(Jacob, 16)

Jason runs his fingers through his hair as he thinks about what I tell him. The knowledge of such things has been lost to time, and I only barely remember it, myself. I do remember that as the Magi, we could handle it, though.

"Niko!" Jason calls out, and the Marran prince looks over to us from where he's conversing with his awed people. "I have to go deal with something before we can head out, do you mind waiting for me?"

"Not at all," Niko responds. "Do you know how long you will take?"

"Shouldn't be more than an hour or two," Jason answers. "Where should I check if you aren't here?"

"Training room," Niko suggested, and Jason nods, then opens a gate.

The two of us pass through into the fields outside of town, and Jason begins walking. We could just use a mana generator to draw in the excess mana that's causing the monsters, but I was a bit worried about doing such a thing. To start with, it would take a lot of time. Second, how would it affect things with the mana being attuned to the element of fire strongly enough to create fire-attuned beasts in response? The generators, from my knowledge, filter the mana into a pure state, as with the batteries. The batteries and generators aren't an issue as it is, from what I know, but on this scale of something, it may be problematic.

After walking for awhile, Jason stops and looks around, then nods and looks at me.

"Do you know how to handle this?" I ask.

"Sort of," he responds. "I can disperse out my magic, but only after expending much of my own magical power and mana. Then, I can interact with the ambient mana and draw it into myself. I have enough mana on my own that I can pull in a decent amount, though I do have to be careful in the process, or the type of magic the mana is attuned to will affect me. Fire would burn me up. Once I've finished, however, I will have my mana refilled, and the mana I pulled in from our surroundings will be attuned to fire."

Let's test a theory of mine and Lina's.

"Do you remember the process we used to use?" I ask. "Or only doing it?"

"I remember enough," he closes his eyes, and I have only a moment to remember what he's about to do and sheathe myself in my own magic to resist his exertion of his own around him, rapidly burning through his mana.

And he has a lot of it, in addition to recovering it quickly. To burn through as much as he can, however, means he has to put out a lot of it at once, and I'm driven to my knees by the sheer force of his magical power filling the air. It's crushing the grass, and even several flame boars that had begun charging our way are stopped in their paths by it.

Then, there's a moment of calm, before an intangible breeze starts flowing towards him from all directions. It takes me a moment to realize that this breeze that doesn't exist is literally mana itself, pulling into him. How does it work, if he just burned up his own mana? Does his mana simply fade away after being burned through, rather than linger in the air?

I return to my feet, and when I look at Jason's eyes, they're a deep, rich grey, not his normal azure.

"Jason," I say. "What about your own mana that you just burned through?"

"Mana fades once used," he holds out a hand, and the flame boars in the distance freeze solid, ice forming as a shell around them, and I feel that breeze of magic again as he pulls in more mana, though it happens only for a moment. He didn't need to use enough mana for that to really be able to pull in much overall. Enough to be felt, though. "So it's faded away. The mana that's doing this is simply ambient mana, so it isn't used until Midlaris shifts them into creatures or plants to avoid overflow and other such things. I wasn't able to pull in all of the mana, but we can handle the rest with generators."

"What about the attunement to fire?" I ask. "Will that not cause issues?"

"Not really," he answers as he opens up his dimensional space and pulls out a mana generator.

"Why do you have one in your dimensional space?" I exclaim in surprise.

"Because they don't all fit in my workshop," he answers as he sets it down, before pulling wooden posts out of his dimensional space.

That doesn't make any sense!

"What are you doing?" I ask. "And you are the only person I know of who doesn't need to empty out their entire dimensional space to pull things out."

Everyone else I know, if they pull something out, everything within comes out. He seems to be able to selectively choose what exits it, allowing him to put a lot more into it than others and not have to worry about anything.

"Really?" He asks in surprise. "I just visualize it as a sort of storage room, and use the ring as a gate to a specific object within it, able to shift where the gate's focus is even while it's open."

Storage room? That isn't at all how we're taught how to do them, Jason! Then again, he was taught by the Sages, and there's that other factor he's confirmed for me, whether or not he's realized it. I suppose it makes sense he can do some extra stuff.

"As for what I'm doing," he starts setting up the posts, lashing them together and transmuting the rope into metal. The fence is around five feet from the generator, giving it a fair bit of space. "I'm creating a ward against monsters, so that they don't attack the mana generators."

