AMBROSIAI had to drag this out as long as possible. Yeah, I know Belial was eventually gonna destroy the world. But if about a day on Earth was sixty days, that was plenty of time. Wait, the math on this seems backwards... oh nevermind, I''ll tell them that and they''ll believe it. I''ll need a year to win back Nevras. Even if it dooms the rest of the Earth.

    We made it to the portal again with Bahamut''s help, and went closer and closer to the thing. While Nevras and I had a nice kiss, I realized we needed to spend as much time as possible to be sure that he wouldn''t leave me. I might have to stall for time.

    I said, “I hear that the time difference between Earth and the Realm of Void is about 60 to 1. Elias, how long would it take for Belial to destroy the Earth from within the Realm of Void?” Elias did some quick math and said, “Angels and demons are powerful, but limited in reach. Angels weren''t given the ability to learn spells, they have their natural Script power, while most demons, aside from Fallen have only Hellfire. Fallen have both, of course, but their effective radius is based on their power. The most powerful one in Hell is Satan, although some say he''s a Fallen not a demon. When last we visited, I asked him about his effective range. It seems he could easily destroy too. I''m pretty sure other demons challenge this all the time, and if Belial were stronger they''d all try to free him. I''m not saying he''s not plenty strong, though, tempting a man from inside an urn, but he can''t destroy the world with just his spells. No, that would require a ritual. The wider the range of a ritual, the longer it takes to set up. Now, if I put this here, carry that... around 30 years, I''d say.” I explained to everyone, “Let''s see... 180 days divided by 60 is about three days, so if we spend a year on New Earth, less than a week will have passed where Belial is. That should give us plenty of time to train!”

    GOD

    She had the entire thing backwards. Probably intentionally. A year on Earth is 60 years there. This would give Belial plenty of time to prepare his ritual to merge the New Earth back with the Void, destroying both, as well as cast all kinds of offensive magic through the portal. Of course, anyone who has played an RPG knows that he won''t just get to this plan but give other people all the time in the world until they are about to do it, then things get tense. Despite the fact that Elias should have pointed out this fact immediately, his time with Aqorm had made him socially aware. He looked at Ambrosia''s face, shrugged his shoulders, and just let her tell this glaring lie.

    NEVRAS

    I watched as we walked away from the portal and instead went on a quest to train, according to Ambrosia. She had originally considered fighting strawmen, who were absurdly easy to defeat yet gave a lot of experience. But strawmen are boring, so I talked her out of it. We wound up fighting wolves in Kirin. I agreed to do this only on the condition that we also trained weather endurance, so Ambrosia and Michael had to drop their barriers and suck it up. Every now and then, we moved to desert areas just to get a feel for other extremes. I had the group train in the water, even learning to hold their breath. I was taught this method by the army and if we were indeed training in earnest, then I was going to make pretty sure the others knew their fundamentals.

    After this, I fought with each of the group members in turn. “Okay, show me what you''ve got...” I looked at Ambrosia and I was pretty skeptical, though. “Let''s get back to you. Ambrosia, I want you to chop wood and carry water.”

    The conditions were not ideal for training. The sun didn''t really rise since Belial merged the two worlds. I mean, we did have some light, but it was more like twilight for most of the day. The sky was without any blue during the day, and at night the moon was very faint. I had heard that some mad sorcerer was trying to restore the blue to the sky by encouraging a lot of people to have sex. In any case, our battle would not only require us to deal with the cold temperatures of Kirin but also the dark gray skies lending to an intense midday gloom.

    I motioned to Aqorm. She started by tossing her throwing knives at me. So far, I was getting pretty good training too. I had a tower shield, but I put it down to instead work of parrying. I got a good rhythm going, but Aqorm sped up her throws. I had to be pretty clever to block, and eventually gave it up and tried to dodge. I grabbed my shield, intending to try learning shield skills like I saw from Sera. She tossed her knives, and I moved my shield with it, feeling out whatever technique came naturally. I had never tried to use such moves, and had never gotten formal training. I just tried to do the same sort of technique as when I used my sword, only apply it defensively. “Magnetism!” I shouted, as I swung my shield. I hadn''t seen Sera use this one, but it seemed intuitive. The shield didn''t do any Jedi-style pulling of weapons, it just guided stuff toward the center of the shield. The knives grazed the shield and bounced to the ground. Aqorm pulled out her elven knives. She had only two of those, but they were largely non-magnetic. I blocked her knives with my shield, but Aqorm was quicker and ran to my side, dealing a glancing blow to my shoulder. I dropped my shield again, since it was screwing with my visibility. It was strenuous work parrying two blades with one sword, but somehow I managed. Aqorm backed up, and used her geomancy, drawing out ice and snow. A pillar of ice formed around my body. I had to act quickly.

