[8 years later]

Floating in space just right above a desolate red planet with a look of boredom in his eyes was Emrys, in these eight years he had grown to be so much taller now standing at a height of six foot and four inches, his face had become much more beautiful and defined losing the baby fat and some of the innocence that persisted through his earlier years.

He had allowed his hair grow wildly over the years as it now reached a length below his waist and so full it presented almost like a mane of sorts, lazily looking towards his side at the mage probing the planet for compatibility and value he heaved a mental sigh, though this was still his first ever conquest he had come to realize that the most dreadful part was this particular process and it drained him to no end leaving him to sometimes wonder why they call it a conquest when it was more like a research project half for the most part

'Well, for the valuable worlds occupied by compatible life forms it does look like they're conquered from their point of view I'd imagine'.

Though this particular conquest might not be comparable in scale to the one ten years ago in either mobilized forces or the ship sizes but he was sure it remained every bit as restrictive in this particular aspect.

The young fairy sensing his weariness began patting his head once again with her tiny hands to comfort him and it worked as he just smiled at her and thinking of how amusing the sight looked though she had grown a lot and was almost half the size of his arm, their bond had also deepened a lot over the years becoming quite an unbreakable one and she even had turned into his teacher of sorts when it came to fine tuning his control of mana, having also asked for a name three years ago he had chosen to bestow upon her the name Aine.

"It is done your highness, the planet marks a low a score in all criterias, you may proceed with your test" the mage suddenly announced using minor sound magic to bypass the natural restrictions of space.

It was a beginner skill even the most untalented could learn in a few days but a must have for any whom were to be partaking in conquest alongside transmission and as all whom are under the influence of mana naturally breathe and are protected by it the harshness of space also meant nothing to their bodies, this of course rules out the ones already born as spiritual bodies whom were a category unto themselves such as he.

Emrys had found this out the hard way when he accidentally destroyed what a particular race referred to as a space station only to watch them die a most gruesome death when fully exposed to the environment of space which also led him to a whole other problem.

Raising his hand a small purple ball of pure mana condensed before his index, it stayed there for a few seconds with his gaze glued to it and then he released it.

Beginner tier magic categorized not as a spell but a skill and something usually accompanied with the word 'weak' when thought of by most, but now right before his eyes he watched as this very same 'weak' attack destroyed the planet before him.

There was no grand explosion to be heard, only what sounded like a low but deep below as the red desolate planet turned a bright shade of purple before it was gone.

And this was the second problem, outside his realm everything was so.......unrestricted, so fragile. The mana put into that attack was so suppressed and negligible at the very best, normally would provide nowhere near the same level of effects back home, maybe it might crack a random small rock but that was about it yet here it was so exaggerated beyond belief.

He had been breiefed about this particular situation before he left and had some adequate training but seeing it up close even after all his efforts was really a bizarre feeling, in here he felt that if he just squeezed enough with a little bit of strength he felt he could tear open a hole in space, a clap would be devastating to perhaps multiple galaxies in this realm and a little burst of mana would erase the realm in it's entirety.

The false feeling of goodhood realms like these gives to one would be enough to tempt so many many below average knights and mages back home with weak wills and no future, Emrys closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them as he turned towards the mage.

"Quickly bring me some of the worlds with no value, about five hundred of them".

The mage looked a little nervous upon hearing his request "but your highness, the main force will begin moving again soon" he tried to reason.

"Then I'll just have to achieve a least half of my objective before they do so, go" he ordered.

The mage reluctantly accepted his orders and went away, a short while later a faint and weak pulse of mana spread all over as the planets began appearing rapidly before him, about a minute later it was all there as he had requested.

The mage seamlessly walked out through space itself and bowed before his master "i have done as requested your highness".

"I request you form a barrier around us, this won't take long".

The mage felt a small rage building up inside his heart as Emrys making such a declaration, he wasn't questioning his gift as a genius but this was just very much what overconfidence was and yet even though he held this position in his heart he still was under obligation to comply with the request.

Soon enough a barrier was formed to separate them as Emrys got down to his objective but before going so he mentally advised the young fairy not to interfere this time, the mage watched from the side as his master began earlier than anyone the real objective for why he along with most of the other fated ones were allowed to tag along on this conquest, the opportunity to train in the hopes of attaining level of refined control and reading sensitivity beyond what most could ever dream possible.

He as with every other veteran of conquest had been successful in attaining this state, of course theirs took decades and the best of them nearly one. The record held for achieving this state the fastest was the great anomaly general Maeve who only took eight months to achieve it, but this was what made him acknowledge the fact that he too as with every veteran bar the general who came the closest were not blessed with a mana anywhere near as potent as what his master and the other fated ones had to handle thereby making their process much easier in a sense, this along with the heaven sized gap in potential guaranteed that the levels of growth received when they eventually achieved the same state would dwarf theirs by miles on end.

