Cale sat hunched back in his chair, looking at the drawings Aaron and he had made in the last few hours. They were the creatures from the dragons' memories that watched over Tsuke. Some of these creatures even Cale had never seen before, and even though he was pretty sure he had seen it all.

Today felt distant. Along with Sefra and Yusuf, he had given lessons to the new students until the afternoon. They were practicing mana sensitivity and mana transfer, and Yusuf had asked him if he would help out a bit. In the evening he had accompanied the training of Philippa, Theorik and Miguel together with some other students and had presented some different sword forms together with his swordmaster colleague. In the end, Cale had also fought with almost all the students for a few minutes and given them his advice along the way, for which they were grateful to him. In general, Cale had the feeling today that people approached him quite differently. It was as if they realized how powerful the 12th High-Magician was after the second wave and his lessons in the arena. Probably the fight between Miguel and him helped tremendously to strengthen his notoriety. An unusual feeling, since Cale had always been careful not to stand out too much in his other lives.

He had spent the evening together with the girls. They had cooked together and talked late into the night. Just before midnight, however, Cale had left them, as the weekly meeting between the Apostles and the Dragons was coming up.

They had made a discovery thanks to Cale's testimony about the paintings on your bodies. Most of the Thormods who had been sighted in Tsuke were normal humans. They wore no adornments, which reinforced the fact already established that most of them were ordinary people. Disciples, warriors and leaders were rarely seen. There might have been a few hundred of them, but only a small percentage compared to their large numbers. For the most part, they stayed outside the walls of the city, but what they did, no one really knew. Only one type of Thormod could not be detect: the Saint.

To all appearances, it was probably a gross understatement that they were rare. Cale suspected that they were as rare as 3rd stage mages, or that it was simply too dangerous for them to be on the surface. More and more, Cale suspected that his mother had a good reason for living in Groka disguised as a human. However the society of manaless humans lived, she had deliberately distanced herself from it.

Besides the Thormod, they had another topic today. It was about abilities, specifically mind control. Cale and Aaron shared their questions and concerns about the 2nd wave with those present, and through them came up with the fact of who or what was actually controlling the creatures. There was virtually nothing useful to be found in the books on the subject, and the Dragons were equally unable to explain what this gift was all about. According to Velence, it is simply impossible to control the minds of other creatures. Therefore, no one could clearly say how the Thormods were able to make the creatures fight for them.

Cale sighed and looked up at his colleagues. Only Aaron, Odin, Rosalie, and Ziyad were still present. They had been talking with the dragons for almost 4 hours and had been sitting together for a few hours now, discussing their next steps. They were considering going out in small groups to search for the Thormods in the Creature Plane to get an idea of the living situation of their opponents and to assess who might become a problem. They planned to use Cale's Shapeshifting and give it a trial run with some dragons. The longer they waited, the more time the Thormod had and the more dangerous it became for them. Even though the third wave would not appear for 3. years, by successfully defending the city, the High-Magicians were afraid that the Thormod would now resort to other means.

The 5th seat Odin Ander handed Cale a glass of water and took a seat next to him before also taking a sip of his cool drink and exhaling in satisfaction.

"I've been thinking about your time travel problem", Odin finally spoke up as he sat back. "Without offending our beloved old man, I don't think you can just wait until the end of nature's mana."

"How exactly do you mean that?", the referenced old man, Aaron, spoke up himself.

"Well, look at it this way. We agree that this world is a duplicate of the real world. And with every further death, Cale overwrites this duplicate anew, the only things that remain unchanged are the gods and him. Everything else disappears, or at least is no longer comprehensible for us. If we assume that Cale is dependent on the mana of the gods, then Cale has a huge problem at the end. If the mana of the gods dissolves, he also disappears."

"You think my existence completely disappears from this world?", Cale interjected confused. For a moment he thought about how with the disappearance of the mana of the gods he was finally able to truly die, but what does this mean for the others and the real world?

"Not necessarily. I rather think that your current consciousness disappears and with it the whole, false world. So the question is more like what would happens to all this. In my opinion, everything should continue as usual after your first death, ignoring the fact that the God of the future has given you the gift of rebirth. I strongly suspect that he deliberately wanted to send you back 20 years into the future, but in the process something must not have gone as he planned."

"So basically you believe that Caleb is reborn in the real world, but without the memories from this world", Aaron summarized the statement succinctly.

"I believe that, yes. My question is, is that what we want? That I might lose my memories, I can deal with that because it's already happened. But trusting a God who probably made a big mistake?"

"You trust Caleb, but you don't trust Mellontikos."

"Something like that", Odin replied and to his surprise, he received an approving nod from Aaron.

