(Niko, 17)

With a gesture, I raise twelve golems in the distance, each one ten feet in height and made of stone, with black and gold markings covering them. At a glance, these are just like any other golem I would make at full power, except these ones are not meant for combat.

"Attack them by generating spheres of stone," I place a hand on Kyron's head. "Use the ones I taught you how to cast. It will take twelve successful strikes of the proper spell to disable a golem. If the strike is improper, red runes will appear on the golem. If it is proper, green runes will. They will fade after four seconds and a number will appear on the golem. A strike only counts for one hour, then will reduce back down. If you disable a golem, it will remain disabled for one hour, then you will need to restart from zero strikes on it. In order for you to leave this spot, all twelve must be disabled at the same time. Begin."

I pull my hand off of Kyron's head, the curse to keep him in place set. He agreed to this training and I will release him if it takes him too long to perform. However, some people possess the ability to adjust and learn more quickly when an emergency arises.

Though Kyron relieved himself before we came out here and did not drink anything for the last three hours, he will eventually need to pee again. When he needs to, he will hold it at first, but one can only hold it for so long before it turns into an emergency.

I feel confident Kyron will succeed in disabling all twelve golems before an embarrassing situation arises.

As Kyron begins manifesting the spheres of stone I taught him how to create before we left the castle, I move backwards, manifesting a throne of stone to sit upon. Levitating the throne, I watch Kyron from ten yards behind.

The main purpose behind this training session is to teach him how to aim spells that propel themselves. He excels with the proper magics to be my apprentice, but fails terribly when it comes to casting spells that he does not personally need to throw. This should assist him with that.

Not wishing to waste my own time by merely watching Kyron, I pull off my left glove and examine the pale flesh of my hand. The younger Marrans burn quite easily in the summer sun of Varil and the Unwild Lands, yet I do not. I suppose the difference between us is that I sustain the internal aural sheath at all times while they do not. It does provide a fair amount of protection from the sun, which explains why Jason's students have barely tanned at all.

However, the younger Marrans in Varilsy do not know this technique, nor even that it exists. So they burn in the sun if they spend too much time in it. If they spend only a small amount of time in it at a time, they will build up a resistance as their skin tans.

But they want to enjoy the warmth and the ability to play without risking freezing, resulting in that not happening.

Clenching and unclenching my fist a few times, I prepare myself, then begin to exert myself over the mana in the air, infusing it with the power of fire and earth before drawing it above my hand. A sphere of black and glowing red and orange essence forms above my palm, radiating a light warmth.

An orb of the essence of lava.

Creating it took a lot of effort, control, and mana. Really, only Jason should be doing mixed elements, I am nowhere near powerful enough to do so easily or properly. Lava is one of the rare ones I possess the capability of creating without issue, and only because it uses a basic application of fire and earth magics.

I send the orb of essence of lava into my spatial storage, then think about what to create next. A simple, single-element orb would be better, due to how draining mixing elements is, but I feel it does not push my limits enough. Not if I wish to reach grey in magical power as swiftly as possibly.

Something Jason mentioned off-hand recently comes to mind. This is not a training thing, but an experiment, now. I noticed when I visited his home in the Unwild Lands this morning that Cody possessed an unusually large amount of marbles.

Due to the process required to make glass, marbles are for the wealthy, as they are more difficult to create than panes or jars. I also doubt Jason would just buy them from a store, especially in bulk. Not when he previously mentioned that glass can be created through an application of earth and fire magic.

I think back to the beaches on the islands of the moon folk, to their sandy shores. Jason said the sand, when heated high enough, would turn into glass due to most of the sand being the basis for glass.

Focusing on the air above my palm, I use earth magics to create a small sphere of sand, using my knowledge that not all of it would turn to glass to filter it so that only the type of sand that would remains. Then, I apply fire magic to the sand to heat it up. It takes me a minute, but I manage to transform it into glass.

My creation is deformed, but as I know now that glass is rooted in the element of earth, adjusting its shape proves easy. At least, until it starts to cool, so I heat it back up once more to allow me to continue shaping it.

When I finish, I let the glass object drop into my palm, then I examine it. A thunderbird two inches tall, its wingspan a little more than twice that. I tuck it into a spatial storage, then look at Kyron, who continues to make his attempts at striking the golems. He has yet to disable one of them, so I return to my own training.

This time, I merely create a single orb of the raw essence of each element and send them into my spatial storage. With Kyron training near me, I cannot use a more powerful training technique, or I would risk negatively affecting him, so I decide to put my training on hold and just watch my apprentice.

