Adrian didn't know how long he laid there in the dark. He had tried to sleep a couple of times, but his soul was already brimming with too much magic from his nap earlier and wouldn't let him. So he was stuck in the dark, not caring enough to create a light source, thinking.

When the cellar door finally opened, he had some questions for the man that descended.

"How did you know where I lived?" Adrian asked as the man stepped onto the floor of his room. "How did you know my last name but not my first name? How do you know my family's sign language?"

The Arch-mage arched an eyebrow at the boy. He didn't answer right away, apparently thinking how to respond to the child. "Think about everything you just told me. What does the evidence indicate?"

Adrian had already thought about it and responded readily, "You're some type of family friend, right?"

To his surprise, the Arch-mage actually laughed, although granted it was a short, mocking sound. "Just a friend, Boy?" Adrian frowned at him, the glow in his eyes from the pent up magic in his soul dimming some. At the boy's confusion, the Arch-mage sighed. "Tell me, Boy, what you think my surname is."

"I don't know." Adrian said, hands signing along with his words.

The Arch-mage rolled his eyes, signing in return. Gaster.

Adrian's heart skipped a beat. In his shock, his voice failed him and he resorted to signing with shaking hands, You're my-

He couldn't sign the word, his hands were shaking too badly. He couldn't tell why, whether it was from shock or confusion or rage. The Arch-mage peered down, allowing the child a moment to gather his thoughts. Adrian sat, hands slack in his lap before he signed a single word. How?

The Arch-mage sighed, closing his eyes. Adrian had been waiting so long that the sunlight had turned to dark night, making the only sources of light their eyes. Even when the man closed his eyes, considering the question, Adrian could see a faint glow and knew where he was. Eventually, the Arch-mage's eyes snapped open. "I will answer this question then you may not ask anymore questions for the next three days." Adrian nodded, but the mage was already talking again and the boy realized it was a statement, not a question. "Some years ago- I've lost count of how many- I went to England to recruit some new students. While I was there I met your mother, a young, naive girl cast off from society for being mute. She had developed a sign language to communicate, and her brother was her only means of speaking to others. I saw her and was smitten. I spent some time with her, learning her language, before it was time for me to head back to Germany with my new pupils in tow. At her request, I brought her with me, and she lived in this house for a time. When my students and I were called to China for... help with diplomatic relations, I locked up my home and sent your mother off to her current dwelling with all of my research that I didn't trust with anyone else. She must have been pregnant with you before we parted ways. I will admit, I am surprised she kept the last name though. I thought she would have hated me by now, but she kept the name..." The Arch-mage trailed off, brow furrowed slightly as some thought crossed his mind, but he shook it off, literally, bringing his focus back to his son. Adrian blinked at him, hands half-forming words as he started to ask questions then remembered he was not supposed to ask any questions. "Right, well, that takes care of that. Follow me."

The Arch-mage began up the stairs, stopping and clearing his throat halfway up to get Adrian to spring into action. The boy jumped to his feet, silently following this ma- his father- up the steps and along the side of the building.

His mind spun with the thought. His father. It had always just been him and his mother, and eventually Edgar when he entered the picture. But some days, Edgar wasn't around or Adrian wasn't given an opportunity to go to the woods and spend time with him. He could always count on his mother though, forever a constant in his life.

Not anymore.

Adrian scowled, quickly banishing the thought as it threatened the fragile calm he had worked himself into. He set his thoughts back on track, mind drifting to the magic he had been studying all his life. He had always believed those tomes and notes were his mother's, penned by her hand and kept around for him. But the Arch-mage had claimed them, they were his, notes he didn't trust with anyone. But Mother. The one he must have loved.

Adrian recalled the few times his mother had spoken of his father. She had told him about a gallant man that looked so much like his son it was shocking. She told of a man intellectually gifted in all areas, but especially in magic. She always signed about him with a longing in her eyes, and for the rest of the day she would be melancholy, smiling and signing, but distant and thoughtful. Adrian hadn't brought him up much, afraid of upsetting Mother, but he had asked what happened to him when he was younger. She said she didn't know, but she always believed he would come back. He had promised her he would return.

"Why didn't you come back?" Adrian blurted out, stopping.

The Arch-mage froze, but didn't respond right away, obviously torn between telling the child the answer to his question and telling him that there were to be no more questions. He settled on the latter, whirling around with a scowl on his face. His eyes flashed brightly, menacing. "I said no more questions."

Adrian was not ready to let the subject drop. "She loved you, she believed in you so much. She thought you were a great person, you were her hero, she knew that you would come back, but you didn't! You left her to rot, alone in that miserable cottage and shunned by the wor-"

The Arch-mage slapped him with enough force to send him spinning onto the ground. Once again, the mage had moved too quickly to even discern what was happening. Adrian looked up at his father's anger with searching eyes, desperately trying to find that person his mother spoke so highly of. "I said no more questions." He growled out, towering over the prone form of his son. "You speak out of turn again and you will regret it."

