Return of the Sealed Archmagus Chapter 2 [v.2]

This version is basically a new thing compared to the previous version. Still not sure if I'm committing to this story, but here's a taste of the MC's powerset.

Feedback's welcome- chapter is available to both free and paid patreons.

2: 

“When I found him, a lone child lying upon the land of the town that was no longer, I knew I had a choice. 

I could take him and leave Nureya behind, to the wastelands ruled by the five warlords, where strength alone held currency. Few would bother a Master Magus who wished to be left to his own devices and there, in that harsh sanctuary,  I could teach him about language and history, artifact sciences and literature and most crucially, about love and compassion— all things he would need not to become a monster. For I knew, that was how the world would see him, what the powers that be would sculpt him to become, whether he wished for it or not. 

The other choice was the one I took, what others saw as loyalty to the crown but a decision I took for Nureya. No matter how quickly our research in artifacts progressed, without even a single Grandmaster Magus amongst our ranks, we were reliant upon a few quill strokes on paper for our natural defense. To rely upon the capricious natures of the Eidolons for our safety was no safety at all and yet…

I regret the choice I made on that day. 

For in choosing to remain loyal to my own kingdom, I deprived the world of man of our salvation.”

- Private Diary of Master Magus (Illusion) Alek Von Serano, dated 20th Janvier 62 P.D., Property of the Kingdom of Nureya, Status: Classified. 

Nine Hundred Cycles later. 

16th Juli 962 P.D. 

Fifty Klicks north from village Wandermere, unnamed cave system.

Twenty years ago, a Daemon Ashkin that had been part of a scouting mission to study the coastal regions of the Kingdom of Nureya for any staging ground that could be used for future invasions had encountered an an unnamed cave system fifty klicks north of an unassuming village that had a population of six-hundred or so and was defended by a Tier 1 Mana Barrier. 

An inadequate protection in most cases, but this was deep into Nureya’s territory and it made sense why the Kingdom did not think stricter security measures were required. Due to the coastal region being densely forested and the fact that the residents of Wandermere had no reason to venture this far north, it wasn’t a surprise that the cave systems had gone undiscovered. 

The Daemon Ashkin’s scouting team was only one of hundreds that had been deployed across the human kingdoms that called the Heartlands their home, so it could be said that it was merely by chance that they had encountered a cave system in the far-flung outer reaches of the Eldergrove. 

It was also by chance that they had lost three of their five members to the World Rank Void Sanctum spell that had been placed upon the entrance of the cave systems, their physical bodies aging hundreds of years in an instant and reduced to dust before they even hit the ground. 

There was only one being in the world capable of casting a Nihilomancy Spell at the Archmagus level, a human that had died four hundred years ago. The Eidolon of Void had taken two incomplete, unreliable and impossibly inefficient schools of magic, namely Dimensional and Temporal Magic and combined aspects of it to create an entirely new element that was termed the as Void Element. Then he had reached the World Rank stage with Void Magic alone and for that accomplishment, even the daemons respected and feared him. 

It had taken three Harbringers to slay the Void Eidolon, a cost that had been too heavy— having set their plans for the Heartlands back by decades, if not centuries. His secrets had seemingly died with him, for any traces, records and even samples of organic material affected by the Void Eidolon’s magic was worth its weight in mana stones, both in the human and the daemon world. 

That was why even twenty years later, a small team of six Daemons— of three Ashkin, two Chaoskin and one Bloodkin, was still camped on the outskirts of the site, studying, measuring and recording the properties of the World Rank Void Sanctum spell as best they could. 

The self-sustaining nature of the spell meant that it could continue onward for all of time, unless a Daemon Harbringer personally arrived to dispel it and the presence of a Harbringer in the territory of the Kingdom of Nureya would be a declaration of war. The likely Mana Beast sealed within the Void Sanctum spell did not warrant such an effort, even if it could belong to a now extinct species. 

The existence of a live Void Sanctum spell was far more valuable to Daemon-kind than it’s contents ever could be, which was why different researchers and scholars had been deployed across the last twenty years with strict orders not to affect the integrity of the spell— not like they could, of course, but prudence never went to waste. 

