^^ Erie ^^

--- Day 145 AD, 08:00 ---

I stood up slowly, and paced, staring at Drake, who was standing, mindless, in the corner.

I sighed and sat down, deciding to speak to Tern. I entered Frey's mind, and leaned my head back.

---

I slithered along the forest floor, and followed Tern's scent, ending up at his hut. I entered, and coiled up in front of him.

"Hello, Tern. Long time no ssspeak." I said through Frey.

He slowly opened his eyes, and hummed. "Ah, Caleb... What's the occasion?"

"I would like to know sssomething... What will happen if I use a human Mage to make a familiar?" I asked simply.

He blinked slowly. "I... It's been tried before, by a Shifter who wanted to be able to recycle his consciousness, but age normally and live a normal lifetime, each time."

"Did he sssuccssseed?"

"His Sola (reincarnation) still exists today, the 14th, I believe. He was an Old One, like you. He used a miscarried baby as fuel for a familiar, and received a whole one." He nodded.

"I sssee... And the child?"

"When it was created, he pulled his soul out of his dagger, and into the child, as it had no soul before. It grew as any child, and he died immediately, or so everyone thought, until the child began displaying his magical abilities. Memory was later established, though only a small set of snippets. All his knowledge was present."

"And how did the next one come about?"

"When he died, another child, seemingly random, that one a girl, was born, and letter developed the knowledge and skills, and the same Small set of memories, that were later learned to have been set there by the original on purpose, so he would always know who he was. That continued for 14 generations. 14 Sola's." He nodded.

I hissed in interest. "Very interesssting... I will look into thisss sssome more... Wasss there any sssignificant sssign each child was the ssSola?"

"The eyes. The child's eyes were always the same as the originals Shifter eyes, and they were always Wolf Shifters, despite their parentage. Even one generation, a wolf was born to a family of Snakes. My great-uncle was one of the children." He answered.

"And their children?"

"The children of the Sola's displayed the traits of both the Sola and their second parent, though heavily leant towards the Sola." He hummed.

"Alwaysss?"

"There were rare cases in which certain children didn't, and were instead directly similar to their grandparents and mothers, or in two cases, their fathers." He shook his head in confusion.

"Ssso the ssSola was changed not only physssically and mentally, but also hisss genesss were altered... Interesssting... Thank you, Tern. I am most pleasssed with thisss Lessson." I bowed my snakes head, and slithered out, disconnecting.

---

Tizzy stood in front of me when I opened my eyes. "You know how weird it is for non-shifters to see your eyes do that?" She asked.

"I can imagine. What do you need, my love?" I pulled her into my lap.

"Heh. It's summer break. You need to take a break." She smiled.

"I'm not on break yet. The emperor has tasked me with fighting Lord Michaelis, to break my engagement with Teresa." I sighed.

She blinked. "Lord... MICHAELIS?!?!?!" She screeched.

I covered my ears. "Ow. Yes, him. So if you don't mind, I have to study." I smiled and kissed her sweetly.

She smiled. "Fine. Ira, Jazz, and I are down on the beach... Naked... And Ready..." She walked out, making a show of stripping as she walked.

"Brat." I muttered, abandoning my lab.

--- Day 146 AD, 18:00 ---

I succeeded in creating a familiar from Drake's corpse, and was rewarded with a fully grown, extremely Fit, Male specimen. I hummed, and nodded. "You'll need a soul, won't you? Yes... I know just where to get the perfect one. You'll be the protector of my Sola... Until I'm fully grown."

I began writing in my grimoire.

"Your cycles will be set twenty years before mine, so that you're born and fully grown, and searching for my Sola, my Heir, which you'll have a pull to. Yes... Ha." I chuckled, pushing the magic into the soulless man, creating the spells that Tern had described.

I inserted everything I knew about the physical aspect of war, and then the mental side, and even the Magical Side, making him a walking, talking encyclopedia, with the knowledge and body to fight like me. He'd be just as strong as me, and even stronger, as well. All my physical capabilities. Perfection.

I also created a version of the spell that would create a separate piece of the Sola's mind, a small Eden, basically, which would, over time, fill with the memories of each one of my Sola's, without giving the small child the memories, sparing them from that madness. They would, however, have access to the original sources.

I also change the part about being a Wolf Shifter, removing it completely. The Sola wouldn't be Leopard Shifters, but actually Dragon Shifters, with Gem's abilities and Form.

Each would be emblazoned with my Shifters Eyes as a mark, as well as a skin story that will write itself over the course of their life, starting with The Eye of Solomon on their dominant palm, representing the gods oversight and wisdom guiding the child, and the story would expand as they did great and terrible deeds.

