Shades of the New World

Chapter 11: The invulnerable race

"Yeah, let's start with the Elemental ones. First is the World of Fire, Authority's name is Selat of the Ivari, a Northern Plainsman. Your mother's ancestor.

Secondly, The World of Water. Authority's name is Livendia Threetails, progenitor of the Undine in the Southern Islands.

Thirdly, the World of Earth, ruled by K'rath Azruth of the Eastern Oasis.

Next is the World of Storms. Ruled by Ethez Serlant, a legendary rogue mage of the Kingdom.

The Dark World. Ruled by a woman called Helain. Origins unknown.

Luminous World. Ruled by the founder of our kingdom, Judeus Arcwall.

These Worlds are much simpler to channel compared to the Conceptual Worlds, but it's still a hard task to perform. Their applications are also very simple in the beginning: fireballs, water streams, strong wind, floating rocks, a room filled with disorienting shadows, a beacon of light to guide the soldiers at night those kinds of things.

But if you delve deeper into them, you can achieve a variety of interesting things. For example, if you mix the Worlds of Fire and Earth, you can send molten earth to your enemies. Or you could try being a miniature sun by combining the World of Fire and Light. Obviously, not all combinations will achieve practical results, but it's still fun to explore."

'Your imagination is the limit, huh. Now this is the magic we all know and love. He also mentioned something very interesting too,' Evin pondered. He never thought that Authorities would have affiliations with the four countries and wondered what kind of political effect would they have.

"And the Conceptual ones?"

"Those are the interesting ones. First is the World of Space. Ruled by Alanor Elmes, founder of the Elmes Group of Storage and Transportation Services, the Elmes Group for short, and one of the cosmic felines. Probably the most interactive World out there"

'Cosmic felines? And what's with that name? Alanor Elmes, the cat that made the Elmes Group of Storage and Transportation Services??? What's with these cats and their love for fancy names?'

"What does that mean?"

"It's a World ruled by a bunch of greedy felines that offer many convenient services, like transportation services, storage services, delivery services and things like that. But don't call them cats, they will really not like you afterwards"

"Why can't mages do it themselves? Since every mage has access to the Worlds, wouldn't it be easy to replicate what the Elmes group is doing?"

"That's what I meant when I said that magic isn't that simple. If everyone could do what everyone else did at the same level, what's the point of striving to better your crafts. The cosmic felines control everything related to the World of Space, and it's practically impossible to dethrone them off that position. You could learn about the World of Space in the Kingdom's Academy, but I'm really doubtful that you can achieve the same result as one of those cats"

"There are mages who achieved the same as them, right?"

"Of course. But most mages would just focus on their other studies and just leave everything related to Space to the Elmes group. It's much easier and efficient. At first, people were complaining about their influence, but as time passed, people just accepted them as part of society"

If every mage was associated with your organization in some way or another, it would be strange if your organization wasn't one of the most influential in the world.

"What's the next World?"

"World of Thoughts. Ruled by Veidrakar of the dragon kin, or as they like to call themselves, The Lau. Definitely the most versatile of the Worlds. You can do practically everything the other worlds do if you're that World's blessed. But to do that, you would need an enormous amount of mental energy and lodestones. So basically only extremely powerful races like the dragons can use it properly. Us humans mostly use it for illusions and mental attacks"

"Aren't you pretty good at it? Considering how you were able to appear here and converse with me from the Southern fronts," Evin asked.

"I am, but you must understand that doing this and practically using it in a battle are completely different things. In an actual war, you would have to be very subtle in how you use illusions. Plus, if I was trying use illusions in battle, I would be going up against experienced and battle-hardened mages. You can't make it too obvious, like making a dragon appear in the middle of a battlefield. Most will simply ignore it. What you can do is make the dragon breathe fire and make it so that the fire is real. Though, remember that this is just an example, don't think mages create fake dragons during battles. Most illusionists mix real magic with the illusions randomly like that, to keep the pressure on enemies"

"What about mental attacks?" just as Evin asked that, Aran smirked and pointed his finger at Evin's head.

Evin suddenly felt extremely fearful of what might happen, if Aran actually attacked his mind. He still considered himself half-insane by the standards of normal people. If he lost control here, Aran would definitely realize that something was horribly wrong with him.

"Don't use it on me!" Evin hurriedly exclaimed.

"Don't be so wary. Worry not, I won't use it to harm you. Make sure you don't fight it though" Aran shrugged.

"Ugh, okay..." Evin said reluctantly, but remembered that the woman on Earth also did something similar to him.

Aran touched the child's forehead, and a wisp of grey appeared on Aran's fingertips. It slowly seeped into Evin's head, granting him extensive information about some uses of the World of Thoughts and the origin of The Empire.

