*-Rudeus-*

Music, food, and entertainment. This party had it all.

'You comfortable?'

Currently anyone who saw me would be confused. It looked as though I was sitting at a table in a white room surrounded by monitors. In actuality I was teeny teeny tiny and Phoebe had made one of her teeth hollow, which allowed me to stay near so I could guard her and watch over the entire ballroom with Doru, while not making my presence known.

'Yep. I've got Doru everywhere so I'm seeing everything right now. With Yoko and his army of Kumu and Doru watching over Ars we'll know as soon as someone dangerous shows up.'

'Good. I take it the candles are working then?'

'They work perfectly.'

All illumination in the room that didn't come from natural sunlight came from candles placed on chandeliers and on every table. Each candle was actually a Doru which were relaying me video, and Yuki had the air slightly cooled so that she could get me audio as well.

Plus the cool air provided a nice comfort from the heated summer air from outside.

Currently while all the nobles mingled among themselves the royal family and their personal guards stood at the top of a large staircase. Anytime new guests arrived the first thing they did was come up the stairs and pay respects to the king, princesses, and princes. The king stood in the middle while the princesses were at his right and left side, and the princes were on the outer right and left.

Since they were the ones who had planned the party the princesses were closest to the king.

The king moved slightly to the side and began whispering to Phoebe.

"I have not failed to notice, blessed child, that your new mage guard is not here. Is he already failing his duties as your bodyguard?"

"There is no need to be agitated father. He is here, and he is guarding me closer than any of these other guards. I shall be safe for as long as he is here, and right now I am plenty safe."

"If what you claim is true then I digress."

'Master. I'm sensing a large amount of magical energy flying towards Ars! Estimated time of arrival is 2 minutes!'

'You hear that Phoebe?'

'Loud and clear. Guess it's time for you to go?'

'I'll be sure to come back as soon as-'

'It sped up! Its-'

BOOM!

A large portion of the west wall exploded. The Doru and Yuki were able to put up barriers of ice and wax so that no one got hurt. Walking out from a cloud of dust was a kid with black hair. He wielded a large golden great sword that radiated magical energy. It was a magical energy I was all too familiar with.

Gravity magic.

He slowly walked up the stairs with a smile beaming across his face.

"I am the North God Aleksander Rybak the Third! I will slay you evil doer and become a hero!"

He heaved his greatsword and pointed it at Phoebe. Seeing the waves of gravity approach I sent out my own to cancel his out.

"Huh?"

He looked stunned and tried again only for me to cancel him out.

"How are you doing that? Why doesn't Kajakut work on you?!"

"Is that your doing Thorn?"

Phoebe opened her mouth wide and I jumped out and quickly grew in size. The king stared at me with wide eyes. I did just jump out of his daughter's mouth so it's understandable.

"I didn't know there were others who could use gravity magic. You said your name was Aleksander right? The names Rudeus Greyrat."

"Hmph. If you truly think you can stand against the power of a hero, then you're more of a fool than that god claimed you to be!"

Alek came flying towards, but I used my own gravity magic to cancel his out. He fell right in front of the stairs and I jumped down to be level with him.

"You're stronger than Reida huh? Why don't we take this somewhere else?"

I placed a hand in front of Alek and blasted him with an extremely powerful force of gravity. I flew after him as he landed a little further away in the commoner's district.

"Gah! Stop that!"

Alek swung his blade in a wide arc. Gravity shot forward and tore through buildings as it flew towards me. I simply waved my hand and the slice disappeared right before it hit me.

"Yeah. You're definitely stronger than Reida, but is that your strength or your sword's strength?"

"The strength of the owner is the strength of whatever equipment they wield. Now come at me!"

Alek charged me again and he used gravity magic to twist his body in unnatural ways. I canceled out the magic and dodged his attacks. They were incredibly fast, but that sword was also incredibly heavy. He was constantly using the sword's magic to make it lighter, but I was now fully canceling the magic of the sword. He still wielded it expertly though, so I was having to take this fight seriously.

Tiny roots spiked out of the ground and jammed into his feet. They wrapped around his bones and wormed through his muscles.

"Gah! Stop doing all this weird stuff and fight me! Stop running away!"

"If you insist!"

As Alek was trying to pry the roots from inside his feet I charged in in punched him square in stomach. He choked a bit, but it seems I didn't hit hard enough to get him to cough up blood.

He brought his sword over his head and slammed it into the ground. The roots having separated from the ground died immediately allowing Alek's feet to heal.

So he has some kind of healing factor? What does it run on? He doesn't seem to be absorbing mana, so it doesn't work like mine. Could he have some form of immortality?

My thoughts were cut short as Alek's blade swung down towards my face. I brought up my arms and used the Akumu to form shields. The blade ripped through the thick shields and got caught just before it could hit my arms. Without those shields I would've lost both my hands.

Grabbing the blade while it was still stuck I picked up Alek and through him above the city wall. Right as he started gathering gravity again a red blur slammed him past the wall. It took me about a minute to fly over the wall, and I saw Raion engaging in a sword fight with Alek. He was twisting his body with gravity magic to attack from every angle, but I quickly stopped his gravity magic. By pushing more mana into it I grabbed Alek's body with gravity and tore him in half. As soon as he landed back on the ground his body was already starting to reattach itself.

"Haha! If you think you can defeat the North God that easily then you truly are a foolish villain!"

