As soon as the group entered the garden Rild collapsed on the floor. The rest of the group except for Solana and Reston fared only minimally better. Solana hardened her body with earth magic so she did feel the increase in gravity the least. Reston could stand albeit a bit shaky. Fai needed most of her strength not fall down but she too could move. Tyler was on all fours but could crawl forward if he extended a bit of strength.

“Why can't I use my earth magic to help you guys?” asked Solana as she tried to draw a magic circle. For some reason, she could not bring her magic into motion.

“Remember how hard it was to cast spells in the eight-element valley when you attacked my palace? Same principle but way stronger” panted Rild from the ground. The young worldmage used all his strength to get on all fours.

“You mean the entire place has been filled with earth element magic and it suppresses all other elements?” asked the old mage.

“Yes and no. It's the same thing you mean but on a different level. The technique you mean is just to overflow an area with a specific element in order to make it the dominating one so one will only be able to use that specific element without complications. Well, here it is nearly the same but additionally to that the elemental essence of the earth element is purified since my teacher surpassed the fifth gate of earth. If you want to cast any earth spells outside your body without any intervention you would need at least the same purity of the given element, that the creator of the area possesses.”

By now Rild managed to stand up by using his wooden staff as a help. His whole body was shaking as he started to do small steps forward. It was more like he dragged himself forward bit by bit. The young worldmage could literally feel most of his blood in his feet.

“So basically you are saying that I need to open the sixth gate of magic in order to be able to cast earth magic on you without constraints?”

“No. What I'm saying is that you need to open the seventh gate of magic in order to be able to cast earth magic on us without constraints” answered Rild as he made his way across the garden.

“So his teacher opened the seventh gate of earth,” muttered Solana for herself with a tinge of respect. 

Since it was still dark they could not see very well as they progressed through the garden full of flowers. When the group was halfway through the garden the scenery around it changed drastically.

“Looks like it moved again. Well it will be fun to search for our wagon and the horse,” said Fai. By now she managed to adjust herself to the gravity and was walking more or less stable. None of the others replied to her as they continued to push themselves forward. After a while, they finally reached the entrance of the mansion. Just as they wanted to start celebrating they heard clapping.

'CLAP''CLAP''CLAP'

“Dammit!” cursed Rild out loud “He is still here.”

In front of the door stood a tanned brown-haired child. It was a boy of around eight years give or take one year.

“Well, you managed to crawl through the garden. Congratulations! Now you only have to get through me. Then you can go play with the things inside the house. Shall we start?”

The child smiled radiantly and knocked his small fists against each other.

“A child? Why is a child here?” Reston was surprised when he looked at the small figure walking towards them.

“Don't be fooled! It's an earth spirit! An evil one at that!” warned Rild the rest.

“Who exactly are you calling evil? I protected the mansion even after your teacher died. I even kept protecting it after YOU died! I have fulfilled my contract about six years ago and yet I kept protecting this place!” the spirit seemed rather annoyed at Rild for calling him evil. The little boy walked up to the young mage and looked up to him. Before Rild could do anything the spirit extended his hand and snatched Rild's staff.

Without the help of his staff, Rild could no longer stand and once again crashed to the ground. Rild felt a tinge of pain when he crashed down wuth the force 2,5 times the normal gravity.

“Heh. Well, this one is out. Let's get to the next one.”

The spirit walked towards Tyler with Rild's staff which was more than double his height.

“Hmm. A priest. My original master had nothing personal against you. You were just a corrupt element in a corrupt organization for him. But my second master REALLY hated you guys,”

For a moment the spirits grinning face changed to confusion as he looked at Rild who was still laying on the ground.”Or still hates you? Well, he is not my master any longer since he died... but he is alive again. Eh. Doesn't matter anyway.”

Tyler could only helplessly look at the staff coming towards his head from above.

'CLANK'

Tyler tried to evade the staff but the increased gravity made it completely impossible for him to do so. When the staff connected to his head he lost his consciousness immediately. As Tyler was falling down the childlike spirit casually lifted the staff about his head with one hand. The next moment a sword clashed against it.

“Oh my. Attacking a child like this. What a brutal man you are!” spoke the spirit in a playful tone to Reston who was behind him.

Reston did not answer but raised his sword for another strike. It was obvious that the increased gravity slowed him down. The spirit turned around and smiled at the knight. Before Reston could strike for a second time the spirit jabbed Rild's staff into the knight's solar plexus.

