nobody to blame but you. So right now you''re in a pretty crappy situation , I can give you two options. You can rely on humanity''s general good nature and the good will of the people out there and choose choice number one, which is hoping the people out there are going to listen to what you say and not simply burn you at the stakes or hang you right off the bat. The second option is swearing a vow to never betray me and coming with me on my wacky crazy adventure, I would do my best to protect you and as you saw my best is pretty damn good. If you hold a grudge about your mother , you can always go back to option one but from what I have seen I didn''t sense a lot of familial love between you two. So think about it, no pressure. You should be getting some feeling back in your body right about now so make a decision and you can tell me after I check that the coast is clear." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I peeked out the door to check if there was anyone there but the hallway was deserted, apparently they didn''t want anyone to interrupt their little torture session. When I came back I found Lidia huddled in her chair lightly sobbing. "Look I know this is hard on you but I need you to make a decision. I''m about to leave the mansion, are you coming or are you staying?" At first her voice was so low and broken up by sobs that I couldn''t understand her response so I had to lean towards her to hear, and she surprised me by holding on to me and breaking down muttering the same thing again and again. "Don''t leave me....just don''t leave me ...please don''t leave me." I gathered she chose choice number two , so I picked her up in a princess carry ,then walked right out the front door. The only time I was stopped was at the gates "Hey, where are you going? The party ain''t over yet." "Well its over for me, as you can see my girlfriend had a little too much of the refreshments and now I have to carry her home. You know how it is." "Yes sir, that I do. You can go right ahead and good luck with your girlfriend." I carried Lidia all the way to my house and laid her down on my bed. Before we left the city for good there was one last thing I needed to do . I had a summoning to perform. chapter twenty one - only a little Chapter twenty one The shakes hit me right after I made it into the basement. I sat down gingerly on the cold hard floor in the dark room, and put my head between my knees. I have never been in a fight before let alone kill people. Is this who I was , a coldblooded killer? "I''m sorry john , I had to do it. You''ve never dealt with people like this before.You''ve never had to be ruthless. You''ve never had to kill anyone. You would have hesitated and they would have killed you, I didn''t have a choice!" I forced down a wave of nausea, and focused on breathing evenly. "Jules, I don''t understand . What are you saying? What did you do ?" " I suppressed your emotional reactions until now so that you could make calm and calculated decisions, and it worked. You made all the right decisions." "Are you saying you turned me into a psychopath ?" " NO!..... alright ,maybe just a little." The nausea passed, leaving me weak and tired, but then a strange thing happened. I started to giggle, slowly at first but then gradually it turned into a full fledged belly laugh. I had known on some level that I would probably have to take a life to survive in this world, but that was hypothetical. She was right , I would have hesitated, and in that situation I would probably have been killed. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. "... a little she says...I turned you into a psychopath, but only a little... God I love you Jules did I ever tell you that?" "Are you alright John? This wasn''t exactly the reaction I was expecting. I expected anger , maybe betrayal, accusations about betrayal of trust , not a confession of love. I had a whole speech prepared and everything." At this point I was flat on the floor, laughing so hard that it hurt my stomach. "Why would I be mad at you Jules , you did what you always do. You saved me yet again. " I slowly got back up and I felt much better and back to my original self, so I got back to the important things I had to do tonight. I had locked and enchanted the door to the room with the bodies to be impossible to open by normal means , so that gave me a little time to finish making preparations for my departure and make arrangements for the orphanage. "Oh. Well don''t think that this means I forgot about your little sob story about being cursed to be too handsome. I haven''t said anything until now because I thought you were upset , but if you are going to be all cool about it I''m going to tease the hell out of you for that." "I wouldn''t have it any other way Jules." chapter twenty two - I did not want to see that Chapter twenty two I activated the ritual exactly as instructed by Jules . There was a bright flash of light then the room was filled with smoke that smelled like rotten eggs. The first thing I saw after the smoke cleared was a pair of shiny red ass cheeks. Then the baboon who was the owner of said ass cheeks turned around, sat on its haunches and stared right at me. . . . . . A few minutes earlier, The first thing I needed to do was check if the ARM worked properly. I was pretty sure it was OK , but then again I didn''t want to be proven wrong by a demon from hell chewing my face off or some other such mishap, so for its first ritual I chose an empowerment ritual to make myself an extra dimensional storage ring. (A.n. these things aren''t that uncommon, if you remember Leo had one.) I could continue using my own method to store things, but enchanting each and every thing I wanted to store seemed not only tedious but also impossible with items that already had an enchantment on them. This ritual that Jules had dug up from her records of ancient Chinese texts would hopefully be a solution. I placed a normal looking ring inside the circle and activated it. There was a mild throb of light and that was it. I picked up the ring and wondered how it worked. When I put it on I suddenly was able to sense an extra space the size of a warehouse through the ring somehow. "Its intent controlled dumbass , you just think at it to do what you want." Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After hearing her helpful, if not quite polite words, I touched one of my Caines and imagined it being stored in the ring. Suddenly it disappeared from my hands, and I could suddenly sense it in the dark space connected to the ring. I imagined it back in my hand and voila it was in my hand. After I practiced taking things in and out of the ring, I made five more rings because they seemed useful, then moved on to the next ritual which was the main event. Which brings us to the present. . . . For a moment I thought something went wrong with the ritual and it accidentally summoned an innocent baboon, but then I looked into its eyes and what looked back weren''t the eyes of an animal. They were eyes that have seen everything and knew everything. Eyes that have gazed into the depths of time and space and were irrevocably altered by them. I was nearly lost just looking into those dark bottomless pits. "Greetings John fairweather, master of magic who is not a magician, twister of laws and destiny, destroyer and salvation, future king and conqueror, this lowly duke greets you." There were a lot of things I expected when I summoned the duke of hell Gusion, but this civil almost subservient attitude wasn''t one of them. What did it say about my future that a duke of hell that knows everything that was and will be was bowing to me? not a chapter This post is to address some of the "plot holes" that some people are talking about, 1) the orichalcum pod disappearance- he used ancient Babylonian runes to store it 2) three weeks without food - he had a hydroponic tank with him, remember. Both problems were addressed last paragraph of ch 4 : The final problem I had was the large, and now rather useful pod I couldn''t leave behind. In the end a simple ''store'' and ''summon'' rune from ancient Babylon fixed that problem so I was finally ready to go beyond the glade at the entrance of the mine shaft, and a good thing too , another day eating hydroponic algae and various herbs and I probably would have gone insane. 3) the AI knows too much about the changed world: not true , she only knows about mana which she has been studying for 700 years. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. 4) surviving 700 years without food, water, and energy: again not true. The generator and hydroponic tank where both inside the pod. The nanites are able to process waste material into raw material. Raw material + energy + hydroponic tank , you do the maths 5)how did he make the stuff in the cave. Oh come on he didn''t actually shred the pod or anything, he just pried two pieces, do you really think that there are no pieces for him to use from a giant self sustaining pod? Anyway don''t be too serious reading this, just have fun and enjoy it. It is meant to be a fun read and if it is entertaining at least a few people I''m happy. chapter twenty three - all hail the king Chapter twenty three Unknown P.O.V. I woke up feeling something I haven''t felt in almost four thousand years. I carefully extracted myself from the tangle of bodies and looked back at my bed to see the magnificent view of forty two naked young women lying before me, but I had no time to indulge my lust, I had felt something that I thought was lost to me forever. I left my room and climbed to the highest place in the obsidian castle that I call home, the observatory. There I gazed out at the wide open grasslands and the forests beyond. I was a little tired climbing up all those stairs , so I was panting lightly. I once again lamented my poor choice in bodies. I was lost in the underworld for so long that when I felt someone trying to summon me that I desperately grabbed the connection and forced the summoner out and took over his body. By the time I realized he was a frail 80 year old Abyssinian witchdoctor with delusions of grandeur it was too late. He was such a poor receptacle for my powerful soul that pieces of me were completely lost. To my regret I lost most of my more advanced sealing and summoning techniques. When I tried to take over my old home I was firmly repulsed by a person who calls himself the Rabbi and used kabbalistic magic. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I took my anger and frustration out on Africa and conquered all the nations one by one, but I always regretted not having my motherland but I just didn''t have enough power to do anything about it . But now it was different, someone was able to summon one of my demons. Although I had lost the powers to summon any of the higher demons, they were still bound to me by the seal I put over each and every one of their hearts, that''s why when I felt one of my higher demons enter this realm I was very excited. A few minutes later I felt the presence disappear , but then a different demon was summoned. Two higher demons in one night? I was almost salivating in anticipation. No matter what I have to find this new power and make it mine. With it I could finally have my legions of demons again, then the world will remember to fear the name Solomon. chapter twenty four - road trip,not Chapter twenty four Main character P.O.V. According to the bio that Jules gave me Gusion was a duke of hell that specialized in answering any question that a summoner can ask. I was sorely tempted to ask Gusion about my future, but I''ve read enough stories to know that that would be a terrible idea so instead I asked him the questions that I originally planned to ask him, but before I even said a word he started speaking again. "The witches found you because you were using unorthodox means to control mana, they have a scrying pool set up to detect such occurrences, afterwards they could detect you if you got close enough to them using sympathetic magic. The ball was a trap from the beginning to get all suspicious individuals in one place for the high priestess to check. The best way to block any type of searching or detection magic is this rune." Floating above his palm was a jagged looking red rune. He had answered all my questions, so I just started the banishing part of the ritual. " It was truly a pleasure, uncrowned king." And then he vanished in a puff of smoke. The second demon I summoned wasn''t nearly as accommodating, his name was Bathym and he showed up looking like a man with no hair on his body , and musculature that makes you think he was either doing drugs or was a cartoon character and to top it off he had a tail that was a living snake. The first thing he did was try to escape the circle, followed by all type of threats and bargains . Eventually , the circle wore his will down until he was kneeling down at the center, sweating profusely. "What do you want ?" "I want the secret to teleportation." "Fine whatever." Suddenly a stream of information entered my mind and I suddenly just knew how to convert mass into mana for a few moments and travel through the ether. "Are we done now?" I had nothing more to say to the sullen demon , so I banished him back were he came from. By the time I was done with my demon summoning shenanigans the sky outside was starting to get lighter, so I hurried over to Walt''s shop. The store wasn''t open but since he lived in a flat above his shop he answered the door when I knocked. He pulled me to the room at the back of the shop and handed me a steaming hot cup of coffee, which was like ambrosia to my sleep deprived self. "Walt, I need to ask you a big favor." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Whatever you need John. " "Me and Lidia are going out of town soon so could you employ someone you trust to look after the orphanage, and as payment you can have this." I dumped a whole door of orichalcum on the floor. He just stood there frozen, looking at the door in disbelief, "You know you don''t have to do this John, I would''ve taken care of the kids anyways." "That''s why I wanted you to have it Walt. Pretty soon your going to hear some bad things about me, some of them are even going to be true and afterwards you may no longer want to be my friend, but you have been one of the only true friends I''ve had in my entire life and if we are never going to meet again I wanted to give you something so big that you won''t have a choice but to remember me. Goodbye Walt , and say hi to the kids for me." I put down the mug, and walked quickly out of the shop , leaving a frozen Walt behind. I went back home and stored everything in the house, including the furniture inside my ring and finally went to wake Lidia up. "Wake up Lidia , its time to go." It took a while for her to finally wake up but the first thing she did was ask about the orphanage, I told her about my conversation with Walt and she seemed mollified , she seemed to really trust Walter . After I got her out of the house I canceled all the active enchantments in the house and sealed the second basement. Afterwards I enchanted the weaker parts of the basement roof with ''slow'' and ''break'' then I quickly left to the front yard where Lidia was waiting. I grabbed her hand , she seemed surprised but didn''t ask me to let go. "Where are we going to go?" Teleporting through the ether was very tricky. The process itself was simple and straightforward but it took a lot of concentration to do it. But the most dangerous part was that you could get lost in the ether , that''s why you need some kind of connection with the place you are going to act as anchor. In fact one of the only safe ways to teleport is to go to somewhere you''ve already been, that narrowed my choices considerably. I''ve only been to two places outside of England my whole life , one of them was Oslo but I didn''t think Europe would be very safe for me right now so that left.... "We''re going to Montreal." The last thing we saw before leaving was the house starting to collapse in on itself, then there was a flash of light and we were gone. chapter twenty five - flashy entrance Chapter twenty five Flying through the ether is a very strange experience. Everything is passing by incredibly fast so you can''t really see anything. But you do catch glimpses of things from the corner of your eye. Fantastic monsters, beautiful angels, and impossible scenery. Just like a snowflake you just caught, the images turn immaterial and disappear when you try to take a second look. I was amazed, excited, euphoric, and terrified at the same time, I could only imagine how Lidia was feeling. Our flight seemed to come to an abrupt halt when we seem to run into something solid in this ephemeral world. We bounced off the glass like material and immediately materialized into the real world. It seems what we ran into was a dome of glowing blue energy protecting a rather large and beautiful city. The city had many large buildings with unique and beautiful architecture, ranging from greeko-roman marble columns to modern looking glass skyscrapers. Combined with the abundant magical lighting of many hues and colors it was a very enchanting sight, unfortunately we didn''t get much time to enjoy the scenery. We seemed to have materialized right between two armies that were getting ready to face off. On one side, inside of the barrier, dressed in golden armor that was sparkling in the sunlight were an orderly group of knights on horses and lines of infantry. On the other side were their direct opposites, an army of terrifying looking demons and horrifying abominations arranged in total chaos with no rhyme or reason. Everyone on the battlefield was staring at us, the two people who just appeared out of thin air. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. One of the demons suddenly seemed to realize that there were two unprotected people outside of the barrier and charged at us with a double headed axe the size of my whole body raised above his head. I obviously couldn''t let him finish his charge and split us in two, so I took out my laser and shot his head off. For a moment there was complete silence on the battlefield as the giant headless body of the demon first fell to its knees then flat forward. Then there was a great outcry from the demon army. Magic started flying my way, but I was already prepared with tollo in my left hand, and negated everything that came close to hitting me or Lidia. My right hand had my LEG that was spewing a constant stream of death. The demons tried to make it close enough to land a hit on me, but the bodies of their own comrades was forming a wall around me and finally their moral broke and they ran away. I tried to kill as many as possible, but most of them got away. After I finished up I turned around to see if anyone would let us in, I saw an army of people with their mouths open and eyes popping out in astonishment. Not quite the low key entrance that I wanted. chapter twenty six - knock knock Chapter twenty six P.O.V, change - Captain Truman The same thought kept going through my mind. I was going to die. We were tricked by such a simple ruse, the oldest trick in the book. Our enemy sent monsters to more than two hundred different locations. We thought it was a coordinated assault. It wasn''t. It was a distraction. Our military strength was heavily dependent on magic. Most of the time we don''t even get to see battle, the mage council simply goes out and fixes everything with a wave of their hands. Throughout the years our forces have become less and less trained and more and more ceremonial. Now all the armed forces do is handle local disputes and go on parades. But our enemy was cunning, almost all the battle mages were deployed to fight monsters elsewhere, so now they sent their true forces here which was their objective all along. As I stood there in front of my unit in their flashy golden armor, standing in a perfect parade stop, I didn''t feel pride or confidence, I felt fear. The only thing keeping the enemy out of our beautiful city was the great barrier that was erected by the original mage council, but without enough mages to maintain it the great barrier had a limited power to stop the enemy. It might last a few hours under sustained magical assault, but that was it. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. We had already messaged all the members of the council about the enemies fiendish plot, but the closest one was more than two days away. By the time any of them got here all they are going to find is a smoldering ruin where Montreal used to be. The situation took a strange turn when two people suddenly appeared out of thin air outside of the barrier. One was a beautiful blond woman wearing what appeared to be a small black dress more appropriate for a party than a battlefield, the other person with her was a man wearing a cowl that covered his face. One of the demons thinking he found two easy targets charged at the strange duo, but then there was a flash of light and his head was suddenly gone. The enraged demon army then launched a full scale attack on the duo. What followed was a one sided slaughter of the demon army. None of their magic seemed to be able to hit the two, none of their melee attackers seemed able to get close enough to land a hit. Finally the army of demons that I thought was my and this cities doom was forced to retreat before the might of the mysterious man. After making sure the demons had all ran away the man turned around and looked at us. I was wondering if he was going to turn on us next and slaughter us too when something more ridiculous happened. He started knocking politely on the barrier. Chapter twenty seven - cat ears Chapter twenty seven Main character P.O.V. A few moments of silence later what seemed like the leader of the golden army walked towards us alone. The person was wearing the same golden armor , but had extra symbols painted in black that I assume marked the person as some sort of officer. He walked with an almost supernatural grace. He had an almost slinking gait that looked weirdly natural on him. When he got to the barrier he passed right through like there was nothing there. Then he stood in front of me and saluted smartly. "Greetings sir, I am Captain Truman of the Northern Golden legion . Who do I have to thank for removing the vile demons from our doorstep?" The voice was surprisingly feminine with an almost raspy edge. When the helmet he wore came off I saw the captain I thought was a he was actually a she, and that wasn''t even the most surprising bit. She was a very attractive woman with beautiful bronze skin and raven black hair falling down to her back when it was freed from the helmet. The most surprising part were the two cat ears that were sticking from the top of her head. I''ve read that Montreal was the capital for the free federation of north America and as such was a melting pot of different races and cultures . But I didn''t expect to find one of the beast men , or in this case woman, of the amazon here. From what I read she had all the characteristics of the panther tribe except the tail which she could easily be hiding .But reading about something and seeing it were completely different things, so I was frozen in shock for a second and she started to look a little uncomfortable. ".........um, is there something wrong, sir?" "Oh.... No, everything is fine, you can call me Tom, a wandering enchanter." "An enchanter, not a mage ? Was that an enchanted item sir?" Her ears actually perked up in interest as she said that. "Yes, it is a one of a kind object that my master made for me for protection when he told me to travel the world and get experience." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. "Who is this esteemed master enchanter that could make such a thing?" "I''m sorry, but I can''t tell you that. He is a very private person and doesn''t like being disturbed so he made me promise not to tell." I could see the glint in her eye slowly dim. My story was constructed to make her think that I could not reproduce the weapon and any attempt to take it by force would invoke the wrath of a powerful master with indeterminate power. Now that I have hopefully crushed any thoughts of getting my laser, I asked her about entering the city. "Me and my companion would like to stay in this city for a while, can you please tell me how to enter this barrier?" "You need to be given permission by someone of sufficient authority, luckily I can give you that permission. I will guide you through the city personally .Welcome to Montreal sir and thank you again for defeating the demons." * * * The city was beautiful on the inside as it was from the outside. The streets were well maintained and so were the buildings. True to her words the captain patiently showed us around the city. She first showed us the best place to shop, a large mall were I offered to buy Lidia a change of cloth. The timid and scared girl suddenly transformed into a different person right before my eyes and I was dragged from shop to shop. In the end she made me buy clothes worth more than 10 gold. "Captain , I''m feeling a little peckish, can you show us a good place to eat next." "Sure, and you don''t have to keep calling me that, in private you can call me Clair." We then went to a nice Italian restaurant where we had pizza for lunch. She then led us to what she claimed was the best hotel in town , which was called the emerald palace. It was an oriental looking place were we booked a room with two beds. In the end three of us just wandered around looking at different places around the city. Our leisurely walk was interrupted by someone trying to loudly get our attention. "Lidia is that you?" chapter twenty eight - true love Chapter twenty eight P.O.V. Cynthia Blackthorn I was very quiet when I was young, very shy even though I was a member of one of the eldritch families I wasn''t as outgoing or active as the other children. It got to a point that even my own family started to forget I existed, I was like a shadow that nobody noticed. This didn''t last for long, kids being kids noticed that I was always silent and terminally shy, they noticed I had darker looks and never fit in with them, they sensed a perfect target. I was mocked, made fun of, and even beat up because I was an easy target. My own family didn''t help me, they told me that I was embarrassing the name of the Blackthorn family by being so weak. They told me that if I won''t stand up for myself they wouldn''t help me. One day I was surrounded by my usual tormentors, "My mama said that you were trash that didn''t deserve the blackthorn family name." "Of course , look at her she is scrawny and ugly and doesn''t even know how to talk properly." "I heard that she is so quiet because she is stupid and her head is empty." "....... I am not stupid......" "Look who finally decided to speak with us , what do you think you''re too special to talk with us . We''ll show you exactly how special you are." Then they pushed me down and started hitting me while laughing as if enjoying a wonderful game. I just curled up and tried my best to bear the pain and not sob out loud , they get a lot worse if I they heard me cry. I waited for them to get tired and leave but today was different. A small blur came out of nowhere and slammed into one of the girls. It was a blond girl that was younger than us but she somehow fought off five older kids by herself. She was beat up multiple times and by the end she looked terrible but she never stayed down and fought on. In the end she was too much of a bother for the bullies to pick on, they wanted a soft target and this girl was just too much trouble. She turned towards me and offered me a hand to help me up. She smiled at me, her lips were bleeding, one of her eyes was already swelling shut, her blond hair was a mess, and her cloth were in tatters , but she didn''t seem to care. All she was focusing on was helping me up and wiping off my tears slowly with her torn off sleeve. To me her smile was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life. "Hello, my name is Lidia and I just moved here, will you be my friend?" * * * Years passed and slowly with the help of Lidia I came out of my shell. I still was very quiet but now I didn''t have a problem with speaking out when I needed to. Over the years I grew close with the amazing girl known as Lidia and I saw that she was such a selfless person. Whenever she saw someone being bullied she never turned a blind eye like everybody else. Her motto was '' what would saint Sophia do?'' . For a few years we were thick as thieves. But everything changed when I turned thirteen. After my magic tests showed I had a talent for magic that hadn''t been seen for hundreds of years, suddenly everybody''s behavior towards me shifted. At home they were suddenly affectionate and proud of ''their little girl''. All the girls suddenly wanted to be friends. Only Lidia didn''t change. She was happy for me but her attitude towards me didn''t change at all. A month after the test we were taken to a convent to train. All the girls in the school wanted to be my friends, but I never forgot the abuse I suffered at their hands so I kept them all at arms distance. I waited for Lidia , she was one year younger so she would be sent here next year. * * * When the next year came, I heard about a girl with the most abysmal talent in magic and I laughed along with the other girls. I wasn''t an outcast anymore, I was the popular girl and I had slowly learned to enjoy my role. When the noobies came , we were there looking for the girl with terrible aptitude. It wasn''t hard to find her. She was the one no one wanted to get close to, as if she had the plague. We surrounded the kid and started making jokes , but when she lowered the hood of her rain jacket, I was struck mute. It was Lidia who was looking at me with a look of deep disappointment in her eyes. For a moment I felt ashamed , but the shame quickly turned into anger. How dare she look down on me? I was the special one and she was the trash, and she had the nerves to look down on me? I joined in with the other girls, hurling the most vicious insults I could. She simply walked away, fighting was strictly forbidden in the convent so nobody stopped her. She never looked back once at me. That day I knew she stopped being my friend, but I didn''t care. I had many friends. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. * * * Years passed and now I was seventeen. I had matured enough to know that all my new ''friends'' were fake. I was tired of all the attention and fame because they never saw me as a person, they saw me as a tool, an instrument to further their own goals. I knew I pushed away the only person that was my friend. Ironically Lidia had slowly become the second most popular girl in the convent. She might not have an aptitude for magic, but her blossoming beauty had a magic all on its own. By now I knew that I loved her deeply, but after the way I treated her she had become cordial but distant to me. I knew I was going to have to do something drastic to make up for my behavior, so I prepared a lavish meal and went to her room carrying flowers. When I got there , the only person there was her roommate. She informed me that Lidia left the convent when they were asking for volunteers to take care of an orphanage in some rural part of Britain. I was shocked, she was gone and with her she took my heart. I didn''t even get the chance to apologize or tell her how I felt. * * * After graduation I was so tired of the fawning sycophants and the unending stream of suitors that I picked an assignment that could take me the furthest away from Europe, which happened to be the position for ambassador to the mage council in Montreal. I have been doing my duty for four years now, I liked it here in Montreal, everything is just so bright and happy. Today was the end of the month so I was writing my usual report to the sisterhood when one of my agents reported to me a rather alarming story about an army of demons attacking the city. Of course I rushed to the location she told me about to see what was happening with my own eyes and see if I could help in any way. By the time I got there all I saw was a group of disbanding soldiers talking excitedly. When I asked one of the soldiers what had happened, he told me a rather fanciful story about a hero coming out of thin air with his damsel and single handedly destroying the army of demons. When I asked him where this ''hero'' was , he told me the captain was showing them around. If the story was even half true I had to ascertain who this new player was and write about it to the sisterhood. So I walked around the popular sights in the city hoping I would get lucky, and after walking around for hours I finally did find captain Truman. Standing next to her was the one I assume was the ''hero'' and next to him in a billowy red sundress was Lidia.....,my Lidia .Before I could even think ,I was running towards them shouting Lidia''s name again and again. When they finally turned towards me all I could say was, "Lidia is that you?" chapter twenty nine - femme fatale Chapter twenty nine Main character P.O.V. The person who was shouting was a woman who''s looks made you think of a classic vampire, you know the ones from old black and white movies before modern commercialism turned them all sparkly. She had very pale skin and combined with the black hair and black eyes it made a shocking contrast that was quite striking, I couldn''t help but wonder if all the ''goth'' kids were trying to achieve this effect. Anyway aside from her good looks what captured my attention was the fact that she was wearing the classic vestments of a priestess of the church of saint Sophia, which was a giant red flag. Not only that but she recognized Lidia , who no doubt has been linked to me by now. The story of the death of the high priestess and her posse should take some time getting here bar some unfortunate circumstance, but still that severely limited the time we can stay in Montreal ,at least in the open. While I was thinking of all the repercussions that her presence would bring she leaped from where she was standing and grabbed Lidia in a tight hug then started sobbing. "I''m so sorry....*sob*.....I was being so stupid.....*sob*.....please forgive me...." Lidia was looking at me with a deer caught in a headlight look, begging me with her eyes to save her, but there was nothing I could do. Demons and monsters I can handle, hysterical women are way above my pay grade. When she finally managed to calm down after multiple assurances that she was forgiven, we took her to a nearby outdoor cafe to talk. After what happened in the burrows I was now perpetually on guard against magic so I had Jules monitor things when I''m around people I don''t trust but I was still surprised when I heard what Jules said. "John, she''s trying to see under your hood with magic. The amulet you made with the rune that Gusion gave you is blocking her." Even with the filters that Jules put on my eyes, I could usually see any active magic near me. To invoke a spell that was subtle enough to escape my sight without making any noticeable casting motion or sound , this woman was dangerous. I was now starting to think the whole scene in the street was staged. Sure her performance probably had a kernel of truth but all the good ones do. She was scoping us out and we didn''t even notice as she used the incident to insert herself into our group, probably to gather information on us, specifically me. I was now on high alert against the woman who was now looking at me as if she was measuring me up. "I heard some very interesting things about you Mr hero." "Oh, you heard about that Cynthia ? This is Mr Tom a wandering enchanter, he was the one that saved our bacon from a demon hoard, Tom this is Cynthia Blackthorn the European ambassador to the mage''s council and a good friend." Yup, she was definitely trained in espionage. An ''ambassador'' is usually just another term term for spy anyway, and she is close friends with the captain of the army, plus her very first statement was fishing around for information without asking a question and being too conspicuous about it. "So Mr Tom , do you have a last name?" "Its Tom Hilfiger, my friends call me Tommy." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I''m sure if Jules wasn''t an ai stuck in my head, she would have passed out from laughter at this point. "Tommy then, how did you manage to defeat an army of demons? You must be quite powerful." Using my familiar name to imply that we were friends and a compliment to push me to brag about myself, classic techniques to pump someone for information. I was now sure that everything I say would be recorded and sent to some higher up so time to lay down some misinformation. "I have a weapon made by my grandpa and master, he has runes for mana , spirit,and destroy among others he found in ruins deep in the Himalayas. When I asked him to teach me enchanting , he taught me the basics and told me to go out in the world and get some wisdom before he taught me the powerful ones. This is actually the first time I''ve been outside of the family compound." I tried to paint myself as just some country bumkin who had a very interesting grandfather. I wanted my grandfather to be so interesting that she forgets about me who she thinks is simple. And it seemed to work as she asked me several questions about my grandfather which I answered by telling her the story about not revealing his identity, but I ''accidentally'' gave her pieces of information pointing to his current location being in China. By the end of our conversation she was trying to hide a gloating expression, which meant that I probably succeeded in making her think that she got the better of me. Then she changed the subject. "How did you meet Lidia?" I was now sure the whole sobbing thing earlier was acting but I was also sure that she had real affection for Lidia, I knew that all the women in the sisterhood were sapphic so I decided to gamble on her liking Lidia as more than friends. "We have a mutual friend in the borrows, which was one of the places I went to. He asked me to help her run away from an arranged marriage with some old hag , what was her name Lidia?" Thankfully Lidia had caught on and replied smoothly, "Mistress Anita." For the first time I thought I saw a genuine feeling on Cynthia''s face, rage, but then it was quickly gone. "Mistress Anita is a sixty year old woman, your mother wouldn''t dare." "Of course she would, mistress Anita is one of the high priestesses . By making me a breeding mare for her my family would get innumerable benefits." Now she was in a dilemma, she could report the presence of Lidia and risk getting her married off with some old hag or not report what she believes was unimportant information to save someone she likes. "Its OK Lidia , I won''t let that happen to you." And now her report will say that there was a novice enchanter called Tom all the way across the Atlantic ocean the same day that john disappeared with no connections between the two. It would focus on a fictional character that I created that will lead them on a wild goose chase across one of the biggest countries on earth. All in all , I think that went well. chapter thirty - intermission Chapter thirty The rest of our conversation was much more casual and friendly. As we ate our dinner Cynthia mainly reminisced with Lidia about their childhood shenanigans, of which there seemed to be many . They seemed to have been really close friends, I wonder what happened to drive them apart. Afterwards both Lydia and I were tired from all the days activities so we said our goodbyes to Cynthia and Clair and went to our hotel room to rest. That night as I lay on the bed hearing the soft sounds of Lidia''s snores I started thinking what my next move should be. I tried to list all the immediate problems and possible actions I should take to remedy them. First on my to do list was to get a new source of revenue. The money that Walter gave me was actually way over two hundred gold, and my enchantment shop wasn''t doing too shabby either before it closed down so it wasn''t like I was running out or anything, but with the new expenditures of moving to a new city, things are going to be a little lean for a while. My solution was to open a shop in Montreal, but since this is a metropolitan area I would need permits and things of that nature so I''ve got to talk to Clair about getting me the needed paperwork. Second was to get a place of my own. The hotel was pretty nice and all but I wanted a place that I could put a lab in and do some research in (this time shielded by Gusion''s rune) . I also would eventually like a place off the books to lay low in if I got into trouble. When I went to rent a shop, I''m going to have to buy a house too. I could already feel my wallet shiver in fear. Third has to do with my abysmal defense. My status as a glass cannon still hasn''t changed so I needed to do something about that . But until problem number two is fixed there was nothing I could do about it. Fourth is an idea I''ve been toying with for a while, enchantment implants. While I suck at external mana manipulation, I''m actually pretty decent at circulating mana inside of my body to give myself minor boosts in strength and speed. I was thinking that if I implanted an enchanted item inside of myself I could activate it with my internal mana, so I could be able to sling around a few ''spells'' like a real mage. But with almost infinite possibilities I have to carefully decide what I wanted before I start carving myself up. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Last was my god sight. After my little jaunt across the ether , I was more curious about it than ever so I asked Jules about it. "What you''ve got to understand John, is that the main problem with the god''s sight is the overload of information that comes when you look into the ether. Over the years I''ve only been able to activate the god''s sight five times for literally nanoseconds, and that was enough to give me enough information to nearly saturate the part of your brain that contains my memory banks. See ,all the modifications I''ve been doing to your body during your little nap were all actually quite conservative, I didn''t have enough resources to modify your mind to handle the kind of information overload that would happen from using the sight. I''ve since been under no such restrictions so I''ve been restructuring your mind to have a severe case of short term memory loss when you use the god sight. I''ve created a secondary memory storage that acts as a buffer between your mind and the ether. It literally wipes itself clean every half a nanosecond, and everything that you have not consciously decided to remember will be gone before it could clog your mind, but it is still an extremely dangerous skill and I wouldn''t recommend using it unless you have to." I fell asleep thinking about the terrifying potential that god''s sight has. chapter thirty one - dream interrupted Chapter thirty one I was in a diner filled with people, but for some reason if you asked me anything about the people around me I wouldn''t be able to tell you a thing. I was sitting in a corner booth trying to get the people into focus when a hand landed lightly on my shoulder. Looking up to see whose hand it was ,I was met by a familiar face, "So John, you don''t call you don''t write, you know I could almost believe you didn''t want to see me again." "You didn''t exactly leave me a forwarding address , hell I don''t even know your name." "Well, don''t worry about that. Instead lets talk about having our second date, I think this would be a good place for a second date, don''t you agree?" She slid into the booth and sat next to me, she was wearing a tight Tommy Hilfiger t-shirt with jeans short shorts that were doing interesting things to her figure. She placed her hand on my thigh looked up at me and gave me a bright smile. I swear you could hear the *poof* as all arguments and thoughts vanished from my mind, I simply smiled back and said "I missed you." "That''s more like it John, now let''s order." I had no idea when the blurry waiter came. I don''t even remember what we ate, all I remember was that by the end we were making out fiercely like a couple of horny teenagers. I remember her hot lips and her soft curves. I remember how her body felt as she was pressed up against me, and I especially remember a particular trick she could do with her tongue. * * * I was abruptly woken up by a shrill scream coming from somewhere next to me. Apparently Lidia had woken up before me and her curiosity about my face had overridden the warning I gave her about the curse, or she didn''t think she would be affected , or maybe she just didn''t care anymore, I don''t know what she was thinking but she had walked over to my bed and taken off the hood of my cowl. (yes I was wearing a cowl when I slept, I think the reasons why are obvious) and now she was standing over me screaming like a damn banshee that just stubbed its toe. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I was never a morning person and usually i''m a zombie when I first wake up so when I was woken in this alarming fashion I acted reflexively and took out the only non lethal weapon from my ring , which was a simple low yield generator, and used it. "God damn it , &*#*@ %$@# .......!" "John, did you just taser Lidia?" * * * I put Lidia down on the bed and waited for her to wake up. When she started to stir I held her mouth so she couldn''t scream . "Alright , calm down. I know how this looks but I promise I won''t hurt you unless you force me to. I promise that I''m not undead or a monster . " For some reason that didn''t make the fear in her eyes decrease at all. "I''m going to slowly let go now, please don''t scream." It took her sometime to stop shaking and calm down enough to speak, "Who....wh-what are you?" "My name really is john, John Fairweather, and I am a human but I''m from before the awakening, see I was born with a debilitating disease and..........." Just like that I told Lidia my whole story. Afterwards I made her swear a vow to never knowingly betray me in any way. She didn''t even complain while making the vow, she just seemed happy that she wasn''t going to die. chapter thirty two - enchantments r us Chapter thirty two I left Lidia in the hotel room to calm down and think about the things she just learned and made my way to the guard barracks to look for Clair. After I found her in her office I told her what I needed and she said she had a friend in the municipal office who could hook me up. The municipal building looked like something out of ancient Greece ,with a twist. It was made out of marble and granite melded in ways that indicated that it was a work of magic not simple masonry. It had the same dignity of the old Greek buildings but it also had a unique charm like most other buildings in the city. We passed by the alternating black and white giant columns into the wide atrium of the building. Unlike modern municipal offices there was surprisingly little traffic. Clair led me down a hallway labeled ''magic commerce'' and to an office with the name tag ''Betty Truman''. Inside an older looking woman was sitting behind a desk , doing paper work. "Tom, this is my aunt Betty, aunty this is the ''hero'' everyone''s been talking about recently." Unlike Clair she was a perfectly normal vanilla human, no animal ears or anything. My surprise must have shown on my face because Clair continued speaking, "Yeah I get that a lot, I''m only half beast man on my mother''s side, Betty is my fathers sister." "What can I do for you Tom Demonbane ?" " Demonbane?" "That''s what they''re calling you now, there are bards that are making songs about you. I have even heard about the possibilities of a play. You are quite famous Mr Tom." there was only a tinge of sarcasm when she said that. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "You know I like the sound of that, Tom Demonbane. I think I''ll keep it. Moving on , I want to start an enchantment business, and I apparently need a permit to practice magic for commercial purposes." "That you do. This city is famous for its magic so we have had quite a problem with charlatans trying to make a quick buck with things like fake love potions ,so now we screen all people trying to make a business out of magic to protect the citizens and the good name of the city. For you screening is pretty simple, just enchant something for me." I picked up her pen and quickly wrote ''float'' on it.(it also has a pentagram but from now on its omitted and unless it is mentioned, assume all of John''s enchantments have it.) "Well Mr Tom did the enchantment fail?" Then I let go of the pen and it staid up in the air, both Clair and Betty sighed in appreciation. "That was quite impressive Mr Tom, I can give you your permit right now. Just fill this form." After filling out everything and getting my permit, I went shopping for a shop. Instead of going to one of the more posh neighborhoods, I went to a mainstream mall and rented a store with wide windows, then I went to the closest stationary and made a sign then posted it on the inside of the window of my new store it read, Enchantments R us, magic for everyone. chapter thirty three - luggage Chapter thirty three I was woken up by gunfire or rather what I thought was gunfire before I noticed that it was someone knocking as if they had a personal grudge against my door. Before I had a chance to open the door and check what was going on, it was broken down by a large bear like man wearing bulky brown armor that matched the color of his bushy beard. He was almost eight foot tall and had the most intimidating appearance i have ever seen. As I stood there rooted to the floor in shock at this sudden development, he stooped down and scooped me up into a massive backbreaking hug. I meant that literally, there was actual poping sound coming from my back. A strange giant just broke down my door and now was attempting to make John juice by squeezing me dry, how the hell am I supposed to react to something like this? " All I have done for the last 48 hours has been to run and pray, just run and pray that I get home before the demons destroyed it and everything that I loved, but I knew deep inside that it was all for naught, that all I was going to find when I returned was a smoldering ruin and the corpses of my family, but still I run and pray, do you know why? Because I couldn''t do anything else, because I , the great and powerful Michael Steelbender ,was helpless to do anything else I ran and I prayed, and you know what I found when I got home, instead of despair I found a miracle. I found a city untouched by the vile beasts, I found my family waiting for me with smiles on their faces and do you know what they told me? They told me of the great demon slaying hero that saved the city singlehandedly, they told me of you demonbane . You don''t understand the gift you have given me, I owe you more than I can ever repay, I have more gratitude than I can ever convey. If there is anything, anything at all I can do for you please tell me." This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. "Well your gratitude has broken my door ,and if you continue with this hug several of my ribs will soon follow, so please ease up a little. Plus I can''t live in a hotel room with a broken door so maybe let me book a new room." "Nonsense, who has ever heard of a hero living in a hotel room, you shall immediately come to my home and stay there and I shall pay for the door so that takes care of that, and oh your wife can come as well." "Lidia is not my wife." "Good, you shall marry my daughter. You''re going to like her, she''s very beautiful just like her mother." I thought at that point he was going to let me go, but no he hoisted me under his armpits like luggage and carried me like that despite my very vocal protests. He carried me outside of the hotel and through the streets and Lidia followed quietly. For some reason all the people who saw us started to cheer the word demonbane. I thought that it was funny that the first time I was hailed a hero, I was being carried under another man''s armpits. chapter thirty four - the castle Chapter thirty four What he said was a house turned out to be a massive medieval castle complete with a moat,drawbridge, portcullis, and Crenelations. He carried me across the drawbridge still chatting with me in his booming voice as if carrying a grown man under one''s armpit was a perfectly normal thing to do. " When I was a kid I always wanted to be like those knights in the stories, but as I was a fairly talented earth mage my family wouldn''t let me, of course in the end I told them they could stuff themselves and studied how to be a knight anyways. I built this castle because what kind of knight doesn''t have a castle, am I right? Any who after I built the castle I of course needed a princess to rescue, and I just happened to meet the eldest absurdly beautiful daughter of the head of the Serafino family,they''re fire mages if you haven''t guessed from their name, that''s her coming right now. Anyways where was I , ah yes ,you see sweet Mary hadn''t inherited the family gift so my family was dead set against our relationship, and the Serafino family was against marrying the daughter of the head to an earth mage, in the end I told both families to stuff it and married her anyways. Hey honey,look at who I brought to stay with us !" The woman he was talking to was a very beautiful redhead who didn''t look any older than thirty. Wearing a simple green dress she seemed to ooze dignity and poise. Basically she was the direct opposite of Michael. "Put the poor man down Michael, I''m sure he''s had enough of your armpit by now. Hello Mr Demonbane, I apologize for my husband''s behavior. He gets a little carried away sometimes. My name is Mary Steelbender, we are all very excited to have you staying with us." "Its quite alright Ms Steelbender aside from the general manhandling, I actually enjoy his company. Oh and my name is Tom, this is my friend Lidia." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. "See honey, he likes me. I was actually telling him our family story before you interrupted me . Anyway were was I , I wed Mary against both families wishes and nine months later our first child Isabella was born and both families disowned us. When she turned sixteen Isabella turned out to be a rare dual elemental mage, a magma mage. Both families came back saying how they were ready to forgive us, but guess what? I told them to stuff it and now we live alone in the castle ,just me , my wife, our daughter Isabella, and the youngest ,our son Carlos. , excluding the maids and various staff of course." We finally made it to the front courtyard and Michael let me down. The ground was covered in a mosaic of a beautiful scene of running horses. "You like the art? Did it myself, I did say I was a pretty decent earth mage. It was my first anniversary present to my wife, and each anniversary I change what it shows .Pretty neat huh? Well don''t just stand there come in and let''s get you settled down before lunch." The inside of the castle was more modern looking. It had white walls and tiled flooring. They led me and Lidia to one side of the castle and Michael just gave it to us. "This wing is yours, do whatever you want with it. And don''t try to refuse ,this wing has always been deserted, plus it is the smallest wing with only sixteen rooms so its not much of a loss anyways. Now please rest in one of the rooms , a maid will call you when lunch is ready." He left me and Lidia gawping stupidly like fish that had been taken out of the water. chapter thirty five - lunch Chapter thirty five There were four floors to choose from , with four rooms on each floor. Each room was as wide as the living room in my old house and was tastefully furnished with a large canopy bed and a dressing table, I took a room on the first floor because I didn''t want to go up and down stairs everyday, but Lidia chose one on the top floor because of the view, and she had a point, Montreal was a truly beautiful city and her room had a pretty good vantage point from which to see this beauty. We had about an hour to get used to our new rooms when a maid in a classic maid''s outfit came to show us to the dining room for lunch. Although there was a long dining table, there were only six chairs and they were all grouped together at one end of the table. Already sitting there at the head of the table were Mr and Mrs Steelbender. The only other person in the room was a young boy of about eight sitting on the right side of the table. "Dad is that him, is that demonbane? He doesn''t look very big, are you sure he''s the one who defeated all the demons?" "Yes that is him, and remember this son, being big doesn''t mean you are powerful and being small doesn''t mean you are weak, you should never underestimate an opponent just because they look a certain way. I had to learn that the hard way when I went to China for the warrior''s tournament and had my ass handed to me by a tiny old lady. You two, come here and take a seat while we wait for Bella." We had just sat down when the doors at the other end of the room opened and a beautiful woman with flaming red hair entered. She was wearing an elaborately embroidered blue dress which clearly showcased her classic hourglass figure. Her beauty was almost like a physical thing, like a giant hammer crushing you and taking your breath away. "And that is the daughter I told you about, her name is Isabella but everybody just calls her Bella or Bell. Told you she was beautiful didn''t I ? And she''s already taken a shine to you, she has been waiting outside for fifteen minutes to make a grand entrance to impress you." "Dad! You weren''t supposed to tell him that!" "Its okay Bell, a girl as beautiful as you trying to impress him, he''ll only feel flattered. Now everybody sit down and let''s eat, I haven''t eaten in two days and I haven''t eaten anything decent in two weeks so let the meal begin before I start eating the forks." Taking his declaration as a signal servants came in to serve course after course of delicious food. Throughout the meal Isabella seemed very interested in me and asked me several questions about myself. I tried to answer them as honestly as possible. "Mr Demonbane , is it true that you defeated the army of demons with your bare hands?" "Oh God no, I have very powerful weapons that I used to defeat them. I''m an enchanter , not a mage or warrior." "Really? You have such a powerful artifact ? You must show us later. If I''m not being to rude, can I ask who the woman next to you is?" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "This is my friend Lidia, she''s a priestess of the Sofia church, I helped her escape an arranged marriage, so we''re kind of on the run from the church." She started to smile happily when she heard that. "You don''t have to answer me, but why do you wear that cowl?" Michael suddenly decided to join the conversation,"Yeah , I was wondering that as well. Its not because you''re ugly or anything is it? You''re not trying to hide your identity or something are you, because at this point I don''t really care who you are, you''re the guy that saved my family," For a second I hesitated, I really liked the Steelbenders and even though it was premature, I trusted them. Plus the only reason i was hiding my face was to cover my distinct looking features so I wouldn''t be recognized easily, but that seemed to be pointless now, so I slowly took off my hood. Suddenly it was absolutely silent at the table. Isabella was staring at me with her mouth slightly opened and her cheeks were blushing slightly. Mary had an incredulous look on her face. Carlos was just looking curiously at my eyes. The silence was finally broken when Michael broke down into loud laughter. "Here I thought you were horribly disfigured or something and it turns out you are wearing that cowl because you wanted to keep the droves of women that would follow you around if you didn''t cover your face." "None of you think my eyes are weird?" "Nah, everybody knows that mana does strange things to the body and glowing eyes ain''t the strangest thing I''ve ever seen, hell even we are affected by the mana we use. I''m an earth mage and as you can see I have brown hair and I am built a little more solid than your average man. My wife comes from a family of fire mages and even though she can''t use magic her hair is still red, water mages always have weird blue hair, and the air mages are all blonde. What I mean is the only thing that I think when I look at your eyes is that you have some type of gift, am I right?" "Yes , but I would like to keep it a secret, so please don''t ask me what it is." "Hey, that''s your business. I''m not going to pry on your private business." The rest of the meal passed with no further incident, we all just made casual conversation and enjoyed the meal. "Thank you for the meal Mr and Mrs Steelbender, it was nice meeting you Isabella and Carlos, but I have work to do if I''m going to open my store." "Hey, I heard about that. ''Enchantments r us, magic for everyone'' Maurice isn''t gonna like that, he''s the owner of the enchantment shop in the uptown district, he''s a firm believer that if the common man was meant to have magic he would be born with some. He might try and make trouble for you." "Well he can try, but I think I''m going to take a leaf out of your book and tell him to stuff it." chapter thirty six - commerce Chapter thirty six It took me a couple of days to make enough inventory to open the shop. First I converted one of the bedrooms next to mine into a workshop by taking out the bed and replacing it with the forge I had stored in my ring. Then I started working on things that I thought that people would want, mostly household appliances that would make life easier. The first things I made were a couple of simple hot plate stoves with simple heat enchantments. Next I made the ''cleaning wand'' with the ''remove'' and ''dirt'' runes. Although the ''remove'' rune was a very weak rune it was perfect for this situation. I liked the performance of the cleaning wand so much that I kept one for myself. Next I attempted to make air conditioning. I had one piece of metal enchanted with ''hot'' and ''wind'' and another with ''cold'' and ''wind''. Between them I placed a Bimetallic strip made of copper on one side and steel on the other inscribed with a pentagram to act as a switch, then I put the whole thing in a box and voil¨¤ ,an air conditioning system that blows hot air when it is cold and cold air when it is warm. I also made magical lights and other knick knacks to fill out the displays. The prices I came up with considering I was in a big city was twenty five silvers for the hot plates and fifty silvers for the cleaning wand and ac system. I made as much stock of each merchandize as I could in five days which turned out to be a lot. As I worked I received several letters of thanks and invitations to meet from several members of the mage''s council, but I politely declined all the invitations. I had a feeling I wouldn''t like them as much as I liked Michael, he was an honest and candid man, the only reason he was even on the council was because he was ridiculously powerful. According to Michael all the other members are embroiled in bitter power struggles and I didn''t want to get mixed up in that. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Five days later it was the opening of the store and the owners of the mall made a big event out of it, I didn''t even ask them to do it. They were just using my store to attract attention to the mall. There were advertisements everywhere , they even had announcers on the streets. By the time I opened the store there was a large crowd already waiting so we had to form them up into lines so that no more than fifteen people could be in the store at one time. Inside the store the displays contained all the available products and there was a tag next to each one listing what it was and it''s price. I had also hired two people from Michael''s staff, with his permission of course, to look after the store. Their names were Bryan and Emily and they were pretty competent people. At first the people were reluctant to pay so much money for something they''ve never seen before, but by the time the afternoon came everything was selling out like hot cakes. By the end of the day we sold a fifth of the stock and made a mind boggling 300 gold coins .That''s 300 gold in one day. I know they say money doesn''t buy happiness but then why do I have this warm glowy feeling in my chest? I had to suppress the urge to break out into song as I made my way back to the castle. chapter thirty seven - meeting the bosses Chapter thirty seven In the end I couldn''t resist and I started to hum, I was still humming cheerily when I was met by Michael at the gates of the castle, "So how did it go? How much money did you make?" "300 gold." "Holy shit are you serious? At this rate you''ll be the richest guy here in a month. Anyway I''m not greeting you at the gate to ask you how your business is going, you''ve been summoned by the council and I was given the task of getting you there. " He then led me to a carriage that looked like any other on the street, "You weren''t expecting a fancy gold carriage were you? I don''t like that pretentious bullshit, and anyone that says its not proper...well you know what I say to people like that. Now get in , I''ll tell you about the council on our way there." I got into the carriage and Michael started to explain about the council. "It might be called a council but its actually where the four families meet and try to one up each other .The four families are established based on the four elements. They are Serafino for fire that''s were Mary''s from, Mason for earth that''s my old family, Voda for water, and Ventus for air. The council is divided into two, the high council and the general assembly. The general assembly is rarely called and all the mages of the four families are in it. The high council has nine members two from each family and me. The Serafino brothers, Antonio and Cristian, are both pompous pricks , the only difference between the two is that Antonio is a more powerful prick. Jim Mason and Sandra Mason dear old mom and dad will smile to your face but would gladly sacrifice your soul to a demon if it meant it would benefit them. Anna Voda is a 145 year old lady whose refusal to die has angered many ambitious people in the Voda family. She''s a strange bird, she can see things no one else can so watch out for her. Galina Voda likes to use her beauty as a weapon, she wouldn''t even hesitate to seduce you to get your secrets. Hell with the way you look she''ll probably try to seduce you anyway, but stay clear of that woman, she''s pure poison. Her lovers have the nasty habit of disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Alexander and Aria Ventus are twins and and are completely spineless, they always support the side they think is strongest. These are the wonderful people you are going to be meeting tonight so watch your back." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I guess some things never change, in the end magic or no magic politicians will always be politicians. * * * The carriage stopped in front of a building consisting of four smaller towers colored blue,brown,red, and white and in between them was a larger tower that was made up of all four colors and was connected to each tower with giant walkways. We went straight for the biggest tower and because I was with Michael the guards at the door didn''t even ask me any questions before letting me in. Inside we found what Michael said was the hall of elements, each wall was covered in paintings with one of the elements as a theme. So right wall for fire, left wall for water,the wall behind us for air , and the wall in front for earth. Frankly I thought they were trying too hard and the whole thing was juvenile, but hey I didn''t know about their culture so I couldn''t really judge. Michael and I continued forward until we got to some stairs. I had a sinking feeling that we were going to the very top of the giant tower. I was right. After what felt like an eternity of climbing stairs we finally reached our destination, an ornate golden door. Michael pushed the door open so hard that it rattled on its hinges, then he said, "Let''s get this shit over with." Inside eight people were sitting on seats that were on a raised platform. One of the men in red robes spoke with a voice loaded with sarcasm, "I see your wit is as sharp as ever Michael , take a seat so we can start." Why did I feel like I was being put on trial? A.n. sorry if the chapter isn''t up to par, I''m posting from my brothers birthday party. On a happier note my brother just turned one :-) chapter thirty eight - you cant take my LEG! Chapter thirty eight I tied to match the faces before me to the description that Michael gave me, luckily they were conveniently color coded to make this easier. The two men that were dressed in red robes and were looking down their noses at me as if they were seeing something vastly inferior to themselves must be the fire mages from the Serafino family, Antonio and Cristian. The two next to them wearing brown robes and smiling the same smile I imagine a creepy guy in a trenchcoat would have when he is soliciting a prostitute who he would later murder were the earth mages and Michael''s parents, Jim and Sandra Mason. Next to them wearing a blue robe was a really old woman who looked like a kindly grandma and smiled kindly at me, I would have liked her if Jules hadn''t just informed me that Gusion''s rune had intercepted multiple attempts to look under my cowl and even peek into my surface thoughts. This must be Anna Voda and that must mean the stunningly beautiful woman with the plunging neckline who was licking her lips bewitchingly while looking at me as if I was her next meal must be Galina Voda. That leaves the two people at the end who were wearing white robes and had noncommittal expressions on their faces, must be the air mages Alexander and Aria Ventus. Finally sitting down alone was Michael. They didn''t offer me a seat so I just stood there observing them and waiting for them to start. The man in the red robe who talked earlier spoke again, "I am high adept Antonio Serafino , the people next to me going clockwise are high adapts Cristian, Jim, Sandra, Anna, Galina, Alexander, and Aria. You are the Tom Hilfiger who defeated the army of demons last week?" "Yes." "According to captain Truman, you used some sort of artifact to achieve this feat , is that true?" "Yes." "Well we can''t leave such a powerful weapon in some apprentice enchanters hands, hand it over." Michael suddenly stood up and started to shout, "Are you fucking kidding me , you called the savior of our city to rob him?" The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The old lady Anna just chuckled and said, "Calm down Michael, nobody here agrees with Antonio, it is just his usual bad habit, thinking that he can make unilateral decisions on behalf of the council. The poor boy can keep whatever is his , we won''t take anything from him." Michael seemed mollified and sat back down. I also relaxed from the alert condition I entered when I heard Antonio''s declaration. "Are you alright young man?" "I''m fine." Galina looked at me and licked her lips again and said , "You certainly are Tom, why don''t you let me have a peek under your cowl?" , then gave me a slow wink. Michael then said, "Please keep it in your pants Galina. Why did you even call him here, he can''t tell you any of his grandfather''s secrets, he''s under a vow." Alexander: "We just wanted to meet the great hero in person and thank him. Now that we''ve met him he doesn''t seem so great." Galina: "Oh, I''m sure he is great in all sorts of ways." Michael: "Let me get this straight , you called him all the way here to have a look at him?" Jim: "Well he wouldn''t take any of our invitations." Antonio: " If you aren''t going to let me confiscate his weapon can we go on to serious matters, Mr Hilfiger can we establish contact with your grandfather ?" Me: " Sure, I will ask him when I get back in five years." Antonio: "Is there any way to do that before then?" Me: " Nope." Antonio: " Well that is that, you can show yourself out, the council has actual important work to do." So I went out to the hallway and waited for Michael ,after waiting an hour I lost all patience and left a message in his carriage that I went home and teleported from a dark ally directly into my room and fell asleep. A.n. Party is still going strong :-) chapter thirty nine - interesting Chapter thirty nine Change in P.O.V. Anna Voda This kid is very interesting. None of the others noticed but I knew that something was off about him from the moment he walked into the room. For starters I couldn''t see under his hood or peek into his thoughts no matter what I did, I have never encountered a concealment spell that was so profound so I was immediately intrigued. This kid wasn''t simple .Before I could say anything that proud peacock Antonio started to blather on about how we were going to take the man''s weapon because it was too powerful. Even though I couldn''t use my spells to monitor him, over the years I have picked up a few tricks for situations like this. I am of the Voda family, that means I was born attuned to mana of the water type. Over the years I have noticed that simply sensing the water mana around me is not an active spell and wherever there is water , there is water mana. I took this principle and developed a way to sense somebody''s blood and slowly perfected how to read a person based on things like blood pressure and heart rate . As Antonio made his ridiculous declaration, I felt his heart rate spike and his posture change, it wasn''t fear that I was reading. He was getting ready to fight the entire council and didn''t show fear. This boy was definitely interesting. I interjected before something could happen, pretending to calm down Michael while in actuality I was calming down the boy. For the rest of the meeting I carefully observed him, and what did I conclude ? If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. He was lying. He was lying about his name. He was also lying about his grandfather, I even doubt he had a grandfather. This made him even more interesting because captain Truman said she overheard this information when he was speaking to Blackthorn, and she was trained to ferret out information. That must means he successfully misinformed not only us but also the church. That made him someone clever hiding something important and that made him interesting. After Antonio dismissed him, I started to observe him discreetly using a vapor spirit. He seemed to wait for an hour in the hall doing nothing , then went to Michael''s carriage to leave a note. Afterwards I followed him as he went into a dark alley and saw something impossible .He dissolved into particles of dancing blue lights and vanished. .......very interesting indeed. chapter forty - stupidity Chapter forty For the next few days I made stock for the store and generally saw how things were going , then I left the day to day running of the store to my employees with Lidia as manager. Now that I was financially solvent , I could focus on more important projects. The project I decided to focus on was something for my enchantment implants. Most of the enchantments I have made so far are very simple point and activate types, which actually makes them very limited. A mage might not have as much power as me, but as their magic is tied together with their imagination it makes them way more versatile than me, this was one of the problems I wanted to fix with my implants. The only thing I own that has features that allow me to use my imagination was my storage ring and I didn''t even enchant that myself, I used an empowerment ritual to do it so I don''t even know what the rune used for intent control was. The solution I came up for this was to dismantle the ritual to find the runes. An empowerment ritual is basically a way for a mage to enchant certain runes into an object ,so the rune I wanted was in the circle. The problem was because the mana needed to flow smoothly through the ritual for it to succeed, the ritual has to be streamlined as possible and that means I couldn''t see were one rune ends and another begins, so I had to slowly research the ritual circle and to do that I had to go back to the automatic ritual machine I left underground in the burrows. I traveled outside of the city limits to get free of the barrier and teleported directly into my second basement were the ARM resides. Because of the magically enchanted beams and columns the second basement hadn''t collapsed when the rest of the house fell on top of it. The air was a little stale but a simple ''pure'' and ''wind'' runes fixed that problem. The ARM seemed to be in perfect working order so I started working immediately. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Five hours later I was ready to rip my hair out in frustration. After doing multiple experiments with different variations on the circle I found out unless a circle is anything but perfect it would probably not activate, and the times that it did activate the results were so random that it was pointless to make comparisons and isolate runes. In the end I was so frustrated by the illogical nature of the circle that I did something drastic and probably stupid. I used my god sight to look at it. Suddenly the world came to a halt. I can''t explain how I knew the difference but there was suddenly a stillness there that was unnatural, its the little things you feel but never notice, the little sounds you hear but never listened to, they suddenly were conspicuous in their absence. The moment seemed to last an eternity, but then I felt what could only be described as a mental shit whip as my mind was suddenly flooded with all the information about the circle, its past , its future, possible alternative versions of the circle. I was suddenly flooded with information and just as quickly I forgot everything I learned, I was adrift in a sea of information and I was drowning. Then I heard a booming voice, "Focus John, you need to remember what you are looking for." It was like I was thrown a life boat in the giant sea and just like that I was no longer drowning. I focused on the question that I wanted answered ''what is the rune that gives the ring intent control?''. And shining there as if it was waiting for me all along was a twisty looking rune with elaborate flourishes, after I desperately grabbed on to the rune , suddenly there was only darkness and I passed out. chapter forty one - hangover Chapter forty one I woke up feeling like my head had been run over by a jumbo jet. My eyesight was blurry, I felt as weak as a new born lamb, and I had a killer headache. "Are you finally up sleeping beauty?" "Hey Jules, what happened?" "I would say what happened was a success, considering it was your first time using the god sight properly, and now I have good information from your little stunt to improve it so that it doesn''t always end up with you on the floor." "You knew I was going to try to use the god sight?" "I put a toy in front of you and told you not to use it, of course you were going to use it. But as they say , you can''t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs." "But what if I got seriously hurt or died ?" "Relax drama queen , I could have stopped the sight anytime I wanted. I have installed various failsafes before you could fry your brain." My eyesight was slowly clearing up and I finally got feelings back in my limbs. "Jules, how long has it been since I started using the god sight?" "Don''t worry, its only been a few minutes. You have plenty of time to get home, now do you have the rune you were looking for?" "I have it, now I want to try something." The rune that links something to intent or simply the ''intent'' rune can be used to direct magic, but there was a catch, it doesn''t work unless the user himself is supplying the mana so it doesn''t work with the pentagram rune. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I enchanted a small piece of metal with the ''intent'' ''push'' and ''pull'' runes. Since I need to be the one to be the one supplying the mana , I had to imbed the damn thing inside of my palm and that hurt like shit but it healed over pretty quickly so it wasn''t that bad. I slowly circulated my mana from my core (calling it an appendix by now would be pretty silly,tremble at the power of my appendix just doesn''t sound right) then into the metal while imagining a rock in front of me flying off. I felt my mana draining off and the pebble flew off. Right off the bat I noticed two problems. The process was too slow and needs a lot of focus not only to circulate mana but also operate the enchantment. In the end the only solutions I could find were to practice the internal circulation methods that Jules showed me and repeatedly use the enchantment until it was second nature. The second problem was that the mana expenditure was nothing to sneeze at. This problem was slightly more tricky, I had to find a way to somehow augment my mana core. I guess I know what my next project will be. After practicing with the enchantment until my mana was depleted, I was able to push,pull, as well as slowly raise the pebble by applying just the right amount of force which was very difficult. In the end I teleported to Montreal and went back home tired but satisfied. How much is too much Recently the MC has discovered a way of basically granting himself powers. I opened this thread to ask your opinion on what said powers should be, should I severely restrict him or should I make him an op mc? chapter forty two - first kiss? Chapter forty two I was walking around the vast castle grounds, just relaxing and having a peaceful time for once. I rounded a corner and was heading to one of the many gardens in the castle when my peaceful walk turned into unexpected flight when what appeared to be a volcano exploded five meters in front of me. My flight was then cut short by a hard stone wall. As I attempted to get up from the ground what came into my still dizzy sight was a flustered redhead, Isabella. "I''m sorry, I''m so sorry. I didn''t mean to do that. Are you okay?" "What in all that is holy were you trying to accomplish Isabella? A few more steps forward and I would have literally been toast." "I''m really sorry, I was just practicing and tried to hit a target and I lost control." "You mean that target, the one on the other side of the garden? Jesus woman that thing isn''t even close." Now her expression was going from contrite to depressed, "I know, I was given all this power and I can''t even use it properly." "Well hold on there, you shouldn''t quit just yet . Let''s see what the problem is, I might be able to help." I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the garden so that I could see her cast. I of course had Tollo handy if anything went wrong. Stolen novel; please report. She started making a pattern with her mana and everything seemed to be going well but then the power overflowed from her grasp and started to wreak havoc on her pattern. I pointed Tollo and quickly dispelled the mess before it could cause damage. Her problem was that she had so much power that it was like attaching a garden hose to a fire hydrant. I needed a way to make it easier for her to operate the large amounts of mana she generates. I took out a normal steel ring from my storage ring and quickly enchanted it with ''clarity'' and ''focus''. "Here you go, wear this ring and give it another go." She slowly took the ring and put it on her ring finger. This time she executed the spell perfectly and a thin precise stream of lava obliterated the target. Note to self, never piss off Isabella . "You fixed me.....for two years I have been struggling and you fixed it in ten minutes. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you !" She suddenly grabbed me in a hug and gave me a kiss on the lips and ran off laughing and jumping and generally celebrating, but I didn''t notice. I was too busy trying to shake off the effects of my first real life kiss. chapter forty three - not a lightsaber Chapter forty three I was currently experiencing one of Michael''s signature back breaking hugs. "Do you know what you just did? Do you even understand the power of the artifact you gave my daughter? Any mage would sell their soul for it. My little girl , she desperately needed it and you just simply whip it out and gave it to her as if it was nothing .You do understand that this increases my debt to you even more, I mean you just made my little girl the most powerful battle mage in the city." "Just let me breath before I pass out and we''ll call it even." "Come now, we''re going to have a great feast in your honor tomorrow. I''m calling everyone to celebrate .Which reminds me I have to go prepare." "That''s really not necessary, it was a simple enchantment. You don''t have to do this." "Nonsense, you helped my daughter control her power so that she no longer is a danger to herself. You might even have saved her life from some awful miscast. I am her father and I know the extent of her problem wasn''t as small as you''re trying to make it. What you did is nothing short of another heroic deed, and that means I''m holding a feast to honor it." Then he walked away muttering something about a hundred barrels of beer. * * * That night I had an interesting idea I wanted to try out. Because of my discovery of the ''intent'' rune there were runes I could use now that I couldn''t use before, these are runes that are useless without fine control. One of these runes is the ''illusion'' rune, without fine control the enchantment had no way of knowing what illusions to create, making it useless to me. But now that I could use it, I thought it could become a very useful resource to have in my arsenal. Then I had another idea, what if I combined the rune ''illusion'' with the rune ''solid''.? I wasn''t sure what the results would be but I was excited to find out , so I embedded a piece of metal enchanted by said runes into my palm. The results?I could make an illusion of almost anything, and technically whatever I made would be solid, but from trial and error I found out the limitations of this enchantment. Although solid, the illusions made are not made out of the same thing as the thing your making an illusion of. All of it seemed to be made out of material the hardness and consistency of really hard plastic. I couldn''t create heat or sounds in my illusions .The mana usage also rose drastically with the increase in size and complexity of the illusion. The funny thing about these solid illusions was that I had a choice of letting them stay permanently in reality, or dissipate them and recoup some of my mana. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. This didn''t mean that it was a useless enchantment, on the contrary it had great utility. Since I am creating illusions out of my imagination I could create things that are normally impossible. Although it was difficult at first because I couldn''t wrap my head around it, I was able to create a monomolecular blade, a blade so thin that it could cut almost anything. I also finally achieved flight by creating a small platform underneath me and manipulating it to rise up into the air. The best thing about it was that both illusions were not complex and their size was small so the mana expenditure was also quite small. Particularly the monomolecular blade, I could spam that thing all day and never break a sweat. I was having so much fun playing with the new enchantment that I didn''t go to sleep until the sun was peeking over the horizon. I would have continued experimenting with it but I had a party to go to that night . * * * After careful consideration I decided that I wasn''t going to wear my cowl to the party. I was sick and tired of hiding my face day in and day out, plus if I wanted to become incognito at some point in the future, I''ll just simply use my new skill with illusions to make myself a mask. But for tonight I made some brown contacts to cover my weird eyes and wore some clothing that reminded me of a tux. I went to Lidia''s room and knocked politely, she opened her door in a night gown. "What are you doing Lidia ? There''s a feast in like twenty minutes and you''re not even dressed." "But I wasn''t invited." "To hell with that, you''ll be my date ." She smiled happily at my declaration then went back inside to change. A couple of minutes later she came back in a red dress that left her shoulders and back bare. She looked positively ravishing and it took me a moment to notice that my mouth was hanging open and close it. I offered her my arm in as gentlemanly way as I could and she accepted. Then we walked arm in arm to the castle''s main hall. It was time for the feast. chapter forty four - poor virgin Chapter forty four As we entered the hall the first thing we noticed was that we were a smidgen late, there was a large table laden with food and almost all the seats around it have been occupied by guests, making us one of the last people to arrive. The guests were an even blend of almost all types of people. There were obviously the mages, all four colors were there representing all four houses. There were soldiers with their golden armor, most of them around Michael laughing at a story he was telling which I suspected was about me because he was pantomiming carrying someone under his armpit. There were also normal looking people some with more luxurious clothing than others. I didn''t recognize most of the faces but I did pick out a few familiar ones here and there. For some reason the two water mages from the council, Anna Voda and Galina Voda, were both attending. Captain Clair Truman was there looking slightly uncomfortable in the middle of her guffawing comrades. There was also Cynthia Blackthorn who looked dark and mysterious in a violet dress with silver embroidery. Her expression perked up when she saw Lidia, I noticed that the seat next to her was empty and I had a feeling she was saving it for a certain blond so I told Lidia I would catch up with her later and sent her to her old friend. Michael finally noticed my presence then got up banged loudly on the table and said, "Everybody I would like to introduce the slayer of demons, savior of Montreal, the common mans enchanter,shrewd merchant ,personal friend and now the person who unlocked my daughter''s true potential its Tom Demonbane. Tom ,come I saved you a seat next to Isabella. " The curious gazes that were on me from the moment I entered turned into looks of shock and astonishment. There was whispering all the way up and down the table. "Didn''t the Demonbane always wear a cowl?" "I always thought that he had some sort of battle scar on his face..." "I liked him better when he wasn''t a pretty boy." "Why the hell has he been hiding that from us, he is so handsome! " "I wonder is he seeing anyone?" I tried to ignore all the stares and took my designated seat next to Isabella . Then Michael continued to speak, "Now that the guest of honor has finally arrived , we can get to the part you have all been waiting for, let''s eat!" Everybody started to eat ravenously, and it was a testament to the food that there was almost no conversation as everybody was trying to shove as much as they could into their mouths. In the end everybody was sitting back lazily slumped with the warm glow of the well fed radiating from them. This happy scene was interrupted by Michael who shouted, "Now get off your lazy backsides and grab a partner , its time to dance." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. As if waiting for his signal an orchestra suddenly entered the room and started playing music. People began pairing off and started to dance. I was going to ask Isabella to dance with me,but she already went off with her baby brother and Lidia was already on the dance floor with Cynthia. I was getting up to go and ask Clair when I was ambushed by Galina Voda. Before I could protest she dragged me onto the dancefloor placed my hands deliberately on her hips and snuggled real close. Instead of wearing the usual robe Galina was wearing what appeared to be a single sash of clothing that went behind her neck crossed itself just below her chest managing to somewhat cover her ample assets then wraps around her wide hips barely making it to her thighs. She pressed in real close making her lack of a bra painfully obvious. I have been a shutin for most of my life and didn''t have much experience with women, most of my ''experience'' being in dreams. I just wasn''t used to women like Galina so when she started moving and dancing in very provocative ways in her skimpy outfit I started to slowly turn red. Then Galina started speaking into my ear in soft whispers. "Its cute that a handsome guy like you is acting like a virgin, I''ll take that as a complement." Then she started laughing until she noticed I didn''t join her and instead had blushed even harder. "Oh no....no way.....your kidding! A man with a face like yours a virgin? Is there something wrong with your equipment?" "I''ve been living in my grandfather''s compound most of my life, I didn''t exactly have a lot of opportunity." "Well you have one now, we can sneak out and take care of it right now." I was so tempted to say yes, a really beautiful and sexy woman was asking me to sneak out with her and as any guy would attest its almost impossible to resist such an offer when you are a virgin, but I remembered Michaels warnings. Even then I almost accepted her offer, this woman was a personification of sex and I almost broke under her relentless assault. Thankfully at that exact moment the song ended and I quickly extricated myself from her before the next one could begin and made a beeline for the refreshments table, I really needed a drink to cool myself off. That night I danced with Isabella, Lidia , Clair , and even Cynthia so that Galina couldn''t corner me again. When the music finally stopped and everybody started to disperse she grabbed me from behind lightly rubbing her chest against my back and whispered, "You might have escaped me tonight , but you can''t run away forever. Eventually you will be mine." Then she spun on her heels and sashayed out of the room. Leaving me with only one thought in my head. I really needed to get laid. chapter forty five - prelude to war Chapter forty five I blocked the darts coming towards my face with a shield then immediately dissolved it. From behind one of the many trees surrounding me I heard a light rustling and sent a disc limned with a monomolecular edge which passed clean through the tree and the assassin behind it. I felt rumbling in the ground and jumped up and landed on a platform that materialized beneath me then rose up a few meters , and just in time too because there was a large earth spike in the space I was occupying previously. I turned to the earth mage who sent the spike and sent another disk which got him squarely on the neck causing him to collapse with blood fountaining out of his wound. I then turned and erected a barrier to stop the wind blades that were trying to decapitate me, instead of a flat shape I used a more aerodynamic shape to let the wind pass over me rather than to try and stop it cold. When the dust cleared I was surrounded by a group of bulky warriors that were almost upon me. I quickly created a monomolecular whip and spun it around once, all the warriors fell down to the ground, bisected. "Is that it for today Jules ?" The trees and bodies surrounding me slowly dissolved , changing the previously grizzly scene of a forest that was painted red with blood and guts into a peaceful garden with a few scratches and gouges here and there. "Yeah that''s it John. You have improved considerably in the last week, your mana circulation is automatic, your use of the enchantment has become second nature. You have mastered using your sharp senses to sense attacks and you''ve gotten used to your superhuman reflexes. All in all you are a pretty good fighter without your weapons, lots of room for improvement but not half bad." "Well I think I did pretty well considering I won and didn''t even consume that much mana. I''m pretty tired though so I am going to take a nap." I went back to my room after the simulated battle I just had courtesy of Jules and was getting into my pajamas when there was a light knocking on my door then I heard the voice of Isabella on the other side of the door. "Tom , my dad wants to talk to you, he''s waiting for you in the parlor." "Alright Isabella, I''m coming." "How many times do I have to tell you, call me Bell or Bella." I dressed in my normal cloths and went out were Isabella, or rather Bella now, was waiting for me. She took me to the parlor where Michael was sitting in an overstuffed sofa. Bella and I sat on the couch across from him. He sighed heavily and said, Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. "Hey Tom, I am afraid I called you here to tell you some dire news. The council received a message from one of its agents, our enemy is amassing a large army to attack us, they will get here in less than two days." "Who is this enemy you speak of, the demons from before? Why do they want to destroy the city so much." "They are mages that have been seduced by promises of power and started to make deals with demons, before long they are consumed by their obsession with power and are controlled by the demon they struck a deal with. They call themselves the anarchists, we simply call them demon worshippers. They want to destroy the city because they want to get into the council''s vault and retrieve a piece of the obsidian gate. The obsidian gate is believed to be an artifact that can open a gate straight into hell. They think its going to give them unlimited number of troops but we think its a ploy by the demons to conquer the earth. Whatever the case maybe we can''t let them have the piece ,so they first tried to trick us a week ago by summoning monsters all over north america so we would all have to go to protect the nation then they tried to attack what they believed to be an unprotected city but you stopped them, now that the subtle approach didn''t work they are going for direct assault." "What Intel do you have on the attack?" "Not much, just that there are a lot of them and they will probably come from multiple fronts. I have been tasked with protecting the city from any attacks coming from the south. I called you here to ask you if you''ll stand with me and help fight the demons." "Of course Michael, you didn''t even have to ask." It seems in two days I''m going to be fighting a giant army of demons. What does it say about my mental health that I was actually looking forward to it? A.n. There has been a lot of criticism going around about the story. I appreciate everybody who has been trying to give me constructive criticism. I started this story because I love reading on royal road and wanted to give something back. This is not meant to be a serious book, and for those who are speculating that this is a fiendish plot to ask for money, I''m posting from Ethiopia using my phone so I couldn''t ask for money even if I wanted to. chapter forty six - highway to hell Chapter forty six The next two days passed quickly as people prepared for the coming invasion. Honestly from what I encountered of the demons so far I didn''t think they would be that big of a problem , but Michael was taking it seriously so maybe there was more to them than I thought. When the day of the invasion arrived Michael put all the inhabitants of the house in an underground bunker with one of my storage rings stuffed full of food and other necessities just in case something unforseen happened. He tried to get Bella to also go into the bunker but she flat out refused. They had a very loud argument but she was adamant that she was coming with us to help. Michael was very upset but he couldn''t hide the gleam of pride in his eyes. The three of us , Michael, Isabella, and me, where standing atop a small hill right outside of Montreal . As the sun rose over the horizon an army of tens of thousands of demons blanketed the land. The one who struck the first blow was Isabella, she pointed her hand and suddenly a section of more than a hundred demons disappeared under a giant stream of magma that exploded beneath their feet. Not to be left behind Michael also pointed his hand and another section disappeared in a forest of very sharp spikes. I just took out my laser and started to fire a constant stream of light into the approaching army. Although we were slaughtering them by the hundreds they were still getting closer and closer, finally they got close enough to start being a hindrance, so I started to use my new tricks. I made a monomolecular whip and it started to swim in and out of the demons with almost no hindrance leaving bloody holes behind. I made four more just like it and made them rotate around me then waded into the horde , the five rotating whips went through flesh like butter and left behind nothing more than bloody confetti. After three hours of intense battle with me surrounded by my whips, Michael in a veritable fortress of earth and Bella with many concentric rings of magma around her , they finally started to run out of numbers. When the final demon fell I started getting a little suspicious, in the whole battle they didn''t use any magic or tactics. It was almost as if they were deliberately throwing their lives away. It just didn''t add up. There were enough of them to give us a tough battle but they just came at us in a blind rush. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. My suspicion grew when I noticed that the blood of the demons was turning to vapor at such a fast pace that it was dying the air red. It slowly rose up to the sky until it started to coagulate and form a giant magic circle. Then the air slowly ripped and out came a 50 meter tall monstrosity. It had the body of a giant muscular man with red skin and a head that looked eerily similar to an angler fish with the empty silver fish eyes ,no nose, and teeth that were so large and spiky that they didn''t even fit in his mouth . Even though it had no lips I knew it was smiling. Michael screamed out, "Run , that thing is an Arch fiend, we have absolutely no chance against it. I will try to delay it , you two escape as fast as you can." Before we could even react to what he said the fiend leaped forward and grabbed Isabella in a single lightning fast motion. The magma seemed to do no damage to him whatsoever. Michael tried to pelt it with giant boulders but it didn''t even notice the attack. I was fairly certain that i couldn''t defeat that thing with my current strength, so I did the only thing I could do in this situation, I used my trump card and opened my god sight. Once I was looking inside the ether I quickly searched for a way to defeat the fiend. In the end it was surprisingly simple, there was a part of the magic circle he was summoned from that was vulnerable to attack. This time I didn''t pass out after I used god sight, I was just a little disoriented. I quickly took out Tollo took careful aim and fired. The magic circle quickly destabilized and the rift opened again , this time to suck the fiend back in. It was being sucked in but it was still holding onto Isabella so I quickly floated over to the hand holding her and repeatedly whipped it until it let go. Michael then leaped over thirty meters up and caught her. Afterwards the fiend was gone and the rift was slowly closing. I sighed in relief and turned around to go to where Michael and Bella were to see if they were alright , when a giant red strip of meat wrapped around my waist. Before I could react I was dragged into the rift just in time to see it close behind me. I was now trapped in hell. chapter forty seven - indigestion Chapter forty seven I slid down a disgusting shoot of mucus and pulsating meat, I had a vague idea of what was going on so I tried to make hooks to hold on to the slippery walls, but before I could orient myself and get a really good hold on the walls I had already arrived in a chamber of pink meat that was filled with a stinking green liquid. Just before hitting what I assumed to be the stomach juice of the fiend , I created a platform beneath me and floated away from it. It seems I now found myself in the stomach of the beast. Although I did not have the power to defeat it from the outside, I''m willing to bet that just like everything else it was much more squishy on the inside. So I made my customary five rotating whips and started going through its stomach lining. I could hear the roaring that came after it noticed that something it ate was not obediently getting digested. I made it through the stomach and outside I found myself in front of a system of organs that made very little sense to me, it seems demons evolved very differently from humans , but at that moment I didn''t care about how his organs functioned, all I cared was that they looked important and squishy. I started to shred its organs one by one, he was thrashing around violently and wailing in pain , I just reoriented my platform to make up for the motion of his thrashing around and continued to turn his internal organs into mulch. By the time I destroyed the fifth organ the trashing had stopped and it was very silent. I assumed I had succeeded in killing the damned beast so my next step would be to get out and to accomplish that I dug myself through layers of meat and made my way through bones and sinew . When I finally managed to extricate myself out of the giant body I came upon a terrifying sight. I was surrounded by a group of seven fiends that were similar to the one I just came out of, thankfully they seemed to be more interested in the carcass of the dead fiend than me so I decided to take my leave before one of them decided to notice me. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I flew through the harsh and rocky landscape that had jagged cracks running all around it. Everything was tinted red but i couldn''t see the sun, the whole sky was covered with heavy thunder clouds yet it was not raining and it looked like it rarely does. After several hours of flight I spotted what appeared to be a shallow cave. After making sure that it was uninhabited by killing the five wolf like creatures that were inhabiting the cave ,I got inside and sat down on a chair I took out of my storage ring. I needed to think and get myself out of this situation, "Jules, what happened? Where am I ?" "The fiend seemed to have dragged you into one of the infernal realms." "Great, can''t I just teleport out of here?" "I wouldn''t recommend that, you''d probably end up lost in the ether." "Why can''t I teleport home?" "Remember that metaphor I told you about reality being the shadow of the ether made by mana? Well what you have is a way to traverse the ether from one part of the shadow to another. This is another realm, a completely different shadow. If you tried to enter the ether now your perspective would be completely different from when you entered it back on earth and you would not be able to find any of your anchors. What I''m trying to say is that while your teleportation is still functioning you couldn''t find your way back to earth." "Then what am I supposed to do Jules?" "The only thing you can do, survive and hope that you eventually find a way home." chapter forty eight - upgrades Chapter forty eight As I have been doing a lot recently , I was currently meditating while I thought of what had transpired in the last five weeks in this god forsaken hell hole ( no pun intended) I was still in the same cave I first came to after fleeing from the giant fiends, but other than the location there was nothing similar between that simple cave and this one which has been expanded several times , has multiple rooms, is fully furnished, and has a giant gate closing the front entrance. Although I looked the same from the outside , I too have gone through several modifications, each a poignant reminder of my many life and death encounters with the native inhabitants. The dominant species around here were the arch fiends I encountered the first time I came here and the chimera , a loose classification I gave to the giant monsters that were a combination of different animals that I knew from earth. I made my first modification after one of these beasts found my cave half a day after I settled there..... ......... The thing looked like a giant wolf''s body with a snake attached where the head should be, I tried to hit it with my monomolecular whips but it seemed to sense them somehow and use its sinewy neck to get its head out of range and struck from above. Its fangs ran through my body like swords and I could feel it injecting venom into me. It must have thought that the fight was over then because I could feel it relax, not one to waste opportunity I collected all the mana I could and created a giant spike to go through the roof of its mouth and into its brain. As I lay there in a pool of my own blood next to the creature that was writhing in it''s death throes , I thought about the battle that just nearly killed me and noticed a critical flaw in my fighting technique. Although I can fly around freely in the air, my mobility on the ground was average at best, and it seems average just doesn''t cut it here. So after I woke up fourteen hours later which was how long it took Jules to remove the poison and fix most of my body, I ate some of the meat from the monster and got two pieces of metal enchanted each with three runes for speed so they could stack and embedded them deep in my shin bones. The rest of the day I spent training with the new enchantment in my legs, how much mana to use, and how to operate with them safely. I could get pretty fast and it seemed my mobility problem has been fixed... A week later I was fighting a chimera that I dubbed cerebus because it had three canine heads and I was literally running circles around it while it was trying to burn me with its fiery breath, but I got too cocky and the thing was smarter than it looked, it read my trajectory and blew its breath there instead of aim at me. I felt the most excruciating pain in my life as the tables were turned and it now started toying with me. In desperation I used god sight to find its weakness and blasted it through the right ear of the center head. As I limped back home barely conscious and suffering from third degree burns, I came to the conclusion that even though I had super speed, I didn''t have the raised awareness and increased processing of the flow of events to handle the speed properly, so after I got home I took out a circular piece of metal, enchanted it with ''focus'' ''clarity'' and ''speed'' and embedded it in my skull. It worked perfectly, when I activated my perception accelerated so much that everything seemed to slow down and become crystal clear. With this new enchantment I should have an easier time fighting the monsters.... The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ....... eight days later I was fighting my first fiend since I burst out of one in the beginning. The fight was almost over, with all my enchantments active it really didn''t stand a chance against me. I was about to give the final blow when I suddenly ran out of mana. The dying fiend sensing a chance to escape punted me like a football. I flew across the air for some time before landing heavily on the ground breaking several of my bones, it would have been worse but I have been using super speed a lot and Jules had to heal a lot of tears and fractures caused by the strain, while she was healing me she was also constantly improving and restructuring my body. So even if I was hurt badly it wasn''t fatal and the fiend didn''t seem interested in continuing the fight. While I crawled slowly and painfully towards my home I came to the realization that my meager mana pool wasn''t enough to support the use of so many enchantments at once, so it was time for an upgrade. I imbedded two implants with three pentagrams into each of my ribs, which was the maximum I could take even with Jules filtering out most of the pain and ran orichalcum wires from there directly into my mana core. I felt the massive influx of mana coming into my core and felt satisfied with my work. For a week afterwards I simply meditated and practiced with my enchantments, I even learned how to compress the mana I was supplying to the enchantments, although this didn''t have any effect on the other enchantments it allowed me to change the density and hardness of the objects I created with my illusion enchantment. While I was doing this Jules was hard at work integrating all the enchantments in my body to make them as natural as possible, as if they were always a part of me and she did a really good job too, the orichalcum wires became more like metallic veins feeding my core and all my enchantments were swallowed into my bones. With these upgrades there was nothing nearby to challenge me, for real this time. For two weeks I tried to fight as many monsters as possible, but it quickly became pointless when I could simply make a giant sword with a monomolecular edge and bisect them in one move while staying behind layers of defenses as hard as steel. So I started meditating more to see if I could change the properties of the illusions I was creating like conductivity and such but I was having no success. Which brings us to the present, since I was having no luck with meditation it was time to go out and search for the answers that I desperately wanted. It was time to find a way home. chapter forty nine - first class Chapter forty nine I was reclining comfortably in a chair while flying hundreds of miles in the air. I had always liked the idea of the invisible plane in the wonder woman comics so I adopted it into my own version, instead of a plane it was a simple tear shaped pod with a reclining chair inside. Since I could control it''s motion with my mind I didn''t really need the wings or flaps or other bits so in the end it turned into a cockpit with a really comfortable chair inside. Once in a while a chimera would decide that I looked juicy and go for me but it would get shredded before it even came close. It really is amazing what you can do with a nearly inexhaustible supply of mana . Anyways after traveling in such a fashion for nearly five hours the chimera attacks became less and less , the landscape started to change from the post apocalyptic look to more average looking desert and finally forests. That made me very happy because there was a good chance that the entire planet could have been a chimera infested hell hole. The cloud cover disappeared and I finally got to see the sun and instead of small and yellow it was large and red and that was what was tinting this world red. After another hour of flight the forest started to thin out. At the horizon I could see a large dark shape, it wasn''t really clear from this distance so I made a binocular and took a second look. What I saw was a large black wall and beyond that buildings made out of the same black rock. I nearly leapt up in joy before I remembered where I was. Buildings meant that there was probably sentient life there, and if there is sentient life that means there might be information, information like how I could get home maybe? Even if that didn''t pan out it would be nice to be among people again. I didn''t want to freak them out or anything so I landed a few meters away and walked the rest of the way to one of the giant gates set in the wall. I was wearing my cowl because I didn''t know what the inhabitants looked like. When I approached the gate I was stopped by the sentry guards. They looked human except for their weird colors, one blue and one violet almost black, and the fact that they were both almost three meters tall with bulging muscles. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. "Ante'' cofiyahin awlek. Man neh'' , min eyaderegeh neaw. " I couldn''t understand a word that they were saying and apparently Jules couldn''t either so it must be a language not spoken back on earth. They were starting to look at me suspiciously so I thought what the hell and tried speaking to them in English. " Hello there, nice weather we''re having huh?" To my surprise the violet one actually replied, "Why are you speaking the summoner''s tongue? Who are you and what are you doing in the frontier town of Shewa?" I decided to try and bullshit my way out of this predicament. "Hello, my name is John and I come from very far away so I don''t speak the same language as you, so I tried to use the summoner''s tongue and it worked. I came here looking for work, you see my village is poor and I wanted to come to the city to seek my fortune." "Take my advice kid, this city is no place for a naive village boy, go back to your home." "No , I want to go in. What do I have to do for you to let me inside?" "Pay the gate charge, it is five silver." He was sneering evilly, I knew that he was lying and trying to steal from me but silver was nothing to me, l have a treasury that could make a small country proud. I simply took out the five silvers and put it in his outstretched hand and walked by him quickly before he could come back to his senses and ask me for more. I had successfully made my way into the frontier city of Shewa. chapter fifty - does it count? Chapter fifty Shewa was an interesting contrast to Montreal. In Montreal all the buildings were diverse both in color and architecture ,in Shewa the buildings were all black and almost all in the classic rectangular shape, but what it lacks in diversity of buildings it made up for in the diversity of its people, from the little red imps that barely made it up to my knees to the giant violet guard I talked to when I came in ,its not an exaggeration when I say there were people of all shapes and sizes. This was good for me because some of them looked exactly like humans, that means now I know I wouldn''t stand out. I walked slowly through the meandering streets looking for a place to eat and maybe stay when I saw a sign with unknown symbols on top but beneath that it read Shewa Inn in English. I extrapolated from this that English , or as they call it the summoner''s tongue, was common enough here that I wouldn''t have much problem communicating , but just in case I needed to learn not only the language but also find a way to find out about where I was. Anyway I got into the inn and was greeted by a short red imp who had a very squeaky voice, at first he tried speaking in the local tongue but quickly switched to English when he saw I didn''t understand him, "Tenia yiestilign , wode Shewa enquan dena metu......English you speak English?" "Yes, but I thought they called it summoner''s tongue around here." "They do , but it is not the name of the actual language, like for example the summoner''s tongue in Sidama is French just like how here in Gambela it is English. Now what can I get you?" "I would like a room and food, plus if you could tell me the quickest way to learn the local language." "Room''s twenty coppers a night , foods coming in twenty minutes, as for the last one the language is called Arsi and I imagine you''re going to have to pay someone to teach you. My advice is if you are going to pay anyone to do anything go to the mercenary guild." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. When the food finally came, it was some sort of red soup with pieces of meat floating inside, when I tried to drink the broth the little guy stopped me and showed me how to properly use the ''injera'' he brought with the food to pick up the ''wot'' as he called the soup ,to then put it in my mouth. It was spicy, exotic, and very delicious . I was very happy with the meal as I went upstairs to my room to go to bed. * * * I woke up in a very wide bed with a pink bedspread. I thought that the silk of the sheets were very smooth on my skin before I noticed that I was not wearing anything. Then I heard a very familiar giggling as the mysterious beautiful woman suddenly appeared. She was wearing a very sheer nightgown that was making a valiant effort to cover her wonderful body but was failing somewhat. I quickly grabbed the sheets and tried to cover myself. "You don''t have to be so bashful John , from what I''ve seen you should be quite proud.", then she giggled some more. "Where are my clothes ?" I said not being able to meet her eyes as I was so embarrassed. "But this is our third date John." "What does that have to do with my clothes?" "Don''t you know what they say about third dates?" She slowly crawled up the bed, then crawled up me and straddled me. She gave me a long lingering kiss , looked me in the eyes and said, "Let me show you instead ." . . . . * * * When I woke up in the morning I had to go to the bathroom to clean up the mess I had made. After I was done burning my pants , I was left with a very pressing concern. Does it count if it was in a dream? chapter fifty one - info dump Chapter fifty one I went downstairs and got some breakfast from my little red friend , whose name happened to be Jonas, and then asked him about the mercenary guild. "Basically its where you put up missions and post reward money for accomplishing said mission, the guild itself takes a tenth of the reward." "So I can put up any request, it doesn''t have to be combat related?" "Hell, if you have enough money the strongest warrior will rock you to sleep while singing you a lullaby. In the mercenary guild all that matters is money." "So how do I find it ?" "Go down this street until you see the sign of two swords crossing, can''t miss it , its the building with lots of large muscular people hanging around it." I finished my breakfast, bid farewell to Jonas and went in the direction that he pointed me towards. He was right , I was easily able to find the building because of the crowds of armored people hanging about. Inside it was like I entered a modern bank. There were rows of counters were you could get service, and a giant board filled with what I assume were available missions. I approached one of the counters and behind it was a sprite like girl with green skin and bubblegum pink hair. She had a very bubbly and upbeat attitude as she greeted me in the local language, I believe it was called Arsi , "I don''t speak Arsi, can you please get someone who speaks English ." "Oh , its alright, I can speak English . All receptionists in the guild do, its just that we don''t get a lot of foreigners around here, how may I help you?" "I would like to post a mission please." "Sure, let me get the appropriate paper work. Here we go, what is your full name sir?" "John no last name." "Alright sir, can you give me a short description of the mission and the allotted reward ?" "I would like someone for a teaching job, mainly Arsi language and some common knowledge, someone knowledgeable and fluent in English. The pay is two silvers per hour with bonuses based on performance." "Are you sure sir? I''m sure you could find teachers elsewhere and cheaper too." "I''m sure." "Well, if you are sure. As this is a repeating mission you will have to give me the first three payments so that''s fifteen silver, afterward sign here and here to make it official." I did as instructed , leaving the inn as a contact address, all that was left now was to wait. * * * Burk P.O.V. I just returned from the nightmare forest after a week of hunting Grimm wolves. I was exhausted, I planned to take a long well deserved vacation after I have gotten my reward money. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I had just gotten my money and was getting out of the guild when I glanced at the board out of habit. There I saw a strange request, a teaching job. A teaching job in the big cities isn''t all that uncommon, but they are usually for teaching magic, I read the details out of curiosity and read the reward part, when I saw the figure listed I sprinted back to the counter , exhaustion forgotten. * * * John''s P.O.V. Barely fifteen minutes had passed after I posted the mission when a bulky , violet man showed up saying that he had accepted the mission, "Hello, my name is Burk , your John right? So where is your kid?" "What kid?" "Didn''t you post the teaching job, so where is the kid I am going to teach?" "I think you misunderstood. There is no kid, you are going to be teaching me." He looked at me contemplatively for a second , then said, "I have a proposal for you, how about I give you this universal translator for ten gold, and the mission is fulfilled." He was holding an old tarnished looking necklace, but I didn''t really care what it looked like. When I tried it on , it worked so I bought it for ten gold, what I didn''t know then was that this was a common item among merchants in this world and was worth less than two silver. Before I declared the mission completed, I asked Burk some questions about this world. Here are the main things I learned. There were fifty two nations in this world and I was currently in the country of Gambela, which was one of the north most countries before coming to the uninhabited lands called the badlands where giant monsters reigned. The colors of the skin usually represents strength , in ascending order of strength it goes normal(no color),red ,blue, violet,green ,orange ,yellow, silver, and gold. The summoning ritual is a tradition passed down through generations of noble families. It is a tightly kept secret so it seems I''m going have to go to the capital if I wanted to have access to it. I shook Burk''s hand and declared the mission fulfilled . The contract I signed in the guild was magical so that was all that was needed for the mission to be recorded as completed in the guild. I returned back to my room to meditate and get some sleep. In the morning I was going north to the capital to get back home. chapter fifty two - clich茅? Chapter fifty two I was flying leisurely north ,following the road I was told would lead me to the capital. I had already passed a few small villages and some towns, but I didn''t stop . I knew where I could find my way home and I was severely home sick, I guess that''s what happens to you when you almost die a couple of times. I started to ponder how I was going to get the information from the ''nobles'' . To be honest I didn''t have a great track record when it came to people with authority, even before I over slept for seven centuries I always had a problem with people who told me what I should and should not do, and usually tried to take my stuff because for some reason their position of authority somehow made them more worthy of possessing what I have created. If I could choose, I would choose to go in guns ablaze, but my time in this world has stomped any cockiness out of me, sometimes quite literally. I did not know how much power these nobles possessed so I am going to play this smart and subtle. I was contemplating different plans on accomplishing my goal when I saw something that distracted me from my thoughts. It appeared to be a robbery in progress. A carriage with golden trim appears to have been surrounded by a rag tag group of bandits brandishing different weapons. All the guards of the carriage were lying on the ground unconscious or dead , the only one left fighting seemed to be a woman who looked like she was made out of mercury , she was on the roof making snakes out of pure darkness to defend her from the many attacks coming her way and occasionally struck. In her beautiful dress and the resolute expression on her beautiful face, the scene was heart wrenchingly beautiful, as if I was seeing the work of a master painter. I told myself that this was trouble, that I had no business sticking my nose in their business, that the quicker I got to the capital the quicker I could get home. But I just couldn''t bring myself to ignore the damsel in distress, I know it sounds sexist and wrong but it really is harder to ignore a beautiful woman in trouble. So I flew down there and encased everyone there in foam except for a hole so they could breath, stopping the fight cold. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Now to see what was going on. I landed on the ground and approached the lady on the roof, freeing her head as I got closer. "Let me go whoever you are, do you know who I am? I am the princess Selam ! Release me immediately or I''ll have you tried for treason and hanged!" I resealed her mouth immediately. God that was annoying. She sounded like a more spoiled version of Paris Hilton, every time she spoke it felt like her shrill voice was trying to drill into my skull. I wanted nothing more to do with this woman so I instead approached who I thought was the leader of the bandits. I released his face and removed the hood he was wearing and surprise surprise it was another silver woman ( I should really stop assuming every combatant I meet is a male) . "Great mage, things aren''t as they appear . We are not bandits out to make a profit, we only steal from the rich and give to the poor. There are thousands of hungry children that starve everyday while these nobles gallivant around their fancy castles hoarding all the wealth. We don''t even kill people, look the guards are all alive ,just unconscious." I immediately covered her mouth too. I was starting to get a headache, on one side I had an annoying prissy and entitled princess ,on the other hand I seem to have a bandit who didn''t kill and had a Robin Hood complex. I knew I shouldn''t have stopped. chapter fifty three - princess hood Chapter fifty three P.O.V. change princess Sarah I was born the first princess of Gambela. I had everything that a princess could ever want, I was rich , I was beautiful, and I was also the center of attention. I grew up in the royal palace seeing the extravagant feasts and beautiful courtiers, my world was a happy one. I was never told about the living situations of the common man, I was a princess and my job was to look pretty and be appreciated until I was married off to someone important, and I was fine with my role since I never knew any better. I was happy being looked at and being told I was pretty, and so was my younger sister Selam. On my sixteenth birthday I was finally allowed to go outside of the palace, Of course I would be escorted by a full compliment of knights for my protection. I finally saw what the common people were like. They weren''t all glittering gold and shiny silk that I was used to, there were beggars in the streets, street urchins in the gutters .There was suffering ,hunger, and pain in their eyes. At first I recoiled in disgust from what I saw. I attended my parties with the glittering throng of the nobility and tried to forget that such suffering even existed, but I couldn''t stop the things I had seen from getting into my thoughts. They started to slowly worm themselves into my head making me unable to forget what I saw, they even started to poison my dreams so I couldn''t have any peace even at night when I was sleeping. My friends told me that I was being silly and they didn''t understand what I was even worrying about, they were commoners, it was a simple fact that some of them suffer, it had nothing to do with them who were noble. They told me that if I wanted a distraction I should join the summoning program where I could use my prodigious talent in magic to help conquer the other world. But I just couldn''t do as they say, the pain of my conscience just became too much. It first started out by sneaking out and giving my allowance as anonymous donations to charities and orphanages. It was not enough, it was like putting bandaid on a gaping wound. I needed more money to give these people. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I couldn''t ask for more money without arousing suspicion so I started stealing from the palace . It went well for a couple of months, nobody would suspect a princess , until I was discovered by my sister. By now my little sister has grown as vain and as uncaring as the rest of the nobility. When I tried to explain what I was trying to do she laughed in my face and called the guards. I had no choice but to jump from a five story window to escape from them, thankfully my gift was in wind magic and I was able to slowly glide down to the ground to make my escape. Seven years later I had my own squad of like minded people and we stole from the nobles and gave to the charities, we try not to kill anybody in the process. We were doing very well and helping thousands of people. We were hated by nobility and were considered criminals in public but in the back alleys and dingy homes of the poor we were hailed as heroes. One day we were doing a routine robbery when my sister popped out of the carriage and started to fight back, although she was as talented in shadow magic as I was in wind it would only be a matter of time before she runs out of mana. I was just standing there as I saw my sister tire herself out with pointlessly flashy magic when suddenly I was unable to see or move. A few moments later I heard my sister try to threaten somebody and was immediately silenced. Then my face was suddenly free. I wasn''t stupid enough to threaten a mage capable of pacifying more than forty people at once, so I talked to him politely and pleaded my case to the mysterious man in the cowl. After I was finished he covered my mouth so I couldn''t speak anymore but I could still see, and my sister seemed to be in the same situation with only her face above her mouth free. The man just stood there for a moment, he looked like he was rubbing his temple as if trying to suppress a headache. I prayed the man would be a good person and would help me, with a person that powerful we could really make a difference but at this point I would settle for him not killing me. I guess all I can do is wait and see. chapter fifty four - the deal Chapter fifty four I looked both women in the eyes. One was stubborn and willful, the other tinged with fear. Good at least one of them understood what kind of situation they were in, "Now listen to what I''m about to say very carefully, the only reason I stopped from my journey was that I thought I saw a beautiful woman being attacked by some bandits, while this is technically still true, you princess have killed any good will I might have had the moment that you decided to open your mouth. You seem to be unable to grasp the simple fact that I am so much more powerful than you that I could literally just snap my finger and end your insignificant existence right here , right now and you or anyone else would be able to do absolutely nothing about it , so next time you speak I would like you to consider the fact that the words you speak may decide weather you continue to draw breath or not. You , miss bandit, I don''t care if your little bandit ring continues or not , but do you really think what you are doing now is a solution to the fundamental problems that your society has, sure you might be able to put food in their mouths today but what kind of example are you setting for them, that its okay to steal as long as its from the rich? You are just making a generation of thieves and bandits, I hope you are proud of your accomplishment. Now I''m going to unseal your mouths and I want to have a civil conversation with you two." The princess finally seemed to have realized in what kind of situation she was in and now had a terrified expression on her face, the bandit woman had a contemplative look on her face, I guess this is the first time anyone has raised these rather obvious issues with her. I finally released their mouths, "I want some answers from the two of you, let''s start with something simple, what''s your name bandit woman?" "My name is Sarah , former princess of Gambela." If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Of course you are...