[[POV of a certain genius mage]]

I could be considered a genius, mastering my first element at the age of 8. I was invited to attend the royal academy on a scholarship, with my tuition fees completely covered by the royal palace. There, I spent 4 years studying and improving and another 5 years perfecting my new specialisation.

I was a rare variant of human mages, one of only a handful who mastered the art of healing magic. Even though I was considered a genius, I was nothing compared to Gale Reyzwald. Not only was he the first prince, he was also the only on in this continent to master 3 elements by the age of 20. He was 3 years older than me and he had already achieved the title of Archmage by 25.

Out of all the students from the royal academy, I was selected to be one of the members of the royal mage platoon, valued for my mastery over healing magic. Our platoon consisted of only genius mages, all personally handpicked by the Archmage himself.

Through the years, we went through numerous missions together, surviving through life and death situations in skirmishes against our enemies. I had personally saved Gale’s life countless times, healing broken bones, torn limbs and shattered organs. Over the course of 5 years in the platoon, I achieved the rank of number 1 healer within Alluviate, granting me a spot on Gale’s personal team of high-end mages.

Gale had never lost a magical battle before. He came close several times, but risked his life to complete missions, relying on me to patch him up after. However, that all changed one afternoon. I heard an ear-piercing scream from within the palace and rushed into the grand hall to find out what had happened.

What greeted me was a scene of utter destruction, the pillars and floor burnt with cinders still floating in the air. The roof of the grand hall had been ripped open, with no traces of debris anywhere. There, in the middle of the grand hall, surrounded by his brother and his son, was Gale, weeping on his knees. I hurried over and mended the broken kneecaps in a moment. However, I could not seem to mend his shattered pride.

For the first time ever, Gale seemed to have lost a magic battle, and had his enemy not been merciful, he would have lost his life too. Further investigation revealed that it was the ambassador of the new Neighbouring city that had done the deed, severely injuring Gale in the fight. This new city has been nothing but trouble recently, disrupting our economy and now hurting a member of the royal family.

However, the real shocker came a few days later, when the King announced the real reason why Gale was injured. It would seem that Gale initiated the fight in a fit of rage and was now sentenced to exile by his own brother. The conditions were that he duel the same man that had injured him, and if he won, he would keep his life.

But what of the rumours of Titans and high elves? That would explain why the man was so powerful in magic. I asked Gale and consulted with him regarding my worries, but he seemed to be confident in himself and sure that the rumours were lies and were merely what they were - rumours.

Unable to quench my worries, I head to the library to do some research on the titans. It would seem that some took the form of dragons, while others were tortoises and winged serpents. However, those were merely eye-witness accounts with no solid proof or official report. With this uneasy feeling in my chest, the day of the duel drew close.

The man’s name was Kiefer. This was the first time I learnt his name. The announcer loudly called out for Kiefer to come up to the arena, but only silence ensued. Finally, after a nerve wrecking wait, a loud roar reverberated through the arena as the entire place was plunged into the shadow of a giant magical beast. It was a giant serpent, with angelic white wings. Next to the serpent, was an equally large dragon with 4 wings and green eyes that seem to stare right into your soul.

Damn! I need to get Gale out of there as soon as possible! The rumours of Titans were true after all! As I was about to rush out to grab Gale, the titans transformed into a lady and a child. This was followed by the arrival of a black haired man on a giant wolf. That’s weird. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone with black hair on Aioa.

[[End of mage POV]]

“Sorry I’m late. Shall we get this started?” Kiefer asked, smiling as he faced off against Gale. Gale kept silent, keeping his guard up against Kiefer. He watched as Kiefer turned around and walk a few more steps away from him, only to stop and turn back.

“Oh, before we start, I have a favour to ask of you.” Kiefer asked, smiling innocently.

“And what would that be? I have no intention of going easy on you.” Gale warned, his face still frowning at Kiefer’s jovial attitude.

