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Leo

Leo had left Allis, Glia, and Elaria behind, because none of them wanted to be anywhere near him when he said he would level about twenty acres with his magic, so he just departed with Sciesch and Fel to his newly acquired lands. The flight took only a few minutes, and was uneventful, as Fel tagged along to see him use more of his magic, while he used gravity magic to bring Sciesch. Unfortunately for Leo, Sciesch seemed to have joined the ‘thirst club’ with how she now looked at him.

Leo sighed a little disappointedly while feeling Sciesch’s piercing gaze from behind. ‘Why do I get the feeling Elaria had something to do with this…..’

After flying above the overgrown trail for a bit, Leo stopped over the largest and most level terrain that was on the trail. Leo flew a little higher as he mentally pathed out how much he needed to clear, and when he was done, he casually ripped a tree out of the ground and floated it up to him.

‘While I don't like to be wasteful, I really don't have anywhere to store or properly process the wood… So this is a good time to test out atomizing magic.’ He thought as he felt the cast go through on the tree, and watched as the matter seemed to bleed away into nothing.

Fel flew next to Leo. “What the fuck was that?” She asked in a mixture of awe and horror.

Leo sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, that was essentially me deleting something using magic.” He responded guiltily, while Fel and Sciesch looked at him with fully arched brows.

Leo winced. ‘Yeah, that's an appropriate response…. Unfortunately, that didn't cost me much mana to do, and felt like different parts of the tree used up different amounts. Might have to do with either density, or the strength of the molecular bonds.’ He mentally assessed with genuine interest.

Leo shook out of his thoughts. “Welp, you two might want to brace yourselves for what I'm about to do.” He told them as he mentally visualized all the trees in his sight that needed to be cleared, and with a simple snap of his fingers, hundreds of them started to bleed away into nothing.

The process only took a few seconds, and what was left was a fully cleared area that was a little larger than the required space. The terrain was very rough, and was dotted with hundreds of holes from the ‘deleted’ trees, some with a small pile of dust within them.

Leo frowned. ‘Gonna need to do some testing on denser objects, because that was like a nibble off my mana sandwich…. And that's just all kinds of bullshit….’ He mentally noted to himself.

Turning to his left, he saw Sciesch and Fel just gaping at the cleared land, and Leo couldn't fault them for the reaction, because even he was taken aback at the site. It was one thing to say that you can casually cause widespread destruction, it was another to actually do it.

Leo looked back to the area. ‘Hmm, gravity magic to flatten I guess….’ He thought as he visualized a spell to use gravity to spread out, even, and compress the ground.

As he felt the cast go through, there was a massively deep thud that echoed from below, and all of the ground was instantly flattened perfectly. Leo smiled wide, but noticed that the edges of the flattened area looked like there was just a slice carved out of the ground.

Leo mentally sighed. ‘Going to need to use the scalpel for that…’ He thought while descending towards the ground, bringing Sciesch along with him.

When he got to the ground he noticed that Fel was still up in the sky, and seemed to be stuck in a permanent daze. Leo was about to call out to her, but noticed that Sciesch was also in a similar state.

Leo looked back to the nearly twenty acres of flattened land.

‘Ya…. I may have overdone it…’

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Fel

‘I've summoned a god….’ Was the lone thought in Fel’s head, while she stared out onto the clear and flattened area. Though she knew that Leo wasn't actually a god, his ability to wield magic definitely was on the same level as one, and that would be very terrifying if Leo didn't make it abundantly clear that he hated having it in the first place.

As much of an insufferable ass as Fel believed Leo was, she also respected his pursuit of restraint, and seeing this level of power being used just deepened that feeling even more. He could, If he wanted to, go to the dragon capital and wipe out every one there, but that would go against everything he values.

Fel let out a small chuckle. ‘If I respect him any more, I might just move the bar up from irritation, to tolerable.’ She thought in amusement.

After continuing to take in the results of Leo's magic, she felt herself slightly yank downwards. Looking down, she realized that Leo and Sciesch were already on the ground, and that he used his magic to get her attention.

Fel flew down to them, with amazement still plastered across her face. "I would ask how, but I don't think I'd want to know…" She remarked in slight awe.

Leo let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, this is definitely going on my 'most dangerous spells' list."

Fel looked at Leo with a bit of concern. "Exactly how many spells are on that list?" She asked cautiously.

Leo coughed uncomfortably. "At least a few dozen, but some of them I've put hard limits on. Remember when I refused to tell you what a nuke was? Well the byproduct of using it is high levels of radiation, which is something that I am never going to fuck with."

Once again, Fel looked over the area. "What does it do to be worse than this?" She questioned skeptically.

Leo grimaced. "Without explaining the concept, because no one should ever know how to do this, it's essentially poison that can kill pretty much anything, can linger in the air for hundreds if not thousands of years, and is near impossible to safely clean up after a certain point."

Fel’s eyes went wide. "That's fucking horrifying! Wait, you said a byproduct. What is its main use? Wait, no, I don't want to know."

A slightly dark expression fell over Leo's visage. " Yeah, it's a horrible way to die…"

'How could his world seem like a paradise, but also have weapons that do that…'

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Sciesch

Sciesch had been experiencing quite the thrill from being flown over to the construction area, but now she was in utter shock, as she continued to process what she just witnessed while almost missing the fact that she was suddenly standing on the ground.

