Hmm? Me? So, the leak did come from either Bianca or Isana. I see. With how easily Isana accepted her capture, it wasn’t hard to tell who it was. What was hard to tell was how she did it so smoothly while I carried her to Endathal, and what she could’ve possibly said to have them ask for none other than myself.

The commander of our fleet didn’t know who I was; he just knew there were a lot of mages and battlemages spread out evenly in the fifteen ships we brought. When I asked if I should go, he seemed a little upset that I was even here in the first place. After some quiet contemplation and explanation from other mages about my strength, he was more trusting to let me go alone. I’d imagine Isana specifically chose to tell Ulanos about me because she assumed that I would mess it up again and easily spark a war.

I placed a water elemental on each of Methelia’s ships. Should anything happen, they’d make a gesture to signal what’s going on. Some minutes later, I flew out. Ensuring to cast Magnet whilst I made my way over. My fingers were adorned in August’s enchanted rings, which all gave favour to intellect and a sprinkle of strength and agility. There were three necklaces fitting tightly around my neck, not to choke though. All my Avatar buffs were on. I left Bianca in the care of Donna’s and had my two clones accompany me in Voidwalk. Donna resided in me to pick on up any lies. My finger touched lightly on Timedial and Reflect’s triggers. Although, with Magnet on, I was a little overprepared I’d imagine.

The soldier led me down inside the ship. There was the usual search; you know, just in case I hid a bastard sword in my robe. I entered an expansive room, quite unlike when I met Isana. About ten soldiers surrounded their ‘captain’ and about another ten stayed behind me to man the doors. What an interesting layout of men. Not at all suspicious.

“So, guess that’s not the real commander.” Donna sighed.

Nope. Saw the real one earlier when I was snoopin’ around. Got a bunch of medals and stuff.

“Meh. Let’s see what they say anyway.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, great sorcerer,” the man got up and gave a slight bow.

“Likewise. Why am I here?” I got right to the point.

“You have an asset of ours. We want it back. See that this is done, and we will leave your seas peacefully.”

“Lies,” Donna alerted.

I sighed. “I wanted to see where you were going with this so I excused the fact that you lied about being the commander,” his sickening smirk disappeared, “but to think that you would also lie about leaving peacefully, is truly outrageous. ‘Commander’, Methelia would love to play swordfight with you, but you must understand, we’ve got better things to do than waste time with the likes of Ulanos. Tell your real commander, that if he wishes to wage war, then do it and let us get this over with. Like I said, we’ve got better things to do.”

The man froze over. “The commander is in the ship in the centre,” he revealed what was already known, “my men will give the signal for you to go to him.”

Just like that, I was making my second visit to the centre ship. Despite me being allowed onto the ship, the people on the top still drew their swords and gestured for me to stop when I touched down.

This time, their commander came out to meet with me. He looked around Keagan’s age, with the scars and burns to prove his mettle. “I see that incompetent fool has failed me. No surprise there.” He then turned to one of the soldiers on deck, “Off with him.” That soldier then turned to the ship the fake commander was on and passed a finger near his throat.

Did he just…

“Yup.”

“Sorcerer, your country is in possession of something we own.” He spoke with indisputable confidence. “If you bring it to me within twenty-four hours, I will spare the women and children.”

“Are you saying you’ll attack regardless?”

“Yes,” his answer was prompt and simple. He wasn’t a man to beat around the bush. I could respect that.

I see. I then sent a message back to the water elementals I had summoned on our ships. They all simultaneously crossed their watery arms over the chest – a battle was afoot.

“Unwise,” I muttered and one of my clones came out of the ethereal plane, but he was below deck, somewhat at the centre of the ship. Suddenly, the ship expanded and blew apart. Divergence spread forth in a spherical shape, and destroyed the ship from the inside out. People, metal, and wood were blown in all directions. All that debris simply passed through me due to Magnet. The sudden blast rendered their defences and swordplay nil.

Of course, this set an alarm off to the other Ulanos ships. Summon Leviathan and Summon Hydra were cast right after. The seas parted and separated the Ulanos fleet from the Methelian fleet. Our enemies were consumed and capsized. I flew higher and above the ships whilst Hydra and leviathan destroyed them from beneath the waters. I dismissed the leviathan back into the spirit world after all the ships were destroyed. Hydra went into humanoid form and swam towards the surface. I swooped by and collected her. Afterward I summoned a zephyr and had it circle the ships like a vulture – enabling me to cast Purist. Sure, that was overkill, but I didn’t wish to take any chances.

Twenty Wrath of God rained down from the skies above and into the water. Life Perception showed nothing. After casting so much, my mana was down about halfway. This is amazing, I thought, witnessing the very sea bend to my will. I knew the spirit lords were powerful, but there was never a moment that called for them to use their strength this much. If they were around the same level, then what kind of fiery doom could Phoenix bring? What kind of earth-shattering fissures could Kor’zha wreak upon us? Gale and Tarit could probably create a hurricane!

“Thanks Hydra. I’ll treat you sometime.”

