Chapter 5: ~Breaking the Limit~

"Look, look," Lisa yelped excitedly. "There's Valkfolgen."

Nathan peered out the window, he couldn't see it. Lisa yelped again, this time in a more startled manner, when he moved to sit next to her and leaned in. She hadn't realized his objective was to just peer over the shorter girl's head. Off in the distance he could see it now. Valkfolgen was unique as far as cities go. Normally something the size of a city would have stone walls, or towering buildings. Valkfolgen on the other hand, was different.

No buildings in the magus city were higher than three stories. Every single structure had been made out of materials that don't mess with mana manipulation. Which basically meant that it was a city of wood, bricks, and tents — no metals.

In fact, the only metal you were likely to find around this city was used for certain staves. These were made of a few rare, choice metals that actually improved spell casting. Most of the time they'd even be fitted with a sort of crystal to be used by mages as a focus. Spells could be a lot more potent with the right sort of object to focus mana through.

As the train stopped and Nathan followed Lisa out, he marveled. Just as rumored, off in the distance were three gigantic trees. Each one was used for third and fourth year classes, teacher's private quarters, large scale assemblies, and tournaments.

Every step he took made Nathan more nervous. Lucretia, his mother, was the law in this city. Just as he was getting ready to run for the train, Lisa gripped his hand. She had noticed his reluctance to be here. Looking back into the girl's blue eyes calmed Nathan's heart. A fresh, natural scent of Valkfolgen washed over them as his pulse slowed to a normal tempo.

"What are you so afraid of?"

"Something you wouldn't understand," he answered reluctantly. "At least, I don't think you would."

Lisa clicked her tongue at him as she dragged Nathan along. It would seem he no longer had any choice in the matter. Do or die now... Oh wait, if it get's that bad I really can just die.

With that in mind he started to pay more attention. By now they'd crossed multiple wooden bridges. Below those bridges were rapidly flowing crystal clear streams of shimmering water. Once in a while you'd hear a child playing happily in the streets, or people singing and dancing in taverns. As they drew closer to three massive trees he could see the actual school. Surrounding the base of those ancient structures were many white, almost ashen buildings. No doubt another type of wood. He already knew that they'd be the facilities he'd not only live in, but also train in.

You'd think he would be focused on the school, it was important after all. Nathan however, was constantly distracted. That fact that Lisa was wearing high heels had baffled him back in the train. This became less baffling when he started following her. Thanks to those shoes, this petite woman's already eye-catching derriere was even more so now. The fact that Lisa had grinned impishly at him a few times already, made him think she was doing it on purpose.

Nathan stopped and looked up, he took a second to think of how the heck he was gonna get near enough to his mother's office. He needed watch how the assassination goes down. Nathan didn't wanna actually see it, but if he was gonna prevent Lucretia's death he should at least see if he could sense her assailants. Figure out how the heck they did it.

"Over there," Lisa pointed. "All you have to do is walk in and give the receptionist your I.D. crystal."

Nathan bowed down and kissed her hand, then said, "thank you Lisa Devroe. I shall not forget your kindness."

Nathan proudly waltzed off after making the older temptress turn beet red. He chose to ignore a few choice words she threw in his direction. Surprisingly enough, those choice words were followed with the location of her dorm room. Nathan committed it to memory... for purely academic reasons.

In front of him was the nearest of those three main school facilities, this also seemed to be the largest one. There was actually a line of new students waiting to be admitted properly. Nathan got in line because he wasn't in any sort of rush.

One after the other students would hand their crystal over, get their schedule, be told where their dorm room is, then be pointed in the direction of an assembly hall. Nathan wasn't looking forward to listening to his mother greet everybody, but he was interested in seeing what she looked like after all these years. It was... a complicated feeling that got his pulse racing again.

Finally, it was his turn. After forking over his real I.D. the woman stared him down. Apparently she decided he was the real thing because the receptionist promptly put up a sign. It claimed she would be back soon. After gathering a few things, and handing back his I.D. crystal, the woman motioned for him to follow. Honestly, the special treatment was making him nervous.

A while later they were outside — on the outskirts of Valkfolgen. In front of him was a large two story building. The woman quickly unlocked the door and led him inside. Ignoring a large staircase she motioned towards the table near his new kitchen.

Nathan got the message and sat down.