Alek stood back up and wielded his great sword. That small bout had taken the wind right out of Raion's sails. He may have all sorts of strength and power, but his body was still only six years old. It wasn't made for combat especially against one of the seven great powers.

"Raion! Go to the party and keep the peace for me. I've got this guy."

In reality I indeed did not got this guy. My trump card against swordsmen was gravity magic rendering them useless, however I was having to focus almost all of that magic on his sword, so that he couldn't use his own gravity magic.

I may not need sleep, but this body didn't have infinite energy. The more I physically move and the more I cast spells I'd run out of mana for this body to run on. Eventually I'd have have to use my limbs as mana for spells.

And yet Aleksander didn't even look fazed. He held the same cocky exterior albeit a little annoyed now. His breathing was steady and his stance was calm. You'd think the fight hadn't even started yet.

"So you fight me alone once again? It's a shame. That little friend of yours actually made a good sparring partner."

I didn't even register Alek's words as I examined the situation. Unless I could get him to let go of that sword I'd lose. The problem with that was that his grip was so tight I simply would be able to beat him in a game of tug of war.

With that an idea popped into my mind. It was horrifically risky, and was so unlikely that I marked it as my last resort. There was a spell I once used against a God that chopped off one of his arms, and last I saw of him it still hadn't grown back. Though I'd need to use a limb for the mana I was lacking. Even at full charge I didn't have enough mana to use Cleave. Before it had used all my mana and life force and it killed me before Zeus's lightning did. If I used one of my arms and all of my mana than I should be able to use Cleave without sacrificing life force. If I needed to I could try and use the Akumu armor if necessary.

"So what? Are we just gonna stand here? Come on already!"

Alek charged me once again. Did he not learn his lesson? Well I can see he did. He's not actively trying to use his sword's gravity manipulation. When it boiled down to it he simply relied too much on his sword. Without its gravity manipulation he was weaker than Reida, but still stronger than Auber. One way or another I might be able to win this.

He went for a downward slash, and I dodged to the left. He started charging up his gravity magic, and instead of canceling it I charged my own. He flew at me while spinning at unnatural angles. I focused all my gravity magic at one point and barely ripped off his left arm. This didn't stop his attack though, and he brought his sword down and cut all the way through my right arm.

I sent his arm flying away as the Akumu armor reattached it's arm sleeve. My arm still needed to fix itself so for now I'd be stuck with only my left arm for a bit.

"Do you really think that could weaken me? I'm done with you! Once I kill you I can kill the monster posing as a princess and become a true hero!"

Alek raised his sword above his head. He started gathering so much gravity magic that I couldn't stop it. The next thing I knew I was floating into the air. Everything around me was as well.

"In my right hand, a sword. In my left- you know what screw this! There's no one else here to see it. Gravity Fracture!"

He brought the sword down and I felt myself get thrown at the ground. Something shoved me and I could feel myself moving at high speeds as I rose into the air. Looking down I could see a huge fissure running through the ground. It had destroyed a large portion of the commoner's district, but thankfully it had stopped right before the castle. Looking up I saw the face of the man who saved me. With blonde hair, grey eyes, and four pitch black wings flapping to keep us in the air, Kuroi was holding me princess style.

"I swear. Every time I see you you're in some kind of immense danger."

"And every time you're there to help old man."

"Ha! I'm not the only one."

Kuroi dropped me as we both started falling back towards Alek. He seemed to have been trying to get his arm back, but he was now once again held in combat against a ten year old girl. With her wings giving her unmatched speed, Pin would dove down stab Alek and then fly back up.

It didn't deal any lasting damage but it was certainly keeping him angry.

Using space magic I formed a giant hammer and slammed it onto Alek. I had blocked his gravity magic, but he was still physically really strong. This 1v1 had very quickly turned into a 3v1 and I was overjoyed to be on the winning team. Though from the looks of things it may quickly turn into a 2v1. My mana reserves were getting dangerously low.

Constantly using gravity magic to cancel out his sword's gravity manipulation was extremely draining. I had to either match the output or go past it, and using gravity magic on that level was something I had never done before. At this point Cleave was out of the question unless I wanted to suffer some really bad drawbacks.

Thankfully if Pin and Kuroi were here than I wouldn't have to use it. Pin dove in and this time grabbed Alek by the hair.

"Argh! You pest! Stay out of this!"

He reached up and grabbed Pin's hand only to have his leg pulled out from under him with a shadow chain from Kuroi.

I gathered as much space magic I could muster, and thunder roared out all around us. Even when canceling Alek's sword I hadn't used this much gravitational force. As I pulled down and compressed my final attack I looked towards Kuroi.

"You just gotta... make it... hit."

I fell to the ground and my vision slowly faded away.

*-Kuroi-*

You just gotta make it hit he said. How I'm the nine hells would that not have hit him?! If anything all I did was limit collateral damage.

"You just gotta... make it... hit."

Thorn pointed at the sky as he passed out and when I looked up I saw the clouds part as a meteor came crashing down towards us. The meteor compressed, and broke, and then it fixed itself just to compress again.

All I had to do as it got above the man we were fighting was create a void barrier around it. Now sure, it did immediately break my barrier when it hit the guy, but at least I prevented it from turning this whole area into a crater.

I looked down at Thorn. The armor he was wearing was turning to crystal and was fading away, and his right arm was gone. I walked over to the man and found nothing but a head and his sword. I reached down and was shocked to hear the head speak.

