The red orb had been gathering energy for longer than the other ones were doing, it was also higher off the ground, or at least it seemed like it from this distance. Since it was clearly visible it seemed that the orb itself was also larger. As it was not far from the crater that Gilliam made it was somewhat hard to judge it properly.
Angela was pacing back and forth, muttering a bit to herself. Petal had gotten up and was standing very close to Gilliam, looking generally worried. Savia was back in his hair-nest.
Gilliam himself was still standing there, smiling to himself like he was about to dump a bucket of unmentionables onto someone he hated.
"I might have an idea." He stated out to nobody in particular.
This snapped Angela out of her pacing and had Petal look to him instead of the growing orb in the distance.
"What do you mean? You're going to destroy the orb again?" She seemed a bit more relaxed after stating that question. Which made sense, what was better than to just destroy the anchor point in this world.
"No, when it opens I'm going to nuke it." Gilliam was looking forward to giving something back to the demons that treated him like they did. In a sense he kind of already returned the favour with the almost war-like level of deaths that happened. But none of that really mattered at the time.
He had found a use case for his current mega-spell.
"Nuke?" Angela was confused for a moment but seemed to connect the dots. "You mean that huge fireball? That's i-" She stopped herself from completing the sentence and thought about it for a few seconds instead.
"If you're accurate enough, that could work... If there is an invasion force on the other side of the portal, and the damage you'll do on their side...."
She seemed to like this idea more and more. "The red orb is higher up than the others, if this means that the portal will be bigger there might be a larger force on the other side. They might be angry with you." She smiled a bit now that the situation felt more like it was under control.
"You might be able to do some damage to their forces."
Gilliam sighed a bit, his smile fading. "There were so many of them, just the size difference from the Finger to the Hand landmass, there are bound to be millions of them. Though, this should close the gate as I doubt the mages who keep the gate open can handle it."
His grin partly returned, he was oddly looking forward to this.
It didn't take long before Aeris started dropping people, shortly after their talk stopped she came into existence for a brief moment, landing Jial and Ghaos before she disappeared again.
Both of them seemed to react to the presence of the red orb immediately, it wasn't exactly suffocating but it was like a powerful magical beacon.
"Are you going to destroy the orb?" Jial asked Gilliam as he walked up to stand next to him.
"No, I plan on sending a massive explosion through the gate as soon as it opens. You see the crater over there, behind the orb?" Gilliam pointed at the massive crater in the distance. "That used to be more islands until like an hour ago."
He chose to not add anything more than this, both Jial and Ghaos was at the school when he gave Unstructured magic a test a while ago, given that his knowledge and experience have had dramatic improvements since then, it seemed that it was enough to explain.
"Should we be worried?" Ghaos' voice had a slight hint of a chuckle as he stepped up to the other side of Gilliam, eyeing the same view as the others.
"Yes, you should." Angela broke into the conversation. "The fire almost reached to here, the shockwave knocked us over and, had there not been mostly water around us I'm sure it would be worse."
She almost shouted it in angry disbelief, even though she had experienced it herself that hour ago.
Gilliam pondered a second, not turning to anyone he took out a fist sized, and marble sized mana crystal. Referring to the fist-sized one first he explained. "It uses about two of these for power, and one of these to stabilise it."
He held them in his hand for a moment more to let them react before putting them back in his ring. He didn't know how much this rang with Jial, but since Ghaos was some weird mana crystal specialist due to how his magic worked, and based on his almost terrified expression, it seemed that it rang well there.
"I'm terrified of your potential..." Ghaos muttered to Gilliam as the crystals were put away. Gilliam could understand why, given how easy he could make the massive crystals and the extent of his Boundary, which had expanded since he started the training a while ago, it made sense that he surpassed the norm quite some time ago.
Gilliam also took a bit of pride in that statement, everyone likes compliments and Gilliam was no exception. No matter how odd they might be phrased.
Aeris landed again with a group of soldiers this time, they all wore armour in the style of Ghaos' people. This time she was looking tired, like she had just completed a full-body workout.