"I can understand the thought process quite well. Trusting the gods unconditionally, as the dragons do, I can't either. Even if they are trying to protect the world, that doesn't mean they will protect everyone currently alive", Rosalie interjected into the debate.

"So you'd rather prefer if I take this task in hand", Cale gave voice, letting his gaze wander around the group but unintentionally lingering on Aaron.

"I trust a human more than any god who claims to act for the good of all. Even if they really do, let them prove it and not work around three corners", Odin explained, causing Cale's attention to wander to the man next to him.

"I'm honored, but ultimately it means two things. First, I have to actively stop time traveling and second, I will have to start a 7th life. Don't you have a suggestion on how to bring the gods to us?"

"Directly stated, no. I think it's simply impossible."

Reluctantly, Cale sighed at Odin's statement and slumped against the back of the chair. Simply put, Odin assumed that Cale would have to be reborn again, and the mere thought of it drove him insane. He wanted to avoid that at all costs!

"Even if Caleb can't wait until the end, we still don't have an approach to end time travel early", Aaron admitted some time later, as if he had noticed how annoyed Cale was by the thought.

"I'm afraid that's not true", Cale spoke up again. "I've talked to the Eldest about this before and in fact that was one of the first thoughts I had regarding time travel. Do you know how his Igrikum works?"

"You mean his visions from the future that he keeps getting?"

"Exactly", Cale confirmed, casting a skeptical glance at Rosalie and Ziyad.

"We all know. The Eldest had explained to us after the incident with Grischa how his Igrikum works", Ziyad quickly explained.

"The Eldest wanted to assure us that he would have acted if he had had a vision of this event", Rosalie added a moment later.

"That makes it easier. The Eldest described his Igrikum to me as receiving memories from another version of himself. It's a passive ability that he can't control himself. My thought at the time was... what would happen if the Eldest tried to use this ability actively?"

"In what context?", Aaron gave visibly interested in the thought.

"Well, imagine what would happen if the Eldest knew about the attack on Groka and was informed to look for me. He could affect time before I even begin my time travels."

"I see. The only problem is that he's never done anything like this before. Actively using his Igrikum and then sending it that far into the past are both points that are completely uncharted territory. Not to mention that we still can't tell what's going to happen to this world."

"That's the question of all questions. The information about the attack on Groka would be transferred from our world to the real world. If this step really works, I see no reason why I should lose my memories."

"You believe that the Eldest can use his Igrikum to establish some kind of link between the worlds that could affect your revival?", Odin interjected again.

"In a manner of speaking. Although, honestly, I don't even want to try. There are too many factors that we don't know about or can influence at all - just trying to do that is far too dangerous", Cale expressed calmly.

Cale had toyed with the idea of how to stop time travel. But all the ideas led to one problem: there was no guarantee. He could just as easily trip himself up by his actions and lose everything he had fought for all these years. As long as he could keep this world safe, he wouldn't risk anything, that much was certain.

"This whole issue is way over my head", Ziyad spoke up. A smile appeared on Cale's face at the comment, but he said nothing. He could well understand the 7th seat, he too was really struggling to find facts and draw logical conclusions in all the theory.

"Admitted", Aaron confirmed and sat back. "But we can't ignore this issue forever. If the dragons are right, we're going to run into another huge problem in the coming months."

"Do we take the risk and just do nothing at all, or do we actively try to contact the gods", Cale threw back, holding his hand to his face. The next morning had dawned and the first rays of sunlight hit him straight in the face, making it hard for him to see Aaron.

"That's for you to decide", Aaron replied, and despite the blinding light, Cale could see Aaron give him a soft smile. "Personally, I'd give it a shot."

"Because you can't comprehend how bad reincarnations really are."

"You're right, I can't comprehend that. But in my opinion, it probably won't do you any good to try to stop the current war. Imagine winning and being able to live in peace for the next few decades. What happens if you eventually die due to old age?"

"Old age?"

"Haven't you ever thought about what would happen if you died of natural causes?"

"Not really, no."

"You should do that sometime. Because in my opinion, your rebirth will be triggered again and you'll have to go through it all over again. Do you really want that, or wouldn't you rather try to find a final solution? Not for the problem of the Thormods, but YOUR problem. So that you can be sure you can escape the cycle."

Cale was silent at the statement and simply stared at Aaron. Damian had told him something similar then, and subconsciously Cale was also aware that he needed to find a final solution. But his fear of losing everything he had fought for prevented it.

He didn't want to be reborn, but what if it was his only solution?

As if someone had heard his thoughts, Cale felt mana abruptly spread through him. It was Chioni's ability, and a second later he recognized Fengari's mana as well. He didn't get to greet his eyes and ears in Bellator, because Fengari was literally screaming at him.