Everyone drew a breath, when the headmaster said that the test would be much harder this year. Some of the youngsters, drew in a sharp breath. They had prepared in advance, as everyone knew that the fire bolt test was easy, what did he mean though? How would it be more difficult this year? Why bother with it just for them? Was it because of their cheating preparations?

Kael himself did not have much of a reaction, he was studying old Rache. The headmaster had spoken with old Rache in a low tone, but Kael, who's hearing was much better than those present, had heard all of it. Old Rach was, at the very least, a peak level 4 magi? That was too incredible. After all, people on the continent all thought that peak level 5 was the highest attainable level as magi.

Old Rache, becoming aware of Kael’s quizzical look, drew near him, and spoke in a hushed and apologizing tone, “I have to apologize to the young master, for not telling my rank as magi. I was instructed to keep it quiet until you needed me, but it seems no use hiding it now, who would expect that youngster to recognize me? To be honest though young master, I am far above peak level 4 magi. My exact strength is somewhere in between level 6 and level 7.” He paused at Kael’s flabbergasted look, before continuing, “In all honesty, there are several hidden families and characters who are as high as me, but they are all hiding. Under the threat of death coming from your father, they do not dare come even close to the five continents.”

As Kael took in this new information, he simultaneously kept an ear listening to the headmaster, “you will all have your own choice from five different spells, the first ones are easy, but the latter are harder. We will determine your learning capability, your performance, your strength, but also your accuracy. It will not matter if you are a master magi, if you cannot even throw a lightning bolt at a barn door. We shall split you into two groups, one for men, and one for ladies. There will also be a reward at the ending, for the highest skilled from both sexes.” Finishing this sentence, he looked expectantly at the crowd.

The headmaster continued, “ Now, split into two groups, males with me, females with elder Moongaze. First you shall pick your spell of choice, then go sit at one of the desks, you will have one hour to start comprehending your spell. Once you are finished, the spell parchment will disappear. If it does not disappear, before the time limit, you will lose your spot. Clear? Hurry up then.” He clapped his hands as he finished, the elders behind the headmaster, split into two groups, ten female elders, went to the girls, while nine male elders stayed behind.

One of the elders then went forward, saying, “line up, when you come up to me, I shall let you have your pick of spell.” Everyone stood in a que, Kael was somewhere in the middle of the que. Soon, it was his turn to pick a spell.

As it turned out, the five spells were as follows; fire bolt, water spear, sprouting flower, shadow spike, and meteorite decent. The spells were apparently very hard to use towards the end, appearing impossible. Most went for the fire bolt spell, a few went for the water spear, but none among the men went for sprouting flower. There were however three men who went for the shadow spear. Archibald was one of them of course, but there were two Kael had not noticed at all, one, a black haired skinny boy, appeared out of nowhere. Apparently he was from one of the more silent houses in the city. He had a rather inverted nature, but as he looked at the spell parchment before him, Kael noticed a trace of fanatical joy in his eye. Clearly he had wanted to do this his entire life.

The last person was one Kael did not like the look of at all, he was a dishevelled red haired youth, he had a look on him, that made him appear naturally evil. It did not help that he was cackling in an evil voice as he got his hands on the spell. Well, for most it would look that way, but as soon as Kael heard what he said, he had the urge to laugh… The youth was whispering, “kekeke… I, the mighty Custer Darius will take the stage, soon the world will tremble at my feet! I will become the greatestes magi ever seen! Kekeke…” Kael nearly face-palmed on the spot.

As Kael had his turn, he thought it over, should he take the hardest spell there? Or go for a simple one? He could not decide, but eventually he formed his will. He was his father’s son, if he did not try the hardest option, what would father say? Kael picked meteorite decent.

The elder handing out the parchments looked at Kael for a second, wondering what to say, but instead kept quiet. Kael had made his choice. It was worth mentioning that only one in a hundred magi was able to learn this spell, not to mention it was hard to use it with any power at all. It required ridiculous amounts of mana to even form.

