“… and fourteen separate projection matrices.” Nestor looked up, his faceplate having been pressed almost onto the surface of the Ancestor Gem he was examining it so closely, folded his arms, and brought one of his hands up to his chin. “My golems use more than thirty of such matrices…”

Leon frowned as he scrawled Nestor’s findings down in a nearby notebook. They’d only been at it for about ten minutes, but he’d already filled almost half of the notebook.

“Your golems are designed for complex tasks. This gem only does one thing. How complicated does it need to be?”

“For something like this?” Nestor gestured vaguely at the glowing gem, the three stored ‘powers’ coiling about one another in a mesmerizing dance, though the darker-than-black singularity surrounded by the pale white halo remained locked in the center, unmoving. “I would expect this to be more complex than an ark’s jump drive. I would expect it to be more complex than anything else I’ve ever built! I would expect it to be a marvel of magical engineering that puts all others to shame!”

The dead man sighed and slumped over the table, looking almost out of breath despite his lack of lungs.

“… There’s a certain grace in simplicity,” Leon stated, eliciting as dark of a look out of Nestor as the unmoving and almost featureless faceplate could muster. “In this case, however, I’d say the ancient rune at the center of the enchantment is doing most of the legwork.”

Nestor audibly groaned.

“Never seen it before?” Leon asked.

“… No,” Nestor replied, his tone making it sound like Leon was pulling his teeth. “It’s… I have no idea where to start analyzing it. I could spend ten thousand years on this and make little progress. I can’t even parse out what its case rune might be!”

Leon understood that while every ancient rune was unique, they often branched off from broader ideas. An ‘open door’ rune would be a more complex version of an ‘open’ rune, for instance, while an ‘open this door in front of me in thirty seconds’ rune would be a more complex ‘open door’ rune. A rune of lesser complexity could do what runes of greater complexity did, but it would require more mental and magical strain on the part of the rune’s user; the more complex the rune—and thus the idea that the rune served—the easier it was to use the rune.

During his lessons with Nestor, that point was hammered home often. During those lessons, Leon had also taken the concept to its logical conclusions in both directions—there was an ancient rune for anything one could think of, no matter how complex. The rune would simply grow more and more complex the more complex the idea. There were a theoretically infinite number of ancient runes, but even the oldest of fifteenth-tier mages, who had a natural grasp of this magic, had but a mere droplet of knowledge in this realm compared to the infinite ocean that lay at their fingertips.

On a human scale, this was fine; many ideas and concepts simply did not need to be explored, and thus their runes remained undiscovered. A man might need a ‘cook this meal’ rune, but he might never require a ‘cook this meal three times, once every hundred years, then make it stand up and dance for ten and a half seconds’ rune. In that respect, Leon had been assured that the natural grace with which fifteenth-tier mages could understand runes still required study and drive, and so they typically only learned new runes in fields that they were interested in.

In the opposite direction, Leon had been curious about rune complexity going in the opposite direction. If an ‘open’ rune, already quite simple, could be simplified further—and going infinitely further than that, was there a ‘universal rune’, so to speak? Or in other words, a rune that was of infinite simplicity that could do anything? If he could use an ‘open’ rune to do what an ‘open this door in front of me’ rune could do, was there an even simpler rune that could do what an ‘open’ rune could do?

Nestor was unable to give him a definitive answer. He spoke for a long time about it, but it boiled down to effectively, ‘theoretically, yes’. However, just as the oldest fifteenth-tier mages hadn’t plumbed the depths of complexity, neither had they fully explored the heights of simplicity.

In the case of the Ancestor Gem, the enchantments were fairly standard for a high-prestige item. The enchantment that he and Nestor had been studying lay at the center of this nest of more mundane enchantments, and at its core lay an ancient rune of significant complexity. Given Nestor’s expertise in the area, Leon had hoped he’d have more insights to share, but the man was now dashing his hopes.

Leon