“You should have seen his cramped face. It seems you were right, Guildmaster, he is nothing more than a weakling of little merit.”

The Flameborne Guildmaster, Verne Semptar, listened with disinterest as the middle-aged man serving as one of his diplomats continued to prattle on. The moment he left the room the wooden chair he had once occupied vanished into an explosion of blue flame.

“Samuel,” Verne growled out as a shadow left the corner of the room, “what the hell is this?”

“Whatever do you mean?” the tall cloaked man in the corner asked with ‘confusion’.

“I mean, why is this stupid, fat fuck still alive?” he growled out.

“Well you-”

“If you say I missed burning him and only got the chair, I’ll roast you alive instead.”

“Clearly, Archon Nvos saw no need to kill him,” Samuel corrected, his face showing no emotion despite his continued mocking.

Heat radiated from Verne’s eyes as he stared at his partner.

“Easy love,” Samuel said while chuckling and going over to massage the seated Guildmaster’s shoulders, “there was always a chance it wouldn’t happen.”

“A small one.”

“Yes, admittedly a small one. With what we’ve gathered since his appearance, Archon Nvos is shown to violently defend his companions from even the smallest insults, even if coming from a Crown Prince. His willingness and ability to kill a descended Divinity - albeit in an imperfect host - to rescue another. And he immediately rushed to the front-lines when a suicide attacker assaulted him despite no harm being done. And those are only the confirmed rumors. There is still the whole thing with Yazir’s death.

“Our diplomat threatening his companions, even if indirectly, should have produced an explosive result. At the very least I expected some maiming.”

“And that it didn’t? Did not most all of our plans hinge on hanging the death of him over Nvos’ head? Just looking at that sorry excuse for a Mage makes me want to burn him alive, how could he not have managed to annoy a powerful Magus with a temper? The stupid man even thought him being sent here was a sign of trust. Hah, a sign of trust in him annoying Nvos to death.”

“We need to reassess. Plus, Nvos avoided bringing his current known lover. Perhaps he was aware of his own faults? And perhaps we must consider he truly represents the Far North and that his backing is real. So, he can’t act too unbridled when it comes to their interests such as the Enchanter’s Guild. The origin of the strange race that has been antagonizing the Taraniens as well as the one saved by Nvos is still unknown. It could mean all our plans other than a working relationship or total war have become useless.”

“I’ll attend the auction then.” He had come secretly to the city precisely because he didn’t want to overstate the importance of the Enchanter’s Guild. But with evidence including the enchantment of and the physical building of the Guild itself leaning towards the Magus Nvos truly coming from the Far North, and therefore a possibly powerful background, that wasn’t a good option anymore. His relationship with the Flame-Touched Goblin King of the North was troubling as well. And not just because of Verne’s burning envy towards the achievement of the subhuman, unintelligent Goblin.

“From how he acts towards you, we can learn more.”

Francis stared at the flying fortress’ core with uninterrupted interest. It was a massive sphere taller than him by at least 10 feet. The concept that this fortress ran, along with the defenses, on the environment was an interesting one. The limit of this society wasn’t energy but rather materials and the strength of the core - they would degrade quite quickly if made of only normal metal.

Prejudice towards Mages wasn’t an issue here as enchanted cores were quickly unenchanted within hours and therefore pointless. Though Francis had to wonder how [Draconic Enchanting] would fare.

However he was sure of one thing: the Mana-Well could definitely replace the ambient Mana this core used. The other cores had been too small for him to see it clearly. The system of harnessing the ambient Mana was pretty close to the enchanted workstations Nalmar developed.

Francis nodded to himself. An academy of Magic that didn’t fly simply shouldn’t exist.

“Francis,” Frederick approached him from beyond, joining him in staring at the core.

“Gramps.”

“I would like to apologize for the last few days.”

“There’s no need.”

His grandpa went on as if he hadn’t heard that.

“You must understand, when I heard you rationalize that your Elemental would be having a ‘Good Life’, I lost it. How many times over a long millinium have I had to hear a similar offers towards myself, or about my children? Or about you?

“When you were captured, and when your rescue had led to your Father’s death - it was his fault you were captured in the first place so don’t blame yourself for my grandson’s mistake - I had to wonder whether their offer of giving you a ‘Good Life’ would have been better. Sarah wouldn’t have had to work hard to defend the family in the future as your father would still be alive. We would have finally been free from the council, for a time being at least, as I had no doubt this organization had some secret support from them.

“After all, my lifespan was coming to a close and I had exhausted all means. I could have keeled over that day for all I knew.

“But no. To compromise, to accept such a thing. It is not the Nvos way. It has never been my way. Nor has it ever been your sister’s way. And I can tell it is not yours either.”

“Damn right.”

Frederick grinned at the response.

“So tell me about these elementals, and why you thought it was impossible to go and get your… child right away.”

Francis stood at the highest tower of the fortress, a lack of a moon and an elsewhere impossibly thick belt of stars in the sky giving him the familiar feeling of not being anywhere near home.

He reached out his hand. Void Will answered his call and created a formless blade in his grasp. Sinking his mind into it, he reached out towards the Void. Out here in the real world, the Void resisted his attempts. The entirety of it stretched far too wide and remained far too large to be bent as easy as before.

But his control over the Void overcame that.

The original passive edge took on a fearsome aura, and with a single swing the space in front of him contorted, a black scar left for a brief moment before vanishing.

[Skill Gained: Blade of the Void lvl 1/10]

[Title Gained: Reality-Cutter]

[Experience Gained: Deferred, Deferred]

Francis nearly lurched forward as space snapped back together, replacing the part that had ceased to exist and taking the nearby air towards the former scar with it.