He manages to generate the spheres of stone without issue, but his aim leaves something to be desired. One in every ten manage to strike, though I feel impressed by how much his mana pool has grown since we met. It appears he took my advice to heart when it comes to increasing it and training himself better.

My comm plate alerts me to an incoming call after watching Kyron for two hours, so I pull it out and check to see who is calling. Aiden. I answer it.

"Hello, Aiden," I greet him. "How are you?"

"Quite angry," he sounds calm, so he must be furious. "I uncovered more information regarding Mari's death, Niko."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "She was killed by someone hired by one of our nobles who had made a deal with Sar."

"Yes," Aiden says. "However, it appears Sar was part of a three-way alliance. Sar, Grar, and Nemv."

"It does not surprise me that another one of the northern kingdoms participated in this, Aiden," I say. "However, Nemv? Are you certain of this?"

Nemv is not a northern kingdom, but one of the smaller kingdoms west of Vel and north of Nelem. Jacob dd not speak with them during his negotiations, as they did not border the mountains, but I do believe they wish to be a part of the war Vel has declared against Varil.

"Positive, Niko," Aiden says. "I just finished interrogating a couple of Grarran and Nemval soldiers and nobles regarding this. It appears that it's all part of a bigger plan to weaken and break up Varil."

I already knew that Alex was hired due to being Varilan, but for another kingdom of magic to be involved? Foolish. How did Aiden acquire some of their soldiers and nobles? Perhaps I should not ask that, I might regret it after hearing the answer. Or feel annoyed he did not work with me to do so.

"Our forces will handle Grar when it comes down to it," Aiden tells me. "But there is little we can do against Nemval. They are surrounded by other kingdoms of magic, and they're a kingdom of magic themselves. Our forces aren't anywhere near powerful enough to handle them."

"I will deal with them," I state. "Did your prisoners say whether or not the Nemval king was aware of it?"

"According to him, the king was behind it," Aiden tells me. "Under the request of Vel, in exchange for some resources."

Vel again. In other words, it is quite possible Vel itself was behind the murder of their princess, in order to declare war against Varil. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong kingdom to attack.

"Do they know where their king currently is?" I ask.

"He's visiting Vel at the moment," Aiden tells me. "According to the noble, the king is currently discussing the services his kingdom is providing during Vel's stupid little war. Why haven't they given up yet, even though they know Varil can utterly destroy them?"

"They supposedly did," I say. "However, it was mostly just a temporary peace, no one believed it for a moment. They still claim that Varil must pay for the death of the princess."

They claim that even after accepting someone else was responsible for her death. Now that I know more information, though, I know the real reason behind it.

"I will handle Nemv," I tell Aiden. "Thank you for the update."

"You're welcome," he says. "Goodbye, and good luck."

We end the call and I put away my comm plate, then drift my throne closer to Kyron.

"Kyron," I pull my glove back on. "I must be leaving, so I will release you from the curse. You may continue to train if you wish, you know how to return."

"Okay!" He says. "Thank you, sir!"

I release him from the curse, then open a gate up to the border of Nelem, where my training group went to where we were attacked in an effort to take me out. Rather than stepping off my throne, I simply drift through the gate while still sitting, wrapping myself in an illusion to hide myself from sight.

After closing the gate, I lift myself higher up into the air, then soar as quickly as possible to Nemv, a simple wind spell protecting me as I fly. Once I arrive at the Nemval capital, I look down at it, floating from nearly five miles away. I watch the home of some of the people responsible for the murder of Mari, taking advantage of a desperate street rat in an effort to start a war.

The home of members of an alliance intending on destroying the kingdom my love was reborn into. Using my developed ability to read magic, I look at the stone walls constructed to protect the city from monsters and to funnel in traffic, at the castle in the center.

They glow with enchantments, and when I enhance my sight, I can even pick out a few of them. It matters none that I cannot read them, as I already know most of what they would be. All manner of defenses against attacks, from the ground and the air, from teleportation and bent space, and all schools of magic and applications of physical force.

Capitals are always the best-defended, and the greatest effort is put into placing the enchantments in their walls and castles.

Extending out my illusion, I begin weaving together a spell. The one which took down the ice titan holds no comparison to this one. Up to One Hundred-Step? No, I will take this spell to another level. A much, much higher level.

Shaping my mana into the spell, I wait, watching the people below. For the crime their leaders committed against my sister, they will all pay. Zachary will likely try to scold me when we speak next, but I am from the northern kingdoms. If the king is guilty in war, then all under him are subject to death and punishment. None of his subjects have the right to request amnesty.

None.

First, I create the boundary for the spell. The capital looks to be around two miles at its widest, so I set the boundary to stretch five miles. I will catch farms and forest and more of the river that crosses through the capital up in the spell, but that does not matter. The more, the better.

