Ride Along

Jonet and I relocated to the 'front yard' after leaving the company of the others, and after releasing a silent domain around our persons, we talked for roughly an hour and a half straight.

During our conversation, I extensively detailed exactly what I wanted her to accomplish in the Epethian Empire during our absence and left the finer details for her to decide. After explaining my reasoning and closing with a bit of small talk, she went off to bed down for the night while I retired to the master suite to snack on a few pieces of fruit and spend the next few hours in mediation.

Upon awaking and entering the kitchen, I saw Letta and Giorno whispering to each other on their way out the door. Though I could've followed them or otherwise ventured to the market any time of the day or night, I decided to hold off purchasing some treasure until after the assessment.

It wasn't that I was concerned about what anyone would say, on the contrary, I was only concerned with the adverse effects that the habit would have on my score. And so I spent the next few hours transcribing new tomes for the newly awakened.

On top of that, there was the steady endeavor of increasing the transfer rate of information between my Eternal Eye and my stream of consciousness. It's been on the steady rise I first turned it off. If I were to estimate, it's gone up by around five percent in the half-day since then. In other words, at this rate, I'd become accustomed to it by the time I entered the academy.

Even that trivial amount, however, was enough for me to foresee the rueful banging on the front door to our common area. Loud and obnoxious it was. As if the force of each knock had been transmitted through the very walls of the cabin.

From the myriad of signatures bleeding through the door, it took no effort to guess who the culprit was.

"Good morning!" Roheisa Deapou beamed through the door. Then immediately frowned after looking inside our common area. "Why is it so dark in there?" She pushed herself through to look around and activate lights in the foyer. "This is depressing."

I failed to even have the energy to roll my eyes as I monotonously sighed. "It's dark because I am a half-drow with an affinity to the shadows."

The princess made a sneering or skeptical face at me before pivoting on her heels towards the door. "My father wants me to show you all to the training grounds. We need to get ready for the assessment."

"What do you know about it?" I quickly asked.

My question halted her mid-step and forced a curt laugh from her lungs. Her arms rose to cross her chest while she pivoted back to me, sneering as she mockingly said. "You don't know?"

"My grandfather is a tease." I amiably shrugged.

"Hmpf." She snorted. Squinted at me in disbelief before turning halfway to the door and sighing. "Well." She sighed again as she turned back, causing her arms to flail out to her sides. "It's a bit like the awakening ceremony. Only, it's run by the Guild Association. They'll have us place our hand on a crystal, and it'll tell them of our mana pores and wells. After that." She paused to smile warmly at my vassals, emerging from the basement. "They'll be testing us on our proficiency in physical fitness, martial combat, elemental practice, and magical prowess."

'Well, that sounds interesting.' I internally grinned as I nodded and smiled on the outside. "Okay. I planned to give my vassals a few lessons in their affinities today. You're welcome to come along."

She squinted and subtly shook her head in confusion before turning the shakes into a hastened nod. "Yes. I will."

"Can you fly?" I asked, failing to hold back a sly grin.

"I- I think?" She shook her head again. "If I use my steel and magnetic magic in conjunction. Yes?"

"It's okay if you can't." I smiled. Heading for the door. "Let's go."

With our party now formed, I led the way outside and took an immediate turn to the south. Prompting the Princess to scurry up behind me, shouting. "You're going the wrong way!"

"We're going somewhere a little more private." I turned to her with a placid smirk. "And, there's no need to yell."

Much to my amusement, Roheisa began pouting after that. And continued almost the entire way to the southern rim. Her demeanor only changed to apprehension when I jumped atop the railing and took a moment to peer down to the crashing shores, over twenty kilometers below.

I then cycled a deep breath before focusing on my somewhat crowded spiritual body. While my hereditary core and my mana well still sat around my naval and heart respectively, my other cores were scattered around my body in seemingly random places. Forming at least one other mark on my body, I've since come to learn.

Keeping with the favored analogy, if my mana well was my heart, then my nuclear magic core was my sternum. Producing a soft, radiant glow under the abyssal branches covering my upper chest. Conversely, my electromagnetic, space-time and gravity magics were positioned around my nape, diaphragm, and groin respectively. Due to either their positions or their natures, however, they produced no marks that I was aware of.

After taking a moment to familiarize myself with the orientation of the magical organs, I started to stream a bit of mana towards my gravity core and allowed it to flood my entire body while a single thought repeated in my mind.

And with another deep breath, I stepped off the platform.

From that gentle step, I drifted away from the rail at a snail's pace until the cold, dense air managed to drag me to a stop. Where I helplessly hung in the air just a few meters beyond the railing, smiling like a kid in a candy store while the others threw stupefied gazes in my direction.

Each of them remained locked in such a state until the natural updraft wind began blowing me skyward. Slapping them all from their stupor and motivating them to take action.

