-Chapter Ten-

Interdimensional

To advance from Successor Class to Throne Class and evolve into a Magic King, Andrew must substantially increase his Mana pool somehow.

He grimaced. The only method was to perhaps try the neutral element?

It was definitely a large amount of energy. But that energy was contaminated.

What if this is what the Six had wanted all along?

Andrew swallowed, thinking in nervousness when he heard footsteps tap down on the ground next to him.

A familiar couple stepped into Andrew’s view. Mercy immediately ran off to Aira and began to analyse the spell.

Taylor approached Andrew, his eyes narrowed.

“You need Mana?” he asked.

Andrew nodded.

“Breakthrough,” he answered shortly.

“I can give you everything I have but-”

“It’ll be enough,” Andrew assured him. “Thank you.”

Taylor nodded.

“I was saving this for the neutral element, but since this happened, you’ll have to clean up, okay?” he joked.

“I will.”

“Connect to the Invidia Atheneum - Provenio,” Taylor chanted as his body began to glow, and then the energy, like fog and mist, shifted to Andrew and entered him.

Andrew instantly felt the Mana hit him.

His skin lit up ethereally and his eyes began to glow with power as his lips parted.

“Open all Dimensional Gates!” Andrew called out, and the eight gates in his body gave way.

Complex and dazzling magical circles all over his body began to turn like cogs, winding up until they opened.

His sealed Mana came gushing into his body, rapidly enlarging his Mana pool.

Aira also seemed to get some relief from the increase in Mana, allowing her to resist the Magical array with more ease, but now comes the important part.

Andrew needs to convert his entire Mana pool and Mana source from Hyperactive Mana to the next tier of Mana - Paladin Mana.

Mana has many forms. In it’s most basic, elemental state, Magicians are condensing spells as best as they can.

But after refining one’s Mana enough, it advances a class.

Hyperactive Mana is inherently stronger than normal Mana, and outclasses it in all ways. This gap only becomes more substantial, jumping to Paladin and then finally Trinity.

Strand by strand, Andrew has to refine his entire Mana pool from Hyperactive Mana into Paladin Mana.

He stood in stillness and concentration while dozens of ritual circles manifested in the air around him like discs, shaking violently.

Andrew only hoped he could make it in time.

Maybe just converting half of the Mana he had was enough? Because Aira could will take the rest.

Andrew let out a roar as he hit half way, and the ground around him suddenly erupted from pressure.

Overhead, the sky began to wane and tear, morphing black, purple and blue.

His book appeared before him, flipping open to its middle page.

“Master, what would you like your second thesis to be?”

Andrew took a single moment to think, before he was about to answer when a voice cut across all of the raging noise. A familiar voice.

“Stop, Andrew!”

Taylor exclaimed in surprise when a cloaked figure emerged from the bush and trees behind their group.

“Ah, you’re that guy!” Taylor pointed.

“Wait, Andrew!” The hood figure called as he ran up to them.

Andrew glanced over his shoulder, blinking at the familiar voice.

The hooded figure stopped a metre away, before he pulled his hood down, giving Andrew a firm, dead stare.

The newcomer had locks of dark blonde hair and blonde eyes, pointy and judgemental eyes, and an upturned nose.

“Jason, yah bastard!” Andrew yelled. “What the hell do you mean, ‘stop’?”

“Pick a Transcendence thesis,” Jason said back to him staunchly.

“What the fuck!? If you were here the whole time, why didn’t you just help us get out of this fucking formation?” Andrew exclaimed.

“If you do not pick a Transcendence thesis, I will kill Aira right now!” Jason suddenly outburst.

“What-?”

“Pick a fucking Transdence thesis, Andrew,” Jason growled back, putting a magic dagger at Aira’s neck.

“I’m going to fucking get you back for this,” Andrew told him begrudingly, but Jason was unfazed.

“Hmph, we’ll see,” he smirked.

Taylor wondered what Andrew was going to do. Should he intervene? He looked to Mercy for help but she was completely still, holding Taylor’s hand tightly.

“Transcendence Magic.”

The book before Andrew began to flip.

“Calibrating best form of Transcendence in alignment with Master.

Complete.

Master has awakened into the… Avaritia Atheneum, the archive of Greed.

