"Listen Sylphy," Rudeus with arms behind his back and long robes made of ethereal dark magic, started walking around the small half-elven girl sitting in a cathedral-like bench with a notebook and quill.

They were inside the crypt that Rudeus built on a whim, several hundreds of metres below the village. Though, there were no bodies there.

He continued the lecture. "True meta changes depending on the number of players and the spread of information."

She blinked, becoming dazed from not understanding what he said, but nonetheless he continued, "Usually it is impossible for one person to be the best for several seasons, as there come new people with new ideas, which often dethrone the old kings. Also, as the number of players increases or shuffles there is always a possibility of someone more talented coming, while old magicians are often comfortable in their bubbles of old connections and knowledge, not realising their impending doom."

Sylphiete completely didn't understand what players or bubbles he was talking about, but as an obedient girl she wrote them down into the notebook with an intent to ask Rudeus about them later.

"That is why, after considerable deliberations, I shall not share my awesomeness to the populace." he stops walking for a second, before nodding and continuing "Yes! Imagine, hundreds or thousands of op guys like me, all capable of the same innovations. There would be needed only just one breakthrough or coalition, before I would lose control of it all and they would be able to destroy me."

'Ah! I remember that one, op, it was overpowered, that means too strong compared to others.' She nodded fervently, finally understanding what he was talking about.'So… in essence he says, he won't share his magic secrets to others, because he fears they will overthrow him?'

Rudeus stops and looks at her with a sad expression on his face. "However, even that isn't enough of a countermeasure, as the Dao of Meta states that one day there will come a threat against me that I'm not prepared for, therefore there needs to be some innovation and support, but on a scale which I can control. Something that will ensure that my followers can't go against me."

Sylphy pondered about it, 'And…that seems a little unfair, isn't it? Though, he stated that he wants to be the special one in this arrangement. Yet…' she raised a hand.

"Have you considered not telling them that you withhold information from them and control them?" she pointed out the obvious.

The longer she interacted with Rudeus, the more she was able to find that he was often omitting the… easiest solutions.

Rudeus pondered for a second and retorted. "Nah, they would be able to observe the disparity between ourselves and grow jealous."

But she had another idea in mind. "How about you fake it?"

Apparently that was a valid suggestion, as after a second of pondering he exclaimed. "That is brilliant Sylphy! That is why you are my number one follower!"

'So much brightness!' She didn't tell him, as that would be rude, but the new white shining teeth with glowing rainbow 'neon' hair and eyes he made for himself were too distracting! They were literally glowing with radiance when he was grinning.

Nevertheless, through squinted eyes and hand blocking her eyes, "I'm your only follower." she pointed out.

"Exactly!" he replied absentmindedly, already focusing on the board next to him, signed with a title. "Evil machinations class 101."

'And… he stopped paying me any attention and started talking to himself again.' Sylphy sighed, seeing the lesson was over.

It has been around two months since he started teaching her, she pondered. 'I bet he didn't even realise that as his follower I now know that he wants to control me and limit my growth.' She shook her head in exasperation. 'What stupid things would he do without her being here?'

One day, he suddenly appeared when she was exploring the forest near her home and used some ageing mind magic on her, with several as he calls it 'boosts', which he also calls bioengineering improvements.

Nevertheless, since that day, she just seemed… better, so to say. She remembered everything in keen detail, her mind was way faster, able to form connections and see things she was oblivious to before.

She always woke up full of energy, practically never losing it, no matter how much she ran around. Her reflexes and senses seemed so sharp that she could easily jump off the roof and hear her father returning from watch from hundreds of metres away.

Pfft, she could practically see him in mind's eye when she closed her eyes!

She was very grateful to Rudeus, honestly, as it seemed kind of a great thing he gifted her, but the act of doing so and all of his strange lessons seem kind of… random.

When he showed her his 'ultra elementary basic magic', which consisted of them flying around, shooting dragons from ice or building a… crypt in a matter of seconds.