    Improvising a technique, I used my sword. I called out “Flame Sword!” Flame circled around my body. This wasn''t an offensive technique, but a barrier of flame against harm. I could move around, but my sword was fixed in an upward position. I walked out of the ice pillar, and I was free.

    I congratulated Aqorm for her good effort. Zoe was next. For the purposes of this training, I had Lilith and Michael fight each other, while I handled most of the rest. The others couldn''t handle the strength or speed of those two, but I was going to train against everyone in turn, and train them to be able to fight each other and win. Zoe called out, “Fire!” However, before she could cast, I smacked her with the flat of my sword. “Do you see this?” I pointed out, “spells that are cast verbally telegraph to any decent fighter that you are gathering runes. I want all of you working on not calling out spells.” Zoe said, “That''s great, but how do we do this?”

    Azrael explained to Elias and Zoe, since the others didn''t conventionally cast, “When you recite a verbal spell, you are gathering runes in a central location based on spoken word. Many people compare it to saying a prayer aloud to God. To use a spell silently on the other hand, requires concentration and focus. I requires commitment.” From what I heard, the first few times a person tried this, it took enough effort that spells were actually slower, not faster. Elias was open and honest, and didn''t really see any need to hide what we was going to do, so his personality temperament wasn''t suited for Silent Spells. So I wound up tying his hands and trying to get him to use Still Spells instead. Azrael also learned this, because she soaked up magical skills like a sponge. While I managed to eventually triumph over Zoe''s scythe attacks and her magic was still too slow, Elias was surprisingly tough for a non-combatant. He was pretty good with his staff, and now that his Still Spell freed up his hands, he could basically call out spells while swinging his weapon. I had to fight hard to get him to give up.

    Azrael was even tougher. She had both Silent Spells and Still Spells, she could use Solid Spells, and she could call forth magic while attacking and cast quickly without words. Thankfully, it appeared she currently hadn''t figured out how to do both at once. This would take more focus and training, but if she ever pulled it off, she''d be a match for someone like Lilith, who could use powers basically on impulse. She swung Raphael, and it became a match between magical swords. Her sword radiated heat even from where I stood, yet my sword withstood the assault. I parried her blows and swung low, grazing her clothing, and then I swung down and slashed near her forehead. With an uppercut slash, she sliced from my cheek to just above my eyebrow.

    Nervous about getting wounded way worse if I continued, I got Elias to heal us. I told the others, “Ummmm, good work everyone. Remember, continue practicing among yourselves.” Aqorm trained with Zoe, helping her improve her blocking with her scythe, while Aqorm practiced predicting and dodging Zoe''s Silent Spells. Once Elias finished healing me, he worked on Azrael, and then the two squared off to train their spells. Lilith and Michael had been fighting all this time, and appeared to enjoy doing it. From the looks of it, they were evenly matched. But they didn’t seem to be taking this seriously.

    I looked around at Ambrosia. She had been chopping wood and carrying water for quite some time. In the beginning, it had just been been about building muscle. But as time went on, she looked like she had developed some inner meaning to it. Her mastery of her Conception tool grew more profound. She was able to change its form almost instantly, and she had fine-tuned how any weapons she made with it looked and behaved. Her axe had become as sharp as she wanted it, and she learned how to cut through objects with a thought. And, thanks to hauling water, she learned to move more precisely and carefully, and she had more endurance. Better still, she was covered in sweat. As any male knows, even one like me, having women sweat is very sexy. I wanted to jump her bones right now, but other people were present. I''m not sure we were that close yet.

