The First Archmage

(Gavin)

That's the last of them. The Kemmel, I mean. They're really adorable. Even the older ones, whose fur has only begun to turn grey, no wrinkles present on their faces.

They have triangular ears atop their heads and long, slender tails. I discovered while rescuing some that they also have claws that retract under their nails, normally hidden. Just like a real cat's.

The Kemmel have orangish-brown hair and fur, though their bodies are mostly devoid of it, like Michael's. That confuses me, since they are part animal, but seem to lack the cover of fur animals have.

"Thank you!" A girl bounces towards me.

The golden dot who has appeared in my vision. I can't sense anything about her, and Appraisal fails on her, putting her as about the same as all the others. None of them have Access.

She wraps me in a hug, her tail flicking in her happiness. The energy radiating off of her is reflected by those around her, and she seems to be the leader. I'd think that gold was leader, except none of the Elves have a golden dot on them.

"This is all of the Kemmel," I tell her, looking around at the three hundred or so beastborn in the forest around us. This section is safe from my magic, once I begin the assault, and unless they have another flier, like that silver dot I fought a couple of weeks ago, then the Kemmel are safe here. "You should all be safe here, but I can open a passage in the ice on the border to allow all of you to escape. Once I finish what I'm doing, I'll meet up with you, and see how you're doing."

"My people won't last long!" She says, taking a couple of steps back. "There's lots of monsters between here and our homeland!"

"That's okay," I tell her, then frown. "I can't grant you Access. That's weird."

"Grant Access?"

"As an Archmage," I explain. "I can grant and revoke Access at will. I was going to grant all of your people Access, so you can take on Classes and gain Levels, getting stronger, to defend yourselves. Let me-"

"Oh!" She says. "Of course that fails on me! I'm not mortal, after all!"

"Not… mortal?"

"Nope!" She says. "I'm Ultarna, the goddess who gave you the Quest! Thank you so much, Gavin! You can do that? No one told me about it!"

"Nies said it was safe to do to for the Kemmel," I nod. "I can't sense a trace of Divine around you."

"I've suppressed it!" She tells me. "I do it in the mortal realm! My people can tell it's me, though, because they're a bit more sensitive than you humans to things like this!"

"Ah," I say. "You have no need to come up with a reward for me, Lady Ultarna. I despise things such as what was done to your people, and-"

"I know!" She throws herself at me in another hug. "That's why I sent you the Quest! I've been waiting for a worthy hero to help me out! I didn't expect him to know Nies, though! Glad to know he's still alive! I haven't heard from him in sooo long! Oh! I see your Blessing! Wow! He chose to make you a Hero? You must be truly special! Thanks for the help, Gavin!"

"You're welcome," I say. "You appear as a golden dot in this vision – is that because you're a goddess?"

"Yeah!" She takes a couple of steps back. "Gods and goddesses are golden, while demigods and demigoddesses are silver! Heroes, like you, would appear copper!"

There are a few of those, but they're far away, and nowhere near Ilinia.

"I fought a silver a couple of weeks ago," I tell her. "Some woman named Imisa. She was powerful. I haven't had a fight like that in a long time, but managed to win."

"Imisa?" She asks. "If you killed her, then you shouldn't have an issue with the rest of the Ilinia! Thanks for all the help!"

"You're welcome," I tell her. "If you'll excuse me, Milady, I would like to grant your people Access, so that they can defend themselves a bit better."

"Thanks!" She throws herself at me in a hug, then starts rounding up her people.

They all thank me, now that they know I was doing this to help them, not for my own desires. The fact that their goddess likes me and asked me to do this helps boost that reputation.

By nightfall, every last one of the Kemmel have Access, and I am grateful that I do not need to sacrifice LIF for it anymore.

I'd have probably gone crazy long before reaching the halfway point.

The beastborn sleep in bunches, curled up next to each other, and I end up wedged between a group of them, their warmth soft and gentle. Sleep comes quickly to me, and in the morning, they present me with some rabbits they caught to eat. After we all finish breakfast, I open up the passage in my ice, allowing them to escape, then I seal it back up with a Spear of Frozen Lightning, just in case.

It took me two weeks to seal Ilinia up, then two weeks to kill seven million Elves and rescue the Kemmel.

Without a doubt, I could probably wipe out the rest of the Ilinia within a week, especially with my more powerful spells going up in Level during my Quest so far.

Maybe I could make it in five days?

Unless, of course, that mysterious violet dot that keeps appearing and disappearing is troublesome, like the silver dot. I had to rest up most of that day to recover from the fight with her, and something tells me that violet could trigger Threat Detection.