“Oh, it might be a little difficult, but please try not to die too quickly okay? The audience gathered here to watch a fight, not an execution, so try to resist a little.” Kiefer’s innocent smile now turning into an evil grin.

As Kiefer finally took up his position on his end of the Arena, The MC finally started speaking again.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Feast your eyes on today’s legendary fight! You will not get to see this any other time in your life! A fight between our Archmage Gale Reyzwald and the founder of mutatis city, Kiefer!!” The MC roared, as the audience began to cheer and applaud. “Representing Alluviate! We have the only mage to ever master 3 elements, the genius who mastered his field before reaching 20 years of age, the one who has never lost a magical battle before! GALE REYZWALD! And! Representing Mutatis! He is the founder of the new city, friend of the titans, user of unknown magic! KIEFER!!”

“And now! Everybody rise for our glorious and benevolent King! King Arthur!” The Mc continued, as the audience cheered louder, all rising from their seats. “Duelists! The fight will begin at the sound of the gong. Ready yourselves! King Arthur! If you will have the honor, please strike the gong at your own convenience.”

The king waltzed up to the giant copper gong, a wooden drumstick in his hand. With a huge swing, the sound of the gong resounded through the arena, causing the entire audience to cheer once again.

Gale wasted no time, chanting a quick succession of spells while Kiefer just stood still, observing the man. With his specialised advanced incantations, Gale summoned a flame atronarch, a rock golem and an ice wraith in under a minute.

The flame atronarch took the shape of a fiery demon with 2 large flaming horns growing out and up the sides of its head. It was the same height at the grey- brown rock golem, standing at 3m tall. Floating in the air seamlessly was a serpent made out of ice, with 2 rows of long sharp fangs adorning each of the open jaws. It seemed to shimmer in the sunlight as it slithered in the air. The 3 summons stood between Gale and Kiefer, facing their enemy while releasing bloodlust.

“Oh? That’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a summoning spell other than the necromancer summoning. And it is true, what they say about him mastering 3 elements.” Kiefer thought, as he chuckled lightly.

The flaming demon moved first, bolting through the air towards Kiefer, melting the snow in the air and on the ground in its path. As it waved its arms, a wall of fire encircled Kiefer, preventing him from escaping. The red flames turned blue, and the white as the atronarch grew hotter with each passing second, zooming around Kiefer while firing fireballs towards the middle of the flame wall around Kiefer.

“Hey that looks interesting. What are you hitting there?” Kiefer asked snidely, tapping on Gale’s shoulder from behind. Gale spun around quickly, terrified that Kiefer might crush his knees again. Not even trying to figure out how Kiefer had managed to get behind him, Gale sent the ice wraith to attack Kiefer while the rock golem slammed the ground, creating a stone wall between Kiefer and Gale.

With the wall in place, Gale quickly made some distance as the ice wraith circled around the wall, releasing an icy aura that caused water crystals to form on the rock wall. The flame atronarch had stopped its attacks and was zooming back towards Kiefer’s last seen location.

“Like I said, what are you trying to hit?” Kiefer asked again, this time sitting atop the stone golem’s shoulder. Kiefer continued playing with Gale in this manner for some time, eliciting laughter from the audience.

“Can’t you do anything aside from run?!” Gale roared as he desperately tried to catch Kiefer.

“Fine then. I’ll let you see just how small you are compared to the scale of things around here.” Kiefer muttered, stopping dead in his tracks as the flame atronarch chased after him. Quickly chanting the spell, Kiefer activated Permafrost, causing everything around him to drop to nearly absolute zero. The white hot atronarch that was chasing after him slowly grew smaller, its flame turning back to blue then orange and finally, with a sizzle, its last light sputtered away within Kiefer’s Permafrost zone.

Stretching his hand out, Kiefer kept the Permafrost spell active while chanting another spell that send an intense blast of heat wave towards the rock golem. Upon contact, the golem’s body began to slow, its surface temperature melting and fusing with the ground in a small pool of magma. Kiefer quickly closed in the distance, rapidly cooling the rock golem with his permafrost aura. The golem cracked under the drastic change in temperature and Kiefer easily smashed through the immobile golem with one punch, sending rocks flying everywhere. The debris simply bounced off the barrier set up to protect the audience.

