I could see it all.
I… felt it. In the depths of my being, I sensed it.
Like the cold wind against my skin, or light falling into my eyes, or the smell of pie wafting into my nose.
Akin to me seeing and feeling mana like a sixth sense, I could perceive what felt to me like… everything. I could see the gravity waves generated by the crowd, the chamber, and even the mountain around me, and I could feel how their masses minimally distorted space-time around them. Similarly, I felt the weak currents of electricity running through their nerves and the powerful magnetic fields generated by the Emperor and his daughter. On top of all that, I could once again passively perceive the entire electromagnetic spectrum; albeit in far greater clarity than ever before.
Everything was like a passive influx of information that never desisted.
In all, it was an abundance of information that I immediately passed off to my Eternal Eye before my mind was overloaded.
After a deep breath to regain my composure, I allowed a bit of the information to return to the forefront of my consciousness; and the moment I did, I felt the Emperor's powerful magnetic field racing towards the antechamber with a smaller source of gravity waves trailing not too far behind him.
Not too long after stepping towards them, His Imperial Majesty burst into the antechamber. Followed shortly after by my father nipping at his heels, yapping away.
I, however, was still in shock and thus didn't listen or pay any notice to the aghast expressions trained at me from around the chamber and antechamber until I was at the threshold of the platform. Where the Emperor took a deep breath before turning to my father with thanks and claims that he was right about something.
With that, the Emperor turned to us royal heirs and our vassals with glints of burning pride and wonder radiating in his ancient eyes.
And in my father's as well.
"Congratulations, young Initiates." The Emperor spread his arms before booming his voice out into the chamber. "With this day past, you all have taken your first steps to greatness. Your next step is will by week's end. Take that time to answer the questions burning deep within your minds. Test your new abilities. Grow accustomed to your new natures. On the first day of the month, the Association mages will begin their assessment. All are required to attend." He shot a sharp gaze to Abulot before resuming his casually stern tone in the very next breath. "Now, go forth, young initiates. Make use of the facilities in this here mountain, and make yourselves proud."
At his motion, a few servants appeared from a nearby doorway to escort us through the mountainous maze of the capital to our quarters. Only for the Princess to hijack their task and forcibly take us on a general tour.
True to its name, the Cast Iron Summit sat inside a vast caldera complex with a radius that ranged anywhere from 80 to 100 kilometers and sat up to twelve kilometers below the rim. Embedded within the rim and the sheer cliffs surrounding the complex were rows upon rows of illuminated porches, windows, and alcoves that overlooked the expansive caldera. A place where the guests, servants, vassals, and employees lived, according to Roheisa. The main basin below consisted of six smaller calderas arranged like a massive set of staggered stairs that began at the boarding station we arrived in. From there, a wide obsidian staircase stretched to the center of the complex before branching off to the north and south to the other zones of the summit.
Sitting radially to the entryway were the obligatory trade centers and industrial parks that were found in every capital city. Beyond those were the administrative hubs from which we just came. Or rather, the entrances to them. The VIP entrance sat on the right while the larger common entrances were on the left. From there, the receptionist would direct the visitors through the vast underground complex to their destination.
It was from there that our party emerged and turned away from the crowd to continue up the staircase towards the junction, where we turned right; south, to the expansive VIP guest wing. The caldera was 10 kilometers in radius and, like the other calderas, it was filled with a thick layer of volcanic soil that supported the dense pocket of forest above it. That forest was then riddled with parks, outdoor theaters, trails, courtyards, and above all, dozens of private guest cabins. Unlike the other calderas, however, the iron wall making up the rim of the summit had been broken off, granting the visitors unbridled views of the sky, ocean, and the Epethian continent beyond.
Opposing our little pocket of privacy was the royal castle. An irregular spire of iron and volcanic stone that looked like a crude, scaled-down version of Corvus Tower had been constructed and merged with the summit's walls; though, it was still colossal and just as magnificent.
Lastly, an expansive training area sat adjacent to the aforementioned. Though, due to the dense brush and the Princess' sudden impatience, it was an area we weren't privy to just yet.