It was far stronger than he could have imagined.

The blade returned to its passive state after the swing, lacking it’s reality-cutting power from before.

Francis cast an [Arcane Blade] with his other hand, maintaining both with little effort. Could the [Arcane Blade] be improved in the same way? A thought for a rejoined him.

He let out a deep sigh as he looked over the landscape. Sleeping with random Mages wasn’t helping fill the hole in his Soul anymore. He wasn’t sure it ever did; he merely did it because it’s what it made sense to do. What any 20-year-old with his attribute-enhanced appearance should want to do. Technically, he had gone through a break-up. And the idea of making his creator feel guilty appealed to him.

But none of those minor things mattered now. His previous acts of revenge just seemed petty. All that was left was a profound emptiness that the Void Will in his body seemed happy to fill and make worse. Rainer needed to hurry up and figure out how to rejoin them.

He looked down, thinking of the Divinity following empire on the other side of this planet. Could he gain some more Void Will through sacrifices of Divine Power to Talvara? It was something to ask her. Questioning the innocence of the followers he planned to kill wasn’t a plan. He wasn’t sure he cared anymore. They were against Magic and the freedom of Mages, so they were his enemies. There was no need to think of anything else.

Rather than sex and magic, should he fill the hole in his heart with blood?

“Rainer, I’ve been thinking,” Kara said, turning to face Rainer from where she had been silently leaning on him. Snow gently fell on their shoulders, Rainer taking some time with Kara while avoiding the preparations going on in the Enchanter’s Guild.

“Hmm?”

“All this time spent with my family, and my tribe… and a Mage’s issues with fertility… and starting a family in the future… and for the future of my people… I… I was thinking…”

Rainer froze as he felt a pit in his stomach.

Kara gave him a weird glance before her eyes widened.

“No, no, no, I meant - not that. I didn’t mean that. How could you think I meant that?” She sighed before shaking her head and knowing that if she could infer that of course he could too, “Why do we always have these misunderstandings between us?”

Rainer chuckled, relieved as he put an arm around Kara.

“Maybe we are cursed? Or maybe I’m cursed. The misunderstanding is always on my side. It’s not fun.”

“Definitely cursed. So I was thinking you could start studying all the things related to a Mage’s fertility ahead of time. That way whenever we’re ready it happens. And related to mine. I’ve been speaking with my mom about it; a Demon’s fertility is already pretty low. Plus, with me being half and half she thinks I might be…”

“Infertile?” Rainer filled in with a sigh. He had already guessed as much. It wasn’t uncommon for hybrids, not that he’d reveal the animal comparison to Kara. “Well there’s no point in worrying about it. It’s not like it matters.”

“It’s not like it matters…” Kara echoed, backing away from Rainer, ignoring his hand as it searched for ears to scratch that weren’t there anymore.

“Well yeah. Why would it?” Rainer said, looking out over the snow as he paused for a few seconds, “I’ll have to magically alter our fertility anyways, so what’s having to use a bit more magic?”

“You-” Kara started, before shoving him into the snow.

Rainer didn’t react quickly enough to avoid falling face first into the snow. Mouth open.

“It’s not a curse if you do it on purpose!” Kara yelled, halfway between furious and laughing. Shouldn’t he have some more sympathy for how awful this kind of thing felt?

“What?! What was on purpose?!” he yelled while spitting snow out of his mouth. This was not how he expected a girl to react to him perfectly answering an ‘our future’ type question. Mind you, pushing him that hard when he was basically made of steel was the equivalent to a light pinch... but still. Was there no winning for him? And this had conversation started so ‘well’.

“The pause, the misleading phrasing!”

“What? No? What?” Rainer was confused before finally realizing what she meant. “If it was on purpose you think I’d be stupid enough to stay around you? I’m at least smart enough to Void-walk out of arm's reach!”

“I… yeah, you would run wouldn’t you, “ Kara said and then bit her bottom lip, a bit of her sharp canine showing. It would have been cute if she wasn’t holding in laughter. “I’m sorry.”

“The grin on your face makes that sorry very unconvincing.”

“I’ll give you a more ‘proper’ apology later.”

“I can’t find any argument with that. Does that make me easy?”

“I don’t think men are supposed to worry about being easy.”

“How sexist of you. Warrior-women everywhere are disappointed.”

Kara smiled, chuckling as she easily dodged the snowball Rainer launched at her head. And the second one he used magic to manipulate from behind her. She dodged another from the front only to let out a loud yelp, more of surprise than anything, when a tendril of manipulated snow smacked her butt and another dumped cold snow down the back of her top - she didn’t wear much in the cold.

“We really are cursed aren’t we?” she asked, shaking a few times and then cautiously glaring at the dozens of undulating tendrils of snow now surrounding her. This reminded her far too much of one of Luna’s revenge plans she’d vividly described when Kara had accidently pushed the Fairy off the bed.

“And to think, I had hoped my curse hadn’t passed on to you,” Rainer said, dropping his manipulations and deciding he had enough revenge for her pushing him into the snow. It’s not like it was that cold for either of them after all.

“How noble, and what a lie,” Kara said as Rainer turned away, definitely pretending to be ashamed, “Promise me you’ll punish whatever Divinity is responsible for fate and curses and destiny too for good measure?”

“Most certainly. I’ll give him a fate worse than death,” Rainer spoke pompously.

“Kara,” Rainer said suddenly, a smile on his face as he wiped the snow off himself. He stopped getting up halfway.

“Hmm?”

“Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”