Adrian gingerly brushed his fingers against his cheek as the Arch-mage spun back around, dark robes flaring out around him. His cheek stung horribly and he thought he might have a bruise in the morning from the strike. He slowly climbed to his feet, warily eyeing this man, this man who was not his father. He couldn't be. Not even if he was a gifted mage or looked like his supposed son. His father was a good person, mother had told him as much. This man couldn't be his father.

"Alright, Boy." The Arch-mage stopped, spinning to watch the child. He had brought him behind the building to the edge of sandlot almost as big as the house it sat behind. Any traces of the rage he had previously shown was gone like it had never been. "Here we are. I need to assess your current level of skill. I have been told by the church that your knowledge and control of magic is exceptional for one your age, but I need to know exactly where to start. So, we are going to duel."

Adrian frowned, scanning the patch of ground. While it was large, it was rather unassuming and actually messy compared to the rest of the house. Sand strayed from edges of the lot and dusted the pavement surrounding it, and the sand itself appeared ravaged, scorched in some places, cratered in others.

Adrian frowned, tentatively following the Arch-mage as he moved to stand near the middle. He pointed to a spot to the left. "Stand there." Adrian obediently stood there. The Arch-mage moved away from him so that he was standing across from him, his eyes glowing brightly. "Prepare for battle, when I say begin, we will fight." Adrian didn't get a chance to respond, the Arch-mage was already saying, "Begin."

Adrian was frozen for a tense second, unsure exactly what to do. He had spared before with Edgar, but those times had been friendly bouts to show off magic more than anything. The Arch-mage was not the person to mess around. He would relentlessly attack if Adrian let him, though he was apparently letting Adrian make the first move this time around. Adrian frowned uncertainly before finally summoning a sphere of green around him and waiting to see what the Arch-mage would do. The man hadn't moved except to cross his arms and tap his fingers. Adrian slowly sat down, crossing his arms in return even as his eyes flared brighter as he summoned some fireballs and threw them and the man experimentally. Like always, he dodged the attack in a movement too quick to track. Adrian's mind whirled as he considered this. He would never be able to hit him if he continued to move so quickly, so he had to slow him down. His already green eyes swirled into a greenish brown as his purple magic flared to life; he summoned a dozen of his spectral hands, all of them glowing with a faint lavender hue. Trap magic was at it's strongest when channeled through runes, Adrian knew this from his studies, so without them his hands would only be able to slow him down, not stop him entirely. But that should be enough.

"Come now, Boy, I haven't all night." The Arch-mage snapped irritably, eyes flashing. "If you're going to attack then do it!" If he thought the magic Adrian had made was impressive or even strange he didn't show it.

Adrian found himself scowling at this man, his soul switching into Battle. His phantom hands lunged forward, surrounding him, each one trying to get a grip on him. The Arch-mage's agitation was replaced with something that looked more boredom. Adrian felt the man's soul flare in response before he saw his eyes glow brighter, and he felt something in his soul snap. He winced as the Arch-mage dispelled his hands with precise shots of magic energy.

Raw, potent, unstable, magic energy. Adrian had never considered the possibility. Instead of channelling the magic into a spell that would have taken more time in which his hands probably would have caught him, the Arch-mage had used simple, pure magic in return. Granted, raw magic energy was unstable and dangerous if used in great quantities, but the Arch-mage seemed to have the control to expend just enough for whatever he was trying to do and nothing more.

Adrian frowned as he considered this, but the Arch-mage was becoming impatient. "Show me something worthy of the church's praise!" He snapped, his eyes flaring blue. Adrian barely registered the ice in his soul before he was flung into the air. He yelped, eyes blazing green as he frantically summoned a shield beneath him. He landed hard on his side with the wind knocked out of him, but it was better than falling the other forty feet to the ground. He climbed to his feet with a groan, trying to get his thoughts into motion.

The Arch-mage didn't give him the chance. Adrian had as little forewarning as before as the man appeared in front of him and cloaked in a hue of blue. His angry eyes met his supposed son's, and without hesitation shattered Adrian's shield with another shot of magic. Adrian screamed as he fell this time, instinctively conjuring several more phantom hands to catch him. He didn't try to stop and think this time. If the Arch-mage wanted to be impatient and move inhumanly quickly, than Adrian would just have to be fast on the uptake.

First he would have to get back on the ground. He couldn't fly with blue magic like the Arch-mage, his spectral hands were too clumsy and uncoordinated for high-speed and complicated flight, but the ground was also still too far away to just drop down and the Arch-mage would most likely just bring him back up if he manage to get down.

