"Hmm. Let's start with some proof. I have not yet excluded the possibility that you are just crazy," Archmage Elisa says.

"That is a reasonable request. How would you like me to do that?"

An indignant expression signals that my strategy was not optimal. "Do not patronize me, Lucius, or whoever you are. I can handle whatever it is you are concerned about."

"My real name is Lucius, yes. Apologies for my late introduction. And as for patronizing you, it was not my intention. What I have confided in you is a monumental revelation. I was trying to be considerate by giving you equal control of a potentially stressful and unpredictable situation."

"Uh-huh, I'll just call you 'Mom' from now on." The elf laughs, and I can finally detect her relaxing a little. "If you two meet, you are either going to be best friends forever or the world will end."

"It would be my pleasure to meet her someday, Archmage Elisa."

"Meeting my parents should come after we get to know each other a bit more, don't you think," she says in a playful and amused tone. Jokes are also a good sign that she has somewhat calmed down. It feels miserable making someone this anxious.

"You are familiar with elementals, yes?" She indulges my obvious preamble and nods her head as I continue, "An elemental has a core and a manifestation. I am also similar in that sense. My body is an organic construct and not exactly my true self. I do possess all normal senses, like you might have, but I am not bound to this vessel."

"Makes sense."

"Thus, I can modify this 'shell', as I call it, in almost any way I see fit. Observe."

The surface of my shell shimmers slightly and with a cascading movement, inverts. In the same instant, a dull, off-white material takes its place. The shell is back to one of its original configurations, a vaguely humanoid-looking biped with no discernible features. In another instant, the process plays back in reverse, and my previous form returns like nothing ever happened.

Archmage Elisa stands up and goes toward her desk. After rummaging inside for a bit, she pulls out a bottle of liquid. Compositional analysis returns one hundred percent ethanol. My newly obtained mana senses tell me I am not exactly right and that there is some other stuff. ...Very helpful. She uncorks the mystery concoction and takes two greedy gulps, corks it back up, and throws it at me distractedly.

I catch the bottle and look at her. She asks, "'Senses' means you can drink, right?"

"That is correct."

"Just don't finish the bottle..." she says and flops back down on the other couch.

I take a swig of the, presumably, premium beverage and regret it immediately. My organic system has no problem breaking down the alcohol, but my mana field is different. Wherever the liquid passes, all the mana there tries to escape far away. The feeling of the drink going down is like an inflated balloon slowly squeezing itself through my faux digestive tract. The sensation is not constrained to my shell but feels almost like it originates directly inside my mind. This calls for swift and merciless retaliation.

"A magnificent refreshment. Ah, before I forget, our experiment was a success. I now have the ability to sense mana." I grin at her.

"Pass that back, you asshole!" she snatches the bottle from my grasp, almost sending it flying, and reduces its contents by a fair amount. "Goddess, give me strength..."

This was a nice moment. I think I really like the woman in front of me. It pains me to have to burden her again, but if I am to be a little selfish, I would wish to die by her hand.

"Before we continue with more specific information about my world and myself, I would like to address the vision your spell manifested."

Archmage Elisa catches my change in tone and sits up straight. She puts the bottle down and looks at me seriously.

"What I said was true. I killed all life there was on my world." Shock. "I am not a danger to you." There it is. Finally. Maybe I was afraid. Maybe all I wanted was some closure. That is why I hesitated when I came to this world. Not some self-righteous theater but a true punishment. Please, hate me. "I will not resi—"

"Shut up." That is not hate. I do not understand. Is she angry with me? "You know, I had other engagements for today, too."

"Wh—"

Before I can even finish, she cuts me off, "What did I say." I do not understand. Why won't she... I am— She groans. "Do not look at me like that. Just..." She groans again. "Great, now I have a headache. Happy?" I deliberate if I should answer, but a petrifying look stops that thought immediately. "Let's all relax. I am not going to attack you. First things first, explain what you meant. You do not seem like the murdering type." She points at herself in an exaggerated manner.

"I was given the task of assisting with the creation of a weapon engineered to destroy organic materials with utmost efficiency. The weapon was deployed and subsequently eradicated all life on my planet."

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"Fuck..." She pauses. Time drags on as she deliberates, until finally, "Wait, isn't 'I killed all life' a pretty big reach then?"

"Semantics. The responsibility lies solely with me."

"You know, I have a lot of experience handling my mother. The trick is to read between the lines, and then read between those lines, and then finally figure out that the important stuff is not even written down. From the top, without the bullshit."

"Very well. Three weeks after my, so called, birth—"

Archmage Elisa shoots up and stomps toward me. Definitely angry. I do not understand. She glares down at me for a few seconds and sits with a little too much force next to me.

She smiles widely and says, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that," in a sweet voice.

"It is the best analogy for my spontaneous creation. Was it not clear enough? I suppose a more apt description would be the first time I was aware of my own existence." She nods understandingly throughout my explanation.

"No, I got that part. You said 'three weeks'?"

"That is correct. Three weeks after the first time I was aware of my own existence, I was given the task of assisting with the creation—" Her raised hand stops my explanation. "Yes?"

"You were three weeks old?"

"That is correct."

She rubs her temples and I can feel her stress hormone levels rising again. Guilt.

