The Sixth School Book II Ch. 067

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

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Chapter Sixty Seven: You May Be Right...

"There is no great enmity between us," Greg said as he stood next to the railing on the deck of his airship. Rather than on the one he was talking to, his gaze was aimed at the figures of his teacher and Familiar, or more accurately, their clones which were moving about in the cleared space around the airship. If not for the fact that he had been present when the layers of formations his teacher would set up were being planned out, the motions of the fifty or so clones would have seemed random and chaotic to Greg. As things stood, Greg could see the first layer taking shape. The fifty bodies working on it might have seemed like overkill, but only if one didn't consider the area involved. A hundred meters in every direction, by Greg's estimate, was the area that the layers of formations would cover. There was anywhere between fifteen and twenty-five meters of space between each of the clones moving about on the ground.

An onion, inside a lotus, inside a Russian nesting doll. That was the best description that Greg could give of the formation that Morpheus had finally come up with. The outermost layer, the Russian nesting doll, was just layer after layer of the same shield. Greg had expected Morpheus to want four or five layers of shielding to protect them. His jaw almost fell to the floor when he said he wanted a hundred layers of shields. What's more, the shields would reinforce each other going both directions. The formation was such that, every inner shield would act as the magical equivalent of bracing, making the shield that came after it that much harder to break. At the same time, every time a shield layer was shattered, rather than dispersing its mana in the air, it would instead redirect all its mana inward making all the underlying layers that much harder to break! Even with how dire their situation was, Greg thought this to be overkill. This would clear out half, if not more of the magic points he'd already collected and that was even before they'd even touched on the deeper layers of the formation. When he voiced his opinion to the deity, however, Morpheus' answer immediately shut him up.

"I only expect these shields to take her first blow before shattering," he'd calmly replied. Even more chilling to Greg than his words, was the fact that there was no false humility in Morpheus' demeanor or tone. He wasn't trying to downplay his formation in the least. He'd come up with a formation that Greg doubted even ninth-tier mages could break given a whole year to do so, and according to him, it wouldn't take more than a single hit from the world serpent. "You are a mortal, Greg, so I don't really blame you for lacking a frame of reference for how powerful the world serpent is. To her, you are what an ant is to you. If not for the fact that another human is protecting said ant, nothing you do would be able to stop her from crushing you!" He'd stated simply.

The second layer of the formation, Greg had dubbed the lotus. Unlike the first layer which involved nested layers of the same formation, this second layer would incorporate different formations. Like the petals of a lotus, each formation was unique rather than a carbon copy of the others. Yet, like the flower itself, this second layer served one central purpose: obscuration. To a stranger, the proposal would sound odd. After all, it wasn't like the airship was in any way hidden. Having already seen where it landed, unless the airship took to the air again, it was bound to be in the same position even after the formation was set up. What the stranger would have failed to consider, however, was the fact that Morpheus was a deity excelling in the manipulation of space. So long as he willed it, an inch could be a mile and a mile an inch. In other words, if she went by just where she last saw it, the world serpent could attack the airship and miss it by miles! The only limitation as far as this part of the formation was concerned was how much of Greg's lifespan they could afford to use up in this part of the task.

The third and final layer was the true core of the formation. The teleportation formations. Not one, but many. While the number didn't climb as high as the shields in the first layer, almost thirty different teleportation formations, all leading to different destinations, would be woven into the same grand formation. This time, rather than assert that it was overkill, Greg asked Morpheus for his reasoning behind this.

"Don't forget that the world serpent has spent the last close to a thousand years trying to absorb the laws that make up this black zone. She may not be anywhere near as skilled as I am in wielding the laws of space, however, we'd be fools to think that she's absolutely clueless about them. A single teleportation formation, while simpler, could easily be deciphered. Remember, the teleportation formation will only work after the black zone is down. Otherwise, there'd be no point in waiting, we could just attempt the jump as soon as the formation was done. With the black zone broken, however, there is also nothing keeping the world serpent here. To mortal mages, jumping between here and another continent might seem like an incredible feat, but to beings at our level, it's almost the definition of trivial. If we were to just use one teleportation formation, rather than interfere with it, she might just decipher where it's headed and jump there instead. The airship would reappear at the Arcana Institute to find her sipping tea and awaiting its arrival. This is why none of the thirty formations actually point to the Arcana Islands. Instead, getting to our destination will require ten different formations to be activated in the correct sequence. Get even one wrong or put it in the wrong order, and you'll end up at a different destination than the one you hoped for," Morpheus explained.