"I just realised another, less destructive idea." Gilliam suddenly stated to get their attention. "If the gate works like I think it does, if we make a strong barrier a hairs width away from the portal itself, won't that just disintegrate them before they can enter?"
He absolutely got the idea from that Sci-fi series in the modern world, with the parasitic aliens and the portal network around the galaxy.
Jial seemed to ponder this for a moment before nodding. "It's possible. It would affect the manifestation of the travellers." He thought for a few seconds on the topic. "But it would need quite some energy to power that for any proper time. In case they keep trying for a while."
"I currently have seven of the large crystals, and I can make two or three of them in a sitting, at least a few times a day." This was true, it would be taxing for him but with enough food and drink it was absolutely possible.
This also had Ghaos lift an eyebrow for a moment.
Jial seemed like he wanted to react to react but stopped himself as the red orb was beginning to do things. They couldn't hear much from this long distance but they could see the shockwave of energy extending from the sphere, tearing up ground, wood and unlucky birds nearby. It stopped moving and imploded, pulling all the debris it just destroyed into itself into a large explosion of energy. Though this time the debris remained within the explosion of red and purple light as it formed a large arch. Given how well they could see it at this distance it was clear that it was larger.
Gilliam activated the Star Lance pocket, his hand stretched out towards the portal so far away, he wanted to send the spell into it as soon as the portal opened, so it didn't hit someone on the way and activate on this side.
As soon as his hand was stretched out the spell had activated, the large and complex spell circle burst into existence with an almost hissing pulse, it was glowing an angry fiery colour but still kept its lines clear and thin. Casting a glance over to Jial, Gilliam could see that he had lost his stoic expression, in its palace was surprised with his mouth agape.
Gilliam couldn't help but take pride in that reaction.
Given the amount of energy the spell needed it took a few seconds to charge up, however due to the wondrous creation that was the coat, it only needed those few seconds. The radiant heat from the magic circle grew in strength alongside the charging. This was amazing, the time he needed to cast smaller things now covered this large artillery scale magic. The two spell circles were charged, glowing and ready to go.
Both Ghaos and Jial wanted to say something but they held their tongue as the little aiming circle of the spell locked onto the target Gilliam had mentally chosen. As soon as the standing puddle of energy had formed, Gilliam gave the final push of the circle. The circle collapsed much faster than last time. The outer support circle collapsed alongside it and both of them reached critical mass at the same time, pulsing into a small sun in front of Gilliam. Leaves and other debris in the air instantly caught fire once it got close enough and once the aiming circle was properly locked on and blinked once, everything activated its final stage. The sun shot forwards at amazing speed, the very air popped and crackled as it made its way towards the standing portal.
Gilliam widened his stance, putting one foot far behind himself and standing sideways towards the portal, placing one hand on Savia, he was preparing himself.
Ghaos saw what Gilliam was doing and mimicked it instantly, Angela steeled herself and Jial was just looking at the sun in awe.
Everything went flawlessly, the sun passed through the portal energy, and though it took a whole second for anything to happen there was an incredibly strong flickering of the portal energy before a massive shockwave followed by a wall of fire bellowing out through the portal. It was enough to tear up the ground and fauna even more than it already was. Everything stopped as the portal deactivated as soon as the fire came through, stopping its movement after not even a second. The red sphere deactivated and shattered, the rock, dirt and wood that made up the arch were sent flying everywhere having returned to debris.
As the shockwave that reached them was only enough to gently slap them a little, nobody was knocked over and his exaggerated stance was, luckily, wasted.
All in all, it was surprisingly anticlimactic. Somewhat amazing and cool, absolutely but since the explosion was on the other side of the portal and just a tiny fraction made it through before the whole thing, and the casters, were torn to bits it just felt a bit lacklustre.
Gilliam was enjoying the mental image of the reaction on the other side.
Jial muttered something, Gilliam wanted to ask what he said but he was stopped by a slap on the shoulder by Ghaos' strong hand.
"I think you're going to have to explain that one to us." It was not phrased like a request.
