Master of Time

The whole area surrounding the temporal rift becomes a smouldering ruin.

It is the direct result of my newest spell, Burning Sky, which is basically just a shitload of fireballs raining down onto the earth, bombarding everything on the ground into oblivion, including myself.

Talk about friendly fire. Well, not so friendly if you think about it.

The micromachines that emulate my robe activate their shield to protect me. It is purely technological shield, but it is still effective against magic nonetheless. This was proven when I send absurd amount of tanks to blow up all the Nazi bases around the world.

The energy shield didn't protect me from the intense heat though, so I still need to heal my burns. The shield isn't designed to block out heat since starships can withstand a little heat. Flesh is a bit different though.

A solution needs to be found for this, since I don't want my men to be cooked inside their armour.

Legion can cast magic through direct application of runes, but it is not as effective as casting the runes onto a magical incantation diagram. He needs a biological component for that, which is me. This allows me to gain some experience in the process, but very little in comparison to casting the spell myself.

However, quantity has a quality of its own.

Millions of fireball can be casted within the time I manage to cast one personally. But there is a charm to casting a spell myself.

It empowers me and gives me a sense of accomplishment. It also makes me less reliance on Legion or my technological advantages.

I do not wish to be completely helpless when I am stripped of my toys and my command over time.

These are all tools, and tools can be broken and taken away. Logically speaking, if it can happens then it will happens, so I should prepare for that eventuality. Hasn't it happened before?

I am prepared for a lot of things. Sadly, I cannot prepare for everything. There are just so many stuffs I do not know yet.

But I will, hopefully.

Lacking knowledge will the bane of my existence, I swear!

Nevertheless, I think I have a viable solution to Legion's inability to cast magic, but a soulless clone will not do. I need a living, breathing sentient being to experiment and prove my theory.

I do know where to find a few specimens. The men have told me so.

Anyway, Burning Sky costs a butt load of magical energy due to its extreme inefficiency, but that isn't something I need to worry about.

I do have practically unlimited magical energy – not in my body, unfortunately.

This means that I can't use my magical aura to make other mages shit their pants.

How fortunate for their pants.

Magical aura reveals how much and how potent the magical power a person has. It is usually their raw magical energy, crushing down upon everyone within the immediate vicinity.

When the magical aura is focused on a single person, it is considered as an attack and will be retaliated as such. This alone has caused quite a bit infighting between the human mages, resulting in some very pointless deaths.

The stronger the mage is, the more magical energy they can store within their body, making their aura more potent. It can be extremely deadly against non-mages.

Their greater understandings and knowledge in the arcane art also strengthen their magical aura to untold height. Thus, it is the main reason why a 2nd circle mage can crush a mage of the 1st circle with just a look. No lower mages would want to offend a more powerful mages if they can help it.

The difference in their power level are like heaven and earth!

That sounds super cliché.

Most mages belonging to the lesser races such as humans or elves only manage to reach 2nd circle of power during their lifetime. Those who can reach 3rd circle are considered exceptional.

4th circle are already legendary.

Even so, there are 5th and 6th circle mages in the world. These mages can basically do anything they pleased and no one can really stop them. At least that what is Eliana tells me.

Greater races like Dragonkin are all naturally gifted with magic, so even their young are already at 2nd or 3rd circle equivalents. They have their own magical power level definitions.

I don't know what those levels are called since it is in their language.

Luckily for Eliana and her elvish people, there are no mages higher than 3rd circle in the nearby human Kingdoms and Queendoms. There are also some Dukedoms from what the satellites manage to map out.

Seems that with great power comes authority.

Well, I suppose the same could be said in my case.

In the prime universe, I do have absolute authority, at least on Earth.

I can certainly take on the whole world and win with just my technology alone.

And I have magical power now, so it will just be one sided massacre – more on sided. Just releasing a magical aura is probably enough to terrify people. Even if they can't see magical energy, they should definitely feel the energy crushing their body and will.

Releasing magical aura is a form of intimidation.

Eliana tries that on me – and I think I beat the shit out of her when she first did it. She didn't remember any of that though since I have erased her memory.

I ponder about that for a moment and wonder if I should have left her memory intact. Instead of fear like Sharon Stone, Eliana worships me.

Worship leads to obsession, and obsession leads to crazy fanatic.

Oh boy... let's not think too much on that. The Galactic Empire is the thing of the past. Hydra Imperium is the future.