“And you young lady should not sneak up to people from behind.”

The childlike spirit extended his empty hand behind him and caught Fai's sword which was aimed for his neck.

“It won't do you any good anyway,” said the spirit still smiling.

Fai looked into the child's eyes and also started to smile.

“Are you sure about this?”

The next moment Fai burst into black flames. Her entire body was cloaked in a black fire which in the next moment extended to her sword. In just a moment the black flames reached the spirit's hand.

“Yeah, pretty much,” answered the spirit nonchalantly as he completely ignored the black flames. “Time to sleep, young lady.” The spirit lifted the staff and took a swing at Fai's head. Just before it could connect, Fai let go of her sword and rolled back.

“Impressive even under such gravity you can make such movements. How long will your strength hold up until you are too exhausted to move?”

The spirit started to walk towards the fairy after he closed his fist and shattered the sword in it. Just as he made the first step a sword came from behind him. The spirit did not seem to notice it as he walked towards Fai. In one moment the sword connected to his head. The group heard a shattering noise when that happened.

“It's impressive you can even stand after my hit,” said the spirit to Reston who now held the pommel of a shattered sword in his hand.”Not even to speak about the fact that under such conditions you can use enough strength to shatter a sword. It didn't even scratch me, but still.”

The next moment the smile from the spirit's face disappeared.

“Alright enough playtime. Into the hole with you.”

Before Fai or Reston could react a hole appeared under their feet. Because of the increased gravity they had a very painful fall. None of them crawled out of the hole.

The spirit finally turned to the last person standing who was Solana who could only watch all of this unfold since she could not use any magic at the moment.

“I do not have a hobby of hurting old women. Would please lay down on your own?” the spirit said and smiled once again.

Solana just hopelessly looked at the rest of the group. Rild was laying on the ground and could not get up, Tyler lost consciousness, and Fai and Reston were stuck in their respective holes without the possibility to get out due to the increased gravity. The culprit of all this, a childlike spirit, just stood in the middle of all this and smiled at her. 

The old mage sighed and lay down on her own knowing full well, that she would not be able to defeat the spirit since she could not use any magic outside her body.

“Well looks like I won. Now, what shall I do with the intruders? Well, you will end up as fertilizer anyway.”

At this moment Rild finally managed to get once again on all fours. The young worldmage shot a glare at the spirit and hissed through his teeth.

“Cut it out already. If you wanted us dead you would have killed us the moment we entered the garden. Hell, we wouldn't even be able to enter it if you didn't want us in here. You had your fun, now stop this stupidity.”

The spirit's smile disappeared as he looked at Rild.

“Killjoy,” was the only thing he said to that. The next moment the group felt the gravity disappear.

“Wait, does that mean that all of that was for nothing?” shouted the fairy from her hole.

“Not entirely. Tyler got smacked into unconsciousness, so that's a positive,” answered Rild who finally managed to stand up again without the help of his staff. “Bez, could you get the two out of the holes?”

The spirit did not seem to do anything but the ground in the holes started to rise and after a few moments, Fai and Reston appeared on the surface.

“Oh dear. Looks like the brutal man who likes to attack children fainted in the end,” said the spirit named Bez when he looked at Reston lying on the ground.

“No wonder about that. The child that he attacked punched him into the solar plexus with my staff and then let him fall down a hole under the effect of two and a half times the normal gravity. Speaking of which, can I get back my staff?”

The spirit looked at the staff for a moment before he threw it back to Rild, which the latter mentioned only barely caught.

“I think after the workout you all could use a rest. I kept the rooms clean. You can use nearly any room you like. Master Sen's and master Rild's rooms are off-limit... Except for you of course,” he nodded at Rild. “We will talk after that. And yes I know exactly why you are here and no I'm not happy about it.” With these words, the spirit just disappeared.

Rild just looked at the spot the spirit disappeared from without saying anything.

“Rild why did the spirit attack us when he was planning on letting us do what we came here for anyway?” asked Solana as she tried to get Tyler to wake up.

“Didn't you hear him? He knows we came for the corpse of my teacher. And he doesn't like it. Him beating us up was our payment for it,” said Rild “Whatever. It's over now.”

