"I didn't know when it was going to happen", the Eldest admitted, causing Cale to stop instantly. Doubtingly, he watched as the man moved to an upright position and brushed his long hair to the side. He must have been getting pretty warm, because slowly he began to open his uniform, something he usually never did. "The insight of the third stage showed me."

Cale replied nothing as he watched the grown man take off his coat and tie his hair. He suddenly didn't seem to care how he looked in front of Cale.

"You'll remember your insight, won't you?", the Eldest tossed challengingly at Cale's head, causing him to swallow nervously. He could never forget the intuition he had seen before he had died the first time.

"Of course."

"Then you also understand how surreal the feeling is. I'm old, Leuen. Quite old. I gone through the test of the future more than 200 years ago."

Irritated, Cale looked at the man, who showed weakness at the statement. What exactly was the Eldest talking about?

"The Magistrat didn't exist back then and Altona was a lot more rural at that time. All the greater was my astonishment when I could see in my imagination the capital of today. But that was not all, I could watch the creatures destroying Exarion while my consciousness was drawn away by the sight."

The Eldest paused before Cale inevitably started laughing, took a few steps back and dropped onto his bed, stunned. With one hand, he held his head as he processed the statement. The reason the country was dying wasn't that no one knew. It was just that they didn't know when it was going to happen. In his opinion, that was just another form of ignorance.

"You want to know what else I saw in my insight?", the High-Magician stated matter-of-factly, causing Cale to lower his hand and look at the man with serious eyes. "I saw you."

"Me?", Cale abruptly replied, pointing his finger at himself.

"Yes, you. After the scene, I suddenly found myself in the mountains of Sylve and could see you standing on the peak looking over Altona", the Eldest explained, making Cale abruptly nervous. Was the Eldest assuming that he was responsible for what the creatures were doing? "But while my consciousness was disengaging, I could see that Altona was alive and radiating her enormous contentment. What I saw in that last moment still concerns me to this day. It was your companionship."

All at once, Cale understood what the Eldest was talking about. Cold sweat formed on his skin while he covered his mouth with his hand. His whole body began to tremble as he remembered his intuition.

"It was a dragon", he finally admitted, as he looked at the Eldest with small eyes. It was as if the gaps were closing.

"You know? Where...", the Eldest raised his voice, but fell silent when he noticed how pale Cale had become. "Leuen?"

Anxiously, Cale swallowed and took a deep breath as he pushed away the memories of the Dragon Queen.

"My insight. I saw something similar to you. I stood next to a large, black dragon in the mountains of Sylve and saw first Sylve and then Altona. I never believed that the insight really showed the future. But if you saw me, it means that it is actually true. I don't believe it."

Cale felt sick. Until today, he had thought that the insight was Craziness. In all his life, he had never been in this situation, so he thought it must be false. But if even the Eldest had seen him, then it meant that this encounter was still in the future. In a future that Cale had not reached until today.

"Just why was in the presence of a dragon?", Cale mumbled, looking at the ground.

"You don't know which dragon it was?"

"Do you know?", Cale replied in amazement.

"By the looks of it and the mana I felt, it must have been the Dragon Queen", the Eldest explained, before Cale gasped in shock and looked hesitantly at the mage.

"No, it wasn't the Dragon Queen. I'm pretty sure it was. It must have been some other... powerful dragon."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I know the Dragon Queen. It wasn't her."

"You know... the Dragon Queen?", the Eldest spoke slowly, surprised. The two stared at each other for a while before Cale sighed loudly and sat back.

"I've already said way too much. You still haven't explained to me how your Igrikum works."

"Don't you think that's a little disrespectful? If anyone heard you, they'd think you were on the dragons' side!"

"I am not!", Cale exclaimed, standing up abruptly. The Eldest was voicing one of his greatest concerns. He had always worried that someone would misinterpret his behavior and see him as an enemy of the humans.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Tell me how you know the Dragon Queen", the Eldest repeated challengingly. Horrified, he stared at the man who had just held him. Without moving an inch, Cale stood still in his shock, while the Eldest's cold eyes were glued on him. He felt he was at a crossroads for the future of Altona and that of his friends. "Tell me and I'll tell you something more than just my Igrikum."

At the statement, Cale jerked up and broke free of his rigidity.

"What exactly?"

"You'll see", the Eldest interjected simply.

Defeated, Cale dropped back down, looked at the ground for a moment, and then dropped his gaze to Grischa. Was it really okay to inform one more person about the time loop? The Eldest was a very wise person and with his Igrikum he could also see into the future. Maybe it was really time to rethink his plan. He could not possibly save the world from its doom alone.

"I have no choice, but you start this time. How exactly does your Igrikum work?"

"I receive memories of my future self with my Igrikum", the Eldest replied without hesitating for a single second. Confused, Cales turned his attention to the Eldest.

"How exactly am I supposed to understand this?"

