The First Archmage

(Twist)

"Nies," I locate Nies, who's currently chilling on a tiger in his more mature form.

The fact that he's in this form bothers me a bit. A lot. If my worry were to take the form of pure energy, it would obliterate an entire realm or forty-eight.

It's his old form – Sein. The Origin of Chaos. He's highly unpredictable in this form, and it's forced me to take on my old form, Tsiwt, the Origin of Order.

If we have a repeat of what happened before, my status as the Origin of Order will be needed. Eisnar, or Ransie, as it was originally known, was burned, the surface of the world thrown into chaos and turmoil, ravaged by Sein's raw power.

Gavin Jakran's brought out the old Nies, the Sein of Chaos. Thankfully, Nies – or Sein – is a mix of the two versions of himself at the moment. He sent himself into the lazy spiral because of what happened, because of his guilt and depression. Gavin Jakran's helped him overcome that.

Unfortunately, what's just begun might mess everything up. Hopefully, there's no issue, but… depending on how the fight goes, we might have a repeat of what happened before, what happened when the Sein of Chaos got close with a mortal.

"Yeah?" Nies shoves a cookie into his mouth.

Some habits never changed, and Sein's sweet tooth carried over into Nies. Only now, there's a much, much wider variety of treats. Cookies didn't exist back then. Mostly, he ate honey or other natural sweets.

"Gavin Jakran's making his way to the isles," I inform him. "To defend against the hordes of Dragons. The one that's taken out three worlds is there."

"Gavin'll win," he gestures lazily. "He's a Celestial now, and that thing's specifically avoiding messing with the other Celestials."

The other Celestials it's avoided tangling with were more than ten times as powerful as Gavin Jakran. He is, by nature of the Celestials, nothing more than a baby.

"Can you create a viewing screen?" Nies suddenly sits up. "I wanna watch it."

"I was planning on that," I nod, our surroundings changing to our usual viewing room, a projection of Gavin Jakran's fight filling the air, giving us a three-dimensional view of it as Nies and I put our power into the display field. It only works with us combining our powers. "Here we are."

Gavin Jakran begins attacking the Dragons, and the fight's going well, but there are four separate groups of Dragons coming this way. The party he's fighting consists of the strongest, and I doubt he can handle all four without issue.

Especially since he doesn't gain Experience from combat – not directly. Protection. Safety. That's the style of Experience his Celestial Species takes on. Spreading of knowledge. Education. Training.

Not combat. Not killing.

Gavin Jakran eventually talks with the world-destroying Dragon, clearly attempting to recover some of his stamina and energy as he does. He's aware he needs to recover a bit, if he really wants to fight this thing.

Nies frowns at the screen, sitting up and using his tiger as a chair rather than a bed.

"He's used his seeds?" He asks.

"He gave them to the Dekami," I nod. "He also gave his ring to Ryan. He left prepared to die just to protect his people."

A feeling as if time isn't right prickles at my neck, and Nies shifting confirms it to me.

"Hello, Nahor," I say.

"Hello, Twist," the mysterious, time-ignoring Divine Being responds. "Mind if I join you two?"

I look over to Nahor. He's dressed, as usual, in the blue-green armor of his, without any clothes on underneath, as usual. I've never understood his style, though it's reminiscent of the style of armor of a particular kingdom from Ransie. He probably does it because of what the armor style means to Nies.

Apart from the armor, he could – somewhat – be taken for a mortal human around sixteen or seventeen, much like Gavin Jakran. His eyes and hair have the same fluid-like, blue-green coloration as his armor, and a single gold chain leads from his left shoulder down to his right hip, the only bit of other color on his body, save for the paleness of his skin.

Nahor unnerves a lot of us. No one knows how old he really is – it's possible he's older than Nies and me – nor how he knows what he knows. He's the one and only God of Time, and even Nies and I can't remember if he was around when we were young or not, despite our memories being pristine.

Nahor is unsettling with his ability to perceive time as if it's always been, as if he's simply remembering the future. He predicted, back when Sein destroyed Ransie, that Nies would claim a Hero of Adventures named Gavin, and it happened. Even though Nies had forced that memory and prediction into a seal within his own mind long before ever meeting Gavin.

The God of Time – possible Origin of Time – moves to sit on one of the viewing chairs, stroking Nies's tiger with a light smile on his lips. He tries to avoid Nies, for some reason, though I'm not sure why.

Which means that him being here means that the fight Gavin Jakran's facing is something huge. Something bigger than anything I can assess and predict. It's… frustrating.

As the fight goes on, more and more Divine Beings show up to watch it. This is the only place within the Divine Realms something like this can be viewed – it requires both Nies and I to activate. Normally, a Divine Being needs to have some sort of spark or influence to view something, outside of us Original Divine Beings, and that's why we created this space.

Soon, more than two hundred Divine Beings are watching the second half of the fight with the first wave. Gavin's given up Reij, under the assumption that the Ouroboros can't absorb the greater Dragon's flames, and he's right.