"I... am Alek... sander Rybak... That is my blade. The... King Dragon. Cough! Blade, Kajakut. Don't you dare... touch it."

"I hate to break it to you, but you lost." I picked the head up by its hair. Pin flew down and sat on my shoulder as she giggled to herself.

"Isn't Thorn amazing. He hit you with a whole meteor from space!"

"This sword belongs to him as spoils of war. I'll be holding onto it until he wakes up. We wouldn't want it to fall into the wrong hands now do we?"

"T-that's my blade! Given to me by my father it symbolizes that I am the North God! With it I will become a hero! I hold the blood of an immortal Demon King in my veins. I swear it on my life that I will come back and get revenge for what you've done!"

"Immortal? Thanks for the info. I was about to leave you here. Now though... I've got a better idea. Why don't you go play here for a bit. Besides if that sword is what makes you a God then you don't deserve that title in the first place."

I opened a portal to the void and tossed Alek's head in there. Grabbing the great blade I set that far away from Alek in the void. Even if he ran straight there for millions of years he wouldn't even get half way there.

"Can you get off for now? I'm gonna carry Thorn back to the others. I can sense Raion and Pin's auras from here."

"Okay!"

Pin leaped off my shoulders, as I hoisted Thorn onto my back. To make things easier I dismissed my wings and flew on a platform of void.

By the time we got to what seemed to be a large party. The armor Thorn was wearing was completely gone. He now wore only a simple shirt, sweat pants, and a large scarf that was a bit to big for him.

I landed the platform in front of a large set of stairs. Based on her pink highlights and her aura I could tell that it was Phoebe that was running down to us.

"Blessed child! You mustn't-"

"Is he alright?!"

"Yes he's fine. Just exhausted. We won."

"Phew. Bring him up here please."

Following Phoebe we went up the stairs and stood before the king. Phoebe took Thorn in her arms and smiled lightly as she placed him on a chair made of a Kumu she created. She walked towards the king and after whispering to him she brought him away from the others. I suppose she had something to discuss with him.

"Heya. Been a while."

Looking to my left I saw a boy with red hair and red eyes. The faint smell of blood entered my nose.

"That it has Raion how have you been?"

"I've been alright. I tried my hand at fighting that North God fellow, but unfortunately my body just can't keep up with me. I nearly got squashed but Thorn ended up having me come back here."

"I see. Liking the party?"

"Eh. I've been to better."

"I suppose-"

"What?!"

Raion and I looked over at the king who was staring at Phoebe with disbelief.

Phoebe immediately started quieting down the king and spoke to him more. The whole time she had a sly grin on her face. Eventually the king sighed and walked towards the edge of the steps.

"Attention! I thank you all for coming today, and for staying even after the disturbance of the North God."

As the king spoke his voice seemed to ring throughout the entire room.

"Now. I have announcements that must be delivered to you all. The first announcement is that the Boreas Greyrat family shall be gaining a new family head. James Boreas Greyrat had officially signed his title over to his younger brother, Philip Boreas Greyrat."

Many of the nobles started to chatter amongst themselves.

"Now now. We still have another announcement. Pilemon shall be stepping down from the title of the Notos Greyrat family head, and is instead giving the title to the owner by birthright. The oldest son of Paul Notos Greyrat. The same boy who just defeated The seventh of the seven great powers."

He motioned towards Rudeus laying in his chair.

"Rudeus Notos Greyrat, the new family head of the Notos Greyrats and the new seventh place of the seven great powers. He will also..."

The king grit his teeth. Pure anger, annoyance, but also a little pride all seemed to gather on his face at once.

"He will also be the one who marries my daughter. The fourth princess of Asura. Our blessed child."

*-Rudeus-*

The next couple of days were pretty hectic. For everyone else I mean. I slept for 3 weeks. Those three weeks were crazy for everyone else.

It was officially announced that Phoebe was my fiancé.

Yippee!

So the king was currently dealing with the backlash of allowing someone to marry a blessed child. Apparently since blessed children are considered sacred it is a taboo to let one "defile" itself with the taint of marriage. Well too bad it's either let her get married or lose your oh so precious blessed child.

Besides it definitely helped that her husband to be was the newly appointed Star God Rudeus Greyrat. A few days after my fight with Aleksander a messenger informed the king that monuments to the Seven Great Powers had changed. Number 7: North God Kalman III had changed to Star God Rudeus Greyrat. I honestly felt like I didn't deserve that title just yet. Sure I dealt the final blow, but if Kuroi and Pin didn't save me from that Gravity Fracture I would've died. Plus if not for Kuroi holding all the impact force of the meteor in place, it would've been slightly weaker and would've damage a much larger area. The damage from the impact could've destroyed Ars.

I also got Alek's sword. Kuroi said that Alek called it the King Dragon Sword Kajakut. It could use gravity magic and could effectively let the user just ignore gravity. Though I'm not a big fan of Greatblades and I can already use gravity magic. Plus there was a little too much gold for my taste. In the end I gave it to Raion. He couldn't use it for long periods of time since the sword constantly sucks away at the user's mana, and Raion hasn't been training his as much as Phoebe and I have. He still was building his magic it just wasn't his main focus.

Paul had been struggling to get everything together as I'm now the official head of the Notos household and the now fiancé of a princess.

