Kyrion awoke in his room looking up at a familiar face. White hair had covered his face, partially. It however was not a face Kyrion had expected to see. The strange boy seemed surprised. His white hair shone as the room became cooler.

“You shouldn’t be awake yet.” White Fox said as he seemingly took a few steps back.

“You shouldn't be here. Not a fan of burning kids alive but I’ll make an exception for assassins.”

“No you won’t. Otherwise you’d become just like your enemy.”

“Why are you here?”

“There was a soul in your eye.” White Fox pointed at the prosthetic. “I can’t sense it anymore and it has me concerned.”

“Why would you be concerned?”

“Uhhh… Oh look over there!” White Fox pointed out the window.

“Not going to…” Rion threw himself to the ground as a metallic bird flew straight through his window. Leaning wing-shaped marks in the wood as it passed through.

When Rion got back up, White Fox was gone, and yet the bird remained.

“Mr. Rion!I’m sorry! The drone just went haywire!” Yelled Bastion, from outside the window.

Rion looked out and saw Bastion holding a strange black device.

“Just don’t do it again.” Rion sighed as he swept out his mana senses, only to pick up nothing. As though there was no one in his room.

“Wait…White Fox was an anchor…could that mean he can teleport? I’m going to install some anchors in my room.” Rion walked over to the downed bird and examined it.

Raven Mk. IV was engraved on the bird's left talon confirming which wing of the harem worked on that object.

“Great.” Kyrion placed the bird in his name and scowled as he noticed that his mana pool had increased slightly. As though burning through his mana over and over is what increased it. He’d need to be careful in the future.

Jala appeared on his shoulder. “What in the abyss did you just throw into your domain?”

“A drone? Why?”

“Karl the dungeon immediately swiped it the second it appeared and took it to the dungeon. Didn’t get to see it much.”

“Huh…Maybe I should leave Karl with Cecil for the time being. I’m sure he could use a spirit like that at his disposal. It could prove very handy to have.”

“Still salty he wouldn’t let you fix him?”

“It wouldn’t be much effort to fix it or grow him a new one. Just thirty seconds of time and poof better hand.” Kyrion sighed.

“Also you shouldn’t get Karl’s hopes up like that. Cecil doesn’t have the makeup to use spirits like you do. He could get awakened but unlike you, he is restricted to using ambient mana.”

“Don’t dungeon’s produce mana?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“So Karl has been the one expanding my core.”

“Along with the Arbiter, and your penchant for bringing souls here that also produce mana. At this point you have about a small continent’s worth of citizens. As people are born you get more mana and as people die, their remaining mana becomes yours. With those damned rabbit people, I suspect your population to start causing you problems soon.”

“My vessel is no longer strong enough to hold the exponential increase of my magical capacity?” Rion stated.

“That is exactly right…Who are you?”

“Meh, I had a similar problem…some time ago.”

“Yeah. I was there, it’s just the way that you worded that wasn’t you.”

“Oh. That's odd. Are you telling me I need to put my weights back on?”

”Yes. I also want you to add on mana siphoning runes that power a gravity field that only effects your body. That should constantly drain you while pushing your muscles.”

“That is literally insane.”

“Kyrion doesn’t say no to training. I personally think he likes the pain. Why are you acting scared now?”

“Because logically…”

Jala interrupted him. “Kyrion doesn’t use logic, Rion murdered logic the day he was born and replaced it with chaos. Who are you?

“I’m me. Mostly. It has occurred to me that the other half of my mind has been stuck in the clouds.”

“Yeah. I miss the old Kyr. He had good instincts. All I sense from you is fear and overthinking.”

“I prefer, logical and observant.”

“I see. So why did you replace him?”

Rion scowled. “I don’t think I did so willingly. Last thing I remember was agreeing to give up my memories as they would be inconvenient.”

“Ah. that explains the change in chemicals. You have all of Kyr’s knowledge along with advanced understanding. The one we know and tolerate relies on instinct and intuition. As though he had a sixth sense for people.”

“That makes some sense.” Kyrie added.

‘“Ah, that must be why he wasn't taken to the room after absorbing Kyrie. To think he was that strong with only part of his mind available.” Kyra sighed.

“Enough of that, listen. I need soldiers. Begin the process of training our warriors for the fight to come while I get some new weights built. I can smell war brewing and we won’t have much time to act.”

Jala scowled. “I will find volunteers. We have managed to bind most monsters to Karl along with many humanoids. You may have an unlimited monster army sooner rather than later. Although If you start summoning monsters en mass to do your bidding people may thing your the second coming of the Demon Lord.”