She was quite entranced by the possibilities. Nevertheless, by whatever he has done to her mind, she felt like she had lost much of her childhood naivete. Where before she was sure that such a display would encapture her heart completely, now her logical mind was kind of pissed off, when he said he won't teach her his 'precious secrets' and she has to learn what she can on her own.

And innovate, apparently.

He has decided that for now he will teach her only the basics of how the world functions, where he gives her lectures about certain 'mechanics' and 'truths', that he perceives.

Admittedly, the reason which he provided is for some kind of 'test run' of how she is able to create a new meta of his 'paddavans', who will be the main 'grunts' and 'minions' of his empirical forces.

In other words, he had indirectly implied, that 'they', which means only her at this moment, are too big of the morons to ever gain the proficiency in his branch of magic that he has, and that he only wishes for them to find interesting scraps in places which he omitted out of deeming them uninteresting, yet which he admits may be useful for his 'existence'.

Though, remembering his display of ice dragons and her recent meagre attempts with water whips trying to imitate him after two whole months of training, she couldn't really fathom how he supposedly was able to find it trivial at age 3, that is two years ago, and supposedly before the brain enhancements.

Maybe they, that means only her, for now, are really inferior beings compared to him…


When Paul heard the words of challenge from his son, his eyelid twitched.

'That little shit.' he thought. Sure he may be some magical prodigy, capable of somehow summoning dragons… and swords, and… sure he may be unusually strong and has caved that alpha werewolf's body with one kick. Wait, what was his main point?

He lost track for a second, but he quickly remembered the main point. 'Ah, but that shit has no warrior aura. His instincts were telling him that he was as defenceless of a fighter as a newborn.'

Which admittedly he wasn't far off, thinking of it. 'How old is he? Three?'

Anyway, back to him challenging him.

'Good,' He thought. 'that means no matter how prodigious his son is, I still can beat the crap out of him so much that he will remember the lesson to not be cocky till his adulthood.'

Therefore, with a smile as if carved from stone he replied "Sure Rudy, let's go out to the gardens." his eyes having a mirthful glint.

'Ups, gotta control myself.' he quickly schooled his expression, before his son could know what he had planned for him.

And it worked, Rudeus… flew right behind him, 'Wait, he can fly?' but he quickly shrugged, already gaining resistance to the sudden new revelations of unique things his son apparently can do. 'Nevermind, that won't help him.'

In no time, both of them were standing opposite each other. Though, Paul frowned, when Rudeus adopted Sword God's stance. His frown still remained after observing it, looking for weaknesses to exploit, yet finding none obvious ones.

'Did he learn that from observing me and then trained on his own?' he questioned. When he looked with more intent, he could find some places that he would prefer to strike, but it seemed apparent to him that Rudy's stance was as if he himself would start it. Yet, there was no Warrior's Aura emanating from his son, how curious.

Suddenly he had a bizarre thought, 'Was this how masters were said to be learning from their students?' he wondered for a brief second thinking where to improve his own stance. Nonetheless, it was time to start, teaching his son some respect.

"So I see you know how to hold your sword, Rudy." He started a casual talk to disturb his son. He held his hand with a sword lying on his shoulder, in a classic approach of a North God style.

His son, still holding his stance perfectly still, replied nodding. "You could say so, I have seen you once practising and just could do it." His answer was very nonchalant.

'So he was watching, huh?' he didn;t know if he believed what his son was spouting, but he decided it was time for a real test.

He grinned. "Let's start then!"

He used intermediate level speed to transition into a sudden attack from the front. However, to his surprise, his son immediately took a half-step back, transitioning from Sword God into Water's God flowing defence.

Some people had a way with words. Being able to talk in such a way, that one couldn't even respond. Paul was never good in such a battle of wits, but what he was good at was conversing with swords.

He has done the trick that Rudy was doing countless times against others, and one way to counter it, was to after brief contact do a reverse spin of Water God, where they would slash at each other in the middle.

