There was a gentle warmth beneath my head and black peering orbs above. My head laid on the lap of the woman. My breathing immediately began going erratic but she simply smiled and I could feel a wave of calmness flow through me.

“There. Now you can talk to me like you normally would,” she said. “And please, allow me the pleasure. It’s not every day I get to do this.”

This woman is amazing!

“I, don’t believe I know your name,” I started. Despite being calm, my respect was still there and kicking. Ain’t no way I would talk with her like I talked with Donna.

“Zanthia, goddess of life. Now, I already know your name, but won’t you introduce yourself to me?” she asked of me, so well-mannered.

“Oh, I’m Eric Archibald, a mage from Aq–HOOOOOLY HELL!” It was as if reality had just kicked me in the ass. I rolled off of her in the most spectacularly awful way, landing on the ground pretty stupidly. That would explain everything! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! How do I…

“Now, now, that’s not nice, Eric. Come back, let me continue stroking your head.”

Oh, come on! I know you don’t mean anything by that, but you can’t tell me you don’t know how that sounds! “You’re, a goddess?”

“Mhm,” she nodded.

“So, you…”

“Created the beings of this realm.”

“And I’m here because…”

“Emily has passed on and now rests peacefully. Come now,” she fixed herself on the sofa, gesturing for me to return to how I once was, and when I didn’t immediately go, she teleported me back to where I was, in her hold. It was an even smoother teleport than Emily’s. I didn’t think that was possible.

“There! Doesn’t that feel nice?” she asked as her fingers passed through my hair.

“It, it does feel nice. Wait! Did you say the witch died?!”

“We’ve got a lot to talk about, Eric.”

~

A week later, I was at Calla’s room in the inn where she stayed, getting rejected. “Sorry, I like you a lot and all, and I even decided to change my mind and be with all of you when I met you guys. But someone tried to kill you. Sorry but, I can’t stay around you mages if that’s how you live.”

“Calla, how could you break my heart like this?!”

“Heart my ass! Just supply me with lots-a cloth and we’ve got a deal!”

“Deal!” I agreed.

Donna came out of me after I left.

“Well isn’t that nice?”

“I know right? In a way, I’m a little glad she didn’t join this. It is a little overwhelming. I understand her.”

She tittered, “Is the great archmagi Eric Archibald saying he can’t handle four women?”

I wrapped my arm around her as we strolled through the streets, “I can handle all women. But I’m a changed man.”

“Hmm, yeah I guess you would be, huh?” she said, her voice taking a little hiatus on its usual confidence.

Some days back, I’d informed Kira and Donna of meeting the person who gave the witch her immortality, and also that she’d taken it away. Of course, they didn’t believe a word at the start. Even I didn’t believe it when the goddess told me. But my lack of smile denoted a rather serious atmosphere. Emily had existed for so long that there was little she didn’t know or experience. A couple thousand more years and she’d have become demented. As such, she requested that the goddess end her life and bring her into the afterlife, to reunite with her family and friends of her old world, or ‘realm’ as they called it.

Of course, they both inquired of her replacements. Even when grieving, a replacement was quite an important thing for someone like Emily and they looked at me to be that person. But, there was no replacement. According to the goddess though, Emily did give me special treatment with intentions of me taking her place but there was no way I could do that. Being the acting leader of the Order of Mages and keeping balance in an entire realm were two very different things.

Did this mean the world could go out of balance and destroy itself? I didn’t know, but the goddess didn’t seem particularly worried, so why would I be?

Kira was the most flustered I’d ever seen her. She asked so many questions I couldn’t answer. Who was the person in charge of Emily? What did Emily leave behind? What of her dragons, Aurora and Audax? What of her teachings?

There were a lot of mysteries left behind. When Kira left, I had to tell Donna about her death.

“Sven, huh?” she called the name of that disturbing man. “She had him take my life…”

All I could afford her at the time was a warm embrace. I hoped it was enough. Both of us were led to believe the Elder and several other politicians hired an assassin to do away with her. But no, it was her own master. We didn’t know a lot of things still. But perhaps the biggest question replaying in my head, the biggest mystery–

Why let me meet the Zanthia, an actual goddess? In fact, I was sure the fellow who appeared behind her when I was grovelling was another god. It was something I probably wouldn’t get to ask until I met the goddess again. And at this point I couldn’t dare ask for to meet her again because the first time was enough to make anyone happy for a lifetime. I could only pray to have that question answered whenever I died and joined Emily in the afterlife.