Philip and Hilda haven't been struggling, but they have been really busy. They explained to the rest of the Boreas boys that only two of them were James's son, and offered to return them to their real families. Out of the eleven boys five of them chose to stay in the capitol. The three that weren't James's sons were simply too used to life in the capitol, and just didn't want to give it up. Not wanting to force the kids into anything they opted to leave it be. Once the other children were successfully reunited with their parents Philip declared that he will be stopping the tradition of taking the male children of the Boreas families. He also then stated that the Boreas house shall be supporting Phoebe in taking the throne.

The people already knew who I'd be siding with, but I decided to let them know that the new Star God as well as the Notos household would be supporting Phoebe as well.

Before Grabell had Darius backing him as well as the Boreas family, but now Phoebe had gained the support of the Boreas and Notos houses as well as support from one of the seven great powers. They had been oddly quiet, but the assassins that they sent were not. Breaking glass is quite loud you know.

They had sent some assassins into the Ariel's manor. They found out that we were here but couldn't find where in the manor we were. Eventually they found the door that led to the hidden manor in the walls.

Have you ever seen a hallway come to life and eat a person? I have. It's pretty gory.

But now puppets were in our places, alliances were formed, and declarations were made. Now we could finally go home. Phoebe made the ice mirror and we all stepped foot back in Buena.

In total we hadn't even spent a full month in Ars. Now though I still had a job to do. I needed to make a house. Or well, multiple houses.

Phoebe, Mars, Pin, and Kuroi had all come back with us. Since puppets took their place Mars could live with his actual family, but our house was a little cramped to house 3 guests. So I'd have to make some.

"Big brother!"

Aurora slammed into me as I walked through the mirror.

"Hey! You missed me that much? It hasn't even been a month yet."

"Still. It felt like you were gone for so long. It was lonely."

Zenith and Lilia looked back confused at Aurora's claim. Despite their confused faces they were quite happy to see me.

"Good to see you back!"

Cyrus smirked at me from the living room. Seems he was resting. Odd. I thought that he was the type to train till he couldn't move.

"Cyrus isn't allowed to practice magic right now since he tried an advanced level spell and passed out for a day."

Aurora was happy enough to give me an explanation.

"He wanted to try and be cool in front of Miss Roxy and tried to cast the advanced water spell Squall, but passed out since he held it for too long."

"I see. I guess I'll have to warn him about using spells too big for him them."

Cyrus flinched as I silently smiled in his direction.

Zenith hugged me as Paul and the others walked through the mirror. Now Paul, Phoebe, Kuroi, Pin, and myself finally had returned home in less then a month.

"Alright. Let's build some houses."

I rolled up my sleeves as I looked at the materials I made for myself. I used space magic to get me some wood, stone, metal, and other miscellaneous resources. I'd be making Kuroi and Pin their own house, Phoebe a house, and then a house for Raion in case he ever comes to visit.

Raion's house will be acting more as a guest house for the rest of the Boreas family.

I used space magic to connect pieces together, and used life magic to manipulate the wood and hold everything together. I used the metal pipes to create a plumbing system to pump waste into a pit of destruction. Anything that falls in the pit is immediately destroyed, but it won't destroy living creatures, so that there wouldn't be a risk of someone falling in. I put the pit in a small space deep underground, so no one should be getting to it anyway.

While I had the materials I also put a plumbing system in our house. Underneath my bed I put a hidden trapdoor that leads to another house in the walls. I'd use this later to do experiments in a place where others aren't put at risk.

Only Phoebe and Roxy knew about it, and I gave them both bracelets that would teleport them there.

The houses were lined next to ours making us neighbors, and they looked similar, but were different.

Kuroi and Pin's house was built similar to ours on the first floor. When you entered the front door you saw the kitchen to your right and a living room to your left. Stairs could be seen straight ahead and there was a bathroom connected to the kitchen. To the side of the bathroom was a walk-in pantry.

Upstairs you'd find six room. The master bedroom, Pin's bedroom, and two guest rooms. There was also a study and another bathroom.

The front yard had a small garden and there was a larger garden in the back. There was a small balcony accessible from the master bedroom that could be flown to from the outside.

Phoebe's house was similar to Kuroi and Pin's but some rooms were shifted around a bit.

When you entered Phoebe's house you walked into a hallway. Two guest rooms and a bathroom were in the hallway and walking out of the hallway you'd walk into the living room. Separated by a small bar was the kitchen attached to the living room. Going up a set of stairs you'd see a room slightly larger than the living room. The room had multiple board and card games as well as a hang out area. Connected to the room were doors leading to a bathroom, master bedroom, and two more guest rooms.

Outside had a small front yard, but had a large rose garden in the back. A small gazebo sat in the middle.

The Boreas house was the biggest out of the three since it was built to hold Sauros, Philip, Hilda, Mars, Ares, Eris, and three others. It had a large front and back yard with a small rectangular area that could be used for training. Inside you entered a large room with stairs in front of you. To the sides were hallways leading to multiple guest rooms, a kitchen, a storage room, and two bathrooms. Upstairs was two master bedrooms, three rooms for Eris, Raion, and Mars, and another bedroom meant to fit the servants.

In total it took me about 3 weeks to make the houses.

"Oh my. You made these houses yourself Sir Rudeus?"

Laws was looking at the houses I had made. He had come by to drop off Sylphie before he went for work. Having built his current home himself he knew how long construction usually took.

"Yes sir. I used a lot of magic so I was able to greatly reduce construction time."