He learned that at the level of Dragons, the World of Thoughts takes on a different name: the World of Creation. Humans could only create petty tricks with the help of this World. But the dragons could display the true potential of it. Their imagination becomes reality, and all their 'illusions' start to affect reality. They were the true embodiment of the saying: Imagination is the only limit.

Their mental attacks could also intrinsically change how your mind worked. You could have become insane or crippled from their mental attacks, but you would never even realize it until it was too late.

The legend of The Fourteen Heroes entered Evin's mind. One of The Lau went berserk in the World, and a group of fourteen mages were chosen to deal with the problem. The fight continued for a month, but at the end, they slew the dragon. The heroes all survived too, so everything was perfect. But soon after, traces of madness appeared on the heroes' personalities.

They became more violent, more vicious, more controlling, and more ambitious. The heroes started to plot against each other. They rallied their people and prepared for war. Soon after, total war between every country the heroes were affiliated with happened. A tide of blood washed the lands and hundreds of million people became the sacrifice of the heroes' insanity. The war ended, and the ultimate victor appeared.

The Final Empress.

No one was sure what exactly happened afterwards, but The Empress became exceptionally powerful after this incident. She ascended into the steps of godhood, becoming the most powerful entity in the World of Alvox. Her ascension cured her madness, and she soon created the Empire. She then created the system of Authorities, sharing some of her powers with them, letting them take care of that magical side of Alvox. The Empress divided the land between the twelve races, and shut herself up in her Black Tower, never again interfering with the development of her Empire.

Evin was released from his trance, and he hurriedly gasped for air.

Aran watched the child, amused.

"How was it?" he inquired.

"I feel like puking. Really badly," Evin growled with difficulty.

"Well, now you know what a mental attack is. It's basically a forceful injection of information into your mind. Like with this example, I could use it to impart knowledge. But if I sent you substantial quantities of miscellaneous or irrelevant information, I could also use it to greatly muddle and slow your mind"

"I really don't like this form of education"

"Trust me, no one does," Aran smiled.

The World of Thoughts' versatility makes it one of the best Worlds out there.

Evin remembered that Aran also mentioned something about a World's blessed.

"What does being a World's blessed mean?"

"I'll tell you about it when you begin your studies with Arza. But now we'll talk about the World of Life. Its ruler is a woman from the Eastern Oasis named Va'eri Solvatum. The Layeq people usually have abnormally good survivability thanks to their talents with the World of Life and their innate racial ability. But their offensive capabilities in the field of magic are beyond useless aside from their compatibility with Earth, so they can only hope to kill their enemies in a close combat, or in places with high amounts of Earth."

"The reason they are still alive, even though their race is probably the weakest in terms of offensive power, is that they are essentially like cockroaches. It's not that they have good defense, you can definitely kill them if you can take them by surprise, but if they survive your initial attack, they will just try to outlast you with their healing ability and invulnerability"

'I'm pretty sure I heard something very bullshit at the end there? How can people be invulnerable?'

"What do you mean, invulnerability?"

"The Layeq people are also sometimes called half-spirits because of their ability to turn partially or completely invulnerable for a period of time. They are also disgustingly good at healing themselves. You probably still remember this, but I used the World of Life to look at your status when you were born. If I find something harmful or abnormal, I could try to nudge it to the direction of healing, which takes time and constant effort on both my and your side."

"Whereas a Layeq can just force your body to change and get into shape. They are a bit limited in their ability to heal others, but if they are trying to fix themselves, they are only limited by the amount of lodestones they have. You cut a Layeq's arm off they'll run back to their camp with their invulnerability and half an hour later they'll be back at you like nothing ever happened"

'That's a nasty combination' Evin thought. No wonder they are one of the three winning races on the continent. But their half-spirit state was the most interesting thing to Evin. Since used to be a spirit himself, he thought he should visit the Oasis, if he ever gets the chance of going there to learn more about spirits and such.

"Now that I think about it, how did humans get to stay on the continent?"

Evin felt that humans were kind of underwhelming, compared to all the other quirks and abilities the other races had.

"Mostly thanks to our versatility. For example, if you say that all human mages have an average talent of 6 out of 10 at channeling every World, then most other races would have two or three Worlds with 10 out of 10 talent and with the rest of the Worlds they would have at most 3 out of 10 talent. Unless you're a dragon, of course. If you're one of The Lau, you would have perfect talent with every World and not only that, you will score 25 out of 10 at one of the Worlds. Did I ever tell you how interested am I in your future endeavors, my lord wisdom dragon?"

'How is that even fair?' Evin found that it was positively bullshit that only one dragon is an Authority of a World. How are they not ruling over these pathetic mortals?

'It seems that I'm bringing shame to my name. Those dragons must be so disappointed in me. After I start practicing magic and if it seems I have no talent at it, I'd be well advised to kill my shameful self' Evin joked and threw the matter out of his head.

"Let's talk about the next World"

Aran chuckled and shrugged.