He truly is prepared to die to protect everyone, even people he's never known before. Just hearing that the Dragon intended on taking out his world pissed him off to a level that his power increased from his fury.

He's hiding it, possibly lying to himself, but he can't stand the thought of it. Can't tolerate anyone wanting to do what this Dragon does, and can't tolerate the thought of letting those he cares about or wants to protect dies.

If Gavin Jakran were a Divine Being, he'd likely be a God of Protection.

Glancing back a few rows, I watch the Origin of Protections, Ulmias, Sein's wife. She's taken on her more mature form, as have all of the other Original Divine Beings. Nies's Hero has, once again, caused a great shift in the universe.

Had Nies not gotten to Gavin Jakran first, Ulmias would've offered him her Blessing.

However, because Nies managed to do it first, all of us Original Divine Beings are prepared for the worst to come. For Nies to revert fully back into Sein, and for Eisnar to once again be destroyed by the Origin of Chaos's sorrow.

"No!" Nies exclaims as everyone gasps, and I turn my gaze back to the viewing screen, finding myself greeted with the sight of Gavin Jakran being incinerated.

A quick mental check, and I see what happened. The world-destroying Dragon managed to get close to Gavin Jakran as he fought other Dragons and exhaled its most powerful breath, the young being unable to protect himself against it.

The boy was clever, though – he'd performed Soul Links on every Dragon there, so his death wiped them all out. At the last moment, he even linked the attacker's soul to his, binding them together, the great Dragon that only a Divine Being or high-Level Celestial could end burning from the inside, turning to ash.

When the flames recede, nothing's left of Gavin Jakran, save for Gavin Jakran's soul, a glowing, faintly-grey, swirling mass the size of a watermelon. Gavin Jakran's soul is strong and powerful, not just from his Resource Pool being that high, but also from all the training he spent with it, all the strengthening he gave it.

From all his good deeds, he'll have a great afterlife, too. The fact that he's remaining there is weird, though. He should've already begun to fade into the afterlife.

"It can't be like Rohan!"

Nies wails, and before I can react, he vanishes, leaving behind all of us and his tiger, and appearing on the viewing screen, where he sobs, wrapping his arms around Gavin Jakran's soul, hugging it.

So he's stopped it from passing on, then? We can't bring the dead back to life – that's beyond even our ability.

Nies continues to wail, and I watch. There's something weird about Gavin's soul. Nies would probably notice it if he weren't so hysterical at the moment. I need a better look, but approaching Nies in his current condition could be explosive.

Esinar might be ravaged by his power again. Both of his Heroes have died – the Hero of Sein and the Hero of Nies. Rohan and Gavin Jakran. This isn't good.

Nies and I are both powerful enough to destabilize the universe. It might not be just Eisnar that gets destroyed this time.

The other Divine Beings register that probably around the same time as I do, because they all depart quickly, though I find myself stuck here, with just the tiger, Nahor, and Ulmias. And judging by Ulmias's expression, she's not here willingly.

Looks like Ekre got stuck, too, but he's melded into the shadows. He's pretty shy, no matter his form, and I didn't notice him here earlier because of it.

"Nahor?" I turn my gaze to the God of Time. "We need to prepare the universe – if Nies goes-"

"He won't."

"I know you're powerful and can perceive the future," I say. "However-"

"Gavin is dead," Nahor leans forward. "But do you remember the soul purification I mentioned before? The one that's only happened once before, and can't be worked towards?"

Where they're even more powerful than they were before, and remember everything? Where the person dies, yet the being lives on? I've yet to discern what you meant by that.

"Gavin's met the final condition for it."

Gavin Jakran's what?

Looking back at the viewing screen, I realize what's off about his soul. It's… it's undergoing a soul purification. But what kind of soul purification requires him dying to attain?

"Sometimes," Nahor says, and I look at him to find a smile playing at his lips. "All of you are so dense, and so oblivious. Nahor. Rohan."

What does that-

Ekre and Ulmias gasp at the same moment I realize what he's saying.

Nahor is the inverse of Rohan – with us Divine Being, things can be flipped, such as me once being Twist, and Nies once being Sein. Gavin's even an example where it can affect mortals – the Species he turned Max into was the flip of his name, and his Mana Expansion Technique is the flip of his first name.

And Rohan, the first and only Hero of Sein, was a powerful time mage. He'd studied it heavily, and then died in an experiment with time.

"You're Rohan," I say, and Nahor smiles. "You're the Hero of Sein. But how-"

"As I said," he says. "The conditions for that particular soul purification have only occurred once before – I knew it was possible because it was me. I ascended from being mortal and became a Divine Being when I died."

Nies lets out a louder wail, and I look back to the viewing screen just in time to see the third wave of Dragons burst into showers of blood, the ocean beneath beginning to boil.

