Deities

"Child, do you have any idea of the consequences of your actions?!" Blaine yelled, finally losing his temperament.

"I do," Fayden said calmly, "and that's exactly what I'm counting on."

Blaine narrowed his eyes, "Explain."

"We all know I'm an excommunicated prince." Fayden casually leaned on the railing. "If the worst comes to pass, you can just dump the repercussions on me."

"Absolutely not!" Merial exploded. "I will not forsake my son!"

"Mom," Fayden said reassuringly, "I don't intend to become a martyr."

"How else do you explain your idea?" Alduin asked, equally as disapproving.

"Alduin." Virion placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "You know of his…benefactors."

"What makes you so sure they'll come?" he shot back.

"One of them literally entrusted me with his son." Fayden deadpanned and Zeke Void Stepped beside him.

"What are you talking about?" Blaine asked, confused by their words.

"Inconsequential matters, don't worry about it." Fayden sighed.

Blaine nodded hesitantly, "Anything else you wish to convey?"

"Not necessarily, but," Fayden tossed the device towards the human king, "give that to your best artificer. Gideon, was it?"

Blaine sighed, "Very well."

"I'll have someone take care of the corpses," Virion commented, "aside from the Greysunders and their Lance."

"We'll need to interrogate Ms. Earthborn when she returns," Blaine said. "Until then, you are dismissed."

The Glayder's and their Lances were the first to leave, leaving Fayden alone with his family and Alea.

He raised his arm before any questions could be asked, "I know you have questions, but those can wait until I return to Elenoir. There's other people who need to know about this, besides you're going to be busy with the corpses."

"When can we expect you?" Alduin asked, he hoped it was soon.

"In a day or two at the latest." Fayden answered, dismissing his Integrate Stage.

"What happened to your hair brat?" Virion barked, noticing the change in the silver-black ratio. What used to be a small amount of black strands among a sea of gunmetal silver had increased to at least a 1:4 ratio.

Fayden raised an eyebrow, conjuring an ice mirror to look into. He noticed the change in his hair, and less noticeably the darker red hue in his eyes.

"I suppose it's a side effect of using my Beast Will too much." Fayden noted, dismissing the mirror.

"I've never heard of a Beast Will capable of permanently altering your physical appearance." Virion muttered

"There's also been no documented cases of Asuran beast wills." Fayden shot back, preparing to Void Step.

"Fayden," Merial said before he could leave, "please stay safe."

Fayden grinned, his eyes glowing an eerie silver, "Of course, Mom."

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When Fayden appeared in Xyrus Academy, he saw the Team Fighting Mechanics class preparing to leave.

"Wait, hold up!" he yelled, running over to them.

"Fayden, you're alright?!" Arthur exclaimed, relief washing over his features.

"I'm still alive, yes."

"Mr. Eralith, you're late." Professor Glory said with a grin, implying she wasn't really angry about it.

Fayden rolled his eyes, "I'll keep that in mind the next time I save a Lance from a life threatening situation."

"What now?"

"Nevermind." Fayden shook his head. "Professor Glory, could you come with me for a bit?"

"My, how bold of you."

"To the Director's office." Fayden deadpanned. "This is serious."

Glory sighed, "You're no fun. Fine, lead the way."

Turning back to face the class, she barked, "You lot, stay here and don't go anywhere."

"So, what is this about?" she asked as they began moving.

"You mind telling me again what dungeon you were planning to take them to?" Fayden asked, not even looking at her.

"The Widow's Crypt, why?" she asked, confused.

Fayden sighed in relief, "Thank fuck I made it here in time."

"Language." Glory reprimanded.

"Yeah, yeah, that's the least of your worries right now." Fayden said as they reached Cynthia's office.

"Come in!" A voice came from inside after hearing the knock.

"Ah, it's y-" Cynthia froze, sensing the residual decay mana on him. "What happened?"

"Sit down, it's a long story." Fayden settled on the couch, inhaling deeply.