All shall hail Hydra!

Ahem

Spells are created by combining runes together for effect. How they are combined, how many of them are there, their current position around the magical incantation diagram, their shapes and sizes, and so on are all taking into consideration when casting a spell.

So many dimensions to this...

Kind of make my head hurt, really.

Casting a spell is not that hard to do, but extremely complex to master. Quite deadly too.

Burning Sky is pretty simplistic since the spell is just mass casting of a standard fireball spell, described in that Heavenly Book.

Fire rune and Sphere rune are all that needed to cast the spell. Everything else is up to the caster.

The fireball I had used for my spell isn't exactly textbook's original. It is Alex's version since the fireball that had materialized from the magical incantation diagram looks like a burning skull instead of just a regular fireball.

This allows mages to create their own version and pass them down to their students, who they usually teach from a very young age.

In fact, many magical gifted children live with their master all the way into adulthood. The rest of the mundane has to go to institution like Arcane Academy if they want to become mages.

But most powerful mages doesn't pass down their knowledge for one thing or another, so their spells are lost in the annals of time.

One such mage is the Black Mage of Time.

Form what I understand, the Black Mage didn't have any pupil isn't because he didn't want any. It is more than likely that he couldn't find any since having affinity to the element of Time is stupidly rare.

I think the Black Mage is probably a very sad panda – I mean person.

As for the burning evidence all around me, a little time reversal will make sure I was never here.

I did reach proficient level 3 fireball. It allows me to cast fire and sphere runes faster, but that is useless when I have Autocast ability.

Ah... I just contradict myself.

Alright, it is not completely useless when I don't have Legion casting spells for me. But it is useless at the moment.

Since reaching level 4 fireball proficiency takes about 100 millions experience points, I didn't bother. I practice other spells instead.

Each of the spell has their own proficiency, thus making this a huge grind.

The proficiency being measured by Selene is not due to the spell itself, but due to the individual runes and how they play with each other when being casted together. There are just so many bloody runes to remember and train.

No wonder Alex and Hans only concentrate on one element.

Also, standing in one spot and letting Legion do all the work bored me. I head off towards a general direction, searching for some of those nasty Goblins.

The satellite tells me where they all are exactly. Even if the monsters are hiding in bushes and trees, advance infrared sensor can still see them. It is the same for those dark elves back in the village, who were using cloaking spells.

One for Science!

Legion is constantly casting Fire and Wind Protection on me and every thing within range. Tree, grass, birds, insects, you named it. This is because I cannot cast the same protection on me if there is another enchantment present, so instead of waiting until the protection wears off, Legion spams the spell on anything viable.

Why didn't I use Fire Protection before casting Burning Sky?

I am dumb, that is why... sigh.

I did go a little crazy a moment ago. The burning landscape attests to that.

While Legion is doing that, I pay my attention to the elemental theory of magic. It is called multitasking. I have enough brain power to do so.

Wind and Air are considered the same element in magic, but Sound is considered as a secondary or a sub element of Air. This is the same as Heat being a sub element of fire. This is not the same as saying Ice is a sub element of Water. Ice is a compounded element.

It is the result of Wind and Water. That mean Coldness is also a sub element of Wind or maybe actually Water. I think it is Water.

Let me check.

Nope. It is both, and they compliment each other. Interesting...

Hans' personal notes on these elements of magic, especially his Wind element and all its sub elements, are very extensive. His massive list of spells prove this to me.

With the mastery over the Wind, Hans can enhance a person's voice with magic, making their words more persuasive. Hell, he can make terrible songs into a great inspirational ones.

"Thank you Hans. You have just make my job easier."

I compliment Hans, the older Hans, for giving me the means to take over the music industry.

With the power of magic, I can make great singers from anyone instead of using my future knowledge to find and sign up great singers.

What else did Hans figures out?

Alex is all about destruction this and destroying that, but Hans is more of a pacifist.

Before I could analyse further, an arrow brushes against my robe. While it couldn't penetrate my robe, it did leave some sort of greenish liquids to mark its impact.

"Poison Solution detected, Master. Poison has been neutralized."

Legion warns me as I narrow my eyes towards where it has come from. Several more arrows fly forth, trying to pierce through my robe from all direction.

"Legion. Would you kindly remove the pests?"

Laser beam rips through the forest in all direction, coming from my robe. It lasts for about a second.

Silence immediately returns.

"Alright, where was I?"