Once the boundary is established, I shape into the spell the various stages of it, drawing on my memory for one of the visualizations necessary, the rest comes from my imagination. I will create a new spell just to punish Nemv for their crime against my sister.

Finally, after twenty minutes, I finish shaping my spell. For a few moments, I simply watch the people down below. They will suffer for their king's actions, if only for a moment. But the rest of the kingdom? They will feel the effects of my spell until its end, and the kingdoms which follow in the region will know the price paid for generations.

I activate the spell.

At first, nothing happens, but only to those who cannot read magic. I watch as the boundary establishes itself, a glowing ring forming around the capital, exactly two-point-five miles from the epicenter of the spell, the very heart of the castle itself.

The process takes all of two seconds to finish. Then the next stage of the spell occurs. In an instant, every plant and non-living thing within the boundary save the ground itself, above and below ground, turns to dust, leaving only the people and beasts behind. Even the river disappears, leaving behind an empty riverbed.

In the next instant, all of the people and beasts turn to grey stone, a stone imbued with enchantments and magic to ensure they will survive the weather and attacks, holes in the ground filling in with fresh soil to match the surroundings, statues lifted out to avoid being buried. At the same time, a curse imbues into the land, rendering it infertile and hard.

In the next instant, the dust moves, drawn to the epicenter as if by a powerful wind, flowing over and around the statues, which all begin to move as well. Those too close to the center walk away, those away begin to walk forward. As the dust swirls up, the statues form perfect rings around it, watching as the dust begins to shape itself from the ground up.

It takes nearly a minute for the statue to form, the figure of a girl, a few years too young to be classified as a woman. She stands hundreds of feet in height, her body flawless, her dress rippled slightly, as if she were frozen while standing in the wind, her hair perfect. Enchantments fill her, invisible to the normal eye, enhancing her body and manipulating her gravity to ensure she will never fall or break.

For a few moments, the statues that were once people all stare up at the scaled-up statue of my sister, then they all kneel and turn inert.

For a period of time I do not bother to count, I simply watch the circle of land barren save for the kneeling statues of people and beasts, of the enormous statue of my sister standing at the center of it all.

This is peaceful and calm. Forests and farms and small hills rest outside of the zone, but within it is nothing but my statues, at the enter, then miles of dead soil. Unless someone powerful acts here, this land will remain barren for thousands of years.

A calming, peaceful sight. To others, it might seem eerie, disturbing, or cruel. But to me, the King of Decay, the Magus of Curse, the reincarnation of the Divine Gargoyle, this is serene. This is perfect.

So I watch it, enjoying the cooler winds up here until my comm plate alerts me to a call.

"Hello, Jason," I answer it.

"I finished updating Gargoyle Alpha," he informs me. "He went to Garoyal, but you're gone and doesn't want to pry into Kyron's head again to find out where you went, since the kid can't understand Marran and you apparently spoke in it. He says it's disturbing in there."

What occurs in Kyron's head that Gargoyle Alpha would find it disturbing?

"I had some business to take care of," I state. "Are you still in your home in the Unwild Lands?"

"Yes," he answers. "I'm watching Cody-you put that in the wrong spot. Yeah, there. I'll tell him to return here, Niko."

"I will be there in a few minutes, then," I tell him.

"See you then," Jason says, then ends the call.

I put my comm plate away, then look at the scene for a few more minutes. I hope the king of Nemv enjoys my present to him.

Before I leave, I release the illusion concealing myself and my throne, then I open up a gate and pass through it, setting my seat upon the ground in Jason's front yard as I close my gate. Gargoyle Alpha gives me an unimpressed look, and I detect Jason and Cody washing clothes by hand out back.

"Hello, Gargoyle Alpha," I stand. "How do you feel, now that Jason upgraded you?"

"I feel excellent," he says. "You were supposed to wait in Gargoyal for me."

"Something came up which I needed to deal with promptly," I inform him as I begin walking around to the back. "Jason finished repairing you as I finished dealing with it."

We reach the back of the house, where Jason and Cody are, indeed, washing clothes. Judging by the size, they belong to Cody. The boy himself seems to be wearing an identical outfit as Jason, just in a smaller size.

The outfit consists of black pants, boots, and belt, along with a dark green leather vest with black lacing holding the flaps closed. The hairpins are green with black tips, and Cody appears to be wearing a pair of them as well.

He looks up to his big brother quite a lot, and now appears to have decided to wear the same outfits as him. Jason, being the loving big brother that he is along with being Jason, decided to oblige. I have heard that some younger brothers like to dress like their older brothers, and now I see it for myself.