As they did so, it wasn't Rudeus who was pushed back, but Paul instead! Yet, instinctively keeping with Water's God techniques he went into another force dissipation technique through spinning, now going straight into Advanced level speeds.

After a while of exchanging blows and his son not giving him any ground, smoothly transitioning between styles, just as he did, one thing was becoming apparent.

His son was way faster and stronger than him! BUTTTT! His reaction time was too slow.

Indeed, when Paul was starting moves and attacks, there was a window of opportunity that his son was predicting it wrongly or didn't attack at all, followed by impossibly fast and strong corrections, which in response Paul couldn't just shrug off.

It allowed Paul often to take on the initiative, as Rudy was taking too long to understand if he was gaining ground or losing it after each of their clashes.

His mind was slower than his body! Therefore, Paul needed to go faster! He made some distance, bent his knees in classic Sword God style, and concentrated, before opening eyes and going full speed at Rudeus and using the full strength of his wooden sword.

His son could take it… probably.

'Clang!' reverbated echo through the clearing.

In the last second, his son intercepted the blade and literally as if he was a rooted tree, he stopped the power of the blow in place, his sword not even wavering more than an inch.

But Paul hasn't stopped, with his other hand he gathered the dirt, before chugging it in Rudeus' eyes. Who then moved to dodge, but Paul, anticipating that, threw his sword to the off hand and with now his free hand tugged at Rudy's remarkably sturdy sword's hand to make him stay in place as Paul attempted to kick him in the torso while catching the sword.

How much does he have to sweat to beat his own son!

Just before sand and kick impacted him, a shimmering barrier manifested before Rudeus, who suddenly reciprocated the grasp on Paul's hand which was holding him and literally pulled him in a spinning motion, doing two spins, during which Paul tried to attack his son's hand with a sword. However, to his dismay his son's sword held in the other hand blocked it.

Yet, before he could attempt anything else Rudeus shot him straight into the ground.

In the last second he twisted and landed on his knees and hand mostly, so he didn't feel the blow much and most notably his son was a barely half a metre tall baby. Yet, Rudeus still held him in vice grip. Though it was strange how a small and feeble hand like that can have so much strength.

As he was trying to get up, or to do something, Rudeus put his sword on his neck saying cheerfully. "I won!"

Paul got up, getting released from the grip, and smacked his lips two times in grimace, before pointing out "You used magic at the end, you were cheating."

Rudeus shrugged and said. "True, but it is my own power, though I can agree to a draw."

Somehow Paul was not satisfied with such an outcome.

"This little shit." he muttered, looking at Zenith, who was clearly worried, having observed their fight from the doorway and supporting Villager A.


Rudeus on the other hand was not so calm. He had spent some weeks before trying Emiya's technique of learning from sword's experiences on his Father's training and actual swords, but he didn't test it in sparring.

Yes, he was learning the moves rapidly before, but the biggest challenge was his lack of Aura, as well the fact that he wasn't using his one strength, but just a flimsy barrier on his body, with telekinetic moves augmenting his speed and strength.

It was too much to control at once. To top it off, to feel less dizzy he had to quickly recast healing spells on his mind to ward off the confusion from all of those rapid motions. One could say that at all times what he was seeing was an attack about to strike him and an impulsive reaction, with somehow newly acquired sword skills and instincts of his father working in the background to pull off instant best manoeuvres for the current situations.

He felt so tired mentally after it, that he started to steamroll healing spells in succession.

'It is good that when I felt Paul grasping my barrier covered hand, I instinctively grasped his hand and just did spinning.'

He almost didn't see the flash of the sword, but in the last second he somehow deflected it, before feeling like vomiting and pounding his father to the ground.

He had just the mind to put the sword to his neck and announce victory, before he would collapse, as everything was swimming in his eyes. The only thing making him stand were his barriers.

'Yeah, I should focus solely on implementing body and mind enhancements on my lizard…'

He was confident he could win the serious fight outright. Just by closing his eyes, enveloping himself in barriers and doing literal hell outside, or simply using telekinesis on his father to hold him in place.

