„What you mean? Why would there be a flaw in resurrecting you? Your body is not faulty in its current state, unlike your apprentice's! You just need to train once again, and there will be no problems!” Bez started shouting in an agitated state. He was unwilling to accept that the plan to resurrect his master had any problems.
Sen smiled as he looked at the flustered spirit and slowly shook his head.
Both Rild and Agatha made a dissatisfied face after thinking for a moment.
“Crap,” was the only thing Rild said.
Solana looked at the two of them, then at Sen, who was still waiting for an answer with a smile. Finally, she could not wait any longer and asked the question on everyone's mind.
“What exactly is the problem?”
Rild looked at Sen with a sad smile as he said.
“It does not matter. He is dying.”
After another few moments of silence, Solana once again had to ask for everyone since nobody wanted to break the depressing silence.
“Please explain. How can he be dying if we just resurrected him?”
Agatha sighed as she looked at her still grinning son, who was sitting in his coffin.
“He is old. He died of old age. One can not reverse aging, not even as a seventh gate mage. It is one of the unbreakable laws of nature. I resurrected him right now, but his body can simply no longer hold on. Once the rest of my resurrection magic leaves his body in a few days... he will die,” she said with a grim voice.
Sen's smile grew wider when she said this. He finally started to get out of the coffin.
“Correct and not at the same time. While I am just a walking corpse right now and will die in a few days, it is incorrect that it is impossible to reverse aging. You just need to open the seventh gate of light, water, and space. After that, you just rejuvenate the body with a combination of all three elements. Light and water in order to rejuvenate the body and space to reverse time. Not all is bad, though. We,” he pointed at his mother, Bez, and finally Rild, “we, and we, each need to have a talk!”
The previous worldmage finally got out of his coffin and started to stretch his legs.
“I am hungry. Bez, what is for dinner today?”
Bez immediately wake up from his stupor and smiled as he answered
“Mashed potatoes with beef.”
Agatha could not help but smile when she heard that. Sen was never a gourmet and liked pretty common food. Mashed potatoes with beef were his favorite meal as a child. It seemed like he has not changed very much in that regard.
“I will help cooking,” said Agatha as she walked behind Bez to the staircase.
“Wonderful! I will take a quick bath before the food is ready. I feel like I was lying in that coffin for years,” said Sen as he started slowly walking towards the staircase. After a few steps, he got used to his body and accelerated his speed by a little. The remaining people in the cellar looked uneasy at each other. Since Sen would die in a few days, they probably had to return to the previous plan of tailing behind Rild and help him grow stronger. In truth, they were hoping that Sen would become the worldmage once more because Rild was insufferable in the long run. Alas, fate had different plans.
“So did we gain anything from this? Or was it all for nothing?” asked Fai.
Rild shook his head and also started walking towards the staircase.
“Oh, we did gain quite a lot. With him living, even if only for a few days, we now have quite a lot more resources to play with. Even if he forgot most of the spatial location, I am sure he still remembers the most important ones, like some leyline intersections, and most importantly, his realm. All that was unavailable to us, but now, he simply has to record them, and once I have opened a few gates of space, I will be able to open the gates to those locations.”
None of the others knew what Rild was talking about. They did not worry though, since he seemed in a good mood. They assumed that it was something valuable. The group did not ask further and also started walking towards the staircase. They would have more than enough time to ask questions on the road.

–
“So let me get this straight. You want me to teach you while we are here? Do you even realize how stupid your request is?” asked Agatha while she sipped a cup of tea. She wore a displeased look on her face as she looked at Tyler, who was sitting across her. “While the others do not know about who you are, I am more than aware of your origin. Do not forget that I am the archon who is known as the archenemy of the church. While the church hid the truth because they did not want the people to know that the mage families have someone who could kill the vice leader of their invincible paladins, the fact that I did it still stands. And with your origin, “ she looked at the priest with a raised eyebrow, “you should know it. I killed Hendrick, and the great artifact we fought for went straight into the vault of the mage families. That alone should summarize my relationship with your church. And now you want me to teach you my signature technique so you can take it straight to your church?”
