(Jacob, 16)

"Hello, there," I pat the head of the griffin cub that just jumped up onto my lap. "Where are your mama and papa?"

Rather than answering me, the cub curls up on my lap, making himself comfortable. His spikes are rather small, and that makes stroking his back without issue quite easy. While I have been in my new location for a few days now, the local griffins have yet to approach us.

Yet there is a griffin cub curled up on my lap. I expand my scanning spell as far as I can, but detect no other griffins around. Based on his size, I would estimate him to only be four or five months old at most, which makes it strange that he would be unsupervised.

Then there is the fact that he somehow made it into my tent without being noticed. None of the guards seem to have noticed his approach, even though they are watching our borders pretty well. Griffins are masters of light magics, though, so it would not surprise me if the little guy wrapped himself in an illusion to sneak his way here. Being grey in magical power means that even young, there's a chance he also knows how to evade scanning spells.

He's not right now, but if he was during his approach, then the guards using them would not have noticed them, either.

I shut my scanning spell back off and return to reading the letter we received from the nearby fort. They have chosen to interact with us through a series of letters rather than direct approach. The most recent letter, the one before me, asks that we move about fifty percent further away than we currently are.

It does so politely, though lengthily. They do not feel comfortable having us sit two miles from their border. We are not going to move another mile back, especially as we know that there are a few monsters in the area they want us to move into, which means we would have to deal with attacks regularly.

At least Ekeli became reasonable, though that did take them facing the facts in that participating in a war with Varil is hopeless.

Setting the fort's letter to the side, I grab a fresh sheet and my pen, then begin writing, informing them that we will not be moving from this spot, and the exact reasons for it. Because I am annoyed at them using two pages of paper, front and back, to say what could be said with a single paragraph, I make this take up ten. They have people there who can understand and write Varilan, so it is not an issue for me to write this myself.

I fold the message, then insert it into an envelope before sealing it with wax and my crest, then set it aside and stroke the griffin again. There is no uproar, no emergency call for me, no one rushing in here, so I assume his mama has not realized he is here yet. It would probably be best for me to return him to his papa and mama, except I do not know where the local pride is located.

We remain like this until the entrance to my tent opens, but instead of one of the servants bringing me dinner, as I had expected, in walks Tasha carrying a tray with two sets of dinners on it, along with a pitcher and two cups.

"Tasha," I say in surprise. "I was not aware you were here. Why did you carry it instead of a servant?"

She has two following her, to ensure that protocol is met, so it would not have been much issue for her to tell one of them to carry it instead.

"Do I need a reason to bring you food myself?" She asks with a smile.

"No," I smile back. "You surprised me, that is all. I was not expecting you to come here."

"Your papa authorized it during university," she tells me as she approaches, setting the tray on the table beside me, then beginning to pull the items off so that we may eat. "When I le-gyah! Jacob!"

"What?" I ask, then follow her gaze to the griffin cub, who I am still stroking the fur of. "His fur is quite soft."

"Why do you have a griffin cub on your lap?" She asks.

"I am as confused by it as you," I tell her. "He hopped up onto it while I was reading a message from the fort. Are you here for the weekend, or just for now?"

"For now," she answers. "I need to return to the duchy tomorrow to take care of some issues. While the banditry purge has done well, there are lasting effects from having them there."

"Ensure you inform Papa," I tell her as she finishes placing the meal out and sits. "If additional reinforcements are necessary. You know the proper method, yes?"

"I do," she confirms. "As things stand now, it is not necessary to call in additional reinforcements. The soldiers sent to reinforce our borders have managed to stem most of the incoming deserters of the Southern Conclave."

"That is good," I tell her.

We eat our meal, making small talk as we do, discussing what has gone on while I have been away. Alex hit lower green today, which annoys me only slightly – I did the same. Here I was, thinking I managed to step ahead of him, only to find out he stepped forward at the same time!

I am glad to hear he has become more cheerful, though. Not having the stress of his bounties hanging over him seems to have worked wonders.

Tasha informs me that she has hit middle green, and I am happy for her. As a mage, having a higher magical power is even more important. She has been lower green for around a month, so that is nice progress as well.

When I prod her about how she managed to accelerate that, she informs me that she has been using the aural sheath whenever she knows she can get away with it, and trains intensely in her free time, as well as performing magic constantly while running the Duchy, in meetings, and performing other normal activities.

Depending on how one goes about it, they can perform magic at almost all waking moments without being discovered. For Tasha, she says she uses air and light magics, as they are the easiest to conceal.

