[Luke – 13 years]

"Here you go," I scoop stuffing onto the plate.

The plate is one of those thick paper ones with a rectangular design and different segments to separate out the food. My task is putting stuffing onto one of the two smaller sections at the top if someone wants it, while Seph is on mashed potato duty. Parker got recruited into the cooking zone due to his experience with professional cooking.

We're helping work a meals charity event for the third day of the Autumn Festival. The event is just giving out meals to anyone who shows up, and they can get it for here on the plates or to go in a container. Rather than being hosted in the community center like normal, it's taking place in the main pavilion at the park. There's a food line set up with several people dishing out food.

I'm doing it because I want to help with this, Parker's volunteered to help to get the credits for school, and Seph's participating because I talked him into it. Seph and I don't need the credits since we're just that smart, but Seph apparently isn't actually able to earn them as part of his sponsorship. That's ridiculous, in my opinion, but at least he's smart enough he doesn't really need to do makeup work or redo a test or something like that.

It's good for him to at least get the experience of doing stuff like this. As someone in the world of the social elites, he also needs to make sure his image is good. Coming from a lesser background, he has to work extra hard for that.

Even without taking into account others' perception of us, it's still good to do this. Seeing the smile on the old man's weary face when he gets a scoop of stuffing is worth it.

Our shift lasts for four hours and by the end of it, Seph seems exhausted and ready to go home. Parker's heading home with his parents, so after we bid farewell to him, we climb into one of my family's car. Xavier's our driver today, since it's too cold to use hoverboards and bikes too often now.

"How are you so cheerful?" Seph asks as Xavier begins driving.

"It's a good day!" I tell him. "Got to help out people who don't do so well, and am going to get to see my boyfriend in a couple of hours!"

Tyler's in town for the whole week, but he and his dad are out doing something for most of today. They're joining my family for dinner tonight, though, so I'll be seeing him in a few hours.

"You really do stuff like this a lot?" Seph asks.

"Not a lot," I say. "But often enough. It feels good to help them out, you know. Most of it comes from emergencies like a tornado, earthquake, or other natural or magical disaster. That big tornado over the summer was something I helped out at."

"Providing food to volunteers?"

"No," I shake my head. "Parker does that more than me. I was on rescue – I can sense electrical signals, making it better for me to go through and locate people under rubble. Then, I either move the stuff if I feel it's safe to, I destroy it if necessary, or I mark the location with a lightning pillar for others to excavate. It depends on how serious their situation is. The more serious is it, the more important it is to rescue and get them medical treatment sooner."

"And you seriously do this regularly?" He asks. "Just… giving up your time for stuff like this and that?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I mean, why not? I prefer doing things like taking down demon armies, but still feel good helping out others, too. The fact that it helps boost my image is just a bonus."

"Why are you so obsessed with your image?" Seph asks. "Is it really that important?"

"In high society?" I ask. "Yes. Not having a good image can make things more difficult when negotiating contracts, making connections, and so on."

"You'll have to forgive him," Xavier snorts. "He gets worse about his image when school's in session."

"Only people like Xander and Adrian King don't have to worry about it," I say. "They're powerful enough that things happen on their terms and no one else's. But someone like me, who doesn't hold that power? Or my parents? We have to negotiate things. If someone looks upon you favorably, they'll be more willing to give you better deals and contracts. A worse image means worse deals and people might attempt to undermine you or even steal your business from you."

"Being powerful really does that?" Seph asks. "Just… skip what others in high society have to do?"

"Yes," I answer. "A company within the Lumaria Group is buying out every battery-producing division basically in the world. Why? Because a tween invented a superior battery. The soul he was born with is just that genius. If he weren't Autistic, and if he didn't have severe brain damage until recently, we probably would have known of him years ago.

"Even if the battery's only being released next year and only just announced in the past couple of months," I continue. "Xander's soul is genius enough that he's capable of just casually creating things no one else has or making a new version of something so superior, it outdoes all others on the market. Either you jump on the train or you die. That's why the companies which produce batteries are being given an out – a way to not get killed off. Instead, they're being offered a safety net as they go.

"The battery is just that good that it'd be the preferred one for most people," I say. "A slightly-higher cost, but no need to replace for more than a decade? What other battery seeing active use can do that? None."

