Everything around him was gray. The soon-to-be resurrected worldmage was floating in the realm between life and death. He estimated, that he floated there already for four days, but it could be even longer.

“Why does it take so long? I would have finished the ritual sooner. I am growing bored. Even playing “I spy with my little eye” is not as interesting as it was”, he thought, when he looked at the grayness around him.

To be honest, he still was doubting, if agreeing to the goddess‘ plea was a good idea. He had already done his part and yet he was asked to do more. Of course, he wanted to know about his origins, but was it good enough as a price for guarding the world for goddess knows how many years? If it would be for ten or so years, he would do it just to find out, where he came from, but what if it would be for about 200 years? Although he was curious about his origin, it was not to this extreme.

The young man had an unhappy expression on his face. He knew, that he would have to guard the world until he found a suitable apprentice. Then there is the problem with the church. Would they just let him do his work? Most likely not. He would clash with them without a doubt.

The only consolation the young man had, was the point, that he had 47 years until his seal will vanish. He estimated, that after ten or so years he will be once again an archmage of all eight elements, but until then he would need to start as a lowly magician. He would need to take one step at a time.

The young man sighed. Even with all these negative points, his choice was still resurrection. He just couldn’t say no to his teacher. He could say no to the goddess, he could watch the world go to hell and smile, but he could not do nothing when his teacher asked him.

All of a sudden he cried out in pain. His soul began to be forcefully pushed out of this place. The face of the young man was filled with anguish and pain as he was sucked back into the world of the living. His soul felt like it was pressed through a scorching hot needle ear. After a few moment, the soul disappeared and the gray space was empty once again.

…

Solana was standing with twenty-three other mages in a circle around a small pool of magic essence. Sweat was floating down her aged face. If one would compare her face with how it was three years ago, one would notice, that it had, even more wrinkles than before. Her eyes displayed an extreme fatigue, as she stared to the middle of the pool. Right in the middle of the transparent magic essence was a red drop of blood. All of the mages around the small pool were trying to form a body around this drop of blood. They were singing in the language of magic and drawing magic circles without a break. Solana started thinking about what happened.

They have killed the protector of the world and everything went apeshit. Chaos ruled everywhere in the world. At first, the heads of the three ancient mage families were sure they could quell the chaos and even get some benefits out of it, but they were proven the brutal reality really fast. At this moment everybody was trying to stop the descended apocalypse. Solana’s plan was an impossible one, but she had no others anymore. She gathered twenty-three mages, who were still on good terms with her and tried to resurrect the only one, who could bring the world back from the brink of destruction. The one, they killed.

The worldmage was dead for three years already, so it was technically impossible to resurrect him, but they tried it nevertheless. This entire plan could only be tried, because of this drop of blood she acquired. Although Solana was regarded as one of the most powerful and knowledgeable mages alive, she had no plans anymore, except this one. Solana shook her head and concentrated once again on the drop of blood.

Days passed. Every single one of the mages was dead tired, but not one of them stopped their singing and drawing of magic circles. Some of them like Solana had still some power left, some were still standing due to willpower and some cast a spell on themselves, which belonged to the category of torture, to keep themselves awake.

Suddenly the magic essence in the pool started to flow into the drop of blood. Everyone stopped casting and looked with hope at the drop of blood. Now it would be decided if their efforts were in vain or not. Slowly the one drop of blood split into two, then four, eight and so on. When enough blood drops concentrated in a single area, muscles, bones, and flesh started to manifest in that area and after that skin. This whole process repeated itself for two hours until a whole body was formed. In front of the mages sat  a naked young man submerged in the magic essence. Although half of the essence was absorbed by the drop of blood to recreate the body the other half still remained. The body remained motionless in the essence.

The twenty-four mages started to celebrate like mad. Some of them even started to cry out of happiness. They have managed to create a body using only one drop of blood. They managed to do the most difficult part and now they only needed to summon the soul, but this would need to wait until they rested. The mages went to their rooms to sleep.

The next day Solana was standing on a grass field. She was looking at the ritual hall, where she and her friend performed the ritual to build the body of the worldmage. Although she was staring at the hall one could see, that her gaze was unfocused and empty. Her thoughts were in a completely different place.

“Hey old girl, what are thinking about?”