This was why Greg had dubbed the final layer the onion. No single layer of an onion is the bulb; it is the layers together that make the thing. Morpheus was right, while a single formation would be simpler, it would also be easier to compromise. His approach of making use of several different formations, most of which were duds, made it so that Greg could rest easy in the knowledge that the jump was as secure as they could make it.

Greg would be wiped clean by the expenditure, and not just what he currently held. Even the magic points still waiting in the remaining reservoirs would almost certainly be spent on the formation. A greedy little part of him was bleeding at the cost. He'd been convinced that he wouldn't have to worry about magic points for a really long time to come. Given that this was the price for saving the people he cared about, however, every part of him, including the greedy part, would be all too happy to pay it. If anything, Greg now found himself feeling worried that he was cutting it a bit too close. Should he try to squeeze out more visits to the reservoirs to ensure he had enough magic points in case of any unforeseen events?

"You say this, even as you erect shields to defend yourself from me," an amused answer snapped Greg out of his train of thought and back into the present. Greg turned to find the world serpent regarding him with curious amusement. For whatever reason, Greg imagined that if cats could smile, the smile playing on her lips as she regarded him would be the exact one they had as they toyed with a cornered mouse. "You either don't believe a word you're saying, or believe them but don't think I'll listen. "So, I find myself wondering, why even bother to begin with?" She asked. Greg could tell that she wasn't truly interested in the answer. She just wanted to see him squirm.

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Their tryst didn't end in the training room. Like two horny teenagers, after they'd fucked for almost an hour, Greg chased after Calyn as she retreated to her room. She'd then chased after him as he retreated to his room. One upside to Calyn being a body enhancer that Greg hadn't considered before, was the fact that it was almost impossible to tire her out. Their sparring sessions where Calyn would usually go all out trying to get the better of Greg could go on for hours. By comparison, their lovemaking, vigorous as it could be at times, was barely a light workout in terms of exertion. It was well past midnight when the two of them finally fell asleep in his bed. When Greg woke up this morning, Calyn had still been wrapped in his arms.

Much as her body still tempted him, Calyn looked to be perfectly at peace at the time. So much so that Greg couldn't bring himself to break it. He tried to extricate himself as gently as possible so she could go on resting. He, however, had clearly underestimated just how sensitive her senses were, as he had barely even started to move when her eyes opened. Before Greg could even work out what to say, she pounced. Calyn rolled both of them over such that she ended on top, sitting astride him. "Where do you think you're going?" She'd asked, the smile on her lips and look in her eyes already relaying that his answer didn't matter as he wouldn't be going anywhere until she got what she wanted. An hour later, as Greg walked up the stairs toward the deck of the airship, he couldn't wipe the satisfied smile off his lips. That, however, changed when he stepped on the deck to find the projection of the world serpent standing there, smiling at him as if she had seen all that had happened the day before.

During the first weeks of his stay, Greg had actually expected that he'd be interacting with Ssalythia often. The fact that he didn't see even a sign of her existence in the days that followed his arrival in the city had actually weighed on his mind. It left him feeling like there was something he was missing, like there would be an attack coming his way that he wouldn't be prepared for. A month later, when the feeling became a bit too unbearable, he brought up his concerns with Morpheus. The deity, however, just laughed at him before laying out in painful detail just how irrelevant Greg was to the world serpent.

"You are a mortal, Greg," Morpheus had said after he was done laughing. While the statement was factual, the casual derision with which the word 'mortal' was uttered made it clear that the word might as well have been an insult as far as the deity was concerned. "Arrogant as my words may sound in your ears, believe me when I tell you that I am the only thing interesting about you as far as she is concerned. To help you understand where you stand, imagine that you reach for an ant on the ground, ready to crush it. Just as you are about to touch it though, someone reaches out and slaps your hand away. Whom will your eyes be on? The ant or the one who slapped your hand away?" He asked. Not awaiting an answer he further pressed. "Now, suppose that ant starts running around trying to get ten other ants together to face you. Only, the other ants are uninterested, so it begins to work by itself to try to face you. Will your focus then shift to the ant?" He asked.

