I am so happy for all the positive feedback! I'm glad I'm filling a hole that volume 24 left us, thank you for pointing that out XaiGRS. It was such a good story why should the wheel stop from turning?! To Cat Eyes in the Night, thank you! I'm so happy you like what I'm doing. To 321jaz don't worry, this chapter will explain your point. Also Kuroneko nnch to answer your point I have plans for the teleportation event as well as to explain why Rudeus is responsible for it, if not with a little bit of mystery. Biggest thing I have planned in this story is introducing a new character, someone far more powerful than Rudeus. But that will have to wait until we get to that point. Until then, enjoy the chapter!
Today was Rudeus's day off. He had insisted that one day be his to work on and explore out of the week. He had to tell Zenith where he was going and what he was doing because of the night he claimed to wonder off and get knocked out by Hollow. Rudeus would normally lay down and sleep at the tree him and Sylphiette studied and practiced magic at. He hadn't met Sylphy yet but it was inevitable that they meet someday.
Thinking back to the time he first met Sylphy he smiled. Rudeus remembered how she was bullied for her green hair as the other children thought she was a demon, called the Superds. And how Rudeus fought them off and later mistook her for a boy instead because of her shy tomboy attitude, including her short hair.
'Should I treat her like a boy again this time around?' Rudeus thought. Then he shook his head, no, it would be easier sure but it was a mistake that he still made in his previous life. This time around he wouldn't make any mistakes and always keep moving forward in his attempt to reach toward infinite. With that he fell asleep and waited until night.
Every night before Rudeus went to bed he would preform some magical task that required all of his energy to do. It was getting harder and harder to preform though. These attempts were not as devastating as the small sun he had made. Instead he focused on the air above him and separated the chemical bonds of atoms nearby, and before much time passed at all he reformed the bonds. If someone in the daytime saw Rudeus's magic being preformed they would see a cloud of water disperse and then reform. What they wouldn't know was that Rudeus was separating the oxygen from the hydrogen and then putting the bonds back together.
On the surface a mage could create a cloud with a simple incantation, but this was something different. Rudeus was doing this at the subatomic level and it required precise control. Most mages would collapse after trying to separate the atoms in a spoonful of water but Rudeus was doing this several times over with ease. It normally took him an hour for him to collapse into a state of unconsciousness from mana exhaustion. And the next day he would repeat the process, only every time he did it the cloud multiplied in size and then disappeared.
Rudeus worried though, if he kept doing this and fainted while leaving pure hydrogen and oxygen then that could spell trouble if there was an open flame nearby.
'When I keep growing I wonder if I will be able to do this on a worldwide scale without anyone noticing?' The young man thought to himself.
No that wasn't possible. There were a few people that could detect the presents of mana within a person or see the size of mana used for a spell. Orsted, Ruijerd, Ghislaine, and the Demon Emperor along with many other high ranking demons were all able to see mana much like how some animals could see ultra violet light.
However the fact remained if Rudeus kept doing this then someone would eventually notice, or worse he would fuck up the ecosystem in the atmosphere. Neither of those options sounded appealing. He would have to learn more about chemical bonds if he was going to put more strain on his magic without people noticing as he continued to grow.
'I wonder if it's possible to get textbooks from Japan about chemistry?' He thought. With the work of several members of the university of magic they had managed to summon a seedless watermelon. And if Rudeus got a head start on teleportation this would do two things, help his cause to grow stronger by expanding on his knowledge and getting a head start on bringing Nanahoshi back to Japan. Rudeus sat up from his bed and slapped his cheeks, building up his resolve as he continued to work on his magic. The early morning of Rudeus's one day off he wouldn't go to sleep. Instead he would take the form of Hollow and continue to work on his teleportation circles.
His knowledge on the subject was extensive from all the work he did with Nanahoshi in an attempt to send her back home. Many, many failures followed and Hollow could only preform 1/2 of Rudeus's full power because of the distance from his home, the connection was like a wifi signal and it was annoying how bad the signal strength was.
Nanahoshi, along with Cliff, Zanoba and Rudeus himself had managed to summon the fruit using 100 layers of teleportation circle. The stack itself was encased in a wooden rack which also had incantation circles carved into the wood. Later on they visited Perugius, the great dragon king in his floating castle and Rudeus got to experience a great deal there. Perugius himself had compared Rudeus to Laplace in terms of overall mana level and was very hostile in words toward the boy.
