Chapter 427 – Home
“Did it work?” Damion’s question was answered by a hug from Elicia and a loud affirmative cry from Phil.
The entire family had spent the last day and night by Damion’s side, each anxiously awaiting signs that he would wake up soon. When he finally spoke, they were all quite happy and unable to contain their relief.
“You are home,” Sharon cried as she rushed from the kitchen to her son’s side.
“You gave us quite the scare, son,” Caleb said looking at his son from across the room. Elicia and Sharon were both crowding Damion, so he could only offer his support from a distance. “You must have gotten strong, to be able to arrive back here.”
“I’m still pretty weak,” Damion told them, though he still took his son, Helge, in his arms. The baby had grown and he felt like he had missed years of the boy’s life instead of just a few months.
Just because he had woken up, did not mean he was suddenly fully recovered. He could feel the effects of mana exhaustion lingering in his body still. However, since he had experienced the effects of mana exhaustion before, he was confident that in a few hours he would be up and about and soon after perfectly fine.
For now, Damion quietly shut off the couple of passives that he had left on before his attempt at opening the Portal to Nerotath, while he tickled his son. The less he used magic at the moment the faster his body would fully recover. Thankfully, when his mother removed his armor, she had also removed his training bangles, otherwise he would be feeling even weaker.
‘System, status.’
[Magic System]
[System Level: 4]
[User: Damion Wells]
[Age: 20]
[Magic Talent: EX]
[Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial EX, Fire A, Earth A, Shadow A, Holy C]
[Mana: 31,304/27,221] (15%) - 31,304
[Magic Power: 75,685] (15%) - 87,037
[Mana Recovery: 382 P/S] (15%) - 439
[Strength: 220]
[Dexterity: 214] (15%) - 246
[Vitality: 532]
[Intelligence: 151]
[Experience: 4.000/50,000]
[Store Credits: 8,183,522]
Seeing how much his magic power had risen left Damion feeling a bit confused. As the events of opening the Portal flooded back to him, he recalled Visneer channeling magic into him. At that moment there was no time to analyze exactly what the Iblis was doing, but now, Damion realized more than just mana was transferred. Was this an Iblis ability? Passing power from one to another? He was sure that it likely came at a cost, but what was that cost?
Damion was snapped out of his thoughts by the smell of bacon. Sharon had gone back to the kitchen and returned to his side with a plate of food and insisting he eat. Not wanting to argue with his mother, and since he was quite hungry, Damion quickly began eating.
“Helga should be here soon. I sent her a message,” Caleb announced while he helped himself to a plate of food as well. “Once she gets here, I suspect she’ll want a full accounting.”
“You’ve got that right, Caleb,” Mage Teft said, walking through the door with Mage Chaparro.
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The Light mage immediately began examining Damion. After a few minutes Mage Chaparro pronounced him in good health, though he did have the worst case of mana exhaustion she had ever seen.
“Rest and avoid casting magic if you can. That is all you can do to recover,” Mage Chaparro told him before leaving. Even though she, like every other member of the Atlantis council and citizen of the city, wanted to know where Damion had been and how he returned, she chose to depart. Mage Teft would get the answers, and she was sure there would soon be a council meeting to discuss everything.
“Alright, Damion, now that you have been pronounced in good health, tell us everything,” Mage Teft said.
Damion began recounting his last few months. From the time he arrived on the Mother World, his dream with Elicia and Helge, even his first failed attempt to return to Nerotath. When he reached the part where he encountered former Justiciar Straus, everyone was quite surprised. However, once they thought the situation through, they realized that everything caught in the Exile spell ended up on the Mother World. Since that was the case, it was only logical that people who were trapped in the spell ended up there.
From Straus, who Mage Teft was visibly annoyed that Damion had not killed, the story continued on through the encountering of Ardnet and the Iblis. While he explained everything he learned about the Mother World and why Realm Breaches appeared on their world, his family was not as shocked as he thought they would be.
“Mage Thresbane went over the true history of our world with us,” Elicia explained. “And your recounting of events supports what he already told us. Though, I am a bit confused on why the Iblis need the assistance of humans.”
“Because of something humans did before they were exiled,” Damion answered. “It caused the Mother World to produce more mana and, in turn, more Realm Breaches to disperse that mana. Supposedly, only a human true mage will be able to undo the seal placed and fix whatever it is our ancestors did to cause the problem.”
“And you are sure the Iblis were telling you the truth?” Mage Teft questioned.
“As sure as I can be, they helped me return. Even helped me reach A Rank. If they are planning something nefarious, it must be a well-hidden plot.”
“I too cannot see through their motives,” Mage Teft admitted. “But that does not mean there is not one.”
“True, but they also provided me with something else. Something we have been looking for an answer to,” Damion took from the spatial artifact Visneer had given him the schematics for grimoires and offered it to Mage Teft.
The S Rank Water mage quickly began examining the contents and could hardly believe her own eyes. With these grimoire artifacts, it would be possible for any mage to easily access spells of all sorts, even high Rank spells.
“Have you shown these to anyone else?” Mage Teft quickly asked. Such a discovery was far more dangerous than anything Damion had ever invented himself and would likely make him the target of even more noble families. Even the S Rank assembly was likely to fear the disclosure of such an artifact.
"No. You are the first,” Damion told her. “I think it best if the existence of grimoires remains a secret for as long as possible. After all, it will be a few years before any of our students are even ready to begin casting spells. When that time comes will be when they can create their own grimoire.”
“There are flaws in the grimoire that I am not sure if you have considered.”
“That a mage could be too reliant on it,” Damion offered a flaw he had already thought of. “If they lose it, or it is damaged, then they lose access to all their spells.”
“Precisely,” Mage Teft agreed. “There is also the worry that if a grimoire is stolen, powerful spells could then end up in the wrong hands. The thief might not be able to cast spells on someone else’s grimoire, but if they can learn the spells on it, or transfer them to their own, this could pose a very real threat.”
“Luckily, we have time to sort these dangers out. I’m sure we can think of a way to add security features to a grimoire, so only the user can access its spells. As for the risk of it being damaged, that does offer a higher hurdle, but I think any mage we train should focus at least on actually memorizing a few tier 1 and 2 spells themselves before building a grimoire. That should ensure they are not completely helpless should they lose their grimoire.”
“Agreed. As we work on these issues, we may even think of others, I just wanted you to be aware of these issues as others in the council will surely point them out as well.”
“The council?”
“Yes. Neither you nor I are the sole rulers of this land. We formed the council with the other S Rank, which means, you should begin to get ready to address the council with your story, proposal for the grimoires and whatever else you have in mind. Phil can’t fill in for you for forever.”
“Phil can’t… wait, what?”
The rest of the family began laughing at Damion’s confusion. Even Phil gave his version of laughter, though it sounded more like the Demonic Beast was coughing up something.
“The Mage Association tried to declare you dead in an attempt to take control of your seat on the council and thus gain a foothold in Atlantis. In order to prove you were alive, we had Phil take over your seat. Since you were still bonded, and I believe the bond has increased his intelligence, he was able to help thwart their attempt.”
For a moment Damion was still speechless. They had Phil, a Demonic Beast, fill in for him while he was away. What was even more unbelievable was that the Mage Association accepted it. How was that even possible?