Solana turned her old head around and saw a man, who looked even older than she did. If any person except those who knew him saw how he looked, they would stare at him in disbelief. That was because he had a gray robe and extremely long gray hair, with a gray beard so long, that it stretched to the ground. Because of all the hair, his face was completely covered by it. The only things not covered were his eyes and nose. Everybody who saw him would think, that he was someone, who didn’t care about his looks and they wouldn’t be very far off. This man was not overly concerned at how others looked at him and the only expectation are those belonging to his circle of friends and his family, but these people would not say anything for the simple reason because they respected the man and his eccentrics.

Solana smiled, when she saw the gray figure walking towards her. She had a very good relationship with the old man. Originally it was planned by their families, when both of them were just children, that the two of them would marry each other, but destiny had other plans. Both of them wanted to decide for themselves who they would marry, which led to a strong opposition from their families. The two of them were from one of the three great mage families and both of them were the children of the current leaders of their respective family. Their marriage was a way to cement the relationship between the two families. But then something happened, which gave them complete immunity. The old gray man opened his first gate of magic with just 14 years. Such a talent was completely unprecedented, even in one of the three mage families. This fact alone determined, that he would become the next head of his family. At the beginning, they still wanted to force him, but after two years Solana also opened her first gate of magic and both sides had to shut up completely. It was a simple fact, that Solana’s family did not want to give away such a talent to someone else. In the end, both went their separate ways but remained good friends.

The funniest thing about this whole ordeal was, that it was completely unnecessary because fifty years later their children married each other. Although it seemed like the opportunity to forge stronger bonds between the two families has passed, but it was not so. Mages had a completely different concept of time than others. A mage could live up to 160 years, so if an agreement fulfilled itself one generation later did not matter.

“Who are you calling an old girl, you sack of bones?”

Solana snapped back at him. Although they were considered old by the standards of normal humans, for mages they were only middle-aged.

The old man smiled at his old friend wordlessly and stopped right next to her. He also started looking at the hall.

“You’re thinking about little Celia, aren’t you?”

He asked in a concerned tone. He knew of Solana’s situation better than anyone else. Ever since she led the four-man group to kill the guardian of the world, she has been working nonstop. First, her family gave her the task to sort out the archives of the fallen guardian, although back then they were called “devils” archives.

The church wanted to destroy the biggest part of the archives, but in the end, they had to back down, because no matter how powerful they were and no matter how much support from the masses they had, they could not allow themselves a conflict with the three great mage families. Most of the mages in their mage squadrons were from these families and it was uncertain where their loyalty would be if the church would go against their families. On the other hand, the mage families could also not suppress the church because of its power, so the two of them remained in a stalemate. The two parties agreed, that the mage families would take the archives and half the other treasures, since they gave quite a few powerful mages to the church during the march against the “devil”, and the church would have the rights to claim, that the “devil” was slain mostly through their efforts and sacrifices.

After Solana worked for two months tirelessly she had sorted nearly the entire library of the devil. Although the library was gigantic, half of it was missing and the other half was more or less sorted in some sort of system, so it took only two months. After that…

The old man shook his head.

Solana just stared at the hall without answering for a while. After a few minutes, she started speaking in a tired voice.

“Can’t I? Beside you, she is the only family I have left.”

The old man sighed. Both their children were killed by a cult, which was at a bloody war against the church. Both his daughter and Solana’s son were part of a mage division in the church. Only their granddaughter Celia survived. Both he and Solana cared deeply about her, but they knew very well, that they could not protect her anymore. Their only hope was the body which was sitting in the magic essence in the hall before them. Both of them left chatting with each other about the current situation in the world.

The very next day all mages once again were standing around the pool of magic essence. But this time only one of them was drawing magic circles. This was now the spell to recall the soul back into the body. If the soul has reincarnated already it would be completely useless, but the mages in the room all knew, that the soul has not reincarnated. The protector of the world knew, what would happen, if he died. Would he choose to reincarnate into the world, where he had no chance of living a peaceful life?

Hours passed on and finally the spell of resurrection was finished. All the mages in the room looked with hope at the body within the pool, but absolutely nothing happened. Their old faces filled with despair and some even started to cry. This plan was their last hope. They knew very well, that the possibility of success was nonexistent, but they still hoped.

All of a sudden the pool of magic essence started to vibrate. All the mages stopped wailing and stared completely dumbfounded at the vibrating magic essence. Even if the resurrection succeeded they knew, that THIS should not happen. Solana stared at the face of the body they created, hoping that the vibration is a good sign. All of a sudden the vibration stopped. Everyone was staring at the pool not knowing what to do. Solana was still staring at the face of the body before her when the eyes of the body suddenly opened. Solana cried out in shock when the two eyes, one dark blue the other dark green, stared at her. The next moment the body started to move. All the mages in the room started cheering like mad. All of them believed, that the world had now a bit of hope. The resurrected young man slowly stood up from his sitting position. When the mages saw that they became quite at once wanting to see what will happen. As soon as the young man stood up he growled in an angry voice.

