The confirmation of the Grand Mages identity spread like wildfire among the students. By the time Willem had reached his first class, there was already a group waiting to catch a glimpse of him. Though they did nothing to hinder his path to the classroom, the crowd watched him with jealousy, veneration and fear.

Willem sent out his magical sense and saw that most of their hearts were filled with anxiety and fear. He looked them right in the eyes until they could no longer keep their heads held high. He made his way into the classroom without saying anything to the crowd. The classroom was quiet as he was the first to arrive.

Shortly thereafter, the teacher arrived and saw that it was only the two of them, he offered his greetings to Willem. "My greetings to the Grand Mage."

They engaged in small talk for a little while longer, and Willem told him that he openly admitted to being the Grand Mage so it may be noisy for a while. The talk continued until the class began to pour in with students. A few days had passed and the teenage boys had fully recovered from their punishment. The females had also for the most part finished their punishment as well. So for the first time in a few days, they had a full class arrive to attend the lecture.

The students of the class already knew exactly who Willem was, but had kept their mouths shut for fear of repercussions. The females of the group had almost finished their punishment, and after one more day would be able to complete it. The males of the group could only keep their head down and hope never to incur the wrath of the Grand Mage again. To their surprise, he neither paid them any heed nor fully ignored them. It was as if the events that transpired between them never existed in the first place.

The class went on as normal, and no one besides the teacher dared leave the room before Willem stood up and left himself after the lecture had completed. His second and third classes were no different from the first, with people gathered just to watch him and see what he was going to do. By the fourth class, the teachers could no longer tolerate the growing crowds and forcibly dispersed them. Willem sighed in relief when he saw that the door to his last class was devoid of humans to get in his way. He could feel everyone's eyes watching him, but that did not bother him as much as them actually physically being a nuisance.

The final class came and went quickly, allowing Willem the chance to finally go and speak with Archus. Once the teacher left, Willem slipped into the shadow of the desk he was sitting at and entered into Archus' Private Sanctum.

Archus was busy sifting through papyrus that had slowly accumulated on his desk over the days he was gone. Once Willem had entered the Sanctum, Archus knew immediately and waited for him to come. Willem greeted Archus' attendants and then briskly walked to the main study room. Seeing that the door was open, he walked in and greeted Archus.

"Greetings to Master." Willem bowed after sending his magical power over Archus to make sure he was in good health.

"Ho... I see you got my letter." Archus brows furrowed thinking about the ancient carvings on the walls of the ruins.

"I came as soon as my classes ended, please pray tell what did you find there that even you did not fully comprehend." Willem summoned two pillow cushions from his spatial spell onto the floor while they conversed.

Archus stood from his seat and moved to the available cushion. He took out ten pieces of papyrus and handed them to Willem. Each papyrus had complex but convoluted runic symbols. Hidden deep within the convoluted prominent symbols was the complex runic symbols of both the life binding technique and demon summoning technique that was in the red book. Though the designs showing on the papyrus seem to be an amalgamation rather than two separate arrays. They were also of a much lesser quality than those of the ones in the red book.

Willem sent out his magical sense to scan the area and ensure no one was spying on them, and upon confirming that there was no one he closed the door and sealed the room with magic. Archus knew that for Willem to go to such lengths, this array must be important.

Willem told Archus about the array and its purpose. He also told his Master about the demon he had sealed in his head once they tried to invade his mind. Archus brows tightened when he heard that a demon had invaded Willem's soul. To his knowledge, there was no way one could fight against a demon once it entered the mind. To have lasted this long, Willem was already in a league of his own. The only other human known to fight this long was a warlord whom had magical attendants fusing their will with his to fight off the demon. In the end, they had all died and the warlord's body was taken over. The demon then went on a rampage, killing all the humans in his private army before the demon returned to its realm.

Willem began to deconstruct the fused array in his mind. Once he had a solid understanding of the formation of the array, he saw a hidden element that was not a part of either array originally. Thus, this could be understood as the array that allowed for both to be fused together. The fusing array seemed very simple, like two dragons dancing around each other. In the middle of the dragon markings was a small broken cross. This was the first time Willem had ever seen the broken cross used in an array, and tried to figure out its meaning. However without more information or a point of reference it held no significance outside this array.

Archus watched on as Willem seemed to be focusing on his thoughts and doing what he does best, solving puzzles. He calmly waited while sipping on some tea presented to him by an attendant. Once Willem reopened his eyes, Archus patiently waited for his response on the matter.

"The two arrays are being mixed by a simple fusing array that I have never seen before." Willem took out parchment and steadily drew the fusing array while Archus watched on. The array slowly came into focus, but Archus had never seen the symbols used in the array before. Even the broken cross eluded him as to its meaning.

