Hello, I'm back from the dead with a new chapter! I finally finished my summer intensive course, I got a distinction *Applause*. At the behest of a literary friend and a few others I have conjured up a solid release schedule for this story. For those of you who are still eager to read my work rejoice. I shall be releasing chapters *Pause for effect* every 3 days! I feel like this is possible as I have actually planned and written summaries of chapters up to the 13th chapter! I'm also 2 chapters ahead in terms of writing so even if something happens, loss of a limb, terrible mind numbing cold, axe murder in the house... I should still be able to post a chapter. I've actually had this chapter done for a while but I felt like I should post it on a Saturday. I was actually meant to post this tomorrow but... I couldn't wait haha. Without further ado, enjoy reading! Note: Next chapter will be on the 4th, as this chapter was supposed to be on the 1st. Oops.

Eran decided that the most efficient way to conduct his research, would be to start with the broadest topic and slowly narrow his focus. Scanning through the titles in the stack, Eran picked out a large old leather bound book.

The many peoples of Eion

In the beginning there was God. In God’s infinite wisdom, it created the world of Eion. Soon, God felt that its new world was lonely and bereft of life. So God created the seven races to spread out and populate the world.

The Dragons who were symbols of both magic and might.

The Dwarves who were the most creative.

The Elves who were both nimble and beautiful.

The Beastmen who were strong and proud.

The Daemons who were the most clever and wise.

The Seraphine who were both merciful and kind.

And finally the Humans who were weak but held such promise.

Now with seven new children to watch and guide, God felt its attention divided. Wanting to be with them all, it split itself into six pieces. One being for each race. All except for the dragons who were created first. As the oldest and most powerful of the races they were individually equal to one of the new beings.

Varinia – The goddess of Versatility, to govern the many different Humans.

Adwin – The god of Art and Music, to govern the Ingenious Dwarves

Annabelle – The goddess of Grace and Beauty, to govern the Elvenkin

Neon – The god of Strength, to govern the prideful but physically strong Beastmen

Pallas – The god of Wisdom, to govern the clever but sometimes mischievous Daemons

Clementine – The goddess of Kindness and Compassion, to govern the merciful yet just Seraphine

Six gods for six races.

Eran put down the book. His mind was swirling with information.

‘Gods?’ he thought to himself, ‘even Dragons!’

“So there are many races…” he mumbled quietly.

‘Eion the author called it. So this world is called Eion’, ‘a world run by gods, amazing...’ Eran mused.

Satisfied with what he had learned from the old book, Eran once again took to the stack in search of more information. Following his original plan, he now knew the name of the world, who runs it, and who populates it. Now he would narrow his search and learn about his immediate area.

Spying one such book Eran took it from the floating stack.

Geography of Alpha and Beta Astra

For as long as the country of Astra has existed, it has been split in two by a large, sea-like river called the Flumine. The lands north of the Flumine are Astra Alpha and its opposite side Astra Beta.

Originally, there were two separate capitols, one in each side of Astra, however this caused war between the two peoples and the Monarchy swiftly dismantled both cities in favour of a new super-capitol in the very heart of both Astra’s. The Great Capitol of Astra was named Astr in respect of the country and was situated on a large island in the middle of the Flumine.

Astr has stood for nearly 2,000 years and has served as the pinnacle of trade and tourism in the continent.

There are many large towns that surround Astr on both sides of the Flumine that serve as pseudo-cities. Fearful of another dispute, the towns, no matter how large in landmass, will never be given a ruler nor will they be considered a true city. One such Pseudo-city is the Frontier town that rests in southern Astra Alpha, Beaufort.

Beaufort was built by the king in the earlier ages of the country as a staging point for an invasion on the Wood Elves that lived in the nearby Great Forest. However this plan was abolished by the Racial Treaty that was comprised soon after. Now the city like town is a tourism and trade hot spot as it is situated in between Astr and the Great Forest.

Once again Eran put the book down and collected his thoughts.

‘That never ending forest I saw must be ‘The Great Forest’’.

Satisfied that he now had a general understanding of the lay of the land, Eran decided to read one final book.

Scanning the stack, a single title jumped out at him.

The Compendium of Arcane and Elemental Magic

Just from skimming the first few pages it was very clear that the magic on this world was almost the exact same as that of Earths if not a little more rudimentary. This was because Eion lacked the relationship Earth had between magic and technology.

Thankful that what little he knew about magic from Earth still applied here, Eran skipped to the section on basic Elemental Magic and looked up the system for casting them.

Pleased with his findings he made a decision. As it was still only early afternoon he would like to find somewhere remote to practice this magic. He knew that many others could use magic and it was pretty common place to see it in practice but Eran still felt like he should hide his.

After thanking the Old man and returning the books Eran left the Library in the direction of the town gates. He recalled an earlier conversation with Cassidy. She had mentioned that there was a nice sized lake not far from the town that hardly anyone ever used as it had no fish in it. She then made some offhand remark about wishing someone would take her there whilst sneaking glances at Eran.