I conjure a little bit of electricity above my palm and let it dance around for a few moments. Then, it splutters for a moment before "exploding", the shooting sparks fading away.

"But not all companies are treated that nicely," I tell him. "Xander's straight-up bankrupting multiple sites because he didn't like them. Why does it work? Because among the common folk, his site's the hottest thing on the net. It's the safest site for children. People have already been discovering just how impossible it is to get around the safety measures. A girl who was streaming freaked out because her toddler brother came running into her room. She thought she was getting banned and no one knew why until she got confused about their confusion.

"Why?" I ask. "Because the AI system Xander's using isn't a standard scientech one. It has an actual mind of its own, it's faster than any other, and it has predictive abilities we've only dreamed about having in the next century. It censored her brother who'd escaped the bath and put him in swim trunks for the stream. And that was instantly. Even people with extremely fast minds didn't notice anything because it decided to censor before the toddler showed up. And somehow knew exactly where to censor. And that's despite there being no lag on her stream, meaning it was basically instant-live.

"A situation like that," I tell him. "Is enough to let people know how safe the site is. And word has already spread among the common folk that actual adult content really can't be accessed on it without verification. And most people who watch other types of videos or listen to music or whatever have discovered that yes, it actually does have a superior recommendation engine.

"It does video streaming," I say. "Video hosting, art hosting, comic hosting, commission-finding, merchandise, and more. It's basically a haven for content creators, musicians, artists, and others like them. With them managing to convince major studios for music and videos to exclusively use them, that helped as well. It's not even been two months but the effects are already prominent.

"Something people have noticed," I say. "But most music production companies have moved to XansonTV for hosting their music videos, completely removing their videos from other sites. That's a significant revenue loss for those sites. As is the fact that most streamers and other indie content creators have migrated to it, removing their works from those other streaming and video sharing sites.

"Why?" I ask. "Because it makes things easier. Merchandise, which used to be difficult for someone small to get, is now available to all. Through exclusivity, they have a higher income possibility and stream. And their videos and content are being pushed to people who are actually interested in that sort of thing. Impressions are down, but clicks are up.

"Apparently," I continue. "Some people have noticed that videos which received maybe one percent click-through rate on other platforms are getting a thirty percent or higher one. And it's not inflated, either – they're seeing a noticeable increase in income from that. The bots are gone, recommendations are more accurate, and income is up."

This is before even getting into other things like the social media aspect of it and how that's safer. It's also easier for people to keep track of things with the way the site's designed, rather than needing to check in multiple places.

"Xander claims he estimates the sites he's targeting to be bankrupt within a decade," I say. "But really? Experts are already predicting that unless they can somehow stop the exodus, they'll start going under within a year.

"And all of this," I tell Seph. "Is just because Xander didn't like that when the others hosted conventions, some of the content creators their platforms were built upon had to pay for travel, hotel, et cetera while losing the income they would normally make during that time when being asked to attend for a panel or event. Rumor has it that there's going to be a XansonTV convention next year and the invited content creators will have those costs covered by the company."

Seph is quiet in response to that, and I don't know if it's because I said too much at once for him to understand or if it's just everything I said sinking in.

"Back to the original discussion," I say. "Now, imagine deciding that because Xander doesn't attend benefit dinners, do charity events, help out during disasters, you shouldn't make a contract with his company when they want to use you as a supplier. Or that because he just does whatever he wants instead of cooperating with others, you should try and put out a competing product. Imagine would what happen then."

Seph is quiet for a few moments.

"Xander would probably just bankrupt your company," he concludes.

"Right," I say. "And if not that, then convince others to no longer deal with your business. Or that you have to pay more for his products and services. Something I learned recently is that Xander's charging me higher prices. On personal things, that is. Why? Because I annoyed him over the summer."

Finding out that he charged me ten times as much for the teleport spell formula marble was definitely a shock. Then I realized that it made sense he would charge people he doesn't like extra.

"That's why reputation and image is important for most," I tell Seph. "But not for someone like Xander or Adrian King. People don't have to worry about my family going and bankrupting theirs or charging them however they like. We can't do that because it would make us enemies. Xander, on the other hand, doesn't need to worry about that. Enemies? He'll just get rid of them."