Then, without warning, the Ice wraith clamped down on Kiefer’s left should from the back. Looking at Gale, Kiefer spotted a small smile as the ice wraith attempted to separate Kiefer’s arm from his body. However, it could not penetrate his mana armour and was gnawing on a chew toy that was hard as a rock. Seeing that the attack had no effect, Gale recalled the ice wraith to his side.

Looking for Kiefer after it returned, Gale saw Kiefer disappear for a brief moment, before reappearing at his initial position on the other side of the arena. This time however, Kiefer was completely dressed in the same black and red armour, with a bright blue gem on the chest. In his left hand, he held his devilish helmet, which he put on slowly.

Kiefer had perfected equipping his armour directly from his PD during his stay in Mutatis. He could now equip himself completely after just entering his PD for a brief moment, before appearing again. Hence, he could do it in the middle of a teleportation, giving him that much more of an impact factor when surprising the enemies.

“Ladies and Gentlemen in the Arena today! What a spectacular fight we have witnessed! To think young Kiefer is able to go toe to toe with our Archmage! Tell me, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?” The announcer yelled, as the audience all roared with cheers and applause.

“How about we end this?” Kiefer announced, causing the ground around him to rise and form numerous small spheres that floated around Kiefer. The spheres gradually elongated into spikes that swirled to form a spiral shape, similar to a screw’s body. The spike began spinning and then shot forwards abruptly, puncturing the ice wraith and causing it to shatter into a puff of crystalline dust.

As he willed the mana into the rune in his gauntlet, 4 red lines appeared around Gale, who was now in the middle of the arena preparing another spell. The red lines simmered as it boiled the snow on the ground, staying motionless with Gale right in the middle of the crosshair. Isana then stood up, took a deep breath, and exhaled, forming a clear ice shield that separated the audience from the arena in anticipation of Kiefer’s attack.

“Take this and learn your place. Know that you are nothing more than a bug waiting to be quashed.” Kiefer yelled as his suddenly black armour turned white, pouring the entirety of the stored mana into the rune in his gauntlet.

[[A few days back, just after the War talks]]

“Come out Rashael, I know you were eavesdropping on the counsel earlier.” Kiefer spoke in a loud voice, facing the ground. Within moments, Rashael popped up from the ground like a mole rat, grinning ear to ear.

“I need your help Rashael. I’m going to be working on something big. You probably move faster than me, so could you find Feir and tell him to meet me near the shores below the cliff where my house is? I’m going to need lots of space and privacy for this.” Kiefer explained, watching Rashael’s eyes sparkle at the mention of a secret project.

Kiefer arrived shortly after, almost seeing the imaginary tail on Rashael wag as fast as Feir’s as they waited eagerly to be let in on the project. Seeing the team assembled, Kiefer began handing out tasks. “Rashael, I want you to return to your moon and get me a piece of moon stone as large as you can find. The larger the better. Feir, I want you to copy my mana ropes skill. I need an extra set of hands here.” Kiefer ordered.

Rashael didn’t ask any questions, but simply nodded and sank into the ground, returning to his underground lair where the portal to his moon was installed. Kiefer on the other hand, began pulling out mithril and orihalcom ingots from within his PD. Copying Kiefer, Feir picked out a raw orihalcom ingot with his mana threads and infused it with his own mana, causing the orihalcom to turn lime green and soft.

Together, Kiefer and Feir molded the orihalcom to form Large rectangular frames measuring 50m by 30m, with an internal skeletal support frame located every 5m apart. By the evening, Feir and Kiefer took a break, looking at the finished beginnings of their project. A total of 6 rectangular frames, each one made of 60 squares measuring 5m by 5m for a total of 50m by 30m. 3 frames were lime green in colour while the other 3 were crimson red. The frame was very thick and sturdy, as closer investigation revealed that they were not made of solid orihalcom, but instead, a honeycombed lattice layered one upon another like graphite layers.