I wrote the end result down in my Grimoire in my Mage language, (another thing being passed down,) and observed my handiwork, nodding.

Then I decided to instead write all of my magic into a Grimoire, magically locked, and also physically encrypted, that would hold all of my magical knowledge.

That way my descendants weren't overpowered. Men with power are exploited. Weak men are also exploited, but when weak men become strong overnight, many people panic and lose their grips.

Also, it would be an undeniable way to check if someone was my descendant, because they would have my specific magical Genetic Marker, but expanded because of the Dragon Shifter part.

The grimoire itself would look like a book, on the outside, but have fifty pages made of clear glowing touch screens, layered in so many stigmata that no one that wasn't of my blood could even see the book or anything within ten feet of it when it was open.

The spine would be the QUEST link, the signal so strong it could reach it anywhere in the empire, and when I expanded my Nova Core to the rest of the world and beyond, there to.

In it, I placed my magical knowledge in a way so that it was devised of Lessons, and completing a lesson unlocked the next lesson, and so on. Everything I knew, from chemistry to physics, and on. Even the physical arts were in there, they had their own volume dedicated to them, at the beginning of the book.

There would be no shortcuts. No descendant of mine would be one of those who needed instant gratification with knowledge and power.

Soon I had the small digital book ready, and I nodded, locking it with my magical thumbprint, which was composed of my fingerprint, DNA, and my magical energy. "I think this'll do." I grinned.

"For what?" Tizzy asked.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, WOMAN!!!" I shrieked, shifting in fright.

She laughed loudly, slapping her thigh. "Oh wow that's always awesome." She sighed, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.

I shifted back. "What do you want, Tizzy?" I sighed, sitting in my chair after righting it, and picking up my grimoire.

She giggled. "I was just checking on you. Your fight with Michaelis is tomorrow. Are you ready?" She asked, serious now.

I smiled. "Yes, I'm ready. I know everything he does, now." I said, and slipped the unobtrusive looking book into the bookshelf, next to ten others that looked just like it, labeled 'CVI-CVX', which meant 'Caleb's Volume 1-10'.

Volume CVI was my Grimoire. Volumes 2-10 held my studies of the planets in the solar system, and my formula's for my changed Glyph's, as well as a list of my invented Glyph's, and even my studies on Familiar's, and their applications in technology, all readable only by me and my descendants.

The final volume held all of my designs for engineering and mechanics, from weapons to buildings, and even submarine cities on the ocean floor.

Tizzy hummed. "Done a bit of writing, I see." She went to touch a book, and it zapped her. She yanked back her hand. "Ow! Rude." She huffed at me.

I smiled. "Yes, well. I'm fine, lover. How are you and the girls? I'm sorry I've been so busy, I was curing Stonemason's Disease, and then studying for my fight."

She smiled. "I heard about that. Good going, you maybe put every healer in the city out of business."

"They deserve to be put out of business. Most of them aren't even really mages, and their 'cures' are in no way anything but placebo's." I snarled, enraged at the thought.

She blinked. "Oh. I'd no notion."

"Hmph." I grumbled, pulling her into my lap and nuzzling her neck. "But there is something that would help me with my Match tomorrow..." I said gently, biting her ear.

"Oh? Hmm... Well, anything to help... I live to serve." She winked, slowly drifting down towards my crotch.

"Good. Because I need help cleaning this lab up, it's a disaster, and it's hurting my OCD mind." I said crisply, standing.

She blinked, then scowled. "Damn you."

"You love me. Now start cleaning." I chuckled, grabbing a mop and starting to clean up the lingering blood around the operation table.

"I was going to ask, why did Ira say she smelled death from this building, and smoke from men's flesh?" Tizzy asked.

"Because I dissected a few men who had Stonemason's Disease to find the Cure." I said simply, and wrung out the bloody mop into the fire.

She looked at me slowly. "Seriously?"

"Yes." I said.

"Gross." She shuddered.

"Wimp." I chuckled.

She shrugged. "I just don't like death."

"Hm." I nodded.

--- Day 147 AD, 10:00 ---

I sat on the sand of the Colosseum I'd recently built on one of my lots in the city, casting traps throughout the arena, small places where physical contact from anyone other than me would result in a fiery explosion, or all the heat in an area being taken away, leaving even the air frozen solid. Concussive blasts and gravitational anomalies were also thrown in.

When Lord Michaelis appeared, walking through the crowd of peasants who threw mud and worse at him, (his mana shields deflecting it all,) I grinned and stood, Flooding the arena with pure mana, changing it and soaking my mana into the very stone, so that he couldn't sense the traps.