"And you'll be reaching Sylphie how to do this?"

Laws looked at me with a quizzical look. I couldn't tell if excitement, shock, or worry was on his face. It seemed to be a mix of the three.

"It depends on whether or not her mana pool is large enough. If it is then yes sir I will, but if it's not then I won't be. Mana drain is a dangerous thing, so I won't be letting her try something beyond her abilities."

Laws's expression relaxed as he smiled.

"Thank you Sir Rudeus. It's a relief to see that Sylphie was able to make a friend. I was quite worried when those kids started bullying her. I tried speaking to their parents, but... you saw how that turned out."

"It's no problem. Besides! Sylphie's really smart when it comes to magic. It took me a while to learn silent casting, but she was able to learn it in about five minutes. She's a real magic prodigy and her mana pool grows larger everyday."

I told a little white lie about my time learning silent casting, but it wouldn't hurt anyone. Besides Sylphie really was a prodigy. Aurora and Cyrus both had a head start, but Sylphie's mana pool almost surpassed theirs already. She also managed to master spells faster than them.

"Haha. Hearing such high praise brings a smile to my face. Again, thank you."

"Of course. And also Mister Laws. Please, just call me Rudeus. It sounds weird hearing an adult speak so properly to me."

"Haha sorry. I'll be seeing you later then."

"I'll have Sylphie back by sundown."

"Thank you very much."

Turning around Laws left the house and I turned around to see a smirking Aurora and a slightly blushing Sylphie.

"So who's ready to do some target practice?"

Sylphie, Aurora, and Cyrus all stood in front of me on the training platform I built in front of the Boreas house.

It took some convincing, but I was able to convince Mom to let Cyrus practice magic again. I made sure to give him a stern talking to about impressing Roxy- I mean using Advanced tier magic with his current mana pool.

"Alright. Here's how we're doing this. Your goal is to hit me. First one to hit me gets a prize."

"I-isn't this a bit dangerous?"

Sylphie looked worried as she tapped her fingers together.

"Don't worry. I'm literally one of the strongest in the world. I'll be fine."

Granted I got that title with Kuroi and Pin's help, as well as the Akumu magic armor, and I didn't have any of those right now, but that's not important at this specific moment. These three were still novices when it came to magic.

"Mph. Okay!"

Sylphie pumped her fists and got a serious look on her face. Despite her best efforts to look serious she was just to cute.

Must protect!

"You two ready?"

"Yep!"

"Uh huh!"

Aurora and Cyrus readied themselves.

"Then let's start!"

The rules were simple. They used all the magic they knew to try and hit me. First one to hit me gets a favor. If I can dodge their attacks for five minutes without using any of my own magic then I win. What's I win? Bragging rights of course. They were all really excited once Phoebe told them what they could do with a favor from me.

Immediately as I said that a ball of water came speeding towards me. I dodged it and two other water balls flew at me. One was bigger than the other.

I dodged the big one and jumped over the small one, but then the small one shifted in the air and shot at me again.

As things went Sylphie, Cyrus, and Aurora each had their own "gimmick" when it came to their magic. Sylphie's spells were larger than the twin's spells, Cyrus's spells were faster than Sylphie and Aurora's, and Aurora was able to control her spells after she releases them.

Aurora's was the only unique one since the size and speed of a spell could be increased and decreased if you used more mana for the spell. No matter what we tried we just couldn't figure out how Aurora could change the spell after she activated it. Even I could only do that if I used my mana eyes to use space magic to affect the spell, but she didn't have mana eyes, and she definitely doesn't have the necessary mana to use space magic without them.

I twisted bit in the air and shifted out of the water ball's way. As I landed another large water ball came at me.

Leaning backwards the large water ball collided with Aurora's water ball as it shot downwards to try and hit me.

I jumped backwards and looked at the others. Cyrus was missing. I looked around and couldn't find him. Both Sylphie and Aurora were smirking at me. They both were preparing water balls, but weren't firing them. Looking up I could see Cyrus barely floating in place in the air. He had his hands up in the air and clapped them together.

The air heated up and water and ice fell towards me. It collided in the air and mist shot out all around me.

Heat island, icicle field, and waterfall. Together the spells created the melded magic Deep Mist. I knew that Cyrus and Aurora occasionally sat in on Roxy's lessons, but I didn't think he'd be putting it into practice this early.

Eye closed my eyes and focused on the area around me. I could hear someone's footsteps slowly stepping across the pavement. They were trying to make as little noise as possible, but from the way it sounds when their shoe hits the pavement it sounds like a harder material meaning it's probably Sylphie, since our shoes are made with higher quality materials and the bottoms were softer than her shoes.

I hear something flying at me from behind and duck as a speeding water ball flies forward. The ball suddenly stops and shoots back at me. I quickly sidestep and jump back as another speeding water ball gets shot at me.

I ran forward and barely got out of the mist as Sylphie's water ball came at me. I kept running and ran past it, but Sylphie shoved her hands towards me and I heard a loud burst sound. The next thing I know water was pouring onto me.

*-Sylphie-*

I did it. I did it!

"Congrats Sylphie. You win the favor."

Rudy gave me a thumbs up. Aurora and Cyrus both looked happy, but also a little sad. After Phoebe told us that favors from Rudy are pretty much whatever we want it to be we were all excited to try and get one.

