“Ah… school… why do we still do this?” Jake chuckled at Derek’s question while they walked to their class…

It was a valid question, as it had been a whole month since they had their training with their tutors, and the day before was the last day of their training until they got enough merit to get more training.

Really. There were groups of Demigods waiting for training from someone on the level of Edgar or Rose, and unless they were willing to wait months for a chance, they had to do something making the other Demigods think ‘hey, those guys deserve training’.

Despite the pain it brought, it was a reward, as Derek was quite certain of.

“Man, Mister Yule is strong… sometimes he’d move so fast I couldn’t see anything, and then other times he’d move slowly but still keep me from hurting him…” Derek complained while at the same time talking about how amazing the strongest Demigod was.

As a side note, ever since his training with Edgar, Derek had become incapable of referring to the man by his first name as he used to…

“He’s a weapon expert isn’t he? What did he fight you with?” Jake asked, curious as to the situation Derek was in.

During the month of training they were too tired to even talk to each other, and there was a period of time where they had to train even through sleeping times.

According to Charlie it was because you couldn’t decide when you’d fight a God, let alone claim to be fully rested before the next fight.

That sounded like nonsense given that they usually had a week notice before the God appeared, but cases like Jake’s one with Huitzilopochtli could and would occur.

Just because there was a ninety nine per cent chance of rest, that didn’t make it a definite.

But as said, they didn’t have much time to even see the other during their training, let alone talk.

“Ah, he used a spear like mine… it’s eye opening see someone use the same weapon as you to do much greater things. I saw him uproot a tree by swinging the spear from a few feet away.” That was definitely surprising to see…

Any Demigod could do such eventually, especially when Jake recalled his lesson on Mana being ‘Authority given by the Universe’ and such.

It was one thing to know something and another to see it.

Even Jake felt he could uproot a tree if given enough time, but using the air pressure of swinging something to blow a tree away sounded extreme.

Then again, that was what their teachers were. All of them were powerful to absurd lengths, and that was the norm when it came to Council Members and Team Leaders.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Jake said absently as they stepped into mister Rook’s classroom, already used to the childish figure of their homeroom teacher, despite not being in class all that often.

They saw him often enough when he came to drop off lesson packages for Jake and Derek…

“You know we haven’t had much time to hang out… sorry about that bro.” Derek said, looking at Jake with an apologetic glance, thinking about the past month of training.

“Hey, it’s cool man. We were both busy, it’s all chill.” Inwardly Jake winced at his own speech, but it was an ingrained response by now.

Jake quite enjoyed poetry and was an excellent English student, even able to switch up his accent at the drop of a hat, but he subconsciously favoured a French accent, with a hint of British.

However, that would be weird, considering he was in America and no one in his household had a French accent despite his father being British.

He was starting to wonder if that was another thing caused by being the child of a God like Apollo.

Long story short though, his ‘skater-boy’ accent was played, it wasn’t how he naturally spoke. Derek, friend as he was, already knew this, and Jake admitted that he disliked it.

Derek just shrugged and accepted it, he understood changing yourself to fit into the surroundings, it was a human thing to do anyway, it was normal.

“But hey, we going to go hang out with Terri and Mark or are we going to go to the cafeteria?” Derek asked, rolling his eyes at Jake’s wince, his question snapping Jake out of his wondering.

“Oh, let’s go hang out with Terri and Mark, we can complain about our teachers together.” Jake chuckled and Derek raised a thumb in agreement as the bell rang…

Class was in session, silence was now golden.

Breaking that rule would get them cursed in some manner by their vertically challenged teacher.

And after dodging a piece of chalk, Jake became certain that mister Rook knew when people thought of him.

A few hours of classes later, break time happened and four of the six members of team Charlie were on one of the roofs of Alexandria.

The term ‘one of’ was used because Demigods all had a strange obsession with high places, and one roof wasn’t large or private enough for the groups of Demigods attending.

“Miss Rose says it’s because Demigods subconsciously want to be closer to ‘heaven’ which is associated with the sky and the divine. Mister Edgar says it’s because all Demigods are main characters.” Mark said with a shrug, getting laughs from the rest as they sat eating their lunches.

“There are a lot of weird things about Demigods huh? Did any of you get that lecture on mana and why we Demigods are so powerful?” Jakes question got shakes of the head.