Adrian smiled. If the Arch-mage wanted to see something impressive, he would show it to him. Adrian's eyes took on their green again as he summoned another shield beneath himself, this one as big as the sandlot below. He dispelled his hands and dropped down, but didn't stop there. He constructed another shield above this one, another above that one, more and more above and below him, building walls and staircases in strange and complicated messes that would have simply fallen apart if it weren't magic. The Arch-mage peered down at the child from three stories up, his expression not changing in the slightest.

"I wanted to duel," the man shouted, "not play mason. Fight me like you want to kill me!"

Adrian felt his eyes widen in shock. He hated the Arch-mage, he had taken away everything he loved, yet Adrian didn't want to kill him. Mother had always said that no matter what, murder was never acceptable, that it accomplished nothing, and only led to more violence and death.

The thoughts racing through his head must have been apparent for the Arch-mage sighed, at least Adrian thought he did, he couldn't hear, before shouting so that Adrian could hear him. "I will make a deal with you, Boy. If you ever manage to kill me in a duel, I'll arrange for you go back to your mother with enough gold to move far away from the reaches of the church and live comfortably wherever you decide to settle down. But only if you manage to kill me. So, attack me like you mean it!"

Adrian stared up at the Arch-mage, clenching his hands into fists. This man, this awful, cruel man had just taken everything from him, but now he was giving him a chance to go back. Adrian glared up at this man who would have him believe he is his father, feeling a deep familiar sensation arouse itself in his soul.

Injustice, his soul seemed to scream. What this man had done to Adrian, what he had done to his mother, what he had done to all the people who worked here, all the people he had ever hurt was unforgivable. Their voices all cried one word- justice.

Adrian's eyes flared a bright yellow like sunlight. He screamed, and it almost felt like all the people the Arch-mage had hurt screamed with him. The Arch-mage looked up to watch as a huge fireball grew in the air above him, hungry, twisting, righteous, yellow. Adrian released it, letting it fall down onto the earth to destroy this man. Of course, his spell couldn't pass through his shields just as the Arch-mage's couldn't as long as the spell wasn't anything strong enough to break it. This spell was definitely strong enough to break through his shields, but Adrian wanted to strike with a full-force blast. He left his shields up just long enough so that the Arch-mage was cornered in his maze and couldn't escape with whatever trick he used to move inhumanly quickly. The Arch-mage could only watch as his deserved destruction rained down upon him.

Adrian descended his maze, jumping down onto the sandy ground below. He dispelled the rest of his shields, squinting in an attempt to see through the remaining magic particles as they fluttered down like sparkling ash. He expected to see a charred corpse plummet to the ground across from him. But nothing happened.

Adrian frowned, a sense of trepidation growing in his soul. Was that spell not strong enough? Was the Arch-mage still alive even after that? He flared his soul, trying to pinpoint the Arch-mage's soul, but couldn't feel anything. That meant he was either dead or was flying too far above for Adrian to sense. Adrian began to shuffle forward before stopping himself, his heart stopping cold in his chest. He spun around him, trying to see anything, but the particles obstructed his view. He was completely blind. If the Arch-mage was still alive, now would be the prime time to attack, and Adrian had served it to his enemy on a silver platter.

He futilely searched for the Arch-mage's soul presence before his soul, determining there was no threat anymore, left Battle. Adrian gulped in a huge breath, lungs burning with energized air, as he strained his eyes.

In the end it didn't matter what he did. He was turning this way and that one moment, slammed into the sandy ground the next. He would have cried out if all the air didn't get knocked out of his lungs and he was left pushing against the green shield that now crushing him. His soul, already tired from the prolonged engagement, stiffly entered Battle again. The Arch-mage was on top of him, Adrian could sense him, though the only thing he could see was ground as he was crammed closer and closer to it. He heaved in a deep breath desperately, trying to get oxygen back in his lungs, trying to get the spots away from his eyes. It felt like the Arch-mage was actually going to crush him with a shield, a spell meant from protecting, not harming. That was if he didn't suffocate first.

He felt terror strike through him at the thoughts. The Arch-mage might kill him.

Adrian couldn't let that happen. It was more than just him, more than just his life on the line. If he wasn't strong, if he didn't survive, Mother would die. Mother who had always shown him such kindness, Mother who was all he had left in this world. And it would be his fault.

There was no air left for scream or else he would have. His eyes flared a yellow tinged with orange as he conjured an orange dagger. His magic naturally coated the blade, allowing the weak spell to easily slice through the Arch-mage's spell as it fed off the man's EXP and LV.