    Instead, I invited Ambrosia to spar with me. “Come at me!” I told her. Ambrosia waved her fishing pole around, but she caught nothing. I stood just out of reach. She changed her pole into something vaguely resembling a glaive. I strapped my shield to my back and kept a defensive stance up. I swung my sword in a wide arc but she stepped back just at the right moment. She thrust down with the weapon, but I lifted my blade high enough to block it. I pushed upward and she wobbled slightly. Ambrosia was always on stance lately, so I decided to see if I could exploit her momentary loss of balance. I pushed the offensive, using my Speed Slash technique. I didn''t want to hurt her too badly, so I sheathed my sword just before I drew. The extra weight of the sheath slowed my technique down just fast enough for her to see my move. Her dodging ability was incredible! The Speed Slash normally has what looks to be a single slash but is actually about seven or so, so fast that a talented warrior can make those extra strikes look invisible. But she managed to step in and out of these strikes, and emerged untouched. I was going to do my Standing Jump Thrust to push her over, but she used her halberd thingy to stop my attack mid-swing

    There is something you should know about these techniques. They aren''t simple attacks like most spells, they have martial arts theory embedded in them. So, a simple weapon attack that blocks a technique will often trigger the second technique hidden in the first. That is, when Ambrosia blocked my Jump Thrust, it triggered the secret Backspin Vortex ability. My swing rotated in the opposite direction, knocking her glaive right out of her hand. If her reflexes had been slightly worse, she’d have no hand.

    All Conception weapons are property of their respective holders, so her glaive returned as a fishing rod strapped to her backpack. But Ambrosia was done using weapons against me. Instead, she tried some martial arts, slamming me with her feet and fists. I swung back with my sword, having unsheathed it for the time being, but she wasn''t in that spot anymore. I looked around, and Ambrosia had somehow made a nearly 270o step, sweeping in front of me to at an angle behind me. She nudged me with her palms, then side-stepped again just before I finished swing at her. I tried again and again to hit her, only to realize too late that I had not concentrated on the bigger picture. Her Crest was glowing. She had completed one of her dances. I was hit point blank by the wind attack of the Crest of Four Gods, sending me flying before I smashed hard against the ground. She had won, though I wouldn''t be able to admit it for hours.

    AMBROSIA

    It''s not good to do nothing but training. Granted, since my original goal was not to train at all but to spend more time with him. And so, after he lost horribly to my Four Gods attack, we hauled him off on a stretcher to just outside of Kirin. It was Christmas Eve tonight, and according to legend, there was a small town which only appeared from the 24th of Monkey until what was known as Epiphany. The town was covered with decorations and lights, and filled with merriment. It was a regular Christmas Village!

    This village made gifts for people young and old, even though there was a weak tradition of gift-giving nowadays. While the New Earth wasn''t particularly charitable, the sudden break in the season where everyone got presents, even when they didn''t understand why, made a difference in the general state of the world. Around this time, despite there being no formal holiday to shop for, people started behaving just slightly kinder, and people mellowed out about things like training for difficult battles.

    I remember getting gifts when I was a child. I don''t remember ones from my original mother clearly, but I got some when I was with my adoptive mother. Like, one year, I got a bucket of coal and a new switch. I enjoyed those immensely! I used the second gift to ride our family horse around, and the first one kept us warm all winter! I don''t think there even is such a thing as a bad gift from Santa.

    But perhaps I should clarify what I mean by Santa. Saint Nicholas was an early Christian bishop of the city of Myrna around Greece and Turkey. He was famed for his good works, and his legend continued after his death. In his honor, people began to give gifts to each other around this time. There was originally a separate festival for Saint Nicholas and for Christmas, in order to celebrate Jesus''s birth, but gradually they became part of one celebration. And so it was here in this village. Now, the problem was, Saint Nicholas was ultimately a regular human, not a Saint. As you remember, Saints are crazy immortal types that aren''t bound by death. So, one of God''s angels took the job of delivering presents. It''s important to remember, the “gods” worshiped by ancient people aside from God fell into two categories: immortals and idols. Idols were just man-made statues with no actual presence in this world, but immortals were also once considered gods in their own right. When Saint Nicholas died, Odin picked up the slack. Of course, he had a different name as an angel, but yeah, it was Odin. Rather than short little elves like on Christmas cards, his elves were from Alfheim. And “Santa” typically gave presents at the end of his war parties or “wild hunts” and they tended to be badass functional gifts rather than some commercial item. I got warm blankets, new clothes, and even a fishing pole over the years. Yup, that''s when I got my fishing pole I now have, it was delivered by Santa. I''m pretty sure that''s where Nevras got most of his dresses too, because he couldn''t rightly buy these in a store, being a celebrity and stuff. There weren''t eight tiny reindeer either, there was Sleipnir and his eight legs flying over houses to deliver stuff. And Santa''s wife wasn''t some kindly old lady. She was Frigg, a hot immortal, able to see in advance what gifts people would appreciate, and who was gifted with great wisdom. Odin did sometimes wear red, but he wasn''t particularly fat, and he had an eyepatch. He looked less like a jolly old man and more like some badass.