He looked them both in the eye once, and spoke gimly, "War is coming."

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After relaying the events since last night, Fayden left the two women speechless. Albeit, Cynthia was more in disbelief than shock.

"How-? This-" Glory took a deep breath in. "War?" she asked.

Fayden nodded, "We likely have a few years until the war truly begins. We need to train our mages as much as we can before that happens."

"Ha!" Glory laughed. "Even if every student of Xyrus were a white core mage, we can't win against deities."

"Actually," Fayden began, "if they wanted war to begin with, why have they not already attacked us?"

"..." Cynthia pressed her lips to a thin line.

"Think about it, it almost seems like something is stopping them." Fayden said; he had an inkling of an idea why.

"What are you implying?" Cynthia said knowingly.

"The Vritra aren't the only deities out there." Fayden smirked. "We have deities on our side too."

"What makes you so sure?" Professor Glory inquired.

"Long story short. Long ago, a deity granted today's Royal Families six artifacts, two to each family. These artifacts allowed a mage to immediately jump from the silver stage to the white stage." Fayden stared right into her eyes. "How do you think the Lances came to be?"

Glory's eyes widened as the royal secret was revealed to her. "Wait, so they didn't reach the white core on their own?"

Fayden shook his head. "As far as I'm aware, I'm the only natural white core mage on this continent."

"I was right…" Glory breathed out, "You are a white core mage…"

Fayden continued, "If that wasn't enough, I met a deity when I was three and his words basically confirmed they're going to aid us."

"You MET one of them?!" She almost fell from her seat.

Cynthia merely sighed; she was used to bizarre occurrences in his and Arthur's life at his point.

"Irrelevant." Fayden waved her surprise away. "What's more concerning is the sudden increase in the radical group's actions when a retainer was so close. It's almost like they have connections with the Alacryan's."

"It's a possibility." Cynthia said. "If it is true…"

"Then I'll make sure to slaughter each and every one of them." Fayden spat out. "Traitors aren't welcome here."

"I can't say I disagree with you there," Glory said, standing up. "Well, I better let the class know the trip's canceled."

"Don't tell them about the war, not until there's an official announcement." Fayden warned as she left.

"Of course, I'm not an idiot."

He turned to the elderly woman once Glory was gone. "Cynthia, I can try removing the curse you're bound to. But, I can't guarantee it'll work."

Cynthia opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it, choosing to shake her head instead.

Fayden sighed, "Very well, I'll respect your wishes."

Cynthia nodded gratefully. "It's good to see you're unharmed, Fayden."

"Pfft, he couldn't land a single hit," Fayden boasted.

Cynthia chuckled, perhaps there was hope after all.

BANG!

The door to the Director's office slammed open, two familiar figures on the outside.

"Brother…" Tessia whispered, taking a few steps forward. She stopped, taking a deep breath in, and ran.

"Whoa-!" Fayden was more than surprised when Tessia willingly hugged him.

"I was under the impression that you were still…" Fayden didn't finish the sentence.

Tessia trembled just a bit, "I realized how little it mattered that your power scared me. I will always be afraid of your power, but that doesn't mean I need to be afraid of you."

"Almost losing you made me realize how much I loved you, and that ruled out the fear I felt that day. " Tessia dug her face in his shoulder, preventing him from seeing the expression she was making.

He was shocked at the sudden change of heart, but he realized the letter he had left made the situation sound a lot more dire than it actually was. Then again, he didn't expect to beat a retainer so easily.

He chuckled, patting her head affectionately, "Love you too, sis."

Arthur grinned as he walked closer. "So all it took for you two to reconcile was for you to venture into a life threatening situation."

Fayden nodded. "If I'd known that, I would've just gone ahead and thrown myself inside of a random S-Class dungeon a long time ago-Ow!"

He winced when Tessia pinched the back of his neck.

"Ass." Tessia muttered, unwilling to break their hug.

"So violent. You sure you aren't a hell baboon?"

