(Niko, 17)

"How is Jacob doing?" I ask Lina as she sits beside me, Gargoyle Alpha ensuring we are him-width apart.

"He seems well," she answers. "No different than normal, despite what Jason mentioned last night. However, Jacob may be putting on a front to ensure word does not spread of any legitimate issues which came into existence as a result of the kidnapping."

"I hope he continues to do well," I tell her. "I feel glad nothing too severe occurred, and that the one behind the death of the Metis was caught as well."

"Not exactly caught," she smiles.

"Not exactly," I nod.

Jason did not hold back, I heard. He also seems to be staying out at his home in the Unwild Lands. I know he claims he needs to in order to work on his project as well as take care of Cody this summer, but I feel that he is hiding stuff as well.

Stuff we Magi already know, such as how lonely he must feel, being the only Magus to reach grey and have their past begin to integrate into them. Because of that, I wish to finish advancing through the violet magical power levels soon.

That way, Jason no longer feels too alone. Once I reach grey, I will manage to use many of my old powers once more. Once I reach grey in magical power, I can show Jason that is not alone when it comes to the status of the Magi. Yes, his magical power will always remain leagues above ours, but at least he will no longer be the only absurd one of us.

My first goal after reaching grey in magical power is to create a god. I will need to locate one or two first, but that will come with time. Right now, Jason sits at a level of power and ability that not even Miralandis can touch due to his unique nature as a grey-level Magus, a Divine Beast reincarnated as a mortal.

Because of that, he no doubt feels distanced from the rest of us. But if I make a new god soon after reaching grey in magical power, then Jason will no doubt see that distance shrink. It will remind him that though he stands above the rest, he is not the only absurd one around and there are others who can do many of the things he can.

"What are you thinking about?" Lina asks.

"The future," I tell her. "I wish to reach grey in magical power as soon as possible. Due to that, I will likely spend most of our remaining summer break away from here."

"At Jason's home in the Unwild Lands?"

"Yes," I answer. "I will also travel somewhere else to train a few times. Jason wishes for me to refrain from revealing the training techniques I remembered that he has yet to teach again."

"Because they could cause too many problems, should they spread around," Lina says.

"They will also advance your magical abilities much faster than before," I add. "Worry little about how often you shall see me, though. I will return at least once a week, and we shall see each other during the second training camp."

"Jason never mentioned it again," she tells me. "At least, to the rest of us. While we might be prepared to attend it should he announce it, we do wish to know. Did he mentioned it to you?"

"He meant to tell everyone," I say. "I will remind him, I believe that the incident with Jacob caused it to slip his mind."

"I will make sure everyone knows!" Lina laughs. "The way Jason is, he will likely forget until the day we leave! Hold on, my comm plate is signaling me."

Lina pulls out her comm plate, and I check the call. Sage Elena.

"Hello, Sage Elena," Lina answers the call. "How are you today?"

"I am well, thank you, Lina," Sage Elena sounds slightly-aggravated. What did Jason do this time? "I am calling to inform you that Jason still intends to hold the second training camp, optional for everyone. It will begin on the seventeenth of next month, and if you wish to attend, be at our mansion here by seven-thirty in the morning."

"Yes, ma'am," Lina says. "Niko heard you as well."

"Hello, Sage Elena."

"Hello, Niko," Sage Elena says. "I'm assuming Jason already told you? Even if he forgets to tell everyone else, he still seems to tell you things."

"Yes, he told me," I respond. "I believe he forgot due to Jacob's kidnapping."

"That's what he told me," she says. "I need to finish contacting everyone, you two enjoy your day."

"Enjoy yours," Lina and I tell her, then the call ends.

Lina puts the comm plate away, then gives me a light kiss on the cheek.

"I take it you plan on returning to Jason's home shortly?" She asks.

"Yes," I answer. "I wished to see how you and Jacob fared first."

"We are well, thank you," she smiles. "Before you leave, Niko, I must ask, what are your plans for Sunday?"

"I will be here," I tell her. "The Festival of the Dragon will be an interesting experience. In addition, I must repay Jason for the excellent experience he arranged on my birthday."

While I disliked the party at first, everyone quickly turned it into a pleasant experience. It turned into one of the most fun group activities I have ever participated in.

"Some of us are planning on something," she tells me. "Picking out a special present for him due to when his birthday occurs is not easy, with how little interest he has in worldly things."

From a distance, Jason would appear to have the greed and hoard of a dragon. But anyone who looked closely would realize that nearly any gift given to Jason would fall short of making him interested.

