Gilliam couldn’t say that he liked the cheering, it felt wrong.

Yes, he won a duel and if what he had explained only minutes before, this was a legal and legit fight but... he did the magical equivalent of punting a child down some stairs... He felt dirty. He didn’t regret it, not at all. It was for a good cause, to use that comparison, but he still didn’t exactly like it.

The students around him seem to share the same view, there were cheers, trade of things Gilliam assumed were bets and, save the healing mages and Garend himself, everyone was very positive about this. However bad he felt there was also this part in the back of his mind that enjoyed having gotten acceptable at this.

To avoid the crowd of people as much as possible, this felt like a good point to leave. As soon as Petal came over they left towards his room. Interestingly enough having Petal around seemed to aid in this, given that people were still afraid of her they gave them the way by moving out of it. Suppose racism at least has a tiny, tiny, extremely tiny positive effect at times.

He disliked even considering this a positive thing.

Avoiding the kids asking him things he just rushed past them, they seemed to want to know something or ask him some stuff he didn't care about at the moment, not being the best of people in a crowd Gilliam just wanted to get back to his calm room.

Luckily this was not a problematic thing, it seemed that the crowd were more interested in staying around the trainwreck that was Garend at the moment, letting him and his companions slip off towards the Third Wing.

Passing through the Air Field was also not a problem. The wing hallways had several entrances along the sides for simple entry or exit, picking the closest one to his room they entered, climbing the square-spiral stairs up to the third floor before making for his room. The whole ordeal was rather rushed, speed walking and taking two steps of stairs for each step. He had done nothing wrong but he still didn’t want to handle that crowd, it still felt wrong, something he just couldn’t get his mind over. Sure, it was a kind of self defence mixed in with just how society worked here, but it was his first proper fight and it was against a child. The training with Ghaos didn’t properly count here as it was a planned training session with an expert, this was just...

He sat down and relaxed, this was very different from fighting the demons a few days ago, but... He kind of liked it...

He didn’t sit and ponder for long, he had some time to process as he made it across the field and up here, as well as some moments after sitting down but.. No, he really does feel like he liked it. The power, the chance to put the snotling in his place, the metaphorical mega slap... in his chest... with magic.

Was that why he was reacting like this? It actually might be.

Petal was a bit worried, Savia even more so. She had flown from Petal’s hands and crash landed on his face. He had picked her off his face and let her sit in his hands for a moment, looking into nothing in particular as he continued thinking.

Was he always like this? He might have been. Being lucky enough to never had to properly fight in his whole life before coming to this world he didn’t really know how he would react to all kinds of things. But like most people, at least most men, growing up on heroes and other cool characters in the media, he always liked the idea of being the powerful hero beating the bad guy. In his growing life this took many forms of epicness or simplicity but... The wish for power and the drive to use this for a good cause was very imprinted on him from a very young age.

Petting Savia in his hand like a small sparrow he kept wondering about himself a bit more as he came to the conclusion that yes, he didn’t like to have potentially fatally wounded a child but he absolutely liked the power. According to Angela he was destined to become a hero in this world, to do great things with great power. He had a lot of different thoughts on being forced into this concept but... Was he really forced into it?

He really wanted to be a hero, and like many he really wanted power for egotistical and heroic reasons. No. This was not a bad thing, this was just the first proper taste of power, the taste of his progression in the short time he had been training.

The fight against Ghaos was controlled training, the huge explosion in the mountain was testing, the fight against the demons was very sudden but terrifying. This duel was the first time he had felt like he was in control, like he could actually put himself where he would like to be.

A satisfied smile had formed on his lips during his contemplation, this put Petal at ease and Savia had long since calmed down once she felt the satisfaction over their bond. Being petted like this didn’t seem to be a negative thing either.

Personally there was nothing against taking out smaller problems on the way but he was going to follow his childhood dream. He had grown since when he was the young and naive kid imagining that just punching the bad guys won the day, he absolutely disliked the idea of killing but... His adult mind understood the concept of permanent victory.