“When it gets out what I can do with the vast amount of power I have. I’ll be lucky if the rankers don’t plot my demise. I get the feeling Charles has been doing that for years. The way he sees through me is disturbing.”

“Oh yeah that's obvious. He seems to see you as detrimental to Asela’s further growth. Hence why you didn’t get an invite to Norn.”

“Huh, I could see it. Convincing Asela not to fight at Norn may have proved detrimental. That and it seems my torn out affinity needed the distance to heal. I don’t know what happened exactly but I could feel it returning slowly.”

“No duh. Your spark of sentience ability was the first obvious clue. The Flames of Prometheus took the form of a walnut.”

“Ugghh. I need Lin.”

Jala signed and returned to the domain.

A knock on the door got Rion’s attention.

“Lin!” Rion opened the door.

“Close. Its Hel.” Hel stepped into the room inviting Rion’s privacy and sat at a chair near his desk.

“Um…This isn’t your room, is it?”

“It is not.”

“Good. Great… That would have been awkward. What do you want? We don’t talk much.”

“Correct. You hardly pay any attention to your team to begin with. Now it’s like your always off training and getting further and further away.Closest thing we saw was the headmaster fight us as you.”

“I also fought you in training chamber over here.”

“Only using fire. An ability you seemed to refrain from using prior.”

“Because I just regained that affinity. It seems that I was born with an unstable core. Emotion could trigger certain magical effects. One of which being an inferno that nearly killed someone in my family. I don’t blame having it transferred, it was necessary to save a life. It just took a long time for my body to heal that damage and when it did, the explosion ripped a tear in space briefly.I am capable of using explosive amounts of flame to a dangerous degree, therefore I have been practicing it.”

“I need to see all of your strength if I am going to be your team's strategist. I need to coordinate. The last match had me more worried than I should have been. Your limits need to be measured.”

“That's the thing. I am constantly pushing my limits. Due to certain abilities I can push my body more than most for a longer period of time. It’s why I’ve been so far ahead since I joined. Outside of combat techniques. My style of fighting is unorthodox at best and benefits from versatility, feints, and destructively fast killing blows.”

“I need you to let me see your core.”

“Are you certain that would be enough? Seeing it won’t do it much justice unless you can feel it.”

“What do you mean by feel.”

“My core has a weight to its presence. I’m sure Cecl would also like to see how much I’m holding at the moment. It’s been a while since he measured me.”

“Wait Cecil has this information?”

“His information is outdated and I’m ten percent sure that he doesn’t want to know how much power I’m keeping contained.”

“Something Cecil doesn’t want to know?”

Rion pulled out a flower and spoke into it. “Oi Cecil, bring your mana measuring device, also inform the headmaster that Hel wants to see how much power I have. Such an exhibition will need someone with a powerful enough barrier to keep me contained.”

Cecil replied through the flower. “Just how did you hack into my comms system with magic? You know what? Let's discuss that in person. I knew it increased when you gained that fire affinity are you saying that it's still growing?”

“Let's just say, I'm going to need some new training weights. As my body is slowly meeting the limits of my capacity. If not, I'll need to increase my rank faster.”

“Did you put an entire civilization into your domain or something?”

“Two. Technically.”

“...”

“Cecil?”

“....”

“Um. Hel? I think I may have broken Cecil.”

“What is this domain you speak of?” Hel asked curiously.

“You do know I have a space affinity. Right?”

“Yeah? Bits and pieces. Wait. Do you have a city in there?”

“I have a continent…”

Hel slowly blinked. For a long ten seconds, she said nothing. “Ok. I cleared my mind. Now how big did you say it was?”

“About the side of a continent. Well a small continent. Big enough for five countries. It was just an island until recently. By recently I mean at least five years ago. Apparently we were in a five year stasis and all the while my domain expanded.” Rion lied unabashedly.

“Ah, that would explain why some of my bugs multiplied in their containers.”

“See, totally normal.”

“Not normal at all. A continent, Rion. Do you know how much mana it takes to hold that many people?”

“Monsters and tools. I can’t remember exactly but more than half my mana.”

“Just half.”

“That wasn’t a question. So I won’t answer.”

Hel reached for her scythe only to discover that she couldn’t summon it for some reason.”

“Why do you look like you want to cut my head off?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Sorry. It’s just, what you said sounds like something that shouldn’t be possible.”

“Yeah…My training was a bit more brutal than most due to my regeneration and excessively high pain tolerance.”

“How high, exactly.”

“So long as I move my brain into my domain I can survive briefly as a skeleton or headless corpse, although my thoughts are slowed exponentially when I do that, it also requires that I quickly create a new body.”

