Both Francis and Talvara relaxed on a beach. While the technical aspects of her space hadn’t improved, her ability to recreate scenes had. Something like an ocean and a beach were easy enough. Really, the former him focused far too much on the practical half of [Sleep Learning]. He made a mental note to suggest that Rainer take Luna to a recreation of an amusement park since visiting Earth was both dangerous and inconvenient.
Talvara also gave Francis the ability to alter things, like drinks the Void-being couldn’t have tasted before. Though he deeply regretted including a straw with the cocktail. She may have stopped any overt propositions but that seemed to only make it worse. He couldn’t exactly tell her something like ‘no stretching’ could he? He turned away as she started making light moaning sounds while consuming her drink. Damn sexy Void-being.
He had made a simple rule not to sleep with anyone both him and Rainer knew, but he was wondering how long that would last with Talvara acting as she was. Despite what the Void did to him, he was still missing Kara and Luna, the latter more than the former. And the Void-being expressed her interest.
He may love Kara, and even still be willing to risk his life for hers, but they were two seperate people. Nothing like the frankly unhealthy relationship he shared with Luna. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen to Luna’s state of mind if Rainer disappeared or died. And Luna was his ray of sunshine in a world otherwise filled with murder, crazy Demon Princes, and angry Gods.
He was lonely. That the several girls he was traveling with gave him cow eyes during the day didn’t help. But he wasn’t so far gone as to think sleeping with a 13 or 14-year-old was okay. Wanton murder was one thing, but that would be too much for him.
Even worse, he had curiously asked what races Talvara knew. Not wanting to be outdone, he added numerous fictional - at least he thought they were fictional - races when the question was returned. One of which she was mirroring at the moment with her light violet skin.
Sorry not sorry Rainer. As a concession, I won’t intentionally try to [Void Seer] while your mother is having sex. Looks like you’ll be free from that memory unless our bad luck acts up again.
Francis thought to himself with a chuckle. He glanced over at Talvara who was now giving the bottom of her empty drink a glare. He wondered if the Void-being would enjoy an amusement park?
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“Why are you pouting?” Rainer asked Talvara, currently working yet again on getting Void Will and Arcane Power to work together. His closest attempt at success was to get them to sort of cycle around his Soul, endlessly chasing each other.
The problem with that being the moment he used anything from the two it broke that cycle. And he still had no luck having the [Sleep Learning] part of his Soul acting as a buffer. He did get some luck using his Aura, but as expected, even if the slightest increases in either pool meant exponential increases in the Aura he needed to use. So that was a non-starter.
There was also the issue of what Arcane Power was doing to him. He didn’t think what he did was an overreaction to an assassination attempt on his sister, if anything it was an under reaction seeing as he didn’t even kill anyone.
The issue was the sheer amount of rage he felt. He had always had a temper, but it had never been this bad. He had waved it away in the past as him merely not having anything to really get angry over before he came to his world, which was in-fact true - his life had been quite rose-colored - but he could no longer do so.
He hoped gaining Void Will back in his body would help balance it out.
“I was not pouting,” Talvara replied. He needed Talvara present in the [Sleep Learning] space to grant him Void Will. Even if it was just fake, he struggled replicating the process of implanting Void Will to himself.
“You were pouting.”
“Your better-looking twin makes for more pleasant company,” she complained, though she supposed the comparison wasn’t fair. This Rainer had responsibilities. This Rainer didn’t bother treating her as a guest and offer food and drinks from his world when it was well within his means to do so. But that was merely a matter of politeness, no?
She granted that he probably assumed she had no interest in such things, being what she was. But trapped in the Void, forever an observer due to the pressure of Divinities, how could she not be curious of such simple matters?
“Then go hangout with him,” Rainer said with an eyeroll.
“I am already.”
“What? Oh, yeah, you’re not really ‘here’.”
“Precisely.”
“Then why are you pouting?”
Talvara gained a thoughtful look before responding.
“Can’t a girl pout for no reason?”
Rainer chuckled, “If I believed you were a girl.”
“I would be offended... if I believed you were a man.”
“Okay. Francis had to have helped you with that one.”
“A girl never reveals her secrets.”
“All right, back to work.”
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Waking up from a fun few hours with Talvara, though unfortunately nothing too fun, Francis rolled out of bed. It seemed Talvara intended to make him work for it, any attempts of further flirting were met with avoidance. No matter, it’d be more fun that way.
