Chapter Twenty Three, Tired.

  ...

  ...

  A woman sat in a familiar spellroom, her leg propped up upon her other, her hands holding a square contraption.

  She poured some of her power into it, a panel popping up in front of her face.

  Agatha wracked her brain.

  She felt she wasn't powerful enough...

  She knew she was well above the curve. Even at her level, with her progression from a Rare Class to a Unique, she was far above the power of an average low A-rank that had followed that path.

  And that was thanks to her starting Unique Talent, and the two Legendary ones that followed. All three of them boosted her Intelligence, Wisdom, Sensitivity, Capacity, and even her Luck, beyond what they should have been.

  She had hundreds on top of hundreds of more Attribute points into those stats, and it made her drastically more powerful, opening up a shit ton of more doors for her.

  She dabbled in dozens of magics, more than they could fit on her Status.

  Of her first twelve active skills that were shown normally, all of them were magic related.

  That was something she was proud of.

  Not to mention the fact that many of her skills had disappeared and merged into her two Soul Skills.

  Those were her forte, the core of her power...

  With her [Magicka Control], she was able to dominant mana with ease, even being able to sense and manipulate Magicka, the pure unfiltered version of mana. It was the primal energy of the world that existed within everything, be it the air, flesh, or even rock. It was one of the supreme energies of the world, standing on par with Space, Time, Life and Death.

  With control of magicka, she could indirectly influence all of those, since mana was not powerful enough to truly dominate those elements.

  At it's peak, it could loosely control Time and Space, and that's why none had ever progressed beyond Adept in those two fields of magic.

  Only those with innate talents tailoring to those elements could have greater control over them, like Alexander Tilmont's, [Spatiomancy].

  He could control space with nothing but mana, his mind, and his soul. His brain was so powerful that it could adopt lordship over space, and that was frightening to her. Even her, with her enhanced mind, she could hardly reach the peak of Novice control over space through mana.

  Alexander's first Talent alone put him on par with her, and it was crazy to think.

  In truth, out of the trio, she was weakest. That was demotivating. Even knowing that truly, she was insanely powerful, but she still couldn't compare to her two friends.

  She let go of the high rated Appraisal Cube, placing it on the table with books next to her. She massaged her temples, her head leaning back.

  "If I unlock my [Magic Conduit] Soul skill, the gap should close just a bit... I could stand just behind them, not in their shadows..."

  Realistically, the two men stood in her shadow, but that was only because she was so active within the city. She was compensating.

  Nowadays, she truly didn't even know how powerful Zenor even was. She knew he had just as much potential as Alexander, but the two differed in circumstances and morals.

  Zenor fell in love with a woman during their childhood, and he conceived child. That was how Clara was born.

  That drastically slowed down his progression, and it altered his focuses. All three of them knew very well that prior to Clara's birth, Zenor had greatly outclassed them.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  He was one of the greats of their generation, and after they did their time in the capital, it was under Zenor's lead that they came back to their home town of Albrador, reclaiming it from cultists and boosting it to the point it was at nowadays.

  It was their Quest from the Emperor, and their reward was the land.

  It only took two decades or so for Albrador, now Tilmont, to become a flourishing small city.

  All the remaining families praised them, and many more migrated from nearby settlements. They wiped the bandits off the map in this area, ceasing their worthless insurgence and integrating the nearby towns under their cape.

  She was a big face of this place, but she didn't feel she was enough to stand next to her two companions.

  She was the one people came to, to confide in, recommend things, complain.

  And that was because the people felt closer to her. To them, she was still in the realm of humans.

  Alexander and Zenor were in the realm of gods...

  "Beating yourself up again aren't you?" A voice came from the side. Agatha's eyes widened greatly, her head spinning to the entrance of the room.

  A man stood by the door, a man she once wanted to have her own children with.

  "Hey there Zen..." She meekly smiled.

  "Your thoughts are really loud from here... Really unprotected as well..." He smiled, a tinge of sadness in his face.

  "You don't have to try so hard... You don't have to let power consume you in the way it does Alex... He's fighting to grow stronger for a reason. Me and you can just sit back and relax. Let him lead this world into a new age... He'll carry us up with him anyway." He laughed, approaching the seated woman.