He was thinking about this a lot, and many scenarios played out in his mind. All from the simplest of childlike heroism to the darker and more macabre ‘doing the necessary’ moments. His mind tended to overthink things when chance allowed, and the duel was clearly a first for him which sent his mind down this path. In the end his mind calmed down and he realised that he was accepting the possible bad with the larger list of good that comes with this.

Yes, he was going to take this for what it was worth.

“My Lord?” Petals voice spoke out for the first time in... however long he had been in this mental state. He reacted almost like someone came out from the shadow suddenly talking at a louder than normal volume.

My lord? She had never called him that before... had she?

“Y.. yes.. W.. what?” The complete reboot of his mind mid sentence had him at a loss for words.

“Are you... Unwell?” she didn’t seem that worried, more confused.

“Y- Yes. Yes I am.” Though he replied honestly at the moment this was not really true when he started this contemplation.

This way of thinking was rather heavily frowned on in modern society so it was a rather strange blow to his normal sense of what normal is.

“And... My Lord?” he put a questioning tone on the latter part hinting that he just wanted confirmation.

“That’s good. You seemed like you went through a lot of faces there.” She paused a few seconds before answering the question. “Yes. You are My Lord, after all. Or should I refer to you in a different way?” She seemed to be a bit relieved.

Though it was a good thing that she cared, Gilliam found her caring a bit odd. She was all nice and caring towards him even though she was an enemy only yesterday. She was now his servant for better or worse and... well.. He went through all these thoughts about the brand before but, he still felt odd about that she seemed to care for him even though this was not part of any orders. Ending up not wanting to ask her about it at the moment it sort of boiled down to her life having improved so it might be some way to try to keep it and not be thrown away.. Or something... He felt a bit mentally weird at the moment so he didn’t want to mix in more.

“No... that works fine...” He was fine being called Lord, it felt better than Master. Master had gotten a weird taste in Gilliam’s mind due to how it was often used in... certain media.

When Savia used it, it didn’t feel as weird for some reason, her innocence might be part of that.

Looking out the window he tried to find out how long he had been in this mindset, Savia didn’t know the concept of time in any practical way and Petal’s way of measuring time was practically nonexistent. He would have to teach her this at some point as well.

The sun was still up, well past its midpoint, they used half an hour on morning hygiene, a few hours on the early tour, some time on food, not even half an hour on the language learning thing and the whole duel thing took like 5 minutes so... He was apparently in his weird mindzone for a rather long time... Though there were still several hours left before a normal evening would be a thing.

He really wanted to just take it calm, not do much in the sense of stress and just have fun with things but... He had to get better at magic, get used to thinking about things on the fly and attack with precision. He really did want to become powerful and learn magic for his own sake but... in this case it was also survival tied to it. There was an incoming invasion, if lucky they could sabotage it before the gate opened but...

He needed to figure out some training method, one easy way to make up spells on the fly could be a concept association training thing... Yes... that could work.

“Petal, I need your help.” He turned to face her properly as he used one of his legs to push out an available chair to her.

She nodded and sat down without hesitation.

“I need to get better at thinking about magic, so I would like you to quickly just example a scene for me, this can be something like someone attacking with a sword, another gatekeeper stomping towards me, an incoming spell or.. Well, anything really. I will think and manifest a magic circle as fast as I can and then I can use a moment to analyse what I did to improve.... Does that make sense?”

He did realise that his explanation was not exactly super detailed or amazing, it made sense in his mind but it also had to somewhat make sense for Petal’s mind.

She listened to his explanation and seemed to catch on the idea faster than Gilliam expected. Only pondering for a few seconds she started with her first example “A small winged creature is shouting and charging you with a spear.”