They were then led by the elders to a small hall, filled with chairs and tables for study. The old man each allocated them one each. When they were all seated, the old man spoke, “you can all begin in 3… 2… 1… begin! You have one hour to finish.” Then he sat down, watching them with a casual look on his face.

There was the rustle of paper as everyone looked at their parchment. As Kael opened the parchment, he noticed the traces of magic everywhere on this page. Even the ink had been enchanted. As he focused, he saw a complex pattern of symbols and lines. Kael then looked at the writing on the side of the page, “meteorite decent, a spell whom, if completed correctly, can bring extreme havoc. It is classified as peak beginner spell, however few can ever learn this spell, due to the harsh requirements of the users mana and comprehension. To complete the spell, you will need to draw the entire symbol for the spell, in your mind. Then you will need to inject as much mana as you possibly can. If you manage this part correctly, you are almost ready to go. The thing you need to do next however, is to visualize the spell, and say the words; Stone from heavens, come, bring havoc to my enemy! You will also have to visualize your target location.”

This was the entirety of the spell description. Kael was a bit disappointed, with his eye, he could easily make out the different symbols making up the spell, down to the last mana symbol. He did not even need to copy this spell, he knew the meaning of each symbol because of his eyes. Instead of knowing the meaning of the entire symbol, he now knew what each individual symbol meant. He felt like this was too much cheating. Kael could basically make up the spell however he liked, as long as he combined it with any compatible symbols, he could make hundreds of variants of the spell.

While thinking and visualizing the spell in his head, Kael did not notice that his spell scroll had vanished. Not a trace left behind. The other students were looking at their own scrolls, barely five minutes having passed. However, the elder at the back, and the headmaster, looked at Kael with shining eyes. What was this monster? Did he really comprehend what too most initiated magi, a day at the very least to even think about creating? Though they both knew this was not the hard part, completing in five minutes was pretty much unheard-of.

Kael did not get up, instead he kept playing about with the ordering of the spell symbols, in his head. He found that every symbol would grant the spell a different effect, the spell consisted of fifty different symbols, thirty different types of lines and a conduit symbol at the centre, altering the spell’s composition.

He found that it was possible, to drop, not just one meteorite, but extreme amounts of them. It appeared he could have them crash down all at once, in a line, from many directions, and he could also decide their speed. There was also a possibility to alter the meteors shape and effect. The one he chose to go with was the firestorm effect rune. This would make the meteor a giant firebomb, it would be small, leaving next to no impact on the ground, but it also released insane amounts of fire from the crash site. He was pondering about making it into a meteorite storm spell, but considering that he did not know the power of his current meteorite, he decided against it.

The hour soon passed, with most of them making it, last of all, surprisingly, was the red haired youth. He did not look too happy with his own performance, which was slow as a turtle, soon however, his eyes started shining, eager to practice his first spell.

The elder then nodded at them, looking especially long at Kael, before leading them into a great field. Here they would practice hitting a target. They would be scored for accuracy, power, and casting speed. The old man spoke, “Now then, you will go by the difficulty of your spell, once you have cast your spell, you will get personal guidance, and then be led back to the central plaza. Beginning now, fire bolt casters first.”

It became quite interesting to watch for Kael, as the first person spoke in low tones, a small ball of fire gathered in his hand, before shooting out towards the target, missing by a few inches. The boy looked rather pleased, but not quite, he then went over to the elder, receiving a parchment from him, before bowing and proceeding to the central plaza.

What Kael found funny, almost sad, was the amount of efforts these guys put into their spells. With his white eye, he had found out that he could observe the spell cast by them. Seeing every spell at least three times, were enough for him to learn every symbol in the spell, and with his hearing, he could hear the trigger words used.