"Your mother has prepared this place for you..." she began, "because it would be pointless for a desolate one to attend any classes that have to do with magical theory. This..." she handed over a small card, "is a library pass. It will give you access to Valkfolgen's main library."

"Where is the library?"

"In the trower we just came from. There were stairs past my desk, you take them up two levels. Our library takes up the entire third level of that forward trower," she explained.

"Trower?" he asked, hoping he was wrong about why it was called that.

"Tree plus tower, trower." The woman scowled. "Don't look at me. I'm not the imbecile that named them. Anyway, the forward trower is called sun trower. Eastern one is star trower, western one is planet trower. Understood?"

Nathan tried not to laugh. "I think so."

"Lucretia says that you may be a student here, but that's all. You're free to do as you please. Try to stay out of trouble."

"No schedule, no classes?" he asked in a shocked voice.

"None... your mother said it would be a waste of resources to send you to any."

This time it was Nathan scowling. "Anything else?"

In the end this surly woman gave him that library pass, some keys to his new private home, and a card that would get him anything he wanted to buy around the city.

Nathan refrained from glaring daggers at her back as she left. That had not been pleasant, there was obvious disdain for him in her voice. He had been expecting something to happen, but not this. What his mother had basically just done was excommunicate him — made Nathan a student in name only.

This didn't feel good, he was sure that his mother would lock him away here — like the tower — if she could. But this wasn't their estate and that would probably draw attention. As usual, she believed he was dumb and desolate. Nathan had expected her to sign him up for alchemy or glyph classes, not... well, nothing. The woman had also made a point of telling him that he need not attend the greeting assembly for new students.

As tempted as he was to go around and buy everything in town out of spite, Nathan figured that was more likely to get his sorry ass shipped back home. His fear of meeting Lucretia was long gone, all he had left for her was seething rage.

Suddenly more motivated to watch how his mother dies — so he can save her of course — Nathan took his time inspecting this new home. At first he thought she had been trying to bribe him here, but it soon became obvious that the place wasn't made specially for Nathan. It had facilities that his mother would've thought were useless for him after all.

Even if he did absolutely love it here. A big spacious bath and kitchen, indoor training area with illusionary glyphs, alchemy lab, writing materials, a study, a fireplace — seriously this nature themed cabin was nice. From the hand-carved mahogany railing to oiled pine pillars, nothing displeased Nathan. If it wasn't for the fact that this place was his new tower, he'd feel completely at home.

In an attempt to take his mind off things for a while he decided to train some. His previous workout had been interrupted by Lisa, so this was a good time to finish.

Roughly two hours later he was lounging in his new bath with some fresh fruit floating on a buoyant platter. He'd found that the fridge was fully stocked for him already, how nice.

After drying himself off Nathan looked towards a rapidly setting sun.

"Sixteen days till mother dearest dies," he mused. "Whatever shall I do?"

After retrieving the library card, he was off. In a matter of minutes Nathan had found his way back to the sun trower. He had a few goals in mind as far as magic goes. While glyphs and alchemy would be nice to learn eventually, Nathan was more concerned about his actual spell casting abilities. That meant improving his mental endurance, manipulation, and learning new spell structures.

Since he wasn't taking any classes he'd have to figure all of that out alone. Before entering the trower Nathan spotted a familiar sunny demon. It was the internal mana signature of his eldest sister, the one who had a villa that he burned. He was freaking out in his head and getting ready to run. Then the strangest thing happened. She took one look at him, then hurried off in the direction of his new home.

Nathan sighed audibly, she hadn't recognized him. Hoping that his sister didn't just figure out where he was living, Nathan carried on with his task. A few minutes later he ascended both staircases leading to the sun trower's third level. A mental note was made that it is much easier to climb stairs without his jellyrolls, as awesome as they were. You shall be missed jellyrolls.

For nearly three hours, all the way up until closing time, he shuffled through book after book. Having chosen what he wanted left him lugging around over a dozen books. All but two of them were for beginners. Things like elementary spell structures and mental endurance training. The only advanced books he had were on manipulation and confluence.

Nathan had pawed through the beginner ones and quickly noticed that he already knew and could do everything in them. He had lit his sister's ten thousand square foot villa on fire with after all. It wasn't like starting a small fire in the corner, every inch of that annoying building was literally covered with flames in a split second. It had taken him nearly two hours of concentration to prepare the spell, but it was so worth it.

