Chapter 448 – From The Beginning

Mage Fletcher used Portal to take the Atlantis delegation back to their City with one addition to their group, Mage Harris. The Time mage, being the oldest and most powerful mage of the Assembly asked to return with them. Having secured more help than they had hoped for, none of them would dare turn the man down.

“It is amazing how quickly this city has been built and come to life,” Mage Harris said, as he looked around the square where Mage Fletcher’s Portal had deposited them. “You are quickly reaching the population of a Green Zone, and I see you are constructing the other sections of the city. I doubt it will be long before Atlantis surpasses the other White Zones. Have you made much progress in clearing out the area outside your protective mountains?”

“We have regular missions to cull the area over the mountains. The strongest Demonic Beasts encountered are only B Rank, but even with the auto-mapper’s aid, we have yet to find a Stable Realm Breach to add to our city’s collection,” Mage Teft told him.

“It is still just the labyrinth then. Would it be possible for me to train on the SS Rank floor for a few days?” Mage Harris asked once their party was back in Atlantis.

“Of course,” Mage Teft answered quickly. “The sooner we have SS Rank mages available; the sooner we can clear this floor and find out if it is the midpoint or not.”

“Excellent,” Mage Harris said. “However, before I head into the labyrinth, I would like to speak with Mage Thresbane.”

“Certainly. His home is here,” Mage Teft said, showing the Time mage a location on her tablet. “But most of his time is spent in his office, here.”

“Thank you.”

Mage Harris headed in the direction of the Justiciar office, which was where Mage Thresbane spent the largest amount of his time. Damion and the others watched him go, wondering what the two most powerful mages on Nerotath would speak about before they headed to their own homes.

“Greetings, Mage Harris, to what do I owe this pleasure?” Mage Thresbane greeted the Time mage as soon as he arrived at the Justiciar office.

“I was wondering if, now that a path to SS Rank is open to the rest of us, you could go into detail of how you achieved SS Rank without access to a Realm Breach?”

“A question many have danced around since Damion revealed my Rank, but most have been too timid to ask. And now here you are, asking a second time.”

“I thought your reason before was to prevent any other mages from surpassing you, to make sure you could put down any threat rising from within humanity. Which is why I brought it up again, but now I think it is not such a noble goal. Is it through some dark means that you have achieved this Rank?”

“I suppose that question could be answered with both a yes and a no. But I will start from the beginning, because I have a feeling many of your future questions will be answered if I start there. I ask only that you not share the method, as it could indeed be put to dark uses.”

“Very well,” Mage Harris agreed. He was not sure what Mage Thresbane considered the beginning, but if it helped him understand a path to advancement that did not require dangerous Realm Breaches then it was worth learning. Every year many knights and mages lost their lives clearing Breaches or delving into dungeons and labyrinths. If there was a way to prevent those deaths, he would take it.

“As you have no doubt heard from Mage Wells, we humans began, like the Iblis, the Alfar and the goblins, on the Mother World. Our ancestors long ago, before even the war that exiled them, used Realm Breaches as a means of exploration and colonization. Nerotath was one such colony. However, this world, like most others discovered, was barren of mana.

“During these early years, because there was no mana, most colonies were abandoned. Still, a few people, especially those that had no desire for the constant struggle of growing stronger, decided to make their homes on those worlds. Away from the threats of Demonic Beasts or conflict with the other races. Nerotath was one such world.

“Despite wanting to be on their own, the Human Authority, that was the governing body of all humans at that time, did not want to abandon them. Thus, the Protectorate was formed. My ancestors were charged with the protection of these colonies. Groups would travel through the labyrinths to reach these locations and ensure things were going well. During the early years, there was very little for the Protectorate to do and most of the colonists just wanted to be left alone.

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“Over time, however, that changed. The slow leakage of mana from the labyrinths began to transform the magic barren worlds. Ferocious Beasts appeared. The Protectorate was capable of defending the people, but when the cause was discovered, a decision had to be made and that decision was to collapse the labyrinths and allow the colony worlds to become self-sufficient or die on their own. Still, the Human Authority did not wish to abandon its people, so to each world a group of the Protectorate were assigned and then the worlds were cut off.