Like me, Ed used a tiny bit of his force magic to make himself levitate above the ground. An experience that he immediately fell in love with, from what I could see. Contrarily, Toril cast a gas reinforcement spell, turning his body into a nearly transparent mass of wood-brown fog that drifted seamlessly through the air around me. Roheisa, on the other hand, simply conjured a steel plate to step on and used her magnetism to carry it and her through the air.

Leaving Jonet and Jaimess to fly atop an origami bird.

Without any further delay, I conjured a tiny gravity well above my head. One minuscule in power. So weak that its pull had a noticeable effect on my body alone. Though I could still control the intensity and direction of the pull at will.

"We'll talk up there." I pointed upwards, then began plummeting into the sky.

After breaching the clouds, I killed my velocity and soon after, canceled the spell. Leaving me as if I were on the float in space. Blissfully drifting wherever the wind took me.

Though most of the Plane below was concealed by a scattered blanket of dense clouds, the sheer scale of the heavenly realm around me was enough to leave me breathless.

The others seemed to go through similar bouts of existential euphoria before sequentially turning their attention to me. Noticing their rekindled excitement, I prepared a simple gravity domain before saying. "Cancel your spells on my mark."

The ending of the countdown and the sequence of events that followed pulled a cold, satisfactory grin from the darkest places of my mind. At that moment, I saw, with my own eyes, the absolute trust my vassals had in me. Jaimess even jumped the gun, causing him and Jonet to fall a few meters before the effect took hold on them.

The princess, on the other hand, inadvertently pulled herself into the sky before killing her magic and falling helplessly down and back up to where we were floating like a screaming yo-yo.

"So." I turned away from her, laughing. "Who wants to go first?"

"I think you should go first!" Roheisa threw her arms around us. "What is this?"

"Gravity magic. And I'll go last." I casually spat. Then formed a bull sign to simultaneously point at her and Toril. "There's something I want to teach you two."

Taking initiative; I assumed, Jaimess floated forth with his body bent into a bow. "I will go first, Your Grace.

I nearly rolled my eyes at the title. But I supposed I should've been glad that they kept up the act in front of the Princess.

"Very well." I sighed. "Since obsidian is relatively self-explanatory, we'll start with your carbon magic. You all know of carbon as coal, but using carbon-based magic will grant you the usage of many materials with fascinating properties. Including diamond."

"Diamond?" The princess floated in. "How?"

"Don't interrupt." I sternly turned to her.

She reluctantly nodded. Then I turned back to Jaimess. "In its base, powdery form, or as charcoal, carbon can be used to counter toxins and poisons in the air or within your body; similarly, it can be used to filter undrinkable water. Carbon also exists in the air, in a bond with oxygen. Either as carbon dioxide- The gas we expel with each breath, or carbon monoxide, the gas emitted from burning lanterns, for instance. Both of which are odorless, colorless gasses that will kill you if you breathe too much of it.

"Graphite- or coal, and diamonds, are two of the best natural conductors to heat in existence. Meaning, they can hold a lot of thermal energy without burning or melting, but that's where the similarities cease. Graphite is incredibly soft and is an electric conductor, though not as to as high a degree as copper. Diamond, on the other hand, is the hardest non-metallic and non-magical material in existence, but it doesn't conduct electricity at all. Lastly, I'm certain that you can make a material called graphene. A material with amazing properties that I'll give you more details about later. For now, let's start with diamonds. Particles and atoms, right?"

"Yes." Jaimess quickly nodded, triggering a confused glare from Roheisa.

During the exchange, I took a sheet of a vial of ink out of the folds of my sleeve and drew a cubic crystal system in the air with a mix of gravity magic and water manipulation. "Now, take the individual carbon atoms and use them as the points for this structure," I said, pointing to the matrix. "No lines. Only points. Arranged in a repeating lattice."

It took him a while. A few minutes, actually. But, he eventually managed to produce a palm-sized diamond in his hand. Causing him to break his character for a moment and erupt in a sudden outburst of excitement.

"Silicon is more complicated and versatile." I continued once he calmed down. "On Maru." And Earth. "It rarely exists in nature in a pure state. Instead, like carbon, it's mixed with oxygen to make quartz; or silicon dioxide. That crystal alone has interesting properties, but finely ground quartz is a major component of ordinary sand and sandstone. Quartz sand, also referred to as silica sand or white sand, can be used along with your carbon and a few rocks to make a water filter; or, it can be used alone as an abrasive, or it can be mixed with other materials to make clays, cement, mortar, ceramics, and porcelain. Even glass is made with silicon, among other things." I slyly snorted. Causing the princesses awed gaze to morph into one of skeptic curiosity. "I don't know if having an affinity with silicon grants you access to all of those materials from the start or if you'll have to mix them yourself. You'll have to experiment on your own to find out."

