'Useless' Netural Magic

'I cannot believe it. The Young Master has no affinity with any of the elements or forces. His magic is entirely neutral. I hope his parents aren't too disappointed in him. After all, he seems to be superbly talented in every other way.'

'He's not even five yet and he speaks with as much eloquence as any of us. It's almost as if he's been speaking and listening for just as long as we have.'

'So what if he can't use magic? He's still on track to becoming a weapons master, and I'm sure with time he could easily become a top scholar. Those are things I could never be, even with my magical talent.'

'If the Master and Mistress are disappointed, I should remind the Young Master of all his good points. I wouldn't want him to think that just because he has no magic he won't be able to succeed in life.'

'Something still bothers me though. After the monolith gave off that silver glow, the Young Master- did he smile? I could be mistaken but, it looked like he looked toward the Heavens and... smiled.'

|Omari Radwan's Thoughts As He Leaves The Yard|

"Gilgamesh, I-" Angelica was the first to speak.

With a gesture, Logan had asked Omari to return to the mansion and give them some time alone, so the three of them were standing alone in the yard with nothing but some nearby practice dummies for company.

"Angelica, please, let me."

Seeing that Logan was about to explain to him what the silver glow of the monolith meant, Gilgamesh raised his hand and stopped him.

"Children don't like sharing their toys with others; even if those children are gods. The twelve of them decided to keep the elements and forces from me, but foolishly gave me access to Neutral Magic."

Logan smiled wryly. "So that's the case, is it?"

Angelica sighed, "I'm so sorry, Gilgamesh."

Seeing melancholy on his parents' faces, Gilgamesh chuckled and extended both his hands. His father took hold of one hand, and then his mother took hold of the other one. They looked down at their son with differing emotions, but once they saw the amusement in his eyes they both felt the same thing.

He could not care less. In fact, he seemed... delighted.

This feeling alleviated their worries instantly.

"Do not be sorry, mother- not for me. Be sorry for the twelve gods that I will use this neutral magic to destroy."

The clear sky above them reacted to Gilgamesh's words. After he had pointed this matter out to the Twelve, they realized that they had truly made a huge mistake.

If even gods of a higher world than theirs wouldn't allow Gilgamesh to touch Neutral Magic, then why the hell had they been so stupid? Had they truly just handed Gilgamesh the weapon he would use to murder them one day?

The thought infuriated them!

Desolation itself could be seen in the sky as swirling storm clouds gathered into a giant mass. Countless leaves and small debris were picked up, and torrential dust clouds rose in the distance.

As the entire sky became nothing but a nightmarish typhoon, an opening formed directly above Gilgamesh and his parents, allowing them to look beyond the storm and into the heavens beyond. Looking up, the three of them could clearly see twelve faraway stars, glittering in the blackness.

"Master Logan, you must come inside!" Maximus was standing just outside the doors to the foyer, shouting to them. "This storm... it isn't natural! Powerful magic is at work here!"

Thanks to his words, Logan and Angelica realized that they had forgotten themselves. When they came to, they saw Gilgamesh staring directly into the eye of the storm, at those twelve stars, with the largest smile on his face. There was a cold glint in his eyes that scared even them, but thankfully that look wasn't directed at them.

They were able to shrug off the fear they felt, and then took him with them as they ran inside.

No one could know that, while all this was happening, Gilgamesh was locked in a conflict with the Twelve, all within his mind.

"You will relinquish your connection to Neutral Magic this instant!"

"I think not," Gilgamesh retorted with amusement.

"You. Will. Obey!" Thunderous echoes, like lacerating knives, pierced through the typhoon and spread out through the entire world. No one could clearly hear what those twelve voices were saying- no one but Gilgamesh- and so fear overcame the people of the world.

Throughout the entire mansion, people were losing their minds. The Twelve were clearly enraged, but why?

"Obey you? Foolish children. You were born in the wrong era and thus do not understand: Gilgamesh obeys no one."

The Twelve heard his words and fear seeped into each of their hearts. They had known all along that they could not contain Gilgamesh for long- even when all he had to oppose them with was his spirit.

They had overlooked one crucial point. When dealing with Gilgamesh, even something ordinarily useless became a weapon that could be used to harm them.

After all, it was Gilgamesh! Someone whom had killed divine beings with nothing but the power of his spirit. They had even experienced firsthand just how terrifying his spirit was.

The Twelve had so much anger, but could not take it out on Gilgamesh. Even if they were to go against Heaven's Edict and strike Gilgamesh with all their combined power, there was no absolute guarantee that they would succeed in killing him now that they had given him Neutral Magic.

If he was any other prodigy except Gilgamesh, they would not be worried. But he was Gilgamesh, and so common sense could not possibly apply.

If they did succeed in killing him, the chaos ensuing in Nether-Earth was still ongoing. Since the gods responsible for Nether-Earth were well above the Twelve, they had no say in what took place there. Therefore, Gilgamesh would simply die and be reincarnated somewhere else, becoming another Heaven's problem.

As Gilgamesh was brought into the mansion by his parents, his conversation with the Twelve ended. They were still enraged, so they released some of that pent up anger somewhere else in the world.

Within the desert, a singular bolt of twelve-colored lightning broke through the clouds and struck the earth. In that moment, the entire desert exploded into countless misshapen, glass-like tubes. It would later become known as one of the Abnormalities of the World, the 'Wrath of the Twelve,' and would elicit pilgrims to visit it and offer sacrifices.

Meanwhile, back in the Dramaour mansion, Logan and Angelica entered the living room to stare at the sky from the veranda. It seemed to have calmed down a bit, but a storm was still raging. At some point, it even started to rain.

