(Jason, 16)

"Jason," Papa Jared looks at me sternly. "Answer the question. Why did you leave in such a hurry? And since when can you prevent others from following you through the gate?"

"About two years," I answer. "I've just never had reason to stop someone from following before I could close it. And I told you, there was an emergency."

"What kind of emergency?"

"The kind where I needed to leave."

"Jason, answer the question," he tells me. "Now.

"A powerful god of the Second Order broke free from his prison," I state. "I had to go and fetch a dragon to help me kill it, since Jaklenai tends to be unreachable in the evenings."

"If he broke free," Papa Jared says. "You wouldn't have sensed it, Jason. You've mentioned that before."

"There were exceptional circumstances surrounding it."

I'm not going to tell him that I gave Niko and Jacob both crystals that act as emergency beacons, Niko because he returns to Mar every now and then, Jacob because of his extended trip. If they push their mana into it, it alerts me by contacting the crystal set into a ring I began wearing. Both of them know it's only to be used in an absolute emergency, which is why I departed so quickly, opening a gate straight into Steven's lair, despite his previous threat.

Papa Jared must decide that he won't get any further answers of me, as he gives up trying. I sit back at the worktable to resume working on our newest project. Knowing much of what I did as Nolan helps me now, as I did perform a lot of research into enchanting back then.

Even though I've lost most of those memories and knowledge for now, what I do know could advance magitech much, much more quickly than we have been. I'm attempting to reveal it slowly, which becomes hard when certain artifacts are found.

Such as the summoning amulet, which Papa Jared took great interest in after hearing the full details of it from the report handed to him by Uncle Zach after the important soldiers from Nelem were interrogated.

Now, he wants to learn how to replicate it and redesign the enchantment to create weaker beasts. The original amulet uses very high-level magics of nearly every element, and even has several special-type magics in it.

Tonight, I am giving him the basics for it, then tomorrow, we'll work on the new version of it.

First, the beast itself sort-of always exists. The amulet contains a dimensional space always in a magical stasis. It's not time magic, but it's one of the closest things to it I can remember manifesting as Nolan.

When the beast 'dies' or is banished, it simply returns to the space contained within the amulet. There, magic is converted into the various elements and materials needed to heal it or recreate it. Materials are transmuted as well, to create more precise materials, such as any flesh and blood necessary for the beast. Unfortunately, the creature's mind is wipe with every return to the amulet, but that was because of my inexperience when I crafted it.

Papa Jared says we might want to remove that part depending on the circumstances.

Because of the issue with the mind-wiping, I instead played with magical signatures instead for who the beast responded to. It will always respond to me because of some enchantments I put into it, but it will also respond to the person whose mana was used to summon it. Multiple people can feed the amulet mana to 'recharge' it, which is really just to ensure it has the mana necessary to repair or recreate the beast, but only the one who activates the summoning has command of the beast.

"Hold on," Papa Jared indicates the amulet. "That thing is a mana storage device?"

"Yeah," I answer. "It turns out that in my last life here on Midlaris, I'd already figured out a way to store mana in objects long-term, and without any mana crystals."

A much more advanced version of what we're using for the rails for the train, one which doesn't need to have the mana pulled out within a few days or it's dispersed and lost. I didn't remember about this particular type of enchantment I came up with as Nolan until last week, and didn't feel it necessary to mention it to my papas and mamas.

"We could use it for the railroad," he mutters.

"No," I shake my head. "Part of it relies on the material it's made up of and the shape. We're using adamant steel for the railroads. This amulet uses an alloy of mithril and godsteel for the metal parts. It wouldn't exactly work unless you wanted to make the railroad extremely expensive. To the point that it may be centuries before commoners could afford to use it."

"I see," he looks disappointed. "What happens if the amulet runs out of mana?"

"The dimensional space and the beast are destroyed," I answer. "And it becomes inert until it's recharged back to full. Then, it recreates the space and the beast. The beast can only be summoned when the amulet is at full mana, by the way."

"Okay," he picks up the amulet and examines it. "Would it be possible for the new version to contain beasts whose memories don't wipe with every banishing? Yet still loyal to their summoner. More specifically, their only summoner?"

"You mean," I say. "Beasts which are essentially bonded to a single person, serving them until the summoner dies?"