Which is honestly a terrifying thought, but it's Xander. He's terrifying by himself.

Seph thinks about things for a few moments. Probably the same thing I just thought – that Xander is absolutely terrifying as a person. I've always known there are beasts out there which could erase me from existence without a thought. Adrian King felt terrifying as a concept, but he more felt like just something to be aware of than an actual being.

One who stands distant from the rest tend to feel that way, especially when you've never met him.

Xander, on the other hand, feels real. He lives next door to me, bakes mega treats, plays a sandbox video game, and oh, can accidentally backhand me into the next eternity.

"How strong are you?" Seph suddenly asks. "I know you're stronger than Cyrus is, and I've tried looking you up. No one knows for sure. It's rumored that you're probably around 5,000 mana level due to what you do during the rescues. But no one really knows just how much mana the stuff you do takes."

So he does know about me participating in rescue efforts?

"And you get called in for some serious stuff," he says. "Like that Rift. But the actual danger level was never given, so it ain't public just what it would have taken to clean it up. And there ain't footage of your fighting there, either, just knowledge that you were. The thunder and flashes in the background of the few videos of it there are made that evident. Or at least, that it's someone from your family. But I've realized something… you're always really vague about your actual level."

Which is on purpose. But in all honesty… do I need to hide it? At least from my friends? It's not as if the military doesn't know. And it's known among my peers that my parents struggle to commission phones which can actually withstand my might. In fact, they're still working on trying to get a new one for me, and it might not even be doable by my birthday this year.

"Xavier," I come to a decision. "Take us out of town, to a suitable spot for us to head the glade. You know the good one for this."

Seph starts shaking.

"Not to off you," I tell him. "I'm going to show you just what I can do. Let your mom know that we'll be a little bit later, but you'll still be home in time for the family dinner."

Seph nods, but is still a little shaky.

Twenty minutes later, Xavier parks at the edge of a wooded area I've been to before. He reminds me to leave my phone behind (I've broken nine since the good one broke), then Seph and I get out.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Hop on my back," I tell Seph as I crouch a little.

"Why?" He asks.

"Because we're going somewhere further away from town," I tell him. "And I'll need to carry you to get us there quickly. Don't worry, I've already let the military know to expect some lightning activity from me in that location. We won't have soldiers showing up to arrest us or anything."

Seph still seems unsure, but climbs onto my back. I straighten up, then lightning-charge my body and take off running. My friend inhales sharply when I begin sparking, but doesn't have enough time to process that before we're zipping through the trees.

The location I bring us to is a large glade. No one else is here, which I knew before we arrived. This is a common place for people to practice magic in when they don't want to be seen but want to practice something large-scale.

As a result, there are random boulders scattered around and gouges in various places. The land has healed some, though not all of the damage is visible thanks to the light layer of snow and the efforts of another being.

The snow combined with the cold is no doubt why no one else is here. Also the fact that this is a pretty secluded place and there aren't that many people strong enough to need such a large space to practice bigger magics. Most who can afford it have access to training facilities, too. Or private property to practice on.

When I did a demonstration for Tyler over the summer, that was just more of a fun thing where I wanted to see what he could do while show off for him. I was limited by the constraints of the facility we were at. At the same time, I wasn't trying to show Tyler just what I can do. We were just having fun.

To actually show someone how powerful I am, which is what I've been asked to do, I need a place where I don't have to worry about that. No need for targets, either.

This is more than enough.

"Just how big is what you're planning?" Seph asks. "If it's something you had to warn the military about?"

"Pretty big," I pull off my scarf. "Lightning magic on a high scale isn't exactly subtle. Their monitoring systems would notice the demonstration. Loathe as I am to do this, mind holding my things for me?"

"Uh… sure?"

Seph accepts my scarf, my beanie, my thicker outer gloves, my thinner inner gloves, my beanie, my coat, and the hoodie I wore underneath it. That leaves me in just a yellow long-sleeved shirt, black slacks, and black sneakers with yellow accents.

"Stay there," I tell him, then walk to a spot a little past the center of the glade.

Once here, I charge myself with lightning again. Sparks dance off of my body as I begin to lift up into the air. The sky begins to darken as clouds form above us, a result of my sparks interacting with the natural magics in the area as they fade. That's not an effect I'm doing on purpose, it's something I can't avoid when wielding this level of power in this specific way.