Kiefer knew that Rashael would only be back the next day at the fastest, so he decided to rest for the night, stashing the huge frames away in his PD before heading home to sleep. Feir followed suit, not mentioning this new project to anyone else.

The next morning, Kiefer and Feir disappeared from the house before dawn, leaving Isana wondering where the 2 of them had gone. This time, Kiefer and Feir continued working on the frames, filling each of the 5m squares with a thin sheet of honeycombed orihalcom for further support, and finally filling up each hexagonal hole in the squares with a sheet of mithril. The hexagons were about the size of Kiefer’s palm, tessellated throughout the entire metal frame. The process was slow as the design was intricate to ensure the durability and sturdiness of the frame that was only 20cm thick.

Appearing at just the right time, a very tired Rashael came soaring through the air, carrying what seemed to be a cream white tree trunk on his shoulders. With a loud thud, Rashael planted the uneven log of moonstone in the sand, as he sat on the ground, legs stretched out and his back supported by his arms.

“Huff.. huff… there… is this big enough?” Rashael asked, grinning at Kiefer as Kiefer inspected the giant moonstone in awe. It was at least 3m wide and almost 15m long.

“Nice.” Kiefer smiled, giving Rashael a thumbs up as he begun shaving the sides to smoothen the large rock into a cylinder.

“You’re making a huge ass laser aren’t you?” Rashael asked, already predicting Kiefer’s intentions.

“Yes. Since you are already familiar with the schematics of your own laser, I want you to help in building this. These panels are meant to recharge this core using mana from the sun. Help me design the runes to direct the flow of mana from the panels into the core, as well as a way to control this laser from afar.” Kiefer replied, handing Rashael a stack of parchments and a quill. Rashael got to work immediately, scribbling and striking out multiple designs of runes on the parchments.

Kiefer and Feir began creating the runes that would charge the core out of mithril, following the same design as per the titan laser, encapsulating the core in a series of mithril runes and finally coating the entire cylinder with a layer of orihalcom. Kiefer then stored the now 6m thick cylinder in his PD along with the completed panels.

Sitting atop the giant wolf, Kiefer and Feir took to the skies, slowly climbing on their mana footholds until the clouds marked the halfway point between their current location and the ground. The air was thin and cold within the upper stratosphere. If Kiefer had not used his mana to keep the air pressure and oxygen level around him stabilised, he would have suffocated long ago. Even then, he was nowhere near his intended altitude, but that would suffice for now.

Taking out adamantium ingots, Kiefer used his mana to form molds, melting the adamantium from the destruction of his mana particles to form thermal energy. The adamantium formed 3 thick rods that soon melded together to form a sort of 6 sided spoke wheel. Attaching it to the back of the moonstone core cylinder, Kiefer connected the 6 panels to the ends of the spokes, coating the adamntium spokes with orihalcom to strengthen it. The panels were attached in a windmill fashion, all tilted at an angle to make sure they all fit in place.

Feir copied Kiefer’s mana foot hold skill, providing Kiefer a large platform to work on high up in the sky. This allowed him to focus on the construction instead of having to divert his attention on keeping himself from plunging downwards. Creating the amplification chamber, Kiefer chose a different material instead of Fientral crystal to fill the chamber. Taking out a huge quantity of sand from the beach and limestone from the quarries, Kiefer heated them until they were molten and white hot, filling the mirrored chamber with the molten glass. Runes were placed outside the orihalcom chamber casing to constantly heat the amplification chamber, making sure the glass remained molten.

Finally, Kiefer attached the adamantium muzzle to the gigantic laser. Rashael caught up by this time, soaring through the sky and presenting Kiefer with several sets of runes. One set was designed to direct converted mana from the panels into the charging runes. Another set, which Rashael was especially proud of, was designed as a set of twin runes like the portal rune. They would allow the user send a directed stream of mana from one rune to the other, regardless of distance.