Hollow looked at his hands. This time around he would be millions of times stronger that his previous self once he had reached the age of 10. He should be able to cast God Tier level magic without many problems by that time, all in an effort to stop the teleportation calamity. However, that posed another problem, eventually his identity would be noticed early by people like Perugius, along with Orsted.
Being noticed by Orsted wasn't so bad. If they joined forces then Orsted could protect Rudeus's family that would be in the future.
'Shit…. I'm thinking too hard about this aren't I?' Hollow thought to himself putting his palm over his face and eyes in an effort to calm himself down.
"My first objective will be forming a network of teleportation circles that cover every continent. After that point travel will not be that hard as well as gathering knowledge on how to stop the teleportation event." Hollow stated.
On a different not Hollow had expanded the cave and worked on several rooms now. It was the size of a four story house and would be considered an estate in this world. It was mostly composed of stone furniture but some of the other objects were made out of living foliage and trees. There was a library and laboratory where most of the magical circles were stored. The shelves that stored the papers themselves were made out of trees nourished and grown by Hollow, the monster made the trees outside by planting the seed for it to be nourished with photosynthesis and then supplied the rest of the nutrients through healing magic, making it grow in a matter of seconds what would have taken years. Using water magic while at the same time chanting a healing spell was like patting your head and rubbing your stomach and riding a unicycle, tricky at first but easily do for someone that had practiced.
The next step for the wood furniture was to petrify it in order to preserve it. Hollow buried the wood furniture hundreds of feet below the ground, the sediment and lack of oxygen started the process of crystallization, turning the wood into stone and Hollow fueled the transformation with earth magic. Then when it could no longer feel the presents of the wood Hollow pulled the furniture out of the ground and cleaned off the surface. It then added the furniture set to the rest of the layout.
Chairs, kitchen tables, drawers, shelves, tabletops, and Hollows improved resting place were made. It took allot of magic to do all this but it meant that Hollow and Rudeus would both grow stronger, this would also help with how they manipulated multiple types of magic to produce the results they wanted.
When it came to Rudeus's and Hollows main form of research which was teleportation they started with some simple teleportation circles. Under Rudeus's bed was a hand drawn teleportation circle, this circle was directly linked to the cave system where Hollow resided. The circle could go both ways sending items and receiving them. Rudeus normally drained a portion of his blood using a knife, letting it fall into a small stone glass. He would then teleport the cup to Hollow and then it would use the blood to create more magical circles.
Blood was not unheard of when it came to an ingredient for a magic circle, in fact, the stronger the mana was from the original owner of the blood then the stronger the magical circle would be. However rare ingredients were preferred for better, more stable teleportation circles. In the meantime blood would have to do before Rudeus could get his hands on some rarer items.
The papers as long as they were intact would act as a teleportation checkpoint. All Hollow had to do was place the circle on the ground and activate it either by completing the circle or fueling it with mana. Soon their network would be in effect and they could travel the world in seconds.
Another field of research was on disruption magical circles. This type of magic was a new realm of possibility because he normally did this with just his bare hands. But if Rudeus did this correctly the disruption would be on a much larger scale than just casting it by hand. So far the circles were small but effective on small level spells. Rudeus managed to successfully test it by attempting to cast a water ball but the attempt was stopped by the active disruption circle. However when he tried to do something a little higher level in terms of magic the seal would break, the disruption magic would break and Rudeus could use the spell.
The reason why Rudeus did this spell and not in his Hollows body was because when he tried to use Hollows body to preform a spell to test disruption the creature collapsed instantly as the link between Rudeus and Hollow was severed. It would seem that disruption magic was Hollow's biggest weakness.
Disruption magic was allot like turning a radio wave into static but as soon as the interference was broken the radio wave was returned to normal. Meaning that if the disruption magic wasn't strong enough or the circle was laid out incorrectly then the mana behind the teleportation event would resume it's path of destruction. This also made Rudeus ask if the disruption magic temporally slowed down the teleportation incident could it also weaken the affect radius.