"Generators?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers. "I'm setting up several of them, and will check on them on Sunday. These ones are different from the others and can pull in more mana at a time. They're part of the design for trains. Since those'll pass through areas quickly, they need to be able to pull mana in faster than normal."

How did you get the patent holder to…

"You're the patent holder, aren't you?" I realize.

"Yep," he answers. "And don't forget that the identity is legally a secret, so please don't share it."

It is so obvious, yet even Lina and I did not realize it. Does Niko know? Or Alex? If Alex knew, he would probably look at the gap between them as wider than a chasm.

"I won't," I sigh. "I should've figured this out sooner. It makes a lot of sense, now. What are you going to do with the generators once they're full? And what about the fire attunement?"

"I'm going to use the mana in them," he answers. "We could also-ooh, that's actually a good idea."

What is?

He focuses on finishing his fence around the generator, then does something to the generator and walks off, and I follow him to where he begins setting up another generator, doing the same as before with fencing.

A roar of flames catches my ears, and I look over to find the other generator spewing out fire for a few moments.

"Uh, Jason?"

"Do you think you can warn your father of this so he can make sure the appropriate guilds know?" Jason asks. "They'll vent the attunement as the pure element. It does only need to do it every now and then, and does burn up some of the mana collected, but overall, it's okay."

"And these are supposed to go on trains?"

"No," he answers. "These were the failures. I have seven of them, and that should be enough to deal with this. The ones for the trains process the attunement out in a much safer way. They create magical crystals attuned to the type of magic."

"Do you know how rare those are?" I ask.

"Yes?" He answers. "Papa Jared mentioned it as we were solving the situation. We can then sell them after, and we even implemented a feature into the generators that let us know how many they produced, meaning that if someone steals them, we know. I'm not putting those out here, though, or someone might try to steal them."

"You aren't worried someone might try to steal the generators?" I ask.

He thinks for a few moments.

"I suppose I wouldn't have to worry about it," he finally answers. "The fence's enchantment is a pretty good deterrent, and I think the flames shooting out would work, too. Please make sure it's known that anyone who attempts to interfere with or steal one of the generators will be facing a harsh penalty? It does count as stealing patented technology."

"Will do," I sigh. "Why do you have seven of these, plus fences for them, in your dimensional space?"

"The fences aren't for the generators," he tells me. "They're for something else, and as I said, they don't all fit in my workshop. That's really just a converted bedroom."

That still does not answer the question, Jason.

He sets up the other five generators and puts up the fences, and explains about the enchantments on the fences. They will ward off monsters, but also perform a block against attacking the generators and act as a sort of barrier against entry. The generators themselves are set to absorb ambient mana, so the magics of an enchantment won't be affected by them, or something like that.

When he finishes, Jason opens a gate back to the lecture hall, where Niko is showing his people how he can manipulate each of the four basic elements at once, with a ball of wind, a ball of fire, a ball of water, and a rock floating in a circle above his hand. He gives Jason a curious look, and I know Lina is probably wondering about Jason's eyes. Like me, she's a reincarnated Magus, and she knows what Papa wanted me to ask Jason to ask his papas and mamas for help with.

So she's no doubt put two and two together and figured out something I did. Jason didn't even flinch at me asking about if he remembered.

He's a Magus. With all the things I know about him, I know which one, too. Nolan, the High Magus and most powerful of us all. Even the gods feared him at the peak of our power. By the time he began collecting us, he had already killed several angels and demons by his own power.

A magical genius back then, and a magical genius now. In both situations, he was born into extraordinary circumstances that allowed him to grow at an exponential rate. If memory serves me properly, he was born into a clan of people that were essentially slaves of dragons, which forced them into accelerated magical growth in order to perform their duties.

The thing that tipped me off to him being a Magus, too, was his explanation of corrupted and tainted beasts. I've looked at all of Papa's texts regarding the ancient times, and not one made that distinction. I doubt the Sages have access to such knowledge, too, which meant that only someone who was around back then would know, and only from memories he had of it.

When combined with Aizaral's comment about him killing a dragon alone, his talents, his knowledge, and his reaction to my inquiry in the fields, it all points to the one answer.

Lina and I have been looking for him and Quinn. Her for him, me for Quinn. We knew that they had to be reincarnated, if we were. Why would only two of the Magi be reincarnated, and not the greatest of the two? We know the others likely are, and the fact that Nolan was reincarnated pretty much confirms all twelve of us are around.

