The world became so much more focused when I had an easier goal than to master four elements.

I would do it, but the deathgate could help me with two of them, meaning I only had to actually focus on Aqua and Lumen.

Some might think me stupid for betraying the academy, and for most people, it would be stupid to do so. But the power of a calamity organization was at my fingertips, a realm of power beyond the things I merely wanted, something I would need to kill the immortals that would always remain a danger to me.

Calamities were this worlds equivalent to world wars, natural disasters or alien invasions, with the difference that calamities were almost always the result of mortals messing with powers beyond their control.

I was sitting every evening in the library, reading about the calamities and hoping to find a clue.

The first calamity was the demon lord, who I had spent one of the three weeks researching, my dreams focused on delving into his memories, until I finally found the truth.

He had been called. He had been called upon because someone did not like the gods and great spirits, though most of these great spirits fit the description of the guardians.

The second calamity had been the result of people trying to figure out the runes on their own, discussing them and writing them into the sky to cast a spell, it was an age that killed three quarters of the population and resulted in the system being implemented.

The third calamity was much easier, the deathgate society simply mastered the art of drawing upon the Arcana directly, forming gates out of nowhere that would spontaneously spell doom to every single creature close to it, some of the older members even going so far as to turn their own soul into permanently open gates, binding themselves to constructs that required a keystone and a powerful ingredient of necrotic power to open.

Each of these had resulted in major changes, and made the world better.

Gates were rare now, only connecting cities and managed by people who were forbidden from cultivating their soul, a hefty price paid back in the coin that job offered. This world used to be beautiful, before each of these calamities restricted the access everyone had to it.

It was horrifying to watch, to think about and to discuss with Ember, who had more and more of a craze in his eyes, the further I unraveled the truth.

“Brother, if this is true, there could be a world when the inferno within me would have destroyed those who stand against me, with nothing but a simple circle? Why did these last two calamities have to happen? The world would be better without them, right?” He asked, and I agreed. We were living on a corpse, slowly siphoned of power, and a demon lord that had thousands or millions of devils working to complete him.

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I had to open the deathgate, and with the support of my new allies, I would rise to a position where fighting, or at least confronting the gods would become possible.

Some high schoolers have kill lists, and while my list only had targets I needed to neutralize, the fifteen divine beings of this world sounded like the perfect target.

I just needed to put the worlds back together and fight the demon lord in the between.

Ember snapped me out of this train of thought with a solid slap, making my head spin and a burning mark to remain.

“Don’t sleep now, idiot. You first got to steal something from the headmaster, he’s the ultimate null mage, from what I heard, some say he can decide whether your spells go off, how your body acts and everything. It’s the main reason nobody messes with Greencrest. Sure, the elves have their druid grove, but those old men would rather not be disturbed. What do you plan on doing to solve this?” He asked, my grin expanding as I found the answer in a memory almost repressed.

“The snowborn have a new leader, we just need to make sure their attack aligns with the biggest mess we could make, should I feel bad for thinking about regicide?” he laughed at that, before he found my gaze held firm.

“The king has the best guards, he has everything that anyone could have to protect himself, don’t fool yourself into thinking this to be an actual opportunity.” He warned me, and had I a different opportunity, I would have taken it.

Within the day, I was on my way north, heading towards snowborn territory after convincing my teachers.

The necros professor was ok with anything I wanted to do, so long as I promised to see both life and death as I did so.

Aqua was a bit harder, but a speech about self discovery always gets those kinds of people.

My spatium teacher was the hardest nut to crack, though when I told him I wanted to experience travel in the right way, before the temptation of teleportation would become too strong. It was a lot harder than telling my lumen professor, who told me that the sunrise up there would be beautiful.

What I did not expect was for me to have a retinue on the path.

On the 34th of Null, in the 6297th year after the second calamity, the early sunrise illuminated me as I left the academy, followed by Skulk, Noel, Shade, Ember, Sine, Hannibal, Nemo and seven undead, each of which had their own reasons for following me.

“Why exactly are we doing this again?” Asked Sine, looking at the others for an explanation.

“The undying professor mentioned this to me as an opportunity to expand my knowledge in regard to death, and the illuminated one assured me it would be entertaining. That kind of got my curiosity.” Answered Shade, Skulk and Noel laughing.

“We are here to make sure this guy isn’t doing something stupid, the space mender told us we would surely learn something from it. Mostly because he really hates El though, and we couldn’t have listened to the old man complaining more than absolutely necessary.” Noel explained, Skulk nodding along as he did so.

“I tag along anywhere El goes, never had that be a bad Idea, so I guess you’ll be in for a surprise. I am curious what kind of evil monstrosity we face this time though.” Ember answered, prompting me to grin as we passed through the cities front gate.

“I want to talk to the leader of the snowborn, hope that he has some information on the Arcana that I missed, a different perspective, if you will. I would include the elves in this pilgrimage, but someone I trust assured me that would not be a good Idea, same with larger goblin clans, the water folk or harpies. At this point, the snowborn are the only people who have any chance at all of helping us.” I explained, resulting in a lot of nods from the others as we traveled the path to our future. None of us were slow, everyone having some method of increasing their speed.

Sine constantly channeled some spell into her legs, Ember propelled himself forward with flames, Noel and Skulk used spatium spells to get faster, while I Simply melded a bit with the threads of space, becoming just a bit more powerful in the way my body and the world interacted.

Together, we sprinted towards the border, taking seven days to do so.

The world flashed past us as we ran, and the joy of running faster than anyone else flushed our faces with relief.

“I haven’t felt this free in quite some time.” I told the others, who agreed, grinning broadly as I did so.

“Still can’t believe they gave the OK to us doing this.” Noel agreed, and everyone laughed.