Any proper gift to Jason would be a stuffie, sweets, Alex, or something fun. However, none of those work for a proper gift for those born on the Day of the Dragon. Stuffies are considered too ordinary, sweets are a consumable, Alex is a person, and the gift is meant to be an object, not experiences.

Otherwise, I would just take Jason to a nest of monsters and let him loose on that, knowing he would enjoy it.

"I already have a present planned for Jason," I tell her. "Which reminds me, I need to pick it up, it should be finished by now."

"A birthday present or a dragon-themed present?" She asks.

"Both," I stand. "I take my leave now, Lina. I will see you on Sunday."

"I will see you on Sunday," she stands and gives me another kiss.

I look at Eli and Micah.

"I trust you two can find your way out of here," I tell them. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye, sir," they both give me a slight bow.

I open a gate, kiss Lina again, then step through the gate and onto the edge of a cliff. After closing the gate, I open up another one, then step through, onto the sandy shores of an island. Here, the sun still rests below the horizon, night yet to finish.

"Hello, Moon Priestess," I greet the elderly woman standing before me as I close the gate. "How are you today?"

She and several others are gathered here, and I sense that she likely knew I would arrive and chose to wait for me.

"I am well, Niko," she dips her head to me. "Welcome back. You have come to receive the items?"

"If they are ready," I tell her.

"They are," she beckons for one of the others to step forward, and they do. The man holds a box in his hands, which he presents to me. "Both are stored within this, Niko."

"Thank you," I open the box and examine both of the presents.

They are a pair of bracelets.

The one made for the Day of the Dragon present consists of a black leather cord woven through bone beads cut and polished to the same size. A grey dragon has been etched into each bead, each dragon set into a different pose, but still wrapped all the way around each bead so that it is visible from every direction.

While others might think of it as a lesser gift and that the only thing themed to the dragon are the dragons carved into each bone, Jason will no doubt like it and understand why I wanted it made. A memory which returned to me recently, which I never mentioned to him, was from when Benjamin returned here with Nolan accompanying him.

After killing the angels and gods which had dominated the island, our past lives were attacked by a dragon, which Nolan then killed. Dragon bones do not decay, ever. Not without the involvement of magic.

While Nolan took the scales and hide of the dragon, he left behind the meat and bones. The meat was consumed by the islanders, and they stored the bones away.

When I regained those memories, I asked the Moon Priestess about the bones, and she informed me that they still had them. Over the many generations, they never decided on what to do with them because everything they thought of felt too mundane for something they considered so sacred and special.

However, making a bracelet as a gift for the King of Magic, the incarnation of the Divine Dragon himself? They considered that special enough, and so she agreed to have it made. The leather cord they are strung on comes from that dragon as well. Though I have yet to remember it, she informed me that Magus Nolan returned later and gifted them some of the leather made from the dragon's hide.

Which they still have, the bracelet the first thing they made from it, for the same reason as the bones.

Because the bracelet is made from a dragon, and one slain more than three thousand years ago, it will definitely represent the values meant to be represented in the gift. The strength and power of the beast they came from, the resiliency they hold to still exist after thousands of years, the power necessary to kill such a beast, and the courage one would need in order to challenge the one who killed the dragon.

As for the second present, it is much more mundane than the Festival of the Dragon present for him. A bracelet woven of three leather cords, one black, one red, and one grey. Though they all came from the same dragon, I am impressed that the moon folk were able to dye the dragon leather. I suppose it comes from an art lost to time elsewhere.

At one knot is a bone bead, this one with the Crest of the Magi set between a pair of wolves which face it etched into it in silver. My personal crest, set on a dragon bone bead, meant to represent our friendship. The end with the bead will slip into the loop on the other end to close the bracelet, rather than using a knot tied with the two ends of the bracelet.

I examine the crest, impressed with the moon folks' work. I have needed a personal crest for a long while, though with me having severed my heritage, it no longer matters. However, Jason asked me about it recently, and I decided to come up with one anyway. I already used something like this a few times, and decided on a modified version of it for my own crest.

The moon folk replicated it quite beautifully on the bead.

"Thank you," I close the box and look at the moon priestess. "I feel certain Jason will love the gifts."

"I'm sure he will," she smiles. "Gifts from friends and loved ones always mean a lot, especially when made with the intent of making them happy rather than to satisfy one's own tastes. I could see in your eyes how much you wanted them to be things he liked.

