MAGUS INFINITE

Perhaps the reason I felt like crying was not just the warmth in his voice, but the words that he spoke... ”It is okay, child; you are safe.”

Nobody had said that to me in a hundred deaths, and I knew that this was a lie, the enemies were too powerful and too many for me ever to be safe, but there was a sense of relief that filled my soul, for once, I think I did not want to fight alone. It has been... tiring.

Still, I held back my tears, because this was the absolute wrong place for this to happen, and whatever was to come, I needed to absolutely be on my best game.

Whatever distractions in my head were pushed aside, and I looked at the titans before me, and there was a severe dissonance in what my eyes and my senses were seeing and feeling at the same time.

I could see sixteen figures before me, both men and women, but my magical senses, the field around me, and every other supernatural sense that I had were telling me that I was standing before sixteen mountains of magic, and I was a slightly bigger bug by their side.

There was so much magic surrounding them that the air itself seemed to bend around their forms. Each Sovereign was a walking singularity, a point where the laws of reality had been rewritten to accommodate their existence.

And the more I looked at them, the more I was understanding that the space around them filled with their will, their laws, and their presence. They could as well be living suns... and they were all looking at me.

∞

Since my magical senses were going insane, I figured I should focus on my eyes and focus on what I was seeing. The opportunity to gather nearly the entirety of all the world’s powers in one place was incredibly rare, and it was unknown if I would be able to see something like this again outside this time.

Beyond the three Sovereigns of my Academy, two hung apart at what seemed like a deliberate distance, and their sigil was a closed hand with an eye set in the palm.

Further out than anybody, alone, hung a figure wrapped in living green, there was even pollen at four miles up, in freezing air, and small drifting things that had no business existing at that altitude. Undoubtedly these were not normal plant material, but I could only use my eyes to judge at the moment.

And one more that I nearly missed altogether, and they were not hidden, but their presence was simply there in a way that neither drew the eye nor repelled it, so that every time my attention crossed it my mind politely offered me something else to look at.

I found it only because Path Perception is a map rather than an act of attention, and the map insisted a folded region existed there while my eyes kept declining to agree, and when I unfolded my domain, I could feel their presence more closely.

The moment my domain swept past them, they noticed it and focused on me, and I held back from pulling back my domain as I felt as if my soul was being stretched by the weight of attention from these Sovereigns, and it began to hurt.

Common sense would say I should pull back my domain but I didn’t, I have spent enough time in the loop that my path of growth kind of depended on breaking myself over and over again, since this was the quickest way for me to get stronger.

An almost appreciative sound came from the female Sovereign with blue hair and she turned around and winked at me.

∞

I was slowly coming to terms with the Sovereigns standing in front of me, when the warm voice of Sovereign Halloway entered my ears, ”Boy, your soul carries the touch of the Elemental Eye, that means that your foundation was built with the techniques of our Academy.” He turned his head perhaps half a degree, and the sky seemed to go quiet. ”I am the Master of the Earth and Life, I am Sovereign Aldric Halloway. I hold the Council of Aldenmere... and you are one of my students. Boy, tell me your name, and how you found yourself with this power.”

Halloway... My mind flashed to the memory of the classroom with the rain pouring down heavily outside, and an Adept who taught me how to take the things I know of the world apart, to understand the truth of what it was.

And the naming matters, Elric.

”Elric Voss,” I rasped. ”Second year, cohort twelve, the way I found my way to this power is... complicated.”

This statement from me caused the seven Sovereigns to truly glance at me, and the nine in the distance must have heard me, since something changed in their disposition.

”This is your second year of wielding magic?” Sovereign Halloway whispered, and then he looked at the burning continent below, ”So, the plans of that madman have merits after all... Celestial Essence is the key to Transcendence.”

I stopped a frown from crossing my face, while it was true that Celestial Essence was the key to my quick growth, but I gained Celestial Essence from killing demons and not from harvesting what was left inside the Caelith.

The casual words from Sovereign Halloway were all I needed to know that the Sovereigns were all aware of the Ascension Ceremony, but I did not know if they supported it, or were against it... at this point, nothing would surprise me anymore.

The slight sense of security that the words from Sovereign Halloway gave me began to vanish and even though I did not make any motion, the old man glanced at me, before his eyes fully focused upon me, before they widened and he shook his head, ”Oh, child, no power is worth this price... all of this,” he waved his hand below, ”Comes from the dreams of a mad man who would pull the plant from the root just to get to the flowers. I do not know what you have suffered to touch the threshold of Sovereign at sixteen, but you did not deserve this pain.”

My mouth opened and I wanted to speak, but I paused, memories of the hundreds of deaths washed through my mind, the pains and the disappointments of seeing the true face of the world and being broken again and again by it.

I looked at them, and whispered, ”You are all gods... Ah, you all killed the gods, so technically you are stronger, right? So, what more do you all want? Why is my home being destroyed? Why do I have to bury my parents and mourn everyone I know and love... what the fuck are you all doing?!”

The Sovereign that attacked me, standing on the side of the Conclave suddenly laughed, ”Can you believe this kid? He asks why we are fighting?! Is this the incompetence that comes from a failed continent like this? Child if you were born in Vorthar, you would know your place and understand the right of the strong. You have stolen from us child, and whatever you have taken in our vessel would be returned with interest.”

The pain I was feeling in my heart suddenly vanished, replaced by cold... Ah, how could I have been so foolish, demanding answers for those who saw all lives as ants.

My hand clenched and opened, clenched and opened... I want to...

”Boom!”

On the ground, one of the debris from the fallen prison exploded and a wave of darkness rose out of it.