    And this Christmas Village didn''t look like a giant toy factory, it was more like a Thomas Kinkade painting of some Danish or German town covered in soft snow. It was located in the East Pole, and time was a bit weird here. Since the town winked in and out of existence, this meant that while time passed normally, if you stayed after Epiphany when it disappeared, you could only leave the town the next year. This meant you were effectively unable to age as long as you stayed. The town was quaint and peaceful and the elves (when they weren''t slaughtering and eating wolves) were friendly enough. We rented a room the first night in a small cottage by the outskirts. We intended to stay alone, but guest after guest came to welcome us. Frigg came first, saying that it was not right for guests to be without some hot cocoa and some milk and cookies. There are seven major cookies that appear around Christmas Village: Pepperkaker, Bordstabler, Krumkaker, Spritz, Berlinerkranser, Snipp, and Fattigmann. Fattigmann are fried with some confectioner''s sugar dusting, Snipp are cinnamon cookies, Berlinerkranser look almost like pretzels coated with pearl sugar instead of salt, Spritz are cookies with sprinkles and festive shapes (basically what people would call “sugar cookies” except with almond extract), Krumkaker are funnel-shaped and firm like a waffle, Bordstabler have a sort of sweet topping, and Pepperkaker are spice cookies. We had to try each of them, plus a healthy dose of milk. The milk in question turned out reindeer milk, which was almost like we were drinking heavy cream.

    The elves came next, and brought some fresh wolf meat for us to eat. It usually had a terrible smell, since many wolves survive on low-quality food often eating members of their own pack that are sick or injured, along with mice, insects, and carrion, for big game like elk and moose is a rarity. But this town seems to have a fair number of elk for the elves to ride, and the elves knew how to prepare it correctly. Wolf meat was safe to eat, and pretty tasty though somewhat tough. The elves knew what they were doing.

    Santa visited us next as an old traveler, but you could totally tell because of his eyepatch. We shared some of the food that the others had given us, and in return we were given a roast goose with foie gras and cranberries and mustard greens. It''s hard to believe people acted like foie gras was cruel, while they raised chicken and cattle in dark cages. Hypocrites. True, the goose was force fed, but I''m not sure it''s anyone''s right to decide what people can and can''t eat. Geese, though, should totally be forced to eat until fat.

    As it was, the meal was awesome. We also managed to score some side dishes, so it was a good change of pace from having too much meat. They gave us barley and mixed vegetables, green bean casserole (the one with creamy mushroom sauce and fried onions), carrots with horseradish sauce, and wild mushrooms in meat gravy. We had done a fair amount of exploring but had not always eaten well. We made up for it tonight.

    And then, the guests went home. Santa/Odin said he had some “business” to take care of. His wife kissed him and promised to give him a good time when he got back, winking at him. And the elves made it out of our cottage in a bit of a drunken stupor, having competed with Aqorm, who they insisted was not a “real” elf, until they saw her drink most of them under the table. One last thing. Before bed, I told Nevras, “I love you.” Supposedly, if you confessed your feelings before Christmas Eve was over, it was meant to be. “I love you too,” Nevras said, “although it''s been awhile since we managed a proper date.” We all settled in for a long winter nap.

    The next morning, everything was different. We had presents, yes, but something more important was here. The baby Jesus. In a small bed that had just appeared in the middle of the room, a small child of about just a bit under two sat up. The child was male, with long brown hair. At least, we thought the child was male. It didn’t matter. The kid started making themselves breakfast. They turned on the stove, and added some eggs, standing on a small stool. “Hey there,” the child said, “come have breakfast?” I looked around the kitchen. The stool had come from nowhere. So had the eggs. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    These stoves used CasterTech? system, because enchantments were no solution to cooking, the inventor of these stoves tried to replicate the idea of an actual Fire spell being cast. It still demanded that wood be brought in for fuel. CasterTech advancements were rare, since they involved the device drawing in runes on command, and only common runes to the area were readily drawn. It was shocking to me that a CasterTech stove could even work in an area like this that never seemed to get warm. Jesus turned to look at us. Seeing Nevras and Azrael had scars from earlier, the child took the meal off the stove and touched us. “You should have told me that you were hurt,” Jesus said.