The spell casting continued for at least an hour, some nearly got themselves killed as they mixed up the forward casting symbol in their spells, the spell shooting at their body at the release command. Had it not been for the teachers quick assistance, they would have died. As soon as the spells changed into water spears, things became even more lively, one guy shot his spear so far that it flew far into the horizon. Another shot a spear, so slow, that even the teacher became waiting. It took the spear nearly one minute to reach the target, but it hit dead centre. That did not save the boy from having a reprimand from the teacher.

With another few slow moving minutes, it was the shadow spike’s turn. Archibald performed amiably, his shadow spike nailing straight through the target up ahead. The second kid, with a dark look, even shot two spikes at the same time, showing great promise in the shadow arts, getting an applause even from the teacher in charge. The most embarrassing however, was the red haired youngster. He spiked himself in the foot. Screaming in anger and frustration, he was taken to a healer. Kael had just managed to learn the spell, nearly being too slow on the last one, when it was his turn.

To the teachers surprise, the headmaster and old Rache appeared in thin air, as Kael approached. Old Rache spoke in a low voice to the headmaster, whom shortly after, paled. He then hurried over to the teacher in charge, telling him something in a hushed voice, before taking the examination sheet from him. He then bade him to go to the square and wait for them there.

The headmaster then looked at old Rache, then at Kael, before speaking, “senior Rache has told me to vacate the area, he expects you will be able to create surprise for us, that not even I might be able to handle. Just to be safe, I will create a safety barrier to contain your spell once it descends. I hope senior Rache can give me a hand if need be?” The headmaster looked a little embarrassed and doubtful after saying this. He had little doubt about Kael's talent in magic, but this… this was an honour most magi could never received, a barrier made by a level 4 magi.

Old Rache nodded once, before looking towards Kael, shaking with excitement. He thought; the young masters first spell! I cannot wait! It should be glorious! To think, that i, Rache, will be the first to see the glory of the young master!

Kael on the other hand scratched his head, he was not sure what the result would be once he released his spell, but he was sure he would give it his all, but he then spoke up, “sir, I have to tell you, I have altered the core symbol of my spell and several of the sub symbols and mana leylines. I am not sure how powerful it will be, but I hope you and old grandpa Rache can make as many shields as possible, I feel it should be quite powerful.” Old Rache looked shocked, before nodding and smiling at Kael, meanwhile the headmaster, was gaping.

To be able to alter a spell… Not many people could do that, but to alter a spells central composition and its effects?! It was harder than reaching the heavens, requiring at least ten years work, and here, this youngster, was saying he had done this in little over an hour?! The mighty above! Who was this little guy?! Nobody, had ever been able, ever, to alter a spell in such short a time, it was not possible at all!

After ranting about in his head, with a gaping mouth, he turned serious, adding at least ten more barriers to the shield. He was hoping Kael would fail, if not, what were all the rest of them good for at all? They would all be rubbish compared to Kael, nevertheless, he spoke, “alright lord Kael, whenever you are ready, if you have done what you said, I will have to directly promote you to senior magi… As you will have passed the highest requirement for magi. To alter a spell in a fundamental way, basically crafting a new spell. Not to mention that you will be the youngest magi in the history of our academy, you will also be the fastest rising magi in all of Kavaron, probably…” He was trying to keep up a fake smile after finishing this sentence, whilst ranting and ranting on in his heart.

Kael took a deep breath, then started constructing his spell in his mind. It took him less than four seconds to complete the spell, a long while in his opinion, but it was the first time he cast the spell. Next, he poured mana into his leyline network. He directed it into the large symbol in his mind, filling it with as much power as he could channel, he stopped when the symbol started shaking, apparently too filled to take any more. Kael on the other hand was puzzled, he did not feel drained at all. He decided to think about it later, he had to control the volatile symbol whilst he spoke the altered incantation.

“From the heavens above, fire and brimstone, be my weapon of war, descend, annihilate my enemies! Sun-stone descend!” His new incantation complete, a massive symbol materialized in the air in front of him. The symbol was shaking hard with power, around the symbol, the air shivered and cracked, the void filling the places with reality that disappeared as cracks came and went.