“So decapitation can’t even kill you.”

“It can.. I’m not immortal. It just delays my death a bit. Regenerating from just a brain takes a long time unless I have a body already copied. We are talking minutes, not hours.”

“Why do you have a way to cheat death…”

“Death is an inevitability in this world. I would just rather my death not be accidental. Also there are a few ways to cheat death if you have imagination. However the best would be not being in a position where someone could take your life. Now take my hand.” Rion held out his left hand and in a flash of flame. Both he and Hel vanished from their position only to reappear in a hallway with nothing but doors.

“I feel sick.” Hel keeled over and began to dry heave.

“Huh didn’t take you for someone with a weak stomach. Ms.Tactician.” Rion scowled.

“You can bring people with you when you teleport?” Hel asked as she wheezed.

“Yes…Have we really never talked like this before? I could have sworn you knew about my dual fire and space affinities. It’s why I’m able to summon large amounts of flames, very quickly.”

“I was aware of Rion, it’s just that space affinities are rare. Teleportation is also a difficult technique to master. Many have decapitated themselves when practicing without proper understanding. Which is probably why it’s rare. There is a major learning curb before one can even attempt teleportation.”

“Is that so…” Rion silently thanked Jala for making sure he didn’t use that affinity.

“Had to hear it from someone else to understand huh?” Jala replied through their link.

Rion proceeded to remember that he had a link and silently spoke back. “I was pretty sure you were being pretentious. I am certain that I would have been one of the decapitated, had I known I had it earlier. I definitely would have used it to help my friends and either killed them on accident or myself. Heck, I could have done it while practicing in secret.”

“You also cut your hand off with a wind blade while trying to punch it out.”

“I was trying to surround my hand with a sharp wind barrier. I definitely would have died in the process.”

“But you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Not sure when you got the training, but your control has improved greatly.”

Rion felt someone pulling at a dimensional bag and negated it. His attention is fully on Hel. “So my dear, just step through this door and I can show you everything you want to see.”

Rion waited as Hel moved into the room. Moments later. As he did the door was blocked by a large stone wall.

Hel turned in surprise, as she noticed that the door was blocked off, she began to worry. “Uh…I’m not into that Rion. Why did you block the door?”

“Hmm? Just curious about something, you may not be aware of this, but one of my teammates had been kidnaped recently. Due to that I have become dangerously paranoid, Hel.”

“I know about the kidnapping. My condolences to your former captain.”

“He’s fine sleeping in the great beyond. The coward was a pacifist anyway. He didn’t have the guts to do what was needed. What is necessary to keep his friends safe.” Rion cracked his neck and took a step forward.

Hel kept trying to summon her weapon to no avail. Fear welled up as she retreated a few steps.

Rion smiled as he heard a beep and stopped moving.

“Now then, shapeshifter? Are you here to spy or to die? You have some information on me but most of it has holes.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You have the ability to shapeshift. It’s quite obvious when you know where to look. Certain proportions are off.”

“Eh em!” Someone coughed into their hand.

Rion and fake Hel turned to see the real Hel sitting at a desk with a scowl on her face.

“What! Her eyes are half a millimeter closer together and her nose is an eighth of a millimeter lower. Those proportions are jarring. Imagine waking up and seeing someone you know with slightly different features. Like they went to a face sculpture, and made things worse.”

“Rion, please refrain from purposefully leading people astray.”

“I mean… If your going to pretend to be Hel at least get it right.” Rion played with his face a bit causing his skin to change colors as well as his hair and eyes and in moments he looked exactly like Hel.

“Change back Rion. I don’t like seeing my head on your overly muscular body.”

“You're just jealous of my ten pack.” Rion put on a white shirt that was way too tight.

“I’m going to.”

“Waaa!” Rion then flexed and the shirt burst into pieces of cloth. His normally average-looking physique flexed to the degree that even reality couldn’t comprehend.

“Fine. Let's see.” Rion waved his hands around his face as his bone structure and skin altered along with all of his features to the degree that he was now Rion. He also stopped flexing which made his muscles appear normal. However, no one present was buying that he had gotten weaker.

The fake Hel was looking downward as liquid dripped from her face.

Kyrion would assume it was tears and not an aftereffect of his rocky teleportation.

“So now that we have your attention. Why are you here?”

“To gauge how much power you have.”

“Just that, ey? Do you have the best senses on your team?”

“Yes.”

“Good, good. Fine. Cecil? Activate the mana measuring devices.”

“It’s on. Hurry up, I need to finish my hand.”

Rion took a few steps back and let the cage mine trigger. Trapping the fake Hel in a cage of solid mana.