Gilliam did his best to not think too much and just metaphorically blurt out the first idea he had. Flinging his palm out he manifested the first spell idea that came to mind, but only the magic circle, he didn’t fuel it with any energy or took it past the circle stage.

On a second glance it seems he instinctively just made the barrier spell, the better one, that Ghaos taught him.

That’s good, a defensive spell is a good start. Trying to not think too much he just imagined attacking the same creature and manifested the first example in his mind.

It seems to be a slightly upgraded version of the spell that he used on Garend, an Aether sphere but this one was set to explode on contact. Not a bad concept.

Gilliam took some notes and gave Petal the OK for the next example. At some point Gilliam sent for food, he decided that it was easier than going there himself after the whole duel thing. Students often did this during self study time so that didn’t even seem like a weird thing to do.

This evening dedicated to magic preparation also gave him the possibility to plan a few other spells he had been wanting to set up, things like flight, small energy blades, slow fall and other good utility spells, he took notes of them and tested out the smaller things in his room.

This was how the rest of their afternoon and evening went.

Gilliam woke up to a familiar uncomfortable feeling, like someone having set fire to a specific spot in his room he felt a weird heat from that direction. This felt like what he had learned the gathering of mana was feeling like. Having jolted awake he found out that Savia had apparently been sleeping in his hair, as she was now super tangled and needed rescue. Petal was sleeping in the bed with him but seemed to have taken his explanation about modesty and covering up to heart so she was at least in her underwear.

There was no time to consider any of this, he threw on his pants, halfway his shirt and shoes before he made his way outside. Savia managed to get herself loose during all of this and Petal got dressed, though having only a simple dress to add this was simple.

As soon as he was kind of ready he made his way out, meeting the chaos of every single student in their rooms having had the same idea, the hallway was filled with panicky and curioust students. Briefly imagining that someone might take advantage of the chaos to attack Petal, he turned towards her as they were running.

“Petal, if you feel that you are in danger, as in you are in danger of bodily or direct mental harm, you are allowed to protect yourself. But you should do your best to not kill any non-demons and bring healing to them. Demons you can go nuts on."

There was without a doubt better ways to handle that command, but this was what he managed on the spot as he was dodging students down the hallway.

At the very instant he got through the door for the stairs down he found out that this was not going to work, the torrent of people moving through here was like any rush traffic; practically still standing.

“Petal-” Gilliam turned to Petal suddenly, taking Savia out of his hair and handing her to Petal. “-catch up if you can, or meet me there.” Not waiting for a response he climbed through the closest window and jumped out from the third story they were currently in. Having practised a slow fall spell just last night this worked out wonderfully. It was simple, used Aircurrents to alter how he fell but confined it to just himself.

He fell over as he landed, but he was unharmed, the spell needed some tinkering but for now this was a great success!

Getting to his feet he made towards the feeling he expected was another portal opening.

Having gotten out of the confines of the hallways there were much fewer people to elbow with to get there, he found himself outside of the southern gate like last time, just that the situation was very different this time. Students were still told to return but due to the volume of them this was more or less impossible. The teachers and faculty were preparing themselves, as was the guardforce. Ghaos was there, his staff’s runes glowing an angry red. He could see other familiar faces like Jial and Ledels as well, even Asol was present, although he was understandably much more scared than the mages.

Like last time there was a red sphere that was already at the multicoloured hissing stage. Not wanting this to open, as well as taking advantage of the information that Petal gave them during the interrogation, if he could damage it enough it would destabilise and perhaps even hurt the demons conjuring this.

Running over to Asol, Gilliam placed a hand on his shoulder. “There isn’t time to explain, can you hand me your spear when I reach for it?”

This was what he had done before, though he intended to just use pure mana and energy the first time, during his testing and on-the-fly creation of the last spell it was easier having an object to throw, and a spear was good for this.

“H.. Hello.. I mean.. Yes.. ok.. Yes!” Asol was taken very, very off guard but he somewhat remembered what happened last time and seemed to be fine with it.