Regarding her family's companies, she says that she has managed to deal with nearly all of those who took issue with someone so young taking over. That pleases me, as it does not do for our nobles to squabble among themselves and attempt to backstab each other. It is bad enough some attempt that with their royalty, but betrayals among nobility can destroy a kingdom just as much as betrayals to the crown.

Eventually, our topic changes to Lina, as I wish to know how she is doing. There is a difference between talking over the comm plates and hearing it from someone directly.

"A little annoyed," Tasha informs me. "Niko informed her that he will be gone for the weekend, then left with Jason for their private training session."

"They are planning on training all weekend?" I ask. "It has been awhile since they last did that."

With Jason having been injured as badly as he was, he was incapable of putting that much effort into teaching Niko privately. It would make sense that the two of them would go off on a full weekend once they had the opportunity. Niko is the closest to reaching grey out of all of us, and he wants to hit it as soon as possible.

"Wait," I remember something. "Jason was supposed to come out tomorrow and train me for a few hours, and I remember Sage Jared informing me that Jason would be taking a break from work for that."

"Yes," Tasha nods. "Jason will not be gone all weekend, and Niko did not say he was returning to Mar. He would likely take Lina with him as well. The only time I can think of recently where she did not accompany him to Mar was this week, when he paid a visit to Aiden and did not wish for Lina to accompany him. It was supposed to be a visit of just a few minutes, but lasted a few hours instead."

"Then what is Niko planning on doing all weekend?"

"Who knows?" She asks. "That is why Lina is upset. According to her, she had manage to convince your papa into letting them go on a date tomorrow, of the variety he would normally not allow due to safety concerns. She did not tell Niko, of course, so he is unaware of it. It was intended on being a surprise, and now those plans are ruined."

"She will live with it," I tell Tasha. "Niko is used to being alone. It is possible he needs to escape from civilization for a couple of days, rest on his own. He does not show it, but I know that interacting with everyone so much exhausts him. That is part of why him leaving with Jason for those training sessions is an especially good thing – it puts him somewhere he can let his mind relax."

"I agree," she says. "Let us change the subject. In addition to having an actual, living griffin cub on your lap, you also have a stuffie?"

"Jason made him to act as an additional protection," I glance at the 'sleeping' griffin stuffie. "He watches everything around us at all times."

Which brings up an excellent question, actually. Considering Jason made him, I know that Griffin Alpha would have noticed the griffin cub approaching. Why did he not alert me to it?

The most important question, though, is where are the cub's papa and mama?

(Niko, 16)

The statue bothers me just as much now as it did the first time I came to the castle of black stone. Thankfully, there is not a crowd surrounding it for festivities, though I know that they also have a shrine to me in the castle and each of the four towers.

After closing my gate, I walk past the statue, ignoring the gargoyles which bow to me as I pass by. I enter the castle itself and make my way to one of the training courtyards. The society here matches the society of the northern kingdoms and the old way, so only men train in combat.

While I could try to change that now to match the Varilan way, I know that things like that will take time. Even if Mar is working at attempting to accept magic, long-rooted beliefs do not change overnight. My parents are prime examples of that, as I know they are forcing themselves to accept me. Even Derrick is doing his best to keep his distance as he does not know if he can fully hold himself back.

Kelrar, at least, had something major happen to change their view. When your best-defended city is assaulted by an army of monsters no one can fight, then four people show up and protect it with magic, a few more showing up and healing injuries, bringing people away from the brink of death repeatedly, mindsets can change.

But my rampage in Sar has also reinforced to some that magic is evil. I was able to decimate an entire kingdom's military and nobility.

Things need to be approached with caution, especially in an isolated nation like the people here. Garoyal, as they call it. Once I have obtained a greater comfort with this land, I will begin bringing Lina here. That might take some negotiations with Zachary, but I am sure I can make it work. I hope.

For now, I will simply learn about their culture, help them with some things, and just grow more comfortable with them as they grow more comfortable with me.

Though the suggestion Jason gave me makes me hesitate. But if it does as he claims it might, then those here who still doubt my origins as the Benefactor, the King of Decay and True Gargoyle, may come to accept who and what I am.

Doubt holds firm in my mind. What if they see me as an abomination after that? No. I must wait longer, gain acceptance among those who believe in me and allow the gargoyles to convince those who do not. That is the way it must be.

Having come to that decision, I begin watching the training. There is a man around forty years of age teaching a group of boys and young men, all ages ten to thirteen. There are fourteen boys total, and they are all practicing magic, though each has a sword on their hip as well.