Tyler's face did not change when Agatha rebuked him. He knew he was asking for something quite preposterous, but he could not help it. While Agatha may not be the strongest light mage in the world, she was undoubtedly the strongest light mage who specialized in fighting. In addition to that, just like him, she was a mage blessed by the goddess who specialized in light and water. In truth, she would be the perfect teacher for Tyler, even though he walked the path of a healer.
“Yes. I will travel with Rild. We will most likely be fighting eaters, so I need to be able to fight too. Your light infusion can be both used to heal and attack, so I need to learn it to be at my best,” the priest answered in a calm. “you should know that I am no longer welcome in the church, so...”
"What does it matter? You just need to go to your father, and you will be welcome once more. Even if you do not do that, you could still give them the knowledge. You still consider yourself a member, or else you would not be wearing this." Agatha waved her free hand at his priest robe. "As it is now, I can not trust you. And besides, you do realize that you are practically not needed anymore, do you? I can take your place in the group. While I am specialized in fighting, I am still an exceptional user of healing magic."
“You will not take my place because you will be preoccupied with another matter.”
“And what would that be?”
Tyler was silent for a moment before he started talking after a sigh.
“Lord Andrew and lord Matthew were secretly ordered to the Pallion empire. Archbishop Victor was also sent there, but he is traveling officially and not secretly to strengthen the relationship with the imperial family. They all have the same goal, which is unknown to me. I think this information proves that I will not return to the church anymore.”
Agatha stopped just as she wanted to take another sip of tea. She looked incredulously at Tyler.
“You do realize that by giving me this information, you are completely betraying the church? Before this moment, you could have returned, but now if they found out you told me this, you will be immediately killed off. And they will find out. If you travel with Solana, who is a famous high ranked mage of the mage families, they will know where I got that information from once I start disrupting their plans.”
“It does not matter. I can not return to the church anyway.”
“Well, well, well... Why are two paladins and one archbishop at the most powerful empire in the north? What are they planning?” Agatha asked herself aloud. She closed her eyes and started thinking. ”No matter what it is, I better drag Zestrum out of his chamber and go annoy them. We will begin your training in the evening. Now go. I need to think some things through.”
Tyler wordlessly stood up and left the room. Once he closed the door he heaved a long sigh. For a moment, a ferocious glint appeared in his eyes.
“I am sorry father, but this is the path I have chosen. I intend to fully support Rild to the very end. Once he is strong enough, I will use him to achieve my goal. I will not need to try very hard for that,” whispered Tyler to himself as he stepped away from the door.

–
“How very, very unexpected. I thought they would resurrect you by using your old body, but this is not something one would anticipate. Your current body is made out of magic now? That should be impossible, and yet here you are. I would like to explore this phenomenon more closely, but alas... So, what are your plans after you absorb my body to recreate yours to a better state?” asked Sen as he scribbled complex circles, diagrams and coordinated upon a stack of paper. His quill danced across the paper at an astonishing speed, without committing any mistakes.
“I do not know to be honest. I wanted to stay here and train a little, but I do not think Bez would approve of that after I desecrate your corpse,” answered Rild.
Teacher and apprentice were sitting side by side at a large table in the study of the mansion.
“What if you do not desecrate my body?”
“You have another option other than me using your body's energy in order to rebuild mine into something more useful?”
“No, but we can do it while I am still alive. You do realize that my soul is only slightly weaker than yours, don't you? I can help you guide the energy once my body dissolves, and then I will just pass on once again.”
“That would help me, but I do not think it will make a difference. Bez worships you and me absorbing your body is just something he does not want to see.”
“That that is his problem, not yours. I have willed this mansion to you and not him, so you can stay here if you want and not care about his opinion. For now, let us discuss a few things which could help you,” Sen finished writing, took six specific pages he just wrote and tossed them to Rild. The young mage caught the pages and glanced over them.