Soon, I stood in a roofless throne room. I laughed up at him, sitting on the throne. "This is what you wanted, isn't it, Lord Michaelis? A throne of your own..." I called out, my voice amplified magically.

The Emperor hummed from the announcer's Box. "Lord Michaelis, your emperor calls upon you to do battle with Lord Caleb, who brings accusations of High Treason, both by you, and Your Father as well..." He leaned back slowly.

I grinned, conjuring Braziers which ignited, and weapons on the walls.

"I hope, with your actions, that you will prove him wrong... And if you need any incentive to kill him, know this... He is the man who killed Lord Armen, saving my life. This has cast doubt upon your honor as well, something I never hoped to happen. How do you plead, boy?" He asked calmly.

Michaelis stepped forward. "Not Guilty, My Emperor. Surely, this man is twisting your perception! My father moved to save you from his cowardly assassination, never to bring harm to the Empire!" He crowed.

I laughed. "Too bad the emperor is the one who ordered me to kill Lord Armen as a traitor, boy. Your logic and story both dwindle to naught..."

The emperor nodded. "Very true, Lord Caleb..."

Michaelis narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaws, slowly walking into the Arena. Down the steps he went, slowly, his eyes on me the whole time.

I kept my expression neutrally amused. Then I spoke again, taunting him. "How long does it take to meet your fate, boy? Minutes, hours? Come now, you can walk faster! The failed dramatic effect is rather boring, isn't it?! Get on with it!" I called out, and the crowd of peasants cheered loudly, stomping their feet.

He sneered and stepped onto the sand, absorbing the mana of the traps under him, just as I'd predicted. Once my mana was inside him, I began draining him of his pitiful reserves, and grinned when his knees wobbled.

The emperor stood, and raised a hand. "Let the match... Begin." He dropped his hand in a swift chop.

I launched myself forward, drawing my sword. I flooded it with magical energy, and began fusing Physical and Magical Warfare, sending arcing crescents of magical energy at him.

He conjured a shield, and in doing so stopped absorbing magic from the traps, and let them activate.

His left foot was frozen solid, and he looked down, his concentration wavering, as the blade of mana slashed his chest, a rather light wound, but by that time I was directly in front of him, my sword aimed at his throat.

He surprised me by drawing his own, and knocking my blade away. I backed up a step, and laughed. "A battle of swords with me, lord Michaelis? Truly Unwise..." I chuckled.

He glared and struck his foot, shattering the ice, and began chanting.

I quickly chanted the counter spell, and his words sputtered out as he choked on his own mana. He coughed, then looked at me incredulously. "How...?" He asked slowly, looking truly confused.

I smirked. "Hello, brother." I winked, just to throw him off, and darted forward again, our swords clashing over and over. He was skilled, that much was true. I waved a hand, and the throne room turned into a desert setting, making him lose his footing.

My sword slashed across his throat, and then I stabbed him in the heart with an empty shifter's dagger I'd asked tern to make me.

Then I looked him in the eyes, and grinned savagely, then spoke in my most sadistic voice. "Give Me Your Soul." I hissed, and ripped his soul and shadow into the dagger, all at once.

I put the dagger into my jacket, and cut the man's head off cleanly, to be absolutely certain of his death.

The crowd roared in approval, pushed and prodded to a fever pitch with the bloodshed.

The emperor stood slowly, and everyone silenced. "Fate has spoken... The man who is called Caleb has ended a rebellion with his own two hands, and has proclaimed himself a champion of the empire and its people!" He proclaimed, and the roaring cheers began anew.

"Oh bother." I sighed, cracking my neck.

--- 22:00 ---

I stabbed the dagger directly into the Manikin's heart, and let the soul and power and shadow seep in. I removed the memories, and gave only a small portion back, that of hours spent toiling away in libraries, learning. Nothing else of his memories.

Then I made him look at me, with his new autonomy, and spoke the words I would have his descendants remember forever, flashing my eyes to my shifter eyes as I spelled him.

"You will always be my protector, and my servant. Serve me and my descendants to the absolute limits of your abilities, Riley. Be what they need you to be." I named him Riley, as that was a gender neutral name, and the protector would always be the same gender as the Sola, to enable them to teach more efficiently.

He nodded, and looked around, drinking in the details. I smiled. "Good. Now, when I've twenty years of life left, I'll let you know. In the meantime, you'll be my assistant, as I can protect myself just fine. Now! Come outside and test your ability to shift into a dragon." I said, walking out of the lab.