Honestly I didn't think my idea would work. Aurora can make her spells move more than Cyrus and I and Cyrus's spells are way faster than Aurora and mine usually are.

Mine are just a little bigger, so I thought they'd be the one's to get him. I ended up thinking I'd help them to make it easier, but when I saw him run out of Cyrus's mist I tried doing what Aurora does. Every time I always fail, but one time when I was practicing at a tree Rudy showed me I was able to make a water ball pop. I couldn't move it, but the water popped in the direction I tried to get it to move. I never told anyone because I thought it was a failure.

Once I saw Rudy running though I had an idea. I shot the water ball and he just kept running, so I made it pop and the water got all over him.

Rudy has shown me so many cool things. He's just the coolest.

I've always been bullied because of my hair. Just because I was born with green hair I was bullied a whole bunch. One day though Papa came home and said he met a boy who was born with green hair, but something happened to him and now it was white. He said the boy knew magic, and was helping his mom at the clinic.

He was like a hero from the fairy tales who used his power to help the sick and injured. Ever since Papa told me about him I've always wanted to meet him.

Then one day the bullies were throwing mud at me again. Before they threw the mud they had hit and kicked me really hard. One of them tried to pick up a big rock, but he got punched really hard. I was really surprised to see the boy's white hair and knew that he must've been the one my Papa told me about.

He made the pain go away, and he got rid of the mud on me, and the mud that was in my hair. With him was a demon who was apparently his magic teacher. She didn't say much, but I could tell she was nice. He walked with me to Papa so I could get him his lunch, and he even let me come to his house to play.

When we were almost at his house the bullies came back. He summoned a fox man who followed me and Roxy to his house while he stayed back with the bullies. I don't really know what happened while we were walking, but when we were talking to his papa the fox man said that Rudy had been stabbed.

Everyone was either angry or sad after that. They said Rudy would be okay, but I couldn't help but feel it was all my fault. Those bullies called him a demon lover, so it had to be because he helped me. Roxy said that sometimes the world was cruel, and I couldn't agree more.

I was scared Rudy would blame me, but when he woke back up he a smile on his face.

He was so nice. It made me happy. I was so scared of losing a friend I hadn't even had for a day.

Rudy's just the coolest. Even when he had to leave for somewhere far away he taught me and his little siblings magic. Magic is amazing! Rudy says that if you use magic right then you can do anything. I asked him once if there was a spell to change my hair, and he said he'd look into it.

I tried asking him how his hair went white, but he immediately said he wouldn't let me do it. He said that your hair only goes white if you use enough magic to almost kill you, so he'd stop me if I almost got there. He even told me once that my magic is so strong I might be better than him one day. I don't think I can though. Rudy's to cool to be surpassed by someone like me.

*-Rudeus-*

It was so nice to finally be back in Buena. After four weeks in the capitol we were finally able to stay home. And this time I had all my friends with me. Kuroi, Pin, and Phoebe were our neighbors now, and Raion could get here in seconds if Yuki sent him an ice mirror. For the first time in four and a half years the Godkin were all together. Not counting the Perugius incident of course. Most of us were unconscious during that.

Roxy and I had been spending more and more time together. With her running out of things to teach me we knew that she'd be leaving soon. We agreed for her to save the cumulonimbus spell for the day after my birthday. It would be the last thing she teaches me. For now at least.

Roxy has also been spending a lot of time with Phoebe recently. They seem to have gotten fairly close now that Phoebe was right next door.

'Master. Request from the Milbotts region.'

'If you're contacting me it must be urgent what's wrong?'

I got a message from my puppet in the capitol.

'A request from a small village has reached us. Monsters have been attacking and they are requesting soldiers to help protect the villagers. The message was sent about three weeks ago.'

'If that's how long it's been then don't send some soldiers. I'll go deal with it.'

'Understood.'

I walked outside and saw Phoebe sitting in her gazebo sipping some tea. I hopped over to her.

"Howdy. Think I can get an ice mirror to the capitol?"

"I don't see why not. Is something wrong?"

Phoebe got up and summoned Yuki who made an ice mirror for my office.

"A town in the Milbotts region is under attack and it's unlikely that soldiers can get there in time, so I'm going over to save them. They are my people after all."

"If that's the case I'm coming too. It's been a while since I've gotten to stretch my legs. Besides as the fourth princess and blessed child they're my people too."

*-???-*

In a small town in the northern part of the Milbotts region of Asura. A monster outbreak was occurring. Beast after beast formed in the dense mana of the surrounding forests, and as the beasts fed on each other they mutated. Now that small town was being over run with monsters.

"Momma?! Papa?!"

I ran and ran, but I couldn't find my parents. Why haven't they sent soldiers? Where are the people meant to protect us?

I turned past a building and saw a giant tiger eating someone with its back turned to me. I turned back around and ran. All I did was run and eventually I saw my mom stuck under a fallen house and my dad holding a sword with a bunch of cuts on him. Around him were three big wolves with tails with stingers on the end of them. There was nothing like them in our monster book. I think dad called these mutations?

"Papa?"

Dad looked towards me with wide eyes as he shook his head. One of the wolves turned to me and the others turned to Papa. The wolf jumped at me and I closed my eyes and covered my face, but the wolf never hit me. I heard a stab and a slam. When I opened my eyes I saw a boy who looked to be a year older than myself.