Not missing a beat Gilliam inhaled deeply before exhaling just as deeply. He didn’t remember the exact details of the spell from last time, but he remembered what it needed to do. There were three circles, one to protect the spear, one to propel it at idiotic speeds and the last one to aid with aiming.

The first and second one were the important ones, and the energy for the second one could not be underestimated.

He started to focus, creating a teal circle in front of him, populating it with geometric shapes, a collection of runes and sub-circles in place of certain runes. The second circle formed in front of it acting like a funnel of the spells behind it to aim it properly at the target, the third circle dealing with protection of the spear formed last. At this point nothing was complete, since Gilliam didn’t remember it from last time he had to recreate it from scratch, this changed runes, changed sub-circles, remade entire geometric shapes into newer ones. People around him started giving him space as the size and complexity of the circles grew, seeing that this was aimed at the forming angry demon orb people moved to the sides. Gilliam only caught a glance of the people around him reacting and though he didn’t know if they moved because they knew what was happening, or just the uncertainty at the amount of runes used, it didn’t matter. He somewhat knew what he was doing and people moved out of the way, win/win situation.

The circle of energy started to expand from the circle, so it was not long now until the portal opened. Gilliam fed the first and third circle with their needed level of energy, which was almost nothing compared to what the second circle needed; this was a hungry boy. Gilliam fed it more and more. More and more. Enough energy went into this one circle to make certain graduates envious. The sphere’s circle was growing in size, would not be long now until it contracted, it had to be now.

Extending his hand in a ‘gimme’ motion to Asol the spear was in Gilliam’s hand instantly, thrusting it into the first circle it collapsed around the spear and covered it in a deep emerald green field before the third circle contracted and spawned several smaller circles in row towards the target; guiding it’s aim.

Activating the second circle had it collapse on the spear and the blink of an eye later it broke the sound barrier more than once, a whipping thundering sound marked the end of the spell as a long beam of light had extended from Gilliam, through the orb shield, through the orb and the other side of the orb shield. The magic jet-trail of light extended far into the distance before the whole beam slowly faded into nothing.

The energy ring around the red orb faded into nothing over several seconds as the orb itself shattered, falling to the ground like coarse sand. The disgusting energy that was gathering faded alongside the energy circle and after the red orb’s fragments had settled on the ground everything went back to normal.

Gilliam widened his stance, grabbing Asol’s shoulder for stability. Though he was not out of mana at this point he still felt wobbly, he was not used to spending this amount of mana in one spell yet, so the sudden discharge was oddly draining.

People looked around, mostly at a mixture of the red orb’s disintegrated fragments and Gilliam, before a massive cheer broke out. A lot of different things were hailed in it, all from certain gods to other names he had no ideas about, but his name was very, very prominent on most of them.

He couldn’t help but feel somewhat proud of his achievement, this time he had closed the gate before it even opened, no casualties, no one harmed. This felt good.

Petal with Savia came into view at the same time, Petal looked amused but somewhat indifferent, Savia looked ecstatic on her master’s behalf.

Gilliam was basically swarmed, physically and vocally with various kinds of praise. This felt a bit weird but it really felt good. This time he earned it and he knew it.

He was getting back and shoulder pats, nods of approval and more questions for dates than he had ever considered in his life before. He was honestly happy until a sharp pain from his side suddenly announced itself like if he was stabbed.

The crowd went silent, Gilliam only got a second to look around. A young student was letting go of what looked like a heavily runed dagger that was now left in Gilliam’s side, she was being swarmed and punched into the ground as Gilliam grabbed the dagger in his side. He could see the red glow in her eyes fade into a confused expression. But as soon as he made contact with the blade’s handle there was a strong energy surge and bright flash akin to when teleporting with Aeris.

As the energy surge he felt had faded, but before he could see anything he felt something impacting the back of his head, everything went dark.