‘Has it been around a year?’
I walked on, the forest parted for me.
‘I haven’t met anyone strong enough to entertain me for months now’
It didn’t take long before I reached my temporary settlement. Well, partially it is due to spatial manipulation of distance.
It is hidden in between a gap in space, there isn’t much other than a table and chair. James, as an Archmage, doesn’t need to sleep since the abundance of mana in his body alone can allow him to survive without food or water for years, as well as keep him in peak health.
James then conjured up a piece of paper and started to write. It was his daily routine, writing what he saw and theories of mana. It was peaceful, many of the creatures already knew he lived in the vicinity and dared not come close.
Lately it has even come to the point of boredom. James left society because of boredom, but now even here it became boring.
After finishing with writing, he clapped his hands, collapsing the space.
‘Where should I go now’
Unsure on the direction, he simply extended his senses, searching for a creature with large amounts of mana. At this point it isn’t an exaggeration that his mana sense can cover the entire continent.
My senses exploded, I could feel a presence of mana on par with my own, at first I doubted my own sensitivity. My mana pool is larger than all mages on the continent combined.
For the first time in many months, my curiosity was prickled.
“Teleport”
Smoke, a black pillar of smoke. I could smell fire, unnatural fire. Of course, I became excited, a monster who can create a magical fire which I could smell several miles away was bound to be strong. I took a peek with my clairvoyance.
‘Dragon? A Red Dragon on top of that? Jackpot’
The monster James felt was a newborn dragon. For reference, Dragons are named the most omnipotent creatures to have ever existed. Even Gods do not dare trifle with Dragons on the main plane. Some wouldn’t dare to fight one even on the Immortal plane. Red Dragons are also known to be particularly destructive.
‘30, no 33 are already eaten, 9 burned to death, 14 killed by debris, surviving amount is around 700? A rather small settlement. The killing intent is muddling my senses’
Kneeling down, I began to write, not normal writing, writing using runes. After a good minute, the air in front of me was practically opaque. The many lines of runes reformed themselves into a circular circuit. I started to add more and more runes, expanding the circuit.
Magic spells of this scale are often called…
“Grand Magic, World Customize type: Rezi”
Immediately the spell started to glow, about to activate. Without hesitation James grabbed the spell, stopping and shrinking it.
“Teleport”
James reappeared in the center of the village, where he released the spell.
Starting from James, a golden sphere expanded outwards, putting out the fires.
If it did only that, it wouldn’t have been on the scale of Grand Magic. All traces of fire were wiped away. Charred bodies beyond recognition were brought back to their original appearance. Ruins of buildings were restored to their former glory.
Rezi, a special spell under the category of World Customization. It’s effects are temporary, fire does not exist within the specified region.
In other words, the very existence of fire is erased, completely. It bends the laws of the universe, albeit temporarily. Hence it is Grand Magic, World Customization type.
World Magic, a level above Grand Magic, is something which only appears in legends. Magic that is able to permanently alter the laws of the world. It is quite likely James is able to cast this level of magic, however the spell models are long lost and he does not have the knowledge to cast such spells.
“”WHO ARE YOU””
It noticed James. Without batting an eye, James calmly ordered.
“Yeri, occupy him for a bit”
A bright red and black bird, having a wingspan of several meters swooped down and attacked the dragon's eyes.
As the bird began a game of cat and mouse, James started to think of a way to kill the dragon.
Dragons, beings that rarely show themselves, most not even living on the main plane. Physical attacks are rendered useless against the scales. Magic spells do not work, the scales have high resistance to magic, if this feature is ever used at all.
They are superior from birth, holding vast amounts of knowledge and power, their status in the hierarchy of life, evolution is sky high, magic spells are simply absorbed and increases the dragon's mana.
It is said that heroes of the ancient killed a dragon by burning its insides. Honestly how stupid. Normal fires can’t even hope to burn cells of a dragon, magic fires are simply converted into mana. The dragon's own flames would heal the dragon instead of hurt it.
‘If no such magic exists, simply create one’
Countless strands of mana spread out from his fingers, intertwining, writing runes, encoding lines with information. James was creating another Origin magic, magic which you make yourself. Many mages spend their entire life trying to make even one Origin magic, but with James’ skill, talent and knowledge, he could do it anytime he wanted. As long as it is within his field of knowledge.
Under his fingers, thousands of runes were being written and erased, tens of hundreds of circuits were bound together to form a single spell.
Sensing danger, Yeri shrank to a small bird and flew away. She was a normal bird a few years ago. James picked her up in a forest and raised her as a pet. In the presence of colossal amounts of mana every day, as well as observing millions of spells and theories behind it. Yeri evolved, being able to use magic and understand human words. Yeri’s resilience and regeneration is still low, but her damage is on par with the legendary phoenix.
Finishing up, James said the name of the spell. It was more of a habit, purely ceremonial. To say the type and name of the magic he would use, it served as a handicap, allowing opponents to counter him.
“Grand Magic, Dragon specific type: Exterminate”
From the clouds, a pillar of light descened. Exterminate is an already existing spell, a universally recognised destruction spell capable of wiping out a nation. This was taken as a base and completely reformed into a different spell.