Back at the battlefield, I could have done something like this, but it would have been useless against a beast as strong as I am but with crystallized mana storage. This is better for crowd control magic than one-on-one combat.

If it had been a bunch of weaker beasts there and nothing even half as powerful as me, this is what I would have done.

Once I'm about fifty feet in the air, I bring my hands up a little, then jerk them downwards. Five thick bolts of lightning flashes from my hands, zapping the ground. Smaller bolts spark off of those, scattering around the glade. The five original bolts continue to flow from my hands, continuing to send out additional, smaller bolts.

But that's not all, for where the thicker ones strike, five titans made of lightning rise. Each one stands thirty feet in height and are made of magical lightning packed so densely, there's no room for anything else. Sparks and small bolts of lightning dance around them, more forming with each step they take.

Once the humanoid lightning beasts have formed, I cease the five thick bolts of lightning. Then, I thrust my hands out to the sides as if challenging a foe, and more lightning shoots out from all over me. This time, they form into seven vortexes of lightning which reach all the way up to the clouds. More lightning shoots from the vortexes, striking the ground and some of trees around us.

The clouds above us continue to grow darker, the natural magics in the air feeding off of what mana my magics are leaking out and being influenced by the lightning magics I'm wielding. That darkness only causes my magic to become more visible, however.

I've not tried doing something like this since my mana was fixed, and it feels amazing. Never has wielding this much lightning cost me so little mana. Controlling the lightning titans is so much easier now than it was last time, too.

Though the amount of lightning in the area has heated things up enough the snow is melting and I am sweating.

But getting to let loose like this… I can't help but push it further.

More thick bolts of lightning shoot at the ground. This time, the lightning constructs are only about the same size as the real me (they look a bit like I do due to that being an easier template over altering it).

As I command my lightning army and the lightning vortexes, Seph continues to look increasingly nervous. He's gone pale and might be too scared to move even an inch. I should probably stop.

Then a creature catches my attention: a fox with deep green fur and golden eyes. Brown markings decorate its face and tail, and a small horn stretches out from the top of his head. The pale brown protrusion forks and branches out, as if it's an actual tree branch growing out of his head. A few small leaves do grow on it, as do some berries. While it's not very large, it adds to the fox's majesty.

Rather than being intimidated by this, the fox calmly walks over to Seph and rubs his head against my friend's leg. That startles Seph, who drops my clothes as he looks down at the creature, which then jumps up. Seph barely manages to catch the beast and looks confused for a moment before the creature wiggles, as if trying to get comfortable.

It looks like he's calming Seph down. I've never heard of him allowing anyone to touch him before, which means he must really like Seph.

Since my friend has calmed down a little thanks to the fox, I continue the demonstration and testing how much I can do now that my lightning magics are more efficient than ever before.

I gesture with my hands, and the vortexes split into three, becoming a little bit slimmer but still reaching up to the clouds, which have blanketed the area in a heavy amount of darkness. Now, all of the light for here comes from my lightning.

The vortexes form a ring around me, rotating in a circle slowly. In a real battle, this would be the first line of defense. Then the lightning golems. Then the lightning titans. And that's if anything survives the lightning sparking around within the zone. If something were to manage to reach me? Well, they'd be in for one major shock.

Though I can also spread this out even more, direct the titans and golems and vortexes to specific spots. I don't do that right now, though.

Instead, I bring them all together as I float higher, then merge them into a behemoth of a lightning golem. It lets out a thunderous roar and slams both fists into the ground directly beneath me, sending out a wave of lightning similar to what I did when I landed in the demon base over the summer. That stops about fifty feet away from Seph, though I've made sure that none of my magic has gotten any closer than that. No need to make him truly feel as if he's in danger.

He's my friend, after all.

That's the finale to this demonstration, and the golem fades away. Now, the only light around is from my body's glow and sparks due to its lightning-charged state. The clouds have never grown that thick and dense from this before. Things really have changed since the last time I did this.

I let myself land on the ground, then walk over to Seph. The bluish-white glow I'm emitting makes his face look extremely pale right now. It's also now the only light we have. I really made the sky dark.