“To sum it up, the strength of any being is determined by an intangible value, a type of authority based on your existence.” It was a complicated thing to discuss in detail, and the other three Demigods got the idea to varying extents.

“Oh, wait, I heard something like this from my brother, he was apparently the one to research it and explain it to the other Demigods.” Mark mentioned his elder brother as he took a lecturing pose, finger pointed at the sky.

“As Jake mentioned, Authority is the power universal, and Authority is determined by your very existence.” This got odd looks from Derek and Terri who looked to each other, and then to their two smarter friends.

“It sums up everything, gender, age, race, what experiences you went through, achievements, and more, and the cumulative Authority would be your power.” Jake explained as Derek and Terri nodded.

“Oh… well that’s weird… miss Rose mentioned something similar, but she didn’t really go into detail.” Terri added as Derek nodded in agreement.

“Mister Yule too… he told me that regardless of my strength, my skill also had to improve.” Derek said, getting a nod from Terri as her eyes widened.

“Same thing, except involving magic! Miss Rose said that magically, mister Edgar was actually stronger, but miss Rose was the stronger magic user…” Terri seemed confused by her own words as Jake tried to unravel the meaning.

“Isn’t it that Authority is kind of ‘what you can do’ but that doesn’t necessarily say ‘what you know how to do’.” Jake felt that talking about abstracts was really difficult, but this topic was only semi-abstract given that it had actual effects.

“Oh, let me try, it’s like mister Yule has a single All-Rounder Star Player, and miss Rose has an entire team of slightly weaker players?” Derek’s sports analogy actually explained it really well, and Jake once more appreciated that Derek was smarter than his jock appearance belied.

“Yeah. That player can probably beat any single player on the other team, maybe even two on one, but against the whole team, he can’t win.” Jake agreed, getting odd looks from Mark and Terri…

More proof that Jake and Derek were really fast friends, with how easily they understood the other.

“So mister Yule has much more strength, but can’t do as much as miss Rose because he knows less or something like that…” Derek paused, hitting his palm with his fist.

“So Authority is like potential, but if you don’t use your potential, it’s wasted, and miss Rose is using her magical potential better than mister Yule.” Derek summed up, getting wide eyed stares from Terri and Mark.

Their lunch was over soon after, with Derek and Jake switching their complicated conversation topic over to sports such as American Football and skating.

“I’m just saying, American Football’s armour allows for more extreme plays, penalized they may be.” Jake said, referencing a video of a football player using another player’s head as a springboard to jump higher.

A play that would almost certainly be penalized, but no one would dare do such a thing in Rugby given that they didn’t have helmets, only padded guards.

Derek still said that American Football was better, and Jake would argue that Rugby was better and more technical. It was an unending argument between the two, cycling arguments and whoever was close enough to listen had already gotten used to their talks.

It was one of those arguments friends had with each other.

As they walked though, Mary’s class was walking past, a small space kept around her as some girls fawned over her, making Mary’s normally blank face seem narrowed in consternation.

“Feel sorry for her… she isn’t quite accepted around Demigods, and everyone else admires her for her high marks and good looks, smothering her.” Derek said knowingly.

He was an observant one, and looking at the class pass, locking eyes with Mary for a moment to nod in greeting, Jake found himself agreeing with Derek.

“Hey, Derek, can we talk about why Mary is discriminated by Demigods?” Jake asked after a moment of thought, looking back to Derek only to be met with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, I know the whole Dragon thing is part of it, but… why is that such a bad thing?” Jake’s question was legitimate, and Derek palmed his face upon realizing that Jake was asking because Jake was new to being a Demigod, even if he was a confirmed one for over two months now.

Even a year was short for some Demigods.

“Right, right, no one ever explained the relationship between Gods and Dragons to you… I suppose I’ll explain.” And thus Derek began his attempt to describe Dragons to Jake.

To summarize a conversation that took place over multiple classes through the use of notes and whispering, Dragons were different existences when compared to Gods…

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

A God was born of faith, of hope in a higher power, even ‘evil’ Gods had faith, faith that they would remain evil and be the source of all problems.

A Dragon was the same, some Dragons were evil, some were good… unlike Gods, they did not change based on the faith of humans though.

Gods were given ability and history from myth, essentially being spiritual existences, whereas Dragons were given ability from the world itself, being physical existences.