She beamed. In fact, a reward for every one of them was long overdue, especially Kor’zha and Phoenix.

“Good job, but I doubt that’ll be the end of that. Anyway, let’s go back. There’s a lot to talk about.”

Yeah, I exhaled nervously, I know. My clones and I returned to our captain. He had an expression of relief, yet disbelief. “Good job, I guess,” he said, a little shaken up.

The mage side of the audience was filled with much more awe and respect, but the soldiers, the battlemages who were charged with keeping the peace and ensuring no mage got too out of hand didn’t have that same look admiration.

We returned to land late afternoon. Luckily, there was no need for me to attend any meetings, as Donna had directly witnessed the exact things I did. I returned to Anjali’s residence on my lonesome. Now that I learned Eden, I could either focus on finishing the codex, Dragon Tongue, and further my understanding of elemental magic, or I could undergo the final level of mana power. Either way, I’d have to make a journey to the spirit world for a few days.

I practised alchemy late into the night, until Anjali finally came home. “Hey, welcome home. You had dinner yet?”

“Thanks, and no,” she said, with a dreary face after all those meetings she had to sit through. “Why? Did you cook?”

“Hey! You insultin’ me, young lady?!” I barked. “You know I can’t cook…”

She chortled, “It’s kind of like a husband coming home to his wife.”

“I’m a wife? Hmm,” I rubbed my chin, “should I have worn lingerie?”

Laughter burst out from her whilst she tried kissing me, but she couldn’t stop laughing so it was just a bad kiss. Oh well, guess I’ll be a proper wife. I fixed her some dinner, coupled with a mildly alcoholic wine. No, I didn’t spike it; I only spiked Aug’s drinks. Later she made room for some chocolate cake, because why not? Next, I prepared our bath and finished her off with a massage. “Has anyone ever told you you’re the best wife ever?”

“Only the sexiest husband in the world,” I squeezed her butt.

“Ooh, do that again,” she said muffled, through the pillow while she wiggled it about. She turned around at me and gave quite the licentious smile.

Let’s leave the conclusion of that night to your imagination.

When morning came, I made quick work of flying Anjali to the castle. Between reading the Dragon Tongue codex and going through the next stage to powerup my mana, I chose the latter. I let both Donna and Anjali know that I’d been gone for some days, then did the same with Dawn after I returned to Aquan. Of course, I had to see my bro Tacari before I left. He was in great health, and crying a lot.

After a nice breakfast with Dawn, August, and Melissa, I grabbed August’s ass – not literally – and went to the spirit world. Each spirit lord took turns having him as a guest whilst he trained his quintessence usage and enchanting.

As for me, I ventured onto an island off the major continent in the spirit world. The way the late Emily described it made me suspect the “journey” to be a treacherous one. Luckily, I arrived there without issue.

The place was beautiful. The geology and rock formation were something else. All over the little island seemed to be covered in growing crystals. They pulsated, as if they were alive. I’d never seen anything like it. I didn’t even know this island existed before the witch told me. Its beauty was a thing to behold.

There were many shards laying around, so I decided I’d better start this journey. I took up one no bigger than a fingernail. My two clones joined me and we created dozens of the best mana potions we could. Finally, I built up the courage to swallow the crystal shard. That’s what she told me to do after all.

Suddenly, my mana dropped to nothing in no more than five seconds. It was, unnatural. My body began feeling cold and numb, unresponsive. My senses were evading me, slipping away. One of the clones poured a mana potion down my throat and immediately cast Renew. It took away some of the side effects of the crystal shard, namely, numbing.

I didn’t know whether or not that was the right thing to do because the ensuing pain was extraordinarily unbearable. My skin felt like it was searing in lava yet being frozen over and continuing on in a vicious cycle. My innards were coiling and tumbling over each other, contracting and expanding like they were muscles. My brain’s hold was slipping, hardly hanging onto consciousness due to my clones’ healing efforts. A headache so massive afflicted me endlessly. Compared to this pain, diving off the tallest building in the Order headfirst wouldn’t do shit to me. I gripped onto the grass for dear life.

Frankly, I knew this shard was trying to kill me. Extreme agony and discomfort, no mana to cast even the tiniest spell, but enough to ensure you don’t faint. Shit, this was a trial unlike anything I’ve felt. I was quite literally unable to think, unable to formulate any kind of thoughts. It felt like Arcane Missiles hit me, destroying my cells but my clones’ healing restored them, keeping me bordering on life and death in copious amounts of insufferable anguish.

The witch said this would go on for a few days. I knew not exactly how long, but I figured it should’ve gotten better once my body got used to the pain. But it was like my pain receptors were overwritten and reset to its default state of being, renewing this suffering’s effectiveness. Hydra’s ass, it didn’t even stay at the same level. It increased its afflictions after half the day passed. My blood felt like it was boiling in my veins, my bones rattled like a dancing skeleton.