Rild walked over to the still unconscious priest and took one of his arms. The young mage started to drag Tyler towards the door of the mansion

“You're helping a priest? As far as I remember you were not smacked on the head like him,” asked Fai the worldmage in a bit suspicious tone.

“Well we can't leave them here just lying around and I'm too weak to even move Reston, so I have to take Tyler.”

Fai nodded and went to Reston in order to also drag him inside.

“Leave him to me Fai. Since I don't need to combat the gravity anymore, I can use my strength to take him,” said Solana. The old mage just walked up to Reston and put on her shoulder like he was not a grown-up fully trained knight, but a sack of dirty laundry.

Fai and Solana followed Rild inside

 

Rild was laying on his back in the bed of his room when he heard the knock on his door.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Tyler entered the room. The priest took a moment to look around. The room was far more luxurious than the ones the other's got. There was a table with two chairs in one corner, a violet carpet filled out the complete floor and all the walls, except for a small wardrobe, were completely covered in bookcases made out of black wood and filled to the brim with books. Even the bed looked pretty well made. There was even a door to a veranda.

“Did you get such a luxurious room, because you are the defacto owner of the house?”

Tyler looked at Rild and noticed, that the young mage was wearing a different robe. It was still green, but Tyler could see that the materials the robe was made of were far better than the one he was wearing before. Additionally, to that, there were pretty artistic patterns on it.

“Is the priest jealous, that he did not get the most luxurious room in the mansion?” asked Rild in a mocking tone.

“I was just making small talk.”

“Well, the room is just more 'luxurious' because it's my room. I literally lived here so I filled it with things I enjoy. The other rooms are guest rooms which were never used because you know, we worldmages do not have a lot of friends who come to visit.”

“And the new robe?”

“One of my old ones.”

Tyler looked at the books encompassing the entire room. He was pretty sure he saw a few which were extremely valuable and rare. He noticed one thing in particular. Every single book was about magic. There were no books about other topics.

“Do you have any other hobby besides magic?”

“No.”

Tyler looked at Rild's serene face and knew this was not meant as a joke.

“How often did you live here? This book collection is simply massive.”

“Well, most of my life.”

“You did not live in the palace of the worldmages? You lived here?”

“We are only required in the palace in order to maintain and protect the seal. When we are not doing it, we can basically do whatever we want. I lived here and trained here. If I needed a book from the archives I asked my teacher to teleport me into the palace so I could get it. That is before I learned how to teleport myself of course. By the way, why are you here? You should know by now that talking to me will only get you insulted.”

“Which you strangely did only once in this conversation.”

“I'm in a good mood.”

“Thank the goddess for that. Well, I came because of two things. First: To thank you for dragging my unconscious body into a bed, and second: to tell you that breakfast was ready.”

“Alright. First: Don't get used to it. Second: Let's go.”

After the uneventful meal, the group gathered in the living room. With them was Bez who was throwing wood into the fireplace. The childlike spirit looked up.

“Good. Now you can try to persuade me to let you desecrate my masters grave.”

Rild closed his eyes to think. He was hoping that Bez returned to the world by now but the stubborn spirit remained to guard the mansion even without being bound to a summoner.

“I command you to. When my teacher died, I took over as your summoner, so you owe me allegiance.”

Bez once again started to throw wood into the fireplace.

“Yes, but you died and so I became free. My bond with you did not restore itself when you came back to life. You know this full well, so why are you even asking?”

“It was worth a try and I wanted to appeal to your sense of duty. My teacher was your first master and I the second. I died but now I live again, so you should return to my service. You kept protecting this mansion which shows that you still care about us.”

“That is exactly why I do not want YOU to desecrate your teacher's... What am I even talking about? I do not want you to desecrate your FATHER'S grave. You know I'm right. He was the one who raised you after all.”

Rild was quit after that. Surprisingly the one who came to his help was none other than Tyler.

“Your master is gone. What remains is only an empty husk. I do not know why Rild wants it so bad but I'm sure he has his reasons. It will help him to fulfill his duty as the worldmage which is something I'm pretty sure your master would have wanted.”

The spirit looked at Tyler and laughed a sarcastic laugh.

“Aren't you priests supposed to preach against the desecration of bodies?” Bez said in an enraged voice.”Ah and let me correct you in one thing. Master never wanted Rild to take up the mantle of the worldmage.”

This surprised the group. All of them looked at Rild which a questioning gaze who just continued his silence.