Tessia glared, pinching harder.

"Ow! God fucking dammit!"

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*Knock knock*

"Enter!" Nathan's unmistakable voice said from inside.

Opening the door, he walked in on Nathan trying to memorize a particularly annoying topic from his mana manipulation book.

Seeing who had entered, Nathan raised an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't coming today."

"I just had some pressing matters to deal with." Fayden commented, all but falling into his bed.

Nathan chuckled, "How many hours did you sleep last night?"

"Uh, two?" Fayden said, unsure of the number himself.

"You should catch up on some sleep then."

"No can do." Fayden stopped to stifle a yawn. "I have an academy to patrol."

Nathan sighed, "I suppose we do."

Silence reigned for a moment before Fayden decided to break it.

"Nathan, do you think deities exist?" Something in Fayden's tone compelled Nathan to answer truthfully.

He shrugged, "They could exist. My mother always said my father was a deity, but I never believed her."

'She might have been onto something; Nathan is too different from a normal human.'

'Perhaps…'

"What if I were to tell you that some deities are planning on warring against us?"

Nathan perked up. "What?" he whispered in quiet disbelief.

Fayden nodded, "What if you had to fight a deity, could you do it?"

Nathan nodded resolutely. "If it meant protecting my mother and my friends, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Coincidentally, that's probably also the time it would take for me to get my ass beat, but why do you ask?"

Fayden smiled seeing his determination, "No reason."

Nathan sighed, "Alright."

"But seriously though, are deities really at war with us?"

Fayden only chuckled silently.

"Hey! Don't just laugh, answer me!"

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Knowing Arthur was back at the Helstea Manor, Fayden knocked on his door, he had to talk to Elijah.

"Coming!" Footsteps could be heard inside as Elijah scurried to open the door.

"Oh, Fayden, it's you. If you wanted to talk to Arthur, he's already gone."

Fayden shook his head, "I'm not here to talk to him."

"Oh, then uh… come in?" Elijah opened the door wide open, beckoning Fayden in.

Without another word, Fayden walked in as Elijah closed the door behind him.

"Still think I can't imitate Elijah?" Nico said, his facade shattering.

Fayden rolled his eyes, "Fine, I believe you. Now, can we get onto more urgent topics?"

Nico raised an eyebrow, "You're grumpy today, what happened?"

Fayden sighed, repeating things for the third time that day.

"..." Nico remained silent, mulling over what he had just learned. "This Agrona guy, you said he's their leader?"

Fayden shrugged, "That's how he introduced himself at least."

"And this retainer's powers were similar to mine?" he inquired for confirmation.

Fayden nodded, "That's right. He just didn't have those gray flames of yours."

"So… War, huh?" He had a faraway look in his eyes. "What's this, the second time we were in a war now?"

"To be fair, that was more of a one-sided massacre."

"And this isn't?" Nico stared into his eyes, "They're gods, Markus, we can't fight gods!"

"And that's exactly why we need to prepare." With a flick of his fingers, Uto's core and horns materialized in his hand.

Nico furrowed his brows, "Why the horns? I can understand the core but why'd you bring his horns?"

Fayden twirled one of the horns between his fingers. "They're brimming with mana; the horns are basically a second mana core with the sheer amount of mana they hold."

"And you want me to use the mana from these to break out of Initial Silver?"

Fayden grinned. "You were always the smarter one."

Nico rolled his eyes. "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"Make good use of them, Nico. Hopefully, it'll bump you far enough to reach white core." Fayden walked out of the room, not once looking back.

Nico sighed. He didn't show it, but he was worried at the number of similarities in his and the retainer's powers.

He glanced at the mirror in the room, his skin was a healthy shade of caucasian. He traced his fingers across his forehead, he felt no stubs there.

He wasn't a Vritra, but had the power of one. He knew he wasn't a pure human either.

"What am I then? Am I a god? A half breed? Or am I just a failed experiment?"