Which was the reason why confusion, shock and disbelief spread through their ranks as the three daemons that had been caught in the stasis field evaporated into nothingness without warning, before the Void Sanctum’s field effect dissipated entirely. 

Nicholas Sybil Anvilsong opened his eyes. 

A movement that should have been an impossibility, given that he had been caught in the Void Sanctum spell cast by not just an Archmagus, but an Eidolon who had attained that status by creating the branch of magic he had reached Archmagus status with. 

Of course, the fact that the Void Eidolon was two whole orders above Nicholas as a Ninth-Order Magus, his Aether Body having evolved into something far greater, meant that the raw potency of his spell alone was enough to overwhelm his defenses as a newly-minted Seventh-Order Magus. 

If he had wanted to kill Nicholas, he would have been dead multiple times over, ripped apart  by forces the human mind, however enhanced by mana and artifacts, should have never been able to comprehend. Before the Void Eidolon claimed his title, the highest recorded Dimensional and Temporal Spells that had been developed by human mages had only been at the Journeyman-Rank and they were so horribly inefficient that even Nicholas could only cast them a few dozens of times before running out of mana— well, if his natural mana regeneration wasn’t brought into the equation. 

To create a new element by fusing aspects of two impractical disciplines of magic alone was an accomplishment for the ages, but to create a suite of World-Rank Spells with that element, that was worthy of being crowned an Eidolon. 

The Void Eidolon had not only left his access to ambient mana intact, but his Void Sanctum spell hadn’t actually shattered his defenses, just bypassed them. The spell had locked both his physical and aether bodies to their exact coordinates from nine hundred years ago, anchoring him to the precise recorded memory of his existence on the space-time continuum at the moment Void Sanctum was cast. Except the target of the spell wasn’t just Nicholas, it was the entire cave system he had been sealed in nine hundred years ago. 

Nicholas had not aged a day since the spell had been cast upon him, having been granted functional immortality of an exceptionally shitty kind. He would have long since gone insane, had it not been for Expert-Rank Enchantment Spell Induce Sleep keeping him peacefully asleep for nearly all of the nine hundred years. 

To keep his sanity and also attempt a Counterspell would have been an impossibility for Nicholas, had it not been for the Archon-Class Artifact, Endless Dream forming the heart of his defenses. Like Dimensional and Temporal Magics, Dream Magic too was an incomplete and horribly inefficient discipline of magic, though its existence was known to even fewer people, limited largely to Nureyan Nobility. Forged by the Artificer King of Nureya in conjunction with fifty eight of the Kingdom’s greatest artificers, its creation and the subsequent ninety days of use at full capacity had nearly bankrupted the entire kingdom. 

Yet, it had almost been worth it. 

They hadn’t gotten the Dream Eidolon they were hoping for— He wasn’t anywhere near the alien level of genius required to accomplish such a thing, but they had gotten the weapon the Eidolon Project had intended to create. 

Dream Magic’s greatest strength was the storage, analysis and dissemination of information and Nicholas had spent his time in the Eidolon Project learning all he could about the discipline, enough to reach the Expert-Rank in it. 

What he had was the Mana Reserves to power the Archon-Class Artifact, Endless Dream, that was made using largely experimental concepts and an incomplete discipline of magic and once he had stepped out of seclusion and explained to the artificers what his requirements were, they had reluctantly altered it to his specifications. 

Nicholas Sybil Anvilsong was not destined to become a Dream Eidolon. 

Neither did he want to become one. 

No, since he had first seen his da strike molten metal into shape with his trusty hammer, Nicholas had known that he wanted to become a blacksmith. 

Grand Master Rank Evocation Spell— Hephaestus’ Hammer

Grand Master Rank Divination Spell— Anvil of Morpheus

Grand Master Rank Abjuration Spell— Nemesis’ Hearthfire 

Archon-Class Artifact — Endless Dream

Combining three Grand Master Rank spells that he had developed on his own with his Archon-Class Artifact resulted in the creation of his lone World-Rank Spell: 

World-Rank Spell: True Reactive Shielding.