“Well, you did not need the first two. I still know the spatial coordinates of the castles and the mountain of oaths. The fourth should be the entrance to your realm, and the fifth is Rezalak. Why would I want to go there in the near future? They still need to build their fleet before they are of any use to me. What is the sixth? That is... South? It should be on the very edge of the Silent Mountains. What is there?”
“An abandoned mine. It does not go deep into the Silent mountains, so one will still be able to use magic in there.”
“Why would I want to go there?”
“Because I left something there when I was exploring it. It would be useless to you if you were at the height of your power. Unfortunately, you are not at the height of your power.”
“What exactly did you leave there?”
“A shadow ring.”
Rild raised his brows when he heard that.
“Really? Why would you leave something like this there? It is still a lesser artifact. Even if it is not a very powerful one and becomes useless once a mage opens the fourth gate of darkness, it is still an artifact!”
“Did you even read the book I wrote for you before my death? The one where I describe my findings in the world? The places of magic, the magic crystal mines, different anomalies?”
“In all honesty, I thought it was one more attempt to get me interested in the world, so I did not touch the book. If I knew you described something like this in the book, I would have read it.”
Sen sighed and looked annoyed at this apprentice. In the end, he decided not to berate him and just answered the question.
“I found a realm there. It was moving around, so I used the ring as a beacon order to get in there once I would be strong enough.”
“Wait, you found a realm? Why have you not told me anything about it? That is some major discovery! I suppose it was a realm of darkness since you used a shadow ring to create a beacon, so I would have needed to open at least the sixth gate of darkness to make full use of it, but it could have happened!”
“I did. In the book, I left you. The one you did not read,” answered Sen with annoyance in his voice.
“Right. It should be in my room. I will be sure to take it with me when I leave the house. By the way, I found out something about the lost artifact.
“The golden blood of the fairy royal family? I suppose it is that since you are traveling with one.”
“How did you know? Why did you not... Let me guess it is in the book.”
“Yes, it is. If I remember correctly, I wrote a page or two about it. While it was interesting to research, I did not deem it overly important since we worldmages managed without it for thousands of years. If you are interested, you can search for it, but I think you have more pressing concerns at the moment. Maybe after you saved the world and trained an apprentice. By the way. I have something to tell you. Something quite important. When you were resurrected, I went and visited the 37th worldmage in order to ask him about the second eater invasion.”
“Herbert Nordinger? The guy who sacrificed himself in order to give his apprentice the time to recreate the seal?”
“Yes. And he told me something unexpected. He told me that the seal we protected did not break when the invasion began, but after. ”
“Then how did the eaters... Wait. The seal WE were protecting? There is another one?” asked Rild incredulously
“Or at least there was. Nordingers apprentice tracked down the origin of the invasion once he repaired our seal. There was nothing.”
“Maybe he was wrong? A different place?”
“He is sure it was the right place. Nordinger told me something else. This eater Invasion is far stronger than the last. They are far too fast this time. It is as if the last time they just stumbled upon an entrance and were not prepared to attack the world, which gave it time to prepare and strike back, but this time...
“They knew exactly when the seal would be broken, and were prepared for a full-scale invasion.” finished Rild with a grave voice. “There is something I must tell you. When I was traveling to Sandaras...”
Rild recounted his encounter with the single eater and the one who took control of it when it was dying.
“So they are the servants of a higher power. Many worldmages had this theory, but now we know for sure. It seems this time the one behind them has taken full control of the invasion. This time it is simply far too organized. Your mission just got way more difficult”
“I know. That is why I forced the mage families to build a fleet to leave the continent. If it were the same stupid eaters, I would just slowly train while the rest of the continent acts like a meat shield. But now... I need more time.”