"I will, Your Grace." Jaimess bowed again. "Thank you for your wisdom."

"Me next!" The Princess excitedly floated in.

"Jonet first," I said. "I have something to teach you and Toril, remember?"

Her lips snarled a bit as she floated back but otherwise said nothing. As did I, naturally, as I turned to Jonet.

"We'll start with your sound magic," I said. "I'm sure it gives you hearing far above any of ours and I'm aware that you can nullify sound. However, I'm positive that can perfectly mimic any sound as well. By itself that may not seem like much, but imagine a natural disaster; such as a volcanic eruption, a cannon firing, or a devastating spell being unleashed without a single noise being heard." I grinned sadistically. "On top of that, you can single-handedly disrupt enemy formations by causing a lapse in communication; contrarily, your magic will prove to be vital to the success of our guild. On top of that, sound can be used to debilitate life through the harsh vibrations of air or another medium; which is essentially what sound is. The frequency of those vibrations determines the sound of all things around us. And all living things have a frequency most harmful to it."

"I understand." She bowed.

"The last thing I want to tell you regarding sound magic is that it is most powerful in the water." I pointed out. "Now, as for thermal magic. That is possibly stronger than any of my magical affinities. You, Jonet, are a source of perpetual energy. Do any of you know how to produce electricity without magic?"

It was a rhetorical question of course. I only wanted to see where the inhabitants of Maru stood on the scale of technological progression.

"What's electricity?" Roheisa asked.

I tried not to snort. I truly did.

"It'll take a while to explain, so I'll write it down later. I'll give you a copy if you want?"

My vassals seemed shocked at me seemingly offering my knowledge freely. Though the first set of books I gave them were to remain a well-guarded secret for the foreseeable future, mostly everything else was free reign for anyone interested in learning. 'It seems like I have to reiterate that.' I internally sighed. I was never the type to hoard knowledge. More so, both my mother's story and Telin's words when he saw me off left a nagging thought in the back of my mind that I couldn't let remain as a loose end.

Telin, elves, dragons, whoever it was, they planned to torment me in this life.

I had no way of knowing what their plans were, however. Or if they even had any at all. But I refused to ignore the possibility that misery would find its way to me at some point. Compounding that paranoia was the sapling in the back of my mind that assumed that magic may cease to exist in the universe.

If in the event that ever happened, I wanted to ensure that I wouldn't be forced to live through a reawakening of the dark ages. And to do that, the people around me were going to have to become a hell of a lot more scientifically fluent.

My overall goal hasn't changed. Rather, it's been refined into creating an empire that's fueled by the laws of both nature and magic.

After all, it's better to have and not need.

The princess nodded silently, surprise and suspicion still written across her face as I turned back to Jonet.

"Your magic once again comes down to particles," I said. "As I explained before, the motion of these particles is what we perceive as temperature. The faster these particles move, the hotter the material feels to us, and vise versa. Your magic gives you absolute control over the motion of all particles. And I'll give you a way to control those particles to the finest degree.

"As for poison magic." I shrugged. "The best I can do is give you the same list of poisons I was given."

Despite me coming short on her last affinity, Jonet quickly floated forward with her hand over her heart. "You've given me more than enough, My Lord." She shook her head.

'Perhaps.' I internally shrugged and turned to Ed. "Your torch magic is self-explanatory, so we'll focus on your force and tungsten magic. The first is quite simple. You only need to remember a simple equation. Mass multiplied by acceleration equals force. In itself, force is the energy that results in an object changing motion. If my hypothesis is correct, the amount of mana charged into your spells influences both variables. Though, the interesting part comes with your next affinity.

"Tungsten." I excitedly grinned. "Excluding adamantine, tungsten is the hardest, non-magical metal in existence; on top of that, it's non-ferrous and has the highest melting point of any metal in the same category and is as dense as gold. In other words, a little of it weighs a lot. As we saw last night." I snorted, triggering yet another bemused glare from Roheisa. "With all its benefits, however, tungsten is extremely brittle. This makes it unsuitable for use as weapons or armor, but it makes for the perfect projectile." I sadistically grinned.

Thankfully, Ed seemed to catch my drift, necessitating no need to elaborate further. And so, I turned to Toril. Causing the princess' excitement to finally erupt.

"Now, Toril. Your gas magic is more than just assimilating into the air." I explained, ignoring the Princess easing ever closer. "Every element that exists can be made into a gas under the right conditions. Even the earth we live on, the steel in our weapons, and the most resilient of materials can all be made into gasses. Additionally, there are more non-magical elements than there are letters in the alphabet. 118 of them to be exact. And each of them has their unique properties that I believe you can manipulate at will; so long as they are in a gaseous state." I added. "Lastly, many of them can be combined with your combustion magic to create magnificent explosions. Expect some new reading material regarding these elements." I said, turning to my other vassals. "All of you."