"Oh, it's simple. I signed a contract with Alleyan of the Mazewares company, he gave me this amazing coat that can hold spell circles and mana crystals for instant activation, in turn he got to use my name for advertisement, there's more to it but that's the short of it."
Gilliam smiled, condensing it all into a simple explanation.
"No.. not th-" Ghaos was interrupted as Gilliam was turned to face Jial by Jial having grabbed his shoulder. "Explain that spell. Now."
Jial's stoic expression had returned, it almost looked angry as he demanded to know about it.
"Oh, no problem. In short I'm stacking a ton of power-based runes on top of a sphere rune, this is accompanied by several energy storage runes to form the sun, a secondary aether spell circle handles keeping its stability and aiming. As it connects hard enough the stability fails as the aether circle breaks and it releases the collected energy." Again Gilliam explained it all too casually, but abstracted down it really was all there was to it.
Jial let his arm slide off Gilliam's shoulder and fall limply to his side. "You don't say..."
"What, is there something wrong about it?" Gilliam was wondering a bit, he knew for a fact that this was a good spell, a bit unrefined, perhaps, but it worked amazingly. Considering the explosion the other side must have had, if they weren't angry before they would be now.
"No, absolutely not but..." Ghaos was a bit lost of words, it seemed that he had a point but he just didn't know how to formulate it.
"It's fucking insane." Angela chimed in, having Ghaos point in her direction with a resounding agreement. "Yes, that. I don't think you properly realise what you did."
This had Gilliam pause a bit, arrogance and ego aside this seemed like a bigger deal than he thought. He knew this was not something that just some random mage could replicate but...
"What do you mean? I know it's a bit more than what most mages can do but is it really that weird?"
He knew it was weird, it was a product of his cheat-level power and knowledge, but parts of him hadn't really properly considered just where the scale stopped.
"This was a ritual-level spell, meaning you normally need at least two or three mages, and that's not even considering that it uses two-" Ghaos put heavy pressure on the word 'two'. "-of those massive mana crystals of yours. You are clearly underestimating the power you are just throwing about."
Ghaos had a serious tone on that last part, it was not just envy or some surprise thing.
"I specialise in mana crystals, and the largest crystal I can create is a bit over half of that size. That will take my entire Boundary in a sitting and I could probably not do that more than twice in one day."
Gilliam started pondering, a bit over half of the gems he usually stops at is about a third of what he theoretically could do. Since he can make about three before his Boundary is out.
Rough maths put Gilliam's boundary on six times that of Ghaos, and he was a powerful battlemage that was handling the security at the Academy. He might be focusing on his physical combat but he didn't seem like a slouch when it came to magic either. The important bit to consider was that he was a mana crystal specialist.
All of this was also without considering his Mana core or the purity of the gem he could make...
"Ah... I see..." Gilliam was brought back down to earth, metaphorically, he started seeing the difference in things. Something he was somewhat aware of but he had gotten used to his own level that he never really considered the reality of things.
On the other hand this really boosted the view of his own powers, he couldn't pretend to not be happy about what he was, once all of this was done he was considering milking it at least a little.
There were some murmurs between the group of soldiers as well, not loud enough that Gilliam could make out what was being said, but enough that he could feel the discomfort.
This could also explain why he wasn't approached more than he already was at the academy. Logically speaking everyone would try to get on his good side, become part of his Circle or just... Some form of positive social tie. Getting good with someone of that status would only be good in the future, but there had been an incredible lack of that so far.
Gilliam thought it was because of how the Academy rules put everyone on the same social standing, but why wouldn't people try anyway? Another thing he considered was fear, he was powerful and he had used power to threaten people before, not to mention the Garend thing, but that was after he returned from the Fractured Lands, people would have tried to get good with him before that happened. Especially after he closed the first Gate.
This felt a bit odd to him, he was an outsider and man without a noble name to him, but he assumed that his title would have people ignore that fact.
Though, all that being considered, he did like not having people attacking him from anywhere with attempts of joining his Circle or whatever. There were a few that tried during the public Circle joining day but besides that.