"But how?" I ask. "And will it happen fast enough to stop Nies-"

"It will," he states. "I can perceive the future and remember it as if it's happened specifically because of the very requirements. There are several of them, and you actually have some of them. One of them is that there is something you must believe in absolutely. Gavin believes in protection and sanctuaries. Of freedom when no wrong has been done. You must work for it, even if it costs you, and Gavin did. You must do whatever you can for it, and Gavin did. There are others, but the final requirement?

"That," he says. "Is to die for the very thing you work towards in a selfless act. Gavin's thoughts, all the way to the end, were of protecting others, even if it took his life. He created the Soul Link as a final resort, and knew that his death would result in Nies coming down and stopping the rest of the Dragons. He knew it was hopeless, once he saw the other waves, and so, he did what he knew would result in the end of the attacks. He knows his Order is in good hands, and that they're safe and protected. To the end, he was a protector, and those were his final thoughts, and his selfless actions in death.

"Meeting that," Nahor gestured to the screen, where Gavin Jakran's soul has begun to turn blue. "He's met the final requirement, and thus, is undergoing the same soul purification I went through, all those years ago. It's nearly completed, and once it completes, Nies will calm down."

Nahor starts to add something else, but doesn't, and the three of Divine Beings us stare at him, the tiger looking a little confused.

All this time, Rohan lived.

No, not Rohan. The soul purification killed Rohan, and Nahor took his place. And while they're the same 'being', they're different 'people'. Gavin Jakran is dead, but the being he is continues on.

A few moments later, the soul that once called itself Gavin Jakran shifts and warps, the Divine Being hugging it oblivious to the changes as it takes on the form it once held, its starry eyes looking at the Original Diving being with amusement, violet hair blowing gently in the wind, violet wings flecked with gold stretched out behind him.

"You know," the new Divine Being says, and Nies freezes. "How do you think your wife and girlfriends will feel about you hugging a naked guy?"

At once, everything around them stills, and Nies slowly, carefully detaches himself from the younger Divine Being, who looks every bit Gavin Jakran that he had been, complete with the fluffy tail and runic marks.

"Hm," the young Divine Being looks at his body, then gestures with his hands. He frowns for a moment, then does it again, and a pair of black pants and a belt form on him, and he smiles. "There we go. It seems getting used to this will take some time. That said, Nahor, fuck you, and Nies, boiling the air and ocean isn't exactly letting the people I died to protect survive."

It wasn't Nies who froze everything, was it? It was the being once known as Gavin Jakran.

The younger Divine Being gestures with his hands, frowns for a moment, then does it again, and the 'boiling' ocean calms, the breeze picking up again.

"Yeah," he says. "Getting used to it will take a little time. Now, Nies – what say you that we attack this last wave of Dragons? Or are Divine Beings not allowed to do this? Because I'm still itching to protect these people as they evacuate, and letting the Dragons reach them won't exactly suit my desires."

Nies just stares at the Divine Being, who shrugs, then looks at the incoming Dragons. They're still a few miles out, and he really shouldn't be interfering directly, but…

Nahor's often pulled stuff like this before, and we've never stopped him. Mostly because he unnerves us, and has proven himself capable of truly killing a Divine Being, but maybe there's a reason for it? There are cases where Divine Beings can interfere, but we usually have to keep a close eye on them for that. Perhaps ones who were once mortal don't need that?

This is confusing.

The young Divine Being raises his arms, extending them out to the sides, and violet light envelopes the Dragons, and when it fades, there's nothing left.

"There," the young Divine Being smiles, turning to face Nies. "Dealt with, and the itch to protect them is gone. And due to that, the evacuation isn't needed anymore. Out of curiosity, Nies – do I need to wait a certain amount of time before I can give someone my Blessing? I'll need to pick between Michael and Ryan, but since I'm apparently a Divine Being, now, I do think it'd be useful to have one of them having a Blessing, since they work for the Order so much."

Nies starts spluttering, then throws himself at the young Divine Being, wrapping his arms around him and sobbing into him, rambling incoherently in the Divine Language.

"Huh," the young Divine Being says. "I can actually understand that, now. I guess you need to be a Divine Being to?"

"Wait," Nies suddenly stops, detaching himself from the young Divine Being. "Fuck Nahor? Why?"

"He clearly knew this would happen," the young Divine Being answers. "Even said it's happened before. I'm guessing it happened to him. Does the name 'Rohan' mean anything to you?"

"Rohan?" Nies's eyes widen, and he suddenly appears back in here, right in front of Nahor, examining him closely. Hesitantly, he asks, "Nahor?"

"Hello, Sein," Nahor smiles. "It took you long enough."

The young Divine Being appears in here moments later, only he's a little upside-down, and four feet off the ground. He quickly rights himself, shaking his head, but smiling.

"That's better," he says. "How long is the transition period, Nahor?"

"You'll probably adjust within a few days," Nahor laughs. "Welcome to Divinity, God of Protectors, Guardians, Sanctuaries, Travelers, Adventurers, and Knowledge, Nivagran."