Whilst her intentions were dubious at best, she had given him an invaluable piece of information as he now had the perfect place to test his magic.

Lying in a glade sheltered by ancient trees, were the silhouettes of two girls. Seemingly asleep the two were close together in an embrace. As more and more sunlight managed to permeate through the filter of the canopy, the girls were stirred by the light and soon awoke.

Sitting up in a daze the slightly taller one turned to her partner. The other girl who had short chocolate brown hair stared back at the dark haired girl in a dull daze. Light soon filled both their eyes as the situation dawned on them. They had no idea where they were.

“Miss A-alexia, where are w-we?” the shorter one stammered.

“I don’t know Ame. A forest?” Alexia replied, too stunned to register any other emotion.

“What happened? All I remember is that boy glowing and then nothing!?” Ame seemed to almost be in tears.

Alexia knew well and truly that whilst her best friend put up a tough act, deep down, she was very fragile and very clingy.

“Shhh” she hushed her softly whilst embracing her.

“It will be okay, I’m here right?” she said in a soothing voice.

Whilst it may appear unusual to others, this was actually a very common occurrence. Whenever Ame would say something hot headed she would mope in her room for a whole day because of it. Only to be coaxed out by the coos of her best friend and mistress, Alexia.

‘Now that she mentions it, I don’t see Eran anywhere either…’ she thought to herself.

“Don’t worry Ame, it was probably just some accident. We’re probably just in some forest near the school. I think it there was a spell called ‘Teleport’, where you can move short distances” said Alexia

Amelia nodded in return but soon her gaze wandered to the engulfing canopy of the forest.

“I‘ve never seen trees like this before…” Amelia whispered.

Alexia was too busy casting a low level ‘Evaluation’ spell to check on their condition, to notice the alien atmosphere of their surroundings.

The spell proved that other than being slightly famished and dehydrated, nothing was out of order.

That was until, however the sound of a twig snapping brought their attention to a shadowed entrance to the glade. Floating in the shadows were two red beady eyes. The eyes seemed to be completely focused on the two girls, never leaving them for a second.

As more twigs could be heard snapping, the eyes kept moving forward until they could be seen resting on a scaly snout.

“W-what is that thing…?” Amelia whimpered.

Standing in front of them was the largest lizard they had ever seen. Its scales were mostly light, but broken by darker shades of brown. It stood nearly a metre tall and several long. Its eyes were small in comparison to its head and it seemed sluggish, as if it weighed more than it should.

The Lizard Monster hissed in their direction and started to walk at the pair with nefarious intentions. One look at it and you could tell it wanted to eat them whole.

As soon as Alexia regained her composure she formed her mana and cast a fourth-circle Frost spell ‘Freeze’ at the lizard. Her choices were limited as she neither wanted to burn down the forest with fire nor was she particularly skilled with earth magic. Left only with Frost and Electric based magic at her disposal she chose the former as she remembered that Lizards are supposedly cold blooded.

The spell left her hand in the form of an Icy jet and struck the Lizard head on with perfect precision. A feeling of elatedness coursed through her as she now felt safe.

However panic soon returned as she noticed that the not only was the Lizard not frozen and dying, it was still moving towards them as if nothing had happened. Completely forgetting her earlier qualms in a panic Alexia, as well as Amelia, started shooting off random spells at the Lizard. They used everything they could think of from ‘Flame-thrower’ to ‘Electrical Storm’.

The surrounding glade was slowly turning into a magical mess as the soft grass was burnt and the ground scorched and disturbed.

Using such strong magic up to the fifth-circle and at such a frequency had caused the girls to exhaust almost all of their mana and left them in a semi-paralysed state.

None of the magic had any effect on the Lizard and it was now very, very close. Alexia watched in horror as the monster slowly opened its massive maw. Little bits of what could only be described as lunch was still staining its razor sharp teeth.

As the Lizard was just about to sink its teeth into the now magically exhausted girl, Alexia closed her eyes in preparedness for the inevitable pain.

Only the pain never came.

Opening her eyes Alexia could only stare in utter shock at the barbed arrow that was protruding from the Lizards skull. The Lizard itself was undoubtedly slain.

“Echot El Lavis? Del mor ton?” Suddenly emerging into sight were five strangers wielding bows. Other than their language the most surprising feature of these strangers was their beautiful appearance and mysterious long ears. There were four males and a lone female.

All of them had beautiful blond hair. The males were lean and strong and had deep brown eyes with sharp features. The woman however had piercing green eyes and could not be described in any other way than drop dead gorgeous. She had very generous proportions and walked with a level of grace that even models would envy.

“Parin es talab, linsta more” the female of the group said to one of the others.

“They clearly can’t understand us” she repeated again, only this time in fluent English.

“Y-you just spoke!” Alexia replied, too tired to do anything other than point out the obvious.