They nodded their affirmations and I turned to face both Toril and the princess. The latter of which eagerly floated up at a moment's notice.

"Now, I've already explained this to Toril." I sighed. "But, electricity and magnetism are two sides of the same coin. That said, one of my affinities is electromagnetism. Toril." I called before the Princess could question me. "Put on your gauntlet."

He did as told and pulled the wire-wrapped gauntlet over his right. Then looked at me expectantly.

"I designed this gauntlet for Toril and it was made by Ed," I explained to the Princess while gesturing for the former to activate it.

Doing as instructed, Toril sent his charged mana through the wire in a continuous loop, producing almost no noticeable effect besides a soft hum and a bit of waste heat.

"Can you make me a stick?" I asked the princess.

She seemed confused but did as asked without any fuss. After taking it from her, I slowly held it out toward Toril's arm and let go as it snapped against the coils tightly clung in place with an iron.

"That's!" The princess gasped.

"An electromagnet," I explained. "Produced when a conductor like iron is wrapped in a coil of wire carrying an electric current. The problem is, the copper conductor isn't perfect. The electrical current faces a resistance that causes it to lose some of its energy as it passes through, which in turn heats the material." I nodded to the singed pieces of leather atop the gauntlets. "There are natural materials that can carry a current without resistance. But, those materials have to be cooled to absurdly low temperatures for the effect to take place." I glanced at Jonet. "Since Toril has a lightning affinity, however, his entire body is a perfect conductor of electricity; meaning, it can carry a charge indefinitely with no loss to heat. Now." I pointed. "A material like that doesn't exist naturally, but your axe is proof that there's a magical material that does.

"Similarly, my body is a perfect conductor, and you, having a steel affinity, are a regular conductor." I pointed at myself before Roheisa. "Since that's the case, my theory should work."

"What should?" She shook her head.

"Hold out your hand."

She recoiled at once. Backed away blinking in bemusement for a moment, only to drift back with her arm held out in the next one.

"Now, you may have to imbue steel magic into your arm if it doesn't work, but produce a magnetic field and move it around your hand at a furious pace."

After making a face, Princess Roheisa did as I instructed and soon after yelped in surprise before lunging her face toward her hand. I only the other hand, similarly cackled in excitement at my theory being proven correct before my eyes. And to prove it to the others, I pulled the charge from Roheisa's hand, causing another joyous yelp from her reveling at the sparks being generated between us.

"This is called Electromagnetic Induction." I enthusiastically explained.

"This is amazing!" She beamed at me, leaning a bit too close in the process. "Father was right, you are a genius."

"No." I drifted away, shaking my head. "I simply learned how to understand things at a fundamental level. Be those things people or nature. And soon enough, magic and monsters."

"The one downside to a peaceful empire, my father says." The Princes chided.

"I'd rather grow up in peace than spend my childhood in war," I commented, more to myself than to anyone else. Thinking of the atrocities I saw during my tours on Earth gave me a newfound appreciation for the life given to me by my parents. Arranged as my birth may have been. At least this world wasn't as miserable as Earth was.

At least the denizens of this realm had the power to fight against their oppressors.

Though, I'm sure people were still just as horrible as anywhere else.

We were the culture, after all.

"Roheisa." I turned to her. "You intend to go to the academy, yes?"

"I do." She nodded.

"And then what?"

"Well." She huffed. "My father wants me to join an esteemed military or a guild if I can't form my own. 'An emperor or empress with no combat experience is no leader.' He says."

'Jeez. It's always he said this, he says that with this woman.' I groaned internally before impatiently nodding. "Okay. But what do YOU want to do?"

"I don't know." She admitted. "I do agree with my father in the sense that I have no experience. I'm sure you understand." She turned to see the island on the horizon. "I've never left this place. I need to learn more of myself and about the world before I know what I want to do."

"That's quite admirable," I admitted. "Well, you have at least three years at the academy to decide. So, take your time."

"Thank you." She smiled. "And what do you plan to do, Amun of Odissi?"

I turned to the west, where a soft blue glow like an aurora painted the sky and the waters below it, and nodded to it with a grin. "I'm going to form a guild. Then, we'll cull Ulai."

She immediately shook her head. "What are you going to do about the portals though? You may be able to kill all the monsters, but more of them will follow in their wake."

"I have a few ideas." I coyly smiled, then peered down to the ground. "But that's beside the point. Our lessons are over. I'm sure you all have much you want to put to the test, and I do as well. Besides." I paused to begin dropping us towards the castle. "I'm tired of carrying you all."

Without another word, I swooped us down to a gentle landing in the courtyard we departed from and waited until they had their footing before releasing my spells on them. I, however, remained floating horizontally above the ground as if I were hanging from a harness.

"Well, have fun." I waved. Then allowed myself to drop into Shadowfell.