This was too much to consider at the moment, Gilliam wanted to rest, he needed to make more fire gems as well as consider a lot of things. The larger gate that just opened now hinted that they had an invasion ready. It was only a few days since he came back, and though time flowed differently in the Fractured Lands it still didn't take that long. Not knowing how much of that time went to damage control and cleanup of the tower and how much went to gathering troops, it was hard to say how long it would take this time.
Considering that everyone seemed super ready to fight when he entered the Hand the last time, he gathered that it wouldn't be that long.
Gilliam pondered another thing, why did the gate open here? Was there another one at the academy? There couldn't be, in that case Gilliam would be requested to return instead of the people coming here into the middle of nowhere.
"I think we should go back. I'm sure we have something else to talk about." Forcing a topic change it was time to head back.
Poor Aeris needed a moment before bringing people back, Savia offered to help but Aeris declined that strongly. It seemed that the little harpy was not ready for passengers just yet.
Once Aeris had rested enough she brought everyone in a larger group and brought them back at the same time, the teleport this time took a bit longer in the form of energy buildup, but it worked as it should and after the short light-blindness passed they were in the middle of the Aether field at the academy.
The guards went their own way, seeming to have things to do. Since Gilliam, Petal and Angela were brought along by Jial and Ghaos for another report, and Savia was not needed for that, she went with Aeris to see the teleportation teacher.
Gilliam and co were led up the central staircase into the headmaster's office. Being told to report here and now, instead of waiting for a larger assembly of pompous assholes like last time was oddly refreshing.
This time the report didn't take long, Gilliam explained his side of things without going too hard into details about the coat, his testing, Savia or anything that didn't directly have anything to do with the Gate. No need to over share.
Jial and Ghaos added some thoughts on the tactical-level spell Gilliam used; the Star Lance was apparently liked by the headmaster as well. The fact that the gate was larger as well as having formed where they were, instead of around the school again, hinted that Gilliam was somewhat involved in this.
The headmaster had done some investigation since last regarding the Gate and its apperance, it seemed that the gates opened up near strong magical signatures. The academy was one such area due to the collection of mages and the magical defences surrounding it. Due to said defences might also be why it opened outside of the academy and not inside of it.
There had been gates opening up elsewhere in the world after the second gate was shut down before it opened, though with what they had learned it was relatively easy to destroy them as long as there were enough mages around. The danger would be when a gate fully opened somewhere and the demons managed to get a foothold.
"Then we need to somehow stop them from coming here in the first place." Gilliam chimed in. It was... a simple answer with a complicated execution. "Not every demon has the gifts or knowledge needed to open the gates, if we take them out, or kill the demon lord somehow, won't that work?"
Looking around the room he saw different expressions, though most of them had a hint of uncertainty and disbelief.
"I mean... I don't know these things too well but when the next gate opens, can't we just teleport in, teleport up and find out where to go from there?"
Again he said it like it was nothing, this was dangerous and had a high, a very high risk of no return.
"Though true." Jial replied. "It would most likely be a one-way mission. And there is no way to confirm if it worked or not until it's possibly too late." He didn't seem happy with the thought of the mission succeeding, but the world still living in uncertainty.
"Could we make an item that allows for cross-dimension teleportation, and then send someone back with information once it's over? Alternatively, having some magic item that sends constant updates so you know if people died? I... ironically enough don't know enough about magic to know if this works or not... but could that be a thing?"
Gilliam realised that though he was considered the prime of power and knowledge simply from knowing the runes and being the Heptagon Mage... He oddly enough had very, very little actual knowledge about things. A nice example was that he still didn't know how to cast the cleaning magic spell that felt like a common thing.
The people around him thought about this for a moment, but the one that broke the silence was actually Petal.
"I... Might have something..." She was hesitant, perhaps based on the order about harming him, he didn't really know if this extended to reputation or stuff like that.