“I’m sorry, we should have spoken the human tongue from the beginning. I’ll ask again, are you two alright?” The beautiful woman said with a warm smile.

Feeling that they were safe from the monstrous Lizard, Amelia couldn’t help but breakdown into tears. Never before had their magic failed them, never before had they felt so powerless. Let alone powerless in a strange place.

Noticing the crying girl the group immediately moved to calm her whilst the female crouched to talk to Alexia.

“Do you know where you are child?” she asked her.

Alexia responded by shaking her head.

“I can tell you’re not from… around here. Your Mana feels different from most humans I have met.”

“You’re in the Great Forest in the Country of Astra. Does any of that mean anything to you?” the woman asked her.

Once again Alexia shook her head.

“Dear me, well although I’m in charge of this hunt, I think it’s best if you talk with our Elders.” She smiled to her.

“My name is Leafe Windbreeze, and although the first resident of the forest you met was a Basilisk, may I formally welcome you to the Realm of the Wood Elves.” Leafe said with a beaming grin.

Standing at the edge of a lake was a young noble looking man. Any onlookers would have thought he looked rather dashing standing by the glistening water. Only there were no onlookers.

Eran had made it to the lake and now stood fully facing the water. Cassidy had been truthful, there weren’t any people at the lake, neither swimming, fishing nor just enjoying the scenery. Whilst he felt it was weird at first he soon got over it and returned his thoughts to more important things. Magic.

A noticeable fact that the magic on Earth and what the spell book said about Eion, was that both used a class system for magic ranging from one to ten. Whilst the naming for the system was different, Eran decided that he would just keep them as circles as they were what he was familiar with.

Drawing upon his memories Eran recalled the system for the First-Circle magic spell ‘Weak fire-ball’. The spell, consumes a very small portion of the mages total mana-well, some 0.5%, and converts it into a raw flame.

Giddy at the prospect of finally using magic, Eran held his hand to face the surface of the lake. Whilst he was acting rash in suspense of using magic, he was not being careless enough to cause potential fires. So he naturally aimed at the water.

On Earth, Eran had seen the spell several times. It was one of the most basic in the Elemental series and even a three year old could successfully form it. He pictured what it looked like then, a small ball of flame the size of a fist launching from his hand.

Whilst shouting “Weak fire ball” both aloud and in his mind, Eran pointed his hand at the lake.

A small spark flared at the edge of his fingers. The spark crackled to life and formed a ball much like he desired. And within moments, erupted into a torrential wave of flames.

Like a flame thrower on steroids, the fire spewed out over the lake and an overwhelming heat flowed through Erans body. As he looked to the side, as the flames continued to burn, Eran could see that everything around him was scorched.

The wave of flames was stark white in color and hotter than anything Eran had ever felt before. Hotter than anything he could even imagine.

Despite the heat, he only felt uncomfortable at worst.

As the flames started to slow and recede, the insane heat died down and Eran was left in the wake of his rampart spell.

The once large and glistening lake was completely gone, only to be replaced by a charred and barren lake-bed. The surrounding grasslands were equally charred, though the fire did not spread very far.

For several minutes Eran did not move, he couldn’t even think. He was completely shocked at what had just occurred. His weak spell that only used not even a full percent of his total mana… did this.

It was at the moment that his wits were returning, that Eran recalled the conversation he had with his self. ‘Now we are one, we can do anything, be anything’, with power like this he wasn’t joking.

But if only this much of his full potential caused a weak spell to become… the strongest spell he has ever witnessed. What would happen if he used all of it?

As his train of thought continued, Eran come to a firm decision. He needed control. If this happened every time he used magic, and he swore to himself that he would definitely be using it, then he needed to be able to control it. Since coming to this world a week ago, he had done nothing but work as a waiter. Other, more fantasy driven people, would have already been out there slaying dragons or challenging corrupt kings. But Eran had simply worked.

But now he had a firm goal to strive for in mind. Control.

Taking one last glance at the scorched landscape, Eran made a slow walk back to town. He remembered to enter the town from the opposite side of the lake, just for good measure.

(Side story)

A certain lake in the lands of Astra Alpha suddenly evaporated. The large mass of water condensed in the sky and formed a cumulonimbus cloud. The gigantic rain cloud traveled hundreds of miles, threatening to tear up all the lands in its wake.

However it eventually gave in and released all of its mass on a single place. This area just happened to be barren and drought ridden. Its people felt they had to leave the lands soon, else they would perish. In a single week, the cloud had emptied its contents in the form of a monsoon on the barren and desolate drought lands. Only they were no longer desolate, nor were they drought ridden.

The area had turned into a cesspool of life. Seeds that were caught in the upwards air currents grew in the now fertile and moist soil. Life returned and the people had renewed vigor.

Unbeknownst to him, a young mage had inadvertently caused the end of a century long drought. The people of the once, drought lands, knew it was a miracle and thanked the Gods whole heartily promising to pray to them every day.

~Chapter 4

~Chapter Guide~

Chapter 6~