(Gale POV)
What was the difference between magecraft and magic?
In the Fate universe, magecraft was a combination of science and experimentation to mimic the miracles of magic… magic was something unable to be reached by a majority of humanity, at least in the modern era. The Age of Gods, however, was an entirely different story.
Honestly, some days I wish I could have been there to witness such a time, but then I remember the multiple historical figures that would positively kick my shit in if I looked at them the wrong way. Not to mention I wouldn't be able to handle the arrogance of Gilgamesh, at least if he was in his younger form.
Not to mention the fact that that specific multiverse has some of my favorite female characters. Specifically, Medea would be a great magic teacher, but then I remember the fact that, while she was cursed by Aphrodite, she did convince multiple people to kill someone, or themselves, or both… Truly, the power of beauty is a powerful thing. I mean, if someone intensely ugly did such a thing, most people would just be revolted, and that would be it.
But now I'm just rambling. It's odd having my own space again. The tower itself is so quiet, ironically unearthly quiet. I tried to spread my Mana Zone across the dimension, and I didn't find an end to it. While I may just not have reached far enough, it seems to stretch on for miles.
I could almost sympathize with Merlin, as anyone would go crazy just sitting in this tower—even an incubus like him… I mean, it really shows in the difference between Merlin and Proto Merlin.
And the more I read from the books that he wrote, the more I came to respect the nearly Grand Caster. He had notes on nearly everything—from various forms of long-forgotten magecraft to even the magic that existed in the Age of Gods. But again, it would take weeks, if not months, to get through a quarter of these books.
At least, that was until I realized something. I have a solution for absorbing information and organizing it.
Specifically, a combination of Structural Analysis and Tracing, in addition to a skill that I'm trying to currently learn… Occlumency. And to be honest, those fanfictions where the main character would teach themselves this in childhood almost lied to me.
What makes this worse was that I had no one to practice with. Specifically, I had no one to test my own mental defenses. I tried using the memories of the films to aid in my training, that being emptying my mind and creating a fortress within that empty space to place emotions and memories.
Yet, as I sat in silence for hours, I could only feel the beginnings of a wall forming around my mind. But to be honest, it feels like it's built with hopes and dreams. However, it has confirmed one thing—the Shielded Soul perk is definitely working, as the wall that I had placed was essentially put in front of a ginormous bastion. It's almost funny, as I was almost tempted to try to break into my own mind, but then I realized I'd be going up against the power of whatever made this book.
So I tried another angle, specifically one that favored the Fate route. I tried using self-hypnosis, essentially attacking my own mentality within my mind. I wouldn't need to worry about there being any damage due to the Shielded Soul, with the bastion itself working as a kind of trust fall for my own mental shields.
[+100 CP Milestone]
[100 CP Remaining]
Standing up, I take a momentary break and check the watch that I had on my arm. It seems that the tower itself changes its time based on where I teleported from. Thankfully, it was a weekend, and I had already finished all of my schoolwork. Father and Mother are currently out on another one of their dates, even though it technically isn't a date since they're married, but I am unsure what to call it exactly.
The two are closer than they've ever been, especially since Father learned that magic couldn't solve everything… even though it did, but he doesn't know that. Looking out the window at the top of the tower, I imagined opening a portal to the bottom of Cadmus, specifically behind Superboy's pod. And as I saw the window open in front of me, I pushed my hand forward and felt nothing but air.
So after closing the portal, I imagined another place—the moon. And thankfully, the place didn't start venting atmosphere. However, I knew that as soon as I walked through the portal, there would be nothing. No air, no heat—just the cold depth of space.
Placing my mask on, I stepped out onto the surface of the moon. However, I made sure to go to the dark side of the moon, away from the prying eyes of satellites and other beings. However, a small part of me wonders if gods and goddesses connected to the moon can feel me walking on its surface, which would be odd, to say the least.
