It was a cool September day, leaves were just about beginning to fall, the breeze was perfect, and the smell of cinnamon in the air from the amount of something known as pumpkin spice returning slightly early this year. The sun was right above them, marking the time at around noon. All in all, it should have been just another day in this world, one not to write home about. Sadly fate had other plans.

Kyrion was headed from a class on thermodynamics when a hand landed on his shoulder. While he didn’t need to turn to know who it was. Based on the newcomer's breathing pattern and footsteps, Kyrion wasn’t surprised to see Lee standing there.

“We need to talk.” Lee said with a tired, no, Lee had a level of fear in his eyes, as though he’d been hanging onto something and wasn’t sure if he should speak on it here if at all.

“Why? Listen, I’m a taken man, maybe–” Kyrion started before he was interrupted. His plans to lighten the mood countered. Which likely meant Lee thought what he needed to say was urgent,

“We need to talk. Kao.” Lee flinched as though he expected things to go bad in an instant.

“Who?” Kyrion covered Lee in the power he used to cloak himself then teleported the two of them away.

The wind howled as frigid cold, and excessively thin air whirled around the area. The ice and snow went on for miles. A mountain range could be seen down below. Clouds rolled past as though an invisible wall caused them to pass by. The sun was getting close to setting in this location and the view could have been breathtaking if it wasn’t for the current mood.

Kyrion lay in the snow unbothered as heat radiated from his body in a way that kept him and his visitor reasonably warm. His expression was listless and he was nearly bereft of any emotion whatsoever. As though the matter didn’t bother him at all. Which it did but misdirection requires the ability to play many roles.

“What did you want to talk about?” Kyrion said with the boredom of an unenthusiastic math teacher.

“Where are we?”

“A mountain named after a good friend of mine. I’ll tell him about this place later.” Kyrion’s response was clipped and precise.

“Is your friend called Everest or something?”

“Yes. So what did you want to talk about?” Kyrion raised an eyebrow and let his black hair return to its natural red.

“So. You are Kaolad. Is Kyrion a fake name?”

“Nope. Wrong. It’s an acronym. It would be obvious if the patron's name is just my own. Towkodar, if I told you that something with this name was hunting you down, would you run? Or try to kill it.” Kyrion raised an eyebrow and remembered that Lee was a very big-picture seer as opposed to Jin’s limited view. He decided to relax a bit.

“I’d run, the name sounds intimidating.”

“The One Who Knocks On Doors And Runs, is scary to you.”

“Why is it all capitalized?” Lee said as he looked down as though reading words had appeared under Kyrion’s torso.

“What are you talking about? Nevermind. I don’t care about that, what do you want?” Kyrion squinted.

“I need to confirm something. Are you an entity capable of destroying the planet? And if so, how long would it take?”

“A day of uninterrupted time to absorb the ocean and transport it somewhere else.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Not that I would dare make an enemy out of my friend Cecil. I am here to prevent massive death on a scale you wouldn’t imagine.” Kyrion withdrew a dagger and twirled it around as eyed his clubmate.

“Where did you get that knife?” Lee stood and tried to back up. Leaving the radius of warpth for a second and getting a freezing chill he quickly moved back into the heat.

“Want to guess which part is sleight of hand and which part is magic?”

“N-n-no. I need to confirm something. Are you the reason Moca isn’t coming to school?” Lee’s teeth chattered a bit before he adjusted.

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“Yes and no. She is comatose but that isn’t my fault. Blame her father for that fiasco.” Kyrion cut into his hand with an enchanted knife watching as blood flowed from his hand and covered the snow, it didn’t freeze, the heat cutting into the mountain.

Kyrion used divine essence to carve a rune into the mountain. The rune began to draw energy from the world to power it. As it did, a well of power far beyond what Kyrion expected shot out in a font and covered the surrounding area with mana as well as a nurturing barrier. People and animals born in a large area on that portion of the planet would be born with magic, crops would grow stronger, and life would flourish.

“I did not mean to do that. Though it does confirm a suspicion.” Kyrion said, his eyes growing bloodshot.

“You found a leyline. This would be the first one of many, the next one you will find lies under Detroit. Which is why I came here. You can’t let the others help you in Detroit no matter what. If they go, they will die. You also can’t tell them not to go, Mira’s ability lets her alter destinations and she will show up to help if you tell her not to.”