Vibrations run across my left arm, and I look down to find that I was stroking Reij.

"Sorry, buddy," I say. "Didn't realize I was doing that."

Reij reveals himself, looking at me, and I realize that he wasn't upset. He was purring.

"Oh," I rub the back of his head. "Okay. Thanks for your help against her, buddy."

Reij wiggles his head, then bites his tail and tightens himself around my wrist once more, disappearing from sight.

A moment later, I sense a threat, the violet dot appear in my vision. Behind me.

I duck, a foot passing over my head. At the same time, I spin, kicking out with my foot, and the attack flips up, landing in a crouch out of my reach. A figured wearing a cloak woven of some black material that ignores light. Not absorbs it, not reflects it – ignores it.

It's hard to focus on him as a result, my PER barely enabling me to. It's concealing his Resources, too, making it impossible to gauge how powerful he is.

Or she.

He vanishes, and Threat Detection triggers again. I jump back, holding up my hands in a cross, his punch hitting them square and sending me back. Manipulating air, I soar straight up into the sky, raining a hail of icy lances and bolts of lightning and fire at him.

Threat Detection triggers again, and I soar away, his kick barely missing me.

Fucking teleportation. This fucker is going down.

"Blood Smite!"

One my inescapable attack. It hits him square on when he attempts to vanish, blasting him backwards through the air, his cloak burning away with bloody flames, revealing his real appearance.

Tall, with platinum-blond hair and sapphire-blue eyes, bare-chested with a body built of lean muscle. He's dressed in a pair of violet pants, a black belt around his waist inscribed with the Dekami rune for 'mage'.

Nolsar, 497, Dekami 18, Spellweaver (IV) 18

A Dekami…

FUCK!

The Rift Wolf said I couldn't hope to fight one of these guys. If he's here, I'm dead.

"Not bad, Gavin," he chuckles. "A lesser being would've died to that spell. Unfortunately for you, power like that can't even hope to harm me. The most you'd do is annoy me. And I know about your interesting little creature, and that it doesn't bother with physical attacks. Don't think I'll let you win this battle. And when I'm done with you, I hear there's a very nice tribe of beastborn on the loose. The girls in that group… it's been a long time since I had taste of one. And please, I know the spells you're casting – I can unweave them with but a thought."

My magics dissipate.

Dammit! I thought I was being subtle!

"Now," he smiles. "Why don't you go down, like a good boy, and-"

A bolt of blue lightning strikes him square in the head.

"Or you can go down!" A cheerful voice exclaims. "Dekami don't belong in this plane of existence!"

The moment that voice spoke, a being filled with Divine Power appeared behind him. He doesn't appear in my vision, though. A being that can avoid this strange Sight?

Well, Ultarna told me that, until the Quest is completed, I'll have it, and that it's called the Eyes of the Divine Targets, or something like that. It allows me to see all 'targets' around me.

The Dekami drops out of the sky a moment later, his body turning to ash as he does.

"What the hell just happened?" I ask.

"I used a Divine Smite on him!" The newcomer grins at me. "Not even a Dekami could withstand something like that!"

He looks around twelve years old, with a lean, muscular build. His hair is a deep, rich, royal blue, his eyes a bright, brilliant sapphire blue. He is dressed in a pair of black and blue shorts, and I only know what they are because of my visit to the other world. Ert, or whatever its name was.

He is most definitely not from here.

"What are you?" I ask.

"I'm the super-young, smart, talented, energetic me!" He exclaims. "But you can just call me Stem!"

Could you be anymore obvious?

"And what are you?"

"I'm a demigod!" He answers.

"Uh-huh," I say. "You're not appearing in my vision, and I can't use Appraisal on you."

"You couldn't on the other one, either!" He says.

"She still appeared in my vision."

"Hm… maybe it's broken?" He gives me a sly look. "I'm Stem!"

"Yes, you said."

He doesn't really interact with people normally, does he?

"Oh!" He says. "I like all things blue! Blue hair, blue eyes, blue magic, blue spells, blue people-"

"Blue people?"

"Blue foods, blue-"

"Hold up," I say. "What Divine is your parent?"

"I dunno," he shrugs. "Probably something blue, though! Look at my hair!"

Nies?

I'm eating popcorn right now.

You're enjoying this, aren't you?

It's not everyday Stem does something like this. I might have to get Father involved, if he doesn't behave himself.

Father?

Nies giggles in my mind, but doesn't respond.

"How old are you?"