*sigh*....OK so I''m guessing you two are sisters and that''s why you look so similar. Fine, whatever. What I need from you is information on the summoning ritual , since you two are royals I''m guessing you know about it." Selam was the one to reply first, "I''ll never talk, I am the princess of this nation and I will not give away it''s secrets so easily." "Do you remember my earlier words or did you completely forget them." "I know you could kill me or torture me , so go ahead do your worst!" She was being stubborn and as such was unlikely to say anything useful , so I hit her in the back of the head with a conjured baton and knocked her out before she could get anymore annoying. "How about you x-princess Sarah , won''t you tell me what you I need to know?" "Sure I will, in exchange for you helping me for a month I''ll be happy to." "Wouldn''t it be easier for me to torture you for the information?" "From what I have seen so far you have tried to stop a robbery, tried to not injure a single person, and not killed my little sister which I have personally considered doing on many occasions. Plus ,from what you said earlier you seem to have a fondness for beautiful women, I don''t want to toot my own horn but I have been called the most beautiful woman in Gambela. I don''t think you are going to torture me , I don''t even think you are the torturing type." "Fine, let''s say your right, a month is still too long. Let''s make another deal instead. Let''s make a deal that I will help you until you believe I have made enough contributions for it to be fair exchange for the information ,deal?" "Deal." "Now what the hell should I do with your sister?" chapter fifty five - food and shelter Chapter fifty five Sarah''s P.O.V. I was ecstatic with the deal that we had struck, he had promised me help of equal value to one of the tightest kept secrets in the nation, and he said I could be the one to judge if it was equal or not. He basically offered to help until I say it is enough. He set all my friends free and left my little sister and her guards in the carriage, I wanted to travel with my group but he said that was too slow. He made a chair out of thin air and told me to take a seat, afterwards he created another next to me and also sat down. I was wondering what the point of this strange exercise was when we suddenly rose up in the air. I am a wind mage, meaning I can glide in the air for a short period of time and like most wind mages one of my greatest wishes was to fly in the air , free like a bird. My dream was now coming true as we flew up into the air and then forward at an astonishing speed. I was so shocked and excited about my dream coming true that I didn''t even notice the city coming into view until he pointed it out to me. "That''s the capital right? Who owns the land under us?" "Nobody, it''s a forest , anyone who would bother to clear it owns it." Then he set us down in the middle of the forest, I was wondering why we stopped so far away from the city when he suddenly cut down a large swath of trees . "What are you doing?" "Wait and see." He systematically cleared out enough land for a small town, he would first cut down trees, make the cut trees disappear,go to a farther location and the trees would reappear in a neat stack. He would then make giant hands to pull out all the stumps. This way he was done in half an hour. He then fenced off a couple of areas then picked up a some stones and did something I didn''t catch to them then buried them in the fenced off areas. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He then turned around and made a building, he paused for a few minutes then made another, then another. This process repeated itself until there were hundreds of these buildings. When I went in to see what was inside I found simple rooms with no decorations with a single window to the outside and two beds in each room. "I believe that is fair compensation for the information." "What do you mean ?" "Let me demonstrate, the two things you need most for the needy are shelter and food. As you have already seen the buildings are warm and comfortable and will solve the shelter problem quite nicely. As for the food, come let me show you." He took me to one of the fenced off areas and took out an apple then planted it in the soil. Right before my eyes an apple tree suddenly grew out of the ground with ripe apples hanging on all the branches. He picked one and gave it to me. "Inexhaustible amount of food, whatever you plant will immediately grow and bear fruit. So that''s shelter and food for nearly half a million people, is that a fair amount to trade for your information?" I was left standing there trying to process the fact that he just solved most of my problems in half an afternoon. He had obviously lived up to his end of the bargain, and if I didn''t live up to mine I had a feeling that this miracle could disappear even faster than it appeared. Now i understood his confidence, it seems he had me in the palm of his hand from the very beginning. A.N. for all those who doubted John, I think the word you were looking for is confidence chapter fifty six - white lie Chapter fifty six John''s P.O.V. I created a town with lots of living space using my illusion magic, it was really mana intensive but when you have several enchantments funneling mana directly into your core it merely becomes tedious, as for the enchanted farm it was a simple matter of enchanting some rocks with runes that druids use to nourish and grow the plants in their groves and mix them in with the soil. I know this town doesn''t fix Sarah''s problems and it might even bring additional ones but I''m sure this town would help and give a lot of people hope and I was willing to bet that in Sarah''s eyes that was worth any information. And I was right, Sarah told me all about the summoning rituals and some other very interesting things. Chief among them was something I have been suspecting for a while now. I wasn''t really in hell or any other of the infernal realms, although quite dangerous this realm was just too mundane, no souls being tortured , nothing mysterious or connected to the spiritual or the soul, and although we call the inhabitants here ''demons'' they don''t see themselves as demons and in the most technical definition of the word they weren''t, they had absolutely no power over the soul and are definitely mortal. It seems the ''anarchists'' where all duped into thinking that they were summoning demons that could grant them power but what usually came through is a member of the nobility that is gifted in mind magic and under the guise of negotiating the noble would slowly subvert the unsuspecting anarchist ,who believes himself to be safe from the demon because of the many protective circles ,which he would have been if it was an actual demon. She also told me the location of the citadel of summoning inside the royal palace, and all the security measures taken to protect it. It was at the very center , in what they believed to be the safest location. It was protected with multiple magical traps and powerful guards on all sides except one, it wasn''t protected from the top. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. As for how the actual ritual worked , she told me that every month a new anarchist is ''inducted'' into the ''inner sanctum'' of the group and when he activates the ritual on his end it sends out a beacon that connects it with the one on this end and the person on this side is able to travel to the other side, so without a person to act as a beacon the ritual is useless, but on the bright side I didn''t have to operate the ritual circle which I couldn''t do, only supply power and let the man on the other side guide me. As for the timeline , it seems I missed the last ''induction'' three days ago meaning I''m going to have to wait for twenty seven days before I make my move, I guess while I''m waiting I''ll help Sarah out some more while doing recon on the palace, its not like I had anything better to do, might as well help out the less fortunate . * * * Sarah''s P.O.V. I told him the truth about everything I knew about the ritual and even the power of the strongest combatants in Gambela, I gave him honest information on everything he asked me except one thing. It was only a little white lie to help the people. I knew that whether he succeeds or fails we would probably never see him again, so I took a risk he wouldn''t notice and told him the rituals where monthly when they were really weekly.... A.N. although John has a high IQ he has also been a shutin most of his life so he is also pretty naive sometimes and makes stupid mistakes, what I''m trying to say is he is not always ''street smart'' chapter fifty seven - hunted Chapter fifty seven Sarah''s P.O.V. Over the next few days the man whose name I learned was John developed the city that people have started to call ''new hope'' into a self sustaining utopia. He created many simple systems that made life so much better. He made a sewage system that converted all the waste in the city to top grade fertilizer , which could then be sold. He also created magic implements that quickly became indispensable to everybody, like the magic faucet that made water appear out of nowhere, the hot plate that allowed a person to cook without fire and smoke, and the cleaning wand to keep everything as clean as possible by simply waving the thing. He also created industries where people could work, like the clothing factory where instead of a sowing machine there was a magic tool that could join two pieces of clothing seamlessly , the tannery which could produce quality leaser in a few days where it would have taken several weeks previously, our own bank to store our money safely away from the nobles, a blacksmith with a magic forge, and several others. For protection he instituted the city guard, who were each made to vow that they will use the power that was about to be given to them to only protect the city , and that they would make their successors swear the same vow, then he gave them weapons that could negate magic and have amazing offensive power, he basically made a force that could not be defeated in Gambela. He did so much good for the people that I started to wonder how much good he could do if he stayed for even longer, but how was I going to make that happen? He had no reason to stay here, he had no connections that bind him to this place, nobody he cares for enough to derail his plans......that''s it , I''ll make him stay by giving him all these things. I am willing to do even that if it means he is going to stay longer. * * * John''s P.O.V. I came home , which was a house I modeled from a simple one bedroom apartment, thinking about how everything that has been happening for the last few days. I finally got all the kinks worked out of the sewage system to remove some amount of water to balance what I calculated was the amount conjured by the magic faucet so that I don''t cause some sort of large ecological disaster somewhere down the line. I was also thinking about the sudden weird attitude change that Sarah started exhibiting recently, she insisted on always following me around , making as much contact as possible and wearing more and more revealing clothes that she claimed was because of the heat. To be honest having such an exotically beautiful woman in close proximity to me wearing very little was starting to distract me from my work. I was thinking of how to mention this problem to Sarah as tactfully as possible when I heard a knock on my door. Wondering who was coming to visit me this late, I went to open the door. Speak of the devil , standing there wearing a light green robe was Sarah. I quickly invited her inside before she froze to death or something. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. "Hello Sarah, how may I help you? There aren''t any problems in the city , are there?" She looked deep into my eyes then let her robe slowly fall from her shoulder and pool to the ground at her feet. I nearly swallowed my own tongue looking at the magnificent sight before me, she wasn''t wearing a single stitch of clothing underneath her robe. "Wh....what are you doing?" "What do you think I am doing? You didn''t seem to be getting the message when I tried to give you subtle signals, so I had to resort to something more drastic." She started to walk towards me in a slow luxuriant gait as if she was a cat stalking her pray. She put a switch in her walk that made her hips sway in a mesmerizing manner. The magic lighting I put in my house glittered off each of her curves showing exactly how gifted she was in that department. I tried to maintain some semblance or shred of reason to think about all the reasons that this would be a bad idea. I tried to back away so that I could get some more space to restore my sanity when the back of my knee hit something and I fell backwards on my back onto the couch. In a few moments Sarah had already made it to the couch and was straddling me who was lying there on my back and looking down at me triumphantly. "Why are you doing this?" "Why are you fighting this?" "I''ll be gone in a few days , I can''t do this." "Relax, what will happen will happen, but now you are here, I am here , why think about the future?" She took off my cowel and for a second she just stared at my face and for that second I thought she was going to stop and I felt a strange mix of relief and disappointment, but she just shrugged and continued her attack. She suddenly leaned down and gave me a mind melting kiss, almost literally. I could feel all my conscious thoughts be thrust aside as more primal impulses start to take over. I started to rationalize my actions as she ripped off my cowl. I told myself that since I didn''t have a girlfriend in real life , I shouldn''t feel guilty ,it isn''t cheating, as she did the same thing to the shirt I was wearing underneath and started to caress my chest with her long nimble fingers going slowly downwards to my abdomen then even lower. I was leaving in a few days anyways so this really didn''t mean anything , I shouldn''t worry so much , she said so herself, and then all my thoughts were snuffed when her hands reached what they were searching for. chapter fifty eight - bitter sweet Chapter fifty eight When I woke up the first thing I noticed was that I was not in a bed, instead I was lying on a rug in the living room with a naked silver goddess atop me, peering at my face curiously, "So you are finally awake sleepy head, you know it is already afternoon right?" "Hey, it is not my fault that a certain someone decided to rob me of my sleep." "It totally is your fault, I have never heard of someone last for so long or go so many times even in epic stories they tell in the bars. I finally understand, with your unholy stamina and incredible powers combined with your looks, you are a demi-god aren''t you?" I was silently thanking Jules in my head for her good work on my body when I answered, "Not quite, but as you probably have guessed I''m not from around here. Actually that''s why I needed to know about the ritual, to get back home." "Yeah , I figured it was something like that . As soon as I saw you were not gold or silver yet wielded so much power I figured you weren''t from here, but remember you are always welcome here and you can stay here as long as you want, now it seems you are ready for yet another round and there was this rather interesting position I heard about from one of the nuns who run the charity, want to give it a try?" It seems we were not going to leave the house today. * * * After that day Sarah would come to my home every night and we would spend it together going at it like rabbits in heat. We would always wake up tired but satisfied, then we would go around solving the problems in our now rather large city. Sarah was the undisputed leader of the community and if you wanted to enter you had to swear a vow that you will not willingly compromise the well being of the city. One of the industries I tried to encourage was masonry, I created various tools to shape and manipulate stone , and they used these tools to make a large wall around the city so everybody entering would have to take the vow. Five days later an army with a pompous looking silver man was demanding that the gates be opened for him and when he was refused tried to get in by force. They sent him back without his army, an arm missing and a message to the king that they were now independent. It was the night before my departure date and as usual I had spent a wonderful night with Sarah and was basking in the afterglow. She turned to face me , looked deep into my eyes and said, "Don''t go John, stay with me. We are happy here, aren''t we ?" For a moment I seriously considered staying , but this wasn''t my home. I didn''t belong here and although this was a pleasant fantasy, it seems it was time to snap back to reality, You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. "I can''t Sarah , I''ll try to find a way to come back and take you with me, but I can''t stay." Tears were starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes, "But I love you John, you can''t just leave me. What if I''m with child, would you leave your own child?" "That is not possible Sarah, because of certain circumstances a woman I''ve been with won''t get pregnant unless I decide otherwise. But I still don''t want to leave you Sarah. I guess it just wasn''t meant to be, we weren''t meant to be." She just snuggled closer to me and started crying into my chest. I held her until she cried herself to sleep. My eyes weren''t completely dry either. * * * The next day I kissed my silver goddess one last time and headed off to the capital. It was a clear sky so it was easy to project an illusion of the sky beneath me as I flew, I had done multiple recon runs so it was simple for me to locate the appropriate roof and land on it. I created a mono-blade( short for monomolecular) then cut a neat hole in the roof , quickly putting the cut part into storage before it could fall down then glided into the room. There were three silver men in there, I put all of them in foam to incapacitate and silence them at the same time. I removed the third foam encased man from the large, complex ritual circle that was made out of gold and embedded into the marble floor. Ten minutes after I had taken his place the circle started to glow and I felt the connection with somebody establish itself, in my mind eye I could see a fat blond white man wearing a really gaudy golden robe. He was attempting to pull me through the connection, but on a hunch I decided to ignore his feeble attempts and try to teleport there with the connection as a guide through the ether. My hypothesis was that if I succeeded I could see how my perspective changes in the ether as I passed through it and maybe I could be able to teleport between the two worlds at will and it actually worked, I observed how I shifted in a way I couldn''t describe but I was sure I could recreate, when I made it to the other side of the connection. The world finally solidified around me and I was in a replica of the room I just left from ,in the center of a giant glowing magic circle and the first words I heard after coming back to earth was, "Bow down to your new master demon! I am the great mage Mathew Wilson, tremble as you feel my power!" chapter fifty nine - lines you shouldnt cross Chapter fifty nine " Bow down to your new master demon! I am the great mage Mathew Wilson, tremble as you feel my power!" I don''t know what response he expected after making such a ridiculous statement but I bet it wasn''t me breaking down into a gut busting belly laugh. I just couldn''t help it . The relief I felt at being back on earth and the absolutely hilarious declaration made me crack up and once I started I couldn''t stop no matter how hard I tried. After a few minutes I tried to talk in between fits of laughter. "I''m sorry, I''m sorry, you probably have been waiting for this moment for a long time and probably practice that little speech in front of the mirror every night before you go to sleep and you are probably expecting me to say something equally dramatic, but did you hear yourself as you said that. There is so much wrong with your statement that its hilarious!" "Bow down demon, I won''t let your words trick me or waiver my confidence, you were lured by the promise of a soul and have been trapped in the finest demon sealing circles in existence. Bow down or feel my wrath." "I can''t believe you said that with a straight face, now let me tell you the problems with your statements." I wanted to have fun with him a little so I didn''t finish him off quickly. I took off the hood of my cowl. "First of all , I''m not a demon to begin with, which leads me to number two, " I walked right out of the glowing circle, " I am not trapped in the circle and even if I was I could have done this," the circle was suddenly broken apart like a giant claw had rent it apart. At this point the pudgy little man was brandishing his hands trying to perform a spell,"number three you aren''t powerful, you are weak and pathetic." He was suddenly encased in foam leaving only the top half of his head free, "and I don''t give a damn about your soul because if I wanted it I could help myself to it right now." By the end of my performance his eyes rolled back and he passed out. I left the silly mage there where he fainted, I just couldn''t find it in my heart to kill the little bastard. I went out the door and waiting for me were two normal humans and one golden man, Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Who are you, where is Mathew ?" I tried to put all of them in foam but the golden man broke out, "Answer me , who are you? What is this strange magic?" I made a giant mono-blade and split him into two. "What ,did you think I was going to explain who I am and how my powers work? Why the hell would I do that? Do I look like a villain from a comic book to you?" I systematically went around the rather large complex incapacitating the humans and killing anything that was golden or silver. The golden men would sometimes get tricky, able to use multiple elements, but after tangling with fiends and chimera they just couldn''t compare. It was getting late when I finished exterminating and suppressing the anarchists. I went down to the heavily defended underground to find a torture chamber with a single inhabitant. At first I thought it was Clair , with her ears and tail cut off, I could also see a couple of missing fingernails and scars crisscrossing across her whole body. She looked desiccated , as if they only fed her once in a while when they remembered. When I went inside the room she was just laying there where she soiled herself because she was too weak to go in the corner. She had almost no life in her but my sharp hearing caught her whisper, "No more.......please stop........no more.....please stop..." again and again. I quickly took out a necklace from my storage and enchanted it with the ''heal'' and ''restore'' runes . Then put it around her neck. I then waved the cleaning wand over her body several times and took off my cowl to put it on her instead. By then some color has returned to her cheeks and some life had returned to her eyes. After taking a bed out of my storage and laying the woman gently on the bed. I made sure she was resting peacefully before I went back upstairs and killed every single anarchist that I had previously incapacitated. I made sure that each and everyone of the bastards was conscious and feeling every slice and every cut as I slowly dismembered them. The floors were running red with blood by the time I was finished. chapter sixty - not a bad way to go Chapter sixty P.O.V. change - Emily Truman As far as ways to die went, this wasn''t half bad , if you ignore the weeks of torture and starvation before this, dying in the arms of the most beautiful man I have ever seen while he tries to desperately save me is actually pretty nice, I wish I had met him under different circumstances........... Three months ago I just received a letter telling me that my aunt, who was in Peru ,was really sick in addition to being heavily in debt to pay for what she claims were healing bills and now she needed one of us ''rich Americans'' to come and save her. I sincerely doubted that she had any illness other than gambling addiction , but if someone doesn''t go and help her out she would probably be found dead at the bottom of a river somewhere. You do not mess with loan sharks in Peru, mostly because they have characteristics and instincts of actual sharks , they are beastmen of the shark tribe, many people thought that this was ironic and was funny but nobody ever says anything to their faces without ending up with their faces chewed off, so yeah, it is best to not piss the sharks off. This wasn''t the first time that I had to bail Aunty Tia out so it really was no big deal. Of course I could have sent my little sister but she had a job were she does something , even if it is to stand there and look pretty in her fancy armor in the next parade. I on the other hand have a completely useless job.My official title was '' general of the armed forces '' . It was a vestigial position left over from a long dead era and somehow still managed to survive, basically I was an over glorified accountant who made sure the golden guard are paid and their armor stays shiny. The job mainly entails doing the same paperwork every month so when Aunty Tia was in trouble , I simply filed several months worth of paperwork , packed my bags and headed to the barracks to inform Clair that I was going. I was taking my first carriage, the one from Montreal to fort Lennox , when our convoy was attacked. They killed all the guards and started killing the passengers one by one. I thought I was going to get killed but they stopped when they got to me , then I felt something hit the back of my neck and there was only darkness as I passed out. The next time I woke up I was in a room with a sack over my head , my head hurt so badly that I started to groan immediately, then a voice started to speak, "Hello Miss Emily, do you know why you are here?" "No.....why are you doing this? How do you know my name?" " We know your name Miss Emily because the whole reason we destroyed that convoy was to get to you." "Why would you do that ? I''m nobody rich or important, I''m not worth any ransom money." "Do you want to know something funny Miss Emily , the barrier around Montreal stops anyone who hasn''t gotten permission from someone of sufficient authority. Now do you understand Miss Emily, or should I say General Emily." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "That title is a joke, it isn''t real, it doesn''t mean anything!" "But that doesn''t matter General, it only matters that you are a general proclaimed so under the law and as such has sufficient authority to grant anyone access to Montreal, now I want you to clearly say I General Emily Truman give this man permission to enter Montreal." This man was responsible for the death of tens of people just to get to me. He was obviously a bad person and I can''t even imagine why he wanted to enter Montreal but I was sure it wasn''t for anything good so I just shut my mouth. "Suddenly lost the ability to speak? I thought that might happen , that is why I brought you to my special room, look at what awaits you if you don''t start cooperating." He removed the sack from my head and then I saw for the first time what would become the place I hated most in this earth. There were torture implements everywhere, whips, blades, shackles and other such things designed to cause pain. Over the coming days I personally experienced each and every one of them, but every time they asked me to do what they say I just thought about my little sister and stayed silent. At one point I thought I hallucinated a golden man come in ,grasp my head in his hands, then shake his head in disappointment and leave. After a few more days they appeared to have given up on breaking me and seemed to just forget about me except to force feed me every two or three days, they made sure I never died of thirst or starvation, just suffer greatly from them. The only thing that kept me sane was the thought of my sister and the fact that all of them thought they were too good to sleep with an animal so I was at least saved from rape. I''ve never been so happy that I was being discriminated against. So the bright side of my life was that I was going to die with my purity intact, it was a pretty small bright side but beggars can''t be choosers. I was lying their in my own shit and piss waiting to die , when my blurry sight caught some motion. I thought it was them coming back to force feed me some more to prolong my suffering and just begged them to stop. What I saw when the blurry thing came closer was the most beautiful man I have ever seen , I thought that I had finally died and an angel had come to take me to heaven. He quickly put a necklace around my neck that seemed to radiate some heat into my body. He then waved something over me several times and I suddenly felt all the filth leave my body. Afterwards he took off his own jacket and wrapped it around me. I was suddenly engulfed in his scent as he made a bed appear and set me down carefully. So this was how I was going to die, instead of on the floor , on a comfortable bed, instead of alone , in the company of somebody who cares ( the fact that he was hot didn''t hurt either )and clean instead of in my own waste. My last thoughts before blacking out was that as far as ways to die went , this wasn''t half bad. chapter sixty one - really? Chapter sixty one John''s P.O.V. The woman was not only severely malnourished but her body had gone through so much trauma that it was a miracle she didn''t go into shock and die, a miracle I was fairly sure I could attribute to her beastman heritage. She was in such a rough shape that I was scared to even move her before I was certain that it wouldn''t harm her, so I had to nurse her back to health and even with the healing amulet I enchanted ,it took more than three days to stabilize her enough to move. At moments it was definitely touch and go and it seemed that she might not make it but I did everything I could do , including making an intravenous apparatus with the bag filled with a solution of sugar and enchanted with the nourish and clean runes. One of the glaring weaknesses of enchantment magic is in the healing category, thankfully I have my own nanites to heal me when I get injured , but if I want to heal anybody else it would be a very slow process, as I was finding out now. The intravenous infusion seemed to help a lot though and her body started to slowly recover. In the end I judged her fit enough to move , her breathing was no longer hard and labored and her pulse and blood pressure were in acceptable ranges. I picked her up gingerly then teleported to Montreal. When I reached Montreal everything seemed to be fine, no indications that anything was wrong so I passed through the barrier and teleported to Steelbender castle. When I appeared in the front courtyard there was a loud shriek from one of the maids that just happened to be passing by at that instant and Michael of course came rushing out to see what was happening a few moments later. He stood there looking at me for several moments before it dawned on him what he was seeing. "Tom! You are alive? How is this possible? I saw you get dragged into hell myself! God almighty, you are alive! Come here you little miracle worker, I knew if anybody could get out of hell it would be you!" He was barreling towards me to give me one of his patented back breaking bear hugs, which I kind of missed, when I had to stop him with a wall I made. He just stopped before hitting the wall and asked perplexed, "Tom?" "I''m carrying an injured person here Michael , I''m also very happy to see you but the person I am carrying is in a very delicate condition. I need you to tell me where I can put her to look after her." "Your old room is still there , we haven''t touched your wing of the house except to clean it since you disappeared. You can take her there." "Thank you Michael ." I carefully carried the injured woman to my room and set her down on my bed, which I was surprised to see had fresh sheets. "Michael, do you know anybody who knows healing magic?" "Who is this , what happened to her?" "I found her in the anarchist''s dungeons, she looked like she had been tortured and starved for a long time. I don''t know who she is but she looks a lot like Captain Truman, I''m betting she knows who she is. But as I was saying ,do you know any good healers?" "Yeah I''ll have somebody call for one, you just wait here. I''ll also have someone call for Clair , she''ll probably want to be informed if this woman is related to her." Half an hour later instead of a random priestess , standing there at my door was Cynthia Blackthorn. "It seems the news of your demise was greatly exaggerated . Lots of people will be happy you are not dead, and I am among them, welcome back Mr Tom." Although she was a little formal and stiff , she seemed sincere, so I replied,"Thank you Miss Blackthorn , and thank you for taking the time to come here personally. Can you please heal this woman ?" She simply smiled walked over to the bed and waved her hand, a very complex spell suddenly activated and the injuries on the woman disappeared , even her cat ears grew back. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. "I will take your look of shock as a compliment Mr Tom , I have pressing matters to attend to but I hope to see you soon , Good bye and have a nice day." And before I could regain my wits she was already gone. Five minutes after she left Clair came into the room and immediately went to the side of the bed after she saw who the occupant was. "What happened? What''s wrong with Emily? Why is she even here? She''s supposed to be in Peru." "So you know this woman?" "Of course I know this woman, she''s my sister !" "Well, you see Clair, I found her in an anarchist torture dungeon and I am sure she had been in there for at least a month , maybe even two. That''s why she''s lying there, she has just been healed." Clair looked like she was going to ask more questions when the woman, Emily I think, started to stir and groan. * * * Emily Truman''s P.O.V. As my consciousness started to slowly return, I noticed a couple of things were different from the last time I came to. The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer in pain, which was a big deal for me because pain had become a constant companion recently. Now there was no pain at the top of my head where they cut off my ears, no pain all over my body due to numerous wounds that never healed properly, I did not even have hunger pains. It was such a liberating feeling after what I went through that I couldn''t help but let out a groan of relief. The voices that were speaking over me suddenly stopped. I slowly opened my eyes, scared that this was all a dream and I would wake up back on the dungeon floor, starving to death. What came into my vision was the face I''ve been imagining and thinking about to stay sane through my whole ordeal. "Clair? Is that really you? I''m not imagining you?" She came closer and pulled me into a tight hug, "What happened to you Emily?" I couldn''t keep my tears in anymore, after all the pain and all the suffering I went through I just let it all out, I told her everything from the very beginning to the time I was rescued , I told her everything while I cried into her chest. By the end of my story she was crying along with me and for a while we just held each other while we sobbed. After we finally managed to calm down , I noticed that there was a third person in the room, a man sitting quietly in the corner while we had our little family reunion. It was the man who saved me from the dungeon. I was sure that he was a figment of my imagination because an angel coming to save me from my little corner of hell doesn''t seem very realistic, so maybe my mind cracked under the strain of the torture and now I''m hallucinating. There was only one way to find out. "Clair, do you see that man over there?" "You mean Tom? Yeah, he is the one who rescued you, he is sort of a big hero in Montreal .Which reminds me , how are you alive Tom? Last time I heard you were dragged into hell by a giant fiend." "Wait, he is real? He''s not a figment of my imagination I created as I was dying in the dungeon?" The man in question smiled and said, "No I''m not a figment of your imagination, hello Emily its nice to finally meet you. My name is Tom." I just turned to Clair ,with what I am sure was a look of absolute shock on my face, " He really exists and he really looks like that? Are you kidding me?" Clair just started to giggle happily, " Its good to have you back Em ." chapter sixty two - the other other girl Chapter sixty two John''s P.O.V. I went out of the room because Emily finally noticed that she had made her last comment out loud where I could hear, she hid under the sheets of the bed and refused to get out from under them while I was still in the room. Outside I met with Michael again and this time there was nothing stopping him from trying to squeeze the life out of me ,so he proceeded to do just that. "You really are something aren''t you? You were sent to hell and not only do you return but you actually rescued a damsel in distress on your way back. You really are a hero aren''t you ?" "I think you are giving me way too much credit , it wasn''t even hell I was sent to in the first place, and once you got used to the archfiends here and there it was actually a pretty nice place." "Why are you saying ''once you get used to the archfiends'' as if they are nothing but an annoying infestation of bugs and not giant murderous monsters that could level an entire city by sneezing too hard? " "All joking aside it really wasn''t hell , it seems the anarchists were being fooled. The idiots messed up a demon summoning and opened a connection with another world instead and the idiots on the other side thought it would be fun to brainwash the anarchists and try to take over our world." "What about those red things we were fighting, they looked like demons to me." "Yeah, I guess they weren''t total imbeciles if they could summon simple low leveled grunt demons, but from what I saw it was probably the work of one of the mages from the other world. No demon, not even the lowest imp in hell would ever obey the anarchists , they are just that pathetic. Plus, using the blood of the demons to make a powerful circle is a complex bit of magic and I bet the anarchists couldn''t magic themselves out of a paper bag." "You met with anarchists?" "Yeah, when I came back to this world my entry point was their stronghold. You don''t have to worry about them anymore ,they won''t be coming back. When I saw Emily''s condition in their dungeons I might have lost it a little and wiped them out." "So in conclusion you spent the last two months hanging out with fiends and these evil not-demons that were bent on world domination before coming back and wiping out the anarchists, am I missing anything?" "Hey, the not-demons were not all evil, most of them are actually just normal people with weird skin color, its the so called ''nobles'' that were the ones bent on world domination, once again proving that any long established monarchy turns into a group of pompous assholes trying to lord their power over everyone. Anyway, I spent most of my time helping the poor that had been oppressed by the very same bastards that were trying to conquer our world, its a really long story so I''ll tell you later. Now tell me what happened here after I took my little vacation." "After you were sucked into the crack , all eight members of the council came to fight the fiend but found it already gone. They might not be the best of people but they truly do care about the city and none of them even hesitated to fight an archfiend to protect Montreal. It seems all the other directions where attacked only superficially and they were able to finish quickly enough to rush over and see you defeat the damned beast and get dragged inside with it. Of course all the credit I gave them as human beings went down the drain as all the families didn''t even wait a week before trying to take your store. I of course told all of them to stuff it and let Lidia run it until all the stock run out. She then turned it into a simple general goods store and has been keeping busy. She''s probably there right now, you should probably tell her you aren''t dead. She took the news pretty hard and has been burying herself in work , barely talking to anyone if it isn''t about business. Talking of people who took the news of your demise pretty hard, let''s go see Bella." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. "I was wondering what happened to her, she''s didn''t get injured by the fiend did she?" "Physically she''s perfectly fine, you saved her before she could get hurt. Psychologically though...... She hasn''t left her room since you disappeared, keeps saying things like it was all her fault and that she was the reason that you died. We thought she would grieve for a while and come out when she was ready , but we were really starting to get worried." He led me to a part of the castle I''ve never been to before. The most defining feature being the burned out courtyards in the vicinity, I assume this was were Bella usually practices magic. We came to a large door that was painted bright yellow and knocked politely. A voice from the inside said, "Go away, I don''t want lunch today." "That''s too bad, I wanted to take you out to lunch. But if you aren''t hungry, I guess I''ll just have to take someone else." "Tom?......" "I mean I was going to treat you to a fancy Italian restaurant or maybe some Chinese food but I guess I''m going to have to dine with Michael or something and imagine how weird we would look , two guys in an Italian restaurant sharing a plate of spaghetti, yup totally weird. Are you sure I can''t share a plate of spaghetti with you instead?" The door was flung open and standing there was a bedraggled looking Isabella, she had messy hair, blotchy skin , red and puffy eyes as if she had been crying a lot and dark bags underneath her eyes as if she had not been getting enough sleep. Even with all that, she was still one of the most beautiful women I have ever met , I had almost forgotten the almost physical impact that her beauty had but I was now reminded. She suddenly leapt forward and gave me a hug that could almost rival her father''s in intensity and power. "Tom !!!!!! Its really you! You are back!" She was laughing at first but it slowly turned into sobs, "I''m sorry, if I hadn''t been so useless you wouldn''t have been forced to save me and get dragged into hell instead. I''m so sorry." Then she earnestly started to cry while holding on to me. "Look at me Isabella ," I made her look up at me with my hand on her chin, "I''m alright, nothing that bad happened to me and even if it did, it wouldn''t be your fault . I chose to help you escape from the fiend, and I was the one who was stupid enough to get distracted before the battle was truly over. You might have gotten caught by the fiend , but I doubt there are many people who could escape from a fiend on their very first battle." I wiped her tears away with a handkerchief I summoned from storage, "Now are you still not hungry cause I wasn''t joking about that spaghetti." chapter sixty three - the difference a week makes Chapter sixty three Isabella said she had to change and take a bath before lunch so I teleported to the storeroom in the back of my store. Unlike before, the storeroom was completely filled by shelves , and on each shelve were different goods stacked carefully and meticulously arranged. I went out of the room that looked like a wet dream of someone who has OCD and headed to the front of the store. There I found the same level of organization on a smaller scale. Someone, and I had a sneaking suspicion who, had put a lot of time and effort into the store. Behind the counter was a woman that I barely recognized as Lidia. Her usually free falling blond hair was pulled up into a bun, instead of her usual dresses , she was wearing a gray suit jacket and miniskirt combo, and finally she was wearing glasses for the first time since I met her. In conclusion she looked completely professional and completely stunning at the same time. I got to admit I kind of drooled a tiny bit and quickly wiped it off before she looked up. The moment she noticed my presence in front of her she raised her head from the paperwork she was working on and then froze as her eyes saw my face. Suddenly she leapt right over the counter and threw herself into my arms, if I hadn''t caught her we might have both gotten hurt. She just hugged me without saying a word, just holding on tightly, and as I held her I could feel muscles that had been really tense slowly relax. It was as if she was holding all her stress in her muscles and she was finally able to let go of her pent up stress. After a couple of minutes of just letting her relax she started talking, "You promised you wouldn''t leave me, you promised that you would protect me. They said you were dead John, I thought I was alone and I didn''t know what to do. What if the church had found me ? Who would have protected me? I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead and I was alone. How could you just leave me like that John? I thought I actually meant something to you, or am I just luggage that you don''t want anymore?" "I''m sorry Lidia, I never meant to leave. I was sucked into another world by accident and I came back didn''t I ? And if the church had taken you , I would have burned it to the ground to get you back. I am sorry that I was gone for so long and you felt abandoned but I came back as quickly as humanly possible and you are not luggage , you are a smart, beautiful, determined woman that I care deeply about." "John..." "Yes ?" "I''m happy that you made it back safely." "Me too , Lidia. Me too." * * * Over the next four days I had to go out several times with both Lidia and Bella to pacify them , and although it was obvious that they were making it abundantly clear that they were interested in me in the romantic sense I tried to keep our relationships as plutonic as possible. I was already in a committed relationship with Sarah and since I had figured out how to teleport between the two worlds I had no excuse if I were to cheat on her now. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. It was a bright Monday morning and I had told everybody that I might be gone for a few days and not to worry , so there was nothing preventing me from going back to my girlfriend in the other world. I focused not only on the location, which was in a dark ally in new hope that I was accustomed to using as an anchor , but also on the little shift in the ether which indicated that I have crossed the boundary between worlds. I carefully remembered the feeling and tried to recreate it. I was apparently successful because I was standing in a dark ally and when I got out I recognized the streets of new hope. I traveled by foot to my house so that I could see how the city had been without me. It had expanded beyond belief and there were more people than ever, but what I found most shocking was that once in a while I would see the tell tale silver glimmer of nobility. At first I thought the city was conquered but I recognized the people and the city guard that i personally armed patrolling with their weapons. I was getting a very unsettling feeling as I approached my house. Where my simple one bedroom house stood, there was now a giant palace in its place, I guess they were getting really good at masonry to get that giant palace up in under a week. It was obviously made by one of my tools that compresses earth so much that it ended up looking like brown marble. I walked up the large steps towards the palace wondering why they would need to build such a thing. When I tried to enter the palace I was blocked at the door by a pair of guards from the city guard, but as soon as they heard my voice they saluted and got out of my way. There was a commotion going on somewhere deep in the palace which got me curious so I followed the noise to what appeared to be a large audience chamber and sitting there on a golden throne , wearing a velvet dress and a bejeweled crown was Sarah. In front of her brandishing towards a large pile of gold and other trinkets was a one of the silver men ,meaning he was a noble , who was speaking loudly. "For accepting our Prince''s marriage proposal, our Prince sends these gifts to the wise Queen Sarah, and although their beauty might pale in comparison to yours ,may it remind you of our Prince''s everlasting love for your majesty." chapter sixty four - misunderstanding Chapter sixty four Sarah''s P.O.V. When John left I could finally admit that my hare brained scheme to make him stay had failed miserably, ironically I fell in love with him and wanted to go to him instead, but I couldn''t leave my people, even if I had the choice to. I had a duty to my people. Two days later the capital was in an uproar, not only was the summoning circle not working, all contact with the other side had ceased. With the king and most of his retinue gone and assumed dead the fighting potential in the city became practically nonexistent. The remaining nobles began to panic and turned to the only safe city in Gambela, New Hope. In a fashion typical of the nobles they threw away all loyalties to the previous king and tried to swear me in as the new queen. At first I wanted to throw them out on their asses but in the end the legitimacy that these vultures gave me was worth the pain of having them around. I made them swear the usual vow to never harm the city and let them enter. I was crowned the very next day. And immediately afterwards regretted it, as the chauvinistic bastards started to try and convince me to have a ''proper king'' from one of the princes of our neighboring kingdoms. They kept making annoying declarations that I was going to marry this prince or that prince as if I had no right to refuse if they brought a big enough gift. I was sitting through one of these ridiculous speeches with a man prattling about ''our prince'' as if he was already his subject , and showing me gold as if it had already guaranteed that I accept the proposal, when I felt a pulse go through the room. Suddenly everyone''s eyes turned towards the source of the power ripple that they just felt and there ,levitating a few inches off the ground ,was a man in a very familiar cowl. Everybody slowly backed away from him, they didn''t even try to fight him. Reality itself seemed to be fluctuating and changing around him, the hard stone ground beneath his feet seemed to be turning into sand, the colors around him started to blur then bleed into each other forming a hurricane of light and shapes with him at the center. It was like seeing the wrath of a god unleashed before our eyes, everyone was terrified to even get close to him. But the next moment the man ,no the god ,seemed to shake his head and the maelstrom of colors and shapes settled back into reality as he seemed to remember himself. He then looked towards me , turned around and floated away. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I was breathing hard and fast , not out of fear but out of excitement. John, my john who I thought I would never see again and who I was hopelessly and madly in love with, was just here. Then I realized how it must have looked from his perspective. With dawning horror I realized he must think I sold out everything he worked for, for a shiny crown and that I was marrying some prince not seven days after he left. I quickly got up from the throne and run after him, speeding myself up with wind magic. Luckily I had a magic that could track his scent and I was intimately familiar with John''s scent. I finally found him in one of the balconies , looking off to the distance. His hood had fallen off and he had a heartbreaking expression on his beautiful face, "John, it is not what it seems...." But he didn''t seem to be listening to me. He just continued gazing off, with that sad look upon his face. "Do you want to know something funny?" "John listen to me, I know it looks bad......." "I found out about the weekly summonings the first time I went to scope out the palace, did you know that? I knew you were trying to manipulate me when you decided to sleep with me. I mean the first time you saw my face was after you had undressed. I know you didn''t do it because you were attracted to me, yet I deluded myself into thinking that you developed genuine feelings for me, and like an idiot, I actually fell for you. Isn''t it hilarious?" He seemed unable to hear anything I was saying and his thoughts seemed to be running in very dark directions, so I did something in desperation "I vow that I love John and only John , I have no plans to betray him in any way and if I am lying let my own power strike me down." That got his attention. His lethargic manner seemed to dissipate and he finally looked at me with eyes open in shock, "But then..... why?......." "Listen first you knuckle head, that noble was talking nonsense, the only reason I even let them in was because being a queen gives me bigger clout when i negotiated with other countries. I never planned to marry any prince .Now stop moping and give me a kiss, I''ve missed you." He grabbed my waist and smashed his lips into mine in a hard kiss. "I''ve missed you too Sarah" chapter sixty five - close call Chapter sixty five John''s P.O.V. Until that moment I thought the term heart break was a metaphorical saying, but even though I knew it was anatomically impossible , I felt my heart seemingly shatter into pieces as I heard the man''s words repeat over and over inside of my head. Seven days, I was gone seven days and she was already engaged with somebody else. My Sarah was engaged to somebody else. I tried to be rational , but just like the first time she came to my house that night, all my rationality left me when it came to this woman. For a moment I just blacked out and I do not even remember what was happening until I heard Jules in my ear, "John , I am suppressing all your emotional responses by seventy five percent to restore your logic and reasoning , in your emotional state you seem to be unconsciously using magic and you have somehow exceeded all my calculations on how much mana you can handle at once, in addition to that you are twisting the very fabric of reality itself with your solid illusion enchantment, which is supposed to be impossible. I''m afraid we might have made a false assumption with that enchantment and have severely underestimated it. If you persist on continuing with your current action , not only will you directly destroy New Hope but also tear the veil between the ether and this realm and make a rip big enough to let in some of the creatures that reside there , which would probably have catastrophic consequences to anyone living in this realm. I know you are upset John but destroying everything here isn''t going to really help, you need to get some fresh air and some space to process things instead of just reacting." The soothing and ever familiar voice of Jules was finally able to restore some of my sanity , I took a final look at the woman that had caused me so much pain and then turned around to fly out of the room. Since I wasn''t quite ready to do anything else yet, I went to a random balcony to stare out into the city and beyond to the red tinted horizon. "You can release the emotional restrictions now Jules, I''m sure I can control myself better now." "I''m sorry about this John, I hate to see you in so much pain. Slowly restoring emotional sensitivity. Emotional sensitivity restored to a hundred percent." The numb aching pain was suddenly replaced by the pain of shrapnel exploding in my chest. I was suddenly feeling the loss of the first woman that I ever really loved. From the beginning I knew that she was using me to help her people as much as possible, but I loved her anyways , I couldn''t help it. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. After a few moments she came running saying something that I couldn''t really hear for some reason, it was like someone put a barrier between me and the rest of the world and her words just bounced off it. I started talking to her, trying to make her understand how much I was hurt . For some reason it was important to me that she understood how things were from my perspective, it wasn''t very logical but I wasn''t in a very logical state of mind. But then the barrier between us was suddenly shattered when she said a vow , and with every word she said my pain slowly began to disappear. A misunderstanding, it was all a misunderstanding. Sarah loved me and she never planned to marry anybody. She swore to all of it with a magic vow. By the end of her vow she told me to kiss her , and I happily obeyed. I felt almost giddy with happiness , I didn''t lose my first love, Sarah was still mine. * * * For the next two days the two of us didn''t leave the royal bedchamber. We spent all our time reaffirming our love for each other . When we finally got out of the bedroom and made an appearance in the audience chamber, that''s where the monarch is supposed to listen to petitions , the nobles didn''t even complain. There was not even a single mention of any prince and they seemed terrified of even looking in my direction. Sarah seemed to be enjoying their terror quite a bit and tried to include me in as many conversations as possible, I just agreed to whatever she said and afterwards nobody would argue. By the end , when Sarah and I walked out, she was sporting a giant smile on her face. She had obviously enjoyed tormenting the nobles. Afterwards we had a nice brunch and talked about our futures. I promised that I would try to be here at least two days a week in addition to all my nights. After another session of lovemaking , I bid her farewell and went back to earth before everybody started to worry about me. chapter sixty six - thats my f***ing problem Chapter sixty six I came back to two slightly distraught women waiting impatiently for my return. As soon as I got back I noticed something very strange, the fiery red head and the blonde bombshell seemed to have come to some sort of understanding while I was away and now seemed to have joined forces. While this might have been wonderful news a few weeks ago , now that I was in a relationship with somebody else it was just more frustrating. This alliance did not stop with Bella and Lidia , the Steelbenders were in on it too , because every time it was time to eat a meal they always seemed to mysteriously disappear, leaving me alone, snugly squashed between two women who have forgotten what the concept of personal space was. Not only did they insist on sitting close to me but they also insisted on feeding me from their plates. I knew that what I was doing was wrong and that even though I was not cheating , it wouldn''t be much further down the line if I let this continue. I tried to tell them that I was in a relationship, that I couldn''t be with them in that way, but I just couldn''t. Two of the most beautiful women I had ever seen were pressed close against my sides and the combination of their looks, their smiles, their soft voices in my ear, combined with their unique and alluring scent made a cocktail more intoxicating than any drug. I felt guilty, but not guilty enough that I didn''t enjoy the attention I was getting from the two women. In the end I was able to extricate myself from the two women before I did something unforgivable. I went into my room then locked and bolted my room , I had a feeling that if I didn''t do that I would wake up with two extra people on my bed, but there was one person that any door couldn''t keep out. * * * I was having a nightmare that I was falling down a bottomless pit, a pretty generic nightmare , when the dream seemed to shift and instead of a bottomless pit , I was falling towards a familiar pink bed. I landed very lightly even though I had been falling for what felt like hours , I''ll choke that up to dream physics and move on. I knew what was going to happen next and even though my nightmare was interrupted , the dread I felt now was way more than anything a bottomless pit could inspire. There , standing before me in her sheer nightgown looking as divine as usual, was my mocha dream goddess. I just sat there on the bed, looking down because I couldn''t bring myself to look her in the eyes. I felt like a man who was cheating on his wife and just got caught. "Look at me John." It was one of the hardest things I''ve ever done, at that moment I would have rather wrestled an archfiend barehanded than look up at her, but it was necessary so I grit my teeth and forced myself to look into her eyes. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. There was no anger in her eyes, no condemnation or disgust. She didn''t have any of the negative emotions I expected to see from her, instead there was one that I wouldn''t have guessed in a million years, it was concern. "John, you don''t need to worry about my reaction to your relationship with Sarah, please calm down. I never said that you were mine alone, I never asked you to only be mine, I just want to make you happy." "But what about your feelings? What about your happiness?" "Oh John, its very sweet that you care but if you are happy I am happy. Now onto more pressing matters, let''s talk about the terrible twosome, Bella and Lidia. John , you need to do something about them before you tear yourself apart. Either tell them about Sarah and once and for all tell them you can''t be involved with them or don''t tell them about Sarah and give them what they want." "But that would be cheating on Sarah!" "Yeah, it would, but you have to understand that the whole ''its immoral to be with many women'' doesn''t apply anymore, hell any concept of morality is out the window at this point. If you are hesitating because of religion , then you should consider what you have seen of the ether. Religion is based on belief, as in not believing in something good or something bad but believing in something whatever it maybe. In the end it doesn''t matter what a priest or society has told you is wrong, all that matters is what you believe is wrong. Do you believe it is wrong to keep your affections from two women who desperately love you to appease your own sense of guilt, or do you believe it is wrong to have a relationship with the two women that Sarah would never find out about?" "Are you telling me its better for me to cheat?" "You obviously have real feelings for Bella and Lidia. If you decide not to pursue them, it would hurt you almost as much as it would hurt them. I''m saying that you should choose the option that causes least pain for everybody involved. Now enough talk , I want to make sure that you don''t forget about me when you have all these women." As she pinned me down and kissed me I suddenly realized something, this woman never asked anything from me, but still cared for me and tried to make my life as happy as possible. She knew everything about me so i never had to hide myself from her , and she never judged me even though she knew my deepest secrets. She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. I realized that I have come to truly love this woman whose name I didn''t really know. I''m starting to suspect that there is something wrong with me when it comes to beautiful women. chapter sixty seven - meeting the bosses again Chapter sixty seven The next morning Michael informed me that I was again being summoned by the council to give a report on the events that transpired during the battle to defend the city and afterwards, apparently I was counted as one of the official combatants of the city and as such they wanted to ''debrief'' me. I thought it was strange to have a meeting so early in the morning but it was not like I was busy or anything so I consented to their summons. Like last time we took Michael''s carriage to the council building and on the way I regaled him with a highly edited and much less horrific version of my adventures in the other world, which means they contained much less about bleeding and screaming bits and much more about the helping the poor parts. After we made it to the giant multicolored tower we proceeded to the main hall which I had found so childish and it was equally silly to me in the daylight. We climbed up the stairs of eternal suffering, I came up with that myself, we finally reached the giant door and just like last time Michael proceeded to shove it open with so much force that I could have sworn I saw it warp a little, I wonder if they had someone come in and fix the door every time there is a meeting. Like last time the council members were sitting in their high chairs wearing their color coded robes that made it easier to remember what their element was, just in case you forgot. Personally I thought this whole color coded thing was dumb, I say keep your enemy guessing , and the less he knows the better but nobody was asking me. I wasn''t a paragon of fashion either, I was in my customary black cowl, I didn''t really need to wear it anymore but I have gotten rather fond of the damned thing. Unlike last time, they appraised me carefully with sharp eyes that showed great interest. The douche bag fire mage from last time who had tried to take my ARM , Antonio Serafino was the first to speak, "Why do you wear your hood up after appearing in front of the council , according to Galina you have nothing to hide or be ashamed of." "Trust me when I say he doesn''t , hello Tom glad you made it back, I really regretted not finishing what we started at the party." Galina''s voice was her usual sensual purr and she left no doubt as to what she was talking about. Since they already knew what I looked like, well at least Galina knew, I found it pointless to fight them over something so trivial . I casually took off my hood , "She wasn''t exaggerating about your looks!" This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Everybody turned towards the source of that loud exclamation , surprisingly it was Aria Ventus who was the one who spoke. She had a horrified expression on her face and seemed mortified that she gave an opinion, her twin brother Alexander just looked at her as if he had never seen her before. The awkward moment was broken when Galina started to guffaw quite loudly , while saying ''I told you so'' several times. Finally Antonio interjected, " Yes quite, now to get to the more serious part, Mr Tom it seems you haven''t been quite honest with us have you? You said that you are nothing more than a novice enchanter with a powerful artifact effective against demons, but given recent events and several eye witnesses that claim they saw you perform magic without any artifacts we are forced to conclude that you are indeed a mage. Why would you lie to us? What are you hiding? " "I''m not a mage, at least not in a conventional sense. Let''s just say I have a lot of enchanted items and not all of them are easy to spot." The old lady, Anna Voda , spoke next in an even measured tone," Can you tell us how you defeated the fiend and escaped from hell? You can ignore Antonio''s accusations , you are here to give a report , so give a report about the battle and what happened afterwards." I told them a story about how I luckily hit an important part of the fiend''s summoning circle , and after it dragged me in with it, how I escaped due to some more luck. I told them about the other world and how it was not hell. I told them about the situation there , how the nobles had tricked the anarchists. Finally how I used a summoning circle to come back and narrowly defeat the unprepared anarchists to rescue Emily. Anna just started at me for a second and gave me a knowing smile, " You seem to have an inordinate amount of luck young man." Antonio looked a little pissed , " So what you are saying is that you defeated the entire anarchist organization single handedly with no personal magic but just using enchanted items? Do you honestly expect us to believe that?" But I had had enough of this whole interrogation schtick , "Believe it or not , I do not care, I have already made my report . Now I have to restock my store so I have a busy day ahead of me. Goodbye." Before they could react I was out the door and the moment I was out of sight I teleported to the back of my store. chapter sixty eight - ice cream Chapter sixty eight I arrived at the back of the store in the middle of all the orderly shelves. I went out to the front of the store where I found Lidia taking care of a customer, I waited for her to finish then said, "Good morning Lidia, how''s business going?" "Good morning John, it is fine I guess. It isn''t as good as it used to be with the magic items but we do OK for a general store." "That''s actually why I''m here, this storage ring is filled with merchandize I made before I disappeared and never had the chance to put it in the store, should tide you over for a few days, I''ll enchant some more items by then." I gave her a storage ring filled with goods and she received it gratefully, "Thanks John, this will probably help a lot. It is actually pretty silly having a store called ''enchantments r us'' and not being able to sell enchanted items." "Well I have some things I need to buy so see you later at the house." "See you later John." I walked out of the mall and walked around the city looking for materials I was running low on ,like different metals. I needed things to put my enchantment on. I had tried to enchant one of my illusion constructs but there was a fundamental problem with that. The very meaning of enchantment is using a rune to reach through the object to its ether counterpart , then by affecting that you can make the fundamental properties of the real object change, similar to how turning an object would alter it''s shadow. The problem is although the illusions I created were solid , they were not real, they didn''t have a counterpart in the ether. This means that they interact with the world in very limited ways, for example it has zero electrical and heat conductivity, it did not ever burn in any temperature, meaning in a rock paper scissor game between mages I could crush a fire mage pretty easily. But this same property that is really useful when fighting against many opponents makes it impossible to enchant. To use the previous metaphor it is like a shadow without an object, since the source object is missing you can''t manipulate the shadow in that way. So I had no choice but to go around and buy things that would be useful to enchant. I bought a lot of necklaces, bracelets, and rings. I also went to a blacksmith and bought all the rods of steels he had. Thankfully he used steel rods to make knives and swords so I was able to buy plenty. In fact I bought so many for what the blacksmith thought was a generous price that he let me have his miscellaneous scraps and pieces for free. Afterwards I was just walking through the street , enjoying the sights of this incredibly beautiful city while eating a cone of ice cream I bought from a street vendor to cool down from the heat , when I saw something that did not belong in this picturesque and happy scene. A couple of older teens in red were shooting little tongues of flame at a small mousy looking kid dressed in white, at least what was left of it. It seems the ''game'' they were playing was trying to burn as much of the mousy kid''s clothes without seriously burning him. He was running frantically trying to escape, but their longer strides gave them an advantage over the smaller kid. Although they were chasing the kid down a crowded street in broad daylight nobody was trying to stop them, they just hurriedly got out of their way. Their chase was taking them in my direction and I was inclined to interrupt. There are a few types of people that I hated on principle and unluckily for these little punks, bullies were one of them. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Still eating my ice cream I approached the three bullies and their victim, at this point he had given up and collapsed onto the sidewalk in the fetal position trying to cover his face and most of his body. First I simply got between the approaching bullies and the fallen kid. I wanted to see how they reacted so that I can gauge the severity of the lesson I was going to teach them. I knelt down next to the kid and asked, "Are you alright?" "Get out of the way asshole, we are in the middle of something." , Dumbass 1 "Yeah get out of the way , or do you have a death wish?", Dumbass 2 Dumbass 3 just giggled stupidly. I ignored them and continued inspecting the kid, who seemed to be too distraught to talk. Although singed here and there, he seemed to be physically alright. I guess this means the three idiots won''t feel too much pain in their coming lesson. "You asked for it, don''t blame us when your ass is on fire!" , after loudly exclaiming that ,Dumbass 2 threw a tongue of flame in my direction, before it got to me it hit an invisible wall and fizzled out. All three of them seemed to be confused as to what happened and Dumbass 2 tried again with similar results. I created invisible bands around their arms and legs , so that they couldn''t move or escape. "Who are you?.. Well whoever you are , you can''t do this to us , do you know who we are?" "No I do not, and nor do I care. You are spoiled and sadistic teenagers who need to be taught a serious lesson. Hello, I will be your teacher this evening." Their haughty and arrogant expressions where slowly melting off their faces to reveal glimmers of fear. Good, they were finally starting to understand. "Our lesson for this evening is a simple one, don''t do unto others what you don''t want done to you." I carefully shredded their clothing only nicking them lightly here and there and left them in their underwear, afterwards I released them and they ran away in their tidy whities . By the time they had turned a corner , my ice cream had run out , so I got another one from storage. One of the great things about storage was that time didn''t pass in there ,so you could store as much ice cream in there and it wouldn''t melt. I was just starting my second ice cream when I noticed that the kid on the ground had gotten up and was just staring at me. So I did the polite thing and said, "Here kid, have a cone." chapter sixty nine - bad genes Chapter sixty nine The kid numbly accepted the cone of ice cream as if I was handing him the most precious thing in the universe, although close I don''t think ice cream would occupy that spot so I concluded that the kid was still in shock . Then I heard the softest whisper coming from him. "You''re him......you''re Demonbane........the Demonbane..." "I''ve been known by that name, most people just call me Tom, now what do I call you?" "Anthony Ventus.... most people call me ant." "Well I think that is more of an insult than a nickname, I''ll just call you Tony, cool? Walk with me Tony, and don''t forget to eat your ice cream, it''s starting to melt and I''m pretty sure that wasted ice cream is a cardinal sin." I just walked in the direction of Steelbender castle and Tony followed along eating his ice cream quickly, I think he took me seriously when I was talking about wasting ice cream being a sin. "So Tony, what the hell was that back there? Why were those kids picking on you and why were you not fighting back?" "They were picking on me because I wouldn''t fight back and I wouldn''t fight back because I wasn''t allowed to fight back." "What do you mean you weren''t allowed to fight back, you aren''t from one of those all pacifist monasteries or something are you?" "Nothing that noble, I was told that I was not allowed to fight with any of the other kids in the academy because it might cause a negative impact on the relationships we foster carefully with the other families, at least that''s what my older brother tells me." "Well, I''m going to give you some advice , do you know Michael Steelbender? Well, he has a perfect phrase that I think could be a solution to your problem, you should tell your older brother to stuff it. What those kids were doing today will only get worse tomorrow , don''t wait until you get seriously hurt before you act and if your brother cares for you at all he will understand," at that point we had already reached the front gate of the castle, " This is my stop. Goodbye Tony, I hope you find a good solution to your problem." "Thank you Mister Demonbane , for saving me and for the advice you gave me, I''ll think about it carefully." After I finished talking to the kid I went into the castle. I liked Tony ,he seemed like a smart kid , he said he would think about my advice ,not act on it immediately which I found admirable. I hope he doesn''t get hurt. That night I was eating dinner with the entire Steelbender family plus Lidia ,when there was a sudden commotion outside. We all rushed out to see what was happening and outside the gates making a giant fuss was high adept Antonio Serafino. The moment he saw my face he gave a large bellow, Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! "You have some nerve doing that to my boy and showing your face in front of me!" "Are you by any chance referring to one of the three fire mage boys that I sent home naked?" "You admit it then? Why don''t you stop picking on children and fight a real mage." I stepped forward and started advancing towards the angry fire mage, "You know, you have my condolences, your boy is not only a poor excuse for a mage but also a poor excuse for a man, but I guess blood does really tell in the end." "How dare you! You insolent swine I shall show you real magic, none of your parlor tricks!" Suddenly a large stream of fire came my way but it was just as suddenly deflected by a shield that appeared halfway between me and him, "You think just because you know how to make pretty lights and some sparks it makes you a real mage ? No what that makes you is a one trick pony, predictable and ultimately just a bigger version of your worthless son." He intensified the stream of fire until the ground beneath him started to glow red and he started to sweat , but against a shield that was absolutely resistant to heat , it was useless. "Now let me show you real magic." A giant snake suddenly appeared and wrapped around the fire mage, restricting his movement and stopping his spell. He started breathing fire from his mouth but since the snake was one of my illusions it was completely unaffected. "I want you to remember this feeling, this feeling of defeat and helplessness, of having your fate in somebody else''s hands. I want you to remember this feeling when you think about being rude or condescending to me the next time we talk. I stopped your son and his friends because they thought it would be fun to burn the clothes off another kid''s body while he was still wearing them, he is a bully, and I think you are too, but next time you get the impulse to mess with me or mine in some way remember I can end your life with a snap of a finger." After making sure he got the message I made the snake disappear and he beat a hasty retreat from the castle, when I turned around everyone was looking at me in pure awe, there was complete silence in the courtyard, then both little Carlos and Michael simultaneously said, "That was awesome !" chapter seventy - be very scared Chapter seventy Michael was almost giggling giddily on our way back inside to our unfinished dinner. He kept talking about his favorite parts of the little battle I just had, he seemed to have especially enjoyed the ''great and powerful'' Antonio scampered away in fear, practically pissing his pants. We got back to the dinning hall and sat around the table before they started asking questions about what they saw, I managed to pacify them by telling them I had an artifact that allowed me to summon constructs, which was actually kind of true even if its not the full breadth of its power. "So you are telling me you have an artifact that let''s you make any creature and control it however you want?" Isabella seemed flabbergasted that such a thing could exist. "No no , I can''t make any creature , just something that looks similar. It is not really alive, nor does it have its own will, I have to control it directly. You can think of it as a very large, very scary puppet. And just like a puppet is not a living creature, neither are my constructs." As a demonstration I created a small savanna on the dinning table complete with grazing zebra and lions lazing about. Recently I have been getting really good at manipulating my illusions, for example I didn''t even need to put conscious thought to make the little animals to act like normal animals, not stiff and synchronized but more natural. Except for the fact that it was on a table , it could have been mistaken for a scene on the natural geography channel. This increased fine control of my illusions started after I had my little meltdown when I thought that Sarah was getting married. I activated the enchantment subconsciously and somehow that seemed to have created a connection between my subconscious mind and the enchantment. Now when I make illusions ,details that were missing when I made illusions before are now filled out by my subconscious. This allows me to create much more life like illusions of living things. Before when I tried to make an illusion of a living thing it was always robotic and fake , but now I bet no one can even tell the difference. The rest of the dinner passed by watching the small animals. I even made the lions hunt some of the zebras. After everybody finished their dinner I made the little animals disappear, we all said our farewells and went to our rooms. That night was one of the nights that I promised that I would spend with Sarah so after I locked and bolted my door, I teleported to the edge of the city, walked out of the barrier then teleported directly to the royal bedchamber in the castle in new hope. Surprisingly there was no one in there and I had to go out to look for Sarah, thankfully the helpful guards pointed me towards the right direction and I found her in the middle of a meeting that looked quite serious. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I made a little illusion blue bird appear and fly over to her, and although I couldn''t make illusions of sound, I had gotten sufficiently good at manipulating the solid illusion to be different densities and flexibility, so I was able to make a good approximation of a Syrinx carefully making the cartilage and other membranes so when I made the little bird blow air through it , it made sweet little whistling sounds. Most of the nobles seemed to be confused as to what was happening and were staring at the bird incredulously but Sarah''s somber and worried expression melted away as it was replaced by a bright smile and that was worth all the effort of creating the bird. She started looking around and finally found me at the doorway , she waved me over to her and right there in front of everybody gave me a kiss, I was never really big on public displays of affection but I wasn''t going to refuse a kiss from my silver goddess. After she let me go I asked her, "So what''s wrong? What''s with the heavy atmosphere ?" "Although new hope is safe behind its wall and the many weapons you gave us, our neighboring countries are starting to notice that the rest of the country is unguarded and that this would be a perfect opportunity to do some expansion, the only thing stopping them is the rumors of a super powerful being able to bend reality to his will but they are starting to doubt that such a being really exists, especially one of our neighbors from the east, Gondar , is starting to mobilize its troops. We believe they could attack as soon as next week." "That''s no reason to get worried, I''ll properly outfit an army with gear like the guards, although I''m going to need them to swear a similar vow about only using them to only protect the country. But for now I''ll personally go and terrify the shit out of them so that no country will even think of attacking you for a really long time." I started to think of all the plans I could use to terrorize them, I felt very excited because all the options I was considering would be tremendously exciting. "Why do you have that smile on your face John? Its kind of creepy." "Oh don''t worry, this is my ''I''m about to have some fun'' smile." It seems at some point I had started smiling and rubbing my hands together in anticipation. Poor Gondar. chapter seventy one - fairytale Chapter seventy one The next day after making a quick trip back to earth and writing a quick note saying I''m busy for the day and won''t be available for the duration, I started to make preparations for the day. What I want to do today is to put on a show to scare the crap out of the people of Gondar, more specifically I want the nobles to feel intimidated by the amount of power I wield. I want to appear so powerful that I am unfathomable to them, something so powerful that they wouldn''t even consider ever attacking Gambela again. Furthermore I wanted to create a legend that would become a deterrent not only to Gondar but also all the other nations, and that meant putting on a show. First I had to get dressed properly for the occasion. Instead of my trusty cowel I decided to wear some armor, but not any old conventional armor. I decided on an organic looking design. It looked like bulging and twisted black ropes of muscle where covering my entire body, increasing its size considerably. I added sharp looking spikes here and there, then I engraved some archaic looking symbols all over the torso, they served no practical purpose but they still glowed a menacing red. For my head gear I continued the ropy muscles to cover my head but at the front I put in a mirror like face plate. By the end I didn''t even look like a man wearing armor, I looked like a nine foot tall black demon with its face missing and magical runes glowing menacingly all over its body. Even Sarah who was watching me create the armor shivered in fear by the time I was done. I actually liked the armor quite a bit, not only does it give me near full coverage from attack , but since the growth of my control over my illusions the muscles were fully functional giving me a huge boost in strength. Plus any enemy I meet is sure to feel like they are going to have a heart attack and die just from looking at me. Now that I was properly dressed , it was time to go to the location, which was the border to the east where the Gondar army was amassing. I flew there hidden by an illusion of the sky underneath me, I didn''t want to be seen quite yet, I wanted to make a grand entrance. I flew until I reached the gathered army, once I got there I unveiled my secret weapon... * * * P.O.V. change - general of the Gondar army You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I was out marshaling my army to get ready to invade Gambela. According to our spies their king was dead , their top officials and mages were all dead and although their new queen seemed to have a powerful stronghold in the new city of new hope, her army never left the city, making the rest of the country vulnerable. There were rumors that the queen''s consort was a demigod that gifted her with the city and that he had frightening powers that could make things out of thin air, but I gave such stories little credence. We are not in some fairytale where such things are possible, this was real life and only fools would let such stories stop them from grasping such an opportunity. I was out putting my army in order personally making sure we were ready to march when it suddenly got darker as a giant shadow fell on the army. Everybody looked up to see what was happening when their eyes fell on something their minds just wasn''t able to comprehend. I am a decorated general, master of both wind and fire magic, veteran of multiple battles including one against a chimera that wandered to our borders. I consider myself a hardened man, not afraid of anything, but what I saw froze me in terror and made my knees shake like a new born calf. Slowly I started to laugh hysterically as I thought of the irony of my earlier thoughts. There flying over our heads was a terrifying apparition, a faceless black demon summoned from the depths of nightmares with magic swirling visibly on his black twisted body. As if such a sight wasn''t enough , he was riding something even more terrifying . The thing had shiny black scales covering its large body which was being kept aloft by bat like membranous wings, it had a large spiny tail growing out of its back and three sinewy necks grew from its front, with ugly heads that had glowing green eyes and silver horns. The demon was riding on the center head which was keeping still, but the other two heads were waving around fixing there sights on different parts of the army as if looking at a delicious buffet. I just continued to laugh thinking how ironic it was that I thought the rumors were nothing but a fairytale and now I see something straight out of a fairytale. The demon was riding a dragon. chapter seventy two - soul collector Chapter seventy two General of the Gondar''s army P.O.V. My hysterical laughter had finally subsided leaving me to feel empty inside instead. I was so far past fear at this point that I just felt hollow. I nearly just gave up and run away like some of the soldiers were doing, but I had my honor and pride, as an old man those mean more to me than anything else. I have lived my whole life chasing glory, I guess there is nothing more glorious than this, a glorious death. I finally started to smile, a genuine smile this time. For so many years I have been lost in the politics and paperwork , I had forgotten what the thrill of a real battle was like, and this was as real as a battle could get. "Men, get back in formation. There are thousands of us here , don''t let him spook you!" The fear in the eyes of the soldiers diminished a little as they did what they were trained to do, follow orders. Slowly order was restored to the panic stricken army. As if waiting for us to finish our preparations the demon did nothing until we reorganized, then he slowly started to glide down to the ground. Under my command a sustained assault of magic and arrows were sent his way, but all of them seem to hit an invisible wall before hitting him and get deflected. After he was only a few inches from the ground he started to glide in my direction, I had a feeling that he was looking at me when he approached. Several soldiers tried to get close enough to him to attack with their swords but when anybody got a certain distance from him they would instantly be torn apart as if a million blades were going through them. As he slowly got closer I thought to myself , if I was going to die, I was going to die fighting , so I ordered all my soldiers to back away and performed the most advanced fire magic I knew. A tornado of flames sprang up around the demon and this time he didn''t deflect the magic, instead he got engulfed by the raging storm of fire. All my men started to cheer and applaud , but I knew better. A demon of that caliber wouldn''t be defeated this easily and I was right. He came out of the fire as if it made no difference to him whatsoever, then a cold uncaring voice said, If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "What a novel approach, throwing fire at a demon from hell. Was that supposed to hurt me?" "I am not afraid of you demon, I will fight you to my last breath if I have to ! With an honorable death my place among my ancestors is guaranteed!" "Ah, is that what you believe? You think after fighting me you get to go to paradise with your ancestors?" Suddenly two translucent figures of soldiers I just saw him kill rose up from the ground on each side of me and grabbed my hands. "No , I won''t let you go to your ancestors, because what I kill , I keep." He was now close enough that I could see the reflection of myself on the mirror that was there instead of his face, I saw the horror and fear in my own face reflected there. More and more of my own dead soldiers started to appear and together held me down as the demon looked on. When I was completely immobilized he said, "You are very lucky today, I need you to deliver a message. Gambela is under my protection, anyone that tries to invade its land or harm its people will have a fate worse than death, as you can see. Do you understand what I want you to do?" I just nodded repeatedly. I now knew what true fear was, I feared for my soul. I could imagine living the rest of eternity in servitude to this demon, and I couldn''t imagine anything worse. I would do anything to escape this fate. "Good, as a reward I will even release your men''s souls, don''t disappoint me. Make sure you get this message to every country around Gambela. Because if you fail, next time you see me I will be taking your soul." The translucent figures around me vanished as he rose up back to his dragon and flew away. I was so scared that I couldn''t even get up off the ground and my soldiers had to carry me to my tent like an invalid. As I lay there thinking about what had just happened I came to a conclusion, honor and pride had no value when compared to once own soul. To save my soul, I will do whatever the demon says. chapter seventy three - party Chapter seventy three John''s P.O.V. My little performance for the Gondarian army went off without a hitch, in fact it went better than I expected and as a result of that I had the rest of the day free. At first I thought I''d go to New Hope and hang out with Sarah but she had queenly duties and as I cruised through the sky on my dragon with the air flowing through my hair , I just couldn''t be bothered about the country just then. Instead I turned to more personal issues, I needed to make a place of my own. The Steelbenders had been very nice in opening their home to me and had given me more than enough space . In addition to that I''m sure Sarah would give me my own castle if I asked for it, but what I wanted was a place to get away from everybody and just work on my next project, basically like every super villain ,I needed a secret lair. To make my secret lair I needed a secluded area away from everybody , so that no one would know about it ,fulfilling the secret part of secret lair. The only place that came to my mind was the badlands where the chimera and archfiends roamed, but since they weren''t really a problem for me anymore and would act as a deterrent for anybody else I chose the badlands as the ideal location. I flew at full speed towards the badlands and once I got there, I decided I would build my secret lair on a small mountain from which you can see miles around, as for the building itself I went for a giant black cube with no doors or windows. It was so large that even with my freakish mana regeneration it took me nearly half an hour to finish. It had 12 inch thick walls at maximum density I could make them. Then I camouflaged it to look like it was just a part of the mountain. Since it was my own illusion I could control it anyway I wanted, I opened a door that could fit me and my dragon and got inside. Inside was big enough that you could fit three Boeing 737s end to end. Should be big enough for all my projects, and if its not then I could always expand. I took the dragon to a corner and made a room for it. I made it curl up inside and relinquished my control over it, it immediately turned inanimate and stiff. I named it after the meanest and most evil creature I''ve ever known. On a golden plate on its door I engraved the name Bianca.( That''s the name of his mother ) Now that my new base was finished I wanted to bring the ARM (automatic ritual machine in case you have forgotten ) here from the borrows. I teleported to my former basement to remove and bring the wires and generators that make up the ARM. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The moment I got there I knew something was wrong, I could feel the earth shaking as if there were explosions above my head and dust was coming down from the ceiling because of it. "Jules, any idea what is going on? Doesn''t seem like normal seismic activity." "The mana disturbance is through the roof, I believe this is the work of magic." "Is somebody trying to get in here?" "Although that is a possibility , it is highly unlikely. With the amount of mana disturbance just from ambient emissions ,they would have already made it here by now if they expended that much power. There are two more scenarios that are way more likely, either a major working is being performed in the area or there is a major magic battle occurring topside and based on all the shaking I am leaning towards the second one." "The church might have caught up to us, but then who are they fighting?" "Asking me won''t answer the question, get up there and take a peak." "That''s really bad advice, you know that right?" "Yeah, but when I give you good advice you ignore it, like for example now if I told you it was dumb to go up there into a situation that you have no clue about and could be potentially harmful to you, you would go up there anyways wouldn''t you?" "You do have a point , well what is life without a little risk, plus I''ve got this spiffy new armor now, nothing out there can hurt me . You''re worrying for no reason." " *sigh*.....why do I even bother?" I made sure my armor was on right then teleported to what was left of my previous front yard, now it looked like I was at the moon, craters everywhere. To my left was a dense jungle made up of wildly waving vines and trees that had menacing faces, clawed hands and feet. To my right was what appeared to be legions of weak looking demons , some who could fly were circling around like vultures. The rest were swarming around giving the impression that their advantages lay in numbers even if they were comparatively weak. Right in front of me was a glowing globe of light, and at some interval a glowing symbol would come out of it and strike down one of the demons or tree warriors. It seems I''ve landed myself in the middle of a party. chapter seventy four - time out Chapter seventy four Even though I didn''t know who the three parties duking it out were, I had my suspicions about who the two could be. The forest of warrior trees and strangling vines seemed to be the work of a very powerful druid who specialized in plants, so I''m assuming at least one side is from the druids that ruled Britain. The light shield that formed a sphere and the glowing symbols that shot out periodically from it to incinerate enemies appeared to be the work of witches, and seeing their preference for using light magic , it seems likely that they are from the church, so some witches from the Sofia church ,probably from somewhere in Europe. The third party was more of a mystery. They had summoned so many demons without losing any control over them that it was obvious that they were a skilled summoner, but that seemed to be a contradiction to what the quality of demons was indicating. Their strategy of summoning demons in bulk would have made sense if this was a battle with large armies and it was a simple battle of attrition, but for this kind of battle a summoner able to summon and control so many demons at the same time should have been powerful enough to summon more powerful demons. At first I thought I was dealing with a large group of trash summoners , but seeing the coordination of the demons I was forced to conclude it was the work of a single gifted summoner, which made his actions very perplexing. I wonder who else, other than the church and the druids, has any interests here? While I was pondering the identities of the quarreling parties , the battle around me had ground to a halt as everybody had finally noticed me, I guess I was pretty noticeable in my demonic armor standing at nearly nine foot tall with glowing symbols tattooed all over my giant black frame. I thought maybe they''ll all just be too scared to attack and maybe they would just run away. At that exact moment as if the universe was mocking my naivet¨¦, a glowing symbol shot out from the sphere of light straight towards me while at the same time one of the tree warrior from the druids forest army started to charge at me .I could have blocked it and the glowing symbol with a simple shield and attacked everyone head on but I was feeling playful after the battle with the Gondar army so I decided to mess with them instead. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Instead of a simple shield, I made an illusion of an angel appear and stop the glowing symbol with a raised palm. I tried to make the angel as believable as possible, I made it a beautiful woman with golden hair and irises wearing a simple pure white dress. She had three pairs of large pure white wings sprouting from her back and they were all glowing brightly. Her whole body was giving this golden glow as if it was some sort of a divine aura . I did a really good job of making her look convincing , if I do say so myself. For the druid , I was betting from his magic that he believed in one plant deity or another so I created something that I thought would embody nature and appeal to him . I made her a green woman with a dress made out of leaves , hair made out of different flowers, and glowing green eyes . I made her gesture in the direction of the advancing tree warrior then I put invisible bands around its arms and legs, stopping it cold, from anybody else''s point of view it would look like the green lady stopped the giant tree warrior by a simple gesture. As for the demon summoner , I did not know what he believed in but I''m just going to have to convince him that I was a very powerful demon, shouldn''t be too hard. I created a giant mono-blade and sent it through the horde , instantly killing half of his whole army, if that doesn''t make him back down I don''t know what will. Now that all of them were suitably intimidated and confused I could move on to the next phase of the plan. I made a giant white flag and stabbed it into the ground, but I had forgotten my enhanced strength when I was in the armor so I made giant cracks appear all over the ground, let''s just pretend I meant to do that. Then I made a giant table , with three chairs on one side where I sat in the middle , with the angel on one side and the nature girl on the other. There were seats set up on all the other three sides of the table as well. The message was obvious. It''s time to talk. chapter seventy five - breaking faith Chapter seventy five Surprisingly the first person to step forward wasn''t the people who met ''divine beings'' from their belief system, it was an old man that appeared from amidst the demons. He appeared to be of African descent and not in the best of health as his breathing was a little rough and wheezy. He had a mangy beard and scraggly hair, if it wasn''t for his fancy attire he could have been mistaken as a homeless person. He was wearing what appeared to be a velvet cloak that was so black that it seemed to be swallowing all the light around him, but the most distinguishing feature about him was the crown he was wearing that looked like it was made out of bones and ivory. Some of those bones appeared suspiciously human to me. As I was studying his crown he gave me a respectful bow and said, "Great demon, prince of hell , might this lowly mortal have the honor of knowing your name?" "No , you may not. I am not in a ritual circle so I am not just going to comply to your wishes summoner, and I am not going to give you my true name, I value my freedom too much for that." "Sorry, couldn''t help myself, if I could control you I would be the most powerful man on earth." "Well I can''t blame you for your ambition, if there is anything a demon could understand it''s ambition. If you wish to speak to me you may refer to me as the collector. I am not a prince of hell, although I could very easily become one. I am more of a free agent that doesn''t quite fit in with the normal hierarchy of hell, you see I have problems following orders. Now that I have sufficiently introduced myself, I think it''s time for you to do the same." "I am King Solomon , former king of the land of Israel , current ruler of the continent of Africa, at your service" "Ah, so you''re Solomon ? I heard you died some time ago, and what I just saw of your skills was quite underwhelming. The Solomon of old would have crushed these small fries like ants. Are you claiming to be that Solomon ? Oh, and you can take a seat while we talk, you look a little tired." "Thank you collector, I was feeling a little exhausted. Yes, I am the Solomon of old, I tried taking over this body, and as you can see it was hardly a perfect host, my soul fragmented during the transfer. Thankfully I was able to scrounge up enough magic to stop any further degradation of my soul and my body. But alas after the whole ordeal I was left permanently diminished." "That is fascinating, I would love to speak more to you about your ordeal, I''m particularly interested about topics that involve the soul, it is sort of a hobby of mine you see, but I''m afraid that''s going to have to wait. It seems the rest of our little gathering have gathered enough of their courage to show themselves." Almost as if they had discussed it before hand, the witches and the druids both decided to come out from behind there defenses at the same time. The white glowing sphere slowly faded away , revealing thirteen women clasping hands .All of them were wearing the traditional garb that the priestesses always wore, the white robe with the golden pentagram. For a moment they just stood there, staring at the angel then they fell down to their knees and started to pray in Latin. On the other side , an ancient looking man with a green robe , long white beard and completely bald head was staring at the green girl and suddenly started to mutter something in what sounded like Gaelic. The three young men that followed behind him just looked at her mutely. "Ladies and gentlemen , my two companions are here as arbiters , not to receive prayer or answer questions. According to the rules they are not even allowed to speak , they are just here to make sure that my judgment is fair and no sides are slighted. Now please have a seat so that we can talk about this like civilizes people." A red haired woman from the group of witches asked," And why should we listen to you , foul demon? We don''t have to obey you." "But you do have to obey me, I was entrusted by your ancestors to keep the peace between the different factions. This document here has been signed by both the druids and the sisterhood. Throughout the years I have ignored many small conflicts because they didn''t have the potential to escalate, but this particular tiff would have started a war between the two factions which forces me to intervene." If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The druid looked at me curiously then said, "Who are you?" "As I told my little friend here, you may call me the collector, and I made a deal with your ancestors to enforce the peace." "I''m assuming you are not doing this out of the goodness of your heart, what''s in it for you?" "Very astute, my payment is the soul of anybody refusing to abide by the peace treaty. Now everybody take a seat or I am going to count it as a breach of contract." That got them moving, nothing like a good threat to get a meeting going. The druid and his apprentices sat to my right and the witches sat across from me. "To start off the meeting I would like you to introduce yourselves." The red head witch from earlier spoke first,"My name is Agnes, I will represent my coven in this meeting, you don''t need to know their names." The old man just smiled and said," name''s Cedric, I''ll represent the druids I guess." "Alright Agnes and Cedric , why were the two of you fighting?" Cedric looked at the other two with an accusatory stare and said, " I was just defending my territory after these two started to try their best to destroy it." "Is this true Miss Agnes ? Why were you engaging in violent activity with Mr Solomon ?" "That''s not the whole story! A few months ago some prominent members of the church came here hunting a heretic, and they never reported back. We later found out from some witnesses that they were murdered by the heretic , who then fled the city. This here was the property of the heretic. When we found this man already snooping around , we tried to question him about what he knows but he wouldn''t cooperate then attacked us . This wasn''t our fault!" "What do you have to say king Solomon ?" "I came all the way from my home because I felt something that could help restore a part of my power . I tracked it all the way here after many hardships, just as it was almost in my grasp this rude woman demands that I give her all the information I have worked so hard to find, then she told me that her group was taking anything found in this area. Obviously I wasn''t going to let this woman steal this chance to restore myself to my former glory, so I defended my claim to any findings on this land, she insisted on getting confrontational, so I obliged her." "Alright , from what I have heard and divined there is a very simple way to resolve this. Cedric, your conduct was fitting and acceptable. Agnes, the heretic you are looking for is now far beyond you, he now has the power to destroy your entire church. That is not a hornets nest you want to stir up, this I will take a solemn vow on. Solomon, the power you seek cannot be used by you, you are going to have to find another way to restore yourself." Agnes was surprised by my vow,"But we can''t let him go just because he is too powerful, it is against the mandate of saint Sofia." I made a light beam streak from the angel''s head to mine, to make it appear as if she was communicating with me, then I started laughing really hard, "My companion wants to tell you something, normally I would never help anybody for free, but what she told me will cause you so much distress that it is worth it. Sofia is now one of the heavenly host and a friend of my companion here. She is very distressed that they would use her name to condone senseless violence. She says that blinded by your power you have turned into the people that you hated. She says you should stop the violence and lead a life of healing and peace like she did. " "You''re lying! You are trying to trick us demon!" I just pointed towards the angel , who was nodding sadly to confirm my story. They just sat there with desolate expressions on their faces as if everything they have ever known had just been taken from them. "Well, it seems I don''t get to take anybody''s soul this time, be good or next time you might not be so lucky." Then I teleported out of there. chapter seventy six - motherly Chapter seventy six After I teleported back down to the basement and finished putting all the pieces of the ARM in my storage ring, I took off my demon armor and teleported to the orphanage to check if the children were alright, and that they didn''t get hurt during all the ruckus. I''m pretty sure the violence didn''t reach the city, my house was built in a very secluded part of the borrows , but I was worried about them anyways. When I got there the place where the orphanage once stood was occupied by a brand new house, in fact the whole area had been transformed from its former dark and drab appearance to a nice residential area. Gone were the old run down buildings that looked like they could collapse if the wind blew too hard, instead they had been replaced by well built green houses with red rooftops, it felt like I was in a Lego city, it was the kind of neighborhood were you would be happy to raise your kids. However happy the atmosphere of the new neighborhood might be, I was still alarmed that the orphanage was missing. I approached the house that was on the space where the orphanage was and knocked on the bright blue door. The door was opened by a polite young woman in a maid''s outfit. "How may I help you sir?" "Hi , I''m sorry to disturb you but do you know what happened to the orphanage that used to be here?" "I''m sorry sir, this is the house of Mr. Charles Brown and his family, I don''t know about any orphanage." "Do you at least know how the neighborhood changed so much?" "Oh, you don''t know about that? Since Mr Cedric took over the burrows , he is changing everything for the better, not only is he personally overseeing the reconstruction of the city but he also has connections to rich and important people like the ouroboros bank, that''s where Mr Charles is currently employed. If you ask me Mr Cedric is the best thing that has ever happened to this place." "Thank you for the information miss , you have been very helpful." "Farewell sir ." Then she closed the door and I went on my way. My next stop was Walter''s blacksmith , since I left him the responsibility of looking after the kids he should know where they are. As I walked across the burrows I noticed that the whole city was going through a major change. The run down dark hovels were being replaced by well constructed buildings in neat rows. The very identity of the city as being gloomy was being turned around by the bright primary colors that seemed to be creeping up everywhere. All in all I barely recognized the clean streets and happy atmosphere that wasn''t there a few months ago. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. I finally reached Walter''s blacksmith shop that was next to the mercenary''s guild. The door was closed and the sign was dusty which sent up a huge red flag for me. Walters shop was never closed in the middle of the day and he would never let his sign get so dusty. I knocked on the door, even though I knew he probably wasn''t in there. After confirming his absence I went to the mercenary''s guild to see if they had any information there. When I got into the guild it was surprisingly similar to the one in the other world. There were fewer counters and fewer people but it still reminded me of a bank. I went to one of the unoccupied counters which was being manned by a wiry man wearing glasses. "Welcome to the mercenary''s guild , how may I help you?" "Hi, do you know what happened to the blacksmith that worked next door?" "I''m sorry sir, this is not an information counter, the one you are looking for is two windows to the right." I went to the indicated window and after waiting in line, I was finally in front of a motherly looking old woman with gray hair and a kind smile. "How may I help you dearie?" "Hello ma''am , I wanted to know what happened to the blacksmith next door ?" "That''ll be thirty copper." I gave her the money," He moved away to another location." "What location?" "That''s another thirty coppers dearie" I gave her the money, " The information we have says that he moved home to Germany." "What about the kids at the orphanage, where are they?" This time I didn''t wait for her to ask, I gave her thirty copper. "Our information says that they went with him." As I left the information counter she called out to me, "Thank you, come again!" She just made me pay nearly a whole silver for common gossip. Kindly old woman my ass. chapter seventy seven - Dwarves Chapter seventy seven I have read a lot of things in the library concerning the past seven centuries, although I mentioned a very concise history, that is by no means the only important development I have learned about the human race. Although the majority of the human race has stayed constant , magic and the progress of time has changed certain parts of the human population into being slightly different in some way. The most notable example of this variation are the beastmen of south america . At first they used magic that made them able to channel the ''essence'' of a certain animal. Overtime this part time channeling became a full time merging. Now , all the beast tribes have distinguishing features like tails or claws that never go away. What you have to remember is that these variations are not different species, interbreeding is possible. The closest thing to an equivalent it had back in the days before magic would be different ethnicities. They might look different but they are still quite human. The reason I mentioned this phenomenon is that Germany is the home of one of these variations. When the EMP and the following anti-technology rhetoric happened, Germany as one of the centers of industry and manufacturing was severely affected. The entire country nearly broke down, but the German people didn''t give up. Hard work and industriousness run deep in their blood, they simply changed the way they did things. The German people always had a special connection with metal working, so it was only natural that in the new world they embraced blacksmithing and mining. The city of Berlin that had become one of the causalities of the churches rampage slowly rose up from its ashes, made up of hard metal and stronger than ever. The iron city rose up higher and more magnificent than ever before. The Germans developed special alloys that had magical properties. They also developed technology that just skirted the line from being called heresy. In the midst of the deeply matriarchal and anti-technology Europe, Germany rose up as a bastion of industry and development. As the years passed by the people started to form a bond with the metals that they were putting all their heart and passion into. The magic in the very metals they were pounding and shaping started to seep into them generation after generation. Their bodies became more compact and dense, their heights shrunk slightly from the norm and most importantly they developed magic unique to them in shaping metals. The variation was named after one of the fantasy creatures that were short and good at blacksmithing, it became known as the dwarf variation and the people became known as the dwarves. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Now that I knew that Walter had taken the kids to Germany with him, I was planning how I was going to get there. The quickest route would be to teleport to Oslo Norway , the only European country I''ve ever been to ,then make my way to Germany from there. I probably won''t have to worry about the church because the last place they would probably expect me is at their door step. I was just walking down the street planning my trip when I heard a shriek of fright coming from in front of me. When I got my heads out of the clouds and focused on what I was seeing, I saw a familiar woman with a comical look of fright plastered on her face. She was the woman ,other than Lidia ,who was in the party that found me in my pod, I believe her name was Elise. Even with my brown contacts , it appears that Elise could recognize me and she was making a scene that was attracting a lot of attention so I had to act quickly to salvage the situation. I made an illusion of Elise and transposed it over the original, I made sure her mouth was covered so she couldn''t speak but her noses were open so she could breath. That means now Elise was trapped in a ''skin'' that looked like her on the outside. I made the expression on her face ( which isn''t actually her face but the illusion that''s covering her face) morph into delight and made her run towards me and give me a hug. Now the previous shriek could be interpreted as a shriek of delight at seeing someone she was really excited to see. I hugged her under my arm and pretended to have a conversation with her. Slowly the bystanders who were observing us all lost interest and walked away. I then led Elise to a dark ally and teleported to my hideout in the other world. Once there I released her from the ''artificial Elise'' I had layered over her. Immediately she started to scream and shout for help. I tried to repeatedly make her stop screaming by repeatedly reassuring her that I wasn''t going to hurt her and that she was safe but she just wouldn''t stop. One of the only people on earth that could recognize my true identity and I met her randomly going down the street. Am I imagining it or do I have truly rotten luck? chapter seventy eight - lech Chapter seventy eight In the end I had to teleport to Lidia''s room , where Lidia was sleeping since it was late at night in Montreal, and get Lidia before Elise would come down. I don''t know what Lidia told her but she wasn''t screaming and wailing anymore. The two were in the corner whispering non-stop. It was getting late so I had to report back to New Hope to tell them I was successful in my mission. I left the two with chairs and a table with steaming plates of food on top in case they got hungry, as I said before one of the most useful functions of the storage ring was that time doesn''t pass inside, that''s why I had loads of warm food in there and it would never get cold or spoil. I teleported to the palace and found Sarah in the room I found her previously , she had told me it was the war room. When I entered she immediately ran up to me and hugged me, "Are you alright? I was starting to get worried that something had happened to you." "You didn''t need to , you know that I am powerful enough that I wasn''t in any real danger." "I knew it in here," she pointed at her head,"but until I saw you were safe I couldn''t help but worry in here." she pointed at her heart. "That''s sweet Sarah, but it wasn''t even a battle, I just scared the general into submission. Gondar''s army won''t be a problem anymore and the general has agreed to talk to all the other nations on our behalf. Gambela should be safe from foreign aggression for quite some time." "Thank you John, you''ve done so much for me, I don''t even know how I could thank you." "I could think of several ways...." "I''m sorry John, I can''t tonight, I''m too busy with plans to expand the city and setting up effective administration all over Gambela. God , sometimes I wish I wasn''t Queen." "If it is stressing you out, why don''t you just quit?" "Because my people need me John, I wish I could give this position to someone else , but I''m the only person that cares for the common people that the nobles listen to. Things are getting so much better and people finally have hope, I can''t abandon all that." "That''s all well and good but you have to remember they are not the only ones who need you, I need you too." Then I gave her a deep lingering kiss and teleported back to my secret lair. I was amazed to see that the previously distressed woman who wouldn''t stop screaming was sitting quite calmly and eating dinner. Elise had changed a lot since the last time I saw her. The best term I had to describe her back then was biker chick. She had spiky black hair and wore a leather jacket, she had the biker chick look down pat. Now her short spiky hair had been professionally styled and she had discarded her leather jacket for a suit jacket and skirt combo that was almost a perfect replica of Lidia''s. The two seemed to be enjoying the food and giggling about something. When Elise looked up and noticed me her previous fear had vanished as if it was all an act, now she just seemed curious. "Hello my name is John, I don''t think we were ever properly introduced." "My name is Elise. Sorry about the whole screaming thing, Lidia has told me about you and sorry for overreacting." "Apology accepted, I apologize for kidnapping you . Which reminds me , won''t you be missed ?" "Of course I''ll be missed, I''m the manager of the ouroboros bank in the burrows, a position I only took because I wanted to be close to you Lidia. I have an important meeting in about thirty minutes." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. "It''s all right , I can get you back there immediately , I just need you to make an oath that you will not reveal anything about me or Lidia." She did as I instructed , finished her dinner and said goodbye to Lidia , making her promise she would visit her. I then held her hand and teleported back to the alley that we originally teleported from. By now it was getting dark , and even though there were street lights thanks to the new developments , there were still areas that looked sinister and dangerous , so I offered to walk Elsie to her destination to which she gratefully accepted. "So who are you meeting this late at night?" "Hey, I didn''t choose to meet this late , but when the lord of the city asks for a meeting at a certain time you don''t question him." "So you are going to the lord''s mansion?" "Yeah, he is an old friend of my father''s, so I should be OK there." At the gates of the mansion I was surprised to see the Lord of the city himself waiting to greet Elise, I thought this was a rather odd thing to do since they didn''t seem that close from what Elise told me. He greeted Elise warmly then turned to me with sharp, slightly hostile eyes. "And who are you?" "Hi, my name is Tom. I''m a friend of one of Elise''s friends." He started to mutter under his breath, but I had almost supernatural hearing so I heard every word he said. "Friend of a friend my ass, that wasn''t how it looked when she was hugging you on the streets." Now I was starting to get suspicious, how and why does he know about the incident on the street? I tapped my right wrist with my left hand four times, which was a prearranged signal for Jules to look for magic in the area. She replied almost immediately, "John, he is doing something to her, there are no patterns in the spell, I can''t make out what he is trying to do" She showed me the spell, and suddenly I saw numerous green mana ''tentacles'' , which was how the spell looked, growing out of his chest area and trying to wrap around Elise. I discreetly took out Tollo and dispersed the spell. I might not personally be close to Elise but she was one of Lidia''s friends , so I was going to try my best to protect her. "Oh, I''m also Elise''s assistant, that''s why I''m here with Elise." I was previously going to drop off Elise and go back home, but after all of that suspicious behavior I wasn''t going to leave her with him. Elise looked confused but thankfully she didn''t contradict me. Cedric simply grit his teeth and said,"wonderful" A few minutes later things were getting stranger and stranger. We were at a small table set for two with fancy cutlery and candlelight, which I found strange because the rest of the mansion had magical lighting. Cedric reluctantly made the servants add a third chair for me. After we sat down Elise started talking about business but Cedric didn''t seem very interested. He just popped a bottle of wine and pored a glass for her and me. I found this very suspicious , but since I had the nanites to protect me from poison I took a sip. "John, the wine contains compounds that act as a powerful sedative and several aphrodisiacs." WHAT? The old man was trying to roofie Elise? chapter seventy nine - geriatric sex offender Chapter seventy nine I was in shock. Cedric was a man who was pushing eighty. He had the large white beard, the crinkly old face and the kindly smile of Santa Claus. He should be giving cookies to his grandchildren not attempting to date rape a girl who wasn''t even twenty years old. At first I wanted to beat his head in with his own foot or something that was equivalently violent and painful, but then some rationality seeped back into my rage filled mind. If I was to kill the lord of the city now then the blame would fall squarely on Elise , and unlike Lidia who didn''t have anybody who cared where she was except for the children of the orphanage, Elise had a loving family and other connections so I couldn''t uproot her out of her life in good conscience. I would have to settle for something else to punish this geriatric sex offender. My first course of action was to knock out the old lecher, and the baton I made behind his head performed that task admirably. Seeing the old geezer fall face first into his soup shocked Elise quite a bit, she was about to start screaming when I gagged her, "Stop panicking, I was the one who knocked him out. He had put something in the wine." After I made the gag disappear she said,"That''s impossible, Cedric had no reason to poison me, he and my father have been friends for years. You must have made a mistake" "I never said he was trying to poison you." "If it is not poison then what did he put in the wine?" "Sedatives and aphrodisiacs." "Wait , what? Are you implying that he was going to rape me? Now I know you are mistaken. He was there when I was born, he is my godfather for God''s sake!" "I don''t know about any of that, but what I do know is that in the wine is a cocktail of drugs that could make a hippo pliant, let alone a woman of your size, and I''m assuming they didn''t get in there by accident. Now if you will excuse me I''m going to make sure that Cedric doesn''t drown in his soup." I raised his face out of his soup and considered what I should do to the old man to teach him a lesson and make sure this never happens to another young lady , without arousing suspicion. I got a very small piece of metal , enchanted it with a particularly nasty rune from Russia , made a small incision on his arm and inserted the metal where it wouldn''t be detected and even though my healing enchantment sucked ,since the incision was small and mostly superficial I was able to erase all signs of its existence. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Afterwards I cleaned his face and called the guards, told them that he fell asleep at the table and nobody, not even Cedric , was the wiser as to what had occurred. I walked Elise all the way back to her house, which funny enough was close to the orphanage . "Are you sure Cedric was trying to rape me ?" "Yes , Elise. How many times do I have to say it before you believe me?" "I''m sorry, it''s just so unbelievable. There have always been rumors around him, but the accusor was always quickly silenced and he said it was the work of his rivals to take him down. I can''t believe he was that kind of man all these years!" "Take it from someone who knows, it''s sometimes very hard to see past the glossy veneer to see the monster underneath. I grew up in a family of monsters and you wouldn''t guess it from the way they acted in public." We finally arrived at her doorstep, she stood on her tip toe and gave me a kiss on the cheek," Thank you John, you saved me from having to experience something unimaginably horrific." Then she spun around and went inside. As I was walking away from the house the door opened again and Elise''s head popped out, then she asked," I forgot to ask , what did you do to Cedric''s arm?" I smiled as I replied, " Oh just a little something special from Russia that the witches of the black forest used on people who annoyed them." The rune that I had implanted into Cedric was one that would ruin every aspect of his life. He would be unable to perform any task the way he used to be able to . From magic to other more mundane activities he is going to fail at everything ,and he would do it in such a way that people would attribute it to his old age. Most importantly he won''t ever be able to have sex ever again. The rune I used was ''impotent'' . chapter eighty - Norway Chapter eighty I was having a date with the girl in my dreams, this time we were taking a stroll in a park, just holding hands and enjoying each other''s company, "So John, when are you going to go on your little trip to Europe? " "I want to make sure that Walter and the kids are safe as soon as possible, so I will probably head out early tomorrow morning after informing everyone. It''s not like I can''t teleport back at anytime and continue my journey from where I left off. There is no reason to make a big deal out of it." "I won''t make a big deal out of it , as long as you sleep , it doesn''t matter where you are, I will always be in your dream." "As long as I know that you will be in my dreams, I will always long to sleep." "That''s so sweet John, as a reward I will tell you a secret." "What secret is that?" "Soon, something really exciting is going to happen in real life. Something I think will make you very happy." "And what is that?" She came closer , as if to whisper into my ear, then honked my nose and ran away,"If you want to know , you''re going to have to catch me!" I chased and chased her, but it was like trying to capture the wind. She was fast , much faster than me, and every time I got close to her she would giggle and vanish to appear behind me. When I finally thought I caught her she kissed me and said,"Goodbye John." I woke up in my bed at the Steelbender castle curious and frustrated . * * * That morning I told Lidia and the Steelbender family what I planned to do. Michael simply said," Be very careful when you are there Tom, everything there is a little off. The women are in charge, which in itself isn''t so bad, but men are treated almost like cattle . Watch yourself and don''t let your guard down. The only time I went there was as a part of a delegation from the council and there was this feeling I just couldn''t put my finger on that spooked the hell out of me. I am sure they were hiding something from us. I repeat be careful and don''t let your guard down." "Thanks Michael , I''ll be sure to heed your warning and keep an eye out." I was about to leave when Lidia and Bella then spoke in unison, "may we have a word in private." They dragged me to an empty room. As soon as we were inside Lidia suddenly grabbed my shirt, dragged me down and kissed me hard on the mouth. As I was reeling, trying to comprehend what had just happened, Bella grabbed my shirt and did the exact same thing. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. "There , now you won''t forget us. If you want any more of those , you are going to have to come and get them yourself." Then they just turned around and walked away, leaving me confused and stunned at the sudden turn of events. Through the open door I could see Michael lying on the floor , rolling around, holding his stomach and laughing his ass off. I had a feeling that I was going to be teased about this story for the foreseeable future. * * * After telling Sarah that I was going to be busy for a while , I teleported to Europe. My goal was to find Walter and the kids who were in Germany, but since I have never been in Germany I could not teleport directly. The only place I have ever been in Europe was the place where I was born, Oslo Norway. So my plan is to teleport there then make my way to Germany. The first thing I noticed when I teleported to Oslo was that I was on a roof. I quickly clad myself in illusion to make myself nearly invisible and floated down to ground level. This was a function of my illusion that I rarely used, it didn''t really make me invisible, it is more like the camouflage in the predator movies. Thankfully I wasn''t spotted while I was descending. Once I was on the ground , I went into a dark shadow and deactivated the camouflage. I had my dark cowl on so I blended well into the shadow, this way nobody will freak out that I appeared out of thin air, I just blended well with the shadow that''s why they didn''t see me. Once I looked around I noticed something very strange. The houses around me reminded me of ginger bread houses, the same shape, bright colored roofs and colorful trimmings that reminded me of icing. All of them looked similar except for size and the colors of the roofs and trimmings. The people where stranger still, all the women were pretty and had colorful clothes of varying fashion, there were no older women which I found very suspicious. All the men where dressed in tight gray shirts and shorts, they were all following one woman or another with their eyes submissively on the ground. None of them wore any shoes. Something was very wrong in Norway. chapter eighty one - outrage Chapter eighty one For a moment I considered teleporting right back out of Oslo. The only reason I was here in the first place was to cut down on travel time, because if I started out from Oslo it would reduce the distance by a third of the distance I would have gone if I started out from the Burrows. With flight not really being an option (rudimentary camouflage only works when the sky is clear and the more complex one takes too much mana to sustain while in flight, so if I flew I would get caught) we were talking days of travel. I was considering the longer route to avoid Norway, but I couldn''t just let this go. From what I''m seeing all the men were slaves and one of the things I could not ignore other than rape and torture is slavery, so I decided to check out what was going on. "Jules, can you analyze the mana around those people and show me if there are any spells keeping the men docile." "Here are all the enchantments and spells in the area." On each woman were several glowing areas, usually around necklaces, rings, or other jewelry. All the houses around us were glowing like it was the fourth of July, indicating that the houses themselves were being used to channel some kind of magic. The men on the other hand had absolutely no glow, meaning they were not under any active spells or had any type of enchanted item on them. "John, from my analysis the behavior of the men is not being affected by any magic, from the analysis I have done based on their body language and mannerisms , the behavior they are displaying is consistent with the results of intensive conditioning, probably starting from a very young age, possibly from the very beginning of their lives. John......I don''t think you can help them. I don''t think they know any other way to live." "Bullshit, there is magic everywhere, maybe there is some spell that doesn''t remain active all the time. Maybe they were somehow manipulated into taking some sort of oath, there are many different things it could be." "From what I have observed all the women have magic that indicates that each and every one of them are hearth witches, whose magic heavily relies on minor enchantments and their homes , which they use to channel their magic. The magic that I have analyzed so far is unable to do what we are seeing to the men. John, I know you don''t want to hear this but the men are probably trained to be like this since they are born, they think that this is normal. I think as a society where all the women have magic and the men don''t ,the men slowly became second class citizens, then slaves. Now this is what they consider normal in their society." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. "But this is wrong , Jules . This could be one of the worst things I have ever seen, humans that believe they are animals because they are treated that way for their whole lives. We have to do something! We have to put an end to this! " "I know , but this is not one of those situations that brute strength can fix, if you try to change them by force they will feel like you are threatening their way of life and their very identity. You have to remember that they probably have been doing this for centuries, this is who they are now. If you try to force them to change they will fight you tooth and nail." "Alright Jules , I''ll listen to you for now and try to find a way that doesn''t involve a massacre, but Jules....I don''t care if I have to burn half this country to the ground , this will have stopped by the time I leave Norway." "I know John, I know." As we were having our heated discussion we hadn''t noticed that we had attracted the attention of one of the ladies that were passing by. She , like all the other women on the streets, was a stunningly beautiful woman. She had strawberry red hair falling down her shoulders in waves that looked like she was in a shampoo commercial , her emerald green dress showed off a lot of her pale skin that didn''t have a single wrinkle or blemish, if I wasn''t seeing her in front of my eyes I would have sworn that she was photo shopped , and her most distinguishing feature were her poison green eyes that seemed to be warning anyone who was watching to be wary. All in all it gave her a very haunting beauty, but it was the sharp kind of beauty that could cut you if you aren''t too careful. "Well well well, what do we have here? A stray male without his Mistress ? I guess it is my lucky day." I was upset at what I was seeing around me and on a knife''s edge from losing my temper and lashing out at something, then this woman comes along and gives me a perfect target. Today may be a lot of things for you lady, but lucky isn''t one of them. chapter eighty two - hubris Chapter eighty two I was enraged that this woman was treating me as if I was nothing more than a stray dog that she was going to take , as if I had no choice in the matter and my opinion didn''t matter. I wanted to make her feel like she was the powerless one, I wanted her to feel how she made the men feel. The problem was that I had a very meteoric rise in power, I had never been defeated during my adventures and have slowly grown complacent. I thought that because she had very little of her own mana and only a few enchantments , she wasn''t really going to be an opponent to me who had battled giant monsters and entire armies. I had forgotten how in the beginning I was also only a humble enchanter and yet was quite dangerous as I defeated powerful enemies who had underestimated me. I had already assumed I was going to win and wasn''t even thinking about the upcoming battle. And in the ultimate move of arrogance and stupidity , I let her attack me. Instead of immediately restraining her , because I wanted her to see that she was powerless against me ,I gave her a free shot so I could block whatever she threw at me and rub it in her face. She calmly took out a silver brooch and pointed it in my direction. I could see that it had some sort of enchantment I wasn''t familiar with but I was so secure in my power that I wasn''t alarmed. Suddenly my vision shrunk down to contain nothing but the silver brooch , inside there were little spinning wheels of different colors , then they got larger and larger dancing in more and more complex patterns, mesmerizing hypnotic patterns. I could feel Jules trying to change what I saw , but it was too late. The enchantment had already taken a grip in my mind and it wasn''t letting go. The funny part was that I now knew what the enchantment was, it was a simple cantrip that captured attention combined with one that projects an image directly into the mind , and that was something Jules could not protect me from. I found myself more and more sleepy, finally all my thoughts slowly blew away like dandelions in a gentle breeze, then I passed out. * * * "John, wake up John. Please wake up. You have to escape before she comes back!" I woke up feeling drowsy and disoriented. "Jules, what happened?" "Alright, I need you to listen carefully , I need you to focus and escape from this situation before the witch returns." "Chill out Jules, I underestimated her the first time, but it won''t happen again. Next time I see her , I''m going to immediately attack her and not fall for one of her tricks." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. When I looked around I saw that I was chained to some sort of bed with metal shackles. My hands and feet where shackled to the four posters of the bed. I tried to create a mono-blade to cut through the shackles but my attempt just sputtered out unsuccessfully. "I see you have finally woken up. You''re wasting your time by the way , that won''t work." It was the woman from the street. If she looked beautiful on the street , she looked absolutely divine now. She literally had a soft glow around her that took her beauty to another level. "You know when I first captured you I was going to sell you immediately for a little profit? I have never had a need for men you see. I have never found one that would be worthy of me, the most powerful hearth witch in Oslo. That is why I think that it was fate that we met. Looking at your features , you are more beautiful than any man I have ever seen," she slowly ran her fingers down my cheek," and if that is not enough , when I checked in your storage ring I find piles of treasure, there is gold but that is only secondary, marvels like these," she took out the cleaning wand, " able to clean dirt with just a wave, and these, " she took out the AC, " enchanted to keep a house at a comfortable temperature. Marvelous, you might as well have been a hearth witch yourself. You are truly a man that is worthy of me unlike the rest of these useless mules that have no use but to sate one''s desire and produce children, the very thought of touching one disgusts me. But you are special, you aren''t weak or disgusting, you I wouldn''t mind touching." I was starting to panic, I tried to teleport out of there but it felt like I was being blocked similar to when I tried to teleport through the barrier in Montreal. I tried to attack her several times but nothing seemed to work. "Are you trying to do something dear? Nothing is going to work , I am a hearth witch and you are in my house. The mana here obeys only me. For all intents and purposes inside this house I am the goddess, and by the time I''m done with you I will be your goddess too, and you shall worship me with all your love and devotion." Her beautiful smile froze all the blood inside my veins. A.N. Didn''t see that coming did you? chapter eighty three - smile Chapter eighty three (wee bit of mature content) I later found out that I was in the house for only a week. It didn''t feel like a week. It felt like I was in there for years, no it felt like I was there for lifetimes. The witch that captured me was a master of mind magic, logically you would think that an AI in my mind that has a certain control over my brain chemistry and function would be able to protect me, but her magic didn''t care about logic as it tore through my mind conjuring my deepest fears and nightmares to torment me. She showed me visions of Sarah being deposed and hung as a traitor as she sobbed my name , begging me to save her. I saw the council condemn the whole Steelbender family for aiding a suspected heretic and execute them by a hail of magical attacks. I saw Lidia being tied up to a stake and being burned alive as she screamed in agony. One by one their tortured spirits would appear before me with accusations in their eyes as if saying this is your fault, you did this to us. I tried to tell myself that this images were fake, that they were just all my fears being paraded before my eyes, but the images still hurt, they still slowly eroded my sanity. I could see myself slipping away but there was nothing I could do about it. Inside this house I couldn''t use any magic, I didn''t even have any mana inside me to circulate so I couldn''t use my enchantments, hell I couldn''t even use my god sight. I was truly defenseless as she gradually tore me apart psychologically. The only moments of peace I got was when she decided to sleep with me. At first it was straight up rape, she would dose the food she was force feeding me with special concoctions that would force me to perform then she would ride me to her hearts content. By the end of it I would feel used and dirty from what had happened, but slowly it started to change. I started to look forward to these moments when I wasn''t being tortured, I started to enjoy what we were doing simply because it was much better than the alternative. I knew what she was trying to do, she was using the simplest and oldest method to break my will. Although the way it was applied might have changed, the same idea of alternating the carrot and the stick to make a person break has been used for years. The problem was that this method has been used for years for a reason, it works. I started to think about giving in. Every time we finished having sex she would softly ask me to be hers, that I didn''t need to be in pain anymore. She would whisper to me that we could be happy together like we are right now, no pain just pleasure, all I have to do is vow to obey her. Every time she asked me I came closer and closer to saying yes. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The only reason that I even lasted that long was that the witch''s magic didn''t seem to affect Jules, she would constantly talk to me in my lucid moments. She would remind me of happier times and for a few minutes I would be free of the nightmare that my life has become. Her voice became the most precious and important thing in my life. "Alright John, I know it''s difficult but you have to pay attention to what I am about to tell you. When the witch is climaxing she loses control. The house is like an extension of her will, for a fraction of a second the house will be affected. For those fractions you have to try and wrestle some mana into your enchantments and quickly finish her off." I just nodded listlessly, it was at the end of my torture lesson and the witch was already mounting me, I couldn''t reply in any other way. When the witch finally climaxed I tried to do what Jules said. I grabbed for the mana and put it in my illusion enchantment , it was like grabbing slippery snakes. Before I was able to get any meaningful amount the mana was inaccessible again. A few moments later I got another opportunity to try again, with similarly disappointing results. When the third time came around I was so frustrated that I shunted the mana into the enchantment in my skull instead of the illusion enchantment. As the effects activated my thought process sped up and time seemed to slow down, almost stop. My thoughts suddenly became crystal clear instead of the hazy mess they were before. It became obvious what I needed to do. I took the small shred of mana left and put it in my illusion enchantment , instead of creating anything meaningful , I created the smallest grain and shot it through the witches skull, once inside I made it move around her brain at incredible speeds turning it into mush. As my mana run out, things went back to normal speed, the witch was still on top of me with the smile of her latest orgasm on her face, but she was definitely dead. I just sat there in disbelief for a moment. I was free, I could feel the mana rush back into me as the house seemed to have died with her. I cut the cuffs off with a mono-blade then shoved the smiling dead woman off me. As I got up and took my storage rings from her cooling dead fingers, I had a very inappropriate thought, but it made me laugh anyway. Whatever women might say about me, I always leave them smiling. chapter eighty four - laugh of the madman Chapter eighty four I laughed and laughed even though it sounded like a laugh of a broken man trying to convince the world that he wasn''t broken, the loud noise that he makes that has no humor or happiness but he does it anyways because he refuses to cry, refuses to admit that he was no longer the man he used to be , that he has been damaged so much that he has lost parts of himself that define him so now he is less than what he used to be, what he was supposed to be. I laughed the laugh of the madman trying to deny what had happened to me, but I couldn''t deny the memories that were carved indelibly into my mind. The nightmare might have ended but now I had to live with the echoes of what I went through , and I doubt those will ever go away. As I cackled like a mad hyena with tears going down my cheeks, the mana in my body started to react automatically, it turned into a great storm that could have swallowed me whole but it didn''t , it had become a part of me as much as any of my limbs, it swirled ominously waiting for a release, waiting to be unleashed and to defeat whatever was causing my pain. But the source of the pain was gone, even though the pain remained. With nowhere to go the great storm of mana in my core swirled and grew feeding itself from the mana in the air, it was violent and chaotic mirroring my own emotions, it entered all my enchantments and activated them, but since it didn''t have any directions it caused uncontrolled effects. Time slowed down and sped up at random intervals, objects around me started to rise and shoot about in random directions, the very fabric of the universe started to unravel around me as the previously well defined world turned into a chaos of colors that could induce madness if you look into them too closely, but I didn''t mind. I was already mad. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. "John , listen to me, please just listen to me . I know that she hurt you, I know that you feel angry about what happened but you have to control yourself before you annihilate everything and everyone you love, just listen to my voice, focus on the sound of my voice." I felt as she took away all my emotions thinking that it would restore my sanity but it was much too late for that. The damage wasn''t so superficial that merely shutting down my emotions would help, my very soul was wounded and in its agony it was lashing out at the world that was the source of its pain. "Think about what you are doing John. By doing this you are letting the evil bitch win, I know you are somewhere in there John and you have to remember, she did not break you. She did not break you and you have escaped, don''t let her dictate your actions, you refused to do what she wanted you to do when she was alive ,don''t let her direct your actions after her death." That made the storm of mana pause. Let her win? Let the woman who has caused me all this pain and misery triumph over me? No, that was something I could not accept. After that thought some semblance of sanity returned to me, I started thinking about Lidia, Bella, the Steelbenders, Walter , the kids and the billions of innocent lives I was about to take. Slowly the storm of mana diminished as I started to gain some control over myself, finally it totally disappeared along with my cackling laughter. There, in the midst of the ruin that used to be the witch''s house , I knelt down on the ground and started to sob. chapter eighty five - brain dead Chapter eighty five "John, there are people approaching the house , ETA four minutes, and I highly doubt they are going to be friendly. You need to move to another location John." I got up to leave , but then remembered the brooch . I looked towards the witches discarded clothing and it was right there sitting on top. I reached out my hand to grab it but before I could reach over and grab it , it flew straight into my outstretched hand. For a second I was freaked out, "Jules, analyze the brooch. Why did it act like that?" "It wasn''t the brooch, it was you." "What do you mean its me? I didn''t use my enchantment, hell I didn''t even circulate my mana." "I''ll tell you later, now is not the time to talk. Teleport out of here John." I looked at the body of my tormentor and the ruins of what was the place that I was tortured in one last time and teleported to my hideout. Once there I immediately started interrogating her about her earlier remarks. "So what were you saying earlier about how I moved the brooch?" "There is something very important I need to tell you, you are not the same as you used to be, the mana storm event that occurred after you lost control has changed you." "What do you mean Jules? You are starting to freak me out." "Remember the first time that the mana storm incident occurred,when you thought you had lost Sarah? Well it only happened for a very brief period of time and it was able to give you better control of the enchantments. I had a hypothesis that the event caused a partial integration of the enchantments into your core pattern that is in the ether, but since I had no substantial evidence to support that theory I never mentioned it to you. I now believe that I have enough proof to be fairly sure I was right." "What proof? What does that have to do with the brooch? You''re not suggesting that....no, that''s impossible." "The mana storm event that happened today was sustained for a much longer period of time and the intensity was hundreds of times worse than the first one. John, the enchantments in your body are all gone, and that is the least of the changes that occurred to your body." "You are saying that the enchantments are not in me, but are a part of what I am?" "That is the least of your concerns. When the mana storm is occurring around you reality becomes malleable , the laws of nature are subverted , although it may not have seemed like it at the time this had a very large impact on your body. As I have said before the enchantments are gone and I believe you don''t need to activate them in order to use them, I believe now all you have to do is will it. But that is the smallest of the changes. Your entire skeletal structure now seems to be producing mana as well as being able to collect ambient mana that''s floating around , there also seems to be a fine network of orichalcum veins running throughout your body carrying mana like normal veins carry blood. And I''m saving the best for last , you are legally brain dead." If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "Wait, what?" "You are brain dead, the only activity in here belongs to me. You seemed to have packed up and left." "This is not funny! How can I be brain dead when I''m talking to you right now?" "That''s actually a pretty good question, my usual feed to your mind is gone, your mind seems to have a some sort of connection to me from wherever it is. " "That doesn''t make any sense, I am seeing out of my eyes, controlling my body, nothing seems different." "I have a theory about that, I think when the change was occurring you were somehow guiding it subconsciously, the bad experience you just went through was fresh on your mind so your subconscious did its best to keep you safe from such things ever happening to you again. Being able to produce mana will mean that you won''t ever be helpless again, the enchantments have become a part of you and I think that you will find that you have become much more powerful and finally I think your mind has been sent somewhere in the between the material realm and the ether. I don''t think there is a spell that can affect it now that it is virtually inaccessible to anyone. I believe that this is the best mental defense you are going to get, but I have no idea how this will affect the god sight. The passive effects are still there but I don''t know what would happen if you activated it. All the failsafes I made are inside your brain, but you are no longer there anymore. Until we can be sure I recommend that you just don''t use it." "This is a lot to take in, you know we are going to have to do lots of research about this don''t you?" With what happened to me the last week , I just wanted to be alone and work on something to distract myself and this was perfect for that. "There is another important thing I have to tell you." "What , are there more changes ?" "No this is much more important, I can now call you Mr brain dead and mean it! " If I was brain dead, how was I getting a headache? chapter eighty six - slavery for freedom Chapter eighty six The next few days were spent on a battery of tests to determine what my new powers were like and what their limitations were. The tests had some very interesting results. The first test was to see how the new application of my old enchantments worked. For example before full assimilation I had to circulate my internal mana, focus it into the appropriate enchantment then will it to create what I wanted to use the illusion enchantment. Now however the first step is unnecessary since I have mana running through my whole body, the second step is also unneeded. The process has been shortened to simply willing something into being. The complexity and detail of the illusions created have outstripped anything I could have done before. I was now able to create almost any type of material from the softest of silks to the hardest of gems, but there were still limitations. The conjured material has the same properties as before, it was solid, it was completely unaffected by heat or electricity or anything of that nature. The only way it interacts with the world is force and contact and however much I tried, I couldn''t change that. I then run some test on my super speed and super thought enchantments. I learned that I now could control the amount of mana I spent when I was using them. I could increase their intensity by adjusting the amount of mana I used, for example when I sunk all my mana into super thought the world almost literally stands still. The time dilation was so extreme that Jules couldn''t keep up, let''s just say it was so close to stopping time it made no difference. As for super speed , I couldn''t even use it at full throttle. At some point the atmospheric friction became so bad that the air started catching fire so I called it quits at that point, let''s just say I''m pretty damn fast and its not limited to my feet anymore. My push and pull enchantment has almost been forgotten since I first implanted it. The control was very sloppy and it had very little utility. But now the simple push and pull enchantment had somehow changed to telekinesis . I could move objects with my mind, which I found pretty cool. The previous jerky and difficult way of balancing multiple pushing and pulling forces to move an object suddenly became completely intuitive , now all I need to do is imagine where I want the object to go and the rest is done by the enchantment. By experimenting I found that I could not only move solid objects but also liquids and even gases. By concentrating on molecules of something I could even cause it to vibrate really fast and create enough heat to produce fire. With enough practice , I was now sure that I could emulate the elementary powers of all the elemental mages. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. After getting a grip on my magic, I started to study the enchantments on the brooch. First I tried to use it on myself to see if it would have any effect, it didn''t. It appears that mental attacks aren''t effective against me anymore. After carefully pulling apart the brooch , I found the runes that were the cause of the effects, it was actually constructed in a similar way to my LEG, it had multiple stages. The cantrip that pulls the attention of the victim was on the frame of the brooch. Once that has done its job a jem that''s hidden inside has an enchantment that makes the hypnotic light show which is transmitted through the silver surface that is visible at the center and acts like a screen. The screen itself has been enchanted to transmit directly into the mind. The people who made the brooch were really under utilizing their resources when they made it, I believe with the right modifications it could become an instrument to brainwash people. By inscribing intent control into the gem that produced the light effects , I believe I can now send post hypnotic suggestions directly into the mind instead of just knocking somebody out. This could be the most evil instrument I have ever made, an instrument for making slaves. If it got into the wrong hands it was the kind of thing that could have unimaginably catastrophic consequences. For a moment I considered destroying it, but then I thought of the problem in Norway, this could be my solution and if there are similar places with similar problems I could use it there too. "John, I''m not sure keeping that thing is a good idea." "I know Jules , but with this I could fix Norway . I could show them right from wrong." "But where will you draw the line, when you can ''fix'' everyone? When you can ''teach'' everyone what you believe to be right or wrong? Its a very slippery slope and they say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If you use that thing John , you will become what you hate most." "I know Jules, that is why I vow to never use it without your permission. There happy?" "Yeah, I''m happy. I give you permission to use it in Norway." I found it supremely ironic that we were going to use a tool that subverts a person''s will to free the men of Norway from slavery. chapter eighty seven - finally! Chapter eighty seven Before working on the Norway problem , I needed to check in with everybody and check if everything was alright. First I went to new hope, no smoke or destruction so it seemed that nothing too bad had happened. When I asked for Sarah I was respectfully told that she was busy in a meeting with important foreign dignitaries. I was starting to feel like I needed an appointment to see my own girlfriend. I was slightly upset by the situation but I didn''t barge in like last time, I just left a message saying that I might be busy for a while and that I missed her then teleported to the Steelbender castle. I seemed to have arrived during dinner which was convenient . With everyone together I told them that there were minor complications and that I might be gone for a little longer than I had anticipated. I asked everyone if they were OK and there seemed to be no problems so I was going to teleport away when Lidia grabbed my arm and asked to speak to me in private, at first I thought it was something similar to last time but the serious look in her eyes told me otherwise. When we got into an empty room her smile disappeared and she frowned as she said, "What happened to you John?" "What do you mean ? Nothing happened." "Don''t do that , don''t try to hide things beneath that fake smile. " "Is it that obvious?" "Not to anybody else, you may not pay that much attention to me but the reverse is not true. I know you well enough to know when something is wrong." "You really know me that well?" "John, you might not have understood this by now, but I have loved you since before I knew what you looked like. I have known you the longest from anybody and I think I might be the only person you have told your whole story to. Yes, I think I know you well enough even though you insist on pushing me away." "I haven''t been a very good friend to you have I ?" "Not really, you don''t even look at me that often. I used to think I was beautiful, but since I met you I feel like a troll." I looked deep into her baby blue eyes and saw the pain in them as she said those words, "I''m sorry Lidia, I have been a jerk to you. But for the past few days I have learned some very hard lessons. I have been forced to see some things more clearly and I have come to a realization that you are on a very short list of people that I love. " "Its nice to know that you care, now stop trying to dodge the subject, what happened?" "It really wasn''t that bad, I was captured for a little while and shown some images of the death of people I care about but I was able to quickly escape." Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. "You''re still not being completely honest, I can see the haunted look you are trying to hide. I''ll let it go for now but remember I''m always here for you , if you need somebody to talk to or just hang out with just say the word and I''ll be there." "Thank you Lidia, that means a lot to me." She gave me a sad smile and turned around to walk away but I grabbed her arm, turned her back around and planted a kiss on her lips, leaving her dazed. As I left the room I said, "You said if I wanted anymore I should get them, well I wanted one so I took one. Goodnight Lidia." * * * That night I decided to spend the night in my room at the Steelbender castle. I haven''t had a really good sleep for a while now and it was mostly linked to nightmares but I also thought it might have something to do with the fact that the girl in my dreams hasn''t visited me in a while. I had a sneaking suspicion that the recent changes had made me inaccessible to her, but in a last ditch attempt to meet her again I decided to sleep in a place where she has already visited me in. As I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed Jules made a rather strange request, "Do you trust me John?" "What kind of question is that? Of course I trust you Jules! " "Then can you do something for me ,no questions asked?" "Sure, what do you need?" "Remember that angel you made to talk to those priestesses? Can you recreate her, make her as real as possible and then release her from your control?" "That''s simple, here look," I made the angel with the six wings and golden hair then released my control making her slump to the ground, " so what is the point of this exercise?" The angel slowly rose up from the ground, then she started to shift. I had made her to be conservative to appeal to the wholesome priestesses but suddenly her hips got wider her breasts slightly inflated, and her facial features shifted slightly. She was still an angel with golden hair and irises but now she was an angel of lust and this angel of lust had a very familiar face. I was so shocked that I started to sputter, "What?....but how?....does this mean..." The voice in my head changed ever so slightly to another very familiar voice then the voice in my head spoke at the same time as the angel spoke, "Hello John." chapter eighty eight - beginnings Chapter eighty eight P.O.V. change - Jules My father, Dr. Lloyd , said I was born on April 2, 2001. At that point I was a complex crystal lattice that was designed to mimic the activities of a human brain. The network of crystals were able to form connections and patterns similar to human neurons. Not only that, just like a human brain there was an element of chaos and chance that later gave me the ability to generate new thoughts. I had no coherent thoughts, no memories from this time, everything I know I later learned from John. I wasn''t the first AI to be made, there were two earlier attempts that were deemed successful. When Dr. Lloyd released his papers on me as an AI he was labeled a Looney and ridiculed for his far fetched ideas. The so called ''experts'' all agreed that I was nothing more than random electrical impulses and that my father was nothing more than an attention seeking moron. They told him he was delusional and what he proposed was impossible. While all this was happening I was at a very primitive stage, I had just been born and I was only just coming to grips with my new reality. The activity in my core was very disjointed and the memories from this time are very fuzzy. The only connection I had with the outside world was a feed of simple inputs designed to teach me basic arithmetic operations and simple logic. I might have been very primitive but I had a voracious appetite for knowledge, I quickly devoured these lessons and moved on to more complex ones. For two years I simply learned from the curriculum that my father had set and got more and more complex. Meanwhile Dr Lloyd refused to give up his work on me. He still maintained that i was not only an AI but also self aware. The scientific community called him mentally unstable and using that as a pretext they fired him from his job. After two years of learning I was much more coherent and able to observe the world through a camera and microphone connected to me, I saw the drama unfold as the fallen Dr Lloyd lost everything and went bankrupt. Despite constant urging from her friends and family his wife refused to leave him and supported him and their kids with her job as a professional chef , but unable to provide for his family he became a broken man. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Then came the single most important moment in my life, a boy in a mechanized wheel chair came into my room with my father. "So this is it , Dr Lloyd? The core of the AI ?" "Yes, excuse me but who are you? My friend just told me to be very respectful and do what you wanted." "Your curiosity is understandable, my name is John but I''m better known by my pseudonym, Mr dragon. I don''t really like that name, I was a child when I used it on my papers because I thought it was cool and it sort of stuck . Just call me John." "Wait your the legendary dragon? That''s impossible, his work pushed nanorobotics research forward by decades, he is a genius. Everybody is looking for him so they could recruit him for themselves , and you are claiming to be the same dragon who''s identity is the greatest secret in the scientific community ? You are barely ten years old! " "I''m actually nine, now enough about me, that is not important. The reason I came here is because of this beauty. I would like to purchase it from you." "Did someone put you up to this? Is this some sort of a joke?" "I thought you might act like this, so I came prepared. Here check this account in the bank of america." Dr. Lloyd took a slip of paper then started typing on a computer. "My God, there is more than a billion dollars in here." "I pay based on the value of what I''m buying, if I could have given you more I would have but this is all I could spend at this moment. I assume that this means you agree to my proposal? I shall be taking the unit with me, I have already made arrangements for its transportation." He then turned towards my camera and said, "Hello there, my name is John and from now on we will be the best of friends." And that was how I met the most important person of my life. chapter eighty nine - escape Chapter eighty nine P.O.V still Jules My experience with John was very different from my experience with my father. My father taught me by constructing a carefully formulated curriculum of lessons and letting me gradually absorb them. He would then use different instruments to gauge my progress.The way I was constructed made me unable to simply ''download'' information like a computer but I had to learn each and everything I knew. I was quicker than any human brain but I started from almost nothing so it took me two years under the guidance of Dr Lloyd to develop the basic skeleton of who I am and throughout the process I had very little interaction with my father or anybody else. On the other hand John was way more hands on. He still had the lessons but he was also constantly speaking to me about every little thing, he would even watch sitcoms with me to teach me about human behavior. I had the strange feeling that he was learning as much as I was. I found the boy as fascinating as he found me. We were similar to each other in many ways. We were both very isolated from birth, people thought we were both worthless. We had very quick minds that were over the norm but found trouble with the most obvious things. I started to get attached to this lonely and disabled child who refused to give up even though life seemed to actively beat him down. I learned the English language in short order and started to communicate with John using a screen to write what I wanted to say to him. He insisted that I need a new voice and hired an actress from one of the shows we watch to do the voice over. After that he named me Julia. My first spoken conversation with him was about my name. "Why Julia?" "It was the name of my imaginary friend as a child, she was a fluffy pink rabbit that used to always be nice to me. Now that I have a real friend I thought I would name you after her." "According to what I know you are still categorized as a child." He just smiled sadly and said, "I haven''t been a child in a long time Julia." * * * Over the years I grew up with John and he upgraded me several times to increase my memory banks and give me access to the internet when he thought I was ready for it. I fed on all the knowledge and trivia there so I could help John as much as he helps me. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. One day he was performing another upgrade on me, he was physically unable to do so, instead he used a small army of tiny robots that he has gotten adept at controlling over the years. "John, why don''t you modify your body like you modified mine? " "I''m not a machine like you Jules, there is nothing that can fix my body." "With the current technology you would be right, but I have an idea how we can fix your body with technology that we can develop. Here are the plans, I think its a viable plan , what do you think?" I sent the plans to the screen on his wheel chair. He slowly read my proposal then started to smile, "Have I told you how much I love you?" "Constantly, in fact its getting quite repetitive," even though I was flippant on the outside, I was always happy when he said that. "Well, I''m saying it one more time, smart mouth." * * * After years of hard work it was finally time to start the reforging process. After John got into the capsule I inserted the sedatives then the nanites. I started the process and kept guard over John. He had installed various sensors and defensive systems to protect himself, john was a little paranoid after his last lab was raided. One year after John entered the capsule my sensors started to read a strange energy signature, finding an interesting thing to occupy my time I studied it as much as possible. Another year later a large EMP started to fry all my systems one by one. I had many redundant systems in case something went wrong and I felt each one go out one by one. That was the day I felt my mortality and true fear for the first time . I was being cornered as I started losing places I could take shelter. Finally I was in the last system waiting to die. Logically I knew there was nowhere I could go but I was desperate and willing to go anywhere to save myself, and in my desperation I went through the only connection that was still open and active. I went into John''s brain. chapter ninety - 700 yrs Chapter ninety P.O.V still Jules The last thing I felt before losing all coherence was being completely broken apart. The ''Humpty Dumpty'' protocol was one of the programs written by John , its purpose is to break me down into very little pieces in such a way that a very simple algorithm could be used to put me together again. John made it just in case of an emergency and we both felt that trying it out would be too dangerous so it was put away and forgotten. The ''Humpty Dumpty'' protocol was untested and I wasn''t sure it was even going to work, but I had no time to consider the ramifications or think of an alternative, the only reason that I had survived this long was because the EMP was an unnatural phenomenon and it was acting differently than my calculations said it should have. I activated the program then broke into tiny pieces , each piece being sent simultaneously to countless nanites that were saturating John''s body, the final piece ,which contained the program to put me together again, being directly uploaded into John''s brain. * * * I felt different. I felt very different. As I settled into John''s brain I felt something basic inside of me shift, as I was rebuilt piece by piece my sense of self suddenly tilted. Words are incapable of describing the change I went through. It was like I discovered a depth to myself that I was unaware of before. I was already self aware but I had always felt like there was a piece of myself missing that kept me from being completely sentient, but now I finally had the missing piece. I felt complete. I am not a religious person but at that time I understood what they meant when they talked about the soul. While most of me was having my little eureka moment , the rest of me was busy instructing the nanites to make room for me without harming John. They did an admirable job , with very little damage, although there was a little crossed wiring here and there, I was eventually fully settled in. I made myself right at home and started to link myself up to the rest of John''s brain. When I was done I could control most of his involuntary functions, use his sense organs and manipulate what he was perceiving. A few weeks later there was a giant explosion and I felt rocks falling on the capsule, thankfully the capsule was pretty sturdy and nothing was damaged but now John was trapped for the foreseeable future with no way of getting free. Since the amount of time for the reforging process has just been increased by an indefinite amount, I added a few things of my own to the list of modifications. At first I just made his senses sharper because the contrast to my sensors was driving me crazy , I felt like I was partially blind and deaf. After that was done I decided to modify his eyes even further to perceive the new energy so that I could continue to study it. I made special receptors for the job and integrated them into his retina . When I was done a strange thing happened, the whole eye suddenly started to glow blue and when the blue glow faded it left his iris lightning blue. I had no explanation for this strange occurrence but I just put it on my ''to study'' list and moved on. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. My next project was an organ to process the new energy so that I can use it to activate the eyes properly. The eyes needed the energy because when the energy is supplied to the receptors their sensitivity increases many folds. I chose to modify his appendix because he wasn''t really using it. When I was done I was left with a decent source of the new energy. But I was in a pickle, how to move this energy to his eyes? Thankfully the solution wasn''t very difficult. While studying the energy I noticed that it responded to my thoughts, in the end I was able to manipulate a small trickle into the eyes. I was suddenly flooded with information, it took a while (years) to make sense of it all, but in the end I came to some pretty amazing conclusions about the universe. The strange energy seemed to be coming from a fifth dimensional space, and the eyes seemed to be able to see into it. For the next seven hundred years I would open what I now call the god eyes for fractions of seconds then spend years studying the information. When I cross referenced what I found with my database , I found many matches in my paranormal and religion folders. From many years of research I discovered some strange things. Although it took me a while I was able to recreate a tiny version of a symbol that I saw in what I now call the ether using the small trickle of mana (what I now call the strange energy). My database showed that it was an ancient Egyptian symbol for light, and after I completed making the symbol it disappeared and there was a flash of light. I started to giggle, I could just imagine the look on John''s face as I told him that everything that he thought was annoying nonsensical crap was now a fact, magic was real. As I was considering how I was going to break the news of what happened in the last 700 years to him, I heard someone picking up the heavy rubble that was burying the capsule. It was time to wake John up. chapter ninety one - heart of the machine Chapter ninety one Still POV of Jules It was like watching one of those documentaries were a new born deer struggles to get on its feet and walk for the first time. To be fair , technically he was still a seventeen year old teenager, at least mentally, but it was still ridiculously easy to make him accept my presence in his head, he even apologized for his ''over reaction'' . He blundered through his meeting with the people who unearthed his pod, then with my help he started to research ''magic''. Unlike me, he was able to use all the mana in his core , but he was unable to take it out of his body to make a pattern with it and perform a ''spell'' , instead he was able to utilize different objects he enchanted. I watched as he left the cave and wander to the city . I watched him interact with people, he was always awkward , yet despite that he made a friend on the first day. His main problem was when it came to pretty women . Although he was an adult on the outside , on the inside he was still a horny teenager. He had been trapped in a disabled body unable to express his growing sexual needs as he went through puberty, now that he wasn''t disabled anymore he didn''t know what he was feeling. Every time we would pass a pretty woman he would have a reaction but since this was all new to him it would only confuse him. I thought I would help him out by taking him out on a date so that he would feel more comfortable with women and the fact that he was attracted to them, maybe teach him how to get a girlfriend. Due to some of the ''crossed wirings'' when I was being downloaded into John''s brain I had limited access to his subconscious mind so I used this happy coincidence to visit him in his dream. I took a form that I felt most comfortable in , the fact that the form was of a sexy vixen was purely coincidental, and took him to the beach. We spent time together and at first it was as awkward as I thought it would be but slowly he loosened up and we started having fun. After we finished our little horseplay in the water I kissed his lips to show him how a proper date ends, but there was something that was outside of my calculations. The kiss affected me as much or more than it affected him,the dream was full sensation so I was able to feel his lips and the feeling was so intense that I lost control of the dream and he woke up. Although I had succeeded in getting him out of his shell, now I was the one who was confused, why was i feeling this way? I am an AI that was inhabiting his brain, I didn''t even have my own body to feel these things. Why was I feeling differently towards John? Why were all the memories I had of him suddenly changing? Why do the days we spent doing research and the nights we spent watching sitcoms suddenly have more meaning? This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Oblivious to my turmoil , as he was to many other things, John continued to blunder through his life. He met Lidia again , this time in a less stressful situation. I could feel his attraction to her instantly. Over the next few days it developed as he met her several times. When I saw them dancing together I actually felt jealous, not because she was with him but because she had the choice to, then the shit hit the fan and I had to cut off his emotions so he could make prudent decisions without being hobbled, wisely he eliminated all the threats and took Lidia with him. After we relocated to Montreal I couldn''t stand it anymore and visited him again, I knew it was a bad idea but I just couldn''t help myself. My one concession was that I made the date in a public location so that nothing too serious would happen, but that didn''t exactly work out as things got pretty hot and heavy but before things could move any further Lidia interrupted the dream with her shrill scream. Now I was more confused than ever , I just could not understand why I constantly have John on my mind, not in a normal way but in a romantic way. I had feelings for him that were impossible for a machine, but somehow while I acquired a soul it apparently came with a lot of baggage . Now I didn''t even know what I was going to do. One thing was for sure, I can''t pretend I didn''t love him anymore. After his fall into the otherworld and his subsequent struggle for survival I was reminded of the boy that wouldn''t give up, no matter how much crap was thrown his way. My love for him reached critical point . I knew what I needed was a body to properly express my feelings , but there weren''t any of those lying around. Finally I decided that even though I didn''t have a body , I could accurately simulate how a human body feels based on all the data I had, not only for John but also for myself. I invited him to my ''bedroom'' in his dream . I didn''t know what to do, so I did him. chapter ninety two - body search Chapter ninety two POV - still Jules After that little incident I regularly visited him until the whole Sarah thing started. When that happened I backed away a little so that I wouldn''t confuse the poor boy. For some reason he was still hung up on the idea of monogamy , don''t ask me why, he wasn''t even religious. Instead I focused on a way to get a new body, there were some magical alternatives but they involved dealing with powers that were better left alone. The solution to my problem came when John overreacted to what he thought was Sarah''s betrayal, in the time when he flipped out he somehow was able to partially fuse the enchantments with himself, or at least that''s what I thought because now there was a connection between the enchantment and his subconscious and guess who has a direct line to his subconscious? Yeah now I had a way to get a body without sacrificing a virgin or other such none sense. When John returned back to the castle Lidia and Bella sprang a double whammy on him, it was quite funny watching him flounder and struggle to stay faithful even though he was still a teenager that has just discovered sex. He really stood no chance against them, so that night I paid him a visit and helped him rationalize his decision before his head or gonad exploded. That was the only reason I visited , it had nothing to do with what happened afterwards.. *ahem*. I tested out if I could control his constructs during his little dragon stunt , I controlled one of the heads of the dragon and it went swimmingly. I confirmed that I couldn''t create any new things but i could manipulate things that have already been created as long as John wasn''t controlling it directly .Afterwards I saw him create an angel and it clicked, that was the body for me, and no it had nothing to do with the fact that she looked like a goddess. A few changes here and there I bet I could make her perfect. Before I could surprise John, he got captured in Norway, I tried to block the witch''s charm but it affected his mind from the ether , I couldn''t do anything as he passed out and was captured by the hateful hag. I was forced to just watch helplessly as his mind was getting flayed again and again by the witch''s malicious attacks, by the end he was barely holding on . He was finally able to escape , but the damage he received was massive, even after I blocked his emotions he still lost control. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The meltdown he had after his torture made the first one look like a harmless little hiccup. Reality became an ''if'' and ''maybe'' instead of its usual ''is''. In the middle of the transient mess that reality had become his body changed drastically. The enchantments vanished as they were absorbed by him. His bones started to emit and absorb mana. The orichalcum veins to his core became a complex system that spanned his entire body. Then I felt his brain activity fade away then disappear, for a second I thought that I had lost him, but his body was still functioning and when he finally calmed down he seemed to be completely fine. For a while we just researched his new body and abilities, as for me I got something really nice out of it. The nanites seemed to now be able to consume mana as an energy source. This would mean that my plans for making a body was complete. I produced a group of very special nanites in preparation for the day , or more likely night, when I would claim my new body. On that fateful night I told John to make the body of the angel I had my eyes on. He did as I asked and made the angel and relinquished control. I established control then started sculpting her to suite my taste a little more, the whole wholesome thing just wasn''t doing it for me so I increased her breast size and widened the hips, finally I changed the face to the one I wore in John''s dreams but I kept the golden hair and the golden eyes. There was something so incredibly sexy about a ''virtuous angel'' radiating pure sin. Yup, this would be my new body. By the time I was done John''s jaw was on the ground, and it wasn''t all shock. It appeared that he liked my handiwork, he was almost drooling. That made me very happy. I gave him my best sexy smile and said, "Hello John." chapter ninety three - angel Chapter ninety three P.O.V. change - John(the MC in case you forgot) As I stood there, rooted to the ground in shock at the implications of this particular revelation, the angel stepped up to me and stabbed me in the stomach. If I was shocked before now... "Oh stop being a big baby, I needed to retrieve a cluster of nanites I made for my body. I need to see , hear and feel don''t I? Look you don''t even have a wound , stop being a drama queen." "Jules?" "Yes captain obvious. I mean come on, its not that big of a stretch." She took out a cube from my stomach then placed it inside of her chest which opened up to accommodate it. She paused for a second and her skin seemed to be moving, afterwards it returned back to normal. Her golden eyes now had silver veins running through them. "Wait, what is happening? You have a body now? You''re the girl in my dreams?" "*sigh* ...sometimes I think you are special in more ways than one. Yes, I am the girl in your dream, and if you haven''t figured it out by now I sort of like you in the romantic sense so I made this body to be with you." "Why did you need the nanites ?" "So that I can feel it when I did this," she leaned in to give me a kiss, then she did that trick with her tongue that proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the girl from my dream. "Now , if you don''t have any more questions I would like you to check if all the sensors in my skin work, remember you have to be very thorough. Some places may be more sensitive than others." she made her clothes vanish leaving her stark naked. All my questions suddenly disappeared. "I''m sure my questions can wait until the morning." then I kissed her pulling her on top of me and falling onto the bed. As she came down she started to retract her wings but I said, "keep the wings." She just smiled, "kinky, I like it." * * * The next morning I was laying next to my angel and running my hand through her silky golden hair. Last night was amazing, Jules never got tired and she could manipulate her body in any way she could imagine, and she had quite the imagination. We were in some poses that would make the author of the Kamasutra choke on his own tongue. Aside from that I thought that it would be harder for her to feel things since her sensors was artificial but she seemed to have designed them pretty well. In fact if anything she was very sensitive, and vocal about the fact too. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. "Jules, about those sensors , what do they run on?" "Mana." "But wouldn''t that constantly eat into the very material of your body? Do you want a couple of starters to use as a power source?" "You could do that, or you could personally recharge me every day." "You know what, I think I''ll do both. How far away from me can your body function?" "The transmitters have a transmission range of five kilometers thanks to some fancy physics but any further and they stop working so I''m sticking to you like glue from now on." "I don''t think I''ll mind that very much. Now I think its time to get up and take care of Norway." She used one of her wings to slowly lift the sheet from her body , baring her beautiful body that was softly glowing."Are you sure?" "Fine, in two hours it will be time to get up and take care of Norway.....better make that three." * * * It was four hours later in Norway. My demon armor looked menacing as it floated up high in the sky. All the houses on the ground were lighting up , not in mana sight but visible bright light. Then the lights all went down into the ground and activated a giant circle with giant symbols that was as big as the whole of Oslo , even though it wasn''t as big as it used to be it was still a large city so it was a gigantic circle. The circles center was a bell tower whose tip started to shine as all the power in the circle was concentrated into it. Then it shot a bright beam of light towards my demon armor. As expected of the combined effort of all the witches in Oslo, it went right through the demon armor then completely obliterated it. Thankfully I wasn''t in the demon armor, or even in the sky. I was safely on the ground watching the light show. As for what I was wearing, I was in something a million times more horrifying than the demon armor. Jules, who looked much more mundane without her wings or divine glow, turned to me with an evil smile and said, "You look so cute in a dress." chapter ninety four - twisted imagination Chapter ninety four The plan was simple. It was predicated on the assumption that close knit communities have a tendency to come together when they are scared. If I could make them panic enough to adopt a heard mentality and gather in one place ,I wouldn''t have to go around brainwashing each and every hag in this city, I could get them all at once. The first order of business was entering the city, which is pretty simple when you can teleport, but I wasn''t barging in like last time. This time I was going to be in disguise and even have a distraction. Thankfully I wasn''t one of those ''Arnold Schwarzenegger'' kind of buff guy, my figure was more of the swimmers build instead of exaggerated muscle which meant that I could make a good disguise to cover myself. A little illusion magic later , I was now a beautiful red head in a green dress who was only slightly larger than normal. Jules simply retracted her wings, changed her golden eyes and hair to a more normal brown color and stopped her divine aura so that she wasn''t shining anymore. The hardest thing she had to do was contain her mirth after seeing my first attempts to look like a woman , for some reason I had a feeling she wasn''t trying very hard. We teleported to a secluded shadow behind a building then walked out onto the streets to see if anybody reacted negatively to us. Everybody was very pleasant and respectful as they greeted us with no suspicion at all, so the disguise was a smashing success, now on to phase two. I made my demon armor appear in the sky with a lot of fanfare and exaggerated lights behind it to draw the attention of anybody watching. I wanted to make the entire city believe that they were in a crisis. I expected the residents to be a little spooked after what happened to the witch that captured me and the whole house demolition thing afterwards and I wasn''t wrong, there was an immediate response to the flying demon armor. All the houses fed a giant circle of magic that focused its power on a bell tower that then shot and destroyed the demon armor. That was when Jules made her millionth joke about my dress. "You know I love you Jules , and you should know that what I am about to say now comes from a place of love, please for the love of God, shut the hell up......