He distantly felt the Arch-mage jump back as his shield corroded away beneath him. Adrian gulped in another huge breath of cool night air as it hit him. He vision spun and danced with black spots as he slowly fed his oxygen-starved lungs, his soul exhaustedly left Battle again, unable to maintain the mode. Adrian pushed himself into a sitting position on shaking arms, wiping away the sand that clung to his face once he was up. The Arch-mage glowered down at him, the white glow of his eyes the same brightness as before the duel. Adrian's eyes didn't always glow, some days he had more magic in his soul than others, but his eyes had been glowing today. He had woken up with an ocean in his soul and now was left with only a puddle, and even that had grown smaller since using the weak orange spell. He had put everything into that attack, but the Arch-mage didn't even look a little singed.

"Y-you tried to kill me," Adrian mumbled, glaring up at the man.

The Arch-mage rolled his eyes. "I couldn't have killed you with a green spell even if I wanted to. It's all a matter of intent, you see. The intention of green magic is to heal and protect, and thus one can't kill someone with green magic."

"It felt like I was going to die." Adrian muttered, looking away and rubbing his chest.

"You would have been close, at least." The Arch-mage grumbled. "You would have been left at one HP if you hadn't broken through my shield."

Adrian nodded in understanding, clutching at his chest as the area above his soul began to ache. The ache turned into a throb, that turned into an awful burning that encompassed his entire body. He clawed at his chest, the origin of the fire in his limbs, but the pain only became worse. He hissed and screamed as tight arms wrapped around him, pounded at them to try to make them go away, to make them stop making the pain worse.

He stopped as a familiar soothing wave washed over his body as green magic went through its course. He blinked his eyes open, half-expecting Mother to be hugging him, telling him that he had just been having a bad fever dream and to go back to sleep. Instead, there was the healer from before withdrawing just as quickly as the last time he had healed him. He stepped behind the Arch-mage, head bowed. Adrian didn't remember seeing him before, but with his dark skin and black doctor robes, he could have easily missed him in the darkness of the night.

"You idiot!" The Arch-mage roared, towering over Adrian's form. "Don't you know anything? You could seriously damage your soul by expending too much magic at once! What were you thinking?!"

Adrian stared in shocked silence at the unexpected rage from the man. The shock quickly turned into anger in return. "What was I thinking?" Adrian didn't know where he found the strength to stand, but there he found himself, drawing himself up to his full height. Which was only up to the Arch-mage's chest. "What was I thinking? I was thinking that you took everything from me! I hate you more than I've ever hated anything in the world! More than the church, more than the priests, more than the horrible people that lived in the town back home! You deserve to die alone and forgotten for everything you've done!"

The Arch-mage had lost his outraged expression at some point while Adrian was shouting and now just looked bored again. "I don't really care what you were thinking actually." He drawled, turning away. "I'm not sure why I asked. Just don't do it again."

Adrian clenched his hands into fists, opening his mouth to say more, but the Arch-mage beat him to it.

"You are underwhelming to say the least, Boy. I expected so much more, the way the church was going on and on about how you would be the next great mage, how you were already as good as some of the ones in the army now, how you would be so useful. Well, I'm still obligated to teach you, unfortunately. This is your first lesson." The Arch-mage waved his hand. There was a sickening pop and the healer crumpled to the ground, dead. Adrian stared at the body, mind reeling. "If you lose when you're out there on the battlefield, it is not only you that will die. All the people you are trying to protect will die along with you. Whenever you think of disobeying me in the future I want you to think of this moment Adrian Gaster." Adrian's eyes snapped to meet the mage's as he used his name. "I am training you for the benefit of mankind and for the benefit of God. War brews on the horizon, and I will not have your incompetence getting innocent people killed. Remember this moment, Boy, and remember that it was your fault, and yours alone." The Arch-mage began to walk away, leaving the body to lay in a heap on the sandy ground, glassy eyes staring unblinking at night sky above as the last of the magic particles drifted down. "Stay here. I will send a servant to bring you to the library. You will memorize them by the end of next week or face punishment."

Adrian's gaze slid down to the body again as the Arch-mage walked out of view. He would stand there, morbidly transfixed, until the servant came to take him away.

(A/N):"This might have been the worst situation he's been in so far, but things could be worse. They could have already killed Mother, then where would he be?" Hahahaha, oh poor Adrian. He has no idea what I have in store for him.

Anyways, I'm going to post the song I listened to for this chapter on the story's tumblr. I'm also going to post explanations of the different magic types, in case you're curious or don't want to wait around for the story to eventually tell you (if it does, cause I'm not sure if it will just explain it outright).

I can't wait until we get to the chapter where this entire story started. Because, guys, it was so random. Like, it will be awhile until we reach that chapter, but it's so dumb how this story started. Anyways, thanks to everybody who has given feedback, I really appreciate it guys!