(Alex, 17)

After rubbing my wrists and applying some holy magic to them and my shoulders to soothe the pain from being hung up for a few days, I stretch. It takes me several minutes to stretch my body to its satisfaction due to how long I was suspending like that.

With my stretching out of the way, I step out of my boots and strip off my bloodied pants and replace them with a fresh pair, then use water magic to scrub myself clean before I pull on a tunic before stepping back into my boots and lacing them back up.

They confiscated my usual sword and the other stuff I had on me, so I'll locate that first, especially since my comm plate is with my gear. At the same time, I'll search for the crew. But locating my comm plate is more important.

There is a god of deception on the loose. Emrikol, a decently-powerful God of the Second Order. With the rune-carved strips of skin and his own ability to imitate magic, it's quite possible he's assumed my form and is fooling everyone into thinking he's me.

The bigger issue is Reizanik. I'm confident I saw him, and that ain't good. If he's here, then he's definitely setting up a trap for Jason. If he's doing that, then Jason needs to get Jaklenai on protection detail now. Maybe even on a hunt.

Would Jaklenai do that, though?

Well, probably. He loves Jason just as much as I do. Okay, maybe not that much, but still. He'll not be happy if a god captures Jason, but if Reizanik does, Jason will disappear from us forever.

Stepping up to the door of my cell, I stretch again, then perform a layered enhancement to my strength before kicking it open and stepping through. With a flick of my wrists, I wrap swift-moving water around the throats of the pair of guards standing to either side of the door, pushing tiny spikes of ice out of them and into the guards' necks, just enough to make them aware that their lives are in danger.

"Feels good to be out!" I grin as I look at the two guards sitting at a table, playing a game of cards. "What, ya decided to play without me? I love cards! Want to get your asses whupped?"

They scramble to their feet, one of them beginning to chant a spell as the other draws his sword. I flick my wrist towards them, manifesting the collars on them as well.

"Sorry!" I say as they freeze up. "But I ain't just Alex Levirar, noble of Varil. I'm also Leviathan Alex, street lord. Heh! Needing to speak an incantation. What a pathetic excuse of a mage ya are! Hah! I ain't needing one for a long while! Not for something as simple as this!

"Now," I add maliciousness into my tone and expression. "Someone's gonna tell me where I can find my stuff, my crew, and that bastard pretending to be. Otherwise, I'm gonna show 'em what happen when Leviathan Alex is crossed by an enemy."

No one answers, so I start breaking bones and slicing skin as I interrogate them, delving into their minds with my magic. They attempt to fight back, but my collars are more than enough. The mage is middle blue, so they probably figured he was a good guard against mere green me.

But his skill and finesse with magic ain't got a thing on those of us in Jason's training group. He ain't able to manifest a barrier under my spell, or to push out my spikes. He also ain't able to make a mind barrier.

My spikes and mind magic allow me to disrupt his thoughts enough that he ain't able to cast a spell, and the other three? They're even more laughable.

As I'm pulling another rib out of one of the guards, the door to this room opens up, and the mage who cut the runes into me enters.

"Our god wishes for us to-" he stops and freezes, slowly sweeping his gaze over my four guards.

I yank out the rib, then wave it at the mage.

"Hi!" I greet him. "I'm a little busy now, think ya could come back once I finish talking with these guys?"

The mage raises a hand and begins to cast a spell.

"No, ya don't!" I extend a hand. His spell is a little more powerful than I'd like, him being an upper indigo mage. I'll need to actually chant something to help with the visualization. "Trace of blood and trace of bone, power of curse and power of water! Merge together and strike with fury, bind my foe for the Leviathan's jury!"

The mage finishes casting his spell at the same time, ropes of flame shooting out from his hands to form a net and grid through the room. I'm sure it's meant to stop me from being able to attack or move from where I am, considering how tightly it's woven, with only a few inches between ropes of fire.

However, at the same time his spell takes shape, the blood and rib in my hand melt together, the bone turning to liquid as it swirls away. Other bones I've removed from the guards lift up and join the mass, blood from the ground and our clothes joining it as well.

The pale red liquid shoots off, weaving through the net as it forms, and by the time the mage's net is finished, he's bound against the wall, my cursed prison holding him tight.

Okay, it's really Niko's prison, since he invented the spell when he was Benjamin, but it uses water magic for the blood, so I learned it during the war, too. Of course, I switched 'the Gargoyle' to 'the Leviathan', since I'm here and not Niko, may the King and Queen of the Gods bless my friend's tormented mind.