Sciesch looked over at Leo, who was staring up at Fel. 'That was not something that a simple arch mage would be capable of, that seemed closer to what a god could do…' Her thoughts trailed.

Sciesch had always been critical of the zealots who equated the second summon to a god, because if he was, then why did he die of old age. No, he was as mortal as everyone else, even dragons, as powerful as they are, were subject to mortality. So she always thought that the zealots went too far in deifying the summon, but after witnessing what he could do, and an admission from a dragon of their defeat by him, she may have to rethink some of her long held beliefs on the subject.

Sciesch furrowed her brow as she bit her lip in irritation. 'I really don't want to admit that those crazy bastards are right, but….' The thought trailed as she looked between the cleared land and Leo.

Sciesch knew that the answer was probably ‘no’, and that it was a stupid thing to even ask, but she walked stiffly over to Leo anyway. "Um, Leo, are you a god?" She asked nervously, while not at all mentally prepared for a ‘yes’, as it would mean that she had been wrong her entire life.

Leo frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but was silent for a bit until realization seemed to cross his face. "No, without my magic I am just like everyone else. In fact if you catch me with my guard down, then an arrow to the face is just as deadly as anything else. Just think of me as wielding the power, not being said power. So please don't start treating me like a god, or be constantly on edge around me, because I just want to be treated like everyone else." He paused to look over the area. "Even though I can do this…" He trailed off with an exhausted sigh, and Sciesch physically relaxed at his explanation, because it turned her worldview back upright again.

Sciesch cocked her head as a familiar thought appeared at the back of her mind. "So just to be sure, you want to be treated without regard to your 'magical' ability?"

Leo smiled warmly. "Exactly." He answered proudly.

Sciesch smiled impishly, because considering that most of his magical abilities checked out, she really wanted to confirm Elarias claim on his physical. "Great, so want to fuck?" She asked bluntly while her tail swayed expectantly.

A loud smack sounded from Leo's facepalm. "Yeah, sure... What else did I expect to happen…" He finished sarcastically.

Sciesch became crestfallen, her tail drooping sadly. "It's fine if you don't want to, you could have just said no…" She pouted as she timidly twirled a strand of her hair.

Fel crossed her arms disapprovingly at Leo. "Paper dragon wants to make others feel bad? That's rich."

Leo winced. "I'm sorry Sciesch, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that being constantly leered at is starting to get to me. You're a gorgeous woman and I'd be happy to have a good time with you." He paused to turn to Fel. "And as for you. After I've had my time with her, I’m going to finally fuck 'paper dragon' out of your vocabulary." He finished with hard certainty, as both women's skin color deepened in shade considerably.

After that conversation, Leo set about smoothing out the terrain around the edges of the flattened land. He was nearly done after a little over two hours in, when Sciesch heard a muffled voice in her bag. It was from the communication orb the branch lent her, and when she pulled it out she could hear someone frantically calling in a hushed tone.

The orb pulsed dimly. "Hello, architect?! Are you there!? Gods please answer!? Hello!?" The woman called desperately from the other end.

Sciesch became visibly worried. "Hello, this is Sciesch. Is som-" She was cut off by the woman.

The orb brightened. "Get Leo!"

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Rak

-FOUR HOURS AGO-

Rak was patiently waiting outside the academy, leaning against a massive floating metal box. The box was an ancient artifact that was excavated from a ruin found in Selaria, and dated back to the era of progress. The box could carry a limitless amount of weight, and glide over terrain with ease. But since the runes that made it work were a complete mystery to the academy, they just used it to transport many supplies, or other heavy objects.

Rak couldn't care less about the floating magical mystery, as his mind was on what he would do when he got to Telnar. "It has been a while, so I should take my time and enjoy it. There probably won't be another opportunity like this for decades…" He thought aloud.

The headmaster approached with a smile on her face. "All the mages and supplies are loaded, so we are set to head off. We should probably get there around midday." She told him.

Rak smiled happily. "Oh I'm much too impatient for that, so why don't I just teleport you all there."

The headmaster arched a brow, and looked between him and the artifact. "Are you sure? I mean no disrespect, but this is quite a lot." She questioned meekly.

Rak barked a laugh at the insect, and how small they actually were compared to him. "This is nothing for me little bug! I have the ability to move twice this size, and my mana pool is even bigger than most other dragons." He huffed proudly.

The headmaster nodded, and boarded the artifact with some hesitation, much to Rak's amusement.

Placing both his hands on the box, Rak visualized the area he scouted yesterday that was just outside Telnar. The sounds of cracks and tears could be heard, as the space around him and the artifact began to shift and warp.

And after one loud and thunderous snap, they were both at their destination.

Rak banged on the box. "We're here!" He shouted while looking out over the town with a manic expression.

The headmaster exited the artifact, and started giving orders to take the gates and patrol the walls, to make sure no one escapes.

The headmaster then thanked Rak for the teleport, and hoped that it didn't cost him too much mana.

Rak snorted at being worried over by a bug. "Nothing I couldn't do twice over." He stated with confidence.

'Even though I spent a decent chunk, it's not like there's anything here that could even scratch me'

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