“So you are abandoning this continent? I am not approving of this, but desperate times require desperate measures. You are this generation's worldmage, so it is your decision on how to proceed. Just be careful. Nobody knows what is on the other continent. If it were not for those refugees three thousand years ago, we would not even know about its existence. No explorations around the continent ever gave any new discoveries. And the books tell that the refugees sailed for... four years.”
“Yes, I read about it. But I find it hard to believe. While we do not know how big the world is, and it is entirely possible for it to be big enough to sail for four straight years, I do not think it is possible to do so.”
“And yet you are trying to do so. Is it not this specific reason why you have chosen the mage families for this task? Because in your opinion, only a ton of mages can make such a journey. Earth mages to grow food, water mages to filter water, wind mages to keep the wind blowing into the sails, fire mages for warmth?”
“True, while I have chosen the mage families specifically because of this reason, the refugees back then were not mages, if I remember correctly. I am interested in how they supposedly managed to survive such a long sea journey without mages. I do not believe it is possible.”
“The archives of that time pretty much tell how that was possible. The secret lied in the ships.”
“The ships? Were they somehow magically enchanted?”
“No. There was absolutely nothing magical about those ships, but they were technologically far more advanced than the people of that time have seen.”
“Hmm... In that case, it is probably still more advanced than what we have today because even with today's technology, I do not see a possibility to undertake such a journey without magic.”
“You are too reliant on magic, Rild. I wonder where those ships are now. There was no mention of them after that, but I do no believe that they were simply destroyed for materials. They have to be somewhere. There is another thing. Those refugees were different somehow.”
“How? Different skin color?”
“I do not know. It was only written that they were different.”
“Damn. I hope to find something out about the other continent. Once I return from there to recreate the seal. I will write a detailed report about it for future generations.”
“You will probably only return once you have already opened the sixth or even the seventh gate of space. In that case, you could just create a space gate to connect those two.”
“It is not that easy to open the sixth gate of space or void. The difficulty is completely incomparable with the other gates. You have opened the seventh gate of earth and later water and the sixth gate of fire. While you reached the fifth gate of space and void relatively early, you had nearly no progress at them afterward. The same goes for me. Once I reached the fifth gate, it was like the element changed completely, and I could no longer understand it. I could not even attempt to understand it.”
“Yes it is as if a perfectly normal book suddenly becomes gibberish in a different language, but it is possible to progress further. We have records about worldmages who managed to open it. One of them even managed to open the seventh gate and leave behind a realm! It could help one understand space more clearly!”
“You mean Maurice Dran? The guy who put his realm literally 50 km under the earth? You remember that he did not place a beacon we could use to get there since he simply no longer needed those things. While that realm is certainly something extraordinary, it is completely useless since we do not even know where exactly 50km under the earth it is. It could be anywhere.”
“You are right. I always found it quite strange that he did not leave behind any coordinates. Well, he is described as extremely eccentric by both his teacher and apprentice. If I remember correctly, he was obsessed with uneven numbers for some reason. When he needed to cast two spells for something, he always cast some useless spell after that to make it three.”
Teacher and apprentice continue their talk till nightfall.

–
“I suppose you have questions,” said Sen looking at his mother sitting in front of him.
Agatha just smiled as she continues to gaze at her long-lost son. Finally, after some time, she asked the question which was haunting her since she found out that he did not die so long ago.
“Were you happy with your choice and life?”
Sen closed his eyes for a moment before answering. He remembered how his teacher taught him the knowledge required to become the worldmage, and he remembered his teacher's passing due to a failed experiment. Back then, he already was trained enough to take over as the worldmage. Although he could not recreate the great sealing circle back then, he could maintain it without any problems. Sen thought back on how he read the archives of the worldmages and traveled across the world to study different magical phenomena. How many people did he meet back then? Some became friends, and others became enemies. He remembered how he picked up his apprentice from the streets and how he taught him. Finally, he died.
“Yes, I was. I have regrets, and I would do some things differently, but I would become the worldmage once more if I had the choice. I would walk the same path,” he finally said after a while.