It seems that when I established this culture three thousand years ago, I instilled into it some aspects of the Magi, such as being a combination of warrior and mage, even if holding specialty with one. Here, the focus is on spellcasting rather than warrior magics, likely as a result of my past life and what he was: a mage almost thoroughly.

From what I learned in my last visit here, the Garoyalan people value mages of earth, dark, and curse magics above all others. Only those who possess talent with all three are permitted to become and Elder or marry an Elder.

Two of the boys here are children of Elders, a ten-year-old and a twelve-year-old. If I remember the introductions correctly, the elder of the two should be turning thirteen soon. I believe he was stated to have a birthday in early spring, which is only weeks away.

His own magical ability is impressive, too. Most of the Garoyalan people are green or blue in magical power, and while few actually ascend to the next color, he is indigo. Lower indigo, but still indigo.

When the next break hits, all of the trainees face me and bow. All of them believe in my identity, even if half of the adults do not. The reason for that mystifies me.

I am about to open my mouth to offer to teach them a few spells when a sense of danger overwhelms me. If I am feeling that, then there is a threat to me, even with gargoyles present.

"Milord!" A gargoyle drops into the courtyard, barely bowing before looking at me once more. "A powerful source of magic was just dispelled. We believe a god which the Great Dragon sealed away has managed to break free."

"You look worried," I tell him. "Should not the forces here be able to handle him?"

"No," the gargoyle answers. "The god which was sealed nearby is much too powerful for us. Maybe if we had three times as many gargoyles, but not with how many we have now."

A powerful God of the Second Order, then. One much more powerful than the one which attacked in Kelrar.

"Ensure the protection of the people," I order the gargoyle. "Evacuate them if needed. I'll delay the god until reinforcements arrive."

"Until you have recovered your full power," the gargoyle says. "You will not be able to challenge him. Even then, you n ever did manage to best a god, Lord Benjamin."

"Do not mistake me for a normal human," I begin to float, checking to make sure I still have my aural sheath active. I sustain it contained within me, the way Jason does his own, at all times when possible, and sometimes forget if I have it on or not. "I am Niko sul'Mar, Benjamin of Decay, Magus of Curse. I may not be able to kill a god, but I can certainly delay one until assistance arrives."

"How will assistance arrive?" The gargoyle asks. "The nearest being powerful enough to-"

"Do not worry about that," I tell him. "The god will likely come after me, so evacuate everyone."

I fly up into the air. I can sense the god approaching, and the direction from where he is coming. The northwest, suggesting he was sealed near the ocean. I spent hundreds of years here as Benjamin, but have no memory suggesting I knew of a god being sealed here back then. Nolan must have hidden him well, and if it is as powerful as the gargoyle suggested, then it is on the tier of one which Nolan could not kill in our old lives.

At least, not during the war.

As I fly away from the castle, the gargoyles spreading my commands and beginning to take protective measures, I swap the mithril sword Jason forged for me with Gargoyle's Gaze. I am nowhere near powerful enough to use it to its full effect, but it should manage some.

Just as I finish the swap, I detect a high-speed projectile flying towards me and throw up as many layers of barrier as I can before it impacts. Initially, all I see is a wall of indigo due to the many layers, but when the attack strikes, they begin breaking one after another. I throw up my right hand, pushing back with force magic as I attempt to evade.

The attack, a silver streak of magic, pushes through my attack, follows me, and punches into my hand, traveling straight back and out my shoulder. My arm is destroyed in an instant. Pain follows a moment later, and I grit my teeth, doing my best to not scream from that. Instead, I focus on a force spell to keep myself from bleeding out as I right my flight, having been thrown backwards from the sheer force of the attack.

A worst-case scenario just occurred. Now, I am out two limbs. This will be hard to hide. Hopefully, reinforcements arrive soon, and I need to flee from the castle again, that attack sent me almost back to it.

My ring! The ring Lina gave me! It was on my right hand! That attack destroyed it! No, no, there's a possibility it is safe, the attack went through the base of my palm to enter my arm and the ring was on my finger.

But it might still be destroyed, and that angers me. Lina had that made for me! Custom-made just for me! And the god went and destroyed it!

As my rage boils, I finally see the god. It wears a pair of silvery pants with a white skirt open in the front, silver markings on it, with a silver cincture at the waist. While mostly humanoid, the god possesses the silver markings and eyes of most gods and a complete lack of hair. It does, however, have a pair of black horns protruding from his head, a pair of black, leathery wings, and a scorpion-like tail.