The question now is who are the others, and where are they?

"What's with your eyes?" Tasha asks Jason.

"Hm?" He asks, then looks at me.

"They're grey," I tell him.

"Ah," he realizes. "Magical overload. Jacob and I were dealing with a situation outside of town, and I had to set up several generators to draw in excess ambient mana. During that, I was dealing with some pretty heavy magics, and I guess that affected me somewhat. They should return to normal eventually. I'll probably be fine by the time you see me again."

In other words, you're going to burn through all of that stored mana over the weekend.

"Niko," he turns to our friend. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," Niko nods, and Jason opens a gate, then the two of them leave through it.

I turn to the Marrans and smile. Just because my original plan for the afternoon became ruined, that does not mean I cannot take advantage of the permission Papa gave. Walking through the city without an entourage became almost impossible after Mama's assassination. Papa is not aware of just what Lina and I can do, because we trained to learn several specific spells from our memories as Magi.

Several nasty ones that make it difficult to kill us. Despite our lacking memories in certain areas, there are enough for that.

"Have you been given a proper tour through the city?" I ask. "If not, it would be my pleasure to give you one."

(Jason, 16)

"Jason?" Niko asks as we soak in the hot springs.

"Yeah?" I respond.

"Your explanation earlier," he says. "And your eyes now, and your comment about dealing with excess ambient magic… too many things factored together. May I see your Crystal Crest?"

"Why?" I ask.

He definitely suspects, now, and Lina and Tasha probably do as well. Jacob's probably figured it out completely, including who I am, due to Aizaral's comment about me killing a dragon on my own, and my role among us.

I guess I slipped up at his question earlier on if I remembered how to do it or only doing it alone, but I wasn't thinking much at the time. Oh, well. It's not that big of a deal if the other Magi figure out who I am and that we're back.

The more the merrier, after all.

"May I?" He asks.

"Why?" I repeat my question.

"To see something?" He looks hesitant.

"To verify that I am who you think I am?" I ask. "A reincarnated Magus, Benjamin?"

His eyes widen, confirming his past identity to me.

"As I suspected," I smile as I manifest my Crystal Crest and hold it out so he can see it. "I'm Nolan."

"You had another reincarnation?" He asks. "A Lucas?"

"It's where my ideas for some of the technology comes from," I nod. Niko has known that I am the patent holder, and I trust him not to tell anyone. "I suspect that I was given that second reincarnation between these two as a way of bringing some of that technology here. I wasn't someone who dealt with developing it as Lucas, so I only have my memories of what it was to go off of, though."

Niko nods, examining my crest before manifesting his own and showing it to me, confirming fully that he's Benjamin. We put them away, then return to relaxing.

"Are there others?" He asks. "Or is it just us?"

"I have confirmed two others," I tell him. "And suspect two more, though we're keeping who each other is a bit secret for now. At the moment, we're just living as we are."

He gives me a sly look.

"Do you think Quinn's reincarnated?"

Was I really that obvious back then? I know I was apparently obvious about it now, since Jacob figured it out quickly. Was that something else that carried over between incarnations?

"Possible," I feel my face heating up. "I was dense back then, wasn't I?"

"Yes," he grins. "You were definitely dense back then, at least as dense as you are and were. At least you know what comments like that mean now."

"Yeah," I smile. "I figured out what I was feeling for Alex. I'm a bit upset with Jacob for his comments, but I suppose I can understand. He's just that sort of person."

"Reincarnation," he looks up at the night sky. "It is nothing like what the texts back home described. I have the memories of Benjamin, but I am clearly not him. I do not possess his skills and abilities, and nor am I the same as him. His memories are all I have. Our texts say that reincarnation is a complete transferring of the soul, and that the abilities, power, and personality are all kept, which makes the child already a mental adult."

"There are two things wrong with that," I say. "The first is that our brain," I touch my head, as if to indicate the brain. "Continues to develop from infanthood all the way into adulthood, stopping somewhere around the twenties, I believe. Knowledge I have from when I was Lucas. The brain is a factor into how we act, so even if they had an adult's personality, they would also still be prone to a child's mindset and reactions, including tantrums when the way is not theirs, as many children do."

"I see," he nods. "But still, I do not have the personality of Benjamin, nor his power and abilities."