Taking my staff out of my celestial inventory, I held it in my hand, and the staff itself had been slightly growing in size as I did. And while I was 14, my growth was astonishing for my age, as I was already 5 foot 8. And while I wasn't exactly springing up like a beanstalk, it was definitely becoming evident that my physical growth was being influenced by my perks and powers.
"Lumos." The words exited my mouth, but due to there being no atmosphere, no sound could be heard. And I thanked whoever gave me this book that the Ether Anchor perk allows me to survive without breathing. I could barely feel the cold on my skin, barely a tingling at the back of my spine.
A smile made its way to my face as I began to crack off various spells.
"Bombarda! Reducto!" (Let it be known that he's saying it because he wants to—when he's by himself, he can do these without actually saying them.)
The surroundings are then blasted across space as dust coalesces and floats into the void. Picking up a small moon rock, I crushed it in my hands, and as soon as I did so, I uttered, "Reparo."
The rock then returned to its original state, and as I used Structural Analysis on it, I could tell that the spell itself somehow manages to reconnect the various atoms and molecules, quite literally breaking physics.
It makes me question if the repair spell is some type of temporal inversion—basically very slight time manipulation to return an object to its complete state. It's by no means as powerful as a certain hairpiece from Bleach, but it's definitely impressive nonetheless.
Harry Potter magic on its own was small-scale reality warping as it is. But unlike the magi or wizards from that universe, I do not use surrounding magical energy to form spells. Mine comes from my own reserves.
And instead of them just being orbs of energy, they manifest in different ways. A Bombarda spell, instead of looking like essentially a flying red grenade, burns gold before enveloping the object in fire and then exploding.
I was almost tempted to use the more powerful spells, but those require targets to use against. And while the more sociopathic version of me wants to start shouting Avada Kedavra at whatever annoys me, I realize that that makes me sound like I'm insane… which I may be, but that's beside the point.
Before returning to the tower, the watch on the side of my arm begins to vibrate, which means that my parents have returned from their outing. So as I open another portal back to the tower, I immediately return to my room.
After closing the portal behind me, I look as if I'm studying for my history test in a couple of days.
Knock
Knock
"You may enter." After doing so Zatara in his stage outfit, sees me sitting at my desk.
Walking over, he places a hand on my shoulder. "You know, usually, children would be trying to hang out with their friends, among other things."
Looking up, I give him an annoyed glance. "Dad, you and I know that I very much enjoy studying more than I enjoy idle conversation with people I am probably never going to see again once I graduate."
Taking his hand off my shoulder, he places it on his face and dramatically looks as if he's been struck.
"My son has become an antisocial shut-in. I have failed as a father."
I just look back at him with the most empty glare I could.
"I apologize if I may seem introverted. I shall now seek to sneak out of the house at inopportune times and smoke in the bathrooms."
"Absolutely not!" The statement comes out without him thinking of it, and he just sighs as he sits down on my bed.
"I understand that you wish to study; however, I do not wish for you to become disconnected. It's a very real problem for us mages. I have known many wizards and witches that, as soon as they are given access to magic, they cut themselves off from humanity, and it very rarely ever works out."
I just shake my head as I sit down next to him.
"That's because very rarely do wizards and witches have families like us—those that keep us grounded and human. Just because I don't want to hang out with them doesn't mean that I won't wish to hang out with others in the future. But I do admit I find it hard to talk to them, as my interests mostly align with magical study as well as archaeological history. It's not exactly the best conversation starter."
The statement causes my father to place a hand on his chin as if contemplating something.
In a few seconds, he wipes off the tops of his pants and stands up before offering me his hand.
"Well, if you don't wish to hang out with your peers, then why not hang out with your father? I have yet to do my nightly patrols. Would you wish to join me?"
With a smile on my face, I summon my robe from my inventory, and after placing my mask on, a slightly lower voice emanates from it.
"I thought you would never ask. By the way, what about Z?"
Zatara then shows a small window of Mother sitting down, watching television. It's another Spanish soap opera. I immediately give him pity eyes as I realize that he just wants to hang out with me because his wife has abandoned him for the television again.