Master has acquired the thesis of… Regain.”

Andrew’s body lit up with yellow light, enveloping them all in it’s warm embrace.

Jason took a step forward, his eyes lit up with something akin to… adoration, or obsession, Taylor could tell.

“Finally…” Jason spoke.

The binding on Aira immediately dispelled, and she almost collapsed onto the ground but Andrew quickly caught her, hugging her tightly.

“I’m sorry.”

“No… you did amazingly, my dear…” Aira breathed, kneeling down onto the ground.

Mercy quickly joined her, placing a comforting hand on her back and giving her a gentle rub.

Taylor buried his microscopic tinge of jealousy, and turned his attention to the so-called Jason instead.

“Jason,” Andrew growled. “I want your explanation. You said you would kill Aira?” he took a step forward. “We’re both Throne Class now. You wanna fucking go?”

Jason’s expression did not change at the provocation.

“I had no intention to ever kill her. I just had to absolutely make sure you would pick a Transdence thesis.”

“And why is that?” Andrew asked.

A smirk formed on Jason’s lips, and he raised a hand to his side.

“So I can do this. Connect to the Gula Atheneum - Paradoxum Beacon!”

The skies split open, revealing a large hole with sunlight-yellow shooting from it.

A single pillar came crashing down onto Andrew, smashing onto the ground and blinding everyone else.

Jason let slip a short euphoric laugh but caught himself quickly.

“Haha-” he covered his hand with his mouth, regaining his composure.

Taylor tried to look for Andrew but his Black Eyes couldn’t penetrate the sunlight.

The pillar however, disappeared after a quick second, leaving Andrew standing, completely still.

The last thing Andrew remembered was the light falling down onto him.

As it hit him, only a split second passed, but he experienced thousands of things at once.

The first was that the light wasn’t Mana. It was something else.

The second was that instead of it being Mana, whatever it was, upon touching him, instantly was absorbed into him.

Memories gushed into his mind.

Numerous lives.

The truth of his existence.

The death of his most beloved person. Countless times…

Andrew gasped, before blinking, his eyes darting around him.

He quickly locked onto Aira, who was watching in apprehension.

“Aira…” he smiled, kneeling down.

The most recent memory in his mind was her corpse. It was a relief to see her alive again after this.

Jason took a step forward, clearing his throat.

“So… how is it?” he aksed.

“It worked,” Andrew smiled over his shoulder at his friend.

Taylor looked at the exchange between them with a dumbfounded expression.

“Are you okay, Andrew?” Aira asked.

“Mmhmm. I’m better than okay.”

Andrew rose to his feet.

“There’s still that neutral element left over. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

Andrew waved his hand, and a bubble appeared which then rapidly expanded around them.

“Andrew…?” Aira rose to her feet.

“Be right back. Jason, are you gonna join in?” Andrew asked.

“…Ugh. No?” He groaned with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh come on, why are you making me do the heavy work right after all of that? What the fuck, man? At least the two of us can do it faster?”

Jason rolled his eyes.

“Hmph.”

He took off into the sky with a pair of yellow wings, and Andrew immediately after him.

Taylor watched from below as the two flew high enough to get a good vantage of the neutral element.

In sync, they casted a dual spell that stretched the entire span of their enemy.

Hundreds or perhaps thousands of magic circles lit up, coloured golden and light blue over the neutral element.

“Wow…” Taylor remarked, as the magic erupted in light.

There was a large flash, and when their vision returned, the neutral element was completely eradicated in one fell swoop.

Andrew came dropping down together with Jason to the ground, joining the rest in the bubble that gently faded away.

“So, should we kill the Paladin who did this?” Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow at Jason.

The other Throne class stopped for a moment, contemplating his answer.

“Nah.”

Andrew nodded.

“Alright…”

Aira ran into a hug into his arms.

“Thank goodness you’re alright,” she smiled.

Andrew smiled back, brushing her hair gently.

“I’m sorry to have worried you.”

Mercy watched on besides Taylor, before she pouted.

“Married couples, hehe.”

Taylor took a step forward, toward Andrew.

“You overcame this one, right?” he asked.

Andrew looked to him, before he slowly nodded.

“…You need to reach Throne class, Taylor,” he said.

Taylor fell silent at Andrew’s words.