The headmaster whom until now had been observing Kael, looked at the symbol in terror. He shrieked, “What on earth is that!? How?! What amount of mana did you pour into that thing!? It is filled to the brink! One wrong move, and we will have a mana explosion on our hands! B-boy! Release your spell, or all of us, and even the entire region Paravon might be turned into nothing!” He was shaking like a leaf, all pretence of calm forgotten. He was dreadfully frightened.

As a contrast to the headmaster, old Rache was roaring with laughter, tears falling from his eyes. He was kneeling on the ground, arms raised into the air, face facing the sky. He was so happy, this was his dream, to see the young masters spell come into being! A taste of the dread that was his master, and such power! It was tearing the fabric of reality, before even being released! Such glory, once the master learned advanced magic, how strong would he become!? Even he would die for sure!

Kael, a bit panicked, calmed down, and let go of the mana strands between him and the spell, maintaining the mental connection between them. The symbol, faded away in a flash. Then nothing. Kael, looking around, became puzzled, old Rache, also felt this was odd. Even the headmaster looked about for the spell, but saw nothing.

Little did they know, that far, far above them, in the outer atmosphere, stood an armour clad figure, nearly a hundred feet tall. He was known as the war god, Kargath. A low-born god, but nonetheless a god. At this moment he was feeling a bit panicked, coming from afar in space, was a gigantic meteor, it was as if the moon was heading towards the planet. It shone like the sun, and the closer it got, the hotter it became. Soon, even the war god, felt apprehension. This meteor was no ordinary calamity, for sure. He shielded the planet behind him with his mana, this action caused quite a lot of commotion among the other gods, it was considered rude to act like this.

Soon after, various gods, appeared near the war-god. They were about to reprimand him, but then saw the massive meteor in the distance, then they felt the heat coming from afar. Immediately, they understood why the war god had acted as he had. As one, they gathered into a formation, which boosted the mana shield already created by the war-god. Soon the meteor, was only a few hundred kilometres away, it would only take it a few seconds to crash into them. It was huge, nearly the size of the moon. The meteor was golden, and bright flames rose on it. The heat it sent off was so powerful that it created holes in space as the meteor passed.

All the gathered gods, felt as if they were being cooked alive, even at this distance, the god of water, aria, was currently boiling. Steam constantly rising from her, her form was slowly turning into a dried husk. She was panicked, but she could not move, not before it crashed into them. Not even the fire-god was comfortable at these flames, they were hot enough to make him sweat. A feat that should have been impossible.

The heat got even worse as the meteor neared, then it crashed into the shield. The gods were tossed about like rag dolls, before settling down, looking worn and burned. Among those with the worst injuries, was the war-god, the water-god and the tree-god. The war-god was left with a badly burned stump, where his right hand had been. To him, this would be an annoyance, forming a new hand could take decades for him, the water-god had shrunk to the size of ten meters, looking dried up as a skeleton. The one who had it worst however, was the tree-god, he was burning. The flames would not be put out, and he was lying midair, rolling about, screaming. Eventually, after several tries from the others, the tree god lay still and crumbled to ash.

They felt apprehension. A god had died? One of them, had died? Just like that? The war-god spoke up, “this can be classified as an extinction level event. Have any of you got a clue about where the burning rock came from? Where can one find something this dangerous?” He got no reply, he was just about to tell them that they could leave, when he spotted something far off in the distance, what he saw, made him go pale…

Meanwhile, on the ground. Kael had waited for at least a few minutes before he got a bit annoyed, all that, and no spell? He decided to try again, before any of the other two could say a word, Kael had made two new symbols, just as powerful as the last, releasing that, he looked around. Nothing at all, in the end, he decided it might be his spell composition was wrong. So he tried again and again with less and less power, before eventually condensing the spell scale to down to the lowest level. He then fired off this spell as well, to the shock of the other two, how much mana did Kael have??