A demonic god, if the horns are anything to go by.

The tail snaps forward, and another silver projectile is shot towards me.

Then, a grey barrier forms in front of me, stopping the attack. Yes! Reinforcements have arrived! But where did Jason find someone or something powerful enough to handle this so fast?

The god looks as surprised as I am by its attack being stopped, then its gaze turns to face something coming from the castle. Why would Jason be at the castle?

I glance down, only to find the statue of me rising up into the air, its cloak transformed into a suit of armor that covers everything but its head. The entire thing glows with golden and grey runes, a serious expression on its face.

Its battle mode flashes me back to ancient times, and the memory of me creating the statue. I infused it with a heavy portion of my life essence back then, the only way to grant it a fragment of my true power – my power as the Divine Gargoyle.

As Benjamin, I did know about the god sealed away nearby. And I created a guarantee that if it came within a certain range of the castle, it would be destroyed. As the memories return, I realize that the four towers were only used as training and research locations to turn away any suspicion of their purpose.

In reality, they are amplifiers for the detection and activation range for the statue, allowing it to stretch twice as far from the castle as the towers are. Actually, the fact that Benjamin built the statue and the towers with the castle suggests that my past life built the castle here specifically because of the god being sealed away.

While I have no memory specifically saying I knew about the god, everything else lines up with Benjamin having known about his presence. While I could not use my divine power myself, I could infuse my divine essence into something to allow it to.

The statue begins attacking the god, using a variety of spells, some only able to be cast by grey-level mages. It uses spells that takes me a long time to cast as if they are nothing.

Meanwhile, I realize that my lack of memories resulted in me losing another limb. If only I had remembered about the statue's true purpose, I could have just let things happen. The god would have sensed the statue and made its way here even were I not present. Then, the statue would attack back, fighting against the god.

Instead, I threw myself here in an attempt at delaying it, something I could have done, even with taking injury after injury. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Now everyone will know I am not whole, that I am only part of a person.

Several more attacks come my way, and I decide to return to the castle. The statue will handle this. I think. It seems to be fighting the god on even grounds, at any rate, so me being here is pointless. Just like me attacking it.

What a failure I am.

(Jason, 16)

The statue actually activated. It actually activated. I never imagined, in my near-eight hundred years, that the statue would actually work. Benjamin had only made it out of a theory after I told him about sealing the god there. I had actually meant to go and deal with the god, too, but ended up forgetting about him after a few centuries, not remembering him at all by the time I was powerful enough to simply strike him down for good.

Unfortunately, the statue is losing the fight, and Niko does not seem to be around. Hopefully, that means he had remembered the statue's purpose before the god attacked, though I'm a bit worried. Traces of his magical residue are in the air, showing that he was present for at least part of the fight, then left.

That worries me. Did what he would consider a worst-case scenario occur?

I'll check on him as soon as we deal with the hell god. The statue was enough to delay the god until we arrived, but it will definitely lose the fight. It was a one-of-a-kind, experimental creation. I'm impressed it lasted as long as it did against this thing, based on how long it's been since Niko activated the crystal.

On my signal, Steven lets loose a roar and I teleport off of his back. The god notices the dragon's approach, turning to face it out of surprise as it blocks an attack from the statue. At that moment, I finish drawing Reaper from my tooth.

Sensing the ominous aura of my sword, the god turns to face me just in time for me to slice through its neck. For good measure, I swiftly slice its body in half, and its head as well. Then, I incinerate it as I resheathe Reaper, the statue returning to its place as the armor transforms back into a cloak.

Steven assists me in incinerating the corpse of the god, then I teleport back onto him, sending Reaper back into the tooth.

"Where to now?" He asks.

"The castle," I tell him. "Niko's probably in there."

The dragon flies down to the castle, landing in the main courtyard at the entrance. As some of the gargoyles approach him, I jump off and rush inside. My scanning spell isn't stretched out as far as it can but kept rather close for my norm, so I didn't notice until he was in my range.

I manage to reach the room where Niko is hiding, but there are two gargoyles at the entrance, both female, both looking rather stern and ready to fight. Niko himself is curled up under a table, clutching his damaged shoulder, and if I'm not mistaken, he's sobbing to himself.

This has got to be hard on him. Really, really hard.

"Let me pass," I tell them.

"No," they answer in unison.

"I am Niko's friend," I say. "Let me through."

"He has ordered us to reject all guests," the gargoyle on the right says. "He did not say to make an exception for anyone, so we will turn away even the Divine Dragon."