Greg immediately understood the analogy and much as it stung, couldn't help but concede to the truth of it. If anything, Morpheus was understating just how insignificant he was. He wasn't just an ant to the world serpent, even to the mage powerhouses in the city, Greg would have been an inconsequential weakling if not for Morpheus. The analogy Morpheus gave cut to the heart of the issue. If you were trying to crush an ant, and someone else interfered, the ant didn't suddenly become more interesting. If anything, it'd be foolish for you to ignore the one interfering and focus on the ant. The world serpent wasn't ignoring Greg and maintaining her distance because she was plotting something against him. More than likely she only thought him worth watching from a distance and nothing more.

The question that naturally followed this realization was, why didn't she seem to show any interest in Morpheus either? Greg, however, didn't even wonder at the answer as he already knew it. The truth was that the world serpent was, in all likelihood, very much interested in Morpheus. How a deity came to be inextricably linked with a mortal was a question that anyone, mortal or deity, would wonder at. However, the last time Morpheus spoke with the world serpent he'd stated in no uncertain terms that if he was ever forced to emerge once more because of her shenanigans, they would be fighting to the death. It would be a Pyrrhic victory for Greg. He would lose everyone he cared about just from the fallout of the battle, not to mention exhausting his lifespan. That said, the world serpent knew that it was a fight it wouldn't win. So, curious as she was about Morpheus' situation, Ssalythia simply couldn't afford to indulge that curiosity, which was why she stayed away.

Greg understanding why the world serpent was uninterested in him, however, was why he'd been caught so off guard to find her on the deck. After months of being completely ignored by her, it didn't really take a great leap of logic to assume that something significant must have drawn her attention back to him. What that was, however, Greg didn't know, and that left him on edge. After offering a slight bow of the head to show respect, Greg had just come right out and asked. "To what do I owe the sudden visit?"

"Well, I've watched you run around for the past few months, but not really do anything of significance. For a mortal attached to a deity, you seem to lead a rather mundane life," she calmly answered him. Not that Greg would have believed her had she tried to claim otherwise, but it still irked Greg just how calmly the world serpent stated that she had been watching his every move. His annoyance, however, didn't stop Greg from seeing the statement for the lie that it was. The fact that she had seen everything he was doing and planning was true. That she didn't care about any of it and found it all to be boring, was the part that was a lie.

To begin with, there was almost no way the world serpent hadn't picked up on the fact that Greg had been visiting the mana reservoirs. Secondly, during their many lessons with the healer, there was zero chance that Ssalythia hadn't picked up on them manipulating the laws of existence. The meditation room that Greg had spent a year in was engraved with a formation that Morpheus himself had come up with. From the deity, he had gathered that it was meant to prevent even powerful entities from being able to spy on anything that went on inside. Powerful as the formation was, however, the wood of the airship wasn't some powerful material. Made from tier-four wood, the formation engraved on it could work on someone like Olivia's true self, primarily because her true body wasn't present. All she had to work with was an avatar equivalent to a second-tier mage.

When it came to the world serpent, not only was she more powerful than Olivia's true self, but she was actually present bodily just a few kilometers away from them. A distance that was meaningless to a being at her level. That said, given that this was a formation made by a deity, Greg doubted that it was entirely useless in hiding what it was they were doing inside the meditation room. The world serpent likely had picked up on the laws being manipulated by his teacher and little else. That said, even if she had picked up on the entirety of their plan, Greg wasn't worried. Or, put more accurately, he didn't have any reason to worry at the present moment.

Both sides of this tenuous setup were restrained by the agreement they had in place. To begin with, Greg highly doubted that the world serpent was thrilled about being stuck in a realm of mortals, having to wait for centuries, possibly millennia before she could leave. She wanted out of this cage probably just as much as, if not more than, Greg and his people did. The second part of why she was restrained was the danger Morpheus posed. Until a good portion of Greg's lifespan was used up by Morpheus breaking the black zone, then the deity remained a lethal threat to the world serpent. If she had any plans of treachery, acting on them too early would be her undoing.

Greg on the other hand, was restrained both by his lifespan and the ones he cared about. If he decided to throw caution to the wind and kill her while the black zone was still up, the first consequence would be that he would no longer be able to break out of the black zone. His lifespan largely expended, his tale would come to an end inside this little city. Even worse than that, as far as Greg was concerned, was the fact that everyone he cared about would die from the fallout. Something he was not willing to see. This made it so that, while the black zone stood, neither one of them could do anything to the other, not without dire consequences.