"Now," she beckons to one of the women nearby, who steps forward, also holding a box. "I have a gift for him as well, Lord Niko. A birthday present from our people, if you would be so kind as to deliver it to him."

"You arranged a gift for him?" I feel surprised.

"Yes," she answers as the woman hands me the box. "Though Lord Jason does not visit us often, he still holds great importance to our people, even if only I know the depths of it. They still believe you two are simply descendants of the King of Decay and the King of Magic. Do you think he would like it?"

"Let me see," I open the box, examining their gift to him.

Another bracelet, this one woven of some sort of plant fiber. In the weaving are four sets of trios of small glass beads, grey in the middle and violet on the sides. The bracelet is thin as well, and could possibly double as an anklet.

"I think Jason would like it," I tell her. "Even if not made of such quality materials as dragon bones and leather, it holds its own appeal."

"Thank you," she says. "Will you stay longer?"

"No," I answer as I place the box into my spatial storage. "Though I will visit again soon, probably sometime next week, to let you know how he liked it."

"We will see you then," she tells me. "Enjoy your day, Lord Niko."

"Enjoy yours as well," I tell her, then open a gate to Jason's home in the Unwild Lands.

I step through the gate and close it, sensing Jason in my scanning spell. He is riding Aurum, with a small figure on the horse in front of him. Cody, no doubt. I teleport over to Koricel and pat him on the head, then lead him into the barn so I can prepare him for a ride.

Once Koricel is brushed and saddled, I mount him, then lead him outside, joining Jason, Cody, and Aurum. A quick inquiry reveals that Jason is trying to adjust Cody to riding horses before starting him on his own horse. Cody looks happy and calm, so today is likely a good day.

"Jason," I say as we're brushing down the horses once we finish exercising them. "I wish to advance my training once more."

"Past where you're already at?" He asks in confusion.

"Yes," I answer. "It poses no harm to me, and will only increase how quickly I reach grey, which will speed up how soon my arm and leg will regenerate."

Jason stares at me intently, reminding me that he uses a little mind magic at all times. While I doubt he read my mind, he probably realized another reason for my desire to advance my training exists.

"What do you intend on doing?" He asks.

"I wish to utilize the nomrattis technique," I tell him. "Because of that, I wished to know where you believed would be best for me to train with it, to avoid others happening upon it by accident."

"You can do it here," he tells me.

"Your mamas and papas would surely discover it," I say. "And I know Alex visits from time to time, in addition to Cody seeing it."

"None of that matters," Jason shakes his head. "Without being able to read magic, none of them would be able to figure out how to do the nomrattis technique."

"Your mamas and papas possess the ability to read magic," I point out.

"Yeah," he says. "If you're really worried, you can go to the waterfall I showed you before."

"Which one?" I ask.

"How many have I showed you?"

"Seventy-three."

Jason looks shocked, which surprises me none. I never thought for a moment he realized how many waterfalls he showed me. When he becomes excited about something, he tends to show off a lot of things. Several times, he showed me one waterfall only to take me to others.

I eliminated repeat visits to waterfalls from that count.

"The one with nothing but barrens around," he tells me. "I keep meaning to fix it."

"That narrows it down to eight."

"With a pond at the bottom, rather than going straight to a river?"

"Three."

"The falls are about forty feet tall."

"What needs fixing there?"

"It's barren due to tainting," he answers. "Either from demon corpses, tainted corpses, corrupted corpses, ogre corpses, or something. It's been a long time, though. At least two thousand years? But I don't think it was from during the war or before we left these forms at the last Gathering of Power. I'm not sure what happened there, but it was definitely enough corpses to have an impact that lasted this long. I keep meaning to go there and purge the last of the curse, then give its regrowth a bolster."

"I would offer to help," I say. "Though I doubt my talents lie in the appropriate areas."

"No," he chuckles. "Though you might have some training with the necessary magics, you'd fail to do it on a large enough scale for this. You might manage a flower pot."

"I could manage more than a flower pot," I say, and he sticks his tongue out at me. "I will use that area to train in the nomrattis technique."

"Okay," he ruffles Cody's hair. "I'm going to teach Cody some more stuff that Mama Elena's probably going to scold me for."

"Good luck!" I laugh, then open a gate up to the waterfalls and look around.

Nothing but barren land, no plants growing around for miles. It reached the point that it could not have been something as simple as a horde of monsters dying here, their bodies not purified to ensure the corruption did not take hold. I failed to notice it before, but even the air possesses the curse magic affecting the soil.