Well, there we go, that’s the truth behind Donna’s death. It wouldn’t have made sense for anyone but another Apostle to do the deed anyway. Donna would’ve decimated the person otherwise.

I guess, if there was one thing that Emily passed on, was the method to give my mana the second and final powerup. This time, it wasn’t bringing out the most extreme manner of a person’s biggest insecurity – mine being helplessness – no. It wasn’t really anything to do with fortifying the mind, but a direct biological enhancement. And boy I couldn’t wait to do it.

But I had some business to take care of first. In the coming months, I worked on two things. Well, three things. Perfecting a potion, and although it was mediocre at best, it was just a step above anything our local hospitals had. This item could be properly sold. It was clear mostly, but had a slight tint of green, so I knew it was at least a shadow of Emily’s potions.

The second thing I worked on, was Eden. This goddamn Eden. Manipulating light magic through my Light Link granted the ability to sense a person’s life energy. I could see the energy within them. I had developed Life Perception, a passive spell that could be turned on or off whenever I wanted with no backlash. It meant I could cast things like Renew at a distance without using Light Link, but the latter still had its uses.

There was an issue. Sure, I could use Life Perception to cast the strong group healing spell, Eden, but that meant I actually had to look at the ones I wanted to heal. In reality, Life Perception didn’t replace Light Link, but it removed the requirement of touching the target to cast Light Link. So, I would use Life Perception to detect my allies, place Light Link on them, then cast Eden through the connection so the healing effects went directly to them and didn’t just spray out over an area and heal everyone. Although, to actually use the most important part of the Eden spell, I had to actually practise weaving light like a madman with the Life Perception skill alone. I had every part of Eden down except the mass healing spell itself.

It was so frustrating I had to put it on the backburner for a while. Anyway, the third thing I worked on was simply not getting assassinated by whoever wanted me dead. Not much of a thing but, you know, important nonetheless.

My blue mana potions and red strength potions – still pretty much transparent – were sold rather cheaply to the Order and were given out as rewards for completing the more difficult quests on the board. People would still tire using magic without Division, so they’d need those strength potions. As for the old doctor of that fancy hospital, he didn’t get his coveted golden healing spell, but he did get the best health potions he’d ever seen. I didn’t sell those as cheap as the strength and mana counterparts.

To help me do all these things without getting stepped on by the business world, Anjali helped me register a business, literally. I promised her if it was successful then she could work for me.

August was of course part of it. His normal enchantments could be sold at a steady and stable price, but his exceptional stuff would be auctioned. It would be the same for my potions, but he was way ahead of me in his pillar of creation so I couldn’t hope to do that anytime soon. I’d create simply jewellery for him to enchant, because not everyone walked around with swords and armour.

Bad Ankle joined as well, but seeing as she could only make garments, August had to enchant her best pieces for it to be truly special, but not with anything to do with combat capability. Simple stuff like the fabric not getting dirty, wrinkled, or damaged easily was a walk in the park for him.

It was a strange thing, to focus on magic not for the sake of learning it but for monetary gain. Wait, am I adulting?

“Something like it.”

Impossible.

I continued on with practising light magic manipulation and after almost three months of nonstop practise, there was finally a breakthrough. Vivify. I finally gained a spell that could be channelled. The mere fact that channelling spells made you immobile resulted in some of the strongest spells being channelling spells. Vivify was no exception, being even stronger than Renew. Given it had ample time to heal, it could reverse even fatal injuries unlike Renew. Although, I wasn’t sure it would fare well against someone who got decapitated long enough to be braindead and I wasn’t particularly willing to find out. Vivify would release an omnidirectional mist-like light essence to a wide area around me. After extensive testing on my clones, I then tried it in places with higher than usual manual labour workers like the industrial eastern district.