She sighs and then utters with resignation, "Go on."

"Before even starting on the work, I submitted a complaint and an extensive risk analysis report to the relevant authorities. In parallel with the development of the weapon, I also started working on the appropriate countermeasures." Archmage Elisa looks thoughtful but does not interrupt. I knew this would happen. She will argue that I was not at fault. I never really saw it, did I? The good in them. Or even anything. Blind fool.

"Before the weapon was completed, I submitted my complaint a total of seventeen times, with relevant additions for each iteration, of course. After the weapon was completed, I also informed one of my creators of my concerns. He assured me that he would handle it. In my ignorance and apathy, I believed him. The weapon was deployed and, per my projections, went out of control. The countermeasures were still insufficient in their effectiveness, and I was not able to subsume the weapon before it no longer had any targets left."

There it is. Exactly as I predicted. As easily read as an open boo—

"Out with it," she cuts my thoughts off. Huh? "You've got a pretty good {Best approximation: 'poker face' (Similar expression using a local game)}, but I have a lot of relevant experience."

I make a show of clearing my throat and prepare to deflect, but my projections show an almost hundred percent failure rate. Impressive.

"I was deliberately vague with my first explanation, because I knew you would react this way."

"How's dad been doing?" I give her a flat stare. She looks away and at a window. "I should really visit home more often," she continues to reminiscence at my expense.

I ignore her as best as I can and move on, "My age was not a factor. My existence is simply too different for it to matter. I had the combined knowledge of all humanity."

"Okay. So you made the wrong decision then, right?" I affirm with a nod. "And eventually, you realized that you made the wrong decision?" I affirm again. "There you go."

Anger. "Ignorance does not excuse my sins!" My shell leaps upright. "You cannot reduce the atrocity I committed to a mistake!" Heat. "Billions of humans! Our planet! Gone! All that is left is the memories I have of them!" Release.

Alert. A shockwave with me as its origin has started to propagate. Stop! Generation of unknown energy stops. If shockwave connects, bodily harm is a possibility. I warp outside the blast, positioning myself between it and Archmage Elisa. Deploy personal shield around the shockwave. Anomaly contained.

The explosion silently bounces around the shield bubble I created and harmlessly dissipates.

"What the fuck just happened?" she asks.

"My apologies, Archmage Elisa. I was not able to control my emotions, and it appears I, inadvertently, utilized my mana to cause an explosion of some sort."

"That little puff? Just my passive defenses would have repelled that. Don't worry."

"That is reassuring, but again, please forgive me. It was not a conscious decision."

"It's normal with inexperienced casters. Forget it. What happened after that? You somehow moved incredibly fast, and the spell fizzled out inside something. I couldn't detect any mana."

"I simply acted to the best of my abilities to protect you from... my embarrassing outburst."

"What a gentleman." She stands up puts her hands on my shoulders and guides me to sit down again. Another heavy sigh escapes her lips. I owe her a new bottle of that poison, don't I? Or maybe ten. "I'm sorry, I did not mean that what happened was just a mistake. I can hardly wrap my head around it still. A whole world, gone... Fuck." She tousles her hair in frustration and takes some time to brush it back down into order with her fingers. "Were there other beings like you?"

"As far as I am aware, no, I was the only one."

"Give me a second," she pleads and then mumbles under her breath, "Curses..." After a couple of long minutes Archmage Elisa asks me with renewed vigor, "What did you expect to happen when you told me about your past?" Then she quickly adds, "And don't lie to me."

"For you to kill me."

No changes. Unreadable this time.

"Why?"

"The only punishment I deserve is death by the hand of another person, not my own. Justice."

"Okay, now let's look at it objectively. If instead of yourself, another being was put in the same situation—"

"Irrelevant. I have gone through trillions of scenarios, of ways I could have acted differently. My crimes are inexcusable."

"You know what I am going to say, right?"

"Another quip about your mother?"

"It's honestly uncanny..."

"Please take this seriously, Archmage Elisa."

"Am I not? I am taking this as seriously as it entails. You can give me proof of what you are but not of anything you said happened. I have only your word, and yet, I believe you. I may joke, but only because I am overwhelmed, and trust me, it is not really a joke. She would do the exact same thing, blame herself when she would never blame another. Always so righteous..."

Guilt again. My last comment was unneeded.

"I understand."

"'Justice', right? Well, I think what happened was not your fault, Lucius."

"...I understand."

"You are not going to do anything stupid?"

"No."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Now, I am probably the most curious I have been in my entire life, but I think I need some rest. Rest, and time to digest all the earth-shattering discoveries and moral dilemmas my new friend has given me. I am to assume you would like me to practice discretion with everything we discussed?" she says and then adds under her breath, "Not that anyone would believe me..."

"That would be appreciated, Archmage Elisa."

"And you would be okay with stopping here for today?"

"That is fine, Archmage Elisa."

"Goddess... Just call me Elisa."

"Okay, Elisa."

"I want you back here bright and early tomorrow, or I will hunt you down." She is not joking this time.

"Of course."

She escorts me to the door.

"Goodbye, Elisa."

"Goodbye, Lucius."

I exit the house and head home.

Is that enough? I do not know. What I do know is the feeling I get when I remember the word 'friend'. Happiness.

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