“So you want me to tell her to stay home without telling her to stay home, as she will just come to help regardless. That’s confusing.”

“That’s teenagers, the only way I see their survival is if you command them to come with you then give them an out.”

“Reverse psychology. I can work with that.” Kyrion added a few more bloody runes to increase range and slowly grow the pathways until he could connect to the other relatively nearby leylines.

“That's the best I can do.”

“Can you see me in your futures?”

“Yes. When I sleep I can see you clearly now, and in the background I remember old visions that are now here. You are the dragon that fell, to the west, and the tiger is some green haired boy who fell to the far east.”

“Correct. Ander is a friend of mine. Now that I know about these fonts of magic I suspect opening them all up will allow me to get home somehow.”

“They will, though I'm not sure of the details. Something about dressing up like Santa Claus and breaking into places built on fonts of magic.”

“Santa claus. I’ll do my research on him. I already have a base in mind on the north pole in production.”

“Great.”

“What else can you see about me?”

“There is a tragedy coming, no matter what you do, you won’t be able to save everyone. You’ll be forced to make a choice. Between personal victory and accolades, or the lives of everyone you love, but forced isolation. That’s all I believe I can say at the moment.”

“I see, seers can’t usually see my future so this is good to know. Life always beats out victory parties.” Kyrion knew what he’d choose but first, he’d need to get as powerful as he could.

“They can’t?”

“Lee, train up your power, train your friends, while you likely won’t become a leader you will be a great corner piece in your world if your powers develop. Mira will have a key to a dungeon soon, go there and conquer it in my name, and you’ll grow strong.” Kyrion leaned into the mountain and closed his eyes.

“You don’t seem like someone who likes the cold?”

“Places like this are peaceful and good for relaxation. Ready to head back?”

“Yeah, if I stay here too long I’ll likely get sick.”

“Really?” Kyrion teleported two of them back home.

The next morning Kyrion awoke early and did his morning exercises before eating a large breakfast. From there he visited some shops to pick up his magical snacks, and new clothes and bought the schematics for various magitech cooking tools used in this world. He’d borrow them and have versions in his kitchens.

Deep down Kyrion decided that to survive, he would need to start learning how to cook. This world had so much good food. Going back home would be difficult unless he pushed culinary pursuits beyond what they were capable of.

A ride to school ended with him in his clubroom with two missing students. Oddly enough the ginger-haired Sera had come to the club today. Looking around she seemed confused. “Where’s Lee and Moca?”

“Don’t know, for Moca, but Lee caught a serious cold. They said it was as though he was taken from very cold weather to a humid environment and his immune system left to get milk.”

“And you, why are you still coming here?” Sera asked Kyrion, a power in her words sent a wave of mental energy into the young man.

“To cause trouble. It’s in my nature. Why don’t you sit down, shut up, and let this meeting get started.” Kyrion didn’t like people trying to manipulate him, but his tricky nature did end with him sending a mental command to her subconscious.

Sera sat down where she was standing, nowhere near a desk, much to her confusion, and understanding.

“Alright.” Mira moved on.

“I received this key in the mail, the letter in it said that it leads to a place where we can grow our powers and abilities.”

“I want to see how it works.” Kyrion stated.

“Oh right you two don’t have powers yet do you?”

“Kilo made me something. He’s very smart.” Kyrion said innocently.

“Right, well then lets see.” Mira pointed the key at a whiteboard and turned it. A purple doorway appeared and opened up revealing a suburban area filled to the brim with small monsters. They looked weak and easy to beat for people with magic.

Mira closed the door. “That’s real magic!”

Sera lost consciousness as the smell of old dirt wafted into the room and the gremlin screeches were loud and viscous.

“Wow.” Kyrion clapped his hands dumbly.

“Not wow, this is real magic! Just what have you been doing?” Issac asked, before remembering the truth. He then squinted at Kyrion.

Jin was working on a mech with his eyes shot up for a second. He then got back to work.

“Right then. Looks like we will be fighting goblins. Tomorrow night get your baseball bats and kitchen knives, we’ll be hunting monsters. You don’t have to go, Sera, and Kyrion.” Mira stated.

“Fine by me.” Kyrion popped his back and then stood up.

“Right. If you’re coming here tomorrow after school, be ready. I imagine it will be good to finish training.”