"Do you have any idea what caused this?" Gilgamesh was stood between Angelica and Logan, also looking at the sky but with an obvious lack of interest.

"I don't, but I'm sure you do, Gilgamesh." Logan looked down at the yawning boy beside him, and Angelica then did the same.

"Twelve fools sit at the height of power in this world. How do you think they feel knowing that they've just allowed me to kill them even faster than I had expected?"

"But how? Didn't you say they gave you neutral magic?" Angelica knelt on the floor beside Gilgamesh. Logan was deep in thought, but no amount of thinking could allow him to understand.

"In time you will both see, I promise." Gilgamesh turned away and prepared to go rest. He wasn't tired, just unbelievably bored. So much so that he wanted to take a bath and go to sleep.

"One more thing, Gil."

Gilgamesh turned to Logan with a 'hm?'

"They did all that, but they took no action against you. Why put on such a big show, but not do anything?"

Gilgamesh laughed, and his parents were puzzled.

"They were trying to scare me, Dad. They thought that if they could scare me, I would submit to them. However, they would think twice about breaking the law of the heavens. It is called 'Heaven's Edict,' a constitution of sorts. It prohibits them from acting directly against inhabitants of their world; if they do, they get punished by the gods of a higher world."

Logan nodded, "So they were scared of the punishment they would receive."

"That," Gilgamesh smirked, then began walking out of the room, "and they knew that, if they tried to harm me or either of you, I would summon the full power of my spirit, regardless of the damage it would cause me..."

"And kill them all."

Gilgamesh left his parents standing there in the living room, then went off on his own.

Logan and Angelica stood in silence, looking at Gilgamesh's back until they could no longer see him. When they saw the sky again, and the storm transpiring outside, they could do nothing but wonder just what kind of monster had been brought into the world.

They were both excited to see just what he would accomplish.

...

Later that day, the sky was just as dismal and the rain had not ceased. Up in his room, Gilgamesh had sat down in a meditative position, only he wasn't meditating per se.

He was trying to feel energy. In the past, the only energy or 'power' that he had ever felt was his own spirit. It alone had carried him to the very peak of mortal power in his old world, but it alone did not allow him to break the shackles of mortality.

Still, he never resented that part of his spirit that was mortal. He felt that it was the one thing that truly connected him to his ancestors; those who his father had descended from. They were a large family of demigods who had all ruled over the land.

It was not an easy task for one to develop a sense for something they had never felt before, but Gilgamesh wasn't just anyone. He had long mastered the control of the spirit, and this meant he was halfway there.

He sent his spirit out into his surroundings. The instant he did this, the energy that was now tethered to his spirit came rushing toward it. He could feel that new energy almost immediately.

This was neutral magic.

As soon as he felt it, he involuntarily triggered a memory. His eyes lost all focus, and he delved into the past.

He saw himself, as a young man, adorned in fanciful robes and jewelry, a golden head of hair outshone only by the splendor of the crown he wore. Pride was plastered on his face, and his red eyes held in them a disregard for all things.

All things except the woman sitting in front of him.

It was his mother, Ninsun, and she was showing something to him. In her hands, she held a dying animal- a bird- and spoke to Gilgamesh with her smooth voice.

"Remember this, my son. 'In the mundane echoes the divine.' Heaven may be a height that mortality can never overcome, but that does not mean a mortal cannot attain Heaven. Even something bland and simple can become divine. Even I, a banished god, can pour my spirit into the world, and channel it... through me..."

As she spoke those final words, she poured invisible energy into the dying bird, and granted it health- new life. It flew away, and was never seen again.

"I was tasked with ensuring prosperity in the land. Even as I am now, stripped of that title, my spirit remains unchanged. With it, a strand of my divinity can live on. It can touch the world, and change it just a bit. Do you understand, Gilgamesh?"

The memory ran its course, and he regained that portion of himself as it ended. Every time he recalled something like this, and it reattached itself to his mind and spirit, he felt guilty that he could have forgotten such an important moment in his life.

That guilt would arise, but it would never last.

Now, thanks to that memory, he could finally understand what his mother had been trying to teach him back then.

She was preparing him. Teaching him what he needed to know so that, when the time came, he would not underestimate his own spirit- as ridiculous as that idea was. Gilgamesh did not think it was possible that he could underestimate his spirit, but after regaining this memory he realized that he had been doing just that.

"It was neutral magic. You had been stripped of your affinity, and left with neutral magic, and that's what you were teaching me, wasn't it, Mother?"

A bead of water ran from Gilgamesh's eyes and fell from his cheek. He said nothing more, then began meditating.

This time, he would not stop until all his memories came back to him- no matter how long it took. He'd already left a long letter on the door for his parents, reminding them of the task at hand.

There was no stopping him now. The next time he opened his eyes, he would truly be... Gilgamesh.

...

𝑺𝒊𝒙 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝑳𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓

___________________

End of Volume 1.

'It was quite short for a 'volume,' I know, but we decided that it would be best to end it here. The things to come would be better off being in a volume of their own, and also in a volume that would go on for much longer while still being relevant to the 'main idea' of the volume.

It's been a bit difficult to start, what with the adjustments I have to make and everything, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't worth it. 'iKissTurtles' and I am very excited to bring this to you, regardless of whether it attracts a big audience or not.

Sometime this week, the next chapter will kickstart 'Volume 2' and we promise, it will not disappoint. I hope that you don't disregard the rest of the story thinking that you 'more or less know how it will go.' Trust me, you don't ;).

From iKissTurtles and I: We love you all!