"Yes," he nods. "We would need a way to allow the beast to take on a new master, once theirs dies, but-"

"Yeah, we can," I interrupt him. "We can also set it so the beasts' memories are wiped every so many years. They're essentially golems without cores, all we'd need to do is set up an enchantment to wipe the 'data' that stores that information. It would be easier to set it for every so many banishments or use lesser materials that will cause the amulet to expire after a time. You're thinking about creating these for military purposes, aren't you?"

We could give the amulets to soldiers or mages, who would then have beasts to fight for them. They charge it long enough before the fight to recover their mana, then summon it at the fight. Suddenly, there's a loyal beast fighting for them, possibly even protecting them. For a mage, that would be a great boon.

"No," Papa Jared tells me. "Actually, Jason, I was thinking of non-combat beasts. More like pets for little kids."

"For little kids?" I ask. "Papa Jared, this is a weapon of war, and your mind went to creating something for people who don't even know how to manipulate their mana?"

"Cody," he says. "The younger boy we took in during the winter, apparently listened in on some of your lessons to the others during the training camp and figured out how to shape his mana. He's lower green, and has plenty of mana to spare. He also has a fondness for magical creatures."

"You were thinking," I say. "Of creating an amulet like this for him. So that he can summon a unique creature just for him."

"I did," he nods, then frowns. "Jason, you mentioned godsteel in the conversation as if it would actually be feasible to make the railway with it. Where are you hiding that much godsteel?"

"I did?" I ask, then realize that yes, my comment about the cost would imply I know of a source of godsteel large enough to supply enough for the mithril-godsteel alloy. "Erm. I don't."

"Jason…"

"Well, technically," I say. "I don't have that much godsteel, Papa Jared. But I know how it forms."

"How it forms?" He asks. "Didn't you say that metals exist because-"

"Yeah, that's the explanation for normal metals," I tell him. "At least, my understanding from basic science classes when I was Lucas on Earth. But godsteel is rather difference. Theoretically, I can make godsteel, though I haven't tried in any life."

I couldn't in this life, anyway. I need to be able to manifest my ethereal form, much like I did at the end of the war. That requires several circumstances I don't currently meet. As Nolan, I had a supply of it that I preferred to use over attempting to take on that form again. It nearly caused me to ascend out of my mortal form, which is why I only ever did it the one time, and when it was optimal for ending the war.

"It's an alloy, then?" He asks. "But the records always say it was found in small veins, usually just a few pieces of ore."

"It ended up there the same way normal metals did," I shake my head. "Papa Jared, it's godsteel. It's infused with, ah, something from certain gods. Most of the godsteel found on Midlaris came from the Divine Leviathan, which is why they have the blue hue to them."

That also contributed to me wanting to use the godsteel found here. Though I do have some from a couple of the other Divine Beasts, and that probably amounts to all of the raw godsteel available on Midlaris not from Alex's true self.

There might be more, but if so, it's much deeper beneath the surface than I ever ventured as Nolan.

"Okay," he says. "I never considered that there was an actual godly touch to it."

"Most haven't," I shrugged. "It doesn't possess any divine powers, just comes off as an extremely durable, magical metal. Anyway, I can supply enough of it to make a version of the amulet for Cody, I still have some of the alloy I used for it, actually."

Papa Jared rubs his temples, then sighs.

"You are ridiculous," he tells me. "Moving on, how does the amulet know what to do for the beast?"

That explanation takes a little longer to make, because Papa Jared has to process that you have to capture and perform certain spells on actual creatures to take their essences and merge them together while infusing them into the dimensional space as a template. Well, that's the more basic explanation of what's needed, as the actual process is much too complex to put into simple words.

It take me more than an hour to explain it to him.

By the time I finish, I can tell that Papa Jared's head is spinning, and he's now considering whether or not making a version of this for Cody would be worth it. While he thinks on that, I take the amulet back, then head home for dinner, before going into my workroom to begin making a modified version of the enchantment on Zenevas's amulet.

The little dragon loves that he can appear and disappear from sight, and has a habit of walking around acting smug while invisible. At least he stays with me for the most part, or he'd probably cause all sorts of trouble.

When I sit at my worktable, Zenevas jumps up onto my lap and curls up. I pat him on the head for a moment, then pull out or use force magic to grab the necessary supplies for the prototype of what I want to make. I should probably use a forge for this, but a combination of fire and force magics can imitate a forge.

An amulet, I don't think would do. That might cause a total-body illusion, when I want it to cover specifically the affected limbs. So either a ring or armband for Niko's arm, and an anklet for his leg.