"Like I said. I don't know exactly how it works, but apparently there is more than just this one timeline. I always get a glimpse of the future my own self experienced before important events", the Eldest explained, which only confused Cale all the more. Was there a possibility that the Eldest could see his old lives? "I can't control it, though. I have only ever been the recipient, I don't know how the other me sends the memories. And as you have noticed, there are limitations. The more distant the future, the more mana it costs me to receive them. Also, my alternate self doesn't always seem to be able to send reminders. I suspect it costs him mana as well, but probably a lot more than I need to receive it."

Suddenly, Cale paused as a thought flashed through his mind. What if the Eldest was responsible for his rebirth? Did Cale's Igrikum perhaps have the ability to block the Eldest's Igrikum? And if that was true, how were the strange things that kept happening to Cale related?

"Eldest, did anything happen 17 years ago or was something it different?"

"Yes", the Eldest replied abruptly. "Groka."

"Not Groka", Cale merely stated, dropping to the floor in disappointment before waving off the statement with his hand. "Something else."

"Not that I'm aware of. No. Is there a reason you're asking me that?"

"I'm just wondering if your Igrikum is the trigger for my suffering."

"Excuse me?"

"I guess it's my turn to explain", Cale replied, taking heart. Since the incident with Grischa, he had begun to realize that he couldn't get anywhere on his own. For the last few centuries, he had struggled to get by, until his mind began to turn against him. He was simply tired of being powerless, which is why he turned to the only one who could probably understand how he was feeling. "I don't exist."

"I beg your pardon?", the Eldest interjected, confused.

"I do not exist, or rather I should not exist in this form. I am a prisoner of this world, Eldest. Since my first encounter with the Dragon Queen, it has been physically impossible for me to die", Cale finally spoke up, watching as the Eldest gave him a confused look.

"What?"

"This is already my sixth life. When I said that I knew the Dragon Queen, I was referring to my first life. She was responsible for my first death", Cale continued. "Whenever I die, I wake up in my 5-year-old body and relive everything. The attack on Groka, the two attacks on Exarion, the death of the High-Magicians, the escape of the people from Altona, the war with the creatures.... I'm reliving the whole thing for the 7th time now. I had a hunch that your Igrikum is the trigger for me to always be reborn."

The Eldest looked at Cale, speechless. For almost a full minute, the mage was silent, as if he needed to sort out his thoughts first. But to his surprise, he reacted differently than Grischa had then.

"Do you think that your memories will be sent to your past self after you die?", the Eldest gave supportive words. The Eldest didn't seem to question his story, as he surprisingly gave him a helpful question if Cale hadn't already thought of it.

"I had toyed with the idea at one point, but no. It isn't. I keep my abilities, but what makes me so secure is my mana and my Igrikum. I got the Igrikum when I was 25, but after my first death, I had it when I was 5."

"Indeed, that doesn't quite fit. What about your mana?"

"Please don't be surprised", Cale calmly admitted as he slowly lifted his shirt. This morning he wouldn't have expected to tell the Eldest about all this, yet here he sat, presenting him with his inner barriers. "My mana pool won't stop growing. I have more than you can currently feel. I block the excess with my Igrikum, so I don't lose control or even kill myself with it."

The Eldest's gaze traveled from Cale's eyes down to his chest, lingered there a moment, and then looked up again.

"How much?", the blond mage merely gave voice, leaning forward a bit.

"Let's put it this way, the mana crystal failed to capture it and broke."

"Broke? Sir Vonstetten's mana crystals are said to be up to 450RM...", the Eldest raised, but fell silent when he realized Cale's hand gesture. Cale pointed his finger upwards to tell him that he was over that value. "Can't you... estimate it anymore?"

Jerkily, the Eldest stood up and came toward Cale. With a smile on his face, Cale extended his hand to him, which he accepted without much of a word.

"No. Over 600RM for sure, maybe even 700RM."

Slowly, Cale began to use mana transfer with the Eldest, giving the mage a chance to see his full mana pool. It was interesting to watch the Eldest stand in front of him with his eyes closed and strange twitches on his face.

"I've never seen a mage with such a large mana pool", he said.

"It wasn't always like that. I can't tell you why, but it expands on its own."

"That should be impossible", the Eldest replied, which Cale only confirmed. Humans were born with a certain amount of mana and were unable to expand it. However, why this did not apply to Cale he could not say.

"I've never seen anyone use the Igrikum for anything like this", the Eldest added a few moments later. He must have needed to see his barriers, which is why he made that statement.

"And I didn't expect you to be unable to actively use your Igrikum", Cale replied, partly amused, partly serious. Maybe he had a chance to make a difference after all. The Eldest was quite a gifted magician, and he seemed to have no doubts about Cale's story. Probably his confidence was merely based on the insight he had at that time.

"This only shows that you are an Apostle of the gods."