“My ancestors were of that group, and this is where the history passed down by my people ends and the history we have pieced together from other sources begins. For many, many years, Nerotath was a fairly peaceful place, there were no Demonic Beasts, nor were there many Ferocious Beasts. My ancestors kept them culled or well away from human settlements. Nerotath thrived, building and inventing things that no one could have imagined, all without magic, as it was still too little to make ready use of. Outside of the Protectorate, there were no mages or even knights, yet Nerotath’s cities were larger and more numerous in those days than they are now.”

“The great war Mage Wells mentioned. That changed it all, didn’t it,” Mage Harris realized.

“Yes. Since my people were not on the Mother World for the war, we have only a diluted sense of what caused it and what humanity did to result in exile. What we do know is that Realm Breaches began opening all over Nerotath. The Breaches released Demonic Beasts of various Ranks and the Protectorate was unable to protect the people of Nerotath everywhere. The glorious cities of the world were wiped out, and humans were forced to hide in the caves and the mountains, eking out a miserable existence until they happened upon a group of knights that slowly shared knowledge with them and the rest of our world’s history is much like you know it.”

“Where were your people during those hard times?” Mage Harris asked, not as an accusation, but as a genuine question.

“Protecting as many as we could. Much of my order was wiped out trying to defend the cities. Those of the Protectorate that survived were forced to flee as well. While there was now a greater amount of mana in the air to be used, it had been so long since most of my people actually practiced magic, that it was not feasible to rely on magic.”

“You have told me your history of our world, and I believe that you are being truthful in your retelling of it, but you have not answered my question. How did you achieve SS Rank?”

“Of course. To understand my answer, you first needed to understand my people’s history. Our magic came from the old world and has been passed down generation after generation. We have learned, adapted, even using the testing crystals that locked us to an affinity to better be able to use higher tier spells. In the beginning, because of the lack of mana in this world, it meant that if an elder died, their level of power was lost, because there was no way for another mage to reach that Rank. So, we have stood on the backs of our ancestors, generation by generation, passing our power down to the next in line, slowly growing it even as the mana levels began to rise and we could train mages again.”

“You are saying, you pass your magic power on to another? How is that even possible?” Mage Harris questioned. He was in disbelief that it was possible, but he had no alternative theory on how the Protectorate could have functioned, preserved their history for generations if it was not the case.

“Yes. When a mage or knight member of the Protectorate grows too old to be able to fight, we begin to pass our magic power on to our chosen successor. The process can take several years. As we pass our power on, the successor will slowly gain a stronger body and be able to hold more and more magic, just like any other knight or mage during training. Of course, we also trained our young to prepare for that day, so they are not totally unprepared, but we still go slow, so they do not get overwhelmed.”

“With this technique, we could have who knows how many S Rank or SS Rank mages by now. It does not seem dangerous, so why have you not shared it?”

“Because it is dangerous. We go through great care to select our successors. They are thoroughly trained and tested in both mind and body. To go from being weak to strong, even over the course of a few years, can still be intoxicating to some. Becoming drunk on power you do not fully understand, or control is very dangerous. Passing on power to someone that has not earned it can be catastrophic. We could not risk the technique being misused and one of your noble families creating a monster that could not be countered.”

“I suppose you are right,” Mage Harris admitted. His thoughts turned to Theodore Bianco and Thomas Sorin. They were only two examples of entitled young nobles. There were countless others and some clever enough not to get caught.

“Then one day, you will pass your power on to another?” Mage Harris asked.

“One day. I am still fairly young, only a little over two hundred. With the discovery of SS Rank environments to train in, my power may no longer even be needed when I become old and frail. Though, I do not have to pass it to someone powerless. I can also choose to pass it on to someone strong, which can help them raise their power to an even greater height than either of us attained.”

“That is how you reached SS Rank.”

“Indeed. Every few generations power is consolidated to help raise the leader of the Protectorate to greater heights. Over the course of thousands of years, we were able to raise an SS Rank mage and that mage passed their power on to me, starting when I was in my thirties. Would you like me to teach you this technique?”