Unfortunately, even though I'm powerful enough to cast it, the spell still drains me, and my collaring spell breaks, the water dropping down, washing some of the blood away and getting into the wounds.

Thankfully, I already did a number on all four of them, so they ain't able to escape, just sit here and groan, their torsos cut open with ribs removed.

I use a little bit of water magic to clean off my hands as the second mage groans, part of the curse in the spell weakening his ability to use magic. Or more specifically, to focus on it. As I open up my spatial storage, the grid of flaming ropes fades away.

Reaching into my spatial storage, I pull out two of the mana potions Jason supplied me with. The ones he made for each Magus, promising they wouldn't give us any ill effects. Because it's Jason, I trust the potions. He wouldn't do something to hurt us under the guise of attempting to help us, and I know it was him who made these.

Opening the first bottle, I put it to my lips and tip it up, drinking it. It has the metallic taste of blood to it, along with a hint of… did Jason try to flavor this with mint? That makes for an interesting taste I never want to taste again.

I drink the second potion. Then, I send both bottles back into my storage as I feel my mana returning. Rapidly.

Gasping, I clutch my chest as I try to breathe at the sudden rush of mana flowing through me. Jason, we need to work on 'appropriate amounts'. Ya didn't say each one could restore a fifth of my mana!

Once I recover from the massive return of mana, I turn my attention back to the guard I was interrogating.

"So," I say. "Now that he's bound up, too, are ya gonna talk?"

The guard just stares at me, so I reach into his chest and pull out another rib, causing him to cry out.

My interrogation lasts for another two hours before I have all the information I can get out of these four jerks, then I turn my attention to the fifth, to the second mage. I approach him as I command the binds to shift him onto a chair, and the binds obey.

Then, I adjust the binds so that they expose his torso, before I cut off the section of robes and tunic covering it.

Then, I cut into him. Rather than simply pulling aside his skin, I cut out his entire chest and stomach, just I did to the others. His bones and organs are exposed, even the muscle and fat over them removed by my gentle touch.

I wait for the mage to stop screaming in pain, his attempts at thrashing foiled by the binding spell. It's a powerful spell, and I could bind even an angel or demon with it, if I had enough blood and bone around.

While it does drain a lot of mana for me to cast, there's no cost for me to sustain it, because it will fuel itself until judgment by the stated person comes. That, or someone powerful enough manages to break it.

"Those guys," I point at the other four once the mage calms down, aided by my mind magic. "They ain't actually knowing enough to satisfy me. They ain't aware of where my gear is, nor my crew. They also ain't sure where the guy you supplied with those runic strips is. I know ya used magic to accelerate the process to turn 'em into leather, too. That weakens the effects. He's got only three or four more days before he needs new strips, that's why ya came here, 'cause ya needed to carve more onto me to make new patches."

He grits his teeth and glares at me, so I reach into him and grab a rib, then rip it out.

"But ya? Ya know more than them," I inspect the rib in front of him, then snap it in half and touch it into the slow-moving liquid of his prison, which absorbs the bones. "And ya are going to tell me everything. If not vocally, mentally. And ya won't do it willing, either. But see? My mind magic is better than, well, your unprotected mind. Even if ya did know how to protect it from me, my binds stops ya from making the shields. So let's begin."

I give him a cruel smile, then begin my interrogation. Much of what I learn is less than pleasant, especially when I realize we're in the tunnels the Keeper's Resistance uses. The tunnels long-distance mind magics and has some effect on the comma plates – their signals are blocked down here in most places.

Heck, mind magic without touching someone would be pretty damn difficult down here. The only reason I'm able to is because of my status as the Magus of Mind. My mind magic, while still mind magic, is a little different from most peoples' mind magics. Just enough for me to do some short-range mind spells. I can't open a gate down here, though.

Whatever Nolan did when he made these tunnels, it blocked gates even before they were invented. When I get out of here, I am asking Jason why he made these as Nolan.

Finishing my interrogation, I sit back on the chair and sigh, using water magic to clean me of the blood of my five victims. Then, I end the lives of the other four, before fixing my gaze on the one bound by my spell.

"I, the Leviathan," I say in a clear voice. "Sentence you to death by suffering."

As the binding begins to invade his body to carry out the sentence, tormenting the mage, I leave the room. After bolstering my speed, I take off running, using the mental map of the tunnels I received from the mage.

When I reach the room with my crew, I just charge through the door, throwing spikes of ice into the men and women here before they can react, then I locate the keys to the cages, my body too weak even with a layered enhancement to break them open alone.

Unlocking the cages, I pull my crew out and remove the mind spells from them. They're weak, though, having already had blood drawn out of them for the drug. From what I learned in that mage's mind, it's a rather nasty drug, and they tricked Jacob so that he would destroy a few failed batches of it and their failed experiments.