"That leads into the second thing wrong with it," I say. "The soul and consciousness are two separate things, and the consciousness is where personality and knowledge is stored, while power is in the body – that's why increasing our magical ability affects our bodies. I think what your texts are referring to is transplacement, rather than reincarnation. Transplacement would be where the soul and consciousness are both moved, rather than just the soul. So rather than developing a personality based on the current life, one is already formed."

"I see," he says, then sighs, before letting out a small chuckle. "Do you remember when we met? Not as Niko and Jason, but as Benjamin and Nolan? I have the memories of that event."

Looking through my memories from my life as Nolan, I find them and smile.

"You were a handful back then," I tell him.

"Yes, I was," he says as we sink into our memories.

(Nolan, 17)

Giant, lumbering golems trample through the fields, crushing everything in their wake. The curse magics woven into them are potent, powerful enough that they drain life from their surroundings, taint the land, and twist any animals that remain within their range.

I scan the small army of the beasts, looking for the commander. He's toward the front of them, a man maybe only a year younger than myself. Dressed in only a black cloak that flutters behind him in the wind and a pair of black boots, he earns more than a passing glance. The silver hair says he's from the islands to the east of the continent, and there's a black brand on his right side, a slave mark.

Either he's acting as a slave as he tramples these crops on his way to the village, or he's doing this of his own volition. Nonetheless, a stop needs to be put to this. I care not for the village guarded by angelic powers, but there are limits to everything.

"Did you find him?" A quiet voice asks from beside me, and I glance at Quinn.

Petite, and only fourteen. I rescued him from a life of slavery recently, enlisted him in helping me put an end to this war that has nearly destroyed Midlaris.

I can hear him crying out, feeling his magic churning as he tries to end it and protect his children. This curse mage's power is making him recoil, and there will no doubt be more quakes. So he has asked me to soothe the situation, to bring an end to it.

"He's standing on the golem in the center at the front," I indicate the curse mage. "Unlike you, he's yet to begin wearing more. It's possible he either only just obtained freedom, or is still a slave, but one allowed to put at least something on."

The demons rarely let their slaves wear clothes, a sign of dominance over them. An atrocious thing, though most slaves adjust to it. Quinn accepted the clothes I gave him without hesitation, and wears them, along with the scarf to hide the slave mark on the side of his neck. Now, he wears as much as he can at all times, a sign of defiance on his part.

"I see him," Quinn mutters. He doesn't talk loudly yet, unused to being allowed to voice his thoughts. "Are you sure you can take him? That seems like a lot of power."

"Don't worry, Quinn," I place a hand on his head and ruffle his brown hair. "The curse mage might be powerful, but you've yet to see the full power of someone like me."

Raising my hands, I weave together the necessary spell. Quinn never used magic in his life until I rescued him, so he still has a ways to go, but I can already tell he has raw talent and a decent pool of mana, just like the curse mage in the fields below.

When my spell finishes, I send it down the cliff, and it washes over the golems. The purification magic overcomes them, soothing the land as it erases all signs of the curse magics that passed through for several miles. At the same time, it breaks apart the spell sustaining the golems, each of which collapses to the ground.

The curse mage screams in fury, looking around until he sees us.

"This village deserves to die!" He screams, my powerful ears catching every word, though I know Quinn's cannot. He isn't powerful enough yet to enhance his hearing, nor is he powerful enough yet for his body to have changed to allow him to catch the words naturally. "Angels and demons all deserve to die! So does anyone who serves them!"

Using flight magic, I bring Quinn and myself down to the furious curse mage, landing us in front of him. He's standing on the golem he had been riding, his silver eyes filled with hate.

"You are right," I say. "In that angels and demons all need to die. But do you really believe you can kill them? You are only a green, and I see no weapons forged of demon steel on you."

"All I need is enough curse magic," he says. "And that should be enough!"

"Then have your chance," I gesture to the trio of angels coming towards us. "Because angels are here."

Quinn and I move back, and watch as the curse mage summons a trio of cursed stone golems. He does have talent to go with that power, then. Most could never summon more than one at a time, and he did three, all of them already imbued with curse magic.

I wrap Quinn and myself in a concealment spell and fly us above the battlefield as the curse mage attacks the angels. His golems are blasted apart by the angelic power, but he just summons more of them, manifesting stone spikes to pierce the angels, only to find them breaking against their heavenly bodies.