But that was where the whole point lied, in the eventuality of them achieving this state hence why a period of three months was given to the fated ones before they were to be sent back immediately just in time for the upcoming event which triggered this madness in the first place. This was why his master's rush and confidence ticked him off greatly, he was an incomparable genius and a fated one but he was no god yet, if that had been the case his faith would have been absolute upon hearing such a declaration.

The mage calmed himself down after such a long rant in his heart, it would bring nothing but more unnecessary anger to his heart so he just had to let go and keep watching as ordered.

Meanwhile Emrys was completely lost in his own world of focus as he kept trying to find a way to dilute mana itself, suppression alone was great but it had it's limits as it was more akin to cloaking though still not quite as quality does in fact get reduced up to a certain point.

And he could not keep reducing the quantity of mana used in his attacks as that too would reach a limit even with the presenceof quality being there to offset costs greatly without sacrificing power unwillingly as a side effect, at a certain point it would just be too little and fragile to maintain a presence in the world thereby fading away in an instant.

Feeling no real progress with his thoughts he decided to switch tactics and go for something more practical, he began experimenting with the limits he could take mana suppression to, first he created hundreds of mana bullets around him and closely monitored the mana being supplied to keep the skill going.

The less mana he supplied the more dependant he had to become on the quality but he was taking great care with the use of suppression to reduce that too, but he wasn't manipulating them at equal ratios for each bullet. For each one he was taking great care to apply a different ratio of suppression and mana quantity and as one would suspect it was taking quite a bit from him mentally, some of the bullets dispersed when his focus shifted a little too long away from them but that was okay as he had summoned hundreds for this very reason.

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But if this was what he had only been doing and facing this much of a mental drain then he might have to actually be embarrassed with himself, the real test he was pushing himself so hard for was trying to feel and grasp the very fabric of this realm but his own very presence had cast too big a shadow thereby making things so much more difficult for him.

It was not only just his presence but that of everyone present and the other fated ones, though his presence and that of his peers could not be compared to that of the veterans it still greatly overshadowed that of this realm's which should have already collapsed long ago if not for the mages keeping it relatively in one piece. But for the presence belonging to the mages and the other veterans he noticed how balanced qnd harmonized it was with what he assumed to be the realms very own but the problem still remained grasping it.

'Perhaps I might have to stop searching around me and instead have a look at myself and what is below'.

In the meantime with his second task Emrys had reached a point or balance for all his summoned bullets and decided to release them after taking note of each measured ratio he applied to each and everyone before reaching a limit of where his mana was no longer sustainable enough to be maintained in the world, three hundred and forty eight times was the maximum limit he reached and the remain excess were dissipated.

He watched with great care as each made contact with their targets and recorded the aftermath of their effects, many were destroyed though at different paces compared to some. But eight in particular caught his eyes, six worlds were had roughly half or just a little more of it's whole destroyed but the other two in particular had only roughly a quarter of it's whole missing.

He felt a great sense of elation in his heart as this could be called some great progress in comparison to his first try, but it soon died down very quickly as he was now back to square one which was dilution.

And back to his progress on feeling the fabric of this realm he had found it which would have been great news if there wasn't such a big problem, he could not grab a hold of it. Without the interference of the mages every attempt he made at trying to connect with it simply tore it, the mage beside him having noticed more frequent tears all of sudden pin pointed the reason back to his master and by the goddess his shock could not be contained, it wasn't just him alone either as the others of course felt what was going on.

Emrys had come to a conclusion, right now there were two paths available for him to take and the first was suppressing his presence. But he felt internally that this would be the wrong way to go about it when taking into account how the mages achieved theirs without seemingly any need for sacrifice.

Balancing a ten ton bar of metal atop a cracker without breaking it, that was the best way he could describe the feat they had achieved. He brought his thoughts back to the very basics of magic at it's core, learning the rules of the world, acknowledging said rules and then defying them anyways, this was the privilege magic provided to those granted access to it.

Returning back to his other project a very insane idea had popped up in his head, has one ever thought to destroy their mana using their very own mana. There's situations for mages whereby one accidentally clashes the mana being circulated for one task into another, this usually occurs at the early stages of learning multi-casting and it is always a very dangerous thing when it occurs as there is a risk of permanent damage to the body, heart or brain which almost always signifies the end of one's path as a mage if not strong enough or resourceful enough to reverse said damage as the heart or brain are the core of most humanoid races bar the beastly and spiritual ones.

But now he was talking about doing such a dangerous thing willingly, the pain that usually occurs from this sort of accident is one of the worst things possible to experience and it has broken some before yet right now something was tugging him deep in his conscious that he was on the right path, he was mad no question but he was still correct.

"Your highness" the mage suddenly called out to him.

Emrys already understood the situation and simply turned around as they were teleported back to their personal space in the ship, it was no secret that his aunt wasn't on good terms with the Emperor and their already terrible relationship had soured even more over the years so interaction with any of Peltas's subjects wasn't something he had any interest in doing, the only reason why none were trying to antagonize him right now was due to both the fear and respect they had for his mother and aunt.

'If only you were here Irmir'.