Should I use godsteel, then? Or star iron? The latter would probably work better for this enchantment. Godsteel is better at containing enchantments of a single element, two at most. For the illusion for Niko, I want to do a little more.

Rather than simply light, the illusion will use light, earth, air, fire, and water magics, much like the illusion I used to conceal my injuries. Lina touches Niko quite often, especially as they hold hands all the time. Niko's right hand, specifically.

Because of that, she would notice a difference to the feel of it, and Niko won't want to wear a glove all the time. So an illusion that imitates the feel of skin is necessary for that. I'll need to figure out how to manifest the illusion I used as an enchantment.

How to do it in a ring, bracelet, or anklet, though? The illusion I used drew on the feel of my own body to create the feel of my missing limbs. If the enchanted items are only on the living stone, then it won't be able to do that.

Hm. This might take me more than a few days. Hopefully, Niko holds out until then. At least he's in Garoyal for the weekend, I know they'll accept him for who he is, which will make him much more comfortable.

I should probably ask Papa Jared to give me the weekend off so I can focus on this so that it's ready before school resumes. Maybe I should ask Fael Mira for help, too? That might speed things up, and she already knows about his leg, so I won't be revealing it to anyone who doesn't already know.

Yeah, I'm asking Papa Jared for the weekend off.

(Alex, 17)

"Wrong spoon," Connor says, so I grab a fork and start eating the pudding with that. My brother sighs, knowing he won't win this battle as much as he will try. "You are going to use the proper ones tomorrow, aren't you?"

King Zachary invited the Amarxiks to the palace for lunch tomorrow, for some unknown reason. Connor and I found out after we returned from the training group, and he decided to teach me how to properly use cutlery, with which ones are used for what.

It ain't the first time he and Richard have tried this, and I do actually know which ones are used for what. I just ain't one to like this sort of stuff.

"I'll behave for His Majesty," I glare. "Why do I need to attend, anyway? I ain't the heir."

Connor sighs, then looks at the seat Richard vacated after the meal finished, before looking at me again.

"You're still an Amarxik," Connor says. "And the invitation was for all of us. And remember, the way Papa claimed you, you technically hold the Heir's Rights."

Which is stupid, in my opinion. Connor was born in marriage, I was not. His birthday comes after mine, however. He's still sixteen, turning seventeen a couple of weeks after Their Royal Highnesses do.

But because Richard claimed me as a full, legitimate child of his, filing the proper paperwork and everything, the fact that I was born to a slave out of marriage doesn't mean anything for my inheritance. I'm the eldest son, so I hold claim to the family title, not Connor.

I don't want to be considered the heir. That ain't the life I want.

And now I have to deal with lunch with the king of all people. That's something I want even less. I've met him enough times to last me a lifetime! To last the lifetime of a Divine Beast who ain't wanting a damn thing to do with the royal family in this life! There's just too much bad stuff between us, and I don't foresee me starting to like royalty or nobility anytime soon, either!

Connor doesn't care either way if he's the heir or not, too. That annoys me a little, but I know that the Hailey and the rest of us Magi matter to him more than status. That much has become clear the last couple of months.

We're trying to find a way to hand the Heir's Rights over to him. It seems Richard hadn't thought everything through, because he ain't able to actually strip me of them right now. I'd have to do something pretty big to be stripped of them, leaving him with an heir he doesn't like. I ain't planning on doing anything big enough to get stripped, either, 'cause that would mean getting arrested and possibly having my life ruined even more.

"We'll figure that out," Connor tells me, and I realize my expression made it clear what I was thinking about. But since you're an Amarxik in the area, you need to attend the lunch. It'll last a couple of hours, and you will need to keep your normal attitude in check. You also need to limit how much alcohol you drink. We ignore it here, but it might end badly if you allow yourself to get the way you do after a few drinks enter you."

"It takes a lot to make me drunk."

"Maybe," he says. "But your tongue gets looser sooner than that. And Alex? I think His Majesty picked tomorrow for a reason. Jacob won't be there unless he takes a gate back for lunch, which is unlikely. You argue with Jacob at nearly ever meeting where Jason isn't present to intervene."

That's true. Jason usually ensures Prince Jacob and I interact as minimally as possible whenever he believes the two of us might get into a fight over something. As a result, there's been much less arguments between us in the training group. It doesn't change much at university, but Prince Jacob and I don't get into many fights there anymore. We've come to something of an understanding, for the most part.