The angels simply shatter every one of his spells, then begin kicking him around, quite literally. The first kick should have killed the curse mage, but he survived it, even without enhancement magic. That's interesting.

The trio continues to attempt to kill him without using their angelic power, but he gets back up, and starts using enhancement magics. Eventually, the angels decide to use their angelic power, though only one does, summoning a sword. For an angel to use their angelic power to kill a human not wrapped in demonic power is to weaken oneself, which is why they were avoiding it, but now, they see him as a threat to the humans they choose to protect and use.

The natural energies of the world churn further, and I hear him crying out in agony again, a force that rubs at my soul, nearly making me shudder from the pain and despair I feel.

"I know," I say, then manifest my power in the form of lightning, striking all three angels. "Their power is a terrible thing, not meant to be used against your children."

The angels, struck by my lightning, are blasted into nothing. Not even they can withstand the might of a mage of my kind. The power to kill demons and angels, to slay the descended forms of gods themselves.

Floating down to the curse mage, I land us gently in front of him. He's covered in cuts and bruises, his cloak lost somewhere during the fight, one boot missing while the other is torn.

"My name is Nolan," I release the concealment spell. "And this is Quinn. Would you like to help us in truly taking out the angels and demons, in putting an end to this horrid war that makes Midlaris himself hurt?"

(Jason, 16)

Benjamin was rebellious at first, often challenging and questioning everything Nolan said, but that only lasted a few weeks, as he began to see the merits of Nolan's training. It didn't matter if they were angel or demon, Nolan could kill them without hesitation.

He was everything Benjamin had tried to be, a force of unparalleled power that all feared, one who could save the world. Benjamin's reasons for fighting came from when he was a slave. His master had been cruel, as were all demons, and was later slain by an angel, who attempted to kill Benjamin for serving a demon, even if it had been by force.

Barely escaping with his life, he developed a grudge against angels for that and spent the next year training in secret, in a land where he was able to easily avoid the demons who would abuse him and the angels who would exploit him. Then, he created his cursed golem army and begin marching towards the nearest town, thinking he would be able to kill the angels and their servants with overwhelming force and unholy magics.

That was when Nolan showed up, finding him. Hearing Midlaris's screams… I hate going into the memories where I heard them, the memories of the twisted energies as he pained. Just thinking about them makes me shudder, and that's only from memories.

What would it be like, to actually feel it, rather than remembering the feeling of it? I know he brushed my soul a lot when things were really bad, and that those were the worst times of it for me. What is that actually like? Memories can never do reality justice, and that makes me nervous of if it happens again.

"You know," Niko says, and I find him looking at me again, a small smile on his face. "I do not remember any of my training, but some of the memories… I know I was fond of you, that I looked up to you. You saved me, Jason. Well, Noah saved Benjamin, but that is close enough."

He doesn't remember his training?

"You don't remember training?" I ask. "Only bits and pieces?"

"No," he shakes his head. "Only some of my memories of training alone have returned to me, but all of the training Benjamin received under Nolan are missing. I suppose it will take me longer to recover those."

I frown. That's not right. He should have at least some of them. I have plenty of memories of training each of the other Magi, training which Nolan passed on from the dragons and his clan. Did the Queen of the Gods mess with their memories to stall their training as well? Why?

"It is fine," Niko tells me. "We all recover at different rates. I just wish I could remember if we ever went there."

He doesn't need to specify for me to know what he's talking about. I remember the promise that Nolan made to Benjamin, that once the war ended, they would go to Benjamin's homeland, so that he could see it where he could remember it. If my memories of what he told Nolan were correct, he had been taken as an infant and had no memories of the land.

"Well," I stand and look down at Niko. "Those islands aren't that far from here, if they're still around. Would you like to visit them now?"

"You can do that?" He asks.

"There's no map showing them," I shrug. "So we'll go to the mountains closest to where I remember them, first. Then, we can use flight magic to travel and I'll enhance my sight to see. If it gets to be too much for us, we can pass through a gate and return here."

"Can you do all that while flying me as well?" He asks.

"Yes," I smile. "It might be late, and I might be tired, but I did make you a promise, back when we were the Magi, and I cannot remember if I ever kept it. It would not hurt to at least try to find the islands now. Assuming there have not been major shifts, I can get us a rough estimate of where they will be."