Cassodie continued in the arena now a mess Allan would usually fill the potholes with his magic but now he bailed. She soon got bored and left following to the general location he was at.
She always had to follow him if she didn't she would get this bizarre impulse to talk to inanimate object mostly plants.
Cassodie didn't usually mind that but the maids were now in constant chatter they called her weird called her a village girl, though she used to live in Seoul so far as she could remember.
The pull always led her to him but peculiarly this time it didn't she found herself back at the garden looking at the lush plants, confused at whether her pull to the garden was greater than her pull to him.
Marrie was in her office signing documents with a renewed rigor she previously thought the de-aging would be a problem but turns out magic due to it's strange nature forced the sensible mind to fill the gaps with logical causes
People now assumed she had been on a brutal anti-aging quest chasing silly immortality like every other billionaire out there.
They only called it silly because they never experienced the pain of having the world at their fingertips yet no time to enjoy it.
She pondered whether her father had magic too, for as long as she remembered he had always looked into his late forties in body shape only his hair aged.
She tried finding out hers but Allan told her if she had talent she would have known long ago, she gave up weakly.
Allan was now in that infamous study where he could swear he could hear the mansion breathing but now to think, think and rethink.
What were his goals ambitions was it mear survival was that what he chose to do with the rest of his immortal life. All metaphysical talent users lived as long as their tied metaphysical constants.
The system obviously had a purpose and was more suited for him than Cassodie especially with the library functions to store the copied abilities. He wondered if he was a one stage individual.
Perfection as a talent was already illusive and hard to top what would his second layer look like would it simply be an extention to the field upon which his magic would work or an increase in magic power or both.
He never really considered anything past that. Closing his eyes he suddenly felt a breath on his face, the breath was soft and smelt of mentos.
Opening his eyes he saw Melody floating upside down lookin at him with a curious look.
"Why are you here Melody?" He asked already accustomd to her random visits.
"To tell you the Duke has no intention of attacking you, so you caught yourself a lucky break." She answered not backing away still looking at him with that childish curiosity.
"Oh that's good but can you back up it's uncomfortable." Allan said pushing her face backwards.
"I never quite noticed this but you have this familiar aura on you I just don't know why you do." Melody said doin a backflip with the momentum Allan provided.
"My ex used to say I have a very bland European look so I'm quite similar to a lot of people." Allan replied calmly his gaze at how many backflips she could do in the air.
"Maybe anyway why the hell you look so depressed?" melody asked looking at his sunken eyes
"How many layers does your talent have?" Allan asked
"Three why do you ask?" Melody replied stping her backflips
"Then how are you a fifth rank mage?" Allan asked curiosity briming from his crystal blue eyes.
"Attack range but I forgot to tell you from second rank onwards there is a three part ranking system basic if only your attack range is at the stage, exceptional if talent is at that stage and zenith if both attack range and talent are at the stage now I'm a basic fifth rank." Melody replied
"So if a exceptional and basic fight is the exceptional guaranteed to win?" Allan asked.
"Not necessarily due to talent potency and proficiency for example a pyrokinesis talent cannot defeat a space user it's just ridiculous. But there are very few mages with universal concepts as talents those are usually called black members there are only three known ones those are the human god, king of the lonely winter and last but not least the southern princess." Melody continued elaborating.
"So what kind of mage are you?"
"I'm a purple ranked mage. I control a derivative of a universal constant but not the whole thing." Melody said floating in the air casually.
"Wait how complicated is this power system of yours?" Allan asked confusion obviously painted onto his face.
"Just know that if the difference ia above two in any category you can't win even if you beat them or match them in any other category."
"Why?"
"Pride of the strong it is a natural pheromone released by all strong mages that dulls the opponents abilities by ten percent per each rank for example if you decide to fight me you would 10 to the power of five percent weaker then normal."
"That's sound scary did we actually have a chance with the duke?"
"Hell no I was prepared to tuck tail and run for dear life good thing he doesn't care for you two. He only said he cares only for his brother's body." Melody said Allan's face turning ashen.
"Does he need it fully complete?" Allan asked nervously
"I don't know is it incomplete?" Melody asked still carelessly floating in the air
Allan shook his head in the affirmative
"Probably won't be a problem. But it is weird for someone who has lived that long to care for a measly slave he bought years ago hopefully whatever reason he came doesn't need his full body." Melody said disappearing as casually as she floated leaving Allan confused.
At a distant cemetery Devin was lookin at an open casket with Jarvis' body inside metallic due to the chemicals.
He passed his hands above his dead body Jarvis' body expanding until cracking in two revealing his white calcium bones covered by a ice skin pushing his original skin away taking the bones with him the skin reconnected around nothing.
Later the casket was burnt to the ground, in a hotel room he was looking at the incomplete skeletal frame before him lacking pieces of the ribcage and a femur.
Injecting energy inside it they glowed strangely before he started reading carefully
Hey Devin if you are reading this I am for some unknown reason dead and before I go I'll leave you with the only thing you ever wanted in your million year lifespan a shot at surpassing the king. The road from sixth to seventh rank is one where one needs to assimilate their talents with their original counterparts from nature or gain a deeper understanding of their talents with a more absolute view at this level domains are created where rules are fabricated once you find the purest form of your talent forge your talent into ...
The text ended there due to the lack of femur and he was very distressed questions raging in his mind whether this was true or not. He tried every conceivable method before but none had worked before.
He couldn't ask the king since he was afraid he would b seen aa a contender for the throne of the lonely winter. The human god was a being created at the 8th circle hence had no hindsight so he gave up.
Was Jarvis some kind of genius no obviously not had he gained some weird insights on a stage five stages ahead of himself. A part of himself wanted to refute but a bigger part wanted it to be true.
Now that it was true he wanted to find that elusive femur but only two people possibly knew where it was, did the council keep his body fragmented on purpose? Were those two pawns to a vile game?
He was sure of it why else would they only segregate the femur with the most important part of information.
Neither the King nor the Council trusted the Duke who had a tendency to meddle in human affairs with the powers to well destroy a continent who would that would be suicide for the human race.
The duke had to teach the council a lesson to not dismiss the man who once brought an age of ice to the entire world