Cody even wears a necklace, though it does not match Jason's. Instead of a tooth, he wears a grey dragon charm on a mithril chain. My guess is that he wanted a necklace as well, and Jason asked him for what design he wished for. Knowing that Jason is the grey dragon, Cody asked for that.

It makes me wish I had a more normal childhood, seeing how much alike Cody and Jason are, even without blood shared between them. How different would I be, had I bonded with my brothers the way Cody and Jason bonded?

"Hello, Jason, hello, Cody."

"Hey, Niko," Jason says, then gives me a critical look while sniffing the air. "Niko, I'm smelling magic."

"You always smell magic."

"Niko," Jason narrows his gaze at me. "You 'taking care of business' involved you casting a powerful spell. How much trouble am I going to get into for it?"

"If they attempt to say you hold some responsibility for my actions again," I state. "Remind them that I am a grown man and that if they take issue with me delivering punishment to those behind the murder of my sister, then they may stuff it."

Jason snorts.

"Who did you deliver punishment to?"

"Nemv."

"Their king is a pretentious jerk," Jason mutters, passing the tunic he was scrubbing to Cody, who begins rinsing it out.

"You have met him?"

"Yes," Jason answers, picking up a pair of pants and dunking them into the water.

I step over to the basket of wet, but washed, clothes and pull a tunic out. I might as well hang these up to dry, since they seem to not care about using magic or enchanted items to wash things.

"Why do you call him a pretentious jerk?" I ask.

"I gave him the standard offer we've been giving other kingdoms," Jason explains. "And he basically told me that his kingdom's enchantments are superior to anything we could whip up and he won't trust anything made by a mere boy. He thinks anyone more than ten years younger than him is a kid. Also decided to serve me this cheap ale rather than the wine a king would normally serve an important guest because 'you're just a little boy'. Sorry, dude, but I'm bigger than you."

"Uh, Jason?"

"By eight inches and about fifteen pounds," Jason tells me. "Seriously, I'm bigger than him. You are, too, actually. He's a shorty. He's not baby-faced, though, so he just looks like a short man in his forties. He gave me some other insults, so I put a curse on him. Any time he sees any of the sacred beasts, he's going to go into full-on opera singing."

"What is 'opera'?" I ask.

"Nothing to worry about," he tells me. "Oh, and we Divine Beasts count, too. The fact that you didn't mention my curse suggests you didn't deliver the punishment directly to him."

"I did," I tell him. "Though he will only receive it once he returns from Vel. I created a new spell and used it on his capital."

"I see," Jason says. "Cody, you didn't rinse that one out properly."

"Sorry!" Cody squeaks, then dunks the pants back into the water.

"They're your pants," Jason chuckles. "Don't apologize to me."

"Sorry!"

I chuckle a little as well, and we finish washing the clothes, Jason assisting me in hanging everything up.

"The magic you used," Jason tells me. "Smells extremely potent, Niko. I'm going to go take a look, since you said you created a new spell. Would you mind watching Cody while I'm gone?"

"I do not mind," I answer, then look at Cody. "Will you be alright with me for a few minutes, while Jason grades my work?"

"If it's you," Cody says, and I smile, happy that he feels comfortable enough around me to be alone with me now.

"Okay," I tell him, then look at Jason. "We will see you when you return."

Jason opens a gate and steps through it, then the gate disappears. I look at Cody, then suggest we take care of the laundry water. He agrees, so we dump out the buckets and summon water to rinse them out, then flip them over to dry.

"Did Jason make you that necklace?" I ask Cody.

"Papa Jared did!" He beams at me. "I asked him to, because I wanted a necklace, too! You and Jason both have them! Jason's got lots of bracelets, too, so I want some."

"Do you wish to make some?" I ask him. "I can show you how if you want."

"Yeah!" He nods. "Jason said we could make some after we washed my clothes!"

"Okay," I tell him, then look at the laundry. "Did Jason not need to wash his clothes?"

"He uses magic to wash his clothes."

Of course he does.

"You talk funny, Niko," Cody tells me.

"I speak funny?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "You and Lina and Jacob and some of the others. It sounds funny."

"I see," I say. "We grew up in a different setting, requiring us to talk in a different way. I do my best to talk more like a commoner when among them, though I find it quite difficult. Allow me to try with you, though."

Eli grows frustrated at my failure to manage to speak like a more common man, and he seems to have given up. I believe Eden might have done the same with Jacob. Our way of speaking does not simply disappear.

"Bracelets first," Cody tells me.

"Yes-yeah," I try to speak more like he is used to. "Let's make the bracelets first."