“Goddess-dammit! If I knew it would be so freaking painful I would have refused the resurrection right away!”

The young man started to move his body to test his mobility and looked around the room he was in. After noticing the obsessed gazes of the old mages around him he said discontent.

“I know that I’m good-looking, but I have no preference for old men and women, so I ask you politely to stop staring at me!”

The mages around him realized, that they are currently gazing at a naked young man and some of them started looking at the ceiling. Solana did not turn her gaze away and started saying in a humble voice.

“Great Worldmage we have resurrected you, because of very grave manner! We…”

“I know why you have resurrected me, or do you think, I’m as stupid as you are? Oh, I killed the protector of the world! Now everything will be bad! I must resurrect him!” The young man in the pool mocked. “I know better than anyone, what would have happened if you didn’t resurrect me. Now I know, you are respectable and powerful and all that, but I don’t give a damn. Now be quiet! I have to examine this body you created!”

Solana was taken aback. She was one of the most powerful mages in the world. She has not opened the fifth gate of magic, like the old gray man, but nonetheless she has opened the fourth gate and would in a few years at most open the fifth. She was used to being respected by all. She smiled bitterly but said nothing. She understood, that the young man in front of her had as much respect for her as he had for a moron. She was one of the people who killed him and with that, she threw the world into chaos. Did she deserve his respect? Probably not. She then listened to what the young man was saying.

“Hmm. Let’s test the elemental affinity of this body.” The young man took a bit of the magic essence and swallowed it. The mages cried out in panic. This was concentrated magic essence! If one drinks it just like that one would die a very painful death and all their effort would be destroyed. But as they looked on only astonishment plastered their faces. The young man continued talking as if nothing happened! “The affinity to darkness magic is low. I would only be able to open the second gate if I concentrate on it. Earth magic affinity is also low, but better than darkness. I think with a bit of luck the third gate will be possible. Now to water. Affinity is horrible. Even one gate is impossible…” As he was talking the mages all around him were in a state of shock. Is he analyzing the affinities of his body just like that? Normally one needs a specific ritual to determine the affinity for a specific element! The young man in front of them ignored the shocked gazes of the old people around him and continued to analyze himself. “Fire affinity is medium. The fourth gate is sure, but the fifth one will be difficult. Wind affinity is bad. The second gate at most. Light affinity is bad, but the third gate is possible. Space and void affinity are… none.” The young man finished his analysis and finally looked at the old mages around him. “Normally one would need mages of at least the sixth gate to create a body like you guys did, but I guess you just used quantity instead of quality. The affinities of this body are horrible, the feeling being inside of it also unpleasant and the talent of the body is worse than my real ones. Why didn’t you use my old body for resurrection?”

The mages around the young man knew not what to say and one of them barked in an angry voice.

“You could be a little more grateful to us! We pulled you back from the realm of the dead and you just complain like that! Do you even know who we are?”

The young man’s face became cold at once as he looked at the old mage. The person who spoke felt a cold run through its whole body.

“Listen well you sack of rotting bones. First, you resurrected me for your own goals, which are to prevent the world from going completely to hell. Second I was in paradise, so you idiots have pulled me out of heaven. Should I be grateful? Let my foot tell your butt how grateful it is. Third, you think just because you opened up the third gate in light and the fourth gate of water you are worthy of my respect? I think some of you idiots have examined my old body and the magic aura it gave off, so you should know my old level of power. You still think you can try to lecture me?” The young man hated nothing more than people who made themselves out as more than they were. This behavior was just like the one of the church, which he hated so much.

The old man who was rebuked was standing there with an open mouth, but could not say anything in his defense. Did they resurrect him because the wanted to do a good thing? No, they needed him so he could stop the apocalypse. And they even pulled him out of paradise. As for respect? Heck, he was one of the people who examined the guys old body. He knew better than anyone else, what monster the young man before him was.

The young man ignored him completely said.

“The body is bad and I need to open every single gate of magic once again, but I have 47 years of time. With the help of another worldmage, it would be easier, but I think when I am alone I would need… With the talent of this body... About 20 years to get to my old level. If I had even one drop of blood, from my old body then I would need only ten years.”

Solana’s face turned grave when she heard him. She took a deep breath and said with an apologizing voice.