Any Magus other than Jason and myself would have begun to die here, needing to leave to avoid decaying while still alive. With my aural sheath affected by my natural affinity for curse magics, it protected me from the curse. Jason showed this place to me after I began using the aural sheath inside of myself rather than in the glow around me. That protection and the enchantments woven into my clothes explains why I failed to notice the corruption before.

Kneeling, I place a hand onto the soil and close my eyes, reaching out with my magic. I feel for the curse magics causing this state. Jason might be the King of Magic, but I am the King of Decay. Though he has all the magics the rest of us Magi possess, his true strength comes from manipulating magic, altering it, mixing it, and toying with it.

The main reason he stood above the rest of us during the war was because his magical power was already at grey by the time he turned fifteen, when the rest of us still needed to reach it several years later, when he recruited us. It took him two years to turn each of us grey in magical power.

Were Nolan and Benjamin the exact same in magical power, Benjamin's powers over curse, dark, mind, and earth magics would have exceeded Nolan's when it came to those and their mixed forms. It was when Nolan began altering them into other things that his strength would have shone and his abilities conquered Benjamin's.

In other words, even though Jason might be the most powerful of us, his talent is different. Even now, his talent comes from manipulating magic, altering it, mixing it, and toying with it. Mine comes from using my primary elements and mixing them together.

Spreading out my scanning spell, I reach out as far as I can sense the curse of decay in the soil. Jason did not lie when he said that I would not manage the spells on the scale necessary for taking care of this.

However, I am the King of Decay, the Magus of Curse, the Divine Gargoyle incarnate. My arsenal of magic includes other spells.

I take command of the curse within the land. It emanates from an object more than two miles beneath the surface, which radiates out the corruption for nearly four miles in all directions. The actual source of it is nearly a mile from the waterfall. Surprisingly, the water seems unaffected by the curse.

No, not unaffected. It purges the curse actively, yet without any trace of Jason's magic in it. Natural holy magics fill the water. Is Jason aware of this?

Probably, though I doubt he knows about the chunk of metal causing the corruption. I feel confident that if he knew about it, then he would have already removed it.

Reaching out with my magic, I grab the chunk of metal and begin pulling it out of the earth, shifting the dirt around it to push it toward me. It takes me nearly forty minutes to bring it to me, the ground a few feet away breaking apart as the large chunk of raw metal rises up out of the ground.

The ore looks to be around seven feet at its longest, and nearly six at its thickest. At a glance, it might seem like rusty black iron, but the coloration of the rusty parts is a much darker one, with more red in it as well.

I have never encountered metal like this before. Just to be safe, I create a new spatial storage for it, then place it inside and close the storage.

With the ore safely stored away, I began pulling on the curse and corruption in the land, extracting the raw essence of it, pulling it to me. I create six total spheres of the essence of curse magic, then place them in the spatial storage where I keep all of my essence spheres.

That might not be the typical way of dealing with the corruption, but it works.

I do lack the ability to fertilize the land and set plants to growing here, however, so I will leave that to Jason.

Thinking of Jason, I should return to him and show him the ore, so I open a gate back to his house. When I step out, I find Jason stretching in his front yard, Cody showing up in my scanning spell as sleeping in the room Jason set up for him.

"Back already?" Jason asks.

"Yes," I answer. "Though I did not do much training. I found the source of the corruption, I find it strange."

"The source of it?" He asks. "You find it strange? What is it?"

I pull out the metal using earth magic to hold it in the air, wrapping it into a protective barrier to prevent it from radiating its curse out, though immediately, I sense it starting to decay my barrier. Jason promptly wraps his own barrier around it.

"Interesting," Jason says. "Mind if I keep it?"

"I do not mind," I answer. "Though be careful, it seems that it began to decay the spatial storage I stuck it in, even as short of a time as I stored it."

"That's fine," Jason opens up a spatial storage and sticks it inside. "This one's lined with holy magic, so it should counter that."

"I feel as if you already had that spatial storage."

"I did."

"Why do you have a spatial storage woven with holy magic?"

"I'm storing the bodies of some ogre lords and corrupted beasts I didn't purify in it."

"Do I want to know?"

"No."

"Then I will not ask."

As much as I do want to know why Jason decided to store dead ogre lords and corrupted monsters, if he says I do not want to know, then his reasoning would be something I would say I did not want to know in retrospect.

"Why ogre lords?" I realize. "Why not regular ogres?"