“You saw Damian in the finals right? And Cecil you felt it. Try to stay conscious alright.”

Kyrion closed his eyes and began to pull at the seals he placed to keep his mana in and hide his presence. It started as a trickle to anyone with senses then the ground cracked as rocks and stone began to shoot upward. As more and more of his constant concentration was released the floating rocks were reduced to volcanic ash. The air around him began to warp as space bent and he gathered ashes pulled into a sphere in front of him. Then he removed the final veil he kept on his mana pool.

Nothing happened for a long moment as Rion let out a deep breath. “Oh that feels good. Like letting out a fart I’ve been holding for years and not knowing that I’ve been doing it. No… More akin to sucking in in your stomach to appear thinner, only to release it after a century.”

“All that buildup and you hadn’t changed.” The real Hel sighed.

“Hmm? That's because I removed the veil I placed. I still need to flex.”

“JUst hurry up and…”

Hel passed out her nose bleeding as mana overload hit her near instantly. Cecil’s mana-gathering devices filled rapidly and entered an inert state, resulting in a barrier surrounding the young man appearing powered by the influx of raw power. A number appeared on Cecil's device. 3^498.

The barrier the fake Hel was in shattered as an overwhelming pressure enveloped the shapeshifter. In moments a green-skinned woman around seven feet in height lay as a drooling heap on the ground although she was not unconscious. As she adjusted to the power she even managed to stand back up.

“You wouldn’t happen to be married…:”

“Not interested. Did Volain send you to gauge my power.”

“No. Yes? He said to observe you at your best and see if he should train further to catch up. You do have much more potent mana than Volain. I mean sheesh. It’s like standing under our chieftain’s gaze.”

“So about ten concentrated experts let their power flow simultaneously.”

“Yes…It isn’t the highest I’ve felt but it's the highest from a mere practitioner.”

“So you are an expert.”

“Very close to one. But I follow the old ways. So my endurance must grow further.”

“Are you going to inform Volain?”

“He can’t decide if you or Ander would be a more fun bout. I will push for Ander. You are too much of a beast for Volain to fight yet.”

“Thing is. I can only use so much mana at once without burning out my body. Burning out my body would damage me to a point where I would need an extended time to heal. So there my limits have been measured and gauged. Please plan accordingly.”

“Oh we will.” The orc woman left quickly, tossing the door’s barrier to the side.

“Do you think that worked?” Hel said as she got to her feet.

“I’m fine if they let any match up against me be a free win where they toss away their weakest.”

“Now then. Care to tell me why your mana is lower than it was last time?”

“Because I really didn’t want anyone to explode. That was about a tenth of my current limit and the more I release the harder it is to bottle back up.” Rion cracked his neck before rapidly veiling his mana pool.

“I will take your word for that. You also refrained from using that power.”

“That I did. Volain already knows but I doubt he’d share that information.”

“So do you know how long she was stalking you?”

“Since the solo tournament ended. Although it may have to do with the announced bracket. We are fighting their school in the third round should we make it that far.”

“Ok. Who do we fight next?”

“The team with Sinbad and Midas.”

“Is that so? Do we know the format?” Rion asked.

“Rescue your king.”

“So like capture the flag only with a person being the flag?”

“Yes and no. One of us will be the king. The king won’t be able to fight until they are released from their bindings by a hero.”

“Got it.”

“Not quite. The game ends when the king sits on their throne.”

“I’ll be the king. Once freed I’ll be quite dangerous in a fight. Also, the rules state that I can’t fight, not that I can’t run away on my own.”

“Actually yes, the rules state that you need to stay inside the rival’s castle while the hero rescues you. You cannot fight until your restraints are present either. They are the special kind that restrict the flow of mana and absorb magic.”

“So they don’t limit physical strength.”

“They do, you would be as strong as a fledgling. Only your unenhanced physical strength would count.”

“Do you wanna tell her or…”

“Would you rather tell the truth as to how you immediately noticed that you weren't talking to the real Hel?”

“Yes actually. Hel, check the right wrist of your uniform.”

Hel turned her arm over and looked noticing nothing out of the ordinary.

“Really look. In fact, press down on the button for three seconds.”

Hel did so and scowled as she felt something move. After she removed her finger a butterfly made of flower petals flew off towards Rion. The creature landed on his index finger.

“One, how did you do that, two when did you do that? Three, can you make mine a rhinoceros beetle? Four, how did I not notice?”

“Did you forget my main talent? By this point i’m sure everyone forgot that I use plants primarily. Through will I can alter how they grow and through my knowledge of runes and enchantments I can create animals made from plant parts. To some extent I can also give them life. Which I won’t do often with bugs as they tend to not listen to me. What I placed on your sleeve is what I call a tracker. It usually keeps track of your pulse and location, under certain conditions it sends me an alert that travels through space to get to me if necessary.”