Would he be able to?

“Just do what you can, Taylor. Go home for now and get some rest.”

Taylor nodded, turning away and returning to Mercy’s side.

“What were you guys talking about?” Mercy quietly asked him with curiosity.

“Nothing. Just chatting. Let’s go home.”

“Okay,” Mercy turned and waved to Aira. “Bye!”

Aira smiled softly and waved back.

Taylor conjured a portal before them, and with Mercy’s hand in his, disappeared through the light.

Andrew and Jason watched Taylor and Mercy leave, before they turned to each other.

“The beacon spell’s not too bad,” Andrew said to his partner.

“Next is Diana,” Jason responded.

“Right… we should get onto that. Do we bring Taylor, or not?” Andrew asked.

“Mmm. Maybe. He might return at any point, but considering previous times, he’s usually pretty late,” Jason wondered aloud.

“Let’s just go get Diana ourselves then,” Andrew settled.

“It’s the safer option-” they both suddenly heard a sound land near them and looked over to where Aira was, to see Piper leading some of the other Trinity members to them.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, she ran up to Jason.

A smile lifted as his lips and he raised his arms out to her, but when she got close enough, she suddenly lashed out and slapped him across the cheek.

“Your stinking bastard! Where the fuck did you go, these past few months, huh? And then you think you can just come crawling back, expect everything to be fine?” She spouted at him.

“I’m sorry baby. I wanted to come back but I got caught up in some unavoidable situations…”

Piper growled and spun around, crossing her arms.

“It’s the same excuse every time. Hmph.”

“Now, now, I’m sorry, baby,” Jason wryly chuckled, giving her a pat on the head. “I shouldn’t have left you alone. Please forgive me.”

“Hmph.” Her anger still didn’t seem to be completely appeased.

Andrew could only chuckle as he joined Aira’s side, taking her hand.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?” He asked her and she shook her head.

“Not hurt, with thanks to you, my husband.”

He smiled warmly.

“Let’s get on home.”

Taylor didn’t really understand why, and he still had questions about that guy talking about all the fakes, but it turns out he is a time traveller or something, or at least that’s what the headmaster said. And he’s a Throne Class Magician. But ever since he appeared and cast that weird spell on Andrew, the two have been avoiding him.

It began to bother him well into the second day.

The evening came rolling around, and Mercy informed him the Council was gathering for a brief in the dining hall.

He followed her down to see the majority of members already gathered around the table, including Andrew and Jason.

As usual, Aira was leading the discussion, but a newcomer Taylor didn’t recognise was standing with her at the head.

Somewhat shorter, with long almost snow-white hair with piercing golden eyes, carrying a pure crystal ball and wearing a long white cape, she was similar in age to the rest of them but stood authoritatively besides Aira.

“Puria will take over now.”

The supposed Puria coolly began to speak.

“I received a report a while back, admittedly, about an Antithese member who was able to defy the World Bounds, similar to Andrew’s power. I had to take the report to the headmaster, discuss with the Three Cities, and discuss with the Wisemen’s Guild about this problem, because it could be potentially dangerous for many humans, and additionally how we handle this manner could be dangerous. Worse yet, the report about the incident with the neutral element was also discussed in urgency” she spoke.

“We are trying to launch investigations into why the support from the Federation Military turned out to be Antithese, but the attempt isn’t going very well. Right now, it seems very likely Antithese has infiltrated deeply into the Councils. So, the conclusion wound up being, we have been granted approval to infiltrate the Woken World and hunt down the fugitive Antithese hiding there. By doing so, we will hinder Antithese’ external force while internal affairs are sorted, or in the case they worsen, we will be safe, hiding away in the Woken World. As an independent task force, as the Headmaster calls us, as capable as we are in firmly opposing Antithese, this puts a large target on our back. The headmaster believes we should take our further steps with the worst case scenario on our minds.”

The Trinity Members sat in silence, almost like they were overwhelmed in awe. Save for Taylor, Jason, and Andrew.

It surprised Taylor but, that was his home turf so he wasn’t too fazed. The stuff about Antithese concerned him though.

The other two on the others and, upon hearing what Puria finally had to say, immediately noped the fuck out, literally, standing up and leaving the room.

Taylor heard Jason muttering,

“Not gonna do something that’s such a waste of time.”

