The rotating mass of earth was still spinning uncontrollably. The red and silver symbols peeked out from behind the dust and dirt as if they were mocking my inability to reach them. My hands were outstretched in front of me and energy began to surge inside my body.

The greatest limitation to my magic was energy. Old magic, new magic, the magic of the Immortals, all magic required energy to function. I knew even the Immortals were confined by energy or else they would have been using magic all the time and with no concerns or limitations. The Simurgh could’ve been bringing down the rotating mass of earth floating in front of me, and perhaps even destroying the symbols glowing red and silver in the center of it all. The Evil Eye could be flattening the Earth and Madness could have ignored everything and made the moon crash into the planet or something.

There were two ways to deal with the problem of energy. I could increase my total energy or reduce the amount of energy that each spell used.

Increasing my total energy was difficult. This energy didn’t seem to be the chemical energy stored inside food that then makes the body move. I knew it was some sort of abstract, mental energy, one that wasn’t completely related to physical energy, although it wasn’t completely separated from this internal energy either. The only way to increase this pool of energy was to better understand magic itself, either by using a lot of it or by examining magic and energy and increasing my knowledge of both.

By embracing my new magic system, I had increased my understanding of magic in this world by several fold. I knew now that ‘justified true belief’ applied to my knowledge regardless of where or how the knowledge had been justified. As long as it was justified in my previous world and I had no reason to doubt that it would be justified in this world too, I would be able to use that knowledge to cast spells.

But even with the amount of energy that I had gained by understanding my new magic system, I would be using too much energy to take down this mess with brute force. I couldn’t afford to waste energy when I still had to fight Noel, Alek, and possibly even the Immortals.

The other option was to reduce the amount of energy that each spell used. I hadn’t used this magic system much, so it wouldn’t be as efficient as it could have been, but that was the price to pay for keeping it a secret from the Immortals for so long. Still, I could reduce the amount of energy I used for each spell by being careful with the target of my spells.

In front of me, there were many potential targets. There was the spinning mass of earth, the dust cloud around it, and the symbols swirling and flashing inside the whole mess. The spinning mass was heavy, it would take a lot of energy to bring it down, especially while working against its spinning motion. The dust storm was amorphous and also moving really quickly. Trying to hold onto any small amount of dust would be impossible, and the winds were so powerful, I’d use a ton of energy just to calm them down. And there was no telling how much energy it would take to do anything meaningful to those symbols. Especially because Noel and Alek’s absence was making me suspect they might be related to those symbols somehow.

And so I focused on myself. Me—Caspian Holm. I knew who I was. I knew what my form looked like in this world. I knew my tolerances, the abilities and strengths of this body. I knew my vulnerabilities, my weaknesses. Somehow, living in this world had made me more physically powerful but not by much. If I walked into those fierce winds without any magic protecting my body, I would be ripped to shreds.

But couldn’t that cut two ways?

I brought my outstretched hands back to my body and exhaled. I wondered for a moment about what to do. Force fields were common in science fiction and fantasy media back on my Earth, but I knew the science behind them wasn’t very solid. If force fields were even theoretically possible, I didn’t know how to make them happen yet. That said, I remembered a famous public scientist’s idea about creating a three layered force field made out of plasma and other materials and forces. I couldn’t create the sort of force field he had suggested, but I could take this idea and make it my own.

First, I took some of the earth floating around in front of me and brought it together around my body. Since this area had a high amount of volcanic activity, there was a lot of silicon, especially in the form of quartz. I managed to quickly manipulate and layer the silicon in a way that would make it reasonably rigid, like concrete, and then layered it with clay and other malleable materials. I encased the whole thing in harder rock and then made winds swirl around me in a way that would soften the blow from the winds in front of me. Then, I used some relatively clear quartz to make a way for me to see out of my encasement and pushed myself into the swirling debris.

I was jostled around by the powerful winds but my armor did a decent job of holding together. I cushioned my body inside the encasement with air and motion magic, and managed to blow through the swirling winds with ease and without any injuries. The next challenge was blasting into the swirling mass of rock.

But that was also pretty easy. I slammed my armor into the spinning earth and cut through the rock with earth magic at the same time. By timing my collision almost perfectly, I was able to jump into the rotating ball of earth as if I was a kid jumping onto a spinning merry-go-round. My stomach lurched as my feet landed on the other side of the ball of earth and I had to use balance magic to keep my feet attached.

So far, the only new magic spell I had used was the chemical manipulation magic necessary to play around with the silicon in the igneous rocks that made up the earth around here. I didn’t think the Immortals would notice anything strange about that, since I was certain they knew nothing about science and would chalk up everything to the strange spells I had been using ever since the Simurgh told me about knowledge and wisdom. Still, it was only a matter of time until they figured out I’d gotten stronger and that I had broken through the rules and limits that they thought I had been bound by.

In front of me were the two spinning, flashing symbols of the Evil Eye and Madness. From up close, and with a little light magic to help protect me from the bright light, I finally noticed that these symbols were not just a red star and a silver moon.

The Evil Eye’s red star had a large blood-red eye engraved on its surface. I knew the Evil Eye had never been subtle with his branding and all—he did make all his minions wear red and give them away with glowing red eyes and stuff after all. But still, there was already a massive red star here. Why did he need to add the eye on top of it?

Madness’ silver moon was stranger. It didn’t have any craters or blemishes on it like the moon did in real life. Even in this world, the real moon that hung in the sky at night had craters on it, even when it was appearing at strange times or was clearly under the influence of Madness. Yet, this symbol was more of a smooth silver disk, almost like the flat-side of a cartoonish UFO.

I jumped with flight magic and grabbed onto the spinning symbols. I’d coated my hands in water just in case, but the symbols weren’t hot at all. I’d known that since it hadn’t been hot inside the spinning ball of earth, but I’d wanted to be careful.

Which is why I opened my closed fits and revealed two large gleaming diamonds. I positioned both diamonds in the middle of the symbols, wound up a massive amount of energy, and shot the diamond at the symbols.

Two scratches appeared on the symbols.

I put the diamonds back in place and shot them out again.

More scratches.

Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

The scratches turned to grooves that turned to large cracks. I jammed the diamonds into the large cracks, thanked Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs, and shattered the symbols. The spinning earth stopped. The wind quieted. And two bursts of red and silver light filled my vision, blinding me even through my light magic.