The result of this relation was that Dragons could be killed unlike Gods, but Dragons could also exert more of their power compared to Gods who were not physical existences.

The result was that in a fight between a grown Dragon and a God, the Dragon would win the fight, but be incapable of killing the God.

A God that was also a Dragon, did not exist. There were Gods like Python that were in the form of a Dragon, or looked similar, but they were not Dragons.

There was only one known exception to this rule, and that was Mary’s own mother.

Mary’s mother, Tiamat, was practically divided into two separate interpretations in her own legends, one telling of her being the salt water Goddess of Creation, the other…

The Mother of Dragons (Monsters) Tiamat… Somehow the Goddess of Creation and Mother of Dragons were once one, and are now two separate beings.

Mary, was born of the latter, the Dragon form of Tiamat.

It’s because of this difference in birth that Mary was feared amongst her fellow Demigods, she was more of a Demi-Dragon than a Demigod, but considering the irregularity of Tiamat’s situation, in the end Aegis accepted her as a Demigod.

“Okay, so Dragons and Gods aren’t exactly the same thing, but that doesn’t explain why they are against each other.” Jake said as they exited the school grounds, hoping to hang out towards the beach for the day.

Jake still wasn’t much for swimming though, despite being able to.

“Well think about it, Dragons are physical beings given power by the world, while Gods are spiritual beings given power by faith. They are incompatible to some extent, and whenever there was a case of a God encountering a Dragon, a battle was waged.” Derek said as they walked by some skaters.

Jake nodded in appreciation for some of their tricks as he focused back into the conversation.

“And well, Dragons are capable of defeating Gods, and vice-versa, until it became natural for the two different beings to battle constantly. Dragons are also known for hunting Demigods when they find one, so we’re suffering for their battles.” Jake suddenly found everything much more understandable after that line.

“Oh, so we’re fighting Dragons because they hate the Divine, and because of the fear of Dragons, that fear is kind of there when it comes to Mary as well…” Jake thought about it for a moment… then nodded.

“Alright, I don’t care. Let’s go find something to do.” Derek blinked at the casual dismissal of a feud between races and how their friend was involved before moving to follow Jake.

“Wait, just like that, you don’t care?” Derek asked as Jake nodded, looking back to his friend.

“It’s not like I’ve ever fought a Dragon, and even then, hating Mary for being the child of a Dragon would be like Dragons hating us for being children of Gods. I think a circle of hate is pointless.” The hidden pun drew a snort from Derek once he found it, but he laughed at that as they walked away.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Agent Karma was walking next to Edgar as they walked over to the God Finder room.

It had a much more mythical name, but that’s what everyone started calling it after a while, it was basically the room connected to the detection method Aegis used to find Gods.

Said detection method was created using Ley Lines, creating Gods (with Demigods possessing much less Divinity after all) to determine where they would appear, as a God typically saturated an area in their Divinity to appear there.

In the case of Gods which suddenly appeared, such as Huitzilopochtli, their strength was usually slightly diminished from their fullest, hence why a newly Awakened Demigod such as Jake Ignus could actually fight back and defeat the God, even if said God surrendered after one non-lethal blow.

“Okay, anything for the month?” Edgar asked, taking a sip from his mug of coffee with a sigh of relish.

It was an ever-refilling cup by the way, somehow enchanted by Rose so he didn’t have to keep bothering her for more coffee…

How she got it right was a mystery, but this was one of the reasons that Rose was considered the foremost expert on magic.

“Not really, there isn’t a lot of activity; there is one God descent though…” Karma replied as he looked to the world map in front of him, seeing the symbol for a God descent somewhere near eastern Europe.

“Is there any information on the God?” Edgar asked, looking at the symbol and then back to Karma.

Edgar did know how to work the machine, but he’d claim that his coffee was more important than trying to work out something that he was slightly unrelated to.

He wasn’t going to be fighting the God, so he didn’t need to know much, as long as someone knew and told the correct people the information.

“It’s a Greco-Roman God, their signatures being almost indistinguishable from each other until a day or two before they appear after all… it may be Mercury, or his Greek variation, Hermes.” If it was Hermes that would be awkward, sending team Charlie to handle it…

Hermes had quite a few children much like Hephaestus, only slightly less… really, there were a few Gods capable of having more than ten or twenty children, and the majority were Gods of odd things like the Beauty, Luck, Sleep, etc.