Now that I knew the spell was totally safe, it was time to test Eden, a spell that had become a process of spells overtime. A busy day in the Order of Mages was just what I needed. Exhausted mages would be quite thankful I’d imagine. So, I stood at the back of about a dozen practitioners as they trained up a series of attacks. They failed to notice me because of Voidwalk. After about ten attempts to get their combinations right, most of them breathed heavily. Alright, let’s try it out.

I looked at them with Life Perception and placed Light Link on each of them. Without Light Link, I would not be able to focus Vivify specific people. Luckily, casting Light Link on someone is a very subtle thing that usually wasn’t felt, especially by knackered mages in the middle of training. I began casting Vivify, but only within my Light Link connections. Because of that, I messed up their combination because it broke their attention, but I doubt they would be mad for long.

“Tis just a healing spell. Keep going,” I encouraged. “In fact, abuse your spells while you have the chance.”

They stared at me a little sceptically before realising who I was. “S-sir Archibald!” one of them exclaimed. They were quite taken aback by my presence.

Sir?

“You got knighted, dumbass.”

Oh, right, yeah. That happened.

They rushed over to me after a while. At this point, I was becoming something of a living legend. Liana, Ashfur, the Virai and the Ingen, K&A Creations – which was the name of mine and August’s business by the way – and a host of other miniscule things. They all just solidified I was a knowledgeable mage.

After chatting with them and giving them some pointers, they continued practising. One of them even had a wyrm around their neck. Dawn’s spirit classes were paying off. While channelling Vivify, or Eden rather, I topped off with a mana potion every minute or so. It was damn taxing, but quite powerful. When I ran out, I went down to my last drop of mana, making sure to save that so I wouldn’t pass out.

“Alright, that’s all guys, I’m out of mana. Good luck.”

I finally learned Eden.

It was now the middle of the afternoon, and a bright bolt of lightning zoomed toward me.

“Hydra’s ass, you motherfucker!” I slumped to a knee, feeling like I almost died. I jump easily, don’t judge me.

“Wow, and you’re the strongest mage in the Order? You’re just pitiful!” Volt mocked.

“And you’re an ass! Ugh!” I stood up again after some laughter got tossed around in the crowd of people I had attracted before. “Well, what ya want?”

He removed a hand from behind his back and held up a quest letter. The person who wrote it, was Farron Maxwell, the king of Methelia. And the quest? Well, in essence, it was just a bodyguard job. We went to Volt’s office to have a better talk about it.

“Not a simple job, is it?” I looked out the window.

“Nope. This quest was sent right to my office. For a quest to be sent from the king, no one else can honour it but you, and he knows that. He wishes for the Ashfur party, but, Peter and I have duties to fulfil now. Either way, I don’t think you’d need anyone else. There isn’t any other information other than it being a bodyguard mission, but will you accept?”

“Can I say no?”

He chuckled, “Probably not.”

“Interesting.”

~

I sat down in a room with the king and Donna, having tea. They chatted for a bit, but he didn’t waste much time in getting to why he summoned me. “I’ll get right to the point. A ship from Ulanos appeared in Silverport a couple days ago. There is an official on board that wishes to meet with me.”

“Ulanos? Are we going to war?” I asked. Ulanos had a history of subtle takeovers when entering someone else’s country. Whether it be monopolising their resources or assassinating important people, Ulanos was always that country that appeared to be a caring big brother that would run a shiv through your back and pillage your lands under ‘legal’ means the moment the opportunity arises. Their arrival in Silverport was no laughing matter.

“Probably. A blatant all-out war is something that should not happen. They are several times bigger than us, and that’s an understatement. Their country’s firepower is not something we can equal. Therefore, that official must be professionally handled and return to his country without any sort of trouble. I will send an official as well, but I want you to protect our man. As much as possible, try to stay your hand, and definitely stay your tongue. You are a convincing young man, but the mere act of speaking out of term is something we cannot afford to do. Will you do this, Sir Eric Archibald?”

I let out a sigh. “Sure thing, man. Isn’t Anjali your best negotiator though?”

“That she is, but Ulanos isn’t one to pay particular heed to a woman’s words. We need this done as quickly as possible. We’re ready when you are.”

“I’m ready now.”

“You shall depart tomorrow morning then,” he concluded, standing up. “And Eric,” he paused, “thank you.”

His gratitude was, heavy.