Assuming he wouldn't break the hold…

But he also liked the idea to be fast and do all those quick movements.

Now, the original, clearly inferior, Rudy didn't have Battle Aura, and spoiler alerts, it is hypothesised that it is due to having Laplace's factor.

Current's Rudy plan was to use golden threads for enhancements with body modifications, however down the line when he does soul and magic modifications he will probably purge whatever that entails of having this factor, or just plainly remodel himself for infinite growth of battle aura and magic power.

'Meta won't make itself.' sighed Rudeus. He definitely lacked in physical muscle development, but working out nowadays or in the future seemed like a waste of time, considering how he is going to do it artificially, pumping himself with steroid magics.

Anyway, as he looked at his disappointed father, who was now staring at a sword in his hands as if it betrayed him, Rudeus decided to seek mutual interest that would satisfy both parties.

"Dad!" He called out, while starting to generate wooden kunai, swords, and plain old pebbles, all in massive piles around him. As his father looked at him with a void expression, Rudeus pointed out at the items.

"I need someone to throw those at me to train my instincts and reflexes in dodging them." he pointed at them. In response, his father, like a lost puppy, followed with his sight. "As you can see, I can't do it myself, so I need someone to help me and preferably use all their strength."

It is not complete bullshit. As of now he had to concentrate on his various modes of active sensing and make all reactions manually. Although he will do his utmost to rectify this weakness in the future with some passive techniques, aka magic and biological programming, as of now he can at least work on something called '6th instinct' or 'danger sense'.

Like the common rabble does…

On the other hand, the way Rudeus sees it is that his father has something to do that will feel like he is useful and contributing to his growth, as well as an ability to take some revenge by throwing at his undoubtedly annoying face.

Contemplating on positive relationships with his family, actually gave him a pause with a sudden drop of wisdom. 'For all the power in the world, it won't give me charisma or good relations, huh?'

However, what he failed to realise was a pebble landing on his barrier protected forehead. "Haha, got you Rudy!" his father laughed pointing at him..

Rudeus frowned, looking at the smirk of his father. He didn't see him bend and take the throw. So how did he…?

Then he spotted other pebbles laying near the boots of his father. Rudy grinned, before exclaiming "I bet you can't hit me more than 10 times!"

And that is how a bonding of father and son began.


Somar Eto was a kid in Buena Village, who together with his two best friends formed the Best Bros trio. They were always playing together, catching different bugs in the area, playing knights and knaves with other children (themselves usually knights).

Life was good for them in the village, although he had one thorn in his ass there. The son of the local knight, the man whom his mother often went to ogle at mornings or flirting with, bleh.

But not that was the cause of his ire. No, the problem was that the supposedly son of the Greyrat family was some sort of great mage at age three!.

The well known in the village, Villager A confirmed that he was the one to heal them with magic, which prompted more curious onlookers like Villiger B and Villager C to claim later on that they could see some magic during Greyrat pair sparring.

Because of course, besides being some great mage, the little brat had to be a great knight at this age. It came to the point, that he was the main topic of talks between villagers, how he is proclaiming himself the next god of magic, some 'Eldritch Being' or something when he introduces himself to villagers.

So predictably, the trio, wherever they get, is compared as being inferior to the great wonder child of the village. The new deeds like healing others or making plants rise or showering them with water, supposedly killing monsters in the forest were starting to pop all around.

His mother even went so far as asking him to go and befriend him and maybe the great Sage will teach him something.

"This is ridiculous, he is only like 4!" he suddenly shouted to the surprise of his friends, but they quickly understood who he was talking about.

"Yeah, that has to be lies." Shouted his Friend A, while Friend B also was feeling annoyed.

Therefore, as any good future knights of the kingdom, they were going to his estate to prove that Rudeus is nothing more than a knave!

As they got closer to the small wall surrounding the estate, which they definitely weren't jealous of! One of his friends hosted him up and they swiftly helped each other to sit on it.