He sighed and sunk into his soul space to see Irmir still asleep protected by a red near transparent cocoon, four years ago Irmir had completed her preparations and devoured the ancient dragon's blood which pulled her into the state of an evolution process that had been going on for four years straight.

Within this timeframe sometimes he would worry deeply whenever he sensed her condition being unstable while stuck in there but she always managed to pull through in the end and now it had been one year being fully stable yet she still showed no signs of waking up.

The young fairy flew into the joint soul space when she sensed his consciousness was somewhere else, due to their bond the extreme time dilation effect of the soul space had no effect on her which was also the reason she could invade freely although Emrys still doubted if that would have been a limitation either way having seen the places she has been able to move in and out freely of.

She flew over the sleeping Irmir with a sad expression on her face, Irmir was almost always her willing partner to play with whenever Emrys denied her his attention most of the time and of course they had grown a strong bond in that time.

Emrys gave the young fairy a gentle head pat as he pulled them both out of the soul space, the entirety of the ship was once again covered in familiar magic circuits after recovering enough mana as they began their journey through an enormous portal opened before the ship.

The crossing was a pretty short one for the most part as he found himself in a new realm which he felt almost immediately but this time unlike the first there was a hint of surprise on his face;

'Mana? No, there's something else more present than the influence of mana in this realm'.

Magic was everywhere, but just like the realm where he had just left it's direct influence was little to none as seemingly only a few realms seems to have been blessed with an actual relationship with it like his home realm for example and if he were to still compare it's influence to some of the few realms found to have an active relationship with mana it still would beat the competition by quite a large margin.

'How interesting' he mused to himself.

A knock was heard at his door and he allowed permission for the guest to step in, the mage came in and took a polite bow.

"Your highness, the captain is asking for an audience with all the fated ones aboard".

Emrys raised a brow at that, why would Aaron possibly want with him, he was heavily inclined to decline the summoning however disrespectful that might be to the one in command but in the end something else got to him, his peers whom he hadn't had a look at since eight years ago.

"Ashem" he called out.

A little spatial distortion occurred in the room as a great big lion with snow white fur stepped out and majestically walked towards him, the mage looked every bit of uncomfortable with that monster in the room and it subconsciously triggered his own familiar to react and show itself protectively wrapping around him and hissing warily as a warning though terrified out of it's wits.

"Y-your highness, please forgive my baldness but why do you bring that m— your familiar out".

"Because I'm sure they would be doing the same thing".

"Huh?"

Emrys pet his lion on the head and walked out leaving the confused mage to himself although he soon stepped out soon enough and followed right behind his master at a safe distance, one might ask why he was so wary of his master's familiar although he completely dwarfed his master in power at current and that would be due to the special nature of how familiars worked.

During the process one's soul is tossed into the realm of summons and the creature one is contracted with is entirely dependent on how attractive or worthy said creature finds your soul and it's affinity, personal choice is entirely nonexistent in this process, now this was where things got a bit tricky, there were six categories to familiars in the realm of summons based on their strength.

–Earth tier.

–Gold tier.

–Spirit tier.

–General tier.

–Heaven tier.

–Supreme tier.

Now there were other minor ranking differences in-between but this was the definitive way it looked in general, to most of the world's knowledge these were the rankings of familiar spirits but in truth there was one final rank left out due to the fact it was thought absolutely impossible by even the those currently standing at the peak of power to be impossible to impress;

The -Lords-.

Even the demigod Merlin was recorded to have only been able to attract a Heaven tier familiar in his younger days so none gave much hope to the Supreme tiers let alone the final hidden rank and this is what his master had been able to attract to form an eternal contract with.

One of the conditions this contract brought was that if the master's soul and power as at the time of making the contract was much weaker than what the familiar possessed then it would be sealed down to a bearable level only perhaps a stage or two higher than the master's current strength based on what the soil could handle but with room for flexibility in dire situations if needed.

If it were in reverse and the master's soul and strength were higher than the contracted familiar, it's strength would be significantly heightened to either equal or surpass that of the master's but things almost never occurred in this direction.

And this was why the mage was terrified of his master's familiar, it was the monster of all monsters.

Emrys felt the young fairy gently tugging at his shirt trying to tell him something and simply smiled 'I know' he assured her.

Soon enough just ahead and coming from the second pathway connecting to his and leading to the Captain's station were his peers who all seemed to be the same height as he save for Sarang who was a towering six foot eight inches tall monster.

Upon locking eyes with each other he could see the surprise in their eyes but their pace never slowed as they continued onwards, a crimson furred cat with two tails was flying above Shen, beside Sarang was a majestic grey stag with glowing blue markings almost as tall as he was and walking beside Noctis was a great white wolf with golden irises.

The mage behind felt like he was about to die upon seeing those familiars and right now his familiar wasn't daring to bare it's fangs at all in the presence of three Supreme creatures and a Lord which somehow seemed to be the tamest one in terms of feel here.

'They're stronger' Emrys thought to himself showing a small look of disapproval on his face.

'How disappointing'.

EnD.