Exterminate simply dumps an enormous amount of mana, in its pure refined form to completely shatter any resistance, both magical and physical. The customized version however, is an intricate spell that is condensed countless times, the outer part becoming a barrier that won’t be converted into mana that easily. Due to the immense density it would take several minutes to convert and absorb the mana. The inner part of the beam is sacrificial, highly condensed so it would take time for the dragon to absorb the mana. The mid section is the true exterminator. Everything within would have everything on the atomic scale shattered, decomposing it. It would effectively turn anything or anyone into nothingness.
This is only possible because it is divided in 3 parts. Without the outer part, the dragon could simply escape, without the inner part, the dragon would absorb the spell which decomposes it. Without the middle part, it is just a confinement spell that overuses mana.
“”HAH, A MERE SPELL WOULD KILL ME? WAIT, STOP!!!! YOUUU!!!””
it is about a week old, but it is already capable of human language perfectly. How powerful are gods to be able to defeat a fully grown dragon, while taking permanent damage but not dying?’
I snapped my fingers, increasing the gravitational force, not allowing the dragon to escape.
The ray of death hit the dragon, as expected it survived. Well more accurately it is barely hanging on with the last of its lifeforce.
‘Hm, turn over my previous thought, how powerful is a fully grown dragon if a hatchling can survive for a few seconds after this spell’
“”WHO ARE YOU””
I bowed deeply: “My name is not worthy to be mentioned for a noble existence such as a dragon”
‘As if I’m stupid enough to allow a dragon curse fall upon me’
“”....YOU!!!!!! YOU DARE??!!””
Finally, cracks started appearing on its scales. Unlike what James expected, even with a pinnacle, nearly on the level of World Magic, Grand Magic spell created using knowledge that the entire world coveted, it would not fully destroy the body of a dragon.
I felt sympathy, for a dragon, a calamity for humanity. Sympathy for a newly born dragon. But at the same time, I wanted to dissect it, divulge its secrets. Do I value ‘life’? I don’t. I already killed countless monsters and humans alike for the sake of my experiments. No that’s wrong, I definitely appreciate all lifeforms and value them equally. Could it be, self defence mechanism of my mind to split my personality in order to keep my ‘humanity’ as well as satiate my thirst for knowledge?
Such is the person called James, constant questioning everything. He once even challenged the world, he questioned the dungeons and the coins that are found within. That is the only reason for a universal currency, the entire economy is based on the amount of coins found in dungeons. It is an economic threat, the value of money is directly controlled by the gods. No one questioned it. Only a person such as James would.
After storing the dragon in his pocket dimension, he turned around.
Despair, the people were crestfallen. Burns were gone but the psychological damage was still there, same with the damage from debris.
“Area High Heal, Area Regeneration, Heaven’s Grace, Greater Blessing, Peace of Mind”
‘I spent around 70% of my mana? 67% for the Exterminate, quite a mana burning spell’
An old man, somewhere in his 70s walked up to me. He was holding the remains of a female. Half of her was eaten, gone.
“Please...I will do anything, bring her back”
I stared at him, sighed inwardly.
“Magic can not bring back the dead”
It is the limitation of magic, besides, resurrection is an area that is forbidden to be researched. The wrath of the gods may fall upon you.
The man slumped down, I recognised those eyes, the eyes of those who lost hope, The eyes of someone who lost the will to live.
As I raised my index finger to cast a sleeping and calming spell I thought.
‘Perhaps it is best to have external simulation, I am aware I should be feeling a myriad of emotions in this situation, but I don’t. In fact it is almost boring. It would be best to have someone near me so I can develop my ‘humanity’’
As the man fell unconscious, James whispered.
“I can not help you, however I shall help this village instead”
A thin veil of mana spread, covering the village.
‘Found him’ “Teleport”
James teleported to another old man, bearded, and big horizontally.
“I will reform this village for the next few weeks. After that, do what you want. Teleport”
He moved, levitating a few hundred meters above the settlement.
A humongous amount of mana was released at once, all birds nearby either flew away in top speed or dropped down, frozen with fear. Even the animals on the ground played dead.
The dirt roads were cleaned, then replaced by smooth marble pavement. Then, one by one every single building disappeared. The villagers looked with disbelief. They were attacked by a dragon and now their home was gone.
The miracles continued, out of nowhere bricks appeared, constructing a foundation, then the buildings themselves. Several floors and rooms were made in a matter of seconds. It was on the level of a capital city of an Empire or rich Kingdom.
Then out of the stuff that disappeared, personal items were placed back again, together with lavish decorations.
James bit his lip, bleeding slightly. He only recovered up to 40% of his total mana, which is still more than thousands of court mages together. But what he was doing right now was not using his own resources he collected over the years. He was literally creating them. Using mana to alter the atomic structure, creating quarks. It is changing the elements.
This is normally impossible, of course there exists alchemy which can do exactly this, but much weaker, only with those that have a very similar base or are just a mixture of elements. James on the other hand, was using air, to create a solid. On a gigantic scale.
Doing this for just a cubic centimeter would drain a court mage of all his mana. James was creating bricks, millions of them, as well as wood, metal, glass etc.
After creating a 3 meter thick wall, and creating several other facilities, guilds and entertainment, James was already on the verge of collapsing, blood ripping out of his ears.
Immediately he teleported away, then created a spatial gap, creating an alternate space pocket in it, then fell asleep.
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