“Is he a phony worldmage?” asked Fai.

“Oh no. He is the real deal. Master wanted that he lived his life as he wished. Him becoming the worldmage was for the completely wrong reason. He did it to continue masters legacy. He himself hated it with a burning passion. He could not give even the slightest damn about what happened to the world. He hated it in fact. Why do you think you could kill him so freakishly easy? How many did he kill before you managed to defeat him? Tell me.”

Nobody knew what to say. This continued for a while until Fai managed to break the awkward silence.

“Not one. He just let us four walks up to him and let me stab him in the heart.”

Bez opened his mouth in astonishment. He looked a few times between Rild and Fai with an incredulous look.

“SHE killed you? And you are traveling with her?”

The spirit seemed to have a hard time to understand and accept this new turn of events. It took him a few moments before he collected himself again.

“It only reinforces my point,” he said with a despising look at Rild. “Instead of fighting to protect the seal he just let himself get killed. He literally spits on everything his teacher stood for. Yes, it's true that he would not have won against the combined forces of the church and the mage families but for the golden guardian's sake, he could at least have tried. It was the survival of the world which was at stake,” cried the spirit who managed to talk himself into a rage. “As the worldmage, a TRUE worldmage, he should have fought till the bitter end. He might have survived, it might have been a draw, with some kind of luck he might have even won against that stupid suit of armor. He could have used ME in the battle. For crying out loud I'm one of the great spirit lords of earth summoned by a ruler of earth! A mage who opened the seventh gate of earth! Sure I was weakened because Rild became my summoner and he had only opened the fifth gate of earth but still... Dammit, he had his own spirit he could have used. A fire one!”

The spirit stopped talking to calm down a bit. It took him only a few moments before he once again started to talk.

“My master guarded this world most of his life. He did it because he wanted this world to live. He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. HE,” the spirit pointed at Rild “did it only to do it. The second he had a justification to abandon it, he did. And now for the crown on top of it all. He is traveling with the people who killed him. The ones who, even if indirectly, shattered everything his teacher protected.”

The group looked down without being able to say a word. The spirit looked once again into the flames of the fireplace.

“Tell me what will stop you from abandoning your duty once more after you desecrated your teacher's, your father's, grave. If there will be once again an unwinnable situation will you once again just give up? Come tell me. Why should I take the risk of letting you taint master's grave?”

Rild did not answer. He just continued to look at the floor without saying a word.

This time Solana was the one who tried to help the young worldmage.

“Do it for your master then. We do not know what Rild will do in the future but right now he is trying his hardest to save the world. The world which your master protected. Ask yourself one thing: Would your master sacrifice his body to help his apprentice save the world?”

The spirit looked at the old mage with a calm gaze.

“He would but I do not want this sacrifice to be wasted.”

“Would he still do it if he knew that it would be wasted? You just said so yourself that a worldmage would fight till the bitter end even if he knew that it was useless,” said Reston who was silent till now.

Bez did not say anything to that. He just looked at Rild and waited for him to finally speak. 

The group was silent for a while. Finally, Bez broke the silence as he looked at Rild.

“Can you promise me to fulfill your duty as the worldmage? Can you promise me to protect and to care for this world? Can you promise me that you will fight until your bitter end for the sake of the people of this world?”

Finally, Rild looked up. He gazed into the eyes of the spirit before he answered.

“No. I'm sorry, but I cannot.”

Bez closed his eyes in disappointment when he heard it.

“I can promise you that this time I will do everything I can to fulfill my duties as the worldmage, but I can not promise you to care for the world or its people,” said Rild in a determined voice. “I seriously do not believe they deserve to be protected. The people in the south who blindly worship the cesspool of corruption which is the church, the kingdoms and empires in the north whose only known activity is endless war with each other, the mage families in the west who hoard knowledge and techniques of magic in fear that someone may develop it further and then surpass them if they share it, and finally the savages of the east who sacrifice their own children and eat their hearts to satisfy their dark gods.”

Rild's voice was completely serene when he talked.

“I can and will not promise you to care and fight for them. But I can promise you that I will fulfill my duty with my all. You are right, that I took the easy way out when I died and I can promise you that I will not be doing it again but it is the only thing I can promise you.”

“If that is all I can get, then I will take it,” sighed Bez in disappointment. “Take the body, but do me the favor and do not come back here after you are finished.”