Seeing that the pain only worsened, my clones made several health and strength potions while they still had the chance to. This crystal shard continued to wreck my body for the next five days, getting substantially worse around every twelve hours. This is really not fun to admit but around the second day I pissed and shat myself numerous times. When the third day rolled around, I honest to that goddess wished I was dead. “Let, me, die!” I tried my best to mutter at my clones but they wouldn’t have it

In the torment of that crystal shard, nothing I had in my life was worth it. Not Dawn, Donna or Anjali; not Flynn and Mary; not August nor the Garrans. Not the entire Order of Mages was worth that torture. My life itself wasn’t worth it. Acrimony on a cellular level was hell. At the fourth and fifth day, it was so bad that I began passing in and out of consciousness as if it was breathing. Renew would no longer be enough and my clones were forced to use Eden interchangeably, giving each other a chance to restore mana.

Eventually they both stacked Purist five times – even I didn’t know I could do that. Five Purist castings was insane. A bit more and it would’ve bordered on being a forbidden spell. With that they could still take turns with Eden and drinking mana potions like water. But at the fifth day, it got so bad that they had to both exhaust themselves using Eden, then eventually stripped away the hodgepodge of spells that made Eden what it was, and simply opted for the pure and indiscriminate healing spell, Vivify alone. They ran their mana down to the last few figures. Eventually, they couldn’t go anymore. The latter half of the fifth day took a turn for the worse and I simply didn’t wake up because the healing stopped coming in as often. At least, my belly was full of health potions and strength potions. The enchanted items I had on from the fight on the sea did little, but I’m sure they helped.

Eventually, I did wake up to absolutely exhausted clones. They cast Vivify still at five times usual proficiency because of Purist, but they were laid out on the ground like I was. I don’t think they even noticed I was awake. Their pitiful states were, well, exactly that, pitiful. But I was extremely proud of them. Hmm, was that me just being proud of myself? Anyway, I cast Eden on them both and fed to them the potions that still laid at their sides; only then did they realise I got through that ordeal.

“Dude…” one said, catching his breath. But he didn’t say anything else.

“Just dismiss us,” the other requested. I couldn’t do anymore for them besides heal and thank them anyway, so I dismissed them out of existence.

The first thing I did was transmute my clothes and get myself something to eat. Next, I cast Avatar of Wind and flew upwards, but I did not expect the speed. Right, right, yeah. Mana power thing. Hmm, if it was one at first, then the first level-up gave me two. If two was my base mana power, then this last piece of shit trial would sit me at four. Wow…

Considering my clones did a quintuple casting of Purist, could I now stack ten of them? That would make my spells ten times stronger. I stopped and really inspected myself. It didn’t take long to realise my entire body had changed. Everything was different. This wasn’t just a mana powerup, it was a general one. Senses, primary attributes like strength, agility, and intellect. It wasn’t just my spells affected. Even the way I breathed felt different. Of course! I had just remembered that mana was correlated to the physical body. Division made me so used to casting without using up stamina that I’d forgotten about it. So then…

In essence, the crystal shard destroyed and replaced every single cell in my body at a stupidly fast rate. I guess I was quite literally another person now. Anyway, I’m not going to figure out all the changes now, let’s just go see my people.

I flew around to the spirit lords until I found the blacksmith at the summit of Gale’s mountain. He was sleeping in one of her nests like a defenceless little baby bird. Gale’s carmine eyes took hold of me and landed near me, switching to her humanoid form. “Here to collect your friend?”

“Yeah. Hey, what are good gifts for spirit lords?”

“Love. And companionship. Summon us more often,” she somewhat complained.

I hugged her, “Aww, did you miss me?”

“Aww, did you miss me?” August interjected. That little bastard was awake all this time.

An eyebrow went up at him, “Yeah, yeah I did, man.”

“Eww, dude, that’s nasty.”

“Yeah, well this is nastier,” I said and we hugged it out like men. “Oh dude, where you at on quint?”

“Ninety-six, bro. The nineties are slow as hell! Eh,” he shrugged, “I knew that though.”

I put up a short Earth Wall and placed my elbow on it, indicating a little arm-wresting.

He snickered, then guffawed like a hyena. After he noticed I was serious he gave me a smile and accepted my challenge. After a short countdown, the match was underway, neither of us gaining any traction against the other. But we both put in more and more strength, eventually I peaked. “How much, damn quint you using?”

“Hmm? Dude, none.” Then he slammed my arm down like it was nothing.

“Goddammit! Well then, I actually got a little happy for a while there until I heard ‘none’. How’s your enchanting looking?”

“Three-quarter way through it. Give me some rings and I’ll re-do a set for ya with better stuff. What about you though?” he asked, stretching a bit. “The hell were you doing?”

“Hah, well. Just dying for five days, literally.”

“Guess that explains your lack of hair and eyebrows…”

“What…” I felt for my hair and by Hydra’s ass the thing was gone in the wind! I was completely bald. Seeing my reflection through some water showed me I had no eyebrows either. My legs? Hairless. Arms? Hairless. Not a follicle. Even my damn eyelashes took a hike. I thought the crystal shard powerup was hell, but no. This, this is true hell.