"Whatever," I eat more pudding. "I'll behave at the meeting, but that's it. I'm not going to talk unless it's absolutely necessary, and I ain't buttering up my speech just 'cause he's the king."

Connor sighs, but knows he ain't going to win that fight, either. I can clean up my speech when necessary, but I don't do it unless I need to for some reason. And the way I'm feeling right now, I'm sure His Majesty will understand my speaking the way that comes naturally to me.

"Alright," Connor says. "Do you remember the etiquette for-"

"Yeah, I do," I roll my eyes. "Don't sit until indicated to or until after His Majesty does. Stand if he stands. Don't eat before he does. Blah blah."

"Alex, please try to take this seriously."

"I will," I tell him. "I just don't like doing this stuff."

"Which is exactly why I want to go over it with you," he tells me. "We have no idea why His Majesty invited our family, and considering several things, it's important that we put on our best behavior. That means you are attending."

I sigh, then grab my goblet and drain the wine from it, signaling for the nearby maid to refill it. This is going to be a long evening, and tomorrow will be long as well. Why does His Majesty want to speak with us?

Jason probably knows. He seems to know everything, even when he shouldn't. Probably has Wolf Alpha spying on stuff or something. Nah, he's too honest for something like that. King Zachary probably just tells his nephew-cousin-thing that stuff.

"Do we have something stronger?" I ask after draining my goblet once more.

"Alex, please," Connor sighs. "Can you wait to get drunk until after we finish this?"

(Niko, 16)

The phoenix tears did little to heal my shoulder, only mending part of it. I can feel the curse of a god's ill intent fade as the fire courses through me, though, and when the feeling fades, I grab my knife and cut off my tunic, before burning it to ash.

I suppose I should not feel surprised over Jason providing me with the tears. The entire time he was injured, I suspected he had something which might have helped him, but he is too kind to use such a thing for himself.

His personality means he would rather save it for a friend in need and suffer in his own healing than to use it and speed up his recovery. Jason's kindness compares in strength to his rage and fury.

After giving myself a little more time to adjust to the pain in my shoulder, I reach up and gingerly touch it, feeling the force magic protecting it right now. Otherwise, I would still be bleeding. Healing magic can only do so much, and it does not close up wounds like this. It would also never regrow my arm, even if it can restore missing bones.

This type of injury is far too much for such a spell to work. At least, not until Tasha advances in her healing magics and raw magical power. In our last lives, she could restore missing arms with ease. Jason still seems to lack that ability, though I feel certain he will attempt to learn it now. Even if he will be unable to regrow my limbs due to how long it will have been, he will try to learn it to save others, now that it has occurred twice to the Magi.

It takes me a minute to realize tears are streaming out of my eyes, and I reach up and brush them away, wiping my hand on my pants, then feel myself breaking down even more as I remember that I'm even less of a man now than I was before. Rather than one missing limb, I have two.

While there are plenty of gargoyles here, I feel certain they have other homes as well. Like Jason, the gargoyles will accept me for being damaged. My gargoyle leg will probably even make them see me even closer to them in this body. How will the people here react, if they find out I'm not even a full man? Will they still see me as the benefactor?

Probably not. They will see me as a damaged person, even if a powerful one. They will abandon me, too. They will look at me with disgust, just like my parents did because of my preference for magic. At first, they might try to pretend to accept me out of respect for my past, but then they will realize that I'm not Benjamin anymore. I'm Niko.

And they will abandon me, just like my parents did. Sure, my parents are attempting to accept me, now they know magic is not evil, but really, they still hold contempt for me. They still suspect me of foul things. Old mindsets persist, and no one likes damaged goods.

Soon, I will have two gargoyle limbs, which makes me even more of a monster than a person. I need to calm down a little first, though, or I might mess up the arm. At least among the gargoyles, I can be accepted for who and what I am, regardless of my status as a partial-gargoyle.

Nearly an hour passes before I feel ready to cast the spell, and once I do, I force myself to grit my teeth. As with my leg, growing a gargoyle arm is painful. Once it finishes, however, I move it around. It looks identical to my old arm, except made of grey stone rather than the paleness of my skin.

I move the arm around, testing it and feeling it. As with my leg, it feels natural to me, and the stone, while hard, contains a warmth to it that makes it feel soft. It is as flexible as my leg, too, giving me full range of motion.