“I can see why you would make these. To think you created them so quickly.”

Rion laughed. “I made the first version years ago!” He then stopped, upon remembering the relationship between Hel and Minah.

“Why would you need to make these years ago? They are meant to keep track of allies.”

“A thought experiment.”

“Now now Rion. We all know thinking isn’t your strong suit. Explain how you altered my work.”Cecil leaned onto his real hand.

“Alter…Wait. Amadeus used to keep searching for you in hopes of getting a rematch and you were rarely where people said you were. Minah thought the other students were protecting you from her.”

“To be fair. I was usually there when she arrived. But escaping via means I don’t feel like disclosing.”

“Right you couldn’t teleport then…”

“I tried to leave right before she arrived if at all possible.”

“How long have you been able to alter your face?”

“A talent I played with when I first reached practitioner. My hair had a habit of changing colors to reflect what element I was using. I had to nub that one quickly.”

“When did you plant one of these bugs on her armor?”

“When I realized Cecil was the one who did her enchantments It was the main reason we created Cecil’s Harem. I can’t believe I got caught.”

“You were the only other student who understood my runes enough to hide them in plain sight.”

“To be fair. I had a perfectly good reason for it.”

“I didn’t know it was possible to make runes disappear after imbuing them with mana. When I discovered them I thought she was getting someone else, or her benefactor was sending the armor here like this. Upon revealing the runes' shape however, I learned who the true culprit was. It was the same kid that had been putting food into my stasis containers. So I placed an arcane lock on the fridge that appeared invisible when triggered, a cage made of the person’s mana trapped them inside.”

“Cecil then made me reveal how I made my enchantment disappear and agree to stop altering his work, behind his back. He did let me keep the enchantments there, as long as I provided him with more materials.”

“So you let him keep tracking runes there?”

“They link straight to a master flower. Rion can’t sense them unless he’s trying, they’re close, or the warning goes off.”

“The headmaster also has one. Including mine. Just in case I get kidnapped somehow.”

“Ignoring the privacy breach for now, the enchantment sounds like it’s meant to keep all of us safe. I can appreciate that given the shapeshifting intruder and face that Bella was recently kidnapped. How do you plan on informing the others?”

“Bella is aware and Cecil gave her a new one. Ander had to be given a second one directly after he murdered the first. Max has yet to be told unless Karl spilled the beans already. TIffany had an older model, which I replaced, as she is someone standing. She had also been kidnapped before. Brion hasn’t been informed of his yet, Minah has one on her armor that Cecil explained recently saying it was one of the added functions should she be in trouble during the team bouts. The kids got theirs a while back, although Bastion has a habit of breaking them somehow. You are one of the last to know. Although you do have more of the truth than most.”

“Most?”

“Yeah, most don’t know I can track their location at will. As strategists we will leave that up to you. As well as the portal linking ability. Should you be in danger I will be linked your location and given the proper information to safely teleport to you.”

“Is that so?”

“It is sadly a necessity. You saw them yourself.”

Hel sighed. “The fewer that know the better, including the tournament participants. Volain and Marigod are aware of my ability to teleport. I assume they will act on that information to prevent shenanigans and chicanery.”

“Like restricting your ability to teleport?”

“Correct.” Rion sighed as he pulled an arm weight out of his domain.

“What is that?”

“One of my arm weights. I need a localized gravity increasing rune. My body won’t be able to keep up unless I strengthen my body further or rush through the ranks of practitioner to become an expert.”

“I’ll do it. But first, I need some materials for my new hand.”

“Do you have the tools?” Rion asked.

“Yes, I have everything I need along with a temporary hand.” Cecil held up a metallic hand that had a full range of movement.

Hel jumped up and retreated. “I’ll think on this. We’ll discuss strategy tomorrow.I should sit out however. Bella’s power doesn’t work well with my bugs and we are both defense based.”

“Actually. Let me borrow some for use in the battle. I’m not at my bst, but using them for support via canisters and traps is legal.”

“Make a list. Then place it in that dungeon of mine. You should receive a treasure chest containing everything you need. Considering it just ate your metal bird.”

“How did Bastion get a hold of it again?” Cecil sighed.

The list however was done before Kyrion could leave the dungeon. So he sent it to his domain and saw that it was immediately taken by Karl.

“I might as well stay here then.” Kyrion sighed as the treasure chest was filled and its contents passed to Cecil under the strict condition that he at least watch the work being done.