  Agatha tilted her head. Her usual ecstatic, perhaps crazed expression, was not present. In truth, she looked like the average woman. Like a normal girl.

  Zenor had that affect on her at times.

  She didn't like to let anyone see that, even him.

  "You say that, but look at you. I just saw you yesterday and you were low A-rank..." Her eyes scanned him up and down as he came to stand next to her.

  She gazed up into his beautifully blood red eyes.

  "And now you're mid A-rank... You don't even train anymore, and you're still progressing faster than me." She sighed.

  Zenor gazed back into her eyes, sadness filling them. Unhesitant, his hands softly reached out for her, pulling her in, her head resting against his stomach.

  "You know my Talents... I'm prone to... Evolutions." Zenor murmured.

  "All the more unfair." Agatha murmured back, her voice slightly muffled. Perhaps by her face being covered, perhaps by the tears leaking from her eyes.

  These moments weren't often, and it was a shame. Neither of them had the time for it.

  "That's why... I'm willing to change a few things..." Zenor spoke. "With a few new skills... I have a whole lot more time." Agatha's ears poked up, her eyes glancing back upwards towards Zenor.

  There was a soft expression on his face, and she instinctively understood.

  "Time?" She questioned, backing herself a way just a bit.

  "Mhm..." Zenor hummed. "I have evolved and adapted to time." He spoke, Agatha's expression growing increasingly bewildered.

  She stood up, awe filling her face, a smile emerging.

  "Are you serious! Have you told anyone else?" She questioned.

  Anything to do with time was rare in this world, even if it was on the same level of things like space, life, death, souls... It was notoriously harder to perceive and alter.

  Perhaps only geniuses like Alexander and Zenor could ever hope to really control and comprehend it.

  "Nope. But I hope to inform Alexander... Bring him a bit closer to us... You know he would hate to lag behind me like this. He's been working hard to gain governance over time through his Spatiomancy..." Zenor nervously chuckled.

  He scratched the back of his head, and Agatha only continued to wildly smile.

  "Show me." She said.

  Zenor smiled.

  His hand raised, and unlike the last time he showcased his powers, the surroundings did not darken.

  They brightened.

  "[Time Stop]."

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  Groggily, Jora blinked to life.

  His eyes adjusting to the surroundings.

  He expected to be in the same beautiful forest, but he awoke in Flamehold. Instantly, he opened his Status and locked straight onto his skill section.

  He glanced around the clearing, his eyes locking onto the portal.

  He could see the webbing of warped space, the complex structure of it, weaved together so intricately.

  He raised a finger, subconsciously tapping into all of his new abilities, and calling upon the memories of [Thread Warping].

  His finger disappeared into a ripple of space, appearing just before the portal. His body moved forward, following his finger through the warp...

  And from thirty feet away, he stumbled through the portal.

  He glanced upwards, making eye contact with the center figure in the room.

  He didn't care to observe it's power, he could sense it, it's own mana communed with him.

  His opponent stared back, and honestly, he felt no care. His mind was muddled, perhaps from the overexertion prior, but it didn't effect him too intensely.

  He still had the usual tug of hunger, the tinge of anger, the careless demeanor.

  He just felt too tired to truly act.

  From his hands and knees, he moved to his feet.

  A massive beast charged towards him.

  A massive flaming, titan of a bear.

  His hand rose upwards.

  The elements bent, surging into his body, like he wasn't there.

  The bear collided with his physique, passing straight through.

  It flew into the wall where the portal had been, disabled now that he had entered.

  But, down the middle of it's body, was a gap.

  Exactly where the bear had passed, no longer existed.

  Jora rubbed his eyes, and licked his lips.

  "[You're awake! Sorry, I was consumed with tending to our World...]" A voice spoke in his head.

  He turned back towards the corpse of the bear, his hand shooting out towards it.

  "[Ah... What a way to make use of the newly obtained [Intangibility]...]" Ana followed up.

  With a swift movement, he devoured the corpse, taking it's power for his own.

  "I feel so tired..." He murmured.

  "[I can tell... You let up on the concealment.]" Ana fired back.

  "My mistake..."

  "[All is well... Too late to go back now.]"

  ...

  ...