Though it seems that nobody reacted, though she wasn't looked at positively she was given the nod to continue by Ledels. "If you kill the Lord, you become the new Lord if you can defend the position. If the Lord dies in battle he is replaced but if he is challenged the winner takes over. The hierarchy is very power based, so if you are strong enough..."
She seemed incredibly uncomfortable, but she shared good info that kind of already made sense, but seemed that nobody had considered.
"So... if we can get to him and officially challenge him... and win, that could be the end of it all?" Gilliam was a bit unsure about how simple it was, it wasn't that far from his originally blurted out idea about killing him but... This also made sense culturally.
Ghaos chuckled. "So, we just need to find someone who's willing to get into a world of enemies, get themselves to the center one of floating islands without a map or anything to guide, challenge some demon lord and win... no biggie!"
"I mean..." Gilliam decided to ignore the sarcasm for now. "Combining the ideas... If a teleporter comes along this could work. From the explanations I got from Sirzan, there is a space between the landmasses, you can absolutely fly between them, it's just that nobody there has enough mana to try properly. With teleportation and flying I think it could work somehow.... It's going to be risky and draining, though..."
He decided to not mention that he could fly a theoretical infinite amount of time, as his passive recharging rate was more than the draining when flying. He didn't know how it worked when passed on to others but he apparently had a stupid mana pool, stocking up on mana gems to absorb like mana potions would extend this quite a lot.
And considering all of this, the best would most likely be to have a small group go and do this. But that group would have to not only be very skilled, but be aware of the no-return risk. Besides, once they do win and get control and all that... Then what? Tell them to behave? Slap them on the wrist and have them not do this anymore?
"What do we do once we do win?" Gilliam decided to involve this into the planning. "Tell them to send us home and not do this anymore?"
This silenced the room again.
After a few moments Ledels broke the silence. "Well, this needs to be discussed by people better at this than me. I'll take this further up in the chain, I would prefer it if you keep being around the Academy for the time being..." The request was absolutely self centred, but it also made a bit of sense. He was the best person to have around for the gates.
Gilliam just nodded for now, agreeing mostly for Petal's sake. She was tolerated at the Academy, though he wanted to travel the world a bit this could cause several problems. This ended the meeting as Ledels left the room with them, he headed down the stairs quickly, passing them on the way. Jial and Ghaos went off to do their own thing which left Gilliam and company without any direction.
"So... Now what?" Gilliam asked the group as they were nearing the ground floor.
"I... I need to go train to keep up with your shenanigans." Angela pointed blamingly at Petal, but with a suggestive smile, forcing Gilliam to chuckle.
Angela left them without really letting them respond, and all things considered, Gilliam had some planning and things to do on his own, but first he needed to eat.
After being done eating Gilliam placed a cut apple piece in the ring's storage as a test of food spoiling.
The rest of the day was not too interesting.
Aeris and Savia were gone for most of it, Petal simply wanted to stay close to Gilliam and used any excuse for body contact. Gilliam didn't dislike it but it made the focus he needed on the mana crystals once he got back to his room a bit harder.
Savia eventually popped up in his room from nowhere, startling both Gilliam and Petal, forcing him to lose focus enough to break the magic circle he was working on at the moment.
Focus changed to her for a while where she went through the things she had learned and what she was able to do. And in the end; night creeped in and though it finally became bedtime, Petal had other ideas.
Gilliam abruptly woke to the sound of knocking on his door, it startled him almost as much as the bloody school bell, mainly due to it being unexpected.
He mumbled through his sleep and managed to mutter out a "Yes?"
An unknown female voice replied outside. "Mr. Gibson... Sir... You are requested outside."
She sounded hesitant and scared.
Sitting up in the bed he was still not exactly mentally present. "By who?"
"Lord Silverhawk and his company, Sir..." Again she sounded very hesitant and uncertain.
Gilliam's not yet awake mind tried to process the name, but all he could imagine was a bird made of silver... How would it even fly if it's that heavy?
"Who?"
The woman outside sounded even more hesitant, almost like she didn't even want to reply, but in the end answered. "S... Sir... It's the father of student Garend Silverhawk."