He looked over his progress from the time spent traveling with the Floater; Talvara’s advice on Void usage had been quite useful.
While he still failed to create anything like a Void Sword - though he was getting closer and closer - he did manage to level his [Void Manipulation] to 8, his [Void Hold] to 5, and [Void Mastery] to 4. Unfortunately, Talvara’s illusionary space had the same flaw as [Sleep Learning]: no experience gained. And he was getting closer and closer to [Void-walking] safely. It was just a week or two away at most. Though he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to take other people with him or even attempt to leave this planet.
Heading out, Francis looked at the teens frantically studying the spells he gave them. It seemed this world was no different in hoarding magical knowledge and all of them were more than surprised when he freely offered them magic based on their talents. Or what they thought were their talents. A lack of Luna’s [Appraisal] skill made it impossible to check their Talents himself.
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They had been working on a variety of spells over the course of the journey, having little else to do. Lacking any paper, there were runic formulas inscribed all across the walls of this Floater, organized and labeled by tier. It had likely become the most valuable Floater in the world.
He momentarily thought back to the old mage that was here. Scratching his own neck, he wondered what that collar did.
“Hey Jessica, what exactly does the neck collar do?” His go-to answer man was one of the most fervent studiers, so he opted not to bother him. The blonde-haired Jessica was the only girl who didn’t blush when he talked to her. In fact, she seemed completely unbothered by his appearance. While not a narcissist, he was almost sure that meant she was gay.
“Blocks all use of Mana without the controller’s permission.”
Francis sighed, quite relieved. He doubted he could ever sleep peacefully again if that collar did anything more now that he had it on his mind.
“Any reason they didn’t put that one on me?” Not that it would have mattered.
“They are very expensive to make… I think. Um, Arch-Magus Nvos?”
“Yes?”
“Are you sure we are heading to the right place?” she asked a bit nervously, many of her fellows now looking over.
“I doubt any of the monsters there will be a problem.”
“They are quite magic-resistant.”
“Well it’s a good thing my specialty isn’t magic then.”
All of them looked at him strangely, but seemed relieved. Nothing he had done so far could cause them to doubt his words, so they took his strange declaration as fact. They went back to studying magic without any further issues.
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Francis stood on top of the Floater, guiding it by sending messages to a Soul Mark he had on Samuel. From the outside, the vehicle looked like a wooden bus without wheels, with a metal frame and a glass window in the front. Through [Void Seer], he could see both his grandfather and mother were eating, and he felt he was at most a mile or so from them.
A flying beast with black skin and bright blue orbs for eyes dived towards the floater. But moments later it’s head vanished in a twisting blackness. An application of [Arcane-Wind Manipulation] sent it flying away from the floater and crashing into the overgrown field of grass. Despite being a ‘forbidden zone’ because of the even thicker mana than usual having an odd effect on animals, the mana also had a grand effect on the plant life. There was nothing forbidden-looking about the vibrant grassfield they flew over. He wondered if any of the flowers or herbs growing had practical use.
While normally he’d have to conserve his Void Will, Francis’ [Excellent Void Affinity] made [Void Call] cheaper and Void Will regenerate far faster, almost equal to his Mana.
A few minutes later he called the Floater to a stop. Flying off the vehicle, he landed on the ground.
“They should be right here…” he mumbled to himself. He leaped backwards, barely restricting his desire to Void-walk, and sent the Floater away with a blast of Arcane-wind. [Arcane Awakening] quickly reached its maximum power, burning his Arcane Aura quickly.
A pillar of pure Arcane lashed out from beneath, alighting even the daytime sky with a violet radiance. From beneath the ground flew forth the cause of the attack.
Unlike Francis’ own [Arcane Awakening], the Arcane energies on this man’s body constantly shifted and glowed, as if alive. At one point they appeared as intricate Runic patterns and at another as flowing freely in a variety of forms. The sheer amount of power was awe-inspiring.
Francis tampened down his desire to fight. As much as he wanted to see how he compared to his grandfather, there was no non-lethal way to do so. And he couldn’t even Void-walk, so it wouldn’t be a real fight.
“You don’t recognize your own grandson? I’m hurt,” Francis yelled out.
The floating figure stopped mid-cast.