Every team at least knew a child of Hermes or his Roman variation Mercury. And yes, there was in fact a separation between the two, small things, but in Divinity even small things can result in large differences.

Case in point, children of Hermes found themselves as better healers while children of Mercury found themselves as excellent business people. Both groups were excellent at sneaking (aka thievery) and communications.

“Well we currently have a first wave team in the form of team Charlie, we designated them as scouts for a reason… maybe let those Demigods experience some more conflict.” Edgar joked with a smirk that didn’t reach his eyes, making Karma chuckle with much the same look in his eyes.

They shouldn’t take advantage of those young Demigods… but it felt so easy and made them laugh at times. Even Karma, for he was ‘head agent’ of Aegis, was still a person after all.

“After they encounter the God we’ll send in… who’s free?” Edgar asked Karma as the agent checked his phone.

“Rose is currently… away. Samuel is still travelling around looking for hidden supernatural beings while training, Shane fled back to his labs after training his brother for a bit, that leaves Lyle, Nikita and Lukas… and Charlie doesn’t like talking to Lukas… let’s send Lukas to deal with the God, maybe Nikita as well.” Edgar smirked, imagining the annoyed expressions of Charlie and Lukas as they realize that they have to work together…

That was what Charlie got for concealing his strength.

“They’re both going to be mad at you, and might challenge you to a fight again… speaking of fighting…” Karma was giving Edgar a pointed look at the mention of the activity Edgar no longer did, and Edgar just looked away with a frown on his face.

“…” Edgar wanted to keep quiet, leaving the topic to be ignored, but Karma wasn’t having it.

“Edgar, don’t try and ignore what I just said. I caught you coughing blood into a toilet a few months ago.” Karma looked at Edgar at that and Edgar frowned as he looked to his friend.

“Hey, why were you spying on me in the toilet?” The accusation made by Edgar was just to distract from another crucial fact, Karma somehow did that without being seen by Edgar.

Edgar, the strongest being on the planet bar the appearance of certain Gods, and even then he was one of only three who could fight Gods one on one.

Sneaking up on Edgar was all but impossible unless possibly done by a Council-level Demigod who had ability in stealth.

Karma, for all that he was ‘the strongest human’ was still just that, human. He shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on a Demigod, much less the strongest one.

Both Edgar and Karma knew that the former was slipping if the latter could sneak up on him.

“Edgar… your health is failing for some reason, and none of us understand why… I haven’t said anything to Rose, but Samuel and Shane both know, and the other three Council members suspect something is up.” Karma warned.

“…I know why my health is failing… but… it’s something that can’t really be helped.” Edgar said with a tired sigh, looking out at the command centre of Aegis.

Demigods did not succumb to the sickness of humans, only being affected by supernatural afflictions, usually under malicious intent of course.

So yes, whatever was affecting Edgar and preventing him from fighting, it was a supernatural thing.

“Edgar, are you sure you don’t want to talk to Rose, or at least Shane and Samuel… Shane especially might be able to help, given his experience.” Indeed, when you talked to a Demigod that was older than two thousand years, well, it was obvious he knew some things.

“Samuel wouldn’t be able to help me… and Shane’s the one who hinted at what was happening to me.” Edgar admitted as he walked over to a chair, slumping into it as Karma sat opposite him.

“Then couldn’t he help you, couldn’t he talk you through everything… and is this why you stopped hanging out with Shane as often?” Karma asked, thinking back to times where Edgar and Shane seemed to stay away from each other.

“Kind of, it was also because Shane knows much more than he lets on.” Edgar warned, thinking about the fourth ranked Council member…

An Ancient Demigod older than the calendar, Shane was around during the Age of Gods when most Demigods from that era were dead. It stood to reason that Shane knew much, but he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with said information…

It was a curse felt by older Demigods, they started to care less about the world around them, only being brought back into focus by things that intrigued them, caught their interest.

Edgar was old enough to feel separated from petty problems, but not so old that he could ignore groups of people dying in front of him without doing anything.

Shane could, and would do the latter if he felt it was fine, having been around during the Black Plague and capable of creating healing machines even back then, Shane could have stopped the deaths of thousands, maybe even halt the plague completely.

He did nothing, instead only acknowledging the event and moving on with his own life.