He stabbed the wolf with a small sword. The wolf's head was rolling across the ground. How he cut through that wolf's head with a sword that small I don't know. Looking over I could see that the wolves that attacked my dad were both impaled with earth spikes.

A hand suddenly appeared in my vision. It was the boy's hand. A smile was present on his face as he looked at me. Glasses with black lenses stopped me from seeing his eyes.

"Are you okay? Hurt anywhere?"

"N-no. But my mom is stuck! Please help!"

I ran over to where my mom and dad was. My dad was looking at the boy confused as I ran over. He leaned down and pulled me into a hug.

I felt a sudden warmth and looked over. The boy had his hand held out and a mix of green and gold light was leaking from his hand. My dad's wounds instantly started healing. He stopped the spell and moved over to where my mom was.

He lifted his hand and the debris started floating up and got off of her. Her legs were smooshed really bad, and she was barely breathing.

He held out his hand and as the green and gold light spread across her my mom's legs returned to normal.

"Momma!"

Both me and my dad ran forward and hugged my mom. My dad suddenly shot up.

"The other monsters-"

"Don't worry about it. Their dead." The boy stated with a smile.

"It's a miracle your request reached us when it did. Phoebe and I came here as soon as we got it, and things could have been really bad if we were just a second later."

"Woohoo!"

A loud boom rang out from behind the boy as a girl with a simple dress covered in blood came crashing out of the sky.

"The names Rudeus Notos Greyrat. It's a pleasure to meet you."

With the Rudeus and Phoebe's help the village was deemed monster free, and all the damage was repaired in less than a day.

"Why didn't they send troops though. I'm confused as to why they'd send children here."

My dad offered to make them dinner since they saved my whole families life.

"About that. I'm guessing that news hasn't reached here yet. Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Rudeus Notos Greyrat, the new head of the Notos Greyrat family."

"Huh?! But your so young!"

"Haha! Trust me I know, but knowing that someone as despicable as my uncle was leading the Notos I took charge. Had he been in control when your request got to him he probably would have done nothing about it."

"I see. Then it seems I must thank you once again Sir Rudeus."

"Please just Rudeus is fine."

Phoebe wrapped her arm around Rudy's shoulder.

"Seems you can't escape the title of sir huh Thorn?"

"I know. But it's not that different for you. Is it your highness?"

Phoebe flinched as he made his statement in a mocking tone.

"Highness?"

"Yep you might not believe it but Phoebe is-"

Phoebe quickly covered his mouth.

"Nothing important! It's just a joke we like to- Don't lick me!"

Phoebe quickly took her hand back as Rudeus started laughing hysterically.

"After everything we've done licking your hand is crossing the line?"

"Wah I? Huh nah... ugh."

She fell into his chest as he started patting her head.

"Sorry. Guess I broke her. She just needs a minute. You know what I don't think I got your name."

"Oh my name is Sara. It's nice to meet you."

*-Rudeus-*

After eating dinner at Sara's Phoebe and I went back home. In total the only casualties from that attack was three of the village's militia.

Now I only had about one week until my fifth birthday. Basically all my time was spent with Roxy at this point. I made her a small bag that was bigger on the inside, and made a bunch of translated books from my old world for her to read. It took a while since I had to learn how to print ink onto the pages, get the translation right, and then read through it to make sure the book was right.

There was also an enchantment that let me send things to her bag, and I actually made another bag and paired the two together. This made the inside of the bag larger and made it so that the storage was shared between the two bags. This way if we wanted to give the other a gift then it was as simple as putting it in the bag and sending the person a message on their Kumu to check the bag.

Sylphie would be escorted to our house by Win every other day. She couldn't come every day since she still had to help out around her house, but I could still send her magic advice through Win and Yoko.

Kuroi and Pin have settled in nicely. Kuroi has taken up the job of delivery man, and flies around delivering packages and mail. He could even move carts at high speeds by summoning giant crows made of shadows to carry the cart in its feet. With his high speed delivery service he was making a pretty large sum of money. Since he could put all that work into a shadow clone, which yes they work like they do in Naruto, he often spends a lot of time at our house. Pin was actually learning a bunch of things from Lilia about cleaning and asked me if I could make her a body like I did for me and Phoebe.

Now that I actually knew the process to make one I had it done in less than two weeks. She looked basically the same, but her scars were gone and she had both her arms.

Raion, Mars, and Juno made an odd bunch of brothers. Juno was the other son of Philip and Hilda that was taken away. Juno was the oldest, then Mars, and then Raion. While Mars and Raion both had an interest in the sword Juno actually had an interest in magic. Juno was about 17 years old and Mars was 15 years old.

Mars started taking lessons under Ghislaine. Auber had duties in the capitol and had seen through the puppets we had in place. After that we upped the puppets' disguises. Mars said that Auber considered him to be advanced in the North God style. Ghislaine only knew Sword God style, but sometimes he'd spar with Paul if he ever came over.

Yawn. Man that was some good sleep. Looking down I saw a sight I was starting to get used to. Phoebe on my right and Roxy on my left. Unfortunately the day after tomorrow I'd be missing one of them, but I'm not going to force her to stay here out of my own selfish desires.

Phoebe stirred but remained asleep and Roxy remained as quiet as ever. Every now and again I'd catch her mumbling random bits of information in her sleep. Lectures, favorite food, those sorts of things. She currently had my hand in the usually position. With my shoulder in her chest with my hand being hugged by her legs.

_@-@_

"Mmmm. Five more minutes."