“Lord worldmage…”

“Don’t call me that. The worldmage contract was fulfilled, when I died. At the moment I am nothing more, than a normal person. To become a worldmage once again I need to visit the mountain of oaths.”

Solana continued with a serene face.

“You have no 47 years. We broke the seal two years ago and unleashed the eaters upon the world.”

The young man’s face changed greatly when he heard this. At first, he stared at her, like he could not believe what he had heard. Then rage was visible on his face and in the end it turned completely serene.

“Tell me what happened. Now!” he demanded in an angry voice.

Solana sighed and started her tale.

After she sorted out the archives the church and the three great mage families have finally broken the seal on the door leading to the hall of the scar. In there they found the seal. They did not know what the seal was and of course, they did not believe what the worldmage said before his death. So they started experimenting with the seal. After a few months, they could break away a tiny bit of the seal. As soon as they did it a huge amount of extremely pure magic energy filled the entire hall. This occasion was the beginning of a small-scale war between the church and the mage families. Whoever could acquire this location and break the seal completely would become the absolutely supreme power of this world. If they could train the younger generation in this place, they could create mages of the fifth gate or even higher easily. The confrontation ended in a stalemate and both parties decided to share the location for some time. Of course, both powers had in mind to snatch it completely for themselves, but they realized, that they needed the power of the other to completely break the seal. So a year after the worldmage died they gathered their strongest mages and attempted to break the seal. The enormous amounts of magic energy which gushed from the hole were overwhelming. Everybody on the scene was in a euphoric state when the apocalypse started. All of a sudden the eaters came out of the scar. The mages tried to defend themselves, but for every eater, they killed ten new took its place. Half of the mages could flee, but the other half died.

At first, both parties thought they could bring the situation under their control, but they were proven the reality very fast. After only two years half the continent was already lost to the eaters. The church who advertised their victory against the devil was blamed by the population for the apocalypse and lost a lot of its power. The mage families suffered far too heavy casualties and were in a weakened state. Because many rulers were not competent enough to lead their people through such hard times, many kingdoms and empires fell apart. Dark cults came to power and people waged war against each other for the remaining resources on the continent.

When Solana finished talking the young man in front of her was just standing there for a few moment digesting the information he had been given. All of a sudden he looked to the ceiling and shouted like a madman.

“You fucking goddess-bitch! You tricked me! You never told that the world is already beyond saving! What is the point in letting me resurrect, when I am completely unable to do anything?”

The mages around the young man stared at him in shock. Unable to do anything? If even the guardian of the world is unable to do anything, what could they do? Despair filled their aged faces.

The young man had an annoyed expression on his face. All of a sudden he opened his mouth and asked.

“Is the Sulios Kingdom in the west still standing?”

Solana heard the hope in the voice of the young man before her and answered eagerly.

“Yes, it is still standing. It has remained quite peaceful and a lot of refugees seek asylum there.”

The young man said in a slow voice.

“Then we may have a bit of hope. I would have to desecrate a grave, but I there are no other options if I want to progress fast. Give me two weeks to adjust to this body and then I will leave. I’m a bit tired. Could anyone of you guys show me a place to sleep?”

Solana eagerly led him out of the hall. The other mages stood there without moving. Finally, another old woman looked at the old gray man and asked.

“Will we continue with our plan?”

The old gray man nodded and said.

“This guy is our only hope. Solana’s plan is a good one. I for my part will give him every piece of help I can.”

The other mages all gave their consent as they walked out of the hall. Soon except the old gray man, everybody was gone. The old man stared at the essence pool for a while before also started to leave the hall.

“He drank the magic essence just like that.” He mumbled. “Without opening any of the gates of magic he withstood it just like that. And people are saying, that I am the greatest magic talent in the world. Compared to this guy I’m a joke.”

Solana led the young man into an empty room, which had a table, a bed, and a closet.

The young man who was still completely naked asked Solana in an indifferent voice.

“I know, that you are not too happy with the following request, but could you get me a green robe?”

Solana was looking at the young man annoyed. As if she would be interested in a young boy like him. She has witnessed his annoying personality a bit when she and her friends killed him, but she had not enough time to accustom herself to it. She answered in an annoyed voice as she left the room.

“Sure. By the way, what’s your name?”

The young man did not turn around to answer her in one short word.

“Rild”

Solana stopped for a moment when she heard the name and then continued her way.

The young man fell on the bed and started mumbling.

“The situation is really bad. Teacher… forgive me, but I will have to desecrate your grave… Man, I seriously fell from paradise to hell.”

With these words, Rild fell asleep.