The older Demigods, the more self-centred they were… especially when they didn’t encounter anyone living as long as they did…

If the world was dying around you, but you remained the same, clearly it would be better to focus on the one thing that wouldn’t change.

“Shane… yes, Shane knows a lot of scary things… but he also knows a lot of good things, and since finding him you have helped him care more for his surroundings, have you not?” Karma asked as Edgar looked away, silently acknowledging that Shane was much nicer…

Edgar met Shane back during World War one, Shane was a German scientist focusing on issues regarding possible upgrades to equipment, and Edgar was headhunting for Demigods while disguised as an American soldier.

Their first meeting was thankfully more in Edgar’s favour since Edgar was travelling with Samuel, Rose, Charlie and the leader of team Epsilon, and Shane was alone.

Even then Edgar was left on the back-foot during most of the encounter, and he was only saved from fighting when they managed to persuade Shane that being with other Demigods had to be better than being with people who you will watch die.

From there, it’s history.

“Let’s not forget that Shane was also the one who taught you that stupid ritual…” Edgar glared at Karma who was forced to glance away, knowing that he was in the wrong…

Sure, it was a considered a ‘ritual’ despite being conducted alone… but Karma knew that the Ritual of Exchanges was a disastrous thing if did incorrectly.

It was Irish based, and worked on a similar basis as a Geass, by forbidding something, you’d gain something else, typically power.

It could also only be invoked once by one person, and whatever a person gave up would be lost forever.

Not to mention that unlike a Geass, the Ritual of Exchanges actually enforced itself, if one broke a Geass a backlash would occur resulting in either the loss of power or even injury and death.

With the Ritual of Exchanges, you couldn’t even break it. If you for instance, offered the knowledge of how to create a light bulb, even if you had the knowledge in your mind, trying to convey said knowledge to anyone else would be met with disastrous events occurring to prevent the spread of knowledge.

Karma would know, as in his Ritual of Exchanges he had given up three things, one of which being his physical growth, which was why he still looked young and could not become any more fit than he was when he did the Ritual.

The other two things he gave up was a bit of information, and ever since giving up said piece of information, Karma had become incapable of conveying said information.

Every time he tried something would happen, a car would rev its engine to block out the noise, if he wrote it on paper the paper would somehow be destroyed.

The last time he tried to convey the message the plane he was on started to crash, and when he stopped talking it suddenly stabilized, and so Karma stopped trying.

“He taught you that ritual even when I told him not to, and the result was as expected, you went through with it.” Edgar frowned, not liking to know that his friend was being limited in such a manner.

Karma on the other hand frowned back with an equal glare at his boss/friend.

“If I hadn’t done that ritual I would have died a few months later. And if I somehow hadn’t done it and survived to this day, I’d still do it.” Karma’s insistence was the only reason that Edgar never actually fought Shane…

Though Edgar would never face Shane in his workshop, that was just a creative method of suicide…

Edgar maintained his strength no matter where he was, but for Shane, being in his workshop would allow Shane to compete on equal terms with Gods.

In other words, so long as he was inside his workshop, Shane was a God-slayer much like Edgar, Rose and Samuel.

“Fine, fine, let’s move past the ritual… Karma… I just wanted to say that it’s not that I can’t fight anymore… but that I won’t.” Edgar’s statement could only sound horrible, and Karma’s face reflected that…

But Karma was willing to wait for Edgar to clarify.

“Karma, I could probably singlehandedly repel the majority of Gods facing Aegis, but that was back when fighting didn’t make me feel like dying…” Karma realized the situation, even if he didn’t know the cause, he now knew the symptom.

Edgar could live, but fight and he’d die… it made Karma feel even worse about the time he mentioned that Edgar was like a nuke…

Because now, just like a nuke, it felt like Edgar was implying that he was only good for one more fight before he’d be gone.

“…How many times can you still fight higher ranked Gods?” Karma asked, dreading the answer.

“Most probably only two or three times… then I’m gone. If I somehow survive, I doubt I’ll be of any help to you, in fact I could be a burden…” Edgar seemed to know something very specific about his condition given how he was hinting towards something more than what was readily apparent.

“…I see…” Two or three more fights.

Aegis only had two or three more fights its leader could participate in, two or three more fights which would almost certainly result in the victory of Aegis…

They had to make it count.