Roxy grumbled as she laid her head further into my neck.

"Don't wanna get up."

Phoebe was next as she put her hand over my chest and hugged me into the bed.

What is making them so tired today?

Either way they'd need to be getting up soon. I was using illusion magic to hide that they were in here, but if Paul or Mom saw that Roxy was gone from her room then they'd be worried. Lilia had already figured out that both Phoebe and Roxy would sometimes sneak into my room. I swear there was no hiding something from that women. She even managed to find a way into the house in the walls, and the only ones who should be able to get in there are me, Roxy, and Phoebe.

How she got in there without the magic key I don't know. What I do know is that she managed to find time in her schedule to clean it. It was very helpful, and I was very grateful.

Well one way or another if they didn't want up I wasn't gonna force them.

_@-@_

Now that we were finally up Phoebe went to her house via ice mirror and I made an illusion so Roxy could get to her room without being seen. I went downstairs and found Lilia making biscuits and white gravy. She's been loving her new cooking recipes any time I give her some, and this has been one of the ones she cooks most since I told her it was my favorite.

After breakfast Roxy took me outside and we went and got Sylphie.

"Happy birthday Rudy!"

She ran and hugged me as she opened the door.

"Thanks Sylphie. So what do you wanna do today?"

"Hmm. I dunno. What do you wanna do?"

We ended up playing tag for most of the day. At one point Roxy even joined us. Now we were all tired and we collapsed by my favorite tree. It sat on top of a hill and gave you a pretty good view of Buena. Right beside it was a large field of empty land where we could play and practice magic.

"Phew. That was fun, but I need to sit for a bit."

I plopped down and rested by the tree. Sylphie and Roxy both did the same. We were all panting as we rested. Shortly afterwards Lilia came by and gave us some sandwiches. Apparently it was already past lunch and she knew we didn't pack anything.

That night we had a small party to celebrate my birthday. Since it was bigger we actually held it in Phoebe's house so we could fit everyone. There was me, Sylphie, Roxy, Phoebe, Raion, Kuroi, Pin, Mom, Dad, Aurora, Cyrus, and Lilia. Eris, Raion, and Mars weren't able to make it, but there was always the other two celebrated birthdays.

Mom and Lilia had been working all day to make enough food, and we were able to have a proper feast that night. The food was truly delicious. Paul showed off his skills with swallowing swords after he got drunk. I'm pretty sure that his sword shouldn't scientifically be able to fit in his throat without cutting it open, but I just chocked it up to magic.

"Well I'd say it's time for presents." Paul said as he pulled out two swords. One large metal one, and a smaller wooden one.

"Since you've gotten a new body and stuff that means you should be able to actually use this now. Remember Rudy. It's always important for a man to have a sword in his heart..."

Paul then went on to give a long speech about how I should use the sword in my heart to protect the one's I care about all while nudging me and winking at Roxy and Phoebe, both of which were blushing quite a bit.

Eventually mom stopped since it seemed he'd never end his speech, and she gave me a large book.

"I had to pull some strings so I hope you'll like it. Inside is the incantations for advanced tier healing and detoxification spells, as well as beginner Barrier and Divine Strike spells."

"Thanks mom!"

I gave mom a hug as I felt my smile grow wider.

Lilia approached me next while holding a fairly large scarf. It was about as large as the one I had Yoko's Kumu take the shape of.

"Young master. I've noticed that ever since you made Yoko stronger that you have started wearing your scarf less and less. I hope that you may find this gift to your liking."

I took the scarf from Lilia and put it on. It was perfectly fluffy and fit snuggly.

"It's wonderful Lilia. Thank you."

I gave Lilia a small hug as Sylphie came next.

"U-um. This is from me. I made it with some of the magic you showed me so I hope you like it. I based it on a necklace my Papa wears sometimes."

Sylphie gave me a small stone necklace. Inside was a tiny purple amethyst. I could tell that it was made with Earth Magic since it was leaking some mana. I slipped the necklace on under the scarf. It poked out just enough so that you could see it under the scarf.

"Thank you Sylphie. I'll take good care of it."

"I'm afraid my gift hasn't gotten here yet, so I'll have to give it to you later."

"It's fine."

Phoebe's gift was late I guess, but I was just happy she was here. Her company is more than enough.

"Here. It's a necklace from my tribe. If you ever run into a demon and they start giving you trouble show this to them and they should leave you alone... Maybe."

Roxy handed me a pendant that looked like three interlocking spears. I put it on and the length of the necklace put it just under Sylphie's.

"Thank you Roxy. I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

Kuroi and Pin weren't aware about my birthday till it was too late so they also had to wait a bit until they could get me a gift.

After walking Sylphie home I got back and was a bit surprised to see Phoebe in the hallway. She pulled me forward and whispered into my ear.

"Shh. Follow me."

She pulled me with her and covered my eyes. She brought me into Roxy's room and turned me around.

"Your presents here. Now why don't you unwrap it?"

She uncovered my eyes and I was shocked to see Roxy heavily blushing on her bed with nothing but a ribbon to cover her private areas.

_@-@_

And that's Chapter 9. We've got a fight with one of the seven great powers, a coup, saved Sara's parents, and a party. As well as 3 spicy scenes hehe. Archive will be uploaded some time today, since I still have to write the spicy scenes. See y'all later!

(Had to edit chapter since I forgot Aurora and Cyrus in the party list.)