The spirit disappeared after these words. Rild stood up immediately and headed outside. The others followed after him. No one said a word. They knew that Rild was arrogant but now they knew that it was not because he thought very highly of himself but because he viewed the world as something completely worthless. None of them agreed with Rild's worldview but they knew that nothing they said could change his mindset.

Rild went straight through the flower field in front of the house in order to get to a little shack. The rest wondered how they did not notice it when they entered the barrier and walked towards the mansion as the shack was directly in the way. 

Rild disappeared inside and came out with a shovel. When Reston wanted to look inside in order to see if there was another one, the group noticed that the shack had once again completely disappeared. Rild went once again across the field of flowers until he reached a big circular patch of green lilies. Rild looked at the flowers for a moment before he continued into the middle of the circle. There were orange roses who were planted in the shape of a grave.

Rild wordlessly started to dig at this location.

“Let me. You are too weak for this,” said Reston as he stepped forward.

“No. I have to do it alone.”

Rild interrupted his digging as he looked at the rest of the group.

“Go inside. There is a pretty big bath so you can wash away the sweat of the last few days. I'll manage it alone.”

“Don't be like this! If you do this alone with your strength it will take days! Let me he-,”

started Reston once again but was interrupted by Fai who grabbed him by the arm. The fairy just shook her head as she looked at the knight. Reston sighed and looked at the rest in order to see their opinion. Solana just silently looked at Rild who was digging and Tyler was silently praying but none of them made the impression of wanting to help.

“Then we'll wait,” said the knight.

After Tyler finished his prayer the four of them went back into the mansion and let Rild work alone.

Rild had quite the difficulties to dig the grave. After only a short while his arms started to feel heavy but he did not stop. He stuck the shovel into the earth again and again and again. The scenery around the barrier changed a few times during his work. The young mage worked tirelessly when he noticed a jug of water next to him. Rild looked towards the mansion and saw Fai's back as she walked towards it. The young mage just wordlessly drank and continued to dig. The sun disappeared from the sky and Rild finally stopped working. His entire body hurt after the whole day of work. The young mage trotted towards the mansion. When he finally reached his room he saw a bowl of cold soup sitting on the table. Rild went up to the bowl and just silently looked at it. After a while, he sat down and started to wolf it down. I took him only half a minute to finish the entire bowl. After that he threw his now dirty robe into the corner and went to bed. It took only a few moments before he was in the dreamland.

At the end of the third day Rild was starring down the grave he dug. At the bottom was a crystal coffin. Rild could see the perfectly preserved body of his teacher through it. His teacher looked just like he did the day he died. Short brown hair without any streaks of grey in them and a scrubby unkempt beard. No one who looked at the man in the coffin would suspect that he lived far longer than most people and mages. Everyone would assume he was only about 20 years old and not a man of 210 years.

The young mage knelt down and gripped the coffin to pull it up. After a few minutes of trying he finally managed to pull it up. The young mage started to drag the coffin to the house. It took him a while but he managed to drag it into the mansion. After a few more minutes he stood with the coffin in front of the cellar door. By now the rest of the group has arrived due to the noise Rild made by dragging the coffin through the mansion. After Rild opened the door he remembered the giant staircase leading down to the cellar.

He knew that if he tried to drag the coffin down alone he will only let it slip and it will crash down which would make the entire matter even worse than it already was. Rild turned around to ask the rest for help but noticed that Reston was already standing at the other end of the coffin while Tyler and Fai stood at the sides. The young mage just nodded gratefully and together they lifted the coffin to start the descent down.

At the very bottom of the staircase was a very wide open room. All around it were magic circles and Solana was sure that in the back she saw an extremely big one. The sort the mages of this world called “ancient magic circles” which were considered as lost knowledge. After a while, the group reached a gigantic cauldron. The group put down the coffin.

“We will continue tomorrow. Let us sleep for now,” said Rild.

“Rild...” started Solana but she was quickly interrupted by the young mage.

“Yes, you can study the circles. Even the ancient one. But I strongly suggest you do not enter it. Except you want to be teleported into a pocket dimension which you will never leave again because you can't use space magic.”

Solana just nodded as she strode towards the nearest circle. When Rild turned around he heard Fai's voice from the side.

“Do me a favor and take a bath. You reek.”

“Will do.”