Standing, I move about the room, adjusting to using my new arm. I hate it. Why do I have to be so broken and damaged? Why is the only person who accepts me for me Jason? While I do not possess all of my memories of us being the Divine Beasts, and am the only one other than Jason who even has any, I know the other Magi took issue with me as well, both in our past lives and as our true selves.

The other Magi were nervous of Benjamin because I specialized in curse magics and created gargoyles. As the Divine Gargoyle, I remember being looked at warily by the others. Sure, I found love with the Divine Thunderbird, but I do not know if she actually loved me back.

Lina does right now, she accepts my use of curse magics and preference for magic. But will she accepts me after seeing what I have become? It is doubtful. She will just see a broken, damaged man who was willing to become part-monster just to replace the broken pieces.

Plus, she will probably become horrified upon seeing her love wounded like this. Better to spare her the pain of that. We have known each other for less than a year, I know there are likely other men she has fallen for as well. Let her choose someone who is whole.

That decides things for me, and I step out into the hall, not caring who sees me anymore. I look at the gargoyles, who are giving my arm a curious look. They already know about my leg, but this is their first time seeing a gargoyle limb on a person directly.

"Are there settlements," I say. "Of just gargoyles?"

"Yes, Lord Niko," they respond in unison.

"A small clan of gargoyles," Golvran, the gargoyle on the left, tells me. "Lives around one hundred miles to the west, near the peak of a mountain. They live in the rebuilt ruins of a castle a god inhabited during the war, before you Magi attacked his forces and the Great Dragon killed him. They are the nearest clan not our own, though like most others, they are much smaller than us. Only eleven gargoyles live there, as opposed to the two hundred who live here."

I know the castle. So the gargoyles rebuilt it, then? Benjamin was the one who destroyed it during the war, though Natalie, Lina's past life, helped. The battle lasted for around four hours before we managed to finish destroying the angels who lived there, and Nolan's battle with the god lasted another two hours after that.

"Great Benefactor!" A man calls, and I turn to find one of the elders approaching, a pair of gargoyles following him. "The people are worried after you disappeared these last few hours. Some of them saw-"

His eyes move to my right arm, then widen in surprise and shock. I don't detect a trace of disgust in his expression, but he could be hiding it.

"Is your arm a gargoyle's limb?" He asks.

"His left leg as well," Golvran answers for me. "It is a magnificent piece of magic, only he can cast."

Jason can probably cast it as well, considering how much he knows about the spell.

"When I heard your arm was destroyed," the elder tells me, meeting my gaze once more. "I was quite worried for your health, especially as you did not allow anyone to approach you to treat it. It appears those fears were unfounded. May I touch it?"

He covers his mouth as soon as he asks that question, and I attempt to understand what is going on. Did he just ask to touch my gargoyle limb? Is he faking the sincerity in his words?

"Yes," I hold up my arm.

One way to find out his feelings is to allow him to touch the limb.

The elder reaches out and reverently touches the limb, muttering to himself about how it looks and feels just like an actual gargoyle's limb.

"That is because," I say. "It uses the same basis as the magic that makes a real gargoyle."

"As the one who created us," Golvran tells the elder. "It is only natural the Benefactor would know how to give himself limbs of living stone."

"He said your leg was as well?" The elder asks as he releases my arm.

"Yes," I answer. "I lost it several months ago to a battle against another god."

"You are even closer to the gargoyles than we thought," he tells me. "I will admit, I did not believe you to be the Great Benefactor. But that arm… I doubt any mortal could make such a magic. You are the Benefactor."

I look at the two gargoyles behind him, who nod to confirm the elder's honesty. He truly does feel impressed by this. He can see with his own eyes that I am not a whole man, yet my gargoyle arms impress him rather than disgust him.

Then I remember where I am. These people live among gargoyles. To them, gargoyles are the servants of the Benefactor, their god. I am their god. Why would me having a gargoyle disgust them?

It only shows them how much closer to the gargoyles I am than them. They already accept these monsters, why would they refuse a hybrid?

No one here will look at me in disgust just because I am a damaged man with an arm and leg of bestial nature. Here, I will be accepted.

The elder shakes his head, as if remember that he was here for other reasons.

"I am glad to see you are well, Benefactor," he tells me. "Have you been informed of our guest?"

"Our guest?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers. "After you retreated, a man on a dragon showed up. The dragon distracted the god, and the man slayed him from behind. They came here after that, the dragon waiting in the front courtyard as the man came here."

"That was the Great Dragon," Golvran informs the elder. "An ally of Lord Niko's."

Was he riding Steven?