"Too weak," he answers.

Now I really want to know what his plans are. Before I can ask despite him saying I will regret finding out, though, my comm plate signals and incoming call. I pull it out and after seeing that Aiden is calling, I answer it.

"Hello, Aiden," I answer in Marran.

"Hello, Niko," he greets me. "I was wondering if you could come to the camp? Do a personal lesson for some of the guys here?"

"I can do that," I tell him, then hold up a hand and give Jason a slight wave. "Goodbye, Jason."

"Good luck," Jason waves.

I open a gate and step through it, ending the call and putting the comm plate away. Aiden puts his away as he waves to me.

"I didn't expect you to come this fast," Aiden chuckles. "I was thinking it wouldn't be until this afternoon or something. I wasn't interrupting something, was I? You were with Jason?"

"I was preparing to do some solo training," I tell him. "I stopped by Jason's home to deliver something to him."

"I see," he says. "It's his birthday soon, right?"

"Sunday," I confirm.

"The Day of the Dragon, huh?" He asks. "Are all of the Magi born on the day of their respective beast?"

It should not surprise me that he figured that out with as little context for it that he has, yet it does surprise me.

"Yes," I answer.

"Neat," he says. "If you wait a bit, I can arrange the training session now."

"Okay," I say.

"Head on over to the magic training field, would you?" He asks.

"I will," I tell him, then walk to the magic training field at the edges of the camp while he begins gathering mages.

It takes twenty minutes before the mages participating in the training session arrive, a total of fifty of them. Aiden approaches me once everyone has taken up spots.

"We've been having issues," Aiden tells me. "With area spells rather than targeted spells."

"Even you?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers.

"Okay," I say. "Show me how you cast area spells."

Aiden aims a hand at one of the training targets set up and shapes together the spell, before throwing it. I notice immediately why it fails to manifest as an area spell rather than simply a large spell. To make sure I caught the proper reason, I have each soldier cast an area spell, and notice the same issue with each one. Their spells are targeted spells with more mana put into them, designed to be bigger in order to result in a larger effect.

"While magic might be instinctual in some ways," I use magic to project my voice to everyone. "What you use to cast the spell depends on your imagination, which often hinders changing out into new spells. What you are all attempting to do is casting a more basic spell which covers a wider area than normal. As a result, all you manage is a larger spell than before."

I hold up a hand, a swirl of fire forming above it, then I throw it at the target they each threw at. When the flames strikes the target, instead of simply erupting into a mass of fire, it expands, turning into swirls of flames that cover twenty feet in diameter.

"That is an area spell," I put out the flames with my magic, then cast another blast of fire at the target, the flames this time only exploding around it like a normal fireball would. "That is what you were casting. The same is true for every type of spell you cast.

"Rather than putting more mana into it so that it becomes bigger," I say. "You need to shape it to cover a larger area. An area spell requires a completely different type of spell shaping to cast. Rather than simply bursting or fragmenting, it needs to spread. Let me walk you through it."

For the next two hours, I walk the mages through how to properly cast an area spell, which requires a lot of effort in teaching them the proper things to visualize in order to shape the spell properly. Why did they think simply creating a bigger spell would cause it to be an area spell?

I suppose that happens in people from a culture where magic is abhorred rather than simply a part of a life.

Come to think of it, Jason has yet to really start teaching area spells in his training group. His focus so far has been on targeted spells. With the way he teaches them, we are able to adjust their size a fair bit without having other issues, but they remain targeted spells at their core, not area spells like the curses I wove during the fight against the titan.

Knowing Jason, he intentionally refrained from teaching area spells much. I feel certain he must have taught some, yet cannot think of a time when he did. As Jason, anyway. I have plenty of memories of him teaching us areas spells as Nolan, as well as how to counter them.

Wait a moment. Jason uses most of his teaching techniques from when he was Nolan. How long before he starts teaching us how to counter targeted spells, chain spells, area spells, and delayed spells the same way he did as Nolan?

Because I really do not believe any of us are close to ready to deal with the High Magus attacking us without holding back too much. While we know how to defend against most spells, upper-level spells do become trickier, and there are much easier ways to defend against and counter them than what we know.

Perhaps I should begin preparations for when Jason decides to initiate that phase of the training. Perhaps I could ask some gargoyles to help me? Or a dragon? What should I offer up to the dragon as payment for its help?

I will worry about that later. For now, I will continue assisting my brother and his troops. Perhaps I can teach them how the basis for how to counter spells while I am here?