"That demonstration," I tell him. "Took roughly 19,000 mana. But I could have maintained it for probably ten minutes, even while manipulating things around, for about 8,000 mana more. Most of the cost went into the actual creation of the lightning and stabilizing it so that it wouldn't disappear immediately."

Seph swallows hard.

"Y-you h-have h-how m-much m-mana?" His stutter is back in full.

"Nearly 40,000," I answer. "When at full capacity, anyway. I did just use up a little more than half that. I'm the most powerful non-King in the world by more than 10,000 mana."

He still seems a little bit scared and nervous, and begins stroking the fox's fur.

"You're my friend," I say to Seph. "Yet you are feeling scared and intimidated after seeing what I can really do. That's part of why how powerful I really am doesn't get advertised. It makes it harder to make and keep friends if people know just how vast the gap between us is."

Xander doesn't have to deal with that, but he has a certain draw to him which I lack. It might be a difference in our souls. The sheer level of magical genius he has comes from that rather than his actual brain, so it wouldn't surprise me if his soul draws people in who would be suitable as friends as well.

"I-I ain't scared."

"Seph," I say. "You're pale. And you're shaking so hard from your attempt at keeping your breathing under control that you could be used to break concrete. I haven't seen you this anxious since the first day of school."

Since Seph seems like he might need a few minutes to calm down, I look at the fox.

"Everything I've heard says you never let anyone even touch you," I say. "Yet here you are, letting Seph hold you."

A snowball forms in front of the fox's face, then shoots at me. I try to dodge it, but the fox manipulates the snowball so that it follows me. He's powerful and skilled enough that his snowball can out-speed me even with me being lightning-charged, which is impressive.

"W-what?" Seph asks in surprise.

"By the way," I tell him as I zip back over, the snow I was pelted with already melted from my sparks. "That little guy in your arms is rumored to be several times as powerful as I am. No one actually knows his real strength."

Seph frowns, clearly not believing me.

"No one knows how old he is," I add. "Just that he's been in the area since long before mankind settled here. He's actually the reason this glade is preferred for testing out extremely high-level area spells and stuff. He keeps the damage from spreading into the forest, and even mends the land. Even if I hadn't controlled my magic well enough to keep it from getting too close to you, he would've shielded you without issue. Most people call him Tree Fox, on account of his horn's design.

"If you look him up," I say. "You'll find that there are all sorts of stories and legends about him. Not all of them are true, but he is known to be rather strong. That's why he's so calm despite my magic being so terrifying to ordinary people. He knows he can handle anything I do. Even if I'm at full mana and put all of it into a single lightning bolt, I doubt even his fur would get singed. Huh."

"What?" Seph asks, though he's now staring at Tree Fox.

"Xander's gone for walks on his own into the woods within and around the area," I say. "At least, he used to, but it was fairly often, from my understanding. It's how he met a water elemental and a fire elemental. The former is pretty far out of town. Has he met Tree Fox?"

I pull out my phone and take a picture of Tree Fox, then send it to Xander along with a message.

[Luke]: Have you ever met this guy?

"It'll probably be a bit before he responds," I tell Seph. "He's probably doing stuff with his dad or at the workshop or something. But I kind of want to know-"

My phone pings and I look down.

"Or not."

[Xander]: Is that Mahiolxt? It's too dark there to make him out clearly, even with whatever light you've got. Do his leaves have silvery main veins or are they just white?

"Uh…" I look at Tree Fox and examine the leaves.

[Luke]: Silvery.

[Xander]: How many branches smaller than 0.125" does he have on the left branch of his horn?

This is weird, but it's probably Xander just messing with me due to his dislike of me. There's no harm in humoring him. After I count the branches, I send a response.

[Luke]: Seven.

[Xander]: Oh. That's not Mahiolxt, that's Azilvioz. The picture must be flipped. Huh. Seph must've gotten really scared. Azilvioz has softer fur, so he's better at calming people down than the others.

[Luke]: Ah.

[Luke]: Wait!

[Luke]: Are you saying there's more than one?

[Xander]: There are seven.

I've never heard of there being more than one before. Everyone's in agreement that there's only one. But if Xander said there are seven, then there are seven. They must look remarkably similar. And my camera apparently is flipping images it takes. I must've forgotten to turn that off after Tyler and I were goofing around with the app yesterday.