“I know I look alot better than you do, old man, but there’s no reason to get jealous.”
“Rainer…?” Frederick was too shocked to even take offense. He had attacked because of the Floater.
“I almost died teleporting to this planet, and now that I’m here my own family almost kills me? Woe is me.”
He saw his grandfather do some sort of blood magic, cutting his hand with an Arcane whip-like spell prior to it. Laughing uproariously, the still glowing man flew over to Francis, wrapping him in a hug.
“It’s good to see you boy.”
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“You couldn’t leave these poor children alone either?” Frederick asked, as he led who he thought was Rainer, to the secret entrance of their base, the teens he saved following. They quickly realized that Francis’ story made no sense given that he clearly knew this man. But no one cared enough to question it. The man was clearly a free mage, and they had nowhere else to go anyways.
The entrance was hidden under an illusion spell that revealed a long set of stairs beneath.
“My ‘landing’ was a bit… rough. I ended up captured alongside them.”
“You managed to piece yourself together on your own?” Frederick asked, more than impressed. Had his granddaughter-in-law, he was Rainer’s great-grandfather after all, not been such a talented healer, he may have died. His ancient body was held together by so many magics normal healing didn’t work that well on it.
“Yep. Learned I could in-fact regrow limbs. Wasn’t sure before that,” he said with a chuckle, drawing a glance that was both proud and shocked from his grandfather.
“I also saw you were teaching kids.”
“Other than working on that ridiculous spell of yours, there isn’t much else to do. Really, it’s saddening what magic has been reduced to on this planet.”
“How did that happen anyways?” Francis’ had been burning with curiosity over it. Mostly due to the fact it made zero sense to him.
“In a twist of Irony, the far higher number of mages here led to their doom.”
“I don’t follow.”
“On Earth there are a hundred thousand potential mages who will never awaken their Mana. Their lives will be as ordinary as anyone else's, apart from living in better health and having a bit less fertility. But here, no matter how little their talent, all mages awaken.”
“So they should be even stronger, especially since mages are constantly attuning, even in their sleep. “
“On Earth, even the weakest of mages live privileged lives. Simply because even the weakest had to have astounding talent to be trained in the first place. There are fewer mages and therefore there is fewer competition for resources. Even with in-fighting, we were a clannish sort. Any outside threats would be met in a united front.
“But here… there were many lower classes of mages, mages who lived little better than ordinary humans. It didn’t take much for these Mages to turn against their fellows. You could even say their fellows deserved it. But of course the fate of any betrayer…”
“Is to be betrayed in turn,” Francis answered, before sighing. Such weapons to fight Mages were no doubt developed then with the help of the numerous oppressed or weaker Mages.
“Yes. Once these weapons to fight magic were developed, which I think can only function on a planet with such rich ambient Mana, alongside those devilish restraints and collars, the war took a turn. Especially since there were many Mages who fought against their own kind. And now, here we are, 1,000 years later. A world ruled by normal humans, not even Qi users either.”
“Not even Qi users?” Francis asked, using the Earth terminology for it.
“The world's energy is overshadowed by the Mana. It is difficult to cultivate Qi. Also, how are you speaking this language,” Fredrick asked, very confused. He had only realized now that he wasn’t speaking English.
“Magic. By the way…” Francis said, using [Arcane Revelation] and realizing just how close his grandfather was to death, “I bought something we can have fun with. It’s called Fairy Dust on the planet I first ended up on. Just put it in a line and snort it.”
“What?” Fredrick exclaimed, flabbergasted. They haven’t seen each other in over a year and that was how he wanted to get them to celebrate? Well, why not...
“What?!” a further, feminine voice, yelled. The moment she had received Fredrick’s telepathic spell, she had been rushing over, only to hear the tailend of the conversation.
“Rainer, I wish I gave you a middle name, Nvos. What the fuck are you doing trying to take drugs with your grandfather?” she scolded, her red hair billowing behind her, though she was not able to hide the smile on her face as she wrapped her ‘son’ in a hug.
“What happened to your eyes? And your hair? Why are you taller? Why do you have a beard? Why do you look better than your beautiful mother despite being filthy and unkempt?” Sophia Nvos rattled off questions as she fussed over his clothes, that hadn’t technically been washed in over a month. At least not washed with anything other than magically created water.
“Fortunately all those have one answer, I’m not Rainer.”