Agatha nodded and closed her eyes with a smile.
“That is the most important thing for me. So tell me, how is it, being the most feared and mysterious person alive? What was your everyday life as a worldmage?”
“Not much different than that of a normal mage to be honest. The training is more extreme, but it is something most of the worldmages enjoy. Although it is not a requirement to enjoy the tortures of opening the sixth and seventh gates of magic, it certainly does help.”
“Enjoying it? I am feeling this pain to a lesser extent every second of my life because I opened the sixth gate of light with the help of my mantle, and I can tell you I am not enjoying any of it!”
“What we enjoy is the feeling of progress. Every second of pain we endure to purify the magic essence of the element we train in at that moment brings us closer to open that gate. We nearly obsess about that feeling. We worldmages are the most powerful mages because we love that feeling of progress far more than we fear the pain. The main requirement for becoming a worldmage is a soul strong enough to be sliced into eight parts, but if the mage is not willing to make full use of that, then what use is he as the guardian of the world? The guardian has to be the strongest in the world, or at least strive to be it.”
“I think you overestimate your order a bit. Your apprentice was not that strong since he was killed so easily.”
“Mother, you really do not want to acknowledge that your mage families are not the most powerful force of magic on the continent, do you? Do you think that the numbers you possess are enough to defeat a full-fledged worldmage? What do you think would have happened to that attack if you attacked 20 years later? At that time, he would probably at least have opened the seventh gate of fire, darkness, and probably earth. In that case, you would have to contest against someone who can literally summon a sea of comets crashing down upon you. Not one, not two, not even 50. No, they will come and come and come without any breaks. THAT is the power of someone who opened the seventh gate. The only thing that can stand against someone who opened the seventh gate of magic is someone else who did the same.
And that is not even the full force of what you would have to fight against. The spirit you fought when you came here? Rild inherited his contract from me. And like I said, since Rild would have opened the seventh gate of earth, that spirit would be at his full strength. Have you ever seen a mountain trying to murder you? A literal mountain made out of nearly indestructible stone moving at a breathtaking speed towards you. Then there is the fire spirit Rild had a contracted. That one would probably also evolve into a lord of fire by then. So imagine a gigantic flaming eagle just puking molten fire upon your armies. And that would have been your best-case scenario. Because if he found an apprentice by then... Well, it would be the same if you attacked a few years before you did. In that case, I would be alive to battle you with him backing me up. He would not be that strong at that point in time, but he could control the ancient magic circles in the castle to create major headaches for your armies.
You know exactly what kind of knowledge and secrets we possess. Is not why you have not asked yet, why I did not return after becoming the worldmage?”
Agatha frowned as she listened to her son. At the end of his speech, she silently sighed.
“In the end, you are right. It is just a bit hard to accept. I have tolled my entire life to make the mage families the strongest force in the world. To protect them and ensure their supremacy in magic across the entire world. Your whole life, you believe that you are part of the most powerful magical family. Then you realize your family would not even be considered a serious enemy by someone who used to be the bogeyman of the world. We knew that you 'devils' existed, but did we ever think that you are stronger than us? No, just more mysterious and more hidden.
It seems that in the end, our mage families are destined to die because of our pride. We managed to attack that boy exactly, at that moment when you were dead, but he still had, to fully develop his potential power. Would we have attacked any sooner or later, then we and the church would have been annihilated. Now we are being annihilated by some monstrosities from beyond this world which we managed to unleash BECAUSE we managed to attack at the right time.”
Sen saw, that his mother was quite depressed when she thought about it. For some reason, she firmly believed that the mage families were finished for good.
“Not all is lost yet. Rild is currently...”