It was getting late, but the trio were at a critical juncture and they could not stop. Stopping would mean having to return to the ground and make the long trip up again. Lazy to make the round trip, and eager to finish, Rashael and Kiefer brainstormed for a completely new set of control runes through the night.

The massive weapon was finally completed late evening the next day. During this period of time, they had made multiple changes to the laser’s design, primarily allowing it to move and change direction as controlled by Kiefer with the mana link rune that Rashael designed. Kiefer came up with a design that released mana from the core to disrupt the activity of gravitons around the weapon, making it essentially float where it stood, completely unaffected by gravity.

Combined with a series of runes that would draw mana from the core and expel it in a forceful thrust, the weapon could now move in any direction laterally. Its height though, could not be changed, but Kiefer chose to keep it that way to simplify things. The weapon could be tilted to aim the muzzle with controlled bursts of thrust from the runes. Finally, right around the muzzle were 4 smaller lasers that drew mana from the core as well. However, these lasers were not as powerful, only emitting a beam of red light heated the contact point slightly, serving more as a pointer than as a weapon.

With this, Kiefer grinned at Rashael, who returned a thumbs up sign. With the combined effort of Kiefer and Feir, they lifted the now weightless weapon as high as their mana ropes could go, before finally letting go and returning to the ground.

“So, you wanna give it a test run?” Kiefer asked, to which Rashael nodded eagerly. Kiefer held the mana link rune in his hand and poured his mana in. He could instantly feel the presence of his mana high up in low orbit, as he turned the 4 small laser lights on. Instantly, on the ground appeared 4 red lines in the shape of a crosshair. Kiefer practiced moving the weapon around and aiming it, watching the crosshair move across the beach onto the water.

“You guys ready?” Kiefer asked excitedly, facing Rashael and Feir. They were intently staring at the crosshair that was boiling the seawater slowly. “3... 2… 1... Fire!” Kiefer yelled, as he activated the firing sequence on the weapon.

There was a deafening roar as the air vibrated and sizzled, the giant beam measuring 10m in diameter ionising the air and burning everything in its path. The bright orange beam caused an explosive burst of steam from the water surface, boring its way through the water and into the ground. It lasted only 3 seconds, but the damage it did was quite visible, steam clouds filling the entire coastal range, seawater still boiling from the molten ground underwater.

“Looks like the core ran out of mana. Well we didn’t even let it charge for long, so that’s to be expected.” Rashael spoke up, waving the steam away from his face.

“I wonder how long it will take to be fully charged.” Kiefer asked, staring up into the sky as a quick wind spell carried the steam out into the ocean.

“Master. I’m tired. I’ll head back to sleep first.” Feir informed Kiefer, his ears and tail drooping as he changed back into his small dog form.

“So, what will you name it?” Rashael asked Kiefer, also staring into the sky trying to find that weapon.

“Icarus. And the attack will be called Thermal Lance.” Kiefer announced, as he began fiddling with his gauntlet that he took out from his PD. With some quick tweaking, Kiefer fused the mana-link rune with the palm of his gauntlet.

“The people of Alluviate need to be shown what true power is, if I am to be able to rule this province. I need to show them that I have the strength and ability to back up my decisions, while at the same time, show them that I can protect them when the time comes. What better place to show that, other than the arena where I will destroy the useless human they call an archmage?” Kiefer asked, facing Rashael while squeezing his palm to test out the new modified gauntlet.

“Icarus shall burn everything that stands in my way. It will leave behind a reminder that I am not to be trifled with.” Kiefer muttered to himself, almost like an evil dictator.

This chapter is a little longer than usual, but there are quite a few time jumps as well. hope its not too confusing. As always please comment and rate my fiction. I thought i'd try something new in this arc with the fragmented timeline to give a more drastic impact when shit goes down. please tell me what you think. if you prefer that i return to my previous style of writing, this will be the last of these time skips.