The four kids stepped through the portal once more. Usually, they would be happy to be back in the tower, especially with a place such as the mines left behind. This time, however, worries overshadowed their joy. They ran upstairs, looking for any signs of combat.

"Nothing here!" Airo shouted from the living room on the ground floor.

"Neither here," Cia replied from the kitchen.

"Umm... here!" Kaili yelled and the others weren't far behind. They followed her into the dining room. Never before had any of them seen such a mess. The tables were smashed and tossed around, with the beautiful ornate tablecloths now lying on the floor like scrunched-up rugs. The most alarming, however, was the giant slash mark spread all across two of the walls.

"Manuel?" Cia shouted, hoping to get the wizard's attention. Deep inside them was a fear that the demon did exactly what he wanted and killed the archmage.

Their surroundings changed. With a snap of fingers, they found themselves standing on the hill near the tower. A few stray golden sparks indicated who was the one that transported them.

"You made it!" Manuel exclaimed. The kids' jaws dropped as they saw the demon desperately trying to cut the wizard while he always simply blinked away.

"Would you give us a moment, Rudy?"

"No! Stop ignoring me already!" he growled.

"Ah, okay then. Give me a moment, kiddos. I'll make us some space." He teleported to the demon and gently placed his palm on his chest. With the sound like the firing of a cannon, Rudy flew off into the distance, far beyond the cliffs and onto the cloud sea.

There was the sound of shattered glass. Manuel scrunched up his face and bit down on his lower lip as shards of his freshly broken windows rained upon him.

"Shiiiiiit," he muttered. "I forgot widows don't like shockwaves." He slowly turned around, inspecting the damage done to his tower. "Oh damn it! That's gonna be so annoying." He sighed and pulled his hat more into his face so that the brim would block out the view of the broken parts of the building. He was not willing to let this special day be tainted by such a trivial problem.

With a flash of light, he appeared next to the four kids, his eyes glimmering with pride. "Awww, look at you! You've got auras! You actually did it! Airo! That's such a nice shade of blue! I imagine something like air magic will be your forte. Quite common. Ohoho, I can't wait to see you conjure up your first storm!" Sparks of lightning slithered around his body as he turned to Kaili. "Ah, pink! That's so unusual! Most dryads would have green, but you actually have a shade of pink!"

"W-What does it mean?" she asked, disturbed by seeing Manuel so excited.

"Ain't got the shimmer of an idea! Imagine what fun it will be to discover that! Ohhhhh! And Cia! Purple like royalty! Never expected you to be one with a knack for dark magic, but hey, that's gonna be fun too. I've rarely worked with that one." He gave her a wink and his eyes turned to the young farmer. "And Jin! My golden boy!" He raised his arms and showed off an aura of his own. It wasn't too different from Jin's, only a few shades brighter yellow. "Maybe the light will be your preference too? Oh, that's gonna be great! People like us are really rare, you know?"

A hail of crimson projectiles rained down upon the area around the tower. Manuel interlocked his fingers. Orbs of light appeared in the air all around them and then burst into clouds of golden sparks. Every time Rudy's bullet hit them, it dissolved into nothing.

Once the spell was cast, Manuel's eyes turned back to the kids. "Kaili, you okay? Acid burns, huh? Ouch. And Cia... I hope that arm's not serious. Any of you in pain?" They all shook their heads. Whatever Elsie used to treat their wounds seemed to do wonders. "Great! Then if you don't mind, I will heal you all once this is over. For now, I'd like you to focus."

He blinked away once more. Now he was standing on the air, gazing at the cloud sea from which the attack came.

"Now, listen up, you all have magic now, but I can't really teach, so I will give you a quick live demonstration of the basics and then the rest is self-study, okay? Pay close attention now." He gave them a wink. "Of course, you can't spell demonstration without a demon, so please, welcome my assistant," he waved his arm around and teleported the creature clad in crimson aura over to his side. "Rudy!" he gestured over to the confused demon as if he was introducing a celebrity that had just come onto a stage.

It took the demon a few moments before he realized what just happened. His mind was tirelessly working at figuring out the requirements of Manuel's magic. He could always teleport. It was most likely just an ability to move a short distance at a high speed, but the part about transporting others was still something Rudy didn't understand. Was it because he touched him? No, he only touched his aura. Simply dropping the current armour and creating a new one would destroy any mark the wizard would've placed on him. No, the answer had to lie elsewhere.

The demon quickly resumed his strikes. His blades were trying to slash and cut Manuel from all possible angles, yet nothing managed to touch him.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Okay, so where does magic come from?" He pointed up into the sky. "The ley line! It's all around us, but it's too diluted, so if we want to use it, we have to condense it." He made a fist and a blob of golden aura appeared around it. "Even just condensed magic can be used for all sorts of things." The moment Rudy got close, Manuel punched him as hard as he could. The aura surrounding the fist disappeared and the demon was sent backwards. Two blades emerged out of his feet and dug into the ground as he tried to slow down. Once he came to a full halt, he dashed forward once again, his eyes bloodshot with the idea of vengeance.

"When you release the consensed magic, it pretty much just comes out as kinetic energy, so it can pack a punch. The more you condense, the more powerful the blow," Manuel explained while avoiding the demon's strikes.

