“What, did you say is in that spear exactly?” Rath gulped, all traces of power and arrogance gone as he slowly backed away.

“This, heh, this spear is forged from a ley line confluence not too far from here and was later altered with a piece of crystal infused, Ripple-induced Chaos. And I’ve really only gotten to test it once.” I replied. Gungnir was still vacuuming up all of the mana being sent to it by three matter to mana generators. It was started to shake in my hands, probably reaching its full capacity.

“Odin himself would love that spear,” Rath mumbled while he started to visibly shake, “And Hephestaus would love to take it apart.”

Everything in me wanted to end everything around me. One of my favorite books from before said something along the lines of, let the world burn and we’ll roast marshmallows in the flames. But I have no one to roast those marshmallows with, so I can’t really let the world burn, yet. I shunted the generators back to their original purposes and turned the power flow back to very low. Leaning my spear up against the wall, I crossed my arms and leveled my gaze at the lizard. Taking a deep breath, I spoke slowly and carefully, “I might be new to this whole fucking thing, sorcery and monsters and fiance trees, but do not underestimate me. This world is mine, it just doesn’t know it yet.”

“If you play with the unbridled insanity that is Chaos,” he said, trembling, “You might be just mad enough to do it.”

“Mad enough?” I asked, “I am beyond mad. I know exactly what it takes to be considered a sane individual, I’ve done that my entire life. But since the Ripples have come and gone and changed literally everything and aren’t even close to being done with this planet, maybe I don’t need to act like a nice little human. Maybe I could do some fucked up shit and be Sorcerer-King! Armies of flesh sorcery-twisted goblins and dragons and huge ass eagle-crows at my beck and call, or maybe I’ll conjure some water and earth and nature elementals so that the very land the invaders step on rips them to shreds! I haven’t even sat down to think about what I’m capable of. What if the people that took all the humans come back for round two?!”

I looked mad, as in off the deep end mad. I conjured a bucketful of water and splashed myself with it, then sat on the stone chair behind me. Looking at Rath made it hard to believe that just a minute ago his dragon self was shown to me in all its power and glory. I’m not impressed. I’m just tired. My anger drained from me as the water sluiced down my body. “I’m sorry. I’m really not upset with you,” I said, one hand supporting my head. “It’s late, and I need sleep. You can stay here if you’d like, just don’t fuck with me.” I waved my hand and banished the puddle of urine beneath him and the water all over me.

I lay on the couch next to the shell of Sarah, my gear cleaned up and on the ground next to me. “A couple thousand years huh?” I said to myself quietly, “I’m a motherfuckin sorcerer. I can hang on for a couple thousand years. Flesh sorcery kicks Father Time’s butt.”

But how? I need to cheat. Literally. I need to cheat Father Time, the endless march of the ticking clock. I could reverse old age, but could I do it easily? Could I just stave off death, or did age heal like a wound? I’m young right now, could I simply put a semi-stasis or permanence enchantment on my cells so that perfectly replicate their genetic code, effectively keeping me at my pseudo-twenty five? My first attempts at reversing age worked, kinda. I mean, I really didn’t know what I was doing, and still don’t actually know. Hmmm, flesh sorcery. Maybe I could incorporate some strands of DNA from a creature with ridiculous longevity into my own, but how far was I willing to go? I conjured a stone box, about six inches across and deep, then imprinted a rune of timelessness on the lid, a broken hourglass. Then on the bottom, I put a rune of sealing, a picture of an actual ‘Ar Ar’ fat arctic seal, because magic follows intent more than structure. I laughed to myself a bit. No one would figure that shit out. Using flesh sorcery, I opened a vein and poured blood into the box until it was half full and then healed the vein. On the underside of the lid, I put a rune of ice, with the intent of freshness. Closing the box and sealing it, I put it on former Sarah and sunk it into her chest using Nature Sorcery. “Here babe. A literal piece of me. If I ever get too crazy or twisted somehow, I can come back here and rewrite my biology back to old me with this.” The World Tree, linked through Sarah’s root, recognized my magic, the one that brought it up and protects it and feeds it the purest of mana, swallowed the box down and sent it out of range of my senses. [Good night babe. I’ll marry you, even if I have to wait a few thousand years.]