Mage Lord Albus Dan-Agaza Kingspell, an obscenely long title to be sure, yet a well-deserved one nonetheless. Currently, the man himself was contemplating the nature of magic. He had witnessed something truly shocking and speaking for his 143 years of experience that was saying something. Previously he had thought himself at the peak of magic, sure there were higher tiers of magic he had yet to achieve, but…well… only the gods could wield that sort of power. And he was no god.

What he had witnessed was a young boy, not more than 10, perhaps younger, performing a feat of magic far above his level. The boy was weak in mana, that he could tell, yet he defended and countered a brutal assault from a mage of the 3rd tier. The difference in their capacity was vast yet the older mage could do nothing to the boy, nay even ruffle his feathers. Then came the counter-attack, he had been standing reasonably close to the mage a mere 10 paces behind the man and a bit to his left. Cloaked in an invisibility spell he had the watch as the boy's fireball or as the chant had stated Plasma Bolt whatever that was, had struck the military mage. The man had been shielding in the standard army grade spell, capable of blocking spells up to the 3rd Tier, depending on power. He was practically vaporized.

That mage had truly been scared when he saw the bolt of blue flame manifest in the boy's hand, the cruel grin made the disconnect between the boy's age and power, a man..boy, unhinged.

Lord Albus would have saved the mage, but then again he had wished to see the effect of such a spell. He would speak to the boy, try to entice him. He must have a master, perhaps he knew some secret.

Well if talking didn't work...he had just the spell.

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Chris woke bleary and cold, he felt for the energy within him and found only dregs. He was hungry, very hungry. They must have been sucking the mana out of him constantly, and withholding food had caused his regeneration to dwindle to nothing.

He looked around, noting the damp dark room he was in, it had a distinct smell, mostly iron with a hint of human excrement and mold. He wondered if the purposely made it damp, the fire should have fried everything to within an inch of its life. Or they could be somewhere else. But that would mean he had been kept magically unconscious, for long enough to travel to another town or city. He wasn't sure which he preferred, neither.

“Are you done observing?” a whisend old voice hummed through the air seeming at one with the darkness. Chris looked around but could not see anyone, now he came to think of it there was no entrance, only four smooth stone walls. He kept silent, he was a patient manboy.

“Wondering where i am?, well right here…” As Chris blinked and opened his eyes there was a barred section on the wall in front of him with an iron door to one side. Behind the bars sat a man decked in gold.

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“Much better, now tell me, of what Tier do you reside?” Said the man, a tone of, don't mess with me kind of attitude, tired and resigned, he already knew Chris would talk. Chris knew it as well.

“I Sir, reside in Tier 0, I have just freshly completed my blooding, may i know your name?” Chris adopted a deferential tone, he would require time, preferably alone.

“Hmmm, I detect no lies. So then how were you able to cast such formidable magic? It seems my guess was correct” The man asked in an accusatory yet intrigued tone, lightly stroking his nine-inch white beard.

This was a dangerous question, he must answer without a direct lie. “I have a naturally high affinity for mana control.” This was true, and the old mage knew it, he also knew that it was not the whole truth.

“Well, that may be true, but...my time is short. Tell me who your master is and we will see about getting you some food, ehh how does that sound?” The old Mage sounded like he was trying to entice a puppy to take medicine. Chris internally cringed but decided to play along... For now. He would start with playing for time, tell the old fart a name he had to look up despite his doubts.

“I would indeed find that amenable, I owe him no great loyalty for abandoning me after all. His name is Arch Mage Sirius Dan-Belmont Kisershman The Second, I call him father and master” This was, of course, utter bullshit, Chris had no idea who his father was but, for the sake of accuracy, that person could for all he knew could be his father. It would not trigger the lie detector. He guessed 'mental attitude' and what the subject believed to be very 'important'.

The mage stiffened, then narrowed his eyes. He stood and walked away, doubtless to confirm if there was such a mage. Which there wasn't. Chris had to work fast if he wanted to escape. He had wanted to test this theory but had not had the time, it was a well-known fact that creating objects from mana was possible, just extremely difficult, limited to only the most powerful or specialized mages. He had theorized that this was because of the amount of energy it would take to condense solid matter, they could perhaps only make a pea per week. The waste from not knowing what the universe was made of also compounded the problem. For Chris this task may never be possible, he simply did not have the mana capacity to support it. However what about the opposite, turning matter into mana. He knew from his knowledge that fission and fusion proved this was possible and extremely rewarding.

Focusing on the air, Chris looked with his will, summoning the tiniest wisp of his remaining mana to grasp a single atom. This level of detail was mentally straining and he tried to work faster, taking the atom he looked deeper, finding its components, gripping them he pulled them all outwards and away. He sunk a small portion of energy to do this, it was only a single atom. There was a moment's resistance as the nucleic forces resisted his influence, then a pop and a flood of heat and energy, it burst forth and Chris looked at the energy, he could not collect it but perhaps… he repeated the test inside his own body and when the energy burst forth it was seamlessly streamed and integrated into his mana, flexing and returning to normal. This had yielded an incredibly small amount of mana, yet that was a single atom. Chris refocused on the slight fat layer in his body and grabbed millions of atoms(This was easier now he could generalize the process), he split some at the center and ripped his influence outward riding the wave of energy to break more of the fat cell down. He was surprised as it yielded more than he thought it would, it was not even one-thousandth of matter converted and yet yielded enough to fill his reserves by about 0.1% a seemingly small amount..yet. He grasped hold of thousands of fat cells and ripped them apart the atoms breaking and then reforming, he was flooded with power. His mana was full, he had a chance!!

It was then that his stomach blew itself outward, spewing forth a foul grainy gaseous excrement that splattered and hissed some of it boiling away. Ahh shit, what did I make on my stomach, that was a mistake. He felt nauseous and his skin was turning a bright blistering red, ‘Shit i've been poisoned, some chemical I accidentally made or just radiation.’

Either way, he would have to act fast or die.