“Do you think I do not realize what he is planning? Neln came with the plan to me, Sen. I am not stupid. Do you think we are part of his plans because he cares for us? We are in his plan because we are the perfect meat shield for him. Just dangle a bit of ancient knowledge before our noses, and we are ready to jump off the cliff. He is feeding us bits of knowledge and power to fatten us up. And once we are fat enough, he will throw us at the eaters to buy time for himself to restore that damned seal. And the worst part is, we can do nothing about it because of Velin and myself! Two of the three archons are standing behind him and his plan. I will support him simply because he is your apprentice, and I honestly do not see a better solution, and Velin will support his grandson, who is on Rild's side. The poor boy probably thinks he will be able to control your apprentice and make a big profit for the mage families. Just follow his plan to run away and take all the knowledge he will give us. And once the eaters are defeated, we would be powerful enough to rebuild the mage families even more powerful than they were. Neln's plan has one monstrously big flaw. He is putting Rild into the same category as the young prodigies of our families because of his age. But let us be honest: Do you think your apprentice can be controlled? Can someone who suffered the opening of the sixth gate before turning 20 truly be that easy to control? Most young men at his age are trying to get into the pants of the next best girl. Even if they were as talented as him, do you think they would subject themselves to that torture? Even among the old and wizened ones, only the most determined, loyal, and mentally strong choose to open the sixth gate with the help of one of the great artifacts. The number of archons never exceeds five, but theoretically, every mage who opened the fifth gate could undergo the needed ritual to become one. Most try but interrupt the ritual once they feel the pain and then never consider it again. And that pain is lesser than the one endured to open the sixth gate in the right way. Your apprentice is a monster, Sen, and in all honesty, I am afraid a bit of what will happen once we outlive our usefulness to him. He very well may simply extinguish us in order to keep the knowledge he gifted us to himself. You just said that it is impossible to defeat someone, who opened the seventh gate of magic, without having done the same and with your apprentice's talent, I am sure that by the time he starts his offensive against the eaters, he will have opened at least one of the elements seventh gate. With his rate, if magical absorption, the biggest hurdle for him will be the purification and the pain associated with it, but he has already proven that it is merely a formality for him.
By following his plans, we are strapping a bomb to ourselves. In the end, we would have only one card we could play against him to protect ourselves, and I honestly do not know if that card will be enough.”
Sen sat listened silently to his mother. Once she finished talking, he sighed and looked with pity at her. He wanted to lay her fears to rest, but he could not. He knew that what she said was true. While Rild would not kill the mage families for the knowledge he had already given them, Sen did not know how the situation will unfold. If during their preparations to storm the old worldmage castle, it was required to gift some of the more secret knowledge to the mage families, Rild could really kill them off in the end, to preserve the secrets of the worldmages.
“If you are so concerned about it, why are willing to follow his plans at all?” he asked his mother.
“Because there is no other option. I fought the eaters and know that in the end, we will have to flee. Kill one and two more take their place. While they are weak against magic, they are incredibly fast and agile. Mages will have to be protected by a meat wall at all times to be able to chant and draw magic circles. Sure there are those who opened the fifth gate of magic, but even in our mage families, their number does not exceed 40. And from what I read in your archives, that is only the most basic eater variant. Soon the more dangerous ones will appear.”
Sen was silent for quite some time. He heavily sighed before answering.
“Although I do not want to harm my apprentice, I may have a plan on how to control him. It will benefit both sides of this dilemma. First, you need...”
–

It was morning when a gray-robed mage entered the garden of the mansion heavily panting. Bez immediately appeared before the new intruder and furrowed his brows when he looked at him. It was obvious, the newcomer was the awaited Neln. But he looked completely different from how Solana described him. His supposedly neatly kept beard, and long hair was disheveled and dirty, while his robe had a few holes.
“Sir, are you Neln of the mage families?”
The gray mage nodded silently.
“Very well, please follow me. You will be able to rest inside

the house. I will warm up a bath for you, and I am sure we will find a replacement robe.”
“No... I ran that fast because I need to talk to the others as soon as possible,” Neln said hurriedly. “While I was making my way here, I stumbled across a new species of eater! The second wave of the invasion has started!”