When Seth woke up, his mother was long gone. His door was locked once again and there was no trace of her being there at all. He scanned his room and found a single note on his bedside table. He gently picked it up and read its contents before burning it with elemental fire, leaving not even a speck of ash as evidence of it ever existing. The note confirmed most of Seth's thoughts and gave him an idea of what to do next. He would have to do something to show his innocence and "loyalty" to his father, who had been possessed by the leader of the Cult of Peace. Seth thought up a plan. He would have to be let out some time, in order to test him before he grew too strong to be held by the castle.
When he would be let out of his room to be tested by his father, the tests would not be plain and simple. The tests would likely be indirect and seem like incidents in hopes to see what Seth would do in such situations. Seth figured that he would have to do everything that would make him seem like a slave to his father and the Cult of Peace. Seth hated the thought, but he knew he would just have to suck it up and bow down to them. Although he would have to pretend to be a lackey for the time being, Seth knew that he would soon reach the limit of the world, allowing him to do as he pleases. Seth smiled at the thought of getting back at the people who had made him bend a knee.
Seth realized though, that he would have to learn more tricks and techniques if he wanted to truly stand on top of the world. Even just one technique had doubled two of his stats, which was an amazing amount. Not only that but Seth's Strength skill was making his Body Strength stat ten times its normal amount. If anybody had a better Strength skill or any other skill of the sort, they would be countless times stronger than Seth. Seth also never forgot about the divinities, they were thousands of times stronger than he was. If he took the long way about gaining strength it would take him thousands of years to reach even Lower Divinity. He would need to find ways to get stronger faster if he wanted to even hold a candle to the weakest Divinity.
Seth had a few ideas, namely gathering all of the treasures in the world and buying things from the system. Seth also knew that growing up increased the body's strength by a lot, so he would just have to wait for some things to happen. Seth didn't know if there was a maximum Growth Speed but if there was, he wanted to reach it. Seth had no idea where to find treasures though, so he decided he would just ransack a ton of cults and steal theirs. After coming up with this very well-thought-out and structured plan, Seth laid down on his bed and waited for his captor to release him. He wouldn't just laze around though, he would still continue practicing controlling elementals.
. . .
Spencer and Jack were quite bored without Seth around. He had all of the cool techniques and spells for them to practice. They practiced some of the techniques that Seth had shown them before he was suspended, but they had already gotten quite good at controlling their magic. They had gotten so good, in fact, that they had figured out a way to infuse their magic power into the world around them and sense everything for a mile radius. They had even re-enchanted their clothes and had made them many times stronger than before. Practicing the same techniques over and over was quite boring though, so they searched for new ones on their own.
Seth could have never known, but he had unleashed two monsters upon the world. Both of his friends were far more talented at using magic than even Seth himself, and they had already surpassed him in just a few months.
. . .
Seth woke up to the screams of maids and guards alike. He opened his eyes to see nothing but flames. Seth knew what was happening, he had planned for it. He quickly sprang into action and spread out his magic power to sense the entire castle. He was still unable to sense the Library of Peace or the upper floors, but that didn't matter. Seth moved the elementals around all of the people in the castle and moved them to the front of the castle through the ground. He flew into the air and scanned his surroundings, he was a few fleeting shadows flying around the premises. Seth couldn't sense the shadowy figures with his magic so he felt that it was safe to assume that they were the same people that attacked the school.
The cult was likely to have been baited into attacking the castle by Arthur in order to test him. Due to him being locked up, they had probably gotten information that one of their own was captured. Whether or not Seth was a traitor, the Cult of Peace would win and the attacking cult would lose a lot of members. It was a win-win for Arthur and the rest of the Cult of Peace. Seth didn't bother with the details though, why the castle was being attacked didn't matter. All that mattered is cementing himself as loyal to his father.
Seth made the elementals throughout the castle to form a barrier around it. This would stop the invaders from getting out and it would allow him to have a better way of attacking them from all angles. He readied himself to fight by infusing his body with elementals and increasing his strength by many times in the process. Seth flew to the nearest cultist and made walls of elementals form around him to block him from escaping. The cultist became a smoothie under the sheer force of the collision, leaving only a blood-soaked Seth from the impact. Seth licked his lips greedily and grinned, searching for his next opponent, no, prey.