The only reason she built it in that location was to block out his view of the rising sun. Ever since she had the villa constructed he no longer enjoyed mornings... they hadn't met since he first got locked up in the tower, but that really hurt him. It made Nathan realize that it wasn't just his parents who disliked him.

Nathan knew for a fact that he was the only desolate one allowed on their family estate's grounds. If not for that he wouldn't have burned the villa. He could sense peoples internal mana and since there weren't any desolate people around he knew no one would be in there when it burned. Nathan was vengeful, but not murderous.

As Nathan approached his new dwelling, the jovial mood surrounding him shattered. Sure enough, the sunny demon was waiting for him inside. Maybe he should have locked the door. After taking a moment to calm himself down, Nathan waltzed right on in.

*pft-hahaha*

He couldn't help but laugh at the sight of her.

"Is it that good?" he asked jovially.

"You have no idea," she answered, then continued to voraciously devour an entire slab of steak. "Mom and dad have me on this no meat diet right now. I don't got anything against people who don't eat meat, but it just isn't for me." She looked up at him. "I'm Neris Dela'marthus, are you a friend of my brother?"

Nathan suppressed another laugh. Seeing her in this condition — hearing the way she mentioned his name without a hint of disdain had left Nathan incredibly happy. Instead of correcting her he waltzed up and looked into her eyes.

At first she backed up an inch, then — after noticing his own emerald eyes — she screamed, "Nathaniel!?"

"The one and only," he claimed joyously. "I know its been seven years and all, but really?"

"How was I suppose to know it's you?" Neris looked him up and down. "Mom and dad always said you were fat..."

"Well, our parents haven't seen me in seven years either," he said acidly. "Thanks for sticking your villa in the way of my sunrise by the way."

Neris washed up and looked back at him with her own emerald eyes. "Sorry, that was three years ago. I was still an immature nineteen year old brat back then and you can't exactly move a villa. Besides, some asshole burned it to the ground. I'd be angrier, but the whole thing is too impressive for me to go after whoever did it."

Nathan suppressed another laugh while his sister combed her silky black hair. Obviously he wasn't a suspect. That does beg the question though...

"Why are you here?" he asked suspiciously.

"I figured you'd be going here," she answered. "Father said he gave you a ticket to get here. First time in seven years my little brother is running free, I was curious if you're like what mom and dad say you are." Neris took a moment to look him up and down. "They have no idea how wrong they are. Give me a few days to fix that messy hair and you'll be a proper lady killer."

Nathan was dumbfounded, he had always assumed that Neris hated him after she had that damn villa built. It was nice to be wrong for a change. Naturally, being the mushy sap that he is, Nathan's eyes got all red and watery. Someone from his family didn't actually hate him. However, she still let him rot in a tower for seven years...

"You didn't think to visit me in the tower?"

Neris immediately explained that she had tried that four years ago. Their parents went out of their way to make an example of her. They didn't want their daughters mucking around with the useless child — Neris ended up being suspended from Valkfolgen and the Dela'Marthus estate grounds for an entire year. Admittedly, in her own immaturity, she had blamed Nathan back then for the whole ordeal and chose to block out his sunrise with her villa.

"Please don't turn on the waterworks," she sounded in an alarmed voice. "I can't handle it when people cry."

Nathan chuckled for a while, then asked, "planning on staying in Valkfolgen?"

"For a little while," she answered honestly. "Got room for one more?"

Nathan smiled as he led her to one of the spare bedrooms. As she was dropping her bags Neris noticed the books he was carrying. Nathan snapped his eyes open when he realized what had just happened.

"Little brother," she said in a low voice. "Why do you have a bunch of magus books?"

Nathan nervously averted his gaze. "I thought they'd be interesting to..."

"Don't lie to me," she interrupted. "I'm really good at reading people."

Nathan let out a sigh of bitter resignation.

"Wow, mom is so gonna lose her shit when she finds out!" yelled Neris.

"Please don't tell her!" he quickly roared.

"Oh come on, come on, come on," Neris begged. "Can you imagine the priceless look on her face?"

Nathan could, in fact, imagine that. He'd been thinking of it for years now.

"At least wait until next month," he said roguishly, for obvious reasons. "Give me some time to mentally prepare myself."

"For a nearly six-foot guy you're pretty timid," she complained.