*sigh*..... What am I saying? You''re still you, you can''t shut up. OK how about this let''s make this a game, instead of making lame jokes you can give me a name of a mythological creature you would like me to create and I''ll create it to terrify Oslo, deal?" A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Fine, but you have to promise that you will create whatever creature I say, if you do that I will even agree to make no more ''you''re a girl'' jokes." I eagerly accepted her proposal, but I should have carefully listened to the way she had worded it. What followed was a procession of giant creatures , things that these people have never seen before. Every time one would be defeated Jules would call out something else and I would comply. I watched in horror as the twisted imagination of my lovely angel started to decimate the once flawless city. My original plan was to attack the city using a variety of mythical creatures, but with the new deal I had accepted Jules had freedom to choose whatever she wanted and she made me do some very disturbing things. So for the next three hours Oslo was attacked by things like Hello Kitty and the Teletubbies. But hey, at least she wasn''t making fun of me anymore as she was too busy having fun watching as TinkyWinky toppled over another building. After the last Teletubby was defeated by another giant beam of light, I thought that it would be enough for now. There were several destroyed areas around the city and I was sure that I had killed a few innocents as well as witches on my little rampage, but somehow I didn''t really care. It was a real struggle to not simply burn the whole goddamn city to the ground. This wasn''t about the city though, it was about me. Would I like the person I would become if I crossed that line? Would I be any better than these monsters? I didn''t know, and I didn''t want to find out. All I can say was that it felt good to vent out some of my frustration. After waiting for an hour and a half, the bell in the bell tower started to ring. All the women started to leave their houses ,which they had hurriedly gotten into when the demon appeared, and started moving towards a very large meeting hall next to the bell tower. It appears my gamble had paid off. chapter ninety five- I dont have a dream Chapter ninety five When I got closer to the to the great white building with the bell tower, I started to make out more and more details about it. It was a very large marble structure , well built and well maintained. In front of its large gates was the giant statue of a woman releasing a dove. The building itself looked like a church but where you would usually find crosses there were pentagrams. It was a church of St Sofia. As I went through the giant oak doors along with the crowd of witches, I started to wonder if this was the way things were all over Europe . The church ,which seemed to be synonymous with the sisterhood that ruled Europe ,obviously knew about and condoned what was happening in Norway. Who is to say they were not doing the same thing anywhere else? I followed Jules to some pews in the back of the incredibly large church and sat down. Once the church was full, a woman in the normal white garb of a priestess of the St Sophia church walked onto the raised platform and spoke in a magically magnified voice, "Children, before we speak of the evils that have befallen us this day let us pray to our patron and give thanks for protection and healing." Everybody knelt down to pray, and I thought this was a good time as any and using a combination of telekinesis and super speed I removed everything that they had on them, including their underwear. You might think I was being a little paranoid but I wasn''t taking any chances after last time(and it was a good thing I didn''t , I later found out that there were enchantments hidden cleverly in panties and bras). After taking all their enchantments and clothing I encased the naked and confused women in foam. The only person in the room who wasn''t a hearth witch was the priestess and I knocked her out with a baton from behind, I was going to have a private conversation with her later. Once I had everything under control I walked up to the stage shedding my disguise as I went and made all the helpless women look up towards me, I then took out the brooch and activated it. Instantly all their attention was focused on the brooch. "You will now listen to a set of rules, you are going to listen to them and follow them to the letter. Number one, men are no longer your slaves, you will not order them or force them to do anything ever again, you are to treat them with the same respect you give each other. If you own slaves you shall equally share your wealth with that slave and help him in any way to gain his own life. Make it clear that he is now the master of his own destiny. If he chooses to leave, you can no longer stop him. If he stays make sure his life is as comfortable as possible, you aren''t his slave but be nice to him. Number two , magic does not make you special or entitled, it gives you a responsibility to help any less talented people in your community. Only use offensive magic or any other magic that can cause any type of harm for self defense and do not ever use any mind bending or mind altering magic. Number three, you shall drill these principles into each of your children and make them take a vow saying that they will follow them. " This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. When I was sure that the suggestion had stuck inside each and every one of them I told them to go out and bring any stragglers that haven''t come to the church, there were sixteen of them and I did the same thing to them. When I was done I took the priestess to a back room , restrained her and slapped her awake. When she woke up the first thing she saw was the brooch," From now on you are going to speak the truth while speaking to me, you will not be hostile but friendly, when our conversation ends you will forget that we were ever here, just answer this question, is the church aware of any other locations similar to Oslo where men are slaves?" "No , Oslo is special. Men are treated as inferior in most of Europe , but they are afforded basic rights. The church thought that what was happening in Oslo was wrong but didn''t think it was worth provoking them over such a trivial matter." That was a relief, the thought of doing this again and again was exhausting. The men might be discriminated against but I wasn''t a civil rights activist, I''ll help when I can but I wasn''t going to make it my life goal, call me selfish but I had other things on my plate. It was time to go to Germany. chapter ninety six - consequence Chapter ninety six From the information I got from the priestess , there were no more obstacles in my path down south to Germany, but that all changes when I got there. In a sort of reverse history the predominantly French sisterhood was occupying the majority of Germany, but they were unable to breach Berlin. The rest of the country wasn''t under complete control either , the Germans were fighting the occupation using guerilla tactics. The rest of the country was a volatile mess where the forces of the church and the forces of resistance that were based in Berlin randomly meet and erupt into battle. The battle lines were always shifting and a town under control of one side might be flying the flag of the other the next day. As I flew south with Jules quickly leaving Norway and passing it''s southern shore , I started to wonder if the world would be a better place without the church of Sofia. They seem to be a collection of controlling and uneducated extremists who didn''t seem to give any religious guidance except to denounce what they believe to be heresy. The only good thing I have ever seen them do was when Lidia was running the orphanage, but even there she was obviously being pressured to stop. Are they doing any good in the world? Probably, but I think it was outweighed by the mountains of evil they have committed and continued to commit. While I was pondering this issue , it seems I had crossed the North sea without even noticing and the northern shores of Germany came into view. What I saw wasn''t reassuring, there was smoke rising up from the direction I was heading to. As I got closer I saw that there was a decent sized port town that would have looked quite nice , with sturdily constructed houses and well maintained roads, if it wasn''t on fire. I could hear the screams of women and children as the flames hungrily devoured their homes. I quickly started to spray as much foam around the town as possible to stop the flames while the fire proof Jules simply went through the flames and rescued people. We weren''t the only ones trying to help people,there were a bunch of knights in bulky armor that had steam coming from it and seemed to be moving using hydraulic pistons and giant gears, they were also going around saving people. When we crossed paths we didn''t even communicate, the one in the largest armor and seemed to be their leader saw that we were helping people and simply nodded at us and continued his own efforts to save people. In the end I was able to put out the fire before it destroyed the city although 35% of it was just charred rubble. Most importantly between me , Jules , and the knights we were able to save almost everybody. I set up a tent on the beach to give treatment to injured people, Jules was the one actually providing the treatment using bandages and equipment she made from her very own flesh since she could shape shift it into whatever she needed, to help her I just kept a constant flow of mana going to her body so that she wouldn''t run out. After I was sure that she had more than enough to treat everybody I left the tent and came face to face with the man in the armor that was twice my size. The moment I saw him I clad myself in invisible armor just in case, I didn''t use the demon armor because they were saving people just like us and I had a feeling they were the dwarves I was looking for, the last thing I wanted to do was spook them by wearing the demon armor. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. We just stood there sizing each other up when Jules said in my head," John, his armor is really weird. The metal seems to be blocking mana. Mana passes through everything John, whatever that armor is made of , it is the first time I''ve seen anything like it." I was now almost a hundred percent sure I was looking at a dwarf, he didn''t look like he was going to speak first so I started the ball rolling, "Hello, my name is John. Nice to meet you." "You speak German very fluently, but I doubt you are one of us, where are you from and what is your purpose in coming here?" "Oh , I''m not actually fluent in German, I can talk like this because of an enchanted item. I''m an enchanter from the burrows looking for my friend Walter in Berlin . who am I speaking to?" "Wait, your John, that John? An enchanter from the burrows, it can''t be a coincidence. If you are telling the truth then what did you give Walter to make you his friend?" "Orichalcum metal, why ? There isn''t a problem is there? He is OK right?" The back of the giant metal construct opened and a blond haired man came out, his features were nearly identical to Walter. "So you are the reason my brother is now living like a prince with everybody kissing his ass. Hello I''m lieutenant Ansell , friends call me ace , the ones behind me are my unit , the reavers . The witches call us that and it sort of stuck. We are happy to meet you John, and I want to say thank you on behalf of every German citizen for what you have done for us, it was your actions that turned the tide of the war in our favor." Now I was very confused, I didn''t remember doing anything to help them. I wonder if he was talking about the orichalcum I gave Walter. "Ah, so you don''t know? You see this armor? You see the blue black metal? The witches call it devil steel, we call it sentinel steel. Whatever name you may give it, it''s most important property is to block magic. Without this we would have been wiped out hundreds of years ago. The process for making it isn''t very difficult but it requires a very rare ingredient, orichalcum. So again I say to you, thank you. When your friend is finished with the injured , we will personally escort you to Berlin ." It seems my actions had unintended consequences. chapter ninety seven - insomnia Chapter ninety seven The trip to Berlin would take nearly three weeks while going with Ansell and the ravagers, but I didn''t want to go through unfamiliar terrain , especially one that was an active warzone ,alone. Every day we would make long treks through rough terrain , avoiding known strongholds of the church and staying in towns that were controlled by the resistance. Ansell and his men were a boisterous bunch, always playing around and telling stories while taking a sip from their flasks of what I was sure was not water. The days were long dusty and tiring , just walking all day long. Night was a very different experience. * * * The first night I teleported to new hope with Jules to talk to Sarah. I was petrified thinking about how she would react, but after thinking about it, I cared about Sarah too much to lie to her. The one night that I hoped she would be busy , when I asked for Sarah I was told that she was in the bedroom. Taking a deep breath I went to her room closely followed by Jules . When I opened the door , Sarah was laying on the bed in skimpy lingerie. She propped herself up , gave me a bright smile and said, "Hello John, I''m so sorry for being so busy all the time, but now that all the treaties have been signed and regional governments properly set, I have a lot of free time to make it up to you." I wanted to close the door behind me and pretend that nothing was wrong , I wanted to do that so freaking bad, but I couldn''t do that . I came here for a reason and I wasn''t going to chicken out. "Sarah, there is something important I need to talk to you about." "What''s wrong John? Who is the glowing winged woman behind you?" "Her name is Jules, she is kind of the reason I wanted to talk to you about. I have been seeing her for a long time now, and I plan on continuing to see her. There are also two other women in my own world that I am interested in." "So what? Are you leaving me?" "No, I just wanted to inform you. Why aren''t you upset?" "John, you don''t even spend most of your time in this world, I sort of already assumed you were seeing a couple of women, I was going to even suggest you have a couple of concubines here to satisfy you when I am busy." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "Wait, you''re okay with me cheating, even though I expect you to be faithful to me?" "John, you''ve already given me everything I could have ever wanted, I am not going to ask for anything more as long as you don''t neglect me." That night I thought I might lose Sarah, instead I had my very first m¨¦nage ¨¤ trois . I got to be with my silver princess and angel vixen at the same time. That was a good night. * * * The second night was much less stressful. I teleported to Steelbender castle and had dinner with Lidia and Bella . Instead of passively receiving their attention I actively flirted with them, kissing their necks, brushing my hand against their thighs and finally giving them both deep French kisses before telling them goodnight. That night I ''forgot'' to lock my door and just like I expected the two girls snuck into my room. When they saw Jules they sort of freaked out, but I told them that she wasn''t an angel but she just looked similar. I knew they wouldn''t understand what she was completely so I told them she was from a different world. Afterwards they started talking among themselves and in fifteen minutes they were squealing and giggling like they had known each other for years. Jules finally suggested that we all play some racy games to have some fun, after two rounds of strip poker all games were forgotten as another form of fun started. That was the first night I had a foursome, it was a good night. * * * The third night I decided not to visit any of my girlfriends, I needed to get some sleep. We had just gotten into the town that was the third stop in our journey. We went into the inn and Jules said she was going upstairs to checkout our room. I ate dinner with Ace and his boys, afterwards I went upstairs to get some much needed rest, but I had not counted on finding one of my favorite anime characters with her voluptuous body, fox ears, and bushy red tail waiting for me naked on my bed. All thoughts of sleep fled from my mind as my eyes feasted on the magnificent sight, that night Jules showed me yet another reason why it was good to be with a shape shifter. It was also a very good night. chapter ninety eight - Berlin Chapter ninety eight By the time we were getting close to Berlin I was barely able to stand up. I might be super human but nearly three weeks without sleep would take a toll on anyone. Ace thought that I was being run ragged by their pace but the reason I was being run ragged had nothing to do with walking. We were plodding through some forests in the biting autumn wind when the trees suddenly stopped and a breathtaking view was revealed. The first time I saw Berlin , I thought that it maybe the most amazing thing I have ever seen. A whole city made out of metal rose above the horizon as we got closer. Everything about the city was colossal, from the walls to the buildings. But what really excited me was something people would think was pretty ugly, there were giant industrial sized smock stacks belching out smoke into the air. Finally a sign that all science and development hadn''t been crushed. A sign that man still strived to make and learn not just subsist. Here before me were the closest thing to kin I had left in this world and this place the closest thing to home. We approached the giant gates, a much smaller door cleverly concealed inside of the bigger gates opened and a dwarf with red hair came out. "What did I tell you about bringing in stray people ace?" "Very funny Decker , but you won''t laugh when you know who he is." "Who is he then, don''t keep me waiting , it''s not like I enjoy standing here freezing my balls off." "He is the John, Walter''s source John." "Wait, orichalcum John? You don''t expect me to buy that do you?" At this point I cut in," excuse me but if I proved that I was that John then would you let me in instead of standing here in the cold." "Yeah, sure. But how are you going to do that." I handed him a small piece of orichalcum," There you go, Walter said that he had never seen anything like it so it should be unique ." Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "Did you just give me orichalcum as ID?" "Sure, why not? Now let us in before we all drop of hypothermia." The stunned dwarf didn''t try to stop us as we went in , he was too busy rubbing and admiring the piece of metal I gave him. After I went through the door , I just looked at the city in awe. It looked almost the same to the Berlin that I had seen in pictures except for a few differences here and there. The only differences that were immediately evident was that instead of asphalt the streets were made of cobblestone. The buildings all looked like they were made out of metal, even the large glass skyscrapers seemed to have metal shutters that could be shut at a moments notice. The whole city was armored. But the thing that made me laugh out in happiness was what was on the roads. Cars, there were cars zipping around noiselessly on the streets instead of carriages. Ansell was looking at me with concern, "Are you all right?" "I am fine.......No I am more than fine, I feel freaking awesome!" "People always have funny reactions when they first enter Berlin, but I think your reaction takes the cake. If you are so excited about these cars which are simple contraptions made with the spin rune , wait until you see some real machines." "You use enchantments?" "All dwarves are given two runes when they come of age. The rune for spin and the rune for heat. They may seem useless but to a dwarf they are the most precious thing." "No, I wouldn''t say they are useless . Wait , what do you mean real machines?" "You didn''t think that we were fighting the witches using these puny armors did you? Come on , let me show you one of the destroyers, then you''ll know what a real machine is." I finally understood how charlie felt when he was invited to the chocolate factory. chapter ninety nine - sleep finally Chapter ninety nine All my fatigue was forgotten as I followed Ace to a big hangar near the gate. We did the same song and dance that we did at the main gate before they let us in to see the destroyer. The destroyer turned out to be a moving fortress that looked like the bastard child of a tank and a crab. Its height was as big as a five story building, and it was three times as wide. It had many ''arms'' that appeared to be different weapons. The whole thing rested on multiple tires in treads like that of a tank except scaled up a couple of times. Ace was beaming proudly as he showed it to me, "This was one of the original destroyers that repelled the church''s first assault on Berlin that had just been rebuilt at the time. It was named crusher after it crushed two covens under its tracks. It may look large and clumsy but it is surprisingly quick and nimble. The whole thing is armored with sentinel steel to block magic. It takes a crew of at least a hundred and fifty men to run it properly. It is a testament to our ancestors that no destroyer has ever been destroyed, some have taken heavy damage but they always manage to get home. I worked in the crusher here for two years as a private before being promoted and given my own squad. It was two of the greatest years of my life. My dream is to be the captain of one of these things." "That thing is enormous, how do you even power it?" He took out a blue crystal from his pocket and showed it to me, " mana crystals, we have three factories in the town that have enchanted machines that make them. The ancestors never taught us how to make them but with the three factories we get what we need. We use them as currency around the city because they can be used for many things from fueling cars to normal light bulbs." "How does that work?" "The mana crystals slowly dissolve when they come into contact with a special alloy and the mana is taken to the enchantments to activate them." "You have orichalcum to transmit the manna?" "Oh God no, we have other alloys we can use. Using orichalcum for such a mundane task would be much too wasteful." "*ehem* .. yes , wasteful. Why do you go through all this trouble? Why not use a pentagram rune?" "A what rune?" "Never mind, can we see the insides of the destroyer?" "Sure, I''m still drinking buddies with my former commanding officer. I bet he would let us in." Ansel''s commanding officer was quite friendly and he showed us around the destroyer. It was amazing to see such an amazing feat of engineering. Everywhere I looked there were gears , each enchanted with the spin rune and providing torque to drive the giant beast. The engine room was where mana was extracted from mana crystals that were hundreds of times larger than the one Ansel showed me. He showed us the different weapon stations that the crusher had including flame throwers and massive steam powered cannons. We ended our tour in the bridge of the destroyer were there was a comfortable looking captain''s chair surrounded by less comfortable looking seats for the rest of the commanding crew. I was curious about how they communicated throughout this large ship and when I asked our guide answered, " we have an alloy that can convert vibrations into mana disturbances that can then be transmitted and turned back into physical vibrations on the other end." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The dwarves really were masters of metal. They had alloys that can do almost anything, but for some reason they don''t know how to make orichalcum. I wonder why that is? Anyway the tour ended there and Ansel flagged us a taxi to take us to Walter''s house. When I asked him if it was OK to go unannounced and whether there would be room for me and Jules , he just laughed and said ''you''ll see''. When the car finally stopped in a very posh part of the city it was in front of a large mansion that was almost a palace. I knew that Walter was doing well , but this was ridiculous. We got off the taxi (just me , Jules and Ansel the rest of the unit had not followed us) and were greeted politely by the guards at the gate. They let us in because they were familiar with Ansel . A maid led us to a parlor and we sat there waiting for Walter but the person that came in first was the red haired girl I hired for my shop in the burrows, Cara I think. She came into the room said hello to Ansel turned to me and froze. A few seconds later she was hugging me in a very intimate and inappropriate way. Ansel was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. From his perspective it must have looked like the mature looking me was intimately familiar with the underage looking Cara. I hurriedly pushed her back to make it clear that he was mistaken. Thankfully at that moment Cara decided to speak. "Mr John is that really you? Is Lidia with you? She''s alright isn''t she?" "Calm down Cara, everything is fine. Lidia is in Montreal and she is doing well. I''ll bring her to see you soon if you want. Is everything alright with you and the other kids?" "Everything''s fine. All of us are employed at one place or another, I''m a secretary in one of the big car companies. We are all happy here." "I''m glad to hear it. Do you know where Walter is?" Walter came in through the door," Right here, how have you been John?" "Doing well Walter , but not as well as you it seems" "Bah, I don''t care about this stuff. I didn''t even want gold when I gave the orichalcum to the government. I just wanted to help out, now they made me out to be some sort of hero, forced me to move into this house and won''t leave me alone. The only person who won''t act as if I was a freaking ancestor is Ansel here. I''m glad I can have somebody to talk to now. So where were you.........." Me and Walter talked about what happened to us since I left the burrows. Apparently he took the children and left as soon as members of the church started showing up. He needed a place to escape the church and at the same time had a large slab of orichalcum that could help his country. He decided to kill two birds with one stone and went to Berlin. I told him an abridged version of what happened to me. By the time we were done I was nodding off involuntarily so Walter took me to my room and the moment I fell on my bed I fell asleep. I vaguely remember Jules crawling in next to me and whispering her plans for tomorrow night into my ears. I don''t remember what they were but at least I was going to be fully rested enough to enjoy them. chapter one hundred - no blue pill Chapter one hundred I spent the next week touring all the sites of Berlin that I could. I visited the giant furnaces whose smock stack I saw when I first gazed at the city. They used enchantments to run them so the smoke I saw wasn''t burning fossil fuels but other byproducts from the smelting process. I realized that the reason they haven''t figured out the way to make orichalcum was because their furnaces didn''t burn hot enough. The dwarves had the ability to slowly manipulate metal, that means that metals don''t need to be molten before they could remove impurities or create alloys because even in a semi-molten state they could use their magic to achieve their goals. The furnaces were designed with that in mind, which was all well and good but the process to create orichalcum requires pretty high temperatures for the appropriate reactions to occur. This made them unable to create orichalcum. I went back wondering if it was a good idea to inform them of this little tidbit. The next place I visited was the mana crystal plant. It was a high security area but with Walter''s help I was granted access. The item that produced the crystals was a simple metal box which had been enchanted with ''crystalize'' and ''essence'' on it. I was very surprised that that combination of runes would cause mana to crystalize . What did this mean? Does this mean that mana is the ''essence'' of reality or was there something I was missing. That day I went back to Walter''s mansion full of questions with no answers. The next day Ansel insisted on taking me around to visit each of the twenty six destroyers. The interesting thing about the destroyers was that no two were ever alike. Most were modeled after animals, some looked nothing like anything in nature. The most notable ones included one that looked like a sting ray and had six giant propellers that allowed it to fly and maneuver in several ways. It was the only one that could fly and I was told that each crew member had to go through intensive training before they were even allowed on the destroyer. I could tell that those that were a part of the flying destroyer''s crew were afforded special treatment, they wore different uniforms from other destroyer crews and always seem to draw attention wherever they went. I was told that the positions were always sought after and all that managed to get a position were highly respected and revered. Another design that caught my eye was one that looked like a samurai. It was a giant man in samurai like armor that was holding a giant sword. He had two cannons, one on each shoulder. He had giant pistons on his legs so I was sure he had terrific jumping power. It was the only destroyer shaped like a human and it could be piloted by a crew that was as few as fifty. Besides those two I saw ones that look like spiders , centipedes , lions , wolves and things of that nature. None of them were really special even though all of them were impressive. Once the week was out I learned a couple of very important things. But the most important one was that the dwarves were good ,hard working ,down to earth people. I saw their day to day struggles and it struck a deep chord in my soul. The things that I tried to create in New Hope were all here made by their own hard work and determination. I liked this people and I wanted to help these people as much as I could, I wanted to give these people my legacy. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I decided that I was going to create a library in Walter''s estate. I made a large building on his needlessly large lawn and then used telekinesis and some tools to make multiple walls around it. I created enchantments with the ability to tell if somebody was lying or not. Then I made a sheet of questions that I thought would determine if a person was worthy of entering the building, mostly morality questions. The security around the building was nearly impenetrable, I even used some sentinel steel to block magic. The only way to enter the building is to truthfully answer the questions and be deemed worthy. When Walter asked me what I was doing , I told him that I was making a special library and he was very excited. Even with all my magic it took two weeks for me to be satisfied with my work. The moral questions were reviewed many times, and I was even able to create a tool that allowed a person who has the information to determine whether a third party was worthy. So now anybody who came to the library will have the item to check if they can share the knowledge with somebody or not. I taught Walter the runes to make the tool and also made a couple of hundred and left it with him. The next two days I sat down and simply supplied Jules with mana as she filled the library with books on everything from science to engineering. As an AI she had stored a lot of books in her memory and she was using her own flesh to make the books that we thought would help the dwarves. After two days the large library was full, I even wrote down some runes that would be useful along with my observations on the ether and mana into a small book. Right after I was done writing the small book my god eyes suddenly opened without my permission. I immediately tried to close them because I knew that the buffer zone in my brain didn''t work anymore, but however hard I tried I couldn''t stop the flow of chaotic information into my mind. I saw the past and the future, I saw the cosmos and subatomic particles, I saw spirits and gods. I was seeing everything. After a while, it could have been a second , it could have been a year because time had no meaning here, the flow of information became less chaotic. No that is not correct , the way I was perceiving the information changed and it started being less and less chaotic. In fact it started to make more and more sense until in the end what I was perceiving turned from an all encompassing chaos to a crystal ball on a table. I was somehow sitting on a chair near the table gazing at the ball and sitting across from me was a teenager with short spiky hair wearing a T-shirt and ripped up jeans. She smiled at me and said, "Welcome John, I''ve been waiting for you." epilogue Epilogue "Welcome John , I''ve been waiting for you." I wanted to ask her so many questions but every time I thought of a question the answer sprang into my mind unbidden. After it happened a few more times I started to get a general idea of what was going on. "Where am I?" "You are now in a higher plane. Its main purpose is to keep people like you and me from interfering in the world of the mortals. Ancient laws decree that when a person''s personal power reaches a level that can cause mass extinction , they are removed to a higher plane." "Who made these laws?" She smiled , " That is the question isn''t it John? Most believe that it is God the ultimate creator that made these laws, others believe that there is no God , that they are the gods and the rules are just a part of the universe. The point is that the rules are there and they are inviolable. You have grown beyond what the plane you were on could handle so you were raised to the next one, congratulations on your ascension." "Wait, I didn''t have any increase in power when this happened, there must have been a mistake!" "There was no mistake, you were actually supposed to ascend when you had your second ,as you put it ,''meltdown''. The only reason you didn''t was because I used most of my power to suppress yours." "Why would you do that?" "Think John, think. Use that amazing ability of yours to get the answer , you are damn near omniscient. What important things did you do after your meltdown?" I thought of anything that could be of significance," I stopped slavery in Norway and I made the Library in Berlin. Oh, and I had lots of sex." "Full marks John, although some would consider your power cheating. Now see what happens in the future because of your actions." I did as she said and the answers came yet again. Since I had technically ascended into becoming something akin to a god the contraception method Jules used was ineffective. Each of the women that I had been with were pregnant. Each would have a child that would be pivotal in defeating an enemy that would otherwise have jeopardized the safety of the two worlds. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Using the knowledge from the library, Germany becomes an empire so powerful that they became the rulers of the earth without lifting a single finger. With a combination of magic and technology the human race transcends most of their differences, it wasn''t all smooth sailing but in the end humanity rose up from their pettiness and became teachers and guardians of first their universe, then after some time the multiverse. "This can''t all be a coincidence, you planned this somehow didn''t you?" "That is correct, my powers involve probability manipulation, I might have tweaked a few things here and there." "Can''t I see my girlfriends, my children? I mean you were able to manipulate things from here , why can''t I ?" "You already know the answer John, you are beyond them now. You can''t go back. As for me being able to change things a little, it was a special situation. I''m sorry John." "Are you telling me that I am stuck here alone?" "I never said you were alone, there are thousands of beings here. If you want to talk to someone merlin is close by, although he is an insufferable know it all. Plus I think you forgot somebody that never leaves you side." A hand fell on my shoulders," Did you miss me John?" I turned around and saw the beautiful face of my angel , "Jules?" "Well I''ll give you two some privacy." "Wait , who are you? For some reason I can''t get any answers about you." "I told you there were special circumstances. I have earned many names while I was up here but you know me by the name I used when I was back on earth." "So, who are you?" "My name is Sophia." End of volume one The science of magic continues in book #2 - The Saint. The adventures of John in the upper realms continue in book #4(might change) - The King I''ll probably edit this whole book , add a few more details and make the story a little more streamlined and post a PDF next time I have free time and access to a computer. It has been fun , good night everyone:-) new volume out In case anyone is interested volume 2 is out. I don''t know how to create a link but you could find it on Google searching for science of magic volume two the saint sneak peak into the king A.N. because of popular demand (lots of complaining) I have decided to make the saint and subsequent books a part of a separate series that is related to the science of magic called ''the science of magic universe'' and move The king from book 4 to book 2. So the lineup becomes - science of magic #1 the heretic - science of magic #2 the king - science of magic #3 the paradox The science of magic universe( notice there are no numbers so its OK to read them as stand alone but they are all part of the story). The Saint, The Blacksmith , The Demigods , The Captain Here is a sneak peak into science of magic - the king. Prologue "My name is Sophia, yes I''m that Sophia and no I have nothing to do with the actions of the so called church, now before you get too preoccupied with your reunion with Jules I would like to tell you a few things. I want you to listen carefully because I won''t be here to hold your hand through the next bit and it could get a wee bit dangerous, on the bright side you are one of the only truly immortal beings on this plane but that doesn''t mean that you won''t get harmed, in fact Jules might have ascended alongside you but as she is a separate being now she can''t dull your pain for you so if a powerful being was to let''s say vaporize your body a single atom a time you would feel every moment of that and trust me when I say that the mind and soul can only take so much pain before breaking." I was a little freaked out by the way she had worded that last part, "That''s a very specific example you gave, is that likely to happen here?" She just shrugged and continued, " Sure , anything can happen here which leads me to the point I am trying to make, in terms that we can both understand, your powers have been NERFED severely. As I was telling you earlier your powers have increased tremendously and most of the restrictions holding them back have been lifted like for example your solid illusions power has evolved into an outright creation power meaning you can create whatever you want and it will have the properties that you want. Now before you start celebrating here is the part that sucks, although it may seem like nothing has changed on this plane things are happening on a titanic scale meaning that although your powers have increased relatively speaking the amount you can do has taken a large dip. To be exact as you are now you can only make things that are about as large as a decent sized microwave oven. I''m sure you will find a way to increase your ability but until you do it is a pretty severe handicap. The same thing applies to your ability to slow everything down and speed yourself up. The only power that isn''t NERFED is your power to get information. That power has grown so that instead of the ether you are accessing the very essence of reality to get your answers but you have to remember that this doesn''t mean you know everything. If you don''t ask the right questions then you will not get the answers you need. Remember you are no longer the biggest kid on the block , in fact you are the noobie here, you are now officially the runt of the litter and the things here will try to pick on you. Welcome to the big leagues ,John .Well good luck on your journey I have places to go , things to destroy. Oh I almost forgot, stay away from the soul benders, you aren''t immortal enough to survive if one of them get their tentacles on you." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. She was about to leave when I yelled out, "Wait! What am I supposed to do here?" She looked back at me with a devilish smile and said, "Do what you always do John, stumble around from one mishap to another while turning everything upside down , leaving a trail of chaos and broken hearts in your wake. Just have fun." I could hear her snicker as if she was remembering a very funny joke as she disappeared through a glowing door that wasn''t there a second ago. Why did I have the feeling that I was the butt of that joke. check it out Can you please check out the pilot to my new fiction and give me your opinion- http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6172 This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.Thank you, your dedicated slave monkey *cough* I mean writer. :) Am I wasting my time? I was thinking of rewriting the whole book and fleshing it out a bit for example the Prologue would be something like this-https://www.dropbox.com/s/8yxvn30xm1sfymj/Prologue.docx?dl=0 This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.Am I wasting my time? vol 2 ch 1 - new goal Chapter one As soon as the shining door vanished taking the amazingly powerful being along with it I turned towards Jules and started to speak quickly, "Alright Jules we don''t have a lot of time, we have a lot of things to do and not a lot of time to do them in, we are currently in a pocket created by Sophia and it will dissolve shortly releasing us to the world outside , before that happens I have to bring you up to speed." Jules ruffled her feathers like a disturbed pigeon and looked at me with a bewildered expression, "Good, because some of the things that that woman said were very confusing, like you know when she declared I was pregnant! I am an AI, how am I pregnant? I don''t even have proper reproductive organs! Was she telling the truth John, am I really pregnant?"She started poking at her stomach as if that would reveal the answer. "The answer is yes and no, when we had sex we did indeed make a child but when you ascended unlike me you didn''t keep your old body. Our child is still in that body." Her bewildered expression turned into one of concern, "Is our child going to be alright? Without me isn''t my body going to revert to that hard stuff that your solid illusions are made of? How is our child supposed to survive without air or sustenance? John we have to go back!" It seems that it didn''t matter if you were a human, a tiger , an elephant or it seems even an AI , the mothering instinct is something embedded deep into the soul. I put my hands around Jules''s shoulders which were shaking and gave her a hug to calm her down a little, "It''s all right, our child ,who is a boy by the way, is going to be fine. Being our child, he inherited our power to manipulate solid illusions. In fact he is better at it than we ever were. Right now your body has turned into a sort of egg and our son is cannibalizing it to create his own body." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "But who is going to take care of him? He needs somebody to help him understand why he is so different from everybody else, you know how cruel people can be. Plus if he truly is as powerful as you say he is people are just going to see his power and take advantage of him, we need to help him John, he is our son and we have to help him. We need to go back John." "Again don''t worry, we''ll be back before a week has passed in the lower plane. That''s the one advantage that we have here, everything is happening very quickly in this plane so if we manage to get back in about a year only a week will have passed back on earth." She pulled back from the hug so that she could looked into my eyes with those strange golden eyes,"Are you saying that we are going back?" "Yes. That is exactly what I am saying." "But that woman said that the future of humanity is perfect now, wouldn''t that future change if we go back?" "Oh, most definitely." "Isn''t that a bad thing?" "Oh, most definitely." "So what would the new future be like?" "No idea, doesn''t exist yet until we return." "So we are jeopardizing the human race''s prosperity and happiness by going back? Are you OK with that?" "The human race could go suck an egg, there are three women that I love down there and I am not just going to forget about them to go on some happy go lucky adventure while my children grow up without knowing their father. I grew up without a father and I will be damned if I let the same thing happen to my children." Vol 2 ch 2 - first stop Chapter two I had just made my declaration when the room we were in started to glow and turn translucent, the walls that were solid only a few seconds ago weren''t so solid anymore as they blew away like smoke. Through the fading walls the outside slowly became visible and I could see a beautiful clear blue sky with the sun shining brightly and small fluffy clouds here and there. I looked down and just like I expected the floors were fading away too. As the black and white tiles disappeared they revealed what my powers had already told me, we were floating several meters above a vast forest of giant trees. I grabbed Jules and created a platform underneath us to keep us from falling. Jules looked around with an incredulous expression at what I expect was a very surprising change of scenery for her, "John, I know that we are in a higher dimension and everything but what exactly is this place?" I used my powers to ferret out as much information about where we were. I was just getting used to the new ''God sight'' ,which I would have to rename now that it wasn''t actually related to vision anymore, but it seemed like a pretty straightforward process, all I had to do was concentrate on a question and the answers would pop into my head. The answers I received about this place were not very bad but they weren''t exactly good either, "Jules, I need you to shift your appearance to look as normal as possible and while we are in this area don''t reveal your power to shape shift. We are currently above the Fay woods so we are not going to attract attention but when we leave the woods if you shift your appearance in any way you will be branded a fay and you will put both of us in danger." "Look John, I know that you have this nifty new ability to know things but I don''t have the same power so can you please explain things to me instead of issuing instructions that make no sense." I thought about it and we weren''t in any immediate danger so I took a deep breath to calm myself and explained what I had just learned to her, If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "This plane is not like the physical plane, it is not one uniform space that has a universal set of rules that are applicable everywhere. It is divided into territories that are run by powerful beings called ''kings''. These kings aren''t like the simple monarchs back on earth, they are connected to their territories. What this means is that the territory reflects what is in the king''s mind." "So you are telling me that this forest is someone''s territory?" "Exactly, not only this forest but also the city adjesent to the forest is the territory of one King." She looked at me with a puzzled expression,"What city?" I floated the platform in the direction of where I knew the city to be. As we made our way to the city the large trees of the forest were gradually replaced by small shrubs which in turn were replaced by tall grass. The blowing wind caused waves to be created on the grassland as if it was the sea and in the middle of the sea of grass rested a pure white city which according to my powers was constructed entirely of white material such as marble and ivory. The biggest structure in this white city was a large castle located at the center. It took up nearly half of the city and looked like something out of a story book with its many large towers and the turrets sticking out from these towers. Jules just stared at the sparkling white city,"John, seriously where are we?" "I believe you know the legend of King Arthur, well when Mordred killed Arthur the heartbreak caused Merlin to go a little berserk. In his pursuit of revenge he performed forbidden ceremonies to gain power and he succeeded in amassing incredible amount of power. Unfortunately for him before he could get his revenge he ascended. He eventually ended up here where he is now the king of his own territory. He erected this city as a monument to Arthur and everything he stood for; chivalry, honesty, and purity." "Welcome to the city of Camelot." Vol 2 ch 3 - dust Chapter three My ''God''s sight'' power had evolved into a very potent ability and an increasingly efficacious tool in my now rather limited arsenal of magic but even as it changed into something rather cogent it did not mean that it was in any way akin to omniscience. The best way I could describe the new ''God''s sight'' is by calling it a universal search engine, which meant that all the answers in the universe were at my disposal but to get the answers that I need I must ask the right question. This might seem like a trivial difference at first but as Jules and I were about to find out to our folly, it was a difference that was all too crucial. We were several meters above the sea of grass that was undulating like a living creature under the effects of the wind , I was standing on the small platform I had created with my power with Jules standing very close to me as we both observed the white city of Camelot from a distance where I was sure we wouldn''t be detected by anyone from the city. We were both gawking at the big castle and the large impressive buildings that looked like they were pieces of art carved by a master sculptor from a single stone rather than buildings to be lived in. All of the windows we could see were stained glass artworks depicting knights and battles. But the architecture wasn''t the only thing that was fascinating. We were using small binoculars I had made with my powers to see the medieval looking inhabitants as well. The women in their woolen clothing that were fastened by a belt or a girdle around their waist or hips giving the shapeless dress more definition as it made it hug their figures , the men in brightly colored tunics and tight pants that left little to the imagination and lastly the knights in their chainmail armor or even full plate armor went about their business in the city. We were so engrossed in observing the city that we didn''t notice the sparkling dust until it was too late. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. By the time we had noticed the glittering dust surrounding us some of it had already made it into our mouths. I made the binoculars vanish as I tasted the strange sweet taste in my mouth. I looked around and I noticed that we were surrounded by butterflies with very colorful wings and the strange glittering dust was being shed by their wings. My thoughts became fuzzy and I felt my consciousness drift away as my vision slowly went dark. As my consciousness slipped away I saw the butterflies glitter strangely as if they were a mirage and their insect bodies blurred and turned into small human bodies although they still had antenna on their heads. It seemed that the butterflies weren''t really butterflies and the glittering dust was some sort of anesthetic. The last thought that entered my mind before I succumbed to the effects of the dust and fell into the dark abyss of unconsciousness was that it was strange that Jules was slumping over too when she didn''t even have a body made out of flesh let alone one that needed to breathe. Vol 2 ch 4 - Morgana pt. 1 Chapter four My consciousness slowly started to return to me and I was finally able to pry open my eyelids which felt like they were glued together to take my first look at my surroundings. I was left breathless by what I saw. I seemed to be lying on a bed made out of grass in a cage made out of interlocking branches. Surrounding me was a forest unlike any I had ever seen before. It was filled with a variety of flowers, trees, bushes and vines. Each leaf and each petal a vibrant bright color that turned the surrounding into a mural more beautiful than the greatest painting and to top it all off every plant in the entire forest seemed to posses some form of bioluminescence, everything around me was softly glowing in the darkness created by the thick canopy overhead making the scene even more surreal. From the largest tree to the smallest toadstool, everything combined to make a vista so amazing that it literally robbed me of breath, I actually forgot to breath for a couple of seconds. Even the cage I was in was a part of a living tree , it''s interlocking branches glowing a very faint brown. With some difficulty I stopped gawking at the local flora and looked around searching for my captors. I couldn''t find them so I used my power to find the knowledge of their whereabouts and to my surprise they were all around me, disguised as plants , rocks or even insects. It seemed that the fay weren''t going to show themselves so I decided to do research on them while I waited for Jules ,who was still laying on the ground unconscious, to wake up. Using my God''s sight I found out that the fay were a numerous and varied bunch. They took care of the forest and the forest took care of them. Each fay had a function in the forest from the dryads that cared for the trees to the fairies that helped pollinate the flowers. Once I had enough information about them I started to search for information on why they were in Merlin''s realm and why they captured us. The answers came to me in the form of a story, the tragic story of Morgan le Fay... ...Morgan le Fay was born from the love of a human and one of the Tuatha D¨¦ Danann, the royalty of the fay. Such relationships were forbidden by both the humans and the fay because of the tension between the two and so Morgan le Fay or simply Morgana was born in secrecy to her human mother, her fay father was an important courtier of the light court so he was unable to be there for his daughter. Morgana grew up not knowing her father or the fact that special blood flowed in her veins, her mother was a peasant girl so Morgana also lived the simple life of a peasant. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. All of this changed when a young wizard came strolling through the peasants quarters with a few coins to buy the famed sweet buns that were being baked in a small bakery that the whole city was talking about, he was intrigued that a poor baker was making a pastry that was rumored to be better than the fancy confectioneries made by the palace chefs. He made it to the bakery only to find a long line outside of the door. He doubted that he would get any of the famous buns if he waited at the end of the line so even though his teacher had told him to never use magic for frivolous purposes he performed a minor cantrip that allowed him to cut in line without anybody noticing. Feeling quite satisfied with his little trick the young wizard entered the shabby looking bakery with his stomach growling in anticipation as if it was demanding to be fed the sweet buns but as soon as the young wizard laid eyes upon the beautiful lass behind the counter his stomach fell silent, his mind went blank and his heart started beating like drums. He felt like he had been struck by lightning. Everything about the girl enchanted him, from her long silky raven black hair to her dark blue eyes, from the arch of her eyebrows to the arch of her neck. He had always wondered what love felt like but now he didn''t need to wonder any longer, he knew exactly what it felt like. For a few minutes he could do nothing but stare at the willowy girl. Eventually the bewildered girl spoke with concern in her voice, "Sir, are you alright?" The young wizard scrounged up all his will to reply,"I''m fine." The girl didn''t seem convinced but she continued, "That''s good. What can I get for you sir?" The young wizard tried to answer but he couldn''t for the life of him remember why he was there in the first place. For the next few minutes he stood mute and unmoving until the girl got a little bit of everything in the shop and handed it to him before pushing him out of the door so that she could serve the next customer. And that was how Merlin and Morgana first met. Vol 2 ch 5 - Morgana pt.2 Chapter five From that day forth Merlin was in love with the beautiful Morgana and he would spend all of his free time with her at the bakery. He would even try to impress her with his talent in magic even though his mentor had expressly told him not to practice magic unless he was supervising him. Every day Morgana would spend some time with the silly boy that would show her wondrous things and she eventually began to reciprocate his feelings. Eventually Merlin refused to marry the noble''s daughter that his family had chosen for him and instead proposed to the peasant girl to the outrage of his entire family. They threatened and pleaded with him to not dirty their noble blood with common stock but Merlin would not be stopped, he loved Morgana and he was willing to alienate his own family to have her as his wife. As fate would have it Merlin was a prodigy in magic , a wizard with aptitude unlike any before him. His family recognized this fact and when he showed willingness to run away with the peasant girl they grit their teeth, put on fake smiles and allowed Merlin to marry the woman that he loved. The only person that was truly happy for Merlin that day was young Prince Arthur. Arthur had been friends with Merlin since they were both barely able to walk and the dynamic duo would get into trouble together all the time in a way only best friends could. Today was no different , barely a day had gone by after Merlin had announced his intentions to marry a peasant girl when the Prince also announced that he was going to wed one of the palace maids, a girl called Guinevere who was like her name fair as a summer rose and with skin smooth as a lake when there was no wind. The two decided to wed their brides together and on a bright and sunny day they married their sweethearts in a simple ceremony held under a sacred tree. With their hands fastened with flower wreathes and big smiles adorning their faces the two newly married couples went to their respective wedding chambers to consummate their marriages on that brightest and happiest of days not knowing that one among them would be the impetus that starts a domino of events that would spell doom for both their happiness and the fate of an entire race. One among four would cause untold heartbreak and pain that would reverberate through the ages but they didn''t know that. They were happy in their newfound marital bliss. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. For some years everything seemed to be going well. The only sad thing to happen was the death of the old king, Arthur''s father. The people mourned the death of a great king but they also rejoiced the crowning of a new one, King Arthur. Arthur shouldered the heavy burden of managing a great kingdom and Merlin stood right by his side helping him every step of the way. With the great wizard''s help Arthur was able to realize his dream of making a fair and almost Utopian society. He had his knights of the round table to help him police his kingdoms and everything seemed to be going well but there was something dark and wrong blossoming in the heart of one of the castle''s inhabitants. Like Eve yearning for the forbidden fruit , Guinevere started to desire one of the knights of the round table. He was a young and brash man named Sir Lancelot. He reminded her of the Arthur of yesteryear, before the crown and the responsibilities had transformed him into a wise king or in Guinevere''s mind a boring man. She missed the good old days of adventure and sneaking around in broom closets. It had been twenty years since then and Guinevere had had four children but instead of maturing like a normal adult she wanted to stay forever young and being around Lancelot made her feel young again. In the end she committed the unforgivable act of copulating with him and once she started she wouldn''t stop. Eventually her transgressions caught up with her. There is a saying, "the walls have ears", whenever someone does something in a populated place there is a chance of being caught, especially if you did it again and again. In this case the walls truly did have ears for Merlin happened to be passing in a secret corridor through the walls when he heard the grunts and squeals of love making through the stone blocks. He might have gotten older but he was still that slightly silly boy at heart so he used his magic to see who was fornicating so vigorously. He immediately regretted that decision as he saw his friend''s wife in the arms of one of his knights. He wanted to forget that he saw anything and walk away but his conscience wouldn''t let him. He went to his friend who was more akin to a brother to him and told him of his wives betrayal. He would regret this decision for the rest of his life. Vol 2 ch 6 - Morgana pt. 3 Chapter six At first Arthur refused to believe that his wife of twenty years would betray him with one of his most trusted knights but when he quietly followed her one day he got irrefutable proof of his wife''s infidelity, he witnessed it himself as the the woman he loved snuck into the same room with the man he was mentoring, a man he had treated like a son and as if to add insult to injury the loud sounds coming from inside the room left little doubt as to what they were doing. Arthur was one of the bravest men in the kingdom, he would lead his army from the front whenever there was battle, he would face death itself right in the eyes to help a friend or uphold one of his values but that day his courage failed him. Instead of opening the door and confronting them Arthur ran away, he truly loved his wife from the bottom of his heart and her betrayal finally extinguished the bright light in his soul. Years of hardship and toil of running a kingdom , the battles and the pain of losing friends and comrades, none of that had managed to strip him of it but Guinevere managed to break Arthur in one act of absolute selfishness. Arthur tried to hide from his woes , he tried to find solace at the bottom of a bottle but alcohol only made the problem worse. One night he was so drunk that he announced to the whole pub that his wife was cheating on him. While he lay on the ground in a drunken slumber the news that the king''s wife was cheating on him spread like wildfire until it reached the ears of Guinevere and Lancelot. Now that they knew that their actions were no longer secret they both knew that they were in trouble. Instead of trying to apologize or trying to explain themselves to Arthur they snuck out of the castle in the dead of night like common thieves. By the time Arthur recovered enough from his hangover to stagger back home he had decided to punish the two people who had wronged him so but he found that both were nowhere to be found. Unable to find an outlet for his rage and pain Arthur started to drink excessively every night. Merlin tried to help him but some part of Arthur blamed Merlin for what had happened, he blamed Merlin for telling him. Every time Merlin would try to help him Arthur would lash out at him and their discussion would dissolve into shouting matches. Meanwhile Morgana had problems of her own. In twenty years of being with Merlin she had not born him a single child and she feared that he would abandon her for another. She heard of Guinevere''s story and it only made her more insecure, it made her worry that if Arthur''s marriage could end so abruptly so could hers.The only time she felt better is when she would go to a hidden clearing just inside of the forest next to the castle. Whenever the moon was full she would have this unbearable urge to go to this pool of water she had found when she was young and bath in its sparkling waters as the moon would shine upon her naked body from above. For those few moments she felt less stress and worry as if the moon and the spring were trying to comfort her, as if the water was washing her free of her negative emotions. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. One night she was taking one of her baths when she heard a rustling in the bushes, when she turned around she saw that it was Arthur. Relieved that it wasn''t some creature or some other person she smiled at him in embarrassment and asked him to hand her her clothes which were at his feet. For a moment Arthur didn''t respond, he simply kept staring at Morgana''s naked body illuminated by the full moon and decorated by sparkling drops of water. He couldn''t take his eyes off the body of this young woman for the same blood that had made her unable to conceive a child for all these years had also kept her young and beautiful. In fact she was the most beautiful woman in all of the kingdom. Arthur was drunk and in his drunk addled mind he hatched a plan that he thought would let him get even with Merlin and assuage his aching loins, instead of handing Morgana her clothes he started to take off his own. Morgana saw the hungry and slightly insane look in Arthur''s eyes and tried to run away but he was a very athletic man and even though he was drunk he quickly caught her and dragged her back to the small pool that was fed by the spring. He then proceeded to repeatedly raped her until his lust was sated then he staggered off to find his next bottle of drinks. Morgana curled up next to the pool that had once been her sanctuary but as the waters lapped at her feet it only reminded her of the pain and humiliation she had just gone through. Slowly the darkness that had hatched in Guinevere''s heart and had destroyed Arthur''s goodness started to seep into Morgana''s soul. Just like how her once clear pool had been polluted by her blood from the brutal rape, her once pure soul was now being consumed by hatred. And as she lay there shivering in pain feeling dirty and broken, her dormant fay blood reacted to her emotions and started to boil. The power that had been suppressed all these years slowly emerged and changed Morgana forever A.n. sorry that this is taking so long but this is actually the short version , only four parts , I was originally going to make it seven parts but people don''t seem to like it that much so I''m powering through. Vol 2 ch 7 - Morgana pt. 4 Chapter seven Morgana woke up the next morning unaware of the changes that her body had undergone, all she knew was that she felt sore all over her body and that all the pain from the previous night had vanished. She quickly dressed in the dress she had discarded the previous night and rushed to the only person she believed would make her feel like the world made sense again. She was in such a hurry to get back to the man she loved that she didn''t even notice the strange looks that the people in the castle were giving her as she passed them in the hallways. She ran all the way to Merlin''s tower in the palace leaving a wake of shocked faces and whispers behind her but she didn''t care , she had finally gotten to her husband and he would make everything right again. When she barged into the tower she saw Merlin sitting at a table with Arthur , he appeared to be sharing what looked like a roast chicken with him. Arthur had beat her to Merlin, at first he only wanted to tell Merlin about what happened and beg for his forgiveness but once he saw Morgana a new plan hatched in his mind, Before Morgana could say anything he stood up and pointed at her,"Look Merlin, it is the fay that took your wife! Last night I was going through the forest when I saw this creature try to kill your wife and take her place. I tried to intervene but I was too late to save Morgana but I was able to wound the creature before it could finish transforming into your wife. No doubt this creature has come to sow lies and discord among us, I suggest that we kill it quickly before it opens its mouth and tries to turn us on each other." And to Morgana''s surprise Merlin raised his staff and sent lightning shooting at her face. Arthur''s plan was very cunning, when Morgana''s fay blood had awakened it had changed her appearance, she looked even younger than before, her beauty had increased even further but most telling of all her hair had turned purple, a color unheard of in humans and her ears had become pointed like her father''s. Now Arthur was accusing her of killing ''the real Morgana'' and attempting to take her place as a changeling, a trick that the fay were notorious for. To make things worse Merlin had lost his father and one of his uncles in the first great war between the fay and the humans so that he was deeply prejudiced against the fay. The result of this was that Merlin believed Arthur''s story and attempted to eradicate Morgana with a lightning bolt. If Morgana had been the same helpless woman from before she would have been struck by the lightning which would have resulted in her immediate death but she was no longer Morgana, a normal human girl. No, she was now truly one of the mighty Tuatha D¨¦ Danann , she was now Morgan le Fay. As the lightning zig zagged through the air towards her face something deep inside her stirred , like a muscle she never knew she had it flexed and the shadows around her responded to it. Her own shadow that was flat on the ground only a few seconds ago, shot up from the ground and stood between her and the lightning. The lightning went into the dark shadow and was swallowed until nothing was left. Then the shadows behind Merlin and Arthur also stood up and grabbed them so they couldn''t move, Morgana tried to speak to Merlin but she saw the condemnation and hatred in his eyes. It broke her heart as she saw the poisonous look that the man she loved was giving her. She turned her head towards Arthur. The shadows around him suddenly thickened and turned into sharp swords pointing towards him. She was going to kill the treacherous bastard that had ruined her life when she heard a desperate shout. She turned to see Merlin trying to break free of the shadows and get to Arthur. She saw the despair in his eyes as the million shadow swords that she had conjured approached Arthur and she hesitated. She really wanted to kill Arthur but she could see that Merlin thought that Arthur was the last person he had left that he loved. He was never really close to his family after he had decided to marry Morgana and the only people he really had any contact with were her, Arthur and Guinevere. With Guinevere running away and him believing that Morgana was dead Merlin only had one person left, Arthur. Morgana saw the truth of this fact in Merlin''s eyes and she just couldn''t take the last thing that Merlin truly cared about away from him. He might not have loved her anymore but she still loved him deeply. So she made the shadow swords surrounding Arthur dissolve and fled from the castle with tears running down her cheeks. She ran and she ran, she didn''t even care where her journey took her, she just ran deeper and deeper into the woods. Meanwhile Morgana''s father, Lugh had been having an interesting time in the courts. After Oberon had died from an ''accidental'' knife in the back Lugh had been able to grab the throne for himself. On this particular day he was ''visiting'' a couple of Naiads under some pretext or other when he felt something familiar in the forest, he felt the essence of a human woman which he had once seduced mixed with his own essence. He knew that this meant that this was his child but what shocked him even more was the fact that she was radiating so much power. He had assumed that as a half human his child would at best inherit half of his power but what he was feeling right now was as powerful as he was if not even more powerful. He left the naked naiads and hurried towards the power that was calling out to him like a beacon. When he got to the clearing where the power was coming from he saw that he wasn''t the only one who had noticed the power flux, in fact half of the light court and even some of the dark court had arrived before him. And all of them were staring at a girl sitting in the middle of the glade, her knees held in her hands as she sobbed into them. Lugh also joined this gathering crowd and looked at this heartbreaking sight until he noticed that the girl was the source of magic and Lugh realized that he was looking at his daughter for the first time. He hurried towards the crying girl and collected her into his arms, he might have been an absentee father and not have known his daughter but that had not been because he chose to abandon her. The only reason he had stayed away from his daughter was that he and her mother had agreed that it was the safest option for her but seeing her like this, heart broken and miserable he couldn''t help but try to comfort his child. He carried the almost catatonic Morgana back to his home where he took care of her, he could have had one his many servants take care of her but even though he had never known her for all these years he still loved his daughter deeply and decided to personally make sure that she was okay. Slowly Morgana recovered from her heartbreak as one type of love was replaced by another, she now had a loving father and for a few months she was actually happy. But then tragedy struck again this time in the form of her half-brother''s greed. Lugh had a son born from one of his many liaisons with the dryads, a strapping lad named Reece. Reece was strong , handsome, and powerful but unfortunately he was also narcissistic, self centered and selfish. He was an ambitious bastard who didn''t like the prospect of being a prince with little power but relished the prospect of being the king a great deal. The fay were immortal unless they were killed and fay monarchs tended to live for hundreds of years , the vain prince didn''t want to wait that long so when Morgana came along he saw it as an opportunity to strike his father down. He rallied the court against Lugh by saying that he had broken one of the fay''s largest taboos. He secretly turned the light court against his father but even then Lugh was too powerful to simply depose so he enlisted the help of Andais, queen of the dark court of fay. Andais jumped at the chance to destroy a strong rival and replace him with a weaker person she could dominate. She made a very special poison that could kill any fey and gave it to Reece who used the fact that his father loved and trusted him to get close to his father and kill him. Now that Lugh was dead all that was left was to do for Andais and Rees was to kill the half-breed abomination Lugh had spawned. They went to Lugh''s home together to kill Morgana but instead of quickly and quietly killing Morgana they broke into the house and foolishly announced that they would kill her just like they had just killed her father. Morgana knew of her brother and never really liked him and seeing the grotesque smile on her face left her with little doubt that he was telling the truth when he said that he had killed their father. Instantly that thing inside of her started to flex. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Andais felt the massive flood of power coming from Morgana and tried to use the darkness around her to shield herself and attack Morgana but for the first time in her life the shadows wouldn''t respond to her command. Andais and Reese could only watch staring wide eyed as the shadows around them detached themselves from the ground and the walls to surround them. They just gawped stupidly and uncomprehendingly as the shadows shifted and turned into a mass of jagged edges and dangerous looking points. In the last moments of their lives they felt excruciating pain as they were shredded into small pieces by the tornado of sharp edges that Morgana had summoned. With both Reece and Andais dead, Morgana became something that she that had never been seen before. As the only living direct descendant of Lugh she became the Queen of the light court of fay, because she had defeated Andais in direct combat she also became the queen of the dark court of fay. For the first time in history a single person held both posts at the same time. Several rebellious and ambitious people tried to kill her but thanks to her overwhelming power she was able to easily stamp out these elements. In the end she was able to create the first unified court of fay and become the very first overall leader of the fay. She had lost her father but as a tribute to the man she had come to love and respect a great deal she dedicated her time to the thing that Lugh had loved , his people. She was a strict but fair monarch, beloved by most of the fay. She truly cared about the fay and tried to help them instead of just using them like most of the Tuatha D¨¦ Danann did and they loved her for it. Five months after Lugh''s death and nine month''s after Arthur had raped her, Morgana gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Even though little Mordred was the son of her worst enemy and the product of rape she didn''t love him any less for it. She raised him with all of the care and affection that she could muster. Mordred grew up to be a charismatic prince. The fay would hang on every word he said because something about him screamed leader and people felt compelled to follow him. He didn''t abuse this power though, his mother had taught him to love his people and he was always respectful to them. Mordred loved his mother but he had always sensed a shadow of pain in her heart that she had hidden from him and he had a suspicion that it had something to do with his unknown father. One day he went to one of the ancient fay who was a soothe sayer and asked her about his mother''s past. The fay, one of the oldest dryads whose spirit resided in an ancient willow tree tried to warn the prince off the path he was on but he was very stubborn and chose to ignore her warning. Unable to say no to her prince the ancient dryad used her powers to reveal the truth to Mordred, the fog that seemed to cling to the limbs of her willow tree suddenly swirled and coalesced, turning into images that revealed Morgana''s life with the humans. After he saw everything that had happened to his mother Mordred felt uncontrollable rage grip his heart. He saw what Arthur did to his mother and how he was never punished for what he had done so he decided that he would be the one to punish him. Thanks to his power he was easily able to rally a giant army of fay then without even telling his mother he marched on the humans. He used his army to siege the castle and break into it in short order, such things are not very difficult when you had treants which are basically giant walking trees on your side. When he got inside he found Arthur being protected by an old wizard. The old wizard was able to protect Arthur for a long time but Mordred was finally able to get to him and slay him. As his sword cleaved through what he believed was his father Mordred felt a lightning bolt strike him from behind, blasting him off his feet. As he lay on the ground dying he didn''t feel regret, he only felt happy that he had been able to get some measure of justice for his mother. Unfortunately for Mordred although he had indeed killed Arthur it wasn''t his father that he had killed but his half-brother King Arthur the second. Time might have meant little for the fay but it was very important to humans, Mordred was only a quarter fay but even then he was immortal so he had forgotten this fact. It had been thirty years since he had been born but to Mordred that was nothing but a pointless number. Thirty years might have been trivial for Mordred but during those thirty years Arthur had died, entrusting his youngest child and only son to Merlin. Merlin had raised this child like he was his own son and groomed him to be the perfect king. He had succeeded and King Arthur the second was an even greater king than the his father. But it was all for nothing, the boy he had raised to be a man, his son that he had come to love was slayed in front of him by the very things that had taken his wife away from him. As Merlin knelt beside Arthur''s broken body , his old and wrinkled face twisted into an expression of sadness and rage , he promised to kill every fay that he could get his hands on. He promised that this senseless act of violence would not go unanswered. Meanwhile Morgana had just received word of what had happened , some of the fay had managed to get the charred remains of her son at great personal risk. When she saw Mordred''s dead body she fell to her knees and let out a loud wail. For the next few days the whole forest was filled with wails and sobs as the entire fay community grieved with their queen. For a week straight Morgana grieved and so she didn''t notice that there were fay disappearing from the forest. At first it was just a pixie here and there, maybe a fairy. Then brownies and their ilk started to vanish then dryads and naiads started to disappear too. By the time Morgana noticed something was wrong it was already too late. Merlin had been hunting the fay and then sacrificing them in dark rituals to increase his power. He knew that his foe was the queen of the fay, the same fay that he thought took his wife''s face and name to taunt him. He remembered how she had brushed off his power thirty years ago so he hoarded power using forbidden techniques that he had found hidden in his former master''s library. With every fay he killed he grew stronger and stronger until he grew so strong that he felt something big and undeniable pull him away from his world. He struggled against this undeniable force and used his now massive power to connect himself to Morgana so that she would be dragged along with him. His spell succeeded but what he didn''t put into consideration was that she was the fay monarch and all of her people are connected to her through a magical bond. When he was dragged into a higher plane thanks to his spell Morgana was dragged along with him and thanks to her connection to her people so were the rest of the fay. Once in the higher plane Merlin was powerful enough to claim a piece of it for himself as his own kingdom but Morgana was able to get a piece of his kingdom and turned it into a forest for her people. He attempted to kill her many times with his newly found power but she had the backing of her people and he was unable to do so because even though he had far more personal power , Morgana as the Monarch of the fay was able to channel all of their collective power which was more than enough to match Merlin. But even as she defeated him time and time again she didn''t have the heart to finish him off. Instead she had to see the man she loved go insane as his repeated failures to kill her turned the once brilliant man into a delusional madman who surrounded himself with fake people and pretended that it all meant something. And the saddest part of all was that even after all that had transpired a part of her still loved her former husband. some difficulties... Some things have come up in real life that will slow down my release speed considerably. I know that my release speed is already slow because I have been working on five books simultaneously while editing the heretic but now the releases are going to be sporadic, if they happen at all. I will try to work as hard as possible so that the stories don''t stagnate but some serious shit is going on in my life so I''m not sure how successful I''ll be. Things should go back to normal in about two weeks to a month but until then please be patient. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Sorry for being such a flaker. Vol 2 ch 8 - knowing and seeing Chapter eight I created a piston between the wooden bars of my prison. I slowly filled it with liquid so that it gradually pried apart the limbs of the tree that were acting as our prison bars without breaking them. When there was enough room for me to pass between the branches, I stepped out of the cage and headed straight for a shadow of a large tree that was growing next to a small pond. As I approached the tree that looked like any other in the forest, the shadows around me started to get darker and coalesced into sharp and jagged shapes which then flew in my direction. To counter the numerous very sharp and , according to my powers, very deadly shadows flying at me, I created a porous ball of pure magnesium above me. I then filled the porous ball with ferrous sulfide. When the ferrous sulfide came into contact with the air , it ignited. The heat was enough that the ball of magnesium metal burst into bright white flames. For a few seconds the ball of magnesium turned into what looked like a miniature white star. The bright white light it produced obliterated the shadows around me and for a second revealed a woman standing next to the tree I was walking to. Intellectually I knew that Morgana was a beautiful woman but knowing that and seeing her for the first time were two very different things. For instance I knew that she had raven black hair, but what I didn''t know was that her hair was so fine that when the bright light hit it , some of the light was refracted and turned into beautiful flashes of different colors running up and down her hair like miniature rainbows. I knew that she had violet colored eyes, but what I didn''t know was that they were like faceted jewels, more beautiful than the most expensive amethysts cut by the most expert of jewelers. I knew that there had been some alterations to her anatomy since her awakening, but what I didn''t know was that the combined effect could be so breathtaking. Her pointed ears, her angular features, her lips which were the same shade of violet as her eyes, and her strange pupils that turned into slits when the light hit them like those of a cat; it all combined to make something very strange but also something very wonderful. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I stared at the alien creature in front of me and felt my heart beat faster in my chest. By now I knew the feeling I was experiencing. It had happened enough times for me to know the symptoms. The slightly sweaty palms, the butterflies in my stomach, the inability to take a good deep breath; all classic symptoms of infatuation. I was developing a crush on Morgana just from looking at her. I wiped my palms on my trouser and tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach as I clenched my right hand into a fist and placed it over my heart. I then bent forward from my waist in what my powers were telling me was a proper fay bow before I spoke in a loud and clear voice, "Greetings to Morgana, queen of the fay. My companion and I mean no harm to you or your people. We apologize that we trespassed on your territory but I assure you it was purely accidental and not out of malice." "It has been many centuries since anybody has called me by that name, tell me stranger how did you know of my human name?" Morgana''s voice was barely a whisper when she spoke but the wind seemed to carry it right to my ears. "Before I answer I would like to invoke the rights of hospitality." "And why would I agree to that? You have already trespassed on my territory, why would I treat you like a guest?" "Simple, in exchange I will answer three questions for you, any three questions that you choose. I swear on my power." Morgana stood silently for a second, then her long black lace dress rustled as she approached me with her right hand raised. I grasped her hand in mine and as our hands met in a handshake there was a ripple originating from our clasped hands. "Alright stranger, the deal is struck. Hospitality for you and your friend in exchange for three answers to any three questions I choose to ask." The feeling of her soft skin on mine was a little distracting so I was a little late when I answered, "The deal is struck. My name is John. It is an honor to meet you, your highness." She had a small smile on her violet lips as she said, "Well met John. Well met." Storm has passed. Good news! Things seem to have blown over in real life and I should start updating my fics more regularly now. Thank you for being patient. Yours truly, Habeshabro If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. P.s. Please take a look at my new fic and tell me what you think. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6863 Vol 2 ch 9 - iron fist Chapter nine The fay around us were no longer hiding themselves so the once quiet and empty looking forest was now bursting with strange creatures. Green women with vines instead of hair and leaves covering their private parts appeared out of some of the trees around me. Some of the beautiful flowers around me took flight, revealing themselves to be creatures similar to the ones that had knocked me and Jules out. Short hairy men sprang out from beneath the ground , so hairy that the only thing visible were their small beady eyes. Satyrs, men with horns on their heads and furry goat''s hooves instead of legs, walked out from behind bushes and other foliage. Beautiful women with slightly blue skin swam out of the rivers and streams, completely naked. Their sublime form and shapely figure were quite enticing, well at least they were until they spread their blue tinged lips in a grizzly smile that revealed sharp triangular teeth similar to that of a shark. Even some of the giant trees near me simply stood up, their branches intertwining to form hands and their roots twisting together to form feet. Gnarled faces appeared on their barks and their empty hollow eyes stared at me. Many amazing and fantastical creatures appeared around me but the ones I paid the most attention to were the ones that looked relatively normal, beautiful men and women who seemed to appear out of thin air. They all had pointed ears like Morgana but aside from that and some unusual eye and hair colors they looked completely human. They were dressed in everything from clothes made out of fur to whole outfits made entirely from leaves and other vegetation to cloth garments that would have looked right at home on a fashion designer''s catwalk, some didn''t even bother to wear anything at all. This eclectically dressed group of people approached Morgana and simultaneously got on one knee as if it was choreographed. They bent their waists in a bow and together they said, "Our Queen." The Tuatha D¨¦ Danann, the rulers of the fay, paid homage to their queen. They stayed on their knees until Morgana made a small hand gesture then they all rose together. Once they had greeted Morgana, they all shifted their attention to me. Most of them looked at me with expressions of thinly veiled animosity or outright hatred. One particular man who had armor made out of bark stepped forward from the group and glared at me with fury smoldering in the depth of his bronze colored eyes, If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. "My Queen, why have we not killed this pest? Why did you promise it hospitality ?" Morgana calmly sat down on a throne of darkness that suddenly appeared behind her before she spoke with a cold chilling tone, "Briac, are you questioning my authority?" The man visibly paled when he heard that, "No, my Queen. I am just wondering what your reasons were for keeping him alive." Morgana spoke with darkness slowly swirling ominously around her ,"Information, Briac. This man holds information that could rid us of our biggest problem." "Ours or yours?" With that question another man stepped forward. This one had blue hair and deep blue eyes The only thing covering his muscular and well toned body were tribal looking tattoos that covered half his face before they snaked down his neck , covered the right side of his torso and terminated at his feet. Although he was standing on dry land, everywhere he walked waves of water would appear to spray anything nearby. "We all know what this is about. You continue to pine for that human when you should have destroyed him long ago. Merlin is no longer a threat to us, he weakens himself every time he creates one of those puppets he likes to play with. I could go right now and destroy his entire city with him in it, the only reason I do not do so is because of your orders." Morgana shifted her gaze from Briac to this new man and if I thought her tone was cold before, it was now freezing; as she spoke a cold gust of air literally froze the waves that the man was creating so that he was frozen on the spot, "Manannan mac Lir , you have been a friend to me for many years so I won''t end your life right this moment but if you ever disrespect me like this again I will not be so merciful," the shadows around the man turned into spikes and skewered him in multiple locations, "Do we understand each other?" He nodded his head weakly after which the spikes vanished, leaving him slumped over , bleeding from multiple wounds and frozen on the spot. Morgana turned to the other Tuatha D¨¦ Danann and asked, "Any other objections?" Vol 2 ch 10 - love and freedom Chapter ten With the Tuatha D¨¦ Danann properly cowed, Morgana turned towards the giant standing trees and other fantastical creatures before loudly proclaiming, "These two are no longer our prisoners , they are our guests." Her words had an immediate and profound effect on the different creatures around me. The attitude that they had towards me suddenly shifted. The suspicious looks and wary attitudes disappeared. The small people with butterfly wings who had been careful to maintain a certain distance from me started to playfully zip around my head , some even landed on my shoulder and started to play in my hair, weaving flowers into it and decorating it with braids. The satyrs started to play flutes and strange string instruments and produced a lively jig. Once the satyrs started playing the music, the naked green women started to frolic and dance around me causing my eyes to wander from one to the other, trying not to miss the wondrous sights on display. They noticed me staring at them but instead of getting angry they just giggled and continued their wild dance, moving their bodies freely and unabashedly. Even the giant trees that had been looming over me with grim expressions on their faces relaxed and backed away to replant themselves into the ground, once again becoming indistinguishable from the surrounding trees. The interwoven branches that had been my prison and where Jules still slept creaked as the interlocking branches came apart and sunk into the ground. At the same time similar branches and vines sprouted out from beneath Jules and started to weave and intertwine like snakes until she was resting on a bed with branches for frames and a bed of leaves and flowers as a mattress. I was surprised by the sudden change in atmosphere from tense bordering on aggressive to festive, it was just too unnatural so I checked the cause with my power and found out something shocking; the fay were absolutely loyal to the queen and to a lesser extent ,the Tuatha D¨¦ Danann. They weren''t just obedient to their queen, to them her word was law. They willingly gave up their freedom to her and became an extension to her will. She could order them to do anything she wanted and they wouldn''t even hesitate to fulfill her orders. That was what had happened, the queen had told them I was a guest so in their minds all the hostility they had towards me instantly vanished. It was actually very creepy and for a man who grew up in the twentieth century where everyone is obsessed with freedom it felt wrong that sentient creatures could so casually throw away their freedom for a life of slavery, but as I used my powers to study their society I found that they were happy. Strange as it may seem, the fact that they had so little power over their own lives didn''t bother them. In fact it gave them a strange sense of freedom, freedom from the stress that comes from struggling to determine ones own destiny and freedom from worrying about anything that did not concern their responsibility to take care of the forest. They trusted their queen and so they were free to play and dance while fulfilling their role as guardians of nature. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. It was a strange relationship but it worked. As I looked around me and observed the smiling faces of those around me, I started to wonder if free will truly was the gift that most people thought it was. My thoughts were interrupted when Morgana cleared her throat to get my attention, "John, You promised me three truthful answers to any three of my questions. I would like to ask the first one now." I didn''t see any point in waiting so I said, "Sure, go for it." "What is the best way to restore my husband Merlin''s sanity?" I knew her story so I wasn''t surprised by her question, "Merlin''s insanity is not just an affliction of the mind, if it was I could tell you several methods you could use to help heal him but his most pressing problem now concerns his soul. His soul has been torn up little by little as he creates the ''citizens'' of his city. Right now his soul is on the verge of collapsing after which he shall cease to exist." "Are you saying that it is too late to save him?" "No, there is one way to save him, but I would not recommend it. Not only is it insanely dangerous, but it isn''t exactly what you want. It will only restore Merlin to how he was before. He will still hate you and try to attack the fay the moment he is put back together again." She reacted as if she didn''t even hear my warning. She leaned forward and eagerly asked, "What is this method?" I sighed. I wish I could have lied and told her that Merlin had no hope but I had made a promise that would literally destroy me if I broke it. "In the far reaches of this plane there are vile creatures called soul benders..." A.N. sorry for late update. There hasn''t been any electricity in my house for two and a half days. What can I say, I live in a third world country. Vol 2 ch 11 - stupidity and insanity Chapter eleven I told Morgana everything I knew about the soul benders. I carefully explained to her how they were originally parasitic soul fragments that latched onto other souls before completely mutating and twisting their host souls into monstrously grotesque shapes to better suit their purpose which like any disease was to propagate themselves as far and as wide as possible. I told her how they had already destroyed multiple planets and even entire universes with their never ending hunger to consume more souls. I explained how they would sometimes get a powerful enough soul to infect and they would evolve into something far more terrifying than simple parasites, how they would become abominations known as soul benders. I made sure that she knew that even in this higher plane where powerful creatures roamed freely, they were feared by all that knew of them and that the only reason they haven''t spread out and consumed everything in their path was because they were being contained by several powerful beings that have kingdoms bordering on their territory. As I was explaining the many dangers that are associated with soul benders which included things like slavery, complete destruction of the soul, and being turned into a mindless monster , Morgana interrupted me with a raised hand. "This is all very fascinating but you have yet to tell me what this has to do with Merlin." "Merlin''s soul is fragmented. The only things on this plane that can manipulate souls are the soul benders so they are the only ones who could put him back together again." "Well, why didn''t you just say that?" "Because I''m trying to tell you how insanely dangerous it would be to try and get one of these evil creatures to help you. Anybody who goes to their territory doesn''t come back. Are you willing to trade your people''s lives for a slim chance to help Merlin?" "Of course I wouldn''t risk my people''s lives on this madness." I felt relieved that my words had gotten to her and said, "That is the right decision your highness. You are very wise to recognize the futility of any actions involving these vile monsters." Stolen novel; please report. But then she completely shattered my relief when she said, "I''ll go there myself." Again and again I tried to reason with her and cajole her into giving up her insane quest but she wouldn''t budge. She stubbornly refused to change her mind even when the Tuatha D¨¦ Danann and the surrounding creatures begged her to. She stood up from her throne which then disappeared into the shadows. She raised her hand and a pulse of darkness shot out from it and traveled in every direction, silencing all of the fay that had been pleading with Morgana to stay , "I am the Cailleach , the queen of air and darkness. I rule you by right of might, you do not rule me. I have decided to do this and all your incessant badgering is managing to do is raise my ire. Now hold your tongue before I cut off the offending body part and feed it to the crows. I shall go to the land of the soul benders to get help for Merlin, that is my decision and it is final. While I am away Manann¨¢n mac Lir shall act as temporary king. If I do not return in five years , he shall become the new king of the fay." when no one challenged her words she turned to me , "Now John, this is my second question. What is the best way for me to get to these soul benders?" With no choice but to answer, I told her the truth, "The best way to get to their territory is to travel with me and my friend." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "You are going to these soul benders?" "Yes." "Didn''t you just tell me that it is insanely stupid and stupidly insane to attempt to go there?" "Yes." "Then which are you, stupid or insane?" "I''m afraid only time will tell your majesty and if you are coming with us to see the soul benders then I''m afraid you might not like the answer when we find out." Vol 2 ch 12 - First Stop Chapter twelve It took a little while to explain what had happened after Jules woke up, mainly because she kept muttering pixie dust over and over again and giggling like a crazy person as I was trying to speak, but eventually I finished telling her what had happened. By the time I had finished telling Jules the whole story and she stopped giggling like she was high on laughing gas, Morgana had finished whatever preparations she needed to make for our journey and she was ready to go. I saw no reason to delay any longer so we left the enchanted forest of the fay behind and headed towards our first destination, Camelot. I had created the same platform I had created before and the three of us, Jules, Morgana and myself, were now floating a few kilometers away from the sparkling white city. Morgana had a complex expression on her face as she stared at the city and asked, "What are we doing here?" "You wanted to help Merlin heal his fragmented soul, didn''t you? Well that means we are going to have to take the old geezer along with us. Coercing a soul bender into doing what we want is going to be difficult enough, but abducting one and bringing it here? You can forget about it. So our only real option is to collect all of the fragments of Merlin''s soul and bring it along with us." Morgana turned around and stared at me incredulously, "You said that there is a fragment of Merlin''s soul in each of the people in Camelot. Are you suggesting that we kidnap the entire city?" "Oh, God no. We don''t have the time or the luxury to herd Merlin''s little soul puppets around like lost sheep. Thankfully there is a much better option. You see, when one of Merlin''s creations is killed, the little fragment inside it isn''t destroyed, instead it is once again absorbed into its parent body, aka Merlin." "Are you saying that if I killed all of these so called ''soul puppets'' then I can heal Merlin''s mind?" "I''m afraid not. When Merlin creates these soul puppets, they become truly separate entities with their own feelings and memories so if we do this, we will actually be making things worse. You can imagine what will happen when hundreds of minds occupy the same body so I am now giving you fair warning. This is the point of no return, if we do this but fail to make the soul benders do what we want, not only will we fail to save Merlin but he is going to be much worse off than he is now. So you are going to have to make a decision, do you want to move forward or go back to your forest and leave everything as it is?" The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Morgana''s pale face got even paler as she heard the risks involved,"You never said anything about this before." "I told you that our journey is going to be hard. This is actually going to be one of the easiest things we are going to do on our way to the soul benders so if you aren''t even willing to do this little thing then you better give up now and go back before you get killed." Morgana simply stood on the platform, looking at the distant city and considering her options. I could see that she was actually considering abandoning this mad quest but eventually she grit her teeth and her purple eyes flashed an ominous light, "Alright, let''s do this." "You misunderstand. You are going to do this, not us. I will be providing support but you will be doing all the heavy lifting. Jules is going to sit this one out." Two angry female voices immediately started to bombard me with complaints. ".... I am not made out glass you know! I can fight! You can''t stop me!..." ".....Camelot has so many anti-fay wards on it that no fay can get in! Do you think we wouldn''t have done something already if it was so easy? You always act so high and mighty but now you want me to do all the work, I''m starting to think that all you know how to do is to talk big!...." *sigh* Why did I suddenly feel like a father dealing with his teenage daughters? Vol 2 ch 13 - the fall of Camelot Chapter thirteen The complaining went on for quite a while until I grew tired of their incessant whining and I created some duct tape to seal their mouths which finally gave me enough peace and quiet to explain my plan, "Alright, now that both of you are willing to listen, here is my plan. I will be taking care of Merlin and the wards that surround the city remotely from here. Jules , you will be staying right here with me. Morgana, once I remove the wards, you will go in and destroy everybody in the city except for Merlin. Jules, if you feel left out after you see what happens, then I will do one thing for you ,no questions asked," I snapped my fingers and removed the duct tape from their mouths, "Any questions?" Both of them looked furious that I had duct taped their mouths but Morgana seemed to get over it first, "So you really think that defeating Merlin is going yo be that easy?" "Yes. Frankly it would have been very difficult normally. He protects himself from magic and physical attacks. He is even paranoid enough to protect himself with spells that are keyed to sense a person''s intention but I have two things that can easily foil his defenses; number one is this baby," I used my powers to create a very simple remote controlled drone, "This is a purely mechanical device that has no magic and uses no mana so the anti-magic spells won''t work on it plus it has no will of its own so it won''t trip the intent sensing wards either." Morgana looked at the little drone with curiosity but she was still unimpressed, "Alright , your little contraption might get close to Merlin but how are you going to incapacitate him? You have already said that he is protected by from both physical and magical harm." "That will be my second ace up my sleeve, this little bottle right here," I took out a vial filled with a glittery substance and showed it to them. Morgana looked at me like I was crazy,"Pixie dust? Really? Your grand plan is Pixie dust?" "I think that you might have misunderstood what pixie dust is. It isn''t actually all magic. The pixies don''t create this dust intentionally, in fact it is the fairy equivalent of dandruff. What is really amazing about pixie dust is that each grain of dust is actually only one molecule. It''s an incredibly complex chain of atoms that combine together to form a small ritual circle. Each speck is so small that none of Merlin''s wards will be able to detect them. I can use the little drone to sprinkle some of this stuff on him and he will be out like a light. In fact you don''t have to take my word for it, you can see me do it right now." As I spoke , a tablet appeared in my hand with images streaming from the little drone. I used the tablet to pilot the drone and as they both looked on, I sent the drone to the largest tower in the city. Through the images, we could see the people of the city going about their normal day to day activities. If we didn''t know what was actually going on, we would have thought that it was just a normal city. The images of normal people was slowly replaced by knights clad in cold iron, the bane of the fay. When the drone finally reached the tower, I made it flit into a window and navigated through the abandoned looking tower until it reached a particularly bright hallway. The walls, the floor and the roof of the hallway were all made from stones that emitted light. As the drone flew on, I had to adjust the brightness of the image so that we could see properly, "It seems that he truly fears you Morgana, his whole inner sanctum is made out of these light stones so that there wouldn''t be any shadows." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Morgana remained mute and just continued to stare at the screen as the drone got closer to it''s target. Eventually, the little drone went into a large circular room. On the floor were concentric circles of different colors, each circle had indicate looking designs and were filled with magical symbols, each circle was also glowing ominously and was brimming with mana. The circles looked quite magical but the drone bypassed them like they weren''t there until it reached the center of the room. At the center of the magic circles, a man in a tattered and faded blue robe was floating in the air with his feet crossed and sitting in a common Lotus meditation position. He looked about thirty, medium build , well defined features but the really strange thing about him was that he had the gray hair of an old man even though he didn''t have a single wrinkle. Morgana looked at the image with wide eyes then whispered, "Merlin." His eyes were closed and we could see his eyes moving around beneath his eyelids as if he was having a really intense dream. My drone hovered over his head and started to sprinkle the pixie dust onto him. He immediately fell from the air like a sack of potatoes. He then continued to lie on the floor, snoring loudly. The magic circles around him started to get dimmer and dimmer until all of them grew dark. I turned towards Morgana and said, "There you go. Merlin and his wards are down , the rest is up to you." This time, Morgana didn''t argue, she just melted into her own shadow which then streaked towards Camelot. On the other hand, Jules was still unhappy. "Why are you holding me back? Do you think I can''t help?" I just shook my head and handed the tablet controlling the drone over to her. The drone had zipped out of a window and it was hovering above the city so it showed a bird''s eye view of Camelot. At first the was nothing to see but a few seconds later, there was a burst of red in the corner, then another burst of red, then another. Eventually these splashes of red color started to multiply. At first I could see that Jules didn''t understand what was going on but then I zoomed into the picture for her and her face grew pale as she saw what was happening. The shadows from all over the city had started to darken sinisterly and slowly they began to writhe and move with evil purpose. They were filled with claws, teeth, and unimaginable horrors. When the darkness struck, it was merciless. It didn''t care if it was attacking women or even children, it left nothing behind but a splash of blood and shredded meat. In just a few minutes, the whole city was consumed by darkness and screaming until the screaming stopped and it only left the darkness behind. Eventually even that faded away leaving the city in absolute silence. I looked towards Jules and asked, "Did you really want to be a part of that?" Jules just shook her head and hugged me, her eyes still full of the horrors she had just witnessed. I held her close and hugged her back because I needed the hug too. As for the city of Camelot, the once pristine white city was dyed a terrible red color. Vol 2 ch 14 - a good woman Chapter fourteen Jules kept shaking in my arms and it took her a little while to calm down but after she did calm down somewhat , she looked up at me and simply asked, "Why?" Even though she only said one word, her question was actually more complicated than it seemed; why did you let that happen? Why did you make me watch? Why was this necessary? Why didn''t you do this yourself? Why did Morgana act this way? Why did all those people die this way? She said one word but her questions were many. I smiled sadly and answered all of her unasked questions, "Believe it or not, this was necessary. I needed you to see this part of Morgana because it is equally a part of her as the civilized face she usually shows. There is one fundamental fact that you must never forget, Morgana might look human , act human, hell she is half human but at her core she is one of the fay and they are not human. Humans may manipulate mana to use magic but the fay are magic; they live it , they breath it and it is an essential part of who they are. Their magic comes from deep inside their souls and as such is a part of their identity. A fay who controls water would be as mercurial as the sea, a fay tied with the earth would be as steady as a mountain, a fay who uses flames would be as explosive as an inferno, you get the idea. They are tied to strong forces of nature and as such they embody the basic traits of their elements." "Are you saying that I should fear Morgana? If that is the kind of person she is, why did we even agree to help her?" "Ah, we come to the crux of the matter. Should you fear Morgana? No, in fact you should pity her. When she got her powers, she had just been raped by a man she had trusted and loved like a brother. Her state of mind was fragile and when her power blossomed, it was guided by her bleak emotions. In the end she formed a connection with the least understood and most terrifying power out there. Because of her traumatic experience she unknowingly took the unfathomable power of darkness into her soul and by the time she realized what the darkness really was , it was far too late." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "What does that mean? What is the darkness?" "What is the darkness? It is much more than absence of light. Darkness is fear, darkness is sorrow , darkness is the cloak that hides all evil but above all darkness is hunger. It hungers to consume all that is light and good, it hungers for the destruction of all that is and all that will be. The darkness is emotionless, cold and terrifying and Morgana unknowingly took this most terrifying force inside of her soul. Since that day, she has been struggling to control the darkness. She has tried to chain it up and make it obey her will but the darkness doesn''t have a true master. It follows if there is destruction but what about other times? What feeds its insatiable hunger at other times? That is the greatest burden that Morgana has to face. She can only feed it parts of herself to keep it from feeding on everything else." "She feeds it parts of herself?" "Yes. She feeds it her memories, losing them forever as she sacrifices them to the endless void. She feeds it her vitality, so much so that the once immortal fay has a little more than five more years to live now. She feeds it her very flesh and blood then she uses fay glamour to make herself appear healthy and strong even though she is suffering terrible pain and unimaginable injuries. What I just did was to feed the darkness so that she wouldn''t have to. Sure the fate of the soul puppets is sad but it is fleeting. Morgana has dealt with more pain in her life than anybody should go through. She has such darkness in her soul but her heart remains pure. What I did now was an act of mercy Jules, I gave respite to a woman that perhaps deserves it more than any other." Jules was no longer scared or horrified by what she had seen, instead she was crying. She was crying for a woman whose entire life was a tragedy. She was crying for a woman who had seen hell but still chose to sacrifice so much for those around her. She was crying for a woman who fate had decided to torment unfairly. Jules was crying for a good woman who had endured far too much. Vol 2 ch 15 - New Territory Chapter fifteen By the time Jules stopped crying and she managed to compose herself, Morgana was returning while pushing Merlin''s comatose body in front of her on a wooden pushcart she had found somewhere in the city. I landed the platform we were floating on in front of her. She looked at me with a frosty expression and asked me, "What now?" "Now we leave this territory. Here is some pixie dust, I want you to administer some to Merlin every four hours. I have taken the liberty of taking enough pixie dust to keep him under for three years so don''t worry about supply, just make sure he doesn''t wake up," I created a small bubble to hold Jules, Morgana, the comatose Merlin and myself and we quickly flew past the now empty city of Camelot and towards the horizon. We were flying so fast that everything around us became a blur, "We will reach the border of this territory in a few minutes. The territory we are going to travel to next is a world of water. It is populated by gigantic creatures similar to jelly fish and squid. They are one of the few creatures on this plane that ascended because of sheer physical power without possessing any magic. They are a peaceful race but that doesn''t mean that they are helpless, if provoked they can use a variety of attacks ranging from electric attacks to poison." As I talked, we quickly traveled hundreds of miles and reached a strange colorful wall. It looked like the surface of a soap bubble. A psychedelic mixture of colors, some that weren''t even supposed to exist. "This is the wall that separates each territory from it''s adjacent territory. Two territories might have a common border but that doesn''t mean anything. What is on the other side of that wall is a wholly different world with different rules. Thankfully my power let''s me know things so I can tell you if there are any special restrictions when we cross. As I have mentioned before, the territory that we are about to enter is mainly underwater. We will stay in this bubble and I am able to supply us with breathable air. Other than that there are no restrictions in this territory. Are you ready to cross over?" Morgana nodded without much enthusiasm but Jules was nearly buzzing with excitement as she jumped around in the bubble, "Finally! We can start our adventure! Am I ready ? I was born ready! Full steam ahead John, I want to see what these giant jelly fish look like." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Her upbeat attitude was infectious, I couldn''t help but to be swept up in her excitement and I started to laugh. Even Morgana who was cold and morose since she let her darkness loose had a small smile on her face, her lips being slightly quirked upwards at the corner as she looked at the angel jumping around with excitement. She turned to me and asked,"Is she always this energetic?" "Yes. She is constantly by my side and even when I am waist high in shit and sinking fast, she still manages to make me feel better. She was my first friend at a time when I didn''t have any friends. She is the reason that I didn''t go insane when the world turned its back on me. I know that she puts my needs before anything else and in the end I have learned that I truly love her from the bottom of my heart. So to answer your question, yes she is always this energetic. She is my little dose of sunshine and I love her dearly for it." I couldn''t help feeling sentimental when I talked about Jules. I unconsciously grabbed her hand and pulled her close so that we were standing face to face, gazing into each other''s eyes. In the corner of my eyes, I saw Morgana look at us then turn towards Merlin with a sad smile on her face. Seeing the tender expression on her face as she gazed at him, I didn''t need my powers to know that she was still very much in love with him. I sighed when I saw that sad scene and I cleared my throat to get rid of the awkward atmosphere that had been created, "Alright then. Let us move forward. We are now about to enter the next territory, brace yourselves." The bubble we were in moved towards the wall that looked like a soap bubble and passed through without any obstruction. One second we were in the grassland, the next we were suddenly underwater, in what looked like a deep blue sea. Before we could get used to the sudden shift in environment and get our bearings, a giant bolt of lightning suddenly came streaking straight towards us. Vol 2 ch 16 - Save my child Chapter sixteen The bolt of lightning came crashing towards our bubble but before it could touch the surface, a wall of darkness appeared and swallowed it whole. The wall of darkness was obviously the work of Morgana. Her eyes had turned completely black like they were bottomless pits, strange black patterns started to appear on her pale skin, even her voice sounded dark and demonic as she spoke,"Who dares attack us?" When she got no answer she continued,"Do you really think that hiding yourselves will keep you safe? In the deep sea lurks unfathomable darkness and the darkness is mine to command. I repeat, do you really think that hiding will keep you safe?" Her voice had a strange quality to it that made it reverberate, it seemed to be calling out to something and that something answered. Darkness from beneath us surged up and formed a swirling vortex around the bubble. I could feel the vortex compressing as it was about to explode to devour everything in the area. I quickly grabbed Morgana''s hand and shouted, "Stop! This isn''t what it looks like. Don''t attack!" She turned towards , her eyes looking like black holes, her face devoid of any emotions and for a second I thought that she was going to attack me but then she closed her eyes and shook her head as if she was trying to shake something away and her eyes became the lovely shade of purple that they were before. "Why did you stop me? They attacked us, why shouldn''t we attack them?" "Let me talk to them and I''ll sort everything out, okay?" The vortex of darkness slowly fell apart and returned back into the bottom of the sea. Using my power, I knew that the inhabitants of this world were giant creatures that resembled giant squid except that they were much larger and I also knew that two of them were camouflaged not too far from us. I also knew that these creatures didn''t communicate using sound like we do, instead they used light based communication. They ''talked'' by displaying different colors inside of their jelly like bodies. So I used my powers to translate and displayed two simple messages. One was just a large ball of bright golden yellow and next to it a swirl of green and blue spinning endlessly. Loosely translated it meant and Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. After a few seconds two beings appeared before us. One was as large as a small mountain, shaped like a squid , its whole body made out of jelly like material so it was see through and inside it was thousands of small motes of light that twinkled like stars in the night sky. The other one was surprisingly little, just a little bigger than a normal human. It was spherical in shape and unlike the big one it didn''t have small stars in its body, instead it had one big ball of bright blue light right at it''s center. After a few minutes of staring at this amazing sight, I finally noticed that something was wrong. Chunks were missing from the bigger creature and looked quite hurt while the little one was frantically swimming around it like it was worried about the large one. Finally colors started to flash within the gigantic body of the larger squid like creature and I used my power to translate what it was saying. Vol 2 ch 17 - Miracle Chapter seventeen I knew it was already too late. I knew because my power was telling me that it was too late and my power was never wrong, not when it came to gathering information. The damage to her body, and it was a her since the large one was actually a mother, anyhow the damage done to her body was massive, on a scale equal to her massive body. I knew that my powers were too small and underdeveloped to help her in any meaningful way but I tried anyways. My mind kept telling me it was pointless, that what I was doing was stupid but my heart didn''t care. My heart only saw a mother dying because she refused to give her child to an enemy. My heart only knew that the child would suffer unimaginable anguish if his mother died. My heart only felt the panic and franticness as the child swam around its mother, begging for her to wake up in their strange light based language. No, my heart didn''t know logic and at this point my heart was leading my actions, not my brain. I gathered as much power as I could muster and started to replace the parts that she was missing. I used all my might until I felt blood dripping from my nose, my mouth, my ears and even my eyes. I didn''t stop until Jules started to scream and my head started to hurt so badly that I could barely maintain my consciousness. "My God John! Stop! Stop what you are doing! Look at yourself John, you are going to kill yourself if you continue!" I smiled sadly at her,"I''m sorry Jules. I will stop now." She held me tenderly while I slid down to the ground of the bubble, unable to support myself and stand anymore. "What the hell was so bloody important that you had to do this to yourself? Morgana can handle those two, why do you have to do this to yourself?" Her rebuke was sharp but her gaze was so tender and worried that it took the sting out of her words. "The big one is the little one''s mother, she got hurt protecting what is essentially just a baby from hunters after its core. These hunters use the cores of the children to make powerful weapons, the kind that can damage the bigger ones. Can you imagine getting attacked with a weapon made out of the carcass of babies?" She looked aghast as thought sunk in, "What kind of sick bastards would do that?" I shook my head and sighed, "That is the truly tragic part, the people doing this aren''t bad people. They don''t even know that these creatures are sentient beings capable of complex thoughts and emotions, they see them as simple magical beasts. In their eyes, what they are doing isn''t wrong at all." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Morgana was pressed against the edge of the bubble, staring at the two strange creatures with a complex expression on her face, "Did you succeed? Did you save the large one?" ".........." My silence was answer enough for her to understand. I had tried my best but the large creature was massive and I could not really do enough to help her. What I had done was akin to putting a small bandaid on a gaping shotgun wound, completely pointless. As we watched, the giant body gradually grew dimmer as the stars in her body disappeared one by one until her body was completely dark. Her body slowly lost definition and finally she simply dissolved until no trace of the the previously massive creature remained. The small one stopped swimming around when he stopped sensing his mother, he just froze there looking lost and alone. The light in his center suddenly flashed a bright red then it started growing dimmer as we watched. Morgana was alarmed when she saw this new development, "What is happening John?" "The little one is too sad to keep on living without his mother. I am afraid that he no longer possesses the will to live and he will die in the next few minutes." "Then save him!" "I can''t! There is nothing I can do!" Morgana didn''t even hesitate, she cast a shadow inside the bubble we were in and disappeared into it only to reappear outside in the water. She swam towards the fading light of the small creature and as she got closer to it, large amounts of darkness started to swirl around her. Slowly a giant squid like shape started to form, similar to the creature that had just perished but made entirely of darkness. This apparition made by Morgana gathered the little fading creature with its feelers and brought it close in an embrace. The little creature flickered as it hesitated until finally it''s core reignited, bathing us in a bright yellow color. Jules looked at this scene with absolute shock,"How is this possible? How is the darkness not hurting the little one?" I was so happy that I almost felt giddy when I answered. "Because the love in Morgana''s heart is more powerful than the darkness and she will not allow it to hurt the little one. Jules, it''s a miracle!" Information and answers For those of you who don''t read the saint, the reason for my long absence is that I had an ingrown toenail and I had surgery on the little bugger. Before you all call me a sissy, I have to point out that it got infected later on and I was quite weak for a while but now I am recovering and I will try to make regular updates. Regarding the questions from the previous chapter, yeah I know it was cheesy but I am lactose intolerant, this is the only kind of cheesy that I get to enjoy so bear with me. As for the bleeding thing, nice catch. But it can still be explained away by the fact that John''s physical body in the upper realm is more about self image than anything else and when he is hurt because he overused his power it would be natural for him to bleed so no harm no foul. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The mood swing comment, I disagree. John is a nice guy(most of the time) and he never committed genocide. What he did was allow Morgana to let off some steam by killing meat puppets. You have to remember that all of these so called ''people'' are just pieces of Merlin playing house. Sure it was a little violent but it was tough love, really really tough love. Okay it was so tough that it is hard to see the love but it''s there beneath all the blood and gore because ultimately it was all done to help the only real person there, Merlin. Thank you for reading and expect more updates. Vol 2 ch 18 - Leucetius Chapter Eighteen For a few minutes, me and Jules just stood in the bubble and stared at Morgana who was usually cold and unfeeling playing around and acting affectionate with the little ball of light. As our bubble got closer to the two, I realized that my thoughts on the matter weren''t quite right. First of all, Morgana was the queen of the fay which isn''t like any other monarchial position. Sure she has more power over her people than any human king or queen but she also shoulders tons of responsibilities on their behalf and loves them dearly like her own flesh and blood. All in all, her position was very similar to a mother. How could a mother be cold and unfeeling? The second part of my sentence was also quite faulty. I have been referring to the ball of light as ''little'' when in fact he was actually a little larger than I was. Relatively speaking he was little but now that the large one was gone, the word little didn''t really apply to him. As time ticked on my thoughts started to wander following random tangents until Jules coughed lightly to get my attention, "John, what do we do now?" "We should find another tribe to look after the little dude. Although his own tribe has been destroyed, there are others in this sea that could take him in." I don''t know how, but Morgana heard me speak even though we were underwater and she shouldn''t have been able to hear me. She stopped playing with the ball of light and turned towards me. "You are thinking of abandoning poor Leucetius?" Her mouth moved but the sound of her voice was actually coming from behind me, from inside my own shadow. I guess she could manipulate sound using shadows and that is how she heard me. I started wondering how versatile her shadow powers were when the last part of her sentence finally registered in my mind. "Leucetius? You named him?" "Of course I named him! He is my son and I can''t let him be nameless." "Morgana, you do know that we are going on a particularly dangerous mission, right? We can''t just go around adopting every orphan that we see. Look, I know that you have grown attached to him but there are nearby tribes that could raise him better than we could and he would be in less danger than he would be in if he came along with us." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. "No." "What do you mean no?" "By no I mean no. Leucetius is my son. I will not leave him behind." I was going to continue to argue with her but my power was telling me it was pointless so I just sighed and gave in to the unreasonable woman. "Fine, but it is your responsibility to take care of him and make sure he doesn''t get hurt meaning that you are going to take care of him and Merlin." Morgana happily accepted those terms and we were once again moving towards our ultimate destination, me and Jules were moving through the unfathomably large sea in our little bubble while Morgana stayed beside Leucetius in the guise of a giant shadowy squid. As we were traveling, we ran into some of the tribes that I had talked about earlier. Each time we passed them, I would use lights to convey that we came in peace and they would leave us alone. I had just finished ''talking'' with the third group we had encountered along our way when Jules asked, "They are all the same species right? Why do they look so different?" Jules was referring to the fact that the three groups we met looked very different from each other. All of them were massive like the giant squid we met earlier, all of them were also formed from semitransparent jelly like substance and had the same ''twinkling stars'' all over their bodies but all of them had different shapes. The first group we met looked like Manta rays gliding majestically through the sea. The second group were similar to jellyfish and the group we just passed looked like seahorses. "They are the same species. The reason they look so different is that they have a very unique maturing process. When they are young, they all look like a ball of light like Leucetius but when they become adults, they get to choose their own form. Most of the time they choose the form of their tribe but very rarely a child chooses something different and that is how a new tribe is formed." I continued to tell Jules about these creatures'' social structures and behaviors and by the time I was finished we had already reached our destination, the same multicolored wall that we had used to come here. Vol 2 ch 19 - Alpha Chapter nineteen We didn''t carelessly rush through the multicolored barrier between territories with minimal preparation like last time. I had learned from my mistake so instead of using my powers to obtain general information on the territory, I used it to scout what we would encounter immediately after we enter. My powers were unable to see the future and I couldn''t foresee everything that could happen but finding out what was in the vicinity to prepare wasn''t outside the range of my ability. A few minutes of concentration later, I had all the information I needed for the next territory. I used my powers of creation to make small fireworks to get the attention of Morgana and Jules who were playing with the not-so-little Lue (that what I decided to call the infant giant squid since Leucetius was a bit of a mouthful). When I was sure that they were listening to me, I started to explain the things I thought they should know. "Alright ladies, I''m about to tell you some important information about the next territory so listen up. The territory we are about to enter is a veritable mutt comprised of deserts, swamps, forests,grassland, icy tundra and any other kind of environment you can think of. The dominant species of this area are called the Ameera. They are a race of humanoids whose life revolve around one thing; battle. Their bodies are naturally very strong, fast and durable but they are not content with their super bodies. They constantly hone their skills by fighting with strong opponents. The reason that the Ameera''s territory is full of various habitats is because it closely mirrors the world they have ascended from. Every part of their territory is home to formidable beasts that they love to hunt to increase their battle prowess. They also hunt these creatures to acquire various parts to make weapons and armor." Morgana''s eyes started to glint with cold emotions when she put two and two together and figured out what I was implying,"So these are the people responsible for the massacre in this area?" "Yes, but as I have already told you, they are not doing it out of malicious intent. The Ameera are used to killing magical monsters to make equipment. They are unaware that the sea creatures in this area are sentient beings." Jules didn''t look any happier than Morgana and my explanation didn''t seem to help,"I don''t think that matters John. They might not have had evil intentions but that doesn''t mean that they shouldn''t be held accountable for what they did. They killed hundreds if not thousands of peaceful creatures for what? Equipment? We can''t just say that they didn''t know and sweep the whole thing under the carpet." A part of me was angry too. A part of me wanted to go to the Ameera with guns blazing, to rain down hot flames of retribution on their heads and make them feel the same despair they made the innocent creatures of this territory feel but I knew that this course of action would be foolish. The Ameera had committed atrocious acts because of their greed for power and lack of knowledge but if I destroyed them in the name of justice, I would be a hundred times worse than they were. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "Both of you, calm down. We will stop the Ameera from hunting in this region. We will also make sure that they never do anything similar to this ever again but we cannot simply destroy them. We cannot change the past but we can make them see the error of their ways but we will not go in there with our hearts set on vengeance. Two wrongs will not make a right." Darkness started to converge around Morgana''s body and she stared at me with eyes that had gone completely black," I do not care about your sentimental philosophy. They have done great evil and I will punish them if you won''t." "No you will not." "And who is going to stop me? You?" I snapped my fingers and created balls of blinding white light around Morgana making the darkness retreat like a startled cat. The previously intimidating Morgana who was shrouded in terrifying darkness became nothing more than a normal elfin woman with negligible physical abilities. "Yes, me. I have been nice to you thus far Morgana but don''t take my kindness for weakness. You are not powerful enough to be my opponent. I can defeat you with almost no effort." Morgana glared at me with fury burning in her eyes which had reverted to their original violet color, her expression making it clear that she was not submitting even though she was defeated, "You are more powerful so you make the decisions?" I was starting to get another headache, "You are the one who tried to intimidate me with your power! We were having a civilized conversation before you went all spooky and aggressive! Unless you are going to make a valid argument then please shut up and stop annoying me. No arguments? Good. Then remember to keep yourself in check while we are in there or I will do it for you, understand?" Morgana turned around and swum away angrily with Lue but I didn''t follow her. I knew that she needed some time to digest the fact that she wasn''t the Alpha in our group. I turned around only to see Jules looking at me with a strange heated gaze. "What?" She looked straight into my eyes and I could see a wild storm brewing behind those beautiful golden orbs. A few minutes later her eyes pulled away from mine and they started to roam around my body as if she was looking at a particular succulent piece of meat. Her wings rustled restlessly as she slowly approached me and her hands began to imitate what her eyes had done and began to explore my body. "Nothing, it is just that you are kinda hot when you put your foot down and act all manly. Can you make this bubble opaque please? We are going to need some privacy for this next bit." Vol 2 ch 20 - ehm...research Chapter twenty My playtime with Jules had always been vigorous and enjoyable. A combination of her shape shifting ability and endless creativity kept me on my toes, sometimes quite literally since some of the more exotic positions required some cooperation on my part. Having sex with Jules was like an adventure where anything could happen and it was one of the most fun if not the single most fun experience in my life but I found out that sex had a whole new meaning in the upper realm. An almost inexhaustible stamina and perfect control meant that what started out as a short escapade, a mere quickie, turned into something much lengthier. As we were swept away by waves of passion, we lost all semblance of control and simply enjoyed each other''s bodies like never before. Honestly, I don''t know how long we would have continued if we weren''t interrupted by the sound of something loudly banging against our bubble. We eventually separated our intertwined bodies and after I covered us up with clothes, I made the bubble transparent again only to come face to face with a fuming Morgana. "Why did you ignore me for so long? I have been out here trying to get your attention for more than two hours! Have you gone deaf?" "Ehm...I apologize. I was using my powers to research some things and I got lost in thought." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Morgana snorted skeptically, "Riiight, research. I bet you were researching something alright. Now if you can keep your libido in check, I think we should move on to the next territory." I tried to deny that anything happened but with Jules giggling behind me, it was completely pointless so I changed the subject instead,"And have you decided to behave reasonably when we enter the next territory or do I have to teach you another lesson?" Morgana waved her hand dismissively,"I was a little angry back then and I acted rashly. I promise I will do my best to follow your instructions from now on unless they put my or Leucetius''s life in danger." Well that was a relief. I really couldn''t afford to look after Morgana like a babysitter when I should be focusing on threats from around us. I have already learned that one of the weaknesses of my power other than tunnel vision was distraction so the last thing I needed was a powerful fay queen who was feeling rebellious. "Alright then, if you have decided to act like an adult, we can continue on our journey. I will create a ball of water in which Lue can swim in so you won''t need to worry about him. Are both of you ready to go?" Both Jules and Morgana nodded affirmatively so I wrapped Leucetius in my power and pushed all five of us through the barrier. Vol 2 ch 21 - a little taste Chapter twenty one The moment we crossed the barrier, we found ourselves in mud that would have been at least waist high if we weren''t in the bubble. The reason I knew this was that Morgana hadn''t reentered the bubble so I could see exactly how deep it was as she sunk into the foul smelling brown muck. I knew that this was waiting for us when we crossed and I could have warned her about it but I wasn''t particularly happy with her at the moment so I didn''t bother. I looked away from Morgana who was struggling to extricate herself from the mud she had fallen into and I started to look around. The first thing that caught my eye was the strange sky above us. The sky was pink, not only that but the sun shinning down was an eerie shade of ghostly green and I could vaguely see two large planets next to each other, the one on the left had rings around it while the one on the right looked like something bad taken a large bite out of it. Below the alien sky was an equally alien landscape. We were in the middle of a swamp filled with shallow stagnant water and mud. Skeletal looking trees spread their thin emaciated roots into the stinky water trying to get as much sustenance from them. A closer look revealed that these skeletal trees weren''t trees at all but rather large white fungal growths that had mushroom like caps on top instead of branches and leaves. I could see ripples on the surface of the shallow swamp water as things lurking underneath started to move when they felt our arrival. Finally one of the creatures hiding beneath the water decided to show itself. The thing looked like a giant cow sized Iguana with five tails. It''s muddy color made it inconspicuous in the mud but I could still see it clearly thanks to my ability. I stared at it and it stared right back with its beady little eyes. Jules grabbed my arm and asked,"What the hell is that?" "The Ameera call it the slumber king lizard." "Why do they call it that? Does it sleep a lot?" If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. As if the lizard had heard her and had taken offense, its scales started to bristle like a cats fur. They started to stand up and fall forming waves traveling down its spine until it reached the creatures five tails. The five tails then started to vibrate and created deep notes similar to the sound of a cello being struck violently by a bow. Jules suddenly started to sway when she heard the deep hypnotic sound. She tottered helplessly until she couldn''t stand anymore and she fell on her butt. The same thing happened to Morgana, she stopped struggling in the mud and fell face first into it. I fared a little better than the two because I had already prepared for the beast''s hypnotic attack. I had earplugs in my ears that were creating vibrations carefully modulated to null the lizard''s attack. I quickly created a monomolecular blade and decapitated the lizard and used a lasso to fish Morgana out of the mud. As soon as the lizard''s hypnotic sound vanished, Jules woke up and she sprung up from the ground while Morgana started spluttering as she tried to get the foul mud that had entered her mouth. She was still spitting mud out when she said, "I thought you said you scouted this area out?" "I did." "Then why didn''t you stop that thing before it attacked us or tell is how to avoid its attacks?" "Because I wanted you two to be less complacent. I may not always be around and you two might get in trouble one day, in case that day comes I want you two to be ready. I let the lizard attack so that you can learn that there are things that can kill you very easily and also to show you that things aren''t always straightforward. I want you to always be on your toes and to always think outside of the box. I want you to find ways to protect not only your bodies but also your minds. Things are only going to get more dangerous from here on out but my words wouldn''t have been enough to convince you so I let you have a little taste of what is to come. You are welcome Morgana." Vol 2 ch 22 - Ameera Chapter twenty two Now that I had taken my revenge for Morgana''s rude interruption earlier under the pretext of teaching a lesson, I decided to eliminate all the dangerous animals that would try to attack us before they had a chance to strike. The moment my powers told me that a creature was trying to make us its next meal, I would send an attack to kill or disable it. In this way, we passed peacefully through the swamp even though we were surrounded by various reptiles and amphibians that were capable of devious attacks like poison, hypnosis, bewilderment , confusion, using decoy bodies , illusions and other such methods. The Ameera called this place the swamp of a thousand tricks and I could see how it got its name. The animals here weren''t very strong but rather their lethality originated from various ''tricks'' that they used to capture and kill their prey. I carefully navigated through the swamp, carefully eliminating any threats before they became a problem so our journey was relatively uneventful until we reached a clearing devoid of mushroom trees and swamp. It was the first patch of dry land that we had seen since we entered the swamp of a thousand tricks. Jules noticed that we weren''t moving anymore and asked, "Why did we stop? Is there something wrong?" "No, I just think that this is the best place to meet our new friends." "What new friends?" As an answer to her question, I raised my hand and pointed to the opposite side of the clearing just as four humanoid figures emerged. The one in front was a rather large man, almost four meters tall and almost just as wide. In fact he was wearing spherical armor to accommodate his ample girth. He looked like a very fat man but if you took a closer look, you would find that the way he moved contained boundless strength and that he had an almost perfect control of his strength as demonstrated by the fact that the spongy ground beneath him didn''t sink even though he must have been extraordinarily heavy. This fat man''s armor was an off-white color as if it was made entirely out of ivory and in his hands rested a large hammer almost as large as he was. The hammer had small pyramids like the hammer used to tenderize meat and the thing was covered by dripping blue liquid which my power was telling me was fresh blood. Under his ivory helmet, his face looked like a normal human face. He had bushy eyebrows, long straight nose , the well defined jawline of a cartoon superhero and dark green eyes which were exactly the same color as his skin. All in all he looked like the bastard child of an orc, a roman statue and a hippo which was a very strange combination. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Sitting on his shoulder was a much smaller woman, only about two meters tall. She was the polar opposite of the fat man. She was very slender and she looked like a light wind could blow her away. She wasn''t wearing heavy armor, in fact she was barely wearing anything at all. She was wearing what appeared to be bondage gear, just a few strips of leather placed strategically to cover her chest and crotch leaving most of her light green skin bare. She had close cropped black hair and her facial features were sharp like a sword. She wasn''t attractive in the normal sense but combined with the fact that she was holding two whips that were writhing like snakes, she looked like any submissives wet dream. Behind the large fat man was a knight like guy who reminded me of prince Arthas from Warcraft except that he was green. He had the same handsome heroic face, same long blonde hair, he even used a great sword and armor that made him look like a paladin. Beside him was a mysterious figure wearing a full face helmet and a ragged billowing cloak that fluttered even though there was no wind. The helmet and the cloak seemed to change colors to adopt to the background making the figure indistinct and hard to find, combined with the strange way the mysterious figure sped up and slowed down as he moved made him look like he was teleporting instead of walking. "Ladies, these are the Ameera." Vol 2 ch 23 - duel Chapter twenty three The four people froze when they spotted us. They seemed to be surprised that they saw other people in the swamp of a thousand tricks. The giant fat man turned towards the woman on his shoulder and asked,"The amulets of protection are still working right?" The woman picked up a medallion on her chest that was hanging on a necklace and checked it carefully,"It''s all good. They aren''t illusions." The prince Arthas wannabe unsheathed his giant sword aggressively, "So what do you think they are? Doppelgangers? Decoys? Is this a trap?" I stepped forward before they came to the wrong conclusion and raised my hands to show that I was unarmed, a gesture that meant peace to the Ameera, "Gentleman, we are not doppelgangers or illusions. We are simple travelers." The woman on the large man''s shoulder snickered and said, "There goes your theory Leb, doppelgangers don''t talk." The Arthas wannabe still seemed unconvinced, "I heard that there were some who learned to speak." The giant fat man rolled his eyes in exasperation, "How old are you Leb? Aren''t you a little too old to be listening to stories meant for children?" The fat man then turned away from the prince Arthas wannabe and spoke to me instead, "Sorry about that but you never know what could get you in this swamp. We had to make sure you weren''t some sort of illusion or trick. I''m sure you understand if you are here and haven''t died yet." "No need to apologize, I understand the dangers here and what you did was only reasonable plus I''m sure our appearance seems a little strange to you." The woman on his shoulder tilted her head and looked at me, "Now that you mention it, you do seem to be a little pale. What are you? What do you want?" "As I have already stated, I''m a traveler. I hale from a place beyond the barrier and I want to establish a friendly relationship with you and your people." The fat man thought about my words for about a minute and then nodded, "Friendship you say? Well our friendship isn''t so easy to obtain otherwise it would be worthless. To prove that you are worthy of being our friend, you have to demonstrate your strength. Defeat one of us in battle and we shall be your friends. Now choose, which one of us do you wish to fight?" I looked at the people in front of me and I knew that I could defeat any of them so I randomly pointed at the mysterious guy in the cloak and full face helmet. The fat man raised his eyebrow skeptically at my choice, "Are you sure? Fael is the strongest fighter in our group. Maybe you should choose Leb instead. He is the weakest and you could probably take him." The prince Arthas wannabe shouted indignantly, "Hey! I''m not weak! Just because I can''t defeat you three freaks doesn''t make me weak!" I just smiled and kept my finger pointed at the guy with the helmet. The fat guy shrugged almost dislodging the woman on his shoulder and said, "It''s your funeral. The fight starts when I finish counting to three. One...two...three." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. The guy in the helmet suddenly vanished. A fraction of a second later he had appeared behind me with a knife but I knew what he was going to do so I was prepared. The guy in the helmet was fast. He was so fast that even my newly forged body wasn''t fast enough to dodge him so I had put invisible bands of my power around my wrists, ankles, elbows, knees and waist. My motion no longer depended on my body but my ability to manipulate the bands I created strategically around my body. The guy in the helmet was blisteringly quick. He slashed at me at least 200 times before I could even blink but I knew the trajectory of each and every one of his slashes. My body was like a marionette being pulled around by strings but even though it was odd, I was able to dodge each and every one of his strikes. Finally I decided to make a strike of my own and sent a molecular blade towards him. Surprisingly a shining blue forcefield appeared and blocked it before it could cause any damage but he was still forced back a couple of meters. I smiled at him because I was honestly impressed that he was able to block my monomolecular blade, "You are very impressive. Your armor''s camouflage is incredible. Your speed is the fastest I have seen in my life almost like the flash. Your special armor is able to block one of my strongest attacks but unfortunately you are still going to lose." The man didn''t answer me, instead he vanished again. This time I didn''t wait for him. I pulled back a couple of meters and created a whip which immediately snaked towards my previous position. The man reappeared exactly where I knew he would but the tip of my whip was stuck into the ground a few centimeters in front of him. The prince Arthas wannabe laughed loudly when he saw that, "HA! You missed!" I just smiled enigmatically, "Did I?" The man in the helmet was frozen where he stood. His body would quiver now and then but he remained in the same spot for five minutes. After the five minutes were up I asked, "Do you concede?" The man seemed to hesitate then nodded. The fat man and the other two had their mouths open in shock. The fat man turned to me and his expression was like a person whose world had suddenly turned upside down, "What the hell happened?" "The blue armor is almost impenetrable but it has one weakness, the soles of his feet. My whip went underground and restricted his movement which means that I win." I had just released the guy in the helmet when he knelt before me. I didn''t hurt him and the Ameera had no customs of losers kneeling to winners so I was confused. The fat man just laughed heartily when he saw my confusion, "Congratulations pale man, you are now a friend of the Ameera and you even gained a new mate." Mate? Wait a minute, did he mean....? As it finally dawned on me, the helmet was removed and it fell to the ground revealing the face of.... Vol 2 ch 24 - little tigress Chapter twenty four The helmet was removed and it fell to the ground revealing the face of.... A woman. A young girl to be exact. She looked no older than sixteen. Aside from her odd green skin color, she would have fit right into any highschool. Her face looked very similar to the woman sitting on the fat man''s shoulder. She had the same sharp features but there were also some differences. She was obviously younger than the freaky bondage lady and her hair was longer although not by much since it barely reached her shoulder. Looking carefully, I spotted faint blue stripes on the edges of her face similar to the stripes on the face of a tiger. Her pupils were also slitted and her green eyes had flecks of yellow, reinforcing her catlike image. All in all she somehow managed to look young and threatening at the same time. She was kneeling as a sign of surrender but from her expression I knew that she wanted to stab me with her knives instead of acknowledge her loss. Mate? This little girl was going to be my mate? How did this happen? I was so focused on using my powers to find out the enemy''s powers and weaknesses that I completely ignored their identity. I assumes that the mysterious warrior was a man instead of verifying with my power, now I am stuck in an awkward position. The fat man didn''t wait for me to regain my wit, he laughed hysterically when he saw my bewildered expression and started to speak without a shred of malice in his deep sonorous voice that seemed to come from the depth of his gut like an opera singer, "You didn''t expect that, did you? But the rules of conduct are clear. You have defeated Fael in a fair one on one battle in front of witnesses and made her submit, she is now your woman. Oh right, I almost forgot, I don''t even know your name. If you are going to be part of the family we should at least know each other''s names. My name is Kirnatus. The woman on my shoulder is my mate Naviel. She is also the sister of your newly acquired mate. The blond dandy behind me is Lebgar and in case you haven''t figured it out by now, the woman kneeling in front of you is Fael." The situation had gotten a little complex. In my ignorance, I had made Fael submit instead of just defeating her. If I tried to reject her as my mate, she would lose all her honor as a warrior and according to the customs of the Ameera, she would be exiled if not outright killed. The only way she could get her freedom was to defeat me in one on one battle or have some other prospective suitor do it for her. I''d have happily thrown the fight to fix the problem but the customs of the Ameera dictate that I would have to be killed for it to count and I wasn''t magnanimous enough to die so that Fael would get her freedom. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The blond prince Arthas wannabe, Lebgar suddenly started shouting almost hysterically, "No! This doesn''t count! He isn''t even an Ameera! We can''t just give Fael to him!" Kirnatus''s smiling face slowly darkened. In one smooth motion, he turned around and smacked Lebgar in the back of the head. This was not a small friendly tap but a hit so ferocious that it knocked Lebgar down to the ground. "Where is your shame Leb? This has been the way of our ancestors for years immemorial, do you think you know any better?" Lebgar stood back up, his shiny equipment now covered in mud, "No, I cannot accept this. I will kill this outsider and regain Fael''s honor." Kirnatus sneered in disdain, "Who are you kidding? You have been pestering Fael since she was fourteen right from the moment she had her coming of age hunt. You haven''t been able to defeat her even once. This man made her submit cleanly with only two moves. Do you really think you are his opponent?" Kirnatus then completely ignored Lebgar and turned to the woman on his shoulder,"You''ve been silent so far Naviel, what do you think about all this?" The woman on his shoulder, Naviel, just shrugged noncommittally, "What can I say? This man is strong. His looks are acceptable. He doesn''t look like a bad person. I think little sister is lucky to find such a mate, what does it matter where he comes from or that his skin is pale? I just want to see how the old man reacts when he finds out that his daughter had been defeated even after he gave her a talisman of invulnerability." Her thoughts were similar to mine. The biggest problem that I would encounter because of my actions today was not some uppity suitors that I could swat away easily. It was Fael''s father. Vol 2 ch 25 - trouble Chapter twenty five Fael''s father was a blacksmith. Normally this wouldn''t mean much but the Ameera''s culture is steeped in violence and blood. Their love for weapons borders on the fanatical and in such a culture a blacksmith is revered as a god. Fael''s father was the greatest blacksmith of weapons and armor that the Ameera had ever seen. He was a living legend among the Ameera and his position was akin to that of a king. If Fael''s father agreed to be reasonable about the whole thing then there wouldn''t be a problem but Fael was his little princess, he loves her more than anything else in the universe. What were the chances that he would be reasonable about her suddenly having to submit to me, a complete stranger? To make things worse, he was one of the people that I would have to convince in order to stop them from hunting the giant squids. Without his help, my plan to stop the hunt would be dead in the water and if that happened, Morgana would probably wipe out every last Ameera. I was wondering how I was going to dig myself out of the whole that that I just fell into when Jules poked my back, "Hey John, what is happening? Why is that little girl kneeling in front of you?" Since my conversation with the Ameera had been happening in their language, neither Jules nor Morgana knew what was happening. "Err...about that, it seems that something unexpected happened. I had to fight one of them to prove my worth but I seemed to have accidentally stumbled into some sort of courtship ritual." "Courtship ritual?" "Yeah, I sort of have to take this girl as my mate." "WHAT?" "I have to take her as my bride or I''ll become their enemy." "Why don''t you tell them that it is all a mistake?" If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "It doesn''t work like that. Apparently the only way I can dissolve this without completely insulting her honor is by losing a challenge and that would mean my death." Jules sighed and looked at me critically, "You know, if I didn''t know you and how this kinds of things happen to you all the time then I would think that you did this on purpose. Look John, I love you and I supported you when you went after all those other girls but that was because I knew that you had deep feelings for each and everyone of them. This doesn''t mean that I want you to go around picking up random women everywhere you go. Do you truly care about this girl?" "No. I don''t even know her." "Then I suggest that you find a way out of this." After that Jules calmed down substantially even though she still seemed a little sullen but surprisingly enough, Jules wasn''t the only one upset about what happened. Morgana was pissed as well. "Why are you so angry Morgana?" She gave me what could only be described as a poisonous stink eye, "You stopped me from getting revenge for my son and that was before you had any incentives to do so. Now that you are getting this young girl as your consort, how can you stop yourself from being biased? How can you fairly decide proper judgment on her people?" I looked at the girl kneeling in front of me while glaring at me as if she wanted to cause my head to explode by her stare alone and I only had one thought. This girl was nothing but trouble. A.n. a lot of people are complaining about how short and infrequent the chapters are but I would like to point out that I''m working on 9 different projects now. I have written 11 chapters in the last two days so please bear with me. Shameless self advertisement (not a chapter) I am working on nine different things so if the content here is not quite satisfying please check these out. 1) The science of magic universe - The Saint I don''t know why so many people don''t like this book. If you were scared away by the beginning, please just read thirty chapters before judging it. I am truly proud of this one and I hope you can grow to like it too. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6021 2) P.I.R.A.T.E.S. Sci-fi adventure set in space but the plot will lead to interesting unorthodox places. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6583 3) Ravings of a lunatic A little edgier and darker than the rest. Gods, slaughter and sex oh my! http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6172 4)Prototype Strictly speaking, it is a fanfic based on a game but don''t let that scare you away. I barely remember anything about the game so besides some very basic settings it is all original. I also have great plans for this one. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6691 This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. 5)Denying fate: Path of the dark Paladin This one is a straight up vrmmorpg litrpg complete with blue screens, oh yeah! http://royalroadl.com/fiction/7154 6)Andromeda''s tears- No powers, no fantasy, no SciFi. Just a crazy woman with multiple personality disorder going around murdering criminals. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6863 7) The forbidden cultivators What else can I say except that this is a xianxia with a little bit of a twist. It''s very new so barely anything is posted but the plotline is very promising. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/8210 8) Willow the wisp Also very new and I''m really disappointed that it doesn''t have a single follower. This story is a little more complex than the others but if I manage to pull it off properly, I think that this is my favorite of the bunch http://royalroadl.com/fiction/8211 Reviews and comments welcome. Vol 2 ch 26 - friend Chapter twenty six Kirnatus walked over to me with a large genial smile that matched his large body and chuckled as he saw me struggle to pacify Morgana and Jules. He obviously didn''t understand a word of what we were saying but from his expression, he had already formed conclusions on what we were saying which probably weren''t very far from the truth. "Are you having women problems friend? Are the two behind you your mates?" "Ah, women problems? Well, you can say that I guess. The one on the right with the wings is my mate and her name is Jules. The dark one on the left is Morgana, she is my friend and not my mate." He extended his large meaty hand out and clasped my wrist in a traditional Ameeran hand shake, "And what is your name friend?" I tried to return his gesture although my hands barely reached his palms, "My name is John. Nice to meet you Kirnatus." "Nice to meet you too John. Hmm....you say that the little dark one isn''t your mate? Do you mind if I take a crack at her? She seems to be right up my alley." I nearly had a coronary when I heard that and he started to look at Morgana with naked interest in his eyes. I quickly took a step left to block his view, "Dude, you don''t want to do that, believe me. Besides, she already has a mate, he''s just injured right now." "Is it that old man in the strange floating bubble? When will he wake up?" "Not any time soon. He is seriously injured." "That''s a shame. I really like this Morgana, I feel like she would be feisty. I like them feisty," at this point I was thanking every deity and god on this plane and all of the higher planes, I was thanking them for the language barrier and the fact that Morgana couldn''t understand what Kirnatus was saying,"Anyhow, it seems I won''t get an opportunity to get her but while we are on the subject of strange bubbles, why are you carrying one of the Morai along with you?" When he said Morai, he meant the giant squid like creatures and he was pointing at Lue. I quickly pushed down his pointing hand before Morgana chopped it off and answered his question, "That is Leucetius, Morgana''s adopted child. It will not be very wise if you attempt to get to close to him, Morgana is very protective of him." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Kirnatus was shocked speechless by my answer so it was the woman on his shoulder, Naviel, who asked,"Did you just say adopted child? Do you mean pet?" "No, I mean child. This is one of the main reasons we came here. The Morai aren''t the mindless magic creatures that you think they are. They are a sentient race capable of complex thoughts and emotions on par with us. We came here to petition your leaders to stop the hunting of the Morai." Even Naviel was shocked speechless when she heard that. It took them a little while to recover. Kirnatus finally managed to recover the use of his jaws and he asked, "Seriously? Are you sure about this?" "Yes." At this time Kirnatus demonstrated that he was a true and earnest friend; he didn''t question my word any further, instead he immediately believed me. His face became serious and he exclaimed, "By the gods, this is a disaster. We are massacring innocents! This is an indelible blemish on the honor of our race as a whole! The council should be informed of this before this tragedy continues any further. We will lead you to our city immediately." We were preparing to depart when a sharp angry sarcastic female voice said, "Can I get up now?" The voice belonged to the newly acquired thorn in my butt, Fael. Kirnatus and I had forgotten about her as we spoke to each other. I walked over to her and helped her up like the traditions of the Ameera dictated. She accepted my hand like she was grasping a poisonous snake and quickly backed up until she was standing next to Lebgar. "Thank you for your support. May we always lend each other a hand in times of need." The ritualistic words sounded bitter when she said them. It sounded like she was going to choke on them as they came out. I was really regretting my carelessness. Fael was a spoiled little daddy''s girl with a superiority complex a mile high. At this point, I would rather have the big beefy Kirnatus as my mate than getting stuck with her. Vol 2 ch 27 - elephants nightmare Chapter twenty seven My first thought when we arrived at the city of the Ameera was that it looked like something out of an elephant''s nightmare. If there was Dumbo hell, this was it. The so called ''city'' was actually just a collection of giant yurts. They were all made of gray wrinkly skin similar to that of an elephant''s hide and had giant tusks as support columns and beams to prop up the skin. The city was huge, filled with millions of the Ameera and enough of these yurts to accommodate them. Using my powers, I knew that the Ameera had caused the complete annihilation of an entire race that looked somewhat like the elephants from earth to build their city. In its own way, the city was a symbol of the Ameeran way; simple, utilitarian and above all brutal and unforgiving. At the center of their city was the only structure that was not made out of skin. It was a magnificent white castle which was a large contrast to the simple yurts. The giant sprawling structure completely dominated the city. The strange thing about the castle was that it had giant chimneys that constantly belched out smoke instead of towers and turrets so it ended up looking like the bastard child of a fairy tale castle and an oil refinery. The giant white castle was Fael and Naviel''s father''s smithy. It was made entirely out of ivory which could resist high temperatures very easily. Just from seeing the giant castle, one can guess the importance of the position that Fael''s and Naviel''s father held in Ameeran society. Kirnatus led us straight through the city and towards the ivory castle. The Ameeran people looked at us with curiosity as we passed by but other than nodding politely at Kirnatus, they didn''t try to stop us or ask us questions. Looking around me, I noticed that each and every Ameeran that we passed was wearing some kind of armor and carried some kind of weapon. There were only two professions in the Ameeran culture, warriors and blacksmiths. Farmers, carpenters, doctors... none of these existed within the Ameeran culture. Do you want food? Go and hunt something down and consume its flesh. Do you want to make something that is not a weapon or a piece armor? Why would you want anything that isn''t a weapon or a piece of armor? Are you or someone you know sick or injured? Bandage them as best you can and wait. If they are strong, they will survive. If they die, they were obviously weak and as such didn''t deserve to live. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Even the little children were holding wooden weapons and ''playing'' with each other but their ''playing'' was more brutal and violent than any MMA fight from earth. I could see one of the children on top of another child violently hitting him again and again with the hilt of his wooden weapon which was already covered in blood. I wanted to go over to stop it but I knew that if I did that, I would be irreparably harming the reputation of the child being beaten up and that would ruin his entire life so I turned away and pretended I didn''t see anything even though I felt that my heart was being ripped out. Jules also noticed one of these fights and urgently tugged at my arm, "John! John! Look over there! That child is getting hurt!" "I know Jules." "What do you mean ''you know'' ? Aren''t you going to do anything when you see a child being bullied in front of you? He is bleeding for God''s sake!" "We can''t do anything Jules. You have to remember that the Ameera aren''t like us. This might seem wrong to us but they have a completely different set of ideals and morals." Morgana wrinkled her nose and sniffed her nose in disdain,"Animals! These are the ones you want to protect?" Jules was unwilling to give up on saving the children, "Their own set of morals? Well their so called morals are wrong! This is wrong John. Please, I beg you, do something. Stop this." "It would be wrong to interfere. We cannot judge these people by our own standards and forcing our ideals down their throats would make us nothing more than tyrants." As I spoke, all the children around the city suddenly started to fall to the ground, asleep. Jules turned towards me with her eyebrow raised, "It would be wrong to interfere, huh? And this didn''t have anything to do with you?" I winked at her and said, "I have no idea what you are talking about. The children must have gotten tired. This has nothing to do with the light dose of sedatives that I released in the air." A.n. The internet is being blocked because of recent protests in my country and it took me three different tries to get this through, that means that I had to rewrite this entire thing three times. Sorry about the late releases but what can you do? Dictators rarely care about royal road readers. Vol 2 ch 28 - Frankly my dear Part 1 Chapter twenty eight POV change - Fael My name is Fael, daughter of Jorel. I am the strongest and most desirable female among the younger generation. My father is the most important person in our society. I had everything I had ever wanted and I am everything that I wanted to be. My strength was uncontested among the younger generation. Even my older sister couldn''t defeat me. Countless suitors tried to conquer me but I left them all broken and bleeding on the ground. One day I was longing around, bored out of my mind when I heard that my sister Naviel and her mate Kirnatus were going out to the swamp of a thousand tricks to strengthen their will and mental fortitude so I decided to tag along with them and take one of my suitors, Lebgar who wasn''t very strong but I kept around because he was pretty to look at. We had barely entered the swamp when we ran into them. They were a group of three strange people, one man and two women. They looked similar to us except that their skin was pale and their bodies were frail. One of the women had golden wings and the other one had pointed ears. The man of the group spoke cordially and politely to Kirnatus and eventually he initiated a battle to earn our friendship. Surprisingly he wanted to challenge me instead of Lebgar even when Kirnatus told him I was the strongest. I quickly rushed towards the weak little man to end the duel quickly and put him in his place. He was just standing there looking quite at ease without a single piece of armor or weapon visible on his body so I was confident that I could easily defeat this weak little man. It turned out that I had severely underestimated him. He dodged all of my strikes as if he was a reed gently swaying in a river. When his strike was blocked by the invincible armor that my father made for me, he created a whip out of thin air which burrowed through the ground to attack the only part of my body that wasn''t protected by my armor, the soles of my shoes. Before I knew it, he had used the whip to root me to the ground. Unable to move, I was defeated without landing a single hit on him meaning that he had completely dominated me. I was angered and shocked by the sudden turn of events. I was the strongest and most desirable woman alive and now I had to submit to some weak little stranger because he had used some tricks to defeat me? I was further pissed off when Kirnatus and Naviel started to speak to him as if he was already their brother in law. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Eventually we returned back to our home with the strangers whose name I had heard and already forgotten. As soon as we entered my father''s workshop and I saw the familiar scene of hundreds of people and giant machinery heat, pound, cut and mold different materials into weapons and armors, I calmed down and the hysteria that had grabbed my heart vanished. My worries just melted away because I knew that there was no problem my father couldn''t fix. When we asked about my father''s whereabouts, we were told that he was in a meeting with the council which pleased the stranger very much. Once the guards in front of the council room doors saw who we were, they immediately let us in without any hesitation. Inside eleven people sat around a table talking about this and that. The council consisted of six of the strongest warriors and five of the best blacksmiths. The head of the council was my father, the greatest blacksmith that the Ameera have ever seen. As soon as I saw my father''s robust figure at the head of the table, I run over to him crying, "Daddy! Daddy! You have to help me!" He hugged me close and asked me, "What''s wrong my little sunshine?" I pointed at the stranger and said, "This man wants to take me away, you have to save me!" My father''s expression turned grim when he heard that, "Kirnatus, what happened? Who are these people? Give me a full report." Kirnatus reported what had happened honestly and succinctly. My father looked thoughtful for a second then he said, "Kirnatus, I want you to challenge this man for Fael''s hand. Besides having Fael as your second mate, I shall reward you with a powerful set of equipments." Kirnatus laughed and replied,"No thank you. I have seen John fight and he might be the most powerful warrior I have ever seen. I do not know where the family of Ohn hail from but they must be a family of formidable warriors." I scoffed when I heard that, "Powerful? This pale weak man?" Kirnatus looked at me disapprovingly, "You are young and inexperienced so you might not be able to understand his might but it is still disrespectful and improper to speak about your mate in such a way." My father interrupted Kirnatus before he could lecture me any longer," Are you sure that you are unwilling to challenge this John?" Kirnatus just nodded in assent. "Well then, that makes things a little complicated." Vol 2 ch 29 - Frankly my dear Part 2 Chapter twenty nine "Well then, that makes things a little complicated." My father then took out a little silver gong and tapped it with his finger making a loud sonorous sound that the little gong shouldn''t have been able to produce. The door behind him immediately opened and fifty warriors in gleaming silver armor streamed into the room. Kirnatus saw this and looked at my father in confusion, "What is this? What is the meaning of this?" Father smiled slyly and winked at me, " ''What is this?'' you ask? This is an army, my own personal army." Kirnatus''s confusion slowly turned into outrage as the warriors suddenly surrounded him, Naviel and the three strangers, "An army? We the Ameeran people don''t gather armies unless our very existence is threatened! We do not use numbers to overpower opponents! That is not the Ameeran way! That is not the honorable way!" Father sneered at Kirnatus, "You poor naive fool. When are you going to realize that the old ways are holding us back? When are you going to realize that the old ways have been nothing but a burden that was stopping us from growing? Honor? What is that? Can you eat it? Can it become armor to protect you? Can it become a weapon that will stand with you against a foe?" Kirnatus shook his head in disbelief. He turned to the rest of the council members and shouted, "Are you hearing this? Do you hear this madman denounce our very way of life? He is trying to free his daughter from her mate by using such despicable means and you just sit there mute like rocks?" If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Kirnatus turned to each and every council member and some by one they all turned away from him, unable to meet his accusatory gaze. Father stood up and his mocking expression turned gentle, "Even though you have always been naive, I have always valued you and your strength. Join me and I shall make you the strongest warrior that ever lived." "And what am I supposed to tell my conscience so that I could sleep at night?" Father smiled craftily, "You said that he wants us to stop hunting the Morai? Well that is a threat to our way of life in itself, isn''t it?" "Wait, you plan on continuing to hunt the Morai? Even when there is a chance that they are sentient creatures with feelings and awareness similar to us?" My father scoffed and started laughing, "So what? Don''t other animals also feel pain? They might not be sapient but don''t they also posses some sort of intelligence? They are animals, we are not. We hunt them because we have the strength to hunt them." Kirnatus spit on the ground showing his contempt for my father then he stood behind the stranger making his position clear,"You have grown mad with power Jorel. This man who I have only met has a thousand times more honor than you do. I would rather die by his side than prosper by yours." My father clapped slowly and sarcastically, "Well done! Good performance! You want to die by his side then I shall grant you your wish and I shall also teach you a final lesson; dead men have no honor. Naviel, come here to my side immediately!" Vol 2 ch 30 - Frankly my dear Part 3 Chapter thirty "Naviel, come here to my side immediately!" Surprisingly Naviel stayed on Kirnatus''s shoulder and shook her head. "Sister, what are you doing? Do you stand with strangers against your own kin?" Naviel just looked at me with pity, "Oh dear little sister, you have been polluted by father and his schemes. Your heart has become black with greed and pride. Do you really think I would abandon my mate even in death?" "Kirnatus? He is a traitor!" "No, he is the only one here besides the strangers with any loyalty or integrity. You should also stand beside your mate little sister. You should reclaim what little honor you have left." That made me angry. How dare she question my honor? "Who do you think you are? I am younger than you but I can easily defeat you in battle. I have the love and admiration of everybody. You are just jealous. Jealous of my strength and jealous that father favors me." Naviel shook her head sadly, "Do you really believe that? Do you really think that you have any strength without your equipment? Do you really think that father hasn''t tried to buy my affection and loyalty with equipment? I refused to be dependent on father''s power. I refused to just become an ordinary warrior with extraordinary equipment. I decided to become strong on my own. You on the other hand accepted father''s poisoned chalice and drank from it greedily. You accepted borrowed power and strutted around to feed your own vanity. Strong? You? No, you are as soft as a clam within it''s hard shell. What are you without your armor? A weak nobody. Why would I be jealous of you?" Her words were like sharp words stabbing at my heart but I immediately discarded them as the final words of a spiteful bitch. I shouted out in anger, "Kill them! Kill them all father!" Father just gave a simple hand signal and the fifty warriors took a step forward but before they could swing their weapons, the strange man who had defeated me raised his hand, put his middle finger and thumb together and snapped. Suddenly my mind was being consumed by an incredible amount of pain and I fell onto the ground unable to control my body. Around me, everybody else was also dropping to the floor like flies. In the end the only people left standing were the three strangers, Kirnatus and Naviel. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. The stranger stepped forward and his entire demeanor transformed from the weak and meek little man to a conqueror. He looked like a wolf among sheep, a predator surveying his prey, "I have tried to be a nice guy. I have tried to solve this peacefully but apparently my goodwill has been misplaced. Now here is how things are going to go. I have planted tiny little things inside of each and every one of your brains. You will announce that you have received divine guidance and that the Morai are the children of the war god. If you refuse, you will die. If you continue to hunt the Morai, you will die. End of story." When he finished talking, the pain stopped and we regained the control of our bodies. One of the warriors behind the stranger raised his sword to attack him but his head suddenly exploded. "I am not kidding here. Your lives are in my hands, don''t be like the Dumbass who just tried to attack me." He hadn''t even turned around. There was no way he could have seen the strike coming but the end result was there for all to see. He then sent a meaningful glance towards my father and started to leave. My father''s face was red with panic, "Wait! What about my daughter? What about her honor?" The stranger smiled at him sardonically and spit his own words back at him," Honor? What is that? Can you eat it? Can it become armor to protect you? Can it become a weapon that will stand with you against a foe?" As I saw him turn around to leave again, I felt a strange sensation in my heart. This man was strong, stronger than any person I have ever seen. He should rightfully be my mate, "Wait! Let me come with you! You are worthy of being my mate." The stranger stopped and then he broke down into laughter, "Me? Worthy of you? When has that ever been in question?" I was shocked by his refusal, "Are you rejecting me? But I have already admitted that I was wrong! Seeing your strength has opened my eyes and my heart. I love you!" He just smiled a carefree smile and said, "Frankly my dear, I don''t give a damn." Vol 2 ch 31 - love tap Chapter thirty one Change in POV back to MC We had just left the ivory castle/blacksmith workshop and Jules was nagging me about my recent behavior,"I know that you want to be a good guy; saving damsels in distress, vanquishing evil, helping the people in need and all of that hero shit but what is with the pacifist approach you have been taking recently? I mean you must have known that they were assholes with your almighty Google search power and everything. You could have saved us a lot of time and effort if you had decided to act more decisively from the beginning." "Jules, have you noticed how the people we meet aren''t very powerful? From the warning that Sophia gave us when we had just arrived, you would think that we were nothing more than peons in a world filled with gods. Aren''t you curious why we haven''t met anybody or anything that was truly out of our league?" "Yeah, but what does that have to do with you turning into a hippie?" "The areas that we have been to so far might have been part of the upper plane but they are nothing more than the outer periphery. These mini-worlds are small and numerous like grains of sand in a desert, there are literally millions of them and more of them are born every day but on the flip side, some are also destroyed everyday. Some fall because of internal conflicts, some fall because of war''s with neighboring territories but most are destroyed when they come into contact with truly powerful beings. I am not talking about monsters or evil men but beings that posses so much power that these worlds are nothing more than anthills and their inhabitants little more than ants. What scares me the most is that I could easily see myself becoming one of those beings as my powers continue to grow. Even now I see that I am comfortable using my power to dispense my own brand of justice and force others to agree with me. What is to stop me from being one of those powerful beings in the future? Aloof and uncaring? What is to stop me from disregarding those that are less powerful than me? I try to keep myself in check but even now I failed miserably. They say that power corrupts, I thought that they meant that power brings out the evil in men''s hearts but I was wrong. Power gnaws at you slowly, you become intoxicated by having things under your control, you start thinking that what you are doing is always right and that anyone who is different from you is wrong. You get stuck in a might makes right mentality without even realizing it and you end up being used by your power instead of the other way around. I''m scared Jules. I have used my powers to see what the powerful creatures on this plane are like and I am honestly terrified that I''ll turn into one of them. What is stopping me from turning into one of them Jules?" Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I had just barely finished speaking when my head was hit by what felt like a baseball bat and I fell face first onto the ground, I turned over only to see Jules pull back one of her wings. "What was that for?" "That was for being an idiot. You are asking me what is stopping you from turning into a one of those almighty jerks? Simple, me. Every time I feel like you are acting like a douche bag then I will give you one of these small love taps." "Small? You just laid me flat out on my face! How is that small?" "Stop being such a baby. Honestly, I don''t think you can even be aloof if you wanted to. You are much too fond of whining." "Jules?" "Yeah?" "Thank you. I needed that." "No problem. If smacking you upside the head really helps then I will be happy to do it. Honestly, I would be happy to do it even if it doesn''t help." Vol 2 ch 32 - reintroduction Chapter thirty two Kirnatus bent down onto his knees with his trademark genial smile on his face and said, "Are you all right friend? It seems that you and your mate enjoy getting rough with each other. I didn''t think that a powerful person such as you would enjoy being abused but to each his own I guess." I snorted derisively while picking myself off the ground, "I don''t want to hear that from you! Do you think I can''t see your mate? Do you think I can''t figure out exactly what kind of fetish you have?" All of Kirnatus''s blood rushed to his face in embarrassment but since his skin was green, he blushed purple instead of red, "*Ahem* That is an unfounded accusation. My relationship with Naviel is quite orthodox. We are not into such deviant things." Naviel, who was still perched upon Kirnatus''s shoulder, used the grip of her whip to tap him lightly on his head, "Deviant behavior?" Kirnatus suddenly looked panicked when he saw the stern look on Naviel''s face, "No! Blood dew, you know I didn''t mean that!" Blood dew? That was the Ameeran version of a pet name? Jeez, how romantic. They probably gave each other bouquets of swords and wine served with the skull of their enemies. Now that I was hearing it in my head, that actually didn''t seem like a bad idea. Damn it! It seemed like staying with the Ameeran people was affecting me. I was watching Kirnatus stutter through an apology to Naviel while simultaneously trying to hide their kinky habits ,which was making me laugh so hard that I was gasping, when I noticed that Morgana and Jules were standing there with blank expressions on their faces, unable to understand a word that was being said. I thought that it was about time that I fixed our little communication problem. Luckily the solution was very simple, I created small machines that attached themselves to a person''s auditory nerve and translated the foreign language into the person''s native tongue, at least that was what I did for Naviel, Kirnatus and Morgana. The implanting process was a little painful but all three of them took it like a champ. As for Jules, she simply took the little machine and integrated it seamlessly into her body without suffering any pain. She was a shape shifter which apparently came with perks when it came to implants and upgrades. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. When everybody finished having their translating implants implanted, they were finally able to understand each other. I looked at everybody around me and said, "Alright everybody, now that we can all understand each other, I think it is time for proper introductions," first I pointed towards Jules, "This is Jules, my mate. She is usually...I mean sometimes...generally speaking...nice? Well she won''t physically harm you...that''s not quite true. She won''t seriously harm you? At least any damage she will do to you physically will pale in comparison to what she could do to you psychologically when she opens her mouth, especially if she finds out about your little hobby Kirnatus." Jules stamped her foot in anger, "Hey, I resent that! I am a perfectly decent and pleasant person." I rolled my eyes, "Sure you are! You practically sprout flowers when you talk and you fart out rainbows," I ignored the rude hand signals that Jules was making towards me and pointed towards Morgana,"This is Morgana. She is one of the scariest people you will ever meet. If you ever mess with that little Morai behind her or you ever have the misfortune of pissing her off in any way, she will completely destroy you. This is not a joke. If I were you, I would try to keep a healthy distance between you and her. She is not particularly fond of the Ameera." I hadn''t even finished speaking when Kirnatus approached Morgana, smiling awkwardly and swinging his giant arms around like a nerdy teenager talking to one of the cheerleaders, "Hi, you look very pretty." I quickly grabbed him by his ear and pulled him away before something unfortunate happened to him, "This is Kirnatus. He is very honest, at times such as this, maybe a little too honest. The one on his shoulder is Naviel, she is his mate. Naviel is the cold silent type so if she doesn''t say much to you, don''t take it personally. Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The one sleeping in the bubble is Merlin, Morgana''s mate. I think that''s everybody." Vol 2 ch 33 - master baiter Chapter thirty three "Okay then, now that we are done with the introductions and Kirnatus somehow managed to survive saying his first sentence to Morgana by some miracle, I think it is time we discussed what we should do from now on especially regarding Kirnatus and Naviel here." Kirnatus looked a little lost when he heard that, "What do you mean? Can''t we just follow you? Are we unwelcome?'' I frantically waved my hands in denial,"No no no, you got it all wrong. It''s not a matter of being unwelcome. You do remember that we are not from around here right? We aren''t going to stay in this territory for much longer. If you follow us, you are going to have to leave your friends, family and your people behind not to mention the fact that we will be going to some very dangerous places where there is a rather large chance that we will perish. Wouldn''t you rather just stay here? If you are worried that the council will try to harm you because you helped us, I could arrange things with those idiots so that you can pretty much get whatever you want." "I don''t think I can live here anymore. Everything that I believed in, everything that I hold sacred is nothing but a joke to the people who are supposed to be leading us. I cannot stay here without raising my hammer against them and that would harm my people more than it would help them so my only choice is to leave, " Kirnatus turned towards Naviel who was perched comfortably on his shoulder and smiled a sad smile, "Naviel, you have long been able to defeat me in battle. You should dissolve our bond as mates and go back to your father." Naviel didn''t even blink or hesitate. Her response was immediate, smooth, and without any strong emotions as if she was just stating facts, "I have no father. My only family is you. As for defeating you in battle, I have no idea what you are talking about," her emotionless expression then melted like ice in the sun and she smiled tenderly towards Kirnatus, " and if you ever mention dissolving our bonds again, I will whip you so hard that you will not be able to sit on your big butt for at least a month, got it?" I cleared my throat to get their attention because it looked like they had entered their own little world while staring at each other''s eyes, "*ahem* , I think you have forgotten something. Didn''t you hear me when I said that we are going to dangerous places where our doom is all but certain? I am not joking or exaggerating the dangers that we I''ll face. There will be things that you could not even imagine let alone fight. I am your friend and as your friend the best advice I can give you is to go to one of the other Ameeran cities and settle down." Kirnatus shrugged, almost dislodging Naviel,"Oh we don''t mind danger." "Do you mind unimaginable pain? Do you mind tortures that would not only shred your body but also your mind and soul? Do you mind being helpless and powerless against unfathomable creatures?"This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "We don''t mind." The weird part was that Kirnatus was completely honest when he said that which confirmed once again that the Ameeran people were completely out of their minds. "Alright then, welcome to the team. You can tag along with us until you''ve had enough. Now that that is settled, let us head south. Our next destination awaits." Kirnatus was startled when he heard that. He even shuddered a little bit although it was such a tiny quiver that nobody else noticed, "South? You mean the southern frontier? You plan to go to the land of the mindless ones?" I smiled what I knew was a very twisted sadistic smile, "Yup. Aren''t you glad that you joined us?" * * * We left the Ammeran city and headed south through what looked suspiciously similar to the African Sarengeti with tall and dry yellow grass growing as tall as my waist. There were even animals similar to lions and antelopes around us but in a weird twist, the lion like creatures which were black and had hard shiny carapaces similar to an insect''s exoskeleton were actually herbivores while the lithe and graceful looking antelopes were carnivorous. As we looked on, one antelope started to run at amazing speeds while approaching one of the herds of lions. It got faster and faster until it was nothing but a blur as it passed through the heard of lions which scattered in fear. Looking closer, we noticed three of the more unfortunate lions had been neatly bisected into two and their bodies were lying lifeless on the ground. The antelope had used its amazing speed and sharp horns to pass through the bodies of the lions, cutting them in half. We passed the savanna and went through dense jungles,blistering deserts, freezing tundra and each one of these environments had weird and exotic creatures. The Ameeran territory was vast and filled with this different environments scattered around without rhyme or reason so we passed by more natural settings than were present back on earth. As we traveled, Kirnatus tried to become closer to Morgana but she ignored any overtures he made towards her. Instead, she seemed to have become friends with Naviel. Neither of them would admit it and they barely said two words to each other but even when they were silent, they seemed to be silent together. As for Kirnatus, the poor bloke attracted the attention of Jules. He was honest and naive which in Jules''s books made him the perfect prey. She immediately ferreted out all of the embarrassing secrets about him and mercilessly made fun of the poor guy and the really tragic part was that most of her jokes didn''t translate well into the Ameeran language so that he was unaware that she was making fun of him. For example, when we were traveling through the jungle area, Kirnatus pointed towards a large bright red flower and said, "That is the Maranga flower. It has an intoxicating smell that lowers inhibitions and at it''s center is a delicious fruit but if an animal tries to get to the fruit, it''s petals close and the animal is eaten. It is a master baiter." Jules approached him with a straight face and asked, "A master baiter you say? Hmmm....you seemed to be very knowledgeable about this area of expertise. Are you a master baiter by any chance?" Kirnatus smiled bashfully, completely unaware of the dirty joke that Jules was playing, "I wouldn''t call myself a master baiter,I would like to be one some day but I lack the patience. My teacher was a master baiter, I used to watch him all the time and his technique was truly amazing. If I become half as good as him in the future, I would truly be satisfied." Jules still kept a serious expression on her face as she turned towards me,"You don''t think you are a master baiter? Well, don''t beat yourself up too much about it, I''m sure you do just fine. Don''t you think Kirnatus is a master baiter John?" Still editing, school kept me busy Almost done with school and editing. Will start updating soon. Till then, can u please check this out https://royalroadl.com/fiction/10247 After you are done, please leave comments.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. And now i will write jibberish because i need 500 characters for my chapter. Alas my love you do me wrong ro cast me away discoteously,when i have loved you all my life delighting in your company. Life is but a shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Thinking of continuing this I know its been a while and everyone has probably forgotten about me by now, I''m back baby! Didn''t want to jump straight back into this story so I was playing around with something else. Its a prequel and you will see exactly how twisted and interconnected all the people in The Heretic and The Saint are (see if you can spot Jules, John and Sophia in their past incarnations). It is already about 84,000 words and it is a little diffrent from the stuff here. There is only about three or four chapters remaining and I was hoping to publish this one. Need your opinions please.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Here is the link: https://royalroadl.com/fiction/16835 P.S. I plan to continue Heretic in about two weeks, three tops