"NIKO!" I holler. "TELL THEM TO LET ME THROUGH!"

I notice through my scanning spell Niko lifting his head and looking at the door. Then, he tucks his head back in, his body shaking. If I wanted to, I could barge in there myself. The gargoyles can't actually stop me, they're only middle grey.

But if I did that, it would only hurt the trust Niko has in me, and he's going to need all of the support he can get once he overcomes this.

Closing my eyes, I access a dimensional space from when I was Nolan. A space I never pulled the item out of, choosing to leave it there. Without accessing the space, it would not be detectable to any of the scanning spells and items Papa Samuel and Papa Jared came up with to detect other peoples' spatial storages and dimensional spaces.

As soon as I pull out the small vial, I release the dimensional space. Inside of it are a few drops of a golden liquid. Tears of an elder phoenix infused with its essence. I could have used it to speed up my own healing a little more than I already had, but decided to save it for someone else. Someone who would ordinarily not be able to recover from such an injury as quickly as I could.

That, and I have so many spatial storages that I actually forgot about this one until a couple of weeks before Jaklenai arrived. But I still didn't want to use it for me. I knew I just needed time and I would heal just fine, even with the curse of a god's ill intent. It was better suited for someone who would not have that benefit.

Niko's first injury was suffered without hostile intent, so it will heal just fine when he turns grey. But this second injury might not due to the hostile intent. None of the Magi ever ascended to grey magical power with an injury delivered with a god's hostile intent, so whether or not the ascension to grey will heal it is unknown.

Shaping my mana into a spell, I teleport the vial from my hand onto the ground beside Niko.

"Niko," I project my thoughts to my friend. "In the vial I just sent you are twelve tears of an elder phoenix, infused with his essence. It is potent enough to lift the curse of a god's ill intent. It may also repair some of the damage done to you. I would recommend releasing your leg as well. Even if that injury is old, it's possible the tears will cause some regeneration there."

Those twelve tears are all I have of it, or I would give him more. They also aren't able to be harvested again. In order for the phoenix to have infused his essence into them, he had to give up his life.

There are no phoenixes alive right now old enough to be considered an elder phoenix who would be willing to sacrifice themselves like this. In addition, it only works with their own tears. I would probably need at least two hundred tears of an elder phoenix infused with the giver's essence in order to completely fix Niko's arm. At minimum.

Niko doesn't respond to me, but he does stop his crying for a few moments to look at the vial.

"I'm going to work on an enchanted item," I tell him. "To create an illusion for you, Niko. It will be up to you if you want to hide it or not, but I will make it for if you want to use it."

I don't want him to hide it, but respect his decision to. He's asked me before to make something so that he could hide his leg, and I resisted it. But with his arm… it might break Niko completely if he has to let others know it's living stone rather than flesh and blood.

Niko tucks his head back in, and I leave. It's best not to say more than what I already have, or he will only grow angry and upset with me, and that could ruin our friendship. Do and say just enough to let him know I'm supporting him and give him some help, then let him adjust on his own after that. Either he will contact me first, or I will finish the item first.

For now, I leave, jumping onto Steven's back once more. He is surrounded by awestruck citizens of Garoyal, only a few of whom are afraid. They likely believe the gargoyles would protect them if he went hostile.

They're probably right. Some of these gargoyles are more powerful than Steven.

He takes off into the air, then begins flying away, opening a gate to return to his home. I had to take us to Niko with a blind teleport, which is the actual reason why I was riding him. Much easier to do that when I'm in physical contact with anyone or anything I'm accompanying, even if they're a dragon.

Steven lands in front of his cave, and I hop off of him. He fixes his grey eyes on me, as if contemplating something.

"Under the circumstances," he tells me. "I will not turn you into a toad. Dealing with a powerful, hostile god constitutes an emergency."

"Thank you," I put a hand on his snout. "I know you weren't powerful enough to kill the god, but you were willing to challenge it and potentially risk years of recovery to help me."

"I am much more friendly towards you than some dragons will be," he says. "If you need my help in an emergency, then I am more than willing to help you, Jason. If you asked me for my life, I would give it up."

"I doubt I'll ever take you up on that," I smile at him. "Goodbye. I'll see you around."

"Goodbye," he tells me.

I open a gate back up to the main branch building of Sageson Magical Technologies in Varilsy, fully aware I'm going to be asked a lot of questions by my papa I'm not going to be answering. No matter how hard they push.

It's up to Niko to say what happened.