The moment I find that bastard pretending to be me so he can trick Jacob, not even the deepest pit of hell will be a place he can hide from me.

Barry and Sarah aren't here, thank goodness. They were hunting outside of the city when we were ambushed, but the rest of us were going for a walk when we were captured. I wish I were more powerful, so that I could have protected us better.

My crew looks terrible, weak from their time imprisoned and from having blood drawn out of them. I've failed them as their leader. It's my duty to protect them and ensure stuff like this doesn't happen.

"Wait a minute," I look at each member of my crew, then look around. "Where's Jeddy?

A feeling of horror fills me as I realize they probably decided to turn him into one of their monstrosities.

One of the doors bursts open, and I jump, ready to fight, only to find a pair of combat constructs charging into the room, made up of molten earth, of lava. Or magma. Whatever it is, when made by a person.

Charging in after the pair of chest-high wolves is Jeddy, letting out a war cry. He and the combat constructs stop halfway into the room, then look around. I can tell by his mind it's him, and that's he quite surprised. His expression says that last one, too.

"Oh, hi, Alex!" He waves at me. "I was going to come rescue ya as soon as I figured out where ya were, but ended up finding this place first."

"Why aren't you in a cage?" I ask. "How did you escape?"

"They failed to capture me," he tells me. "And I knew as soon as the fake ya showed up something was weird, 'cause ya acted like it never happened. I told Barry and Sarah that the others all went on a trip for a surprise, and they believed me. I think. Heh. The fake ya never even realized it was me. Then I saw him leading Prince Jacob down to Jeb's and went 'oh, no'. So I built up my courage to come charging into a base full of bad guys, then did so!"

"Good job," I look at the combat constructs. "Ya made combat constructs."

"Huh?" He looks at the pair of wolves. "Oh, yeah, I did."

He grins at me.

"I asked Jason how to make them the same day ya disappeared," he tells me. "Told him I was just curious. Maaaan these drain mana like crazy!"

"Ya might want to dismiss them."

"Nah," he says. "I've got plenty left. I can hold 'em out for a few more hours!"

How much mana does Jeddy have?

"So," he punches his right fist into his left palm, eyes blazing with anger. "What next, Boss?"

"First," I say. "Get the crew to the surface. They'll need to recover. Take 'em to Jason's, let him or the Sage who's there know what's going on, but don't say a word about it until ya arrive. Not even through the comm plates. Then, show him the way down here."

"Erm," Jeddy frowns. "One issue with that, Alex."

"What?" I ask.

"I called him to tell him that Jacob disappeared," he tells me. "And he… well, he's busy with something. Too busy to come help. It sounds serious. Like, really serious, to the point that he can't come help even if he wanted to."

"Okay," I let out an aggravated breath. It's not Jason's fault he's dealing with another emergency at the moment. "Just get these guys up to his mansion. Peter, Mikey, and Colin ain't gonna be able to do that on their own. Conceal those things while above-ground, too, so ya don't draw attention. Most people will just see 'em as a trio of drunk or tired guys following a friend home or to a friend's home."

"Got it," Jeddy nods. "What about their gear? They ain't wearing it."

"I'm going to grab our gear," I tell him. "Then rescue Prince Jacob myself."

(Jacob, 17)

"Alex?" I ask, but he does not respond.

It seems he has actually fallen asleep this time. We discussed escape plans, but nothing seems viable. Alex always has a logical reason why it would fail. I wished to present to him another escape idea, but I suppose I can wait on that.

Most likely, the attempt will prove flawed and unable to be initiated, as with the others.

Settling back against the bars of the cage, I close my eyes, resting. A few minutes pass before one of the doors to the room opens, and I keep my eyes closed. Let the man think I am sleeping, just like Alex.

I do not hear a single step, even after the door closed. Did he take a look at us, see that we were asleep, then decide to leave us be for now? Interesting. Why would-

"Gyah!" Alex exclaims, and I open my eyes to find Alex standing behind him, running his Magus Sword through his chest.

I blink.

There are two Alex's here.

As I watch, however, the Alex in the cage ripples, then changes. A strip of human leather etched with runes falls off his forehead, and his hair turns to the black of night, his eyes a bright silver, his skin paler. His body grows a little as wall, silver markings forming on the parts of his skin visible.

"That's what ya get for impersonating the Leviathan, ya bastard!" Alex pulls his Magus Sword out, then chops off the god's head for good measure. "Take that! Jason ain't the only Magus to kill a god, now!"