As I expected after coming to understand the layout, the Emperor managed to isolate each of the royals with their vassals in their private areas of the forest. With cabins akin to luxury 21st-century homes.
The entryway brought us into the second level of a three-story structure. While the master suite sat on that mid-level, it was primarily reserved for the standard kitchen, dining, and living spaces one would expect to find. Eight more suites, each with a private bathroom and walk-in closet, were found scattered throughout the upper floor. As such, I and mine each had separate rooms and an expansive entertainment space on the lower level to share.
After ensuring we were settled, Roheisa hurriedly dismissed herself to then trot off in the direction of the castle.
Consequently, my vassals and I excitedly huddled around in our little basement. An admittedly expansive, albeit empty area with a sunken lounge placed at the center. We immediately settled ourselves around the U-shaped couch and took a moment to take in the environment before we began.
To me, Jaimess and Ed, the only noteworthy item was the horizontal bookshelf-like coffee table sitting in front of us. To Toril and Giorno, their eyes seemed to be fixated on the bar sitting adjacent to our little congregation. As for the others, they seemed to be focused on the sliding glass door on the back wall. Or rather, at the steaming pool of water sitting in our backyard.
"Well then." I sighed, snapping their attention back to the matter at hand. "Who wants to go first?"
"I will!" Ed snapped to the edge of his seat at once.
"Okay." I nodded. "What magical affinities were you given?"
Smirking to himself, Ed reached out his hand towards the glass door behind me and seemed to take a second to focus. As I turned along with the others, I saw a subtle shift in the ambient mana before the panel slammed open with enough force to send a web of cracks through the door.
"Shit." Ed quietly cringed.
"Don't worry about it." I turned back to him, laughing. "What was that, kinetic magic?"
"Force Magic." He shook his head, then held his open palms upward as if he were praying. From his right hand emerged a conical torch of blue-white fire. Above his left, a solid cube of the same silvery metal as before materialized and dropped to the floor with a curiously loud crash.
"That's tungsten, isn't it?" I gasped at the sight of the shattered cube on the floor.
"It is. And Torch magic." Ed meekly nodded. Then sheepishly rubbed his head once our praise came.
"I'll go next." Jonet leaned forward. And admittedly, so did I after noticing the fog lingering in the air after her words. "The first core I was given is for thermal magic. Though." She sighed. "I'd like to practice with it a little before giving you all a demonstration."
"That's probably for the best." I concurred.
"As for the others." She beamed before silently clapping her hands. Triggering silent outbursts from a few of the others. "I received sound magic and poison magic."
"-eak!"
With Jonet's visible relaxation came Jaimess' sudden shout. As one, half of us turned to see him meekly straightened himself out before calmly turning to Jonet. "Please, don't do that again."
"What'd you get, Jaimie?" She giggled in response.
'Jaimie?' I raised an inquisitive brow. Then dismissed the matter entirely as Jaimess began turning to the rest of us.
"My magics are Carbon, Silicon, and Obsidian Magic." He nonchalantly explained, causing the others to lose interest due to their ignorance.
I, however, was over the moon.
"What about you?" Jaimess somewhat impatiently asked Toril.
"Gas, Combustion and Weight Magic." My knight flatly stated. "Though, like Jonet, I can't demonstrate it without breaking something."
"I'm far more interested in what you were granted, My Lord." Giorno chimed in from the bar.
"Me too!" Letta bubbly added. "it looked so weird."
I carefully judged and cataloged each of their comedic reactions into my Eternal Eye as I casually listed off my affinities to them.
"Gravity. Space-Time. Electromagnetism. And Nuclear." Jaimess repeated slowly after a few moments.
"The only one I understand is electromagnetism," Toril said. "According to you, lightning is the same as electricity. Yet you have that and magnetism?"
"They're two sides of the same coin. As is three-dimensional space and time." I explained, drawing a box in the air with my fingers. "To put it simply, electricity can be used to create magnets, and magnets can be used to produce electricity. It's the reason your gauntlets work the way they do."
"Huh." He nodded slowly.
"And… space, and time?" Ed sporadically asked.
"Simply put, you exist in time and space simultaneously. We measure distances between two points in space by using time, for example."