    I''ve always wondered if Jesus was just a really good wizard, surrounded as he is in a world where virtually anyone can cast a spell. But watching this kid work, I suddenly understood the distinction. When Azrael and Elias healed, there was use of mystic power, the sign of runes, and the healing was good yet flawed. Nevras and the others of us who had been hurt in the past did have some scar tissue, even though Elias had gotten much faster and more powerful since our journey began. Jesus had no discernible energy transfer, in fact, it wasn''t clear how this kid was healing us. Jesus''s hands simply opened up, and suddenly all scars were gone on anyone touched. Jesus went back to cooking, and served all of us some bread, eggs, a bit of fruit, and some feta. He seemed to have pulled this out of nowhere, which was magically impossible. Creation magic was difficult, and typically limited to summoning over stuff that already existed or creating nonliving matter. Food was almost impossible to make even for angels like Michael. So how was this kid doing this? I mean, he definitely couldn''t cast spells.

    It was simple food, but all of us were fed as nicely as if we had a fine meal like yesterday. It tasted like something a Super Chef would make, exceptional in its simplicity, yet full of freshness and flavor.

    After this, Jesus talked with us about our journey and listened to our adventures so far. We all walked outside to enjoy a winter stroll. Jesus seemed under-dressed, wearing only linen and some sandals, but while the snow was deep enough for most of us to sink about to our hips, Jesus just calmly walked over the surface of the snow. Only Aqorm and Michael managed to do this, Michael because he was an angel, Aqorm because she had the natural grace and weight distribution of an elf. But Aqorm was still cold, and Michael kept warm only because of his barrier. Jesus didn''t seem phased by anything from the natural world. We walked beside each other in groups of two or three, enjoying the sights of the town. Jesus poked at me, and I walked a little slower so I could talk privately with this kid. “It''s sweet that you''re doing this to spend more time with Nevras. I approve, and I''ll prevent Belial from destroying this world,” Jesus whispered, “but at some point, for the sake of honesty in your relationship, you will need to tell him the truth.” I nodded, and whispered back, “I understand. But just a bit longer. I want to tell him how I feel.” This child nodded, striking me as oddly mature for his or her age. We spent more time around Christmas village, connecting with all of its weird occupants, and with Jesus while we were here, and we stayed until New Year''s Day. Jesus recommended honesty, but at the same time I was given many options for spending time with my man.

    For Christmas, I got a backpack with limitless storage space (but not limitless size, so I could fit an endless supply of accessories and potions and such but not something like a piano) and which didn''t seem to transfer weight.. Nevras got a nice blanket, that was able to protect the group from sight, not to mention being pretty warm. We just couldn''t move around with it because it was some sort of camouflage. Elias got some nice toffee, an advanced prayer book, and some fleece socks. Aqorm got some fine silver knives to replace her many throwing knives. Zoe got a scythe made from cold iron and reinforced with an elven handle. Azrael got another musical instrument, this one was an Exorcist Flute. It looked like a simple ocarina, but you could tell it had some serious power. There were about four or so songs she could play with the limited number of holes: she could play a song that activated artifacts and ancient ruins, another that governed time and could trap critters in a weird looking box, another that swept wind around and occasionally made rain storms that opened underground passages, and finally one that changed night into day causing undead or plants to get sunlight. This was about the only useful one, but I suppose it was nice to have something you could play some songs on. Lilith got a whetstone, but no knife yet. And lastly, Michael got a new bow that formed its own arrows from solidified light and thus had no limit to what he could fire. Why, I''ll bet it could even take down a giant demon pig! We were satisfied with our gifts, but we didn''t want to overstay our welcome.

    And so it came to pass, that after we left Christmas village, I told Nevras and the others that we needed to go fishing. Their response, of course, was, “What?!? Why?” And so I gave them a ''reason'' like, “I need to completely master my Conception weapon. The best way to do that is to figure out all aspects of its use through application. I''ll also need to do some farming. And mining.” Technically, this was true. The more I would develop compatibility with my tool, the stronger I was using it. The Conception weapon still felt awkward, and I had trouble changing it. I knew how to fish though, obviously.