Months of repetition passed. Roxy had been with them for more than a year and Rudeus continued to follow her advice and listen to her word. Soon he would reach his final test and cast a saint level water spell, Rudeus's restriction though was that he had to make it the size similar to Roxy's spell and not something as destructive as his miniature sun.
On a different note Rudeus decided to wait until Darius made the next move, if he would choose to send another assassination contract against the Greyrat family or if he would leave them alone remained to be seen. So far it seemed that Rudeus was being treated like a coiled viper, if Hitogami got too close then the viper would bite him, but if the man god stayed away then the viper would continue to remain coiled and ever vigilant, it wouldn't kill unless it was in true danger.
Speaking of assassination attempts Hollow looked over at one of the displays in the cave. It was like a pedestal made out of carved marble in the style and shape of a roman pillar that you would see at the museum. Sitting on top of the pedestal was a glass jar that contained the head of Clive. The head itself was preserved in formaldehyde. Rudeus had learned how to make the liquid to preserve dead flesh when he worked at the magical university to study monster races. Hollow intended to give this present to Darius if he ever tried something against the Greyrat family again. Darius would wake up in his bed and instead of seeing one of his concubines he would see the decapitated head of the first person he sent to kill the Greyrat family. This would send a clear message that if he continued, Hollow knew where to find him and end him.
Every early morning on Rudeus's weekend Hollow continued it's work on the teleportation and disruption circles. Summoning objects from earth such as a watermelon required allot of effort and it was what Hollow was trying to replicate. Many trials and errors occurred but Hollow continued to push and try harder. But it made a discovery, using an activation circle which was like a pressure plate and putting a teleportation circle above that activated the circle. Even when the circle was complete and fueled with mana it wouldn't activate unless it felt some type of pressure on the surface of the paper. This would make the transportation activation instantaneous. Rudeus tried this several times on inanimate objects, then on himself.
It was a success. Rudeus was transported to Hollows cave and vice versa. That day Rudeus and Hollow also found another way to spend energy on depleting their magic. By using a magic circle, then filling it with mana again, then using it and repeating the process it would allow them to spend an intense amount of energy without anyone noticing. They could continue their growth.
Then the day came and Rudeus turned 5. On his birthday the house held a small party filled with food and Paul did a little too much on the alcohol but that couldn't be helped in a moment of celebration. Then the gifts came, Paul gave Rudeus a pair of swords, one was a real sword that was hand forged and sharpened, still it was too much for a 5 year old to carry, Rudeus would have to grow into it. The other sword was one made of wood meant for practice.
After a long speech by Paul he was interrupted by Zenith, she said his speech was too long. Rudeus received a book from Zenith.
"Because Rudeus likes learning and books I thought you would like this." Zenith said smiling down at her son and patting her head.
The book was an encyclopedia, specifically about botany (the study of plants). This would help Rudeus in some of his experiments.
'Maybe I should make a garden near Hollows cave.' Rudeus thought.
After hugging both his mother and father Rudeus turned to Roxy.
She looked at him smiling and pulled out a wand from her robes presenting it to Rudeus.
"Normally this is created by a teacher of magic who gives it to their beginner students to use elementary ranked magic. Once they get used to the feeling of magic they are taught to cast it without a wand or staff as to expand their capabilities. I'm terribly sorry for not giving this earlier." Roxy said apologetically.
"No need to apologize master. Any gift from you I am grateful for." Rudeus hugged Roxy but she showed a bitter expression getting called master, regardless she gave a faint smiled after a moment.
Rudeus took the wand but then something unexpected happened. The wand began to glow a bright red and it made a high-pitched noise when Rudeus held the wand. The ruby in the wand started to crack and a white light shot out from the cracks. Rudeus dropped it and the glowing stopped.
Everyone in the house was covering their ears from the high pitched noise and their eyes were closed from the blinding white light.
After a moment they all looked down at the wand. The red ruby was completely shattered and the wood that composed the rest of the wand was cracked in some places, and in other places it was in splinters.
Rudeus fell to the ground trying to put the pieces back together as tears began to flow.
"I'm sorry Roxy, I broke your gift, I'm such a child." He continued to try and put the pieces back together but it was of no use. It wouldn't return to its normal shape.
Roxy was at a loss for words, as was the rest of the household.