Just outside the outer atmosphere. The war-god was panicking. So was the other gods, in the distance, two more of the giant meteors had appeared. Surrounding them were massive amounts of meteors. They were all different from each other, some were cold and freezing, some had iron spikes all over, some were like long spears, some a massive brick form.

“We… We must attack and destroy them before they hit the shield, or our world will be destroyed. Brothers and sisters, I fear an enemy race is attacking us from afar, sending these giant meteors as a weapon against us. We must fight!” He declared in a shaky voice, he then summoned a giant sword in his hands. The others did the same, massive spells were prepared by all of them.

The war-god said, “at my command, fire your spells, but remember to defend against the shock wave and explosion.” He then readied his strongest spell, and waited. Soon the meteors were within range, he then yelled, “release! Destroy the weapons of our enemy!” Massive sword beams, spells in all sizes and shapes smashed into the meteors repeatedly.

After five minutes of hard spell casting, they were all exhausted, but the threat was over. Some had nearly died, but they managed to fend it all off. As they were swearing to defeat this enemy of theirs, a tiny light in the distance was speeding towards the planet. It was so fast that one could barely see it, it travelled a hundred kilometres in less than a second, and after two more seconds, it was next to the planet. It then smashed downwards before the gods had time to stop it. The combined mana shield the gods had cast, broke apart like a burst bubble of soap.

They looked in horror at this turn off events, but soon relaxed after noticing the that the size and speed of the meteor had slowed dramatically. Fearing there were more of them, they turned towards space again, preparing themselves for a siege that they feared would last at least a hundred years.

On the planet surface however, a bright light had appeared over Kaels head. It was insanely fast as it sped towards the ground, it looked like a burning rock, only the size of a fist, but it was exuding heat that even old Rache was a bit apprehensive about. Soon, before they could react, it crashed into the target. It was as if a volcano had erupted at that spot. Shield upon shield, made by old Rache and the headmaster, cracked under the force. A firestrom errupted and fire stood nearly four hundred feet into the air inside the barrier sircle.

Kael, old Rache and the headmaster, were all shocked and terrified. This was too much. If this had been fired at the city, the entire city would be gone in a jiffy. The headmaster was impressed, but this was too much for even him to deal with. How could someone have this much power? This would unsettle the balance of the world, if he was not lead in the right direction.

Old Rache was crying with joy as he praised Kael, “ young master! Young master! You did it! This was too amazing, that was the power of a late rank 3 magi! With a beginner spell! Too impressive young master!” He was so excited that he might die of that alone.

The headmaster however, said nothing, he just looked at Kael with doubt and a pondering look on his face. He was wondering how to deal with Kael. He had to be taught by himself, nobody could know that he was this strong. Kael had to be taught, but most importantly was to have him use a much lower amount of mana in his spells.

Kael was in a daze, he had thrown a spell, but he nearly killed everyone in the process. He decided not to ever use this spell again, unless he had no other choice. Finally, the headmaster spoke to Kael, “Kael, would you consider to be one of my disciples till you can control your power? I will let you go through beginner courses as everyone else, but most subjects will be taught you by me in our private lessons. At the end of this period, I will promote you to senior magi. Skipping four grades. I will then personally take you to the capital and have you admitted to the grand academy of magic. How does that sound? Oh! Never use that spell or any spell, ever, with that amount of power infused. You could have destroyed the city!” He sighed after saying this. His shoulders sank with relief, just thinking about what would happen if the shields were not there...

Kael was silent at first, but then nodded. He then looked at old Rache, whom was still as a kid seeing firework for the first time. He then spoke to the headmaster, “shall we go back and announce the results? I belive that i won this, yes?” He smirked at saying this.

The headmaster rolled his eyes, before nodding. This brat… he hoped he was less trouble than it was worth… Only the future would tell…

…