"Here he is." he whispered to his friend pointing at Rudeus who was sitting in some small weird puddle in the garden.

He was playing with some small.. turtle?

Pfft, no great Sage would be playing with some stupid turtle, he is just a normal kid, just like them.

But then, suddenly the turtle disappeared.

Rudeus hastily exploded to the air, going above the house and looking in their direction.

"Woah!" his Friend B was so startled that he started falling back behind the brick wall.

Startled, Solmar looked at his friend, only to suddenly find Rudeus supporting his friend with one arm.

"What the…" This time it was him who was startled by that, and he started to fall in the opposite direction, but somehow he stopped midthrough and was pulled back to the sitting position. "Hell?" He ended.

He didn't understand what was happening anymore. Then the knight's kid asked him "Hey, have you seen a turtle?"

Interested in what was happening, Solmar looked behind him to the paddle and where Rudeus was floating before, but no, he really was now in front of him.

He started to get sweaty and when looking at his friends, they were also quite anxious, but then when he looked at Friend A's head, there was a…

"Oh, here you are!" Rudeus went to the turtle on his friend's head, and was about to grasp it, but it suddenly disappeared.

"Fuck!" Rudeus exclaimed, then noticed them, and bristled "I mean, shit, no, fuck… anyway nice to meet you guys, but I need to go!"

Then faster than they could see he was already far away in the air, and all they could see was a blur disappearing through the horizon.

That day, Solmar and his friends really accepted that being inferior is not that big of the deal…


Roxy Migurdia was coming through a small town of Fittoa Region in the Asura Kingdom, she was searching for some job on a job board instead of an adventurers board, as she wanted to take it nice and slow for some time. And actually make money this time around…

But unfortunately she didn't find any positions like requiring spells cast or mental jobs. Even tutoring would be nice at this point!

Therefore with a sigh, she went to the adventurer's guild and when on the post she saw a post "Possible possession. Would hire a magical expert to determine if the 5 year old child is cursed or possessed."

Then she read. "Destination Buena Village 5 kilometres to the west. Meet near the old white house at 12 am."

She hummed, "Hmmm, it is not that far, maybe I'll take a look."


Jinas Halfas was a newly promoted vice principal at the prestigious Ranoa Magic Academy. He had many accomplishments getting Saint rank in both water and fire magics, being known as an excellent teacher for years, producing many advanced users and a small group of Saint ones.

Yet he had as many regrets, as when he was younger he got pretty jealous of one of his best students, Roxy Migurdia, and pretty much drove her off when she learned his best spell, instead of encouraging her to continue her education.

Nevertheless, he was not a person who couldn't forgive himself, "let bygones be bygones" he smirked and continued another day of bureaucratic duties and meetings. Yes, lots of meetings, with new promising students, teachers, nobility, magic guilds, city mayor and his council and even church.

Life wasn't as exciting as when he was a teacher, but then he got a bit older and teaching new students requires a certain kind of passion and dedication that is hard to come by the older one gets. He wouldn't want to be like some old professors he remembered that were too old to even properly engage the class and only rewrite what they knew on the board.

He chuckled remembering one particular Professor A, teaching about herbology practical applications of a 20 year old since extinct plant, and moreover making an assignment of brewing potion with it!

Whether that professor was the reason for the extinction of those plants due to recurring assignments every year, he didn't know, as it is a bit embarrassing that he wasn't really interested in those classes so he just goofed off.

"Good times." He chuckled again, already liking the day.

Therefore, during midday when he decided to take a stroll through the courtyard near one of the towers, to take the necessary break from his duties, he overheard a sudden boom above him.

He was not alone, as he spotted multiple students and teachers swiftly gathering to the centre of the square, creating quite a commotion.

Naturally, he followed, and when getting there, he didn't have to excuse himself through the crowd, as the target of attention was plain to see.