At a loss as to what to do, Archus explained further about his journey through the ruins. Due to how close the ruins were to the Bastion of Hope, The One True King asked him specifically to go and survey the area with an emphasis on exploration and not confronting. Once he got there, however, there was no humans or magical beings there at all. Instead only bones and rotting meat permeated the area as if there had been a great untold war. Following the trail of blood and gore led him to the basement of one of the noteworthy buildings within the small town. The basement had long since been destroyed, but after sending his magical sense below the ground, he could tell that there were multiple collapsed tunnels leading further down.

He recalls shifting the broken earth and following the tunnels deep within the basement. The tunnels had been hastily dug, there was a severe lack of support structures, which most likely was the reason why they had collapsed. Three hundred feet below the surface, was where he found a room with an altar and multiple pedestals. In the middle of the room was a slab of granite roughly the size of an adult male. The bones that could be found on the granite, however, indicated that it was a female. There was no traces of flesh or blood on the body and all that was left were bones with severe cracks and fractures. The altar had a small basin filled with black blood that continued to gurgle as if it was dancing.

After that, he hastily writ the designs of the arrays on the walls and left the ruins. Though he said hastily, the entire process of inscribing had taken roughly two or three days time combined with the journey back.

Willem vividly pictured the story as it unfolded, and was surprised by the old man's valor. Not many would willing follow a trail or blood and guts just because someone said so. Even Willem would hesitate until he knew what he was up against.

Willem nodded to Archus and said he would consult with the demon trapped inside him. Before Archus could protest, Willem had already begun his meditation and made his way to the catacombs within his mind.

He slowly opened the casket and unbound the head of the demon. Rows of teeth could be seen as the demoness hissed and snarled at the boy.

"Tell me what I want to know, or I will inflict upon you a fate worse than death. Eternal servitude." Willem traced the fusing array in the sand and watched as the demoness' eyes light up. "Where does this come from."

She quieted down quickly and instead of snarling, she smiled a toothy grin. "I am so hungry, just a few drops of blood and I probably will not stop talking..."

"Again, tell me what I want to know and I will consider giving you a reward." Willem could not help but negotiate considering he did not know what the fusing array was with certainty.

The demoness sighed and told him what she knew about the fusing array. The design was simple because it was 'written by a simple god' and its purpose was to fuse different arrays together to combine the effects. The broken cross was the symbol of a certain clan of magical beings.

"The story goes that this clan had a Master who gained strength comparable to the gods, and rewrote the laws governing the world. This caused the other gods to be incredibly angry and a large war broken out among them. For a hundred years, the skies clashed and seethed with anger, thunderbolts would descend from the sky without a rain cloud in sight. The earth would tremor and the seas would boil without any reason. This war was supposedly the cause of the gods falling from the heavens and crashing to this world. The gods that fell to your world were the ones who had lost the battles and were unceremoniously killed. Whether it is true or not is unknown, but the broken cross is the symbol of the Heavenly Dragons clan. The clan is made up of thousands of powerful magical beings who have lived for thousands of years. Stories say that they have a way to pass down their power to their predecessor, adding more power onto their own. This was supposedly how one of the their Masters obtained the strength of a god. The clan is hard to find, and even harder to speak to. Often those who seek the assistance of that clan never return. The stories about that clan permeated the demonic realm for years before it finally died down. Of course this had nothing to do with the demonic realm, so we cared very little to look into it." Finally she finished speaking and tilted her head back with her mouth open, waiting for blood.

Willem felt that she was holding back some information, but the amount she had provided to this point was enough to start off with. He turned around for a moment and used his spatial spell. From the spell, he poured the Astral Spiders blood into a small wine glass and pretended to slit his wrist. The wound was shallow and not enough to draw blood, but he manipulated it in a way that made it look as if it was real. Since the Astral Spider blood was clear, he used light reflecting magic from a water spell to make it appear red.

He approached the bound demoness and poured the Astral Spider blood into her mouth. The blood gurgled in her mouth before she swallowed it. Though she had a look of confusion on her face, the blood was enough to sate her thirst for now. She thanked Willem and asked again if he wanted to make a pact.

This was Willem's cue to leave, so he re-bound the demoness and left the confines of his mind after resealing the tomb.

Willem awoke once again and saw that Archus was sitting beside him patiently drinking tea. When he saw that Willem had awoken, he looked worried and anxious.

"Everything went fine, Master." Willem explained the events that occurred within his mind and further went into detail about the fusing array.

"Do you think the demoness can be trusted?" Archus was unsure what role she provided for Willem but knew in his heart that demons in general can never be trusted.

"Not at all, but I scanned her with magical sense to see if her heart fluctuated. I felt nothing, but I would never dare assume that demon's anatomy and humans are the same. Either way, this is definitely a fusing array. Whether there is something else about it I cannot tell. I would very much like to go to these ruins for myself though." Willem let out a sigh and a gentle smile towards his mentor.

"Then it shall be done." Archus withdrew two wine cups and filled them with crushed redberry wine. The taste was simple and delicate, which was perfect for Willem's underdeveloped palate.

"A toast, to good magic and a long life." Willem and Archus raised their glass before drinking.