"You're loud for a five-foot woman," he countered.

In hindsight, that was a stupid thing to say. Not something worth getting your foot stomped over. Nathan didn't bother saying that the reason he was timid is because she's a Dela'marthus.

As soon as Nathan dropped his books in the training hall Neris was dragging him off. She intended to stay true to her word apparently. Nathan wasn't sure what to think when she started dumping shampoo and conditioner on his head. At first he thought she was getting ready to water board him. It was odd, smelling like an apple.

Nathan looked up at Neris incredulously. "I forgot to mention that she may already know," Nathan mused. "My bodyguards might have said something to mom and dad about me using magic, but I doubt either will believe them."

Neris continued to lather his hair. "You're right," she confirmed with confidence. "Neither will believe it till they see it. My stupid, chubby little desolate brother is actually learning magic... and he's not chubby at all. It's taking a while to sink in." Neris smirked at Nathan. "I don't think you're stupid either. An idiot would've hit the town with your no limit cash card, not a library."

Nathan looked away from her again, just as nervous as before.

"Dad's gonna lose his shit too," she snickered. "You're the best little bro."

"I owe you an apology. I thought you would be haughty and pretentious... I was very wrong."

"I think we can call it a clean slate for now."

Nathan decided not to mention that he was the pyromaniac who burned her villa. No need to sabotage this comfy new sibling friendship.

"You should go change out of the Dela'marthus estate robes..." Neris started, "we stick out like a sore thumb wearing those."

Nathan peered at his sister's outfit. A modest kimono, something he wasn't sure fit her personality at all. Then again, he had no idea what her interests are.

After admitting that he only had the clothes on his back, Neris dragged him off. The next hour was spent in a tailor's shop. She had him try on all sorts of stuff. In the end, he walked out wearing some plain faded jeans and a tan one hundred percent cotton t-shirt. Nathan was super comfy in the new threads — no complaints.

The journey back to their new home was a relatively uneventful one. At one point they had stopped to listen to a bard, the man was talented enough to catch his attention of all things. Nathan didn't have much of a taste for music, or rather, any of the finer arts. He had been sheltered after all. When they did make it back home Neris immediately dragged him off to the training hall.

Nathan was feeling pretty nervous. Neris had pushed him into the training hall and was intent on seeing what he could do. So Nathan obliged. After taking a few weak with his spell, then knocking her a few feet back with a spell — he stopped.

"Those are the only two spells I know right now," he lied, not wanting her to know about the fireworks yet. "I intend read the book on increasing my mental endurance first."

"Booooring," she drolled on in an annoyed tone. "Just let me teach you."

Nathan slid the book away. "Alright, go for it."

Nathan was awaiting her instruction on mental endurance, Neris was gathering her thoughts. She was honestly shocked. Spells were easy to learn, most people got a book and just started memorizing simple two, three, and four symbol spells. The first thing a teacher does after you cast is knock your confidence down a peg.

Neris had just done the norm — fire four basic at his spell. Every student gets their broken and ends up taking a hit. However, Nathan's spell hadn't broken, in fact, it hadn't even budged. That led her to the conclusion that he had manipulated it during, or before casting. Either way, her little brother took all of two seconds to cast the spell. That was a bit advanced for only knowing two spells.

What she didn't know is that he had figured out the symbols from watching guardsmen muck around outside his tower. When Nathan learned his structure through trial and error, he had gotten used to doing it exactly as those guards had done.

Because they were showing off their manipulation skills, he learned it in a very difficult manner. It was slightly more efficient and nearly twice as durable. The problem was that he sacrificed surface area, this left his default structure only a couple feet wide.

"There are a few ways to increase mental endurance," she stated proudly. "You can eat some legendary creature parts and risk it killing you. You can go on a pilgrimage and risk a god killing you instead of granting you their boon. Or you can do what all magus do and run personalized ambient mana through your brain."

Nathan blinked a few times in surprise. "I take it you're teaching me the last option?"

"Right," she confirmed. "Minor warning though, it can also kill you."

Nathan threw his hands up. "What!?"

"Now, now." Neris laughed nervously. "That's only if you surpass your limits. You can only do so much before overloading your brain. Once you pass that it'll get real uncomfortable and you risk permanent damage. Which usually just flat out kills you."