Alex wins that competition.

"Ha!" Alex exclaims, then sticks his tongue out at me as he uses water magic to clean his sword before sheathing it. "Bastard fell asleep! Wouldn't have managed to do that were he awake!"

"What just happened?" I ask. "How did he-"

"Emrikol," Alex tells me. "A god of deception. He probably fooled Jason into thinking he was seeing my mana signature in order to fool him into thinking he was me."

Alex reaches under the tunic of the man and pulls out two large patches of leather, each with runes carved into them.

"They cut this out of me," he tells me. "My chest and my back. The pattern of runes they used allows the wearer to assume the form of the person it was cut from. They did a decent job, but since they used magic to quicken the tanning process, it was weak. They'd have needed to cut more off of me within a day or two. Thankfully, they cared enough to regrow my flesh, though it took 'em a few days. That was painful, if it ever was."

Alex appraises the cage as he talks, then sends his Magus Sword away before pulling out a key and opens the door to the cage.

"Come on," he tells me. "We gotta move."

"They have monsters-"

"Which they plan on unleashing into the city at sunrise," he tells me. "Then, in the aftermath, they plan on distributing a drug to addict people to. 'A way to help you deal with your loss', they'll say. Only they'll use it in preparation for another attack. Bastards tricked ya into destroying the failed batches, though, and they've already moved the prepared supplies out of here. They also moved the rats ya rescued, they were already planning on that."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I'm the Magus of Mind," he says. "A little interrogation ain't hard."

"You used illegal magics," I state.

"Did I?" He asks. "Or did Prince Jacob, Crown Prince, grant me temporary permission to use them due to our emergency situation, since he already knew about some of the stuff that will cause a danger to commoners, nobles, and royals alike?"

Letting out a sigh, I stand and exit the cage, stretching as I look at the monsters all around us. They seem docile.

"These ain't even the ones they're unleashing," Alex tells me. "They were gonna do to ya what they did to me, and also use your blood to make a more potent version of the drug. Planned on doing that with me, too. Morons didn't think to keep draining my mana, though, so I just broke out once I had enough."

"Right," I say, then remember about the floor and tell him about it and how it prevented me from doing the same thing as him.

"It does?" He looks at the floor. "Just looks like fancy mumbo-jumbo to me. The idiot god probably only managed to convince ya of that."

"Alex, I know you-"

"Prince Jacob," he interrupts, a look of agitation on his face. "I've been studying enchantments for my company. Trust me, the floor ain't able to drain mana away. Honestly, it doesn't have any of the runes necessary in the first place."

"Sorry," I apologize. "This situation has me stressed and worried, and-"

"I ain't needing your apologies," he tells me. "We need to get out of here, then take care of the monsters. Everything is in a cage in here, so that should make it easy. It's the other rooms where we'll have problems, but those monsters ain't as powerful as these. These ones were meant to guard the Magi until we were drained and sedated."

"We will need to find my guards and rescue them after this," I tell him. "I left them back at the first place we went to, since I did not expect things to go wrong. You were pretty confident, though now I know it was a god pretending to be you. I would place the odds as high they went for reinforcements, despite what 'you' said about it needing to not involve the Royal Guard."

Alex closes his eyes, concentrating, then shakes his head.

"They never made it out," he tells me. "The resistance members and they were captured, they're down here still. We'll get 'em back, though."

I nod, then begin overloading the binding cuffs on me with mana as I attempt to transmute them into iron. Just as the mithril begins to turn, the floor begins to glow.

"I thought you said-"

"I didn't say I knew what it did," Alex says as the transmutation finishes, and I break the cuffs. "I said it ain't able to drain your mana. Looks like it's meant to respond to high amounts of mana use."

"Did you figure out what it was meant to do?" I ask.

"Yeah," he points at a cage. "Open the cages."

I open my spatial storage and pull out a sword as Alex draws his. Just as we prepare to attack the monsters as they exit the cages, I feel a rush of power flowing through me, disorienting me. Alex and I meet gazes.

His eyes are grey, which means my eyes are as well.

Jason just reached another level of grey magical power, and it just had to happen as Alex and I were about to be attacked.

(Niko, 16)

I am far enough away from Garoyal now that even the gargoyles will not be able to sense me here. I am not running away, just giving myself a little more space. After Aiden left, I found myself unable to sleep, so I left on a walk.

Gargoyle Alpha was insistent on following me, but I ordered him to remain at the castle. He confirmed a few days ago nothing dangerous lives in or around this area I have walked to, so there is no reason for him to follow me here.