"As in us saying the ride here was only a few hours long, as opposed to…" Jonet added, the suddenly trailed off.
"Exactly." I nodded. "To move through one is to move through the other, though, it's an inverse relationship. The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time, and vice versa. From an external reference frame, at least." I shrugged.
"I… don't understand." Jaimess shook his head.
"You don't have to." I shrugged.
"I do." Toril quipped. "When I'm charged with electricity, it's like the world is hardly even moving while I can move about normally."
"Okay." Jaimess rolled his eyes away from Toril and sighed before turning to me. "What about gravity and... nuclear?"
"One is simple and one is more… complicated." I snorted at both Jaimess' attitude towards his peer and the prospects of them understanding nuclear physics in a single conversation. "Perhaps I'll write you all a book on the latter. But the former is quite simple. Gravity is the force that keeps your feet planted on the ground."
They all looked down to their feet in unison. A comedic reaction, if I were to remain honest.
"It's a force of mutual attraction between all objects that have mass," I explained. "It's a pulling force that gets stronger with an increase in mass, and weaker with distance. You, me, and everything else in the universe exerts a gravitational pull on everything else. The Mortal Plane is just so massive that the gravity we give off is minuscule in comparison."
And that was the moment their minds imploded. Naturally, as a result of all the changes and information they'd been subjected to today. As people lacking Eternal Eye's I was surprised that it took this long for it to happen. The passives granted from my affinities would've shattered my mind if it weren't for the spiritual organ. As such, I could only imagine what some of them were going through.
To give them a while to digest the information and come to know their new affinities, I went to peruse the bar to kill some time.
Not to drink, however. I've never been one to enjoy getting hammered, acting like an idiot all night, and waking up the next morning to an empty wallet, a hangover, and horrid stories of last night's lunacy. I did, however, have an oral fixation for smoking. Cigarettes, e-cigarettes, giggle bush, it didn't matter to me. I even tried the harder stuff a few times. But only after the negative effects had been refined out and I installed my suite of cybernetic organs.
Oh, how I missed them.
Quite frustratingly, I found nothing of the sort in the bar. The drinks weren't even alcoholic, much to the dismay of Toril and Giorno. Interestingly enough, though, the shelves were filled and labeled with potions that did everything from recover stamina, increase one's rate of sleep, or increase the efficiency of their caloric intake.
"Listen, everyone," I said, turning back to the other with a bottle of the latter in hand. "Our means of operation will be changing after the assessment. Jonet." I turned to her. "I have a very specific job for you. One that will last until we graduate. We'll discuss it in private later."
I waited until she nodded before I turned to two of my tinkerers. "Letta and Giorno, we'll be finding a settlement in the wild for you two to reside in during our absence. That settlement will one day become the guild's first territory, so I want you two to uplift the place to our standards and begin spreading your brands in the process."
Though his apprehensiveness was clear, Giorno nodded his agreements without fuss. Letta on the other hand, enthusiastically agreed as she always did.
"As for the rest of you. Starting from the moment we arrive at the academy, we are to operate individually. You are not to follow me around wherever I go. I can take care of myself, similarly, you all can take care of yourselves. That was the reason I trained you so extensively, after all. But, training can only get us so far. Now, we need experience. So, choose your own classes, form your own contacts, make your own circles, and most of all, learn about yourselves.
"And always remember where your loyalties lie." I sternly warned. "Never let anyone bully you, regardless of their status. That goes for every one of you. Understood?"
"Undoubtedly." Toril grinned.
And Jonet lowered her head. "Yes, My Lord."
"Fully," Jaimess said calmly.
"I do." Ed nodded.
"Yes, Sir." Giorno bowed.
"Yes, Your Grace." Letta calmly stated, for once.
"Good." I grinned. "You have my word that I'll always look out for you. So long as you look after me. While we're in school, I need each of you to recruit people you favor into our guild. I don't care about skills, those can be developed later. A person's character is far more important to me. I don't care how you do it, I trust your judgment. I only care that you do it inconspicuously."
They nodded their affirmations once more before moving their separate ways to lounge or rest for the night while Jonet and I moved to a separate area of the house to speak in privacy.