Nathan intently listened to Neris about the dangers. Careful this, careful that, blah blah blah. He wasn't worried, rather, Nathan was excited. He had a get out of jail free card to test the limit. Most magus wouldn't dare get anywhere near it, but Nathan had just come back to life after eating a bullet...

The second she said that you could get an incredible boost in mental endurance by hitting that limit, Nathan decided to go for it.

A few minutes later Neris was shocked. Learning the method usually take days. Nathan only took minutes to reach out and manipulate mana, then start running it through his own body. He still hadn't told her that confluence was his specialty, and he had warrior meditation training under his belt.

A few minutes later Neris was nervous and Nathan was sweating. Most kids only go for about a minute tops on the first day, but he was pushing it.

"That's enough bro," she said fearfully. "No need to push your luck on day one."

Nathan tensed up, and fell over...

The scent of freshly baked donuts roused Nathan from his slumber. Outside — past some iron bars — one rather attractive woman in form-fitting clothes handled a steaming box. Nathan slowly got up.

"Dammit," he mumbled in a self admonishing tone. "Sorry, Neris."

Emma looked over at a scowling Nathan. Then offered him an apple fritter. While he was eating it Nathan cursed a few more times. From her explanation he had been expecting pain, not just nausea. He had obviously died, so it wasn't actually like a huge warning.

"Swear I'm only testing something," he said to Emma. "Don't mind me."

Emma got a little nervous when Nathan used . After sitting there for around fifteen minutes he was feeling his limit in mental endurance. It had almost tripled in a single training session... that killed him, unfortunately.

After having a short conversation with Emma he decided to just get some mental endurance training out of the way. It hadn't hurt very much so he wasn't afraid. What did hurt was when he ran the personalized mana through his body, not his brain. It had done something to his vim and made it feel like his body was on fire. Nathan wasn't sure if it had an actual effect on his vim, but he wasn't willing to go through that sort of pain again.

Nausea... dead... donuts...

Nausea... dead... donuts...

Nausea... dead... donuts...

...

...

In a well-lit room three ethereal people watched a crystal clear pool of water. It reflected images of Nathan. They couldn't stop laughing. Airi, Chronos, and another god were all completely lost.

"That's one way to use the loop," she claimed in an excited voice. "He totally isn't afraid to die that way."

"Our little Nathan did get tortured the first time around," Chronos mused. "Then shot in the face."

"Good point," a horned man spoke. "Best mortal ever. Pass me the chips."

Chronos quickly handed the ashen-skinned man a platter of fried potatoes.

"We should stick people in time loops more often," Airi said while stealing a chip. "I wasn't expecting him to go to Valkfolgen. Completely blindsided me with that one."

"We'd get in trouble for doing this," Chronos chided. "One's the limit Airi."

"Fast forward please." Airi had gotten tired of watching Nathan train already. "Give me some more chips Dozer."

Chronos snapped his fingers, the pool of water shimmered.

"Stop, stop..." the big guy, Dozer, interrupted, "he's about done."

The scent of freshly baked donuts roused Nathan from his slumber. Outside — past some iron bars — one rather attractive woman in form-fitting clothes handled a steaming box.

He had lasted nearly seven hours doing mental endurance training that time. Considering that the first session had killed him in just a few minutes, Nathan was feeling pretty confident in his mental endurance right about now. The next step should be getting his hands on some advanced spell structures and polishing manipulation skills.

Emma looked at him with a smirk, then asked, "what are you smiling about?"

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," he claimed with a perfectly straight face. "Marry me."

*crash*

A few donuts rolled across the ground. Emma blushed furiously as she tied her hair in that familiar ponytail, and cleaned the mess up. He had obviously gotten to her that time.

"Please don't joke around," she said spitefully.

"I'm honestly reflecting on it." Nathan grinned while looking at her crawl around. “You missed one...” he pointed, “over there — behind you.”

Emma took a moment to crawl under her table and look for the donut he mentioned, then cursed audibly. “You’re staring at my rear — aren’t you?”

Nathan purposefully let out a content sigh for her to hear. “Yup…”

“I’m gonna kill you kid.” She looked him in the eye. “One more stunt — I dare you.”

He returned her glare while smiling and asked, “when should we get married?”

Nathan spent far longer than usual convincing Emma to release him this time. The rest of his day was mostly trying to make things happen like they had on his first journey to Valkfolgen. One key difference was that he caught a later train and missed Lisa.

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