[Luke]: How strong are they?

[Xander]: In terms of mana level?

[Luke]: Correct.

[Xander]: I haven't been to their lair in months, so I dunno. I don't remember seeing their mana, but that's probably just 'cause of the brain damage I had then. They're really strong, though. Don't upset them.

[Xander]: How come it's so dark there? The clouds came in here, but they ain't THAT bad. Are you in a cave?

[Luke]: Magic interacting with magic.

[Xander]: Oh.

[Xander]: I'm gonna go back to baking now.

"According to Xander," I tell Seph as I pocket my phone. "His name is something I'm not going to bother trying to pronounce and he's powerful enough that I shouldn't upset him. Anyway, we should get going. See you next time, Tree Fox."

The fox jumps out of Seph's arms and walks off, and I pick up my things, dust off the snow, and pull them back on. Once I'm back in my winter gear, I beckon for Seph to climb onto my back. He's hesitant to do so, but climbs up after working up the courage to do so. My sparks didn't affect him the first time, they won't this time.

"You might have gone a bit overboard," Xavier says after we're back in the car and buckled. "It's pretty dark out."

"I wasn't expecting it to affect the natural magics that much," I tell him. "And it's been awhile since I really got to let loose, and not since the issue with my mana was fixed. The clouds aren't that bad in town, so it'll get lighter as we go further. Xander was confused when he saw how dark it was for us."

"Alright," Xavier says. "How was it?"

"Awesome!" I answer. "I got to make a mega-titan this time! And I could split the lightning vortexes into even more than I could handle last time! I wanted to try and make the titans animal-shaped rather than humanoid, but haven't really had practice with that. Think I'm gonna practice making wolf-shaped lightning so I can do that!

"Oh!" I add. "And you know Tree Fox? He showed up while we were there and just watched me do the performance! I was trying to reassure Seph that he doesn't need to be nervous of me, especially if he's holding Tree Fox, right? So I asked Xander if he knew him, and he does. He hasn't seen Tree Fox since he fixed his brain, so he isn't sure how powerful he is, but the little guy's strong enough that I shouldn't upset him.

"Also," I add. "There are seven of them. Not one. And Xander knows them by name, because of course he does. He's Xander."

Something Xander said in the texts clicks in my head and I pull out my phone and look at the messages.

"Uh…" I look up. "Apparently, Xander's been to their lair. Because why not visit the lair of seven creatures everyone thinks there's only one of? Knowing him, he probably took a nap in there."

I talk with Xavier about more about the demonstration and the fox, and my driver manages to get Seph to join in. He mostly just pokes about at what Seph liked about the demonstration, or thought was cool.

Which were the titans. Despite terrifying him, he thinks it's cool that I can make titans out of lightning, even if they're roughly shaped like me.

"That's just because it's easier to make them that way," I tell him. "It's a specific type of golem conjuration, and it's always easier for a mage to use their own body as a template than something else. But they cost soooooo much mana to make, so most with the skill level don't bother. And we have to actively control each one individually. That's why manufactured golems are known about but most don't know that you can actually conjure them."

The conversation continues after that and by the time we reach Seph's house, he's relaxed a lot and isn't shaking anymore.

"Wait here," Seph tells me as he unbuckles. "I forgot something when you picked me up."

He hurries inside, the comes back out after less than a minute with a brown paper bag.

"Here," he says. "There's one for you, one for Parker, and one for Tyler in there. It's deer jerky from my last hunt, and some rabbit jerky, too. Tyler probably makes his own, but this is my own recipe. Um. I wanted to share it with y'all."

"Oh," I accept the bag. "Thanks. See you Saturday?"

"Yeah," he nods. "See ya Saturday."

"Bye!"

Seph waves, then leads. As Xavier pull away from the curb, I look at him.

"That could have gone a lot worse," I tell him. "But I'm glad he wasn't chased off by it. Anyway! Let's head home! It might start snowing soon, so I want to get there before that!"

I probably should have stopped sooner, since it seems like it might snow a lot as a result of the built-up clouds. Lightning normally wouldn't make such heavy clouds appear, but magic is strange like that.

"Alright," Xavier chuckles. "So there's nowhere else you want to stop on the way?"

"Nope!" I answer. "Just straight home!"

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.