A some sort of child, immortal demon? As his changing colours, eyes and long hair would suggest, but then had some really pale white androgynous face and skin colour, like some kind of Elf from old stories, or maybe Snow Elf to be more apt.

He couldn't tell, as his ears were covered by very voluminous hair, but he has heard of some white Demons….

What was he thinking about? The child was literally hovering in the air.

"Ranoa Magic Academy!" The child's voice boomed through the whole courtyard and possibly the whole town below. How loud that was!

He had seen multiple beastmen painfully clutching their ears.

"Sorry about that." the boy said quieter, and everyone there was enveloped simultaneously with a green aura. Healing magic, his mind quipped.

Murmurs of awe were spread, as it seemed like an incantation less high level spell.

Not so loud as before, but still reverberating through everywhere, the boy spoke, "I'm the Eldritch God of Magic, Rudeus Greyrat!" yet before anyone could answer to that, four elemental dragons went out of his back going into the loop around all of them and the court, before a gigantic sword of lightning manifested above them all, like a divine judgement and starting falling. No, gaining speed.

All four dragons leapt into the air and started increasing their size before colliding with the sword and making everything explode in a big explosion that started coming on them.

"Barriers!" started chanting some professors and students, but just as it was about to hit them, a colossal barrier with engraved patterns manifested above the boy's hand that took the span of the whole academy, and possibly a town.

Such a display of magic… was fitting for the title of a god of magic. Though he didn't understand what the Eldritch meant or what kind of magic the boy performed, it was something every magician here was living for to see.

To see such a sight, get it burned into memory… it was almost ineffable. When he looked at those around the courtyard, who could see the effects, some were shaken to the core, while some looked on with determination, some yet had wonder in their eyes, but none were unmoved.

He couldn't see well, "What is going on?" he muttered, rubbing his eyes and realising they were wet. "Ah, I'm crying." he stated dumbly.

The boy wasn't done. His next words were arrogant. "Spread the news to the end of the world of Eldritch God of Magic, Rudeus Greyrat declaring himself the strongest! If anyone wishes to challenge me then so be it!"

Rudeus then grinned and his next words shook everyone to the core "And I'm only five years old!". Showing off a set of white pearly teeth, which could only be unnatural, the boy shot off, breaking the barrier and dispersing all the black clouds from the explosion.

Then the wind hit them, making all but the warriors stumble. The message was spread.


In another dimension, Hitogami observing the world through many eyes saw the display of Rudy's magic. But when looking at the boy intently, the boy's head suddenly turned in the direction of the person who was in his faction and he swore that their eyes met.

Keeping eye contact the boy grinned saying the last line, before winking directly to him and shooting off to the sky.

When the broadcast ended, Hitogami started walking around and talking to himself, like he usually did when thinking about the plan.

It has never happened before, in any of the times he has observed the world, he had never seen this, whatever that was.

So he had to plan, set events in motion, get into the bottom of this and finally steer it in the direction that he wanted.


When Rudeus was proclaiming his message, he felt the distortion in dimensions coming off from one guy. Thanks to his many senses he was able to penetrate the hidden space and see Hitogami directly staring at him.

Therefore he reciprocated.

Because when you stare in the abyss, it stares back at you. And what of an Eldritch Abomination would he be if he didn't stare back?

"Yes, those who travel beyond what they know and understand, stumbling into the darkness itself, yet still going through it to satisfy their mortal curiosity. Yes, those are prime targets to give some mental scarring to."


As Roxy was travelling on the donkey to the Buena Village, she was thinking about the conversations she had at the adventurers guild.

Apparently, there is a famous brat in the village, Rudeus Greyrat. He is known through the surrounding villages as he often flies by and likes to scare or spook people or showing off some magic to the children.

Weirdly, he is also asking the same children if they want to be his follower, whatever that means.

Does that mean he is making some sort of a cult? Is that some cultist leader having reincarnated?

She didn't know, but as she waited in the specified location and saw a red-haired maid approaching, she supposed that she was about to find out.