Thankfully, it seems he listened. Or if he ignored me, he has chosen to stay out of the range of my scanning spell.

Looking up at the moon, I bask in the cool glow, feeling it on me. I lie on the ground, using my hands as a pillow as I stare up at the night sky. It is a beautiful night.

After relaxing for a long time, just thinking about how beautiful tonight is, I sit up and pull out my Magus Sword, then draw it. Gargoyle's Gaze is a beautiful weapon, and a reminder of who and what I really am.

The Divine Gargoyle himself.

Just as Lina is the Divine Thunderbird himself. Or, well, herself.

Even if I know none of this will matter after the Gathering, I am still mortal right now, with a mortal's mind. Jason and Aiden have me thinking, though. Jason has mentioned several times how much Lina misses me and wishes I would return.

Never before have I had someone who would feel that way. Not in this life, anyway. If I return, however, I will need to hide my leg and my arm. Regardless of what Jason and Aiden say, I still believe she will hate me for them.

Maybe, if she were grey, she would not care. She would be her old self and partially her true self as well, just like Jason. But if she were grey, then I would likely be grey as well, and if I were grey, then it would not matter because I would simply regrow my limbs.

A feeling of great danger fills me, and I twist as I jump to my feet, slashing with my sword without looking. The blade cuts through the chest of the person standing there, stone slowly spreading from the slash on his chest as the area around him starts turning to stone, affected by the power of the Magus Sword.

The god looks stunned at the attack, and I know I am stunned by his presence here. I do not recognize this god, but he has the silver eyes of one, his hair silver and body covered in silver and black markings.

The orbs of black energy laced with silver that he had summoned begin to fade, and before he can react, I run my sword through his chest. The petrification spell of Gargoyle's Gaze is potent against anything not a god, but it still has an effect on the divine.

Only because I surprised him did I find the opportunity to kill him. Without that, I probably would be dead right now.

I pull my sword out of his chest, then chop off his head for good measure, before cutting him down the middle. Just as my sword pass through his crotch, the two halves of his body falling to the sides, Jason lands on the other side of the god.

"Ensuring he's dead?" Jason asks.

"How did you know he was here?" I ask.

"Gargoyle Alpha followed you," he answers. "From a distance. As soon as he saw the god approaching, he alerted me that you were under attack. Why the god got so close, that's a mystery. What's not a mystery is where he came from. I can sense it in my scanning spell, another shrine I forgot about. I really wish I could just pluck out the knowledge of where all of the gods I sealed were located, especially as this one had a few angels with him."

"There are angels here?" I ask as Jason starts putting the god's remains into his spatial storage. "Uh, Jason?"

"I can use them, even with them being turned to stone," he tells me. "And yes, I apparently sealed him with some angels. I don't remember why, though. I don't even remember him. You could probably take them on, but it's best if I go there, too. Once this is done, though, I need to return to Varil. Jeddy contacted me as I was flying here, saying there was an emergency, but a god attacking a Magus is a bit more important than Jacob disappearing."

"Do you know what happened to him yet?" He asks.

"It's linked to something else I'm dealing with," he shrugs. "I'm sure he and Alex will bond over it and that Alex will finally get over his anger and hatred of Jacob. For now."

"Jacob disappearing sounds serious, especially if Jeddy is contacting you."

"Jacob disappearing is part of a trap by another god," Jason tells me. "Who wants to capture me, hide me away, and torture me for eternity, having forgotten over the last few thousand years that we Magi are also the Divine Beasts, and that such a thing won't go well for them. He'll be fine."

"But-"

"Seriously," Jason interrupts me. "Alex will find him, anyway. You know, Jeddy telling me about Alex being kidnapped a few days ago actually makes it clear why he was acting weird the last few days."

"I do not see the connection at all," I tell him.

"I'll tell you later," he tells me. "Let's go kill those angels, before they can do some poor soul bad."

"No," I tell Jason. "I need to think about things. You… go do your thing. Then handle the emergency in Varil."

"You sure?" He asks.

"Yes," I nod.

"Okay," he says. "See you later, Niko! And get some sleep, too. You could use it."

Jason vanishes, likely having teleported himself to the angels since he could sense their location in his scanning spell, and I examine the Magus Sword as I think over what Jason said. There is something going on in Varilsy, and he seems unconcerned by it, even though it involves a god.

As I think over that, a realization hits me. I killed a god. Jason is no longer the only Magus to have slain a god. Sure, I only managed it due to acting on instinct and surprising the god, but I still killed a god. I became the second Magus to kill a god.

With that realization, another comes to me.

I encountered a god attacking with hostile intent, yet I did not lose another limb.