Seth let himself go as he ran around the burning rubble that was once his home, killing everyone he saw with a wide, toothy smile. Were it not for his whole figure being soaked in blood and his eyes filled with a vicious light, it would look like he was just a normal kid having fun. The people he killed with such a smile, however, did not see such a connection. They only saw his grin as they were murdered in cold blood by someone they had come to save. Seth only spent a few minutes to clear out the thirty-odd cultists, his strength was far ahead of them with all of his buffs.
Seth relished in the smell of the fire and blood before he sighed heavily, and, with a light whisper, he spoke for the first time since he had gotten home.
"It's... beautiful."
Seth's admiration of the scene was cut short though, as a little rat had escaped the trap and was still scuttling around. Seth didn't kill this one, he decided to capture it and give it to his father to show his loyalty. He appeared in front of the cultist and knocked him out, before picking his unconscious body up like a piece of baggage. Seth released the elementals in his body and lowered the barrier around what used to be the castle. He dragged the cultist over to where he had sent the rest of the castle's inhabitants. Seth couldn't see his father or mother among the people, but he knew they hadn't been harmed.
The maids and guards that had stood outside of the barrier and heard the heart-wrenching wails that Seth's prey had produced before they died watched in horror as a figure that could barely even be considered to look human due to all of the blood and gore walked towards them with a body in tow. A few of them fainted and the rest backed away from what they could only assume was a demon coming to reap their souls. Seth noticed the odd looks but he didn't care about these little people. He just cleaned the blood off with a spell and kindly asked where his parents were. Just as he had thought, they had escaped by themselves.
Seth waited with the people, not bothering with the subconscious avoidance of eye contact and backing away. nothing else happened until a carriage pulled up out of nowhere and Seth's parents stepped out. Arthur singled out a guard and spoke with him out of hearing distance. Seth didn't know what they were talking about but it was likely that the guard was a spy planted by Arthur to see what he did. After a few minutes of talking, the two came back to the group and looked at the smoldering rubble of the castle. Arthur looked at the carriage and nodded, drawing Seth's attention.
Seth saw a large number of elementals and a massive wave of magic power get emitted out of the carriage and sent to the rubble. The castle slowly rebuilt itself from its pieces, with elementals filling in the gaps. In just a few minutes, the castle was finished and it was as if the whole fiasco had never happened. Everyone went back inside the castle and seemingly forgot about the whole ordeal. Seth felt that the magic displayed was like a much worse recreation of what his master had done, though he knew that the principals were not nearly the same. Seth's master had directly interfered with time itself, whereas this magic had only moved heavy things and erased memories.
Seth was pulled off to the side by his father after everyone had gone back to their places. Arthur thanked him and said that he had really proven himself before taking the unconscious cultist and leaving the castle. Seth could tell that his father didn't mean it though, and he could see why. Seth's fighting and such was too obviously planned, and he hadn't bothered to look for his family. It probably seemed suspicious that he had gone straight into attacking the cultists without a second thought. What he had done had likely only proven that he wasn't a part of the specific attacking cult. His actions had likely also had an added effect by also proving that he was dangerous, very dangerous.
Seth was just glad that he wouldn't be locked in his room though, as he felt that Arthur had other plans. Arthur probably wanted to coax Seth into a false sense of security so that he would be able to fully see his actions. Seth would just have to not change anything and wait for the next "accident" to occur to prove his loyalty. Seth had let Arthur know more about the full scope of his abilities, though he hadn't used any magic when he was around. Arthur now knew that Seth was very proficient in using elementals, but he still didn't know that Seth had broken the seal.
Seth had only used pure strength and elementals in the fight, though he had used magic to sense the castle. The magic could all be chalked up to using elementals though as he could have done the same with them. Seth wasn't all that surprised by the spy that his father had planted, but he was surprised by the magic skills that were shown by the man in the carriage. His father's Cult of Peace was seeming more mysterious than ever before. Seth looked around for the Library of Peace to get some books to read, practicing controlling elementals all day was really boring.
Seth found the library in its usual place, though he found that he was now able to open the door by himself. It seemed that Arthur was really leaning into causing him to fall into a false sense of security. Seth suddenly had a thought, neither the library nor the upper floors of the castle could burn down. The rubble and the destroyed castle were all fake, even the scene of it being rebuilt. Everything could have been faked by Arthur, and Seth would never know.