Zenith was the first to walk over to her son and embrace him. "It's okay Rudeus, you didn't mean to do it. And your tears showed you really loved Roxy's gift, so we know you didn't mean to do what just happened. So please dry your tears."
After awhile Rudeus calmed down and sat down on one of the dining room chairs looking at the floor aimlessly whispering how sorry he was over and over again. Roxy was going to say something but honestly this made her feel even more inferior to Rudeus, she would have to deal with her own feelings before she could say anything appropriate.
Later on after Rudeus had gone to bed Paul and Zenith inquired Roxy on what possibly happened.
"A magic wand or staff refracts the mana within the user amplifying it. It bounces around in the gem becoming stronger the more mana the user puts into the staff. Once a magician touches a staff they are connected to it and it is an extension of them. In this case, and at least this is my theory so do not take my word on it, Rudeus's mana is stronger than the gem can contain. His power continues to bounce around in the wand and crack should the power output be too great."
"Have you ever seen something like this before?" Paul asked looking worried.
Roxy shook her head as she continued to look down. Then a flash of fear showed in her eyes but she didn't say anything as to not worry Paul or Zenith.
"Rudeus is destined for greatness, that I know for sure." Roxy said positively to the parents. Both of them looked at each other and smiled, they were proud of their son.
'I'm worried his body can't handle the power that he can output.' Roxy thought nervously
Rudeus was thinking the same thing up in his room, visualizing himself as the wand, his body was capable of being destroyed at any second if he put too much energy into a single spell. His body would get to a point where it couldn't keep up with his magic, so he would have to hold himself back. The thought alone infuriated him. He then looked at his hands.
He had a few ideas to keep his mana under control. One way was to spread out his mana, expanding it beyond his own body continually until it reached its outer limits in distance. If you take a lake with all its water and spread it out the pressure at the bottom will be reduced. The other was to continually pore his growing mana into an object, but as that was demonstrated today, it was harder than it looked. Rudeus thought of it like a bank account, you don't want to keep all the money you own in your pocket.
No magical item that Rudeus knew of existed like that, an item that could keep and store vast amounts of many, so he would have to try and invent something if he wished to take that path. It was a better idea than expanding his aura. Animals and Monsters had a mild detection to mana, Rudeus would be a beacon to them screaming, "Come and get it!" While he was covered in whip cream and a cherry on top.
Then there was his third option. Invest in his body and develop a Touki or in other words a battle aura. This type of aura would affect physical strength, speed, reflexes, and finally it would grow a shield around the wearer that minor attacks would not be able to cut through.
It was true that Rudeus was not able to develop a Touki last time because of the Laplace factor, while his magic was much larger than the average person he couldn't use a touki much like Laplace. As the saying went, the definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over again. Rudeus would still try to make a Touki happen but if he wasn't successful he would use his mana in a different fashion and one that would mimic a battle aura. This would help protect him from his growing mana or so he thought.
All three of these options would be pursued in order to preserve Rudeus's body.
Hollow on the other hand had more work to do as it went to work on more and more circles.
"Thank you for the meal." Paul said smiling at Lilia. The morning sun illuminated her humble smile as she nodded walking away.
Everyone was at the breakfast table excluding Rudeus. Zenith was worried at first, he wasn't in his room. She took a look outside and saw Rudeus doing pushups in the yard. Sweat stained his pants as he continued to push himself.
"Look Paul, our son is trying to be more like you." Zenith said smiling sweetly admiring her son.
Paul laughed. "five years old and he won't slow down in growing. He would make any father proud."
Rudeus came inside after his workout and Lilia handed him a towel soaked in cold water.
"Thank you Lilia." Rudeus said smiling at her. She was always so kind to him. The young boy then sat down and ate his breakfast.
"You are going to grow big and strong someday Rudeus!" Paul said laughing, he tried to pick his son up in an effort to throw him up in the air.
Rudeus laughed along with him while his father threw him up in the air, but it was clear Paul was surprised by Rudeus's weight. Instead of the average weight of a 5 year old he was twice as heavy as expected.