As soon as the black zone was undone, however, all bets were off. Not only that, but the odds weren't in Greg's favor. The two things keeping the world serpent in check would have been dealt with. First, her cage would have been broken. Secondly and more importantly, Greg's life span would have been substantially used up. Enough so that, any hope of defeating her without running out of vitality would be lost. Once all restraints on her were released, Greg would only have a small window in which to make good on his escape. This was why Greg would only start undoing the black zone after the whole formation was up and running.

The small window he'd have wasn't because the world serpent was benevolent enough to give him a head start or any such thing. No, the window would only exist because Greg had something Ssalythia still wanted, the crystal for the law of inevitability. Even after losing one fifty years of his life, Greg would still have more than enough lifespan left for Morpheus to destroy the law crystal easily should Ssalythia try something foolish. To avoid losing the law crystal, Ssalythia would have to play nice. At least until the crystal was in her hand. This would be the window Greg would have to make use of to get to his airship before it jumped a whole continent away.

Of course, there was still a very real chance that the world serpent wouldn't care about the law crystal and come directly for Greg. This, however, wouldn't make any difference to those on the airship. Greg had repeatedly made the same thing clear to both his teacher and Familiar. If Greg was, for whatever reason, unable to make it in time for the jump, he was to be left behind. On most other things, Greg would have implicitly trusted his teacher and not felt the need to repeat the same thing to his Familiar. After the time they had spent together and the bond they had developed, however, Greg wouldn't have blamed his teacher if, at the very last moment, she hesitated, even if only for a moment. With the kind of powers they were dealing with, however, that single moment could be the difference between salvation and disaster. Olivia, on the other hand, while she played the role of a human perfectly, was in the end just an avatar. And as an avatar, she was the perfect copy of her true self, an entity that cared nothing for any particular mortal, be it Greg or any other. After giving her the order to abandon him if the situation called for it, Greg wasn't the least bit worried that his Familiar would suddenly grow sentimental or hesitate at a crucial moment.

Greg wasn't suicidal by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, being someone who knew that he'd gotten a second chance at life he probably wanted to live more than the next person. He would do everything in his power to be on the airship when it left. Nevertheless, by the same token, he hadn't suddenly become naïve. It wasn't like the world serpent would suddenly discover mercy after killing him! If Greg met his end and they somehow survived the fallout of the battle, then the only line of defense his people had would be gone. And depending on how vindictive Ssalythia was feeling after their fight, there was a very real chance that their end could be even worse than his. His choice to be left behind even more than heroic, was simply the most practical move.

Of course, the best outcome for everyone involved was one where everyone held up their end of the bargain and simply walked away. Both parties would benefit from it. To begin with, they'd both be free from the black zone, not to mention, each party would be leaving with a law crystal. The world serpent would get the crystal for the law of inevitability, while Morpheus would get to incorporate whatever space laws there were to be found here. Secondly, neither party would risk unnecessary injuries or death. Even if he had zero hope of winning, there wasn't even a hint of doubt in Greg's mind that Morpheus would prove to be the most dangerous foe she had ever faced in battle, if Ssalythia chose to go that route. And at their level, whatever wounds Morpheus left behind would be the kind that took millennia to heal.

Lastly, even if it was minuscule, there was always the chance that Morpheus could pull some last minute hail Mary and turn the tables on the world serpent, and she would be the one ending up dead instead of Greg. This was the risk in every battle one engaged in. From a rational perspective, choosing the path of peace was the most optimal outcome for everyone involved. Greg, however, couldn't help but cynically think that this was precisely why it was simultaneously the least likely one too. Still, Greg was hoping beyond hope that he could avoid a fight with the world serpent, which was why he'd tried to remind Ssalythia that there was no true enmity between them. Not that it was doing any good as far as Greg could tell.

"Sadly, it's the latter," Greg readily confessed, not hiding his thought process. "After the black zone is broken and the crystal for the law of inevitability is in your hands, you will have the overwhelming advantage in this little arrangement of ours. You could easily call that a win and turn and walk away. You may yet surprise me, but, to be quite frank with you, my expectations of those with power have fallen lower and lower with every subsequent one that I've met. I erect the shields because I fully expect that, like every other powerful individual I've met, you believe that because you have power you can get away with doing whatever you so desire," He stated simply.

"Is this not the order of the world?" Ssalythia questioned, the smile still on her face. From her calm demeanor and tone, she was clearly unbothered by the accusation. "The lion doesn't hunt a deer because there is great enmity between them. The fox doesn't hunt a rabbit to satisfy some great animus between them. The snake doesn't hunt a mouse for some noble cause. The strong prey on the weak, that's simply how the world works," She declared with perfect equanimity.