Whistling to the side, my father just looks as innocent as he could, and it truly makes me wonder how big of a difference I have caused, as the man from the television show was a lot more serious than this one.
[+100 CP Milestone]
[200 CP Remaining]
As the book floats around the both of us, my father then raises his wand, and within a split second, I find myself standing atop the Empire State Building.
Realizing that my father just wants to show off, I allow him to do so as he floats up into the air, balancing on a literal house of cards.
"Do you need your master to carry you, dear student?"
The smugness emanating from my father's voice does somewhat annoy me.
So, in a similar fashion to Magneto, I manipulate the electromagnetic field around me, and as the electricity sparks below my feet, I begin to float into the air, standing eye to eye with him.
I see his eyes slightly widen as if trying to understand how I did it, but he smiles. "Truly, you have done so well in such a short amount of time. Well, the night is young. Shall we go?"
Giving him a nod, he begins flying towards the Brooklyn Bridge, to which I follow close behind.
(A Few Hours Later / July 6th, 2010)
Looking at my watch, I see the sun begin to rise on the horizon. The patrol was less than exciting, as it was mostly just petty crimes, which really only required me to use a basic Stunning Spell. But there was the one time where I turned a would-be mugger's bike into a snake before then turning it into a rope using Transfiguration Spells.
I could almost feel my father's surprise after I did that, but he didn't question it, although I could feel the pride emanating off of him.
The man himself floated next to me as we watched the sunrise.
"Thanks."
My father looked towards me as I said that.
"For what, student?"
"For taking the time to include me. A small part of me was thinking that you would try to baby me or just simply not include me due to my inexperience with magic."
My father simply shakes his head, although he gives me an understanding look.
"I do admit, while I did wish to do that, I also wanted to show you that this is what we fight for."
As the sun rises over the city, I see the gleaming buildings and lights create such an idyllic painting that it would make most artists weep at missing such inspiration.
"While I won't say that everything the light touches is your kingdom, my student, the world itself is your oyster. I can't keep you huddled in our small home forever. You and your sister will one day find your own paths, but for now, I just want to enjoy this time together. But I do have one question, student."
Looking towards him, he asks, "Why did you call yourself a friendly neighborhood Solomon when we arrested that car thief in Queens?"
"Inside joke that I'm going to keep to myself. I hope you don't mind."
My father just slightly chuckles as we sit there, simply enjoying the moment—at least until a ringing sound could be heard coming from my father's Justice League communicator.
"Zatara here. Is there a situation?"
It's almost impressive how my father's soft-spoken voice can become so cold and serious in a matter of seconds.
Then the monotone voice of Martian Manhunter comes through. "Nothing too serious, Zatara, but the cameras at the nearby museum in New Jersey have gone down for a few hours now. The League is currently dealing with their individual duties… may I ask if you could check?"
He then sends a confirmation and turns off the communicator.
Looking at me for a moment, he seems to be considering if he wishes to take me or not.
"I would hope that you would trust your student enough to assist you on this."
The edge in my voice causes him to almost smirk.
"Yes, I imagine you would follow me anyway. It is probably just a group of rogue mages or criminals trying to steal imported art."
He then beckons me to come closer, and soon enough, we teleport to the coordinates given by Manhunter.
The outside of the museum is quiet. Too quiet. However, as I immediately use my Mana Zone, I immediately notice a foreign magic inside the building. And before we can say anything, the front of the building explodes.
As I create a shield of electromagnetism in front of us to stop the debris, through the smoke, we see a man with a golden headband and a purple robe holding what looks to be a large and weathered book.
"Oh yes, good. I was wondering if someone was going to notice… You both shall be the perfect test subjects for my new grimoire. You both shall witness the wonder and power of Felix Faust!"
[+100 CP Achievement: Meet Felix Faust (Have Fun!)]
[300 CP Remaining]
Well, thanks for letting me know something I already knew, grimoire.