Cody and I sit at one of the tables here, and I open up my spatial storage and pull out some supplies. Lengths of leather cords and spools of thread, along with a small box of crystal beads. I locate a couple of stands meant for holding the thread or cords for making bracelets and necklace through weaving and pull those out, then close my spatial storage.

"What do you wish-want it to look like?" I ask. "Do you wish for a bracelet, or an anklet?"

"Anklet?"

"The bracelets Jason wears on his ankles."

"Oh!" He exclaims, then thinks for a few moments. "Both!"

"Very well, then," I say. "We shall make both."

Cody giggles again, and I make a note of what I said which caused the giggle as I work with him on making the bracelet and anklet. First, we weave together black cords of leather, Cody doing his best to follow my instructions and demonstration. At the end, I fix a blue crystal bead between two knots, then slip it onto Cody's right wrist. He declines putting a bead on his and slips it on along with mine.

With the bracelets done, we make anklets out of leather to match the bracelets, and he slips off his left boot and puts on the anklets. Next, we work on making the bracelets and anklets out of thread. Jason returns as we work on these, but remains out of Cody's sight, watching us.

Cody weaves his bracelet and anklet using blue and green thread, while I weave it out of grey and violet thread. I slip small, grey crystal beads and violet crystal beads onto them as I weave them as well, for the added look.

As soon as we finish, Cody puts them on, then slips his boot back and looks his right wrist, which now has four bracelets on it.

"It's just like Jason, now!" He boasts after a minute of inspection, showing me his wrist. "When he returns, let's make bracelets for my other wrist!"

I think Jason might have influenced him a little too much. Most men do not wear bracelets, much less that many on a single wrist, much less on both wrists. But then again, this is Jason here, and Cody does seem to admire him.

"Did Jason make that outfit for you?" I ask him.

"Yeah," Cody nods. "I told him I wanted to match him, so yesterday, he made these for me. Mama Elena started laughing when she saw us earlier. Then she left. It was confusing."

"She probably laughed upon seeing how much you resemble your big brother," I ruffle his hair, and he does not flinch at all this time. It appears Jason worked on him enough that he can handle that, at least when he feels comfortable with the person. "Jason treats you well?"

"Yeah!" Cody nods. "He teaches me magic and takes me hunting and teaches me how to cook, and last night, he even taught me how to make a potion! I want to be like Jason when I'm big! He's so awesome! We came across a corrupted snake while hunting a couple of days ago, and…"

Cody continues telling me about the hunt, which does not sound all that impressive, but I suppose to a seven-year-old boy, anything someone he greatly worships would appear impressive.

Several minutes and stories later, Cody finally finishes his story.

"I'm hungry," he tells me. "I'll eat your food if you don't poison me."

"I promise I will not poison you," I chuckle. "But why not make Jason cook it for you? He returned while you were telling me the story."

Cody twists around, and Jason steps out from the side of the house, revealing himself to his younger brother. Zevenas is visible right now, trotting beside Jason. The drake seems to be growing at a decent rate. At the very least, he is a full foot longer than he was when Jason found him. While not a massive improvement, it does make me curious how a green dragon's growth varies from a black dragon's or a red dragon's.

"I'll make dinner after I talk with Niko," Jason tells Cody as he opens up his spatial storage and pulls out a platter of cookies and brownies. "Let's snack on these, first."

Jason sets the platter down as he takes a seat, and the three of us each pick up a cookie.

"So, Niko," Jason tells me as we begin our snack. "That spell was rather impressive. Like, really impressive. You wove it rather flawlessly. My estimate is that, barring something extreme, like a grey-level beast or mage or a god attacking it, the results will last for thousands of years. Pretty impressive, to be honest. And the way the spell was designed to evict that which was still living from the holes in the ground? Also impressive. You even made the fish from the rivers and such in the range join the other statues, and their way of bowing is… interesting. Then there's the statue itself. It's not completely solid under that dress, but rather, you created a dress over your sister's body. The strengthening and gravity enchantments are impressive, too."

I feel confident he has a strong criticism for my spell.

"However?" I ask.

"However," Jason stuffs the rest of his cookie into his mouth and chews it, then swallows, before resuming. "You need to learn not to use a curse to put enchantments into things, Niko. If you want, we can work on that spell, scaled down, over the rest of this summer. That way, you can cast it without having to rely on a curse to put your enchantments in. Once you're more used to that, you'll be able to do it much more easily. Oh, but not during the summer training camp, having them actually see you using the spell would probably terrify some of the more normal members of the group."

"Yes, sir," I respond.

"Excellent!" Jason stands. "You two enjoy the snack, I'm going to go make dinner for us."