Grunting to himself, Taylor turned his attention back to Puria and the rest of the members.

“We have all the currency funds we need to-” no one paid attention to them leave.

Taylor whispered to Mercy, “I’ll be back in a second.” She nodded and he also furtively snuck out from the dining hall and up the stairs.

As he quietly took each step, the voices of the other two young men came into ear shot, and soon Taylor was able to make out their words.

“I’ve been digging around the past half a year, looking for any traces on Diana,” he heard Jason speak.

“Oh, by the way, how the hell are you doing that? Just, time travelling all over the place?” Andrew asked.

“…It was after I jumped into the Provenance Realm,” Jason then responded.

“Oh, shit? Really? I just came from there. Diana and Taylor and I came through together,” Andrew answered.

Taylor’s eyebrows raised in perplexion. What the hell was he talking about? Perhaps it was a different Taylor? Different people, same name?

Taylor continued to listen onwards intently.

“Well… I made it. Honestly, the power that the Six gave us has ultimately become their biggest mistake. We are much more sturdy than I expected, when I went in there. It wasn’t half bad, and I was able to gain some insight. After I somehow got back, I was able to go to whatever time I wanted. And that was good, because after I came back, I needed to look into something relating to what I saw. And I was able to. I’ve found something out. A lead. But we need to get all four of us back together before we proceed. You got it, Andrew? If we can just get Taylor to awaken a Transcendence thesis, we can activate a beacon just like we did with you. I’m not sure about what state Diana is in right now.”

Taylor took a step back in fright.

What did he just hear?

They want him to awaken a Transcendence thesis, so they can turn him into the same as Andrew?

How is he meant to react?

Taylor retraced a few steps, wandering away, trying not to alert them while he tried to process what he just learnt.

As he continued down the corridor, he felt everything around him become dark, until he was completely submerged.

But strangely, he didn’t feel any danger.

“What’s going on?” he called out, turning around in the endless pitch black.

“The information that you just learnt… you won’t be needing it,” a familiar voice suddenly rung in his hears. It sounded… like his?

“The only thing you need to do right now is get stronger. Yes, get stronger.”

Taylor’s eyes suddenly opened and he found himself sitting next to Mercy, listening to Puria talk about the mission.

What was he just thinking about again?

He was thinking about it really intently, he knew that, but it suddenly just left his mind.

Mercy must’ve seen his perplexed face and took his hand softly, smiling to him.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got this.”

“Ah, yeah, of course,” Taylor chuckled.

“Tomorrow evening, we will leave Lorrensville via Dream Path and search for a suitable place to settle a homebase. We’re going into the heart of the metropolis, Tokyo, to hunt Antithese down. Get ready some light clothes, and transfer head of operations there. Dismissed.”

The Magicians disassembled, breaking out into chatter and going up the stairs.

“I can’t believe this is happening…”

“I hope I don’t accidentally break the World Binds…”

Taylor remained with Mercy until the room was mostly empty.

They were about to go when Puria and Aira approached them.

“Taylor, right? I’m Puria, head of execution, for what it’s worth,” she held her hand out.

“Ah, it’s nice to meet you, Puria,” Taylor took it and they exchanged a friendly shake.

“For this mission, most of us are setting foot into Pureblood for the first time. I know of your origins. I’d like you to guide us. We will be like freshly born infants in a new world. For many of the societally related affairs, I’m afraid I’d have to leave it to you,” she shyly smiled.

Taylor realised she wasn’t all as staunch as she came off to be from leading the Brief. He returned a small smile as he answered.

“Of course. It’s nothing hard, don’t worry. As long as we don’t do anything dumb. I’ll make sure to do well,” he assured her.

“Good. Enjoy your night, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow at the allotted time,” she smiled, making her way to the corridor, waved and disappeared around the corner.

“I’m going to find Andrew, goodnight, you two,” Aira told them with a yawn and disappeared around the corner as well.

“Let’s go,” Taylor said with a nod, and followed Mercy to their room.

He felt half excited and half skeptical about this new turn of events.

It was true that people who could cast Magic on humans hiding in society was a big threat. But could these just be strings that are being pulled by a higher entity? What were they being drawn into?

Was it finally Taylor’s turn?