"Except that every creature you cite is a mindless beast incapable of rising above its nature," Greg raised an objection, not convinced in the least.

An amused chuckle left the world serpent as her gaze turned to the clones below. "Just because you wear clothes doesn't make you any less a beast, Roka. Look around at human societies and all the suffering you inflict on one another. The idea that humans have some noble nature that isn't just as cruel and as bloody as the worst of beasts is laughable. If anything, I'd argue that beasts can't hold a candle to the kind of brutality humans enact daily to one another. Because they are, as you put it, mindless, beasts only kill where they think it necessary. What's more, they don't take any pleasure in their kills. They do what they must to survive, and that's it. On the other hand, a more brutal, sadistic, and bloodthirsty beast than humans, one can hardly find across the realms. What intelligence you claim to have you have dedicated to finding even more creative ways of killing each other. At worst, you will find a pack of predators hunting down one prey animal, but never will you come across ten thousand predators arrayed against others of their own kind ready to slaughter them down to the last. Be it at the level of the individual or at the level of whole societies you have no leg to stand on if human nature is what you are appealing to," she declared.

"You are absolutely right in noticing that human beings can sink to lows that even animals can't attain. However, it's precisely because we are capable of sinking so low that human nobility means so much. A beast incapable of evil is also incapable of good. To use your example, the fox is not evil for hunting the rabbit simply because it's capable of nothing else. Likewise, the rabbit is not noble for not killing the fox. Its inability to do this evil strips it of any virtue it may have otherwise laid claim to. After our little agreement is over and done with, you have the option to come after my people and me with everything you've got. Likewise, you could also choose to part ways with us peacefully. The fact that both options are available to you is the precise thing that makes you better than the beast. Should you fail it, however, you will have proven yourself to be lesser than them," he said simply.

Despite his words, far from being offended, the world serpent only continued to appear amused. "Rather convenient, wouldn't you say? That to do anything other than what you want me to do would be me failing some greater standard, which also conveniently seems to have been set by you," She declared.

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?" Greg conceded, not defensive in the least. "Except, you would be using all of the same appeals if the tables were reversed. It's easy to declare it the 'natural order of the world', when you are the one in the stronger position. If you would forgive my daring, some might even consider it rather convenient that that's the stance you take. But take away your advantage in power and you would be making all the same arguments I'm making," He asserted.

"Deer run away, so do rabbits and mice. Just because they are weak, doesn't mean they serve themselves up to their predators. Likewise, human beings try to have philosophical discussions with a being more than two hundred times older than them, hoping that they can come up with some clever argument that will let them slip out of my grasp. Just because you use your mouth instead of your feet in your attempt to escape doesn't mean that you have somehow stepped out of the natural order, Roka. To point out that I would do the same thing were I in your position is no great stroke of genius, I'm afraid. In the end, the only question that matters, that has ever mattered, is who holds the power? You might even be right Roka, you may be able to reach deep within yourself and marshal arguments that not even I can assail. But what does any of that matter if at the end of it all I can just crush you anyway?" She asked, turning from the clones to regard Greg. While a smile still played on her lips, her gaze was cold and serpentine. This wasn't a discussion between two intelligent beings to her. As far as she was concerned she was just listening to her food beg for its life.

There was a long while of silence between them as they held each other's gaze. "You've basically just admitted that you plan to attack me as soon as our agreement is up, what possible reason could I have to still break out of the black zone?" He questioned, his tone calm and uncowed despite his words.

"Don't," came the equally unbothered answer from the world serpent, her shoulders rising in a shrug. "How long do you think it'll be? A hundred? Perhaps two hundred cycles before you are no longer a threat to me? Also, since we would no longer be in any agreement, I could take away my protection. Not from you, of course. You are mine and mine alone. But what about the others on this airship? How safe do you think they'll be without the restraint that my protection gives to the powerful mages of the city? You killed Mage Talrik, brother Mage Janar, if memory serves. Tell me, who do you think he'll target first, your mother, or your sister?" She asked.

Greg's gaze had long since gone ice cold as he glared at the world serpent. "I want you to know something. When you are staring at death's door and wondering where you went wrong, remember this moment. This is the exact point where you sealed your fate." Greg's tone didn't rise in the least. The look in his eyes, however, quietly communicated that he meant every single word...

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