What Paul didn't know was that Rudeus was working out to break his muscles, then he used his alteration magic to fix the partially torn muscle tissue making it larger as well. The process was even harder when Rudeus used his gravity magic against himself. After that was done his increased the density of his muscles. In essence he looked like an average child but with twice the muscle mass. He had been doing this throughout the past year but not as hard as he pushed himself this morning.
'How many pushups did I do? How many sit ups? What kind of juice did I drink!?' Rudeus thought to himself hilariously thinking of Dragon Ball Z and the 100G chamber for training Saiyans.
Roxy walked over to Rudeus and without saying a word Rudeus smiled at her and then got ready for the trip. They were going to go to the field that Rudeus had first made his miniature star in, there they would perform the saint class water spell typhon.
After an hour of preparation, they were off on the horse. While on the horse Rudeus looked at Roxy.
"Sensei, what do you think of me?" Rudeus thought. He was a little concerned that Roxy was more intimidated than every at the young boys powers and he would push her away. She didn't have as big an inferiority complex as Eris but it was still an inferiority issue with Roxy and Rudeus.
"You are amazing, over the past year you have grown so much. After this is done I am going to continue to teach but I think I will try to reach king class in magic. I may not be able to reach your level when you are all grown up but I feel I need to grow too."
"I'm sorry I give you that feeling. I don't mean too, power and skill isn't everything you know. You are kind and knowledgeable, and above all you're a really good person."
"Thank you Rudeus. I do have a question though. Why do you insist on calling me master?"
"It is out of respect, you are the one teaching me. No matter the skill or strength difference our roles are clear, I am the student and you are the master, I learn and grow stronger because of your teachings. And even when I am an adult and strong I will still see you as a goddess because you helped make me strong."
Roxy looked down in silence. She smiled contemplating his words. His logic was pure, her own feeling of being weak were wrong and it was clear Rudeus would be grateful for her teachings no matter what accomplishments he did. Still, she couldn't stand his radiance without the desire to be determined to grow. She would become better.
They reached the spot Rudeus had previously cast his storm. The surrounding area had already started to be replanted but the earth was still uprooted and not solid yet. Specks of grass and saplings were starting to grow. Nature was claiming the land that had been taken from it.
Roxy helped Rudeus down from his horse much like before and she smiled faintly at the small boy. It was time to cast the spell.
The blue haired witch took a deep breath and began. "Grand spirit of water and imperial prince of lightning who ascends the heavens. Grant my wish and bring about a savage blessing. Display your might to insignificant beings."
Roxy held her staff close to her as she closed her eyes and pored her mana into the staff. It's crystal glowed and resonated with her will. Clouds and wind began to rise up and blanket the sky, shielding the earth below from the suns rays.
"Strike awe with a blow of your divine hammer on the anvil, and cover the land in water. Ah Rain! Sweep all else away and expel everything!"
Rain began to pore and then Roxy outstretched her staff and cast the spell outward releasing the final word.
"Cumulonimbus!"
Before the spell was fully completed Rudeus cast a rock dome around the horse. Good timing too because a lightning bolt struck the top of the dome. The horse would have been struck by it had it not been for Rudeus.
After the storm had faded Roxy looked at Rudeus. He smiled at her.
"That was amazing!" Rudeus said with tears in his eyes.
"Rudeus why are you crying?"
"It's nothing, I'm just so happy that I get to make this memory. I won't forget it."
She smiled back at him not understanding his tears of joy but she still understood that she was important to him. He was always so kind.
He then cast his spell. It quickly grew in size but Rudeus kept it under control as the winds tried to push him and the surrounding area away. Intense rain and clouds blew outward but Rudeus held it. Then he let it fade away. He made it the exact same size as Roxy's.
'He really is amazing.' Roxy thought to herself. She knew that Rudeus could make a cumulonimbus several times larger than her own. Hell, it might have even been seen throughout the continent but he kept it contained. There was a massive difference between having power and being able to control said power.
"Congratulations Rudeus you have officially graduated; you are a saint class water mage." Roxy shook his hand in an official display of congratulations.
Rudeus embraced her around the waist and smiled up at her. She patted his head. Without saying much, they left back towards the house. After Roxy was done packing her things, she departed waving back at the family and Rudeus.
The young boy held back a few tears. After all, he would see her again. And he couldn't wait until that day came. Tomorrow however would be the day he met Sylphiette.