"Ancient!" Stem exclaims. "I'm way older than a kid like you!"

"Says the guy who looks twelve."

"I can't help it!" He protests. "This is just the form my body takes! I can't change it at all!"

He's too much of a kid for it to be anything else.

"I HEARD THAT!"

Nies giggles again.

"You heard that?"

"I can hear all Divine communications around me," he nods. "It's part of my mysterious heritage."

Idiot.

"Thanks for taking him out," I say. "I don't think I could've handled much more of his teleporting."

"Oh, you probably could've," he nods. "You likely would've killed him, but it would've been costly for you, and you'd take awhile to regenerate. So I stepped in and killed him for you with my Divine Smite! It's inescapable! All demigods can do it!"

"Then why didn't that bitch use it on me?"

"She forgot."

Uh-huh.

"Anyway, I gotta go, or someone is gonna show up and chase me out of here!"

He vanishes in a puff of blue smoke.

"Nies?"

Yes?

"What the hell was that about?"

I have no fucking clue! Though to be honest, I had half a mind to come down and smite that bastard, myself. Dekami are not allowed in these realms. That cloak shielded him from our sight, so I'm not surprised that he showed up.

"Stem?"

You'll probably be seeing a lot more of him. I'm surprised he isn't observing you right now, to be honest. He's usually watching you out of excitement at what crazy things you'll do next.

GET OUT OF MY REALM!

Oh, stuff it, Ekre. I just want your cookies.

I MADE THOSE FOR ME!

And now they're entering my stomach.

The sound of Nies stuffing cookies into his mouth fills my mind, and I shake my head, pushing as much as I can against their presence, and it leaves. Either because that worked, and I disconnected them myself, or because they decided to make that a bit more private, I'm not sure. But either way is a win for me.

Now that the problem with the Divine is taken care of, I begin to work on destroying Ilinia. It takes me five days to wipe out everything but their royal city, the place with the majority of their people.

When I draw near the city, dozens of powerful spells blast out at me. Group Spells, likely to overwhelm Reij. I had a feeling that bitch was transmitting information. She kept testing me, seeing what I could do.

She had to know that she'd die in that fight, yet she still tested me anyway.

Unfortunately for them, Reij doesn't have a limit to how much magic he can consume, and consumes all of their attacks, allowing me to spend the two seconds to cast Spear of Frozen Lightning when I do, as well as my other powerful lightning and fire magics.

Anytime a particularly powerful Elf enters my range, I hit them with either a Void or a Blood Smite.

After four hours of this battle, I'm drained, exhausted, and ready to find somewhere and take a nap, but there isn't a single red dot left in my vision.

The forest itself is on fire, and their mages were incapable of quenching it as they focused on me. My flames are spreading out of control, though they have been for several days, now. Now that Ilinia is surrounded by my ice, I can burn without fear of hitting outside nations.

To drive my fury home, I spend the next few days burning down every settlement I can, reducing them to nothing more than ash and scarred land. The forest and air is filled with ash and smoke, and it's hard to breathe without manipulating the air around me.

Once I finished with their royal city, the Quest completed, the dots fading from my vision. However, I know the general location the Kemmel were, and can probably reach there in about a day.

It'll get me away from this hell.

I reach the Kemmel when night falls, just as they're arriving at a series of caves. Touching down, I approach them, noting that a couple of them gained Levels. Their goddess likely had a hand in that.

"It's done," I say once I locate her. She's currently tending to some cuts on a boy probably five or six years old. He looks like he tripped and scraped himself up. "I'm going to rest up, and once tomorrow comes, be heading out. I have other stuff to do and take care of, too."

"Thanks for coming!" Ultarna tells me. "I told you you could wait until after you finished with the Fairies! I'm not sure what you're doing, it was just that I caught word about you not tolerating stuff like this, and wanted to plead for your help! I can't be killed permanently, just sent back to the Divine Realms, but my people… I couldn't bear the thought of this going on! Thanks so much! I'll pay you back for it! I promise!"

"Again," I tell her. "You don't need to worry about that," I yawn, covering my mouth. "Sorry, I'm exhausted. I spent the last few days making sure their settlements would never be settlements for a very long time."

"Thanks!" She says.

We settle down for the night, a few of the Kemmel curling up against me, and I quickly fall asleep, waking only when the sun is high in the sky. After a decent lunch and some farewells, especially to the children, who really don't want me to leave, calling me their savior, I soar up into the sky and make my way back to the Dungeon, passing through quickly and finding myself in the mountainous area I passed through on my way to that continent.

Time to track down those monks I saw last time.