"Now, if you want to protect yourself, you condense it all over your body, like you just managed to do. Those are auras, basically." He purposefully let the demon's blade hit him in the shoulder, where it stopped against a thin layer of golden magic.

"Aura protects against physical attacks. The more magic you put in it, the stronger it is, but it sucks against elemental attacks." Rudy's heart skipped a beat as Manuel placed a palm in front of his own face and blew onto it. A wave of searing flames erupted out of the wizard's mouth. The demon backed away but still had to regenerate the burns on his body.

"See? His aura didn't protect him. Of course, you can change your aura to make it guard you from elements, but that would also change its colour, which is why most wizards keep their auras hidden. Also, unlike with the fist, you need to only discharge a small part of your aura when you get hit. Just enough to stop the attack, but not all of it or your armour would be gone until you make a new one."

Rudy gritted his teeth and took a few deep breaths. The fire was not something he expected. Was the wizard really capable of using all elements?

"Now, as you get stronger, you learn to shape your aura around. Hey! Rudy!" He called out to the demon. "Can you show them the blades?"

The demon rolled his eyes. On one hand, he planned to arm himself anyway, but on the other, he didn't want to do as the wizard told him. Nevertheless, he still opted for conjuring his weapons.

"See? He's really good at this," Manuel smiled as if he was just talking about his greatest student. "Those blades are still technically attached to his aura, so that's why they're so easy to create."

Rudy arched forwards and with a single jump, he propelled himself at the wizard. He fully expected him to teleport away, but instead, he simply blocked the attack. His hand was now holding a glowing rapier of light. The demon's eyes widened when he realized that Manuel's speed of conjuring weapons must've been even greater than his.

"Now, with aura, you can do all sorts of crazy stuff. Even fly!" Manuel teleported behind Rudy. A few stabs cracked his red aura. Once the demon retaliated, Manuel quickly teleported away, once again floating in the air. "Now, I'm not actually flying, just holding myself afloat with condensed aura." He smirked and showed the golden cushion underneath him.

A red glow intensified around Rudy's fingers. He pointed all of them at Manuel and soon after, a volley of crimson projectiles showered the wizard, who simply hid behind the cushion that kept him afloat.

"Now what Rudy's doing is the next natural step. Once you can do magic around your body, you learn how to emit it externally to make all sorts of projectiles or other useful spells. Most magic is done this way."

As the cushion began cracking, he teleported away. Before Rudy could adjust the aim of his volley, he was forced to dodge as a glowing spear nearly took his head off.

"And now for the best part—conjuring!" He rolled up his sleeve and with the strength of a professional sportsman, he threw a blazing fireball right at Rudy.

A long, vertical cut tore the spell in half and if not for Manuel's quick teleportation, it would most likely cut into him as well.

"See? Evocation is when you simply shoot out your magic like bullets. But kinetic force is boring, so you can give your magic different properties. Like fire, or cold!" He snapped his fingers and a rising wave of frozen spikes travelled all the way to the demon, nearly impaling him. With a quick clasp of his hands, Rudy's body sprouted at least two dozen magical blades. He tore the ice into pieces before it could even reach him.

"Or something like lightning!" Manuel shouted and the demon barely moved away before a lightning bolt drilled its way through him along with the nearby tree.

"Or something like Rudy does when he sharpens his attacks so they cut. The possibilities are truly endless! It's not just elements. Conjuring can give your magic all sorts of properties, from weight, through sharpness, to mass."

Before the demon could recover, Manuel slowly wandered around the meadow until he found a suitable stick. He picked it up and coated it in his golden aura.

"Enchanting allows you to put magic into objects and give them some special properties," he set the wood ablaze and tossed it at Rudy. As he dodged, it changed its trajectory, like a boomerang. Such an unpredictable attack was impossible to avoid completely. A red blade cut it in half, but that only prompted the magic inside to explode, searing the demon.

"And of course, you can combine things. Condense magic around an object, enchant it with a conjured element, give it the rule to explode when destroyed, and then control it as it flies out. Creativity is crucial. Now, sometimes, certain objects need to be enchanted more than once."

He put his thumbs together as if creating the shape of wings with his hands. Behold! Bird!" he shouted and a vague shape of a golden winged creature flew out of his palms. Rudy cut it with ease, caught off guard by the fact that it didn't explode or carry any harmful effects.

"Yeah, see? You've met Elsie, right? She is great at summoning. If you want something to exist permanently, like artefacts or magical beasts, you need to enchant them over and over until they have the necessary form and can exist independently." He turned to the kids and shrugged. "I don't have how to show you that though. I never really created any creature and don't have the time to do so now."

Rudy focused on the wizard. So far, the demon he was keeping his trump card hidden, but with Manuel's attention turned to the youngling, it was now or never. He focused his magic into the very tip of his claw and shot it out. Manuel's heart skipped a beat as the projectile entered his aura with ease. It was not a harmful strike. His teleportation did not consider it a threat. The bullet flew right through him, freezing his muscles and sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Manuel! Jin shouted and rushed to his side."

"Move, you idiot!" Rudy yelled at the boy. The next attack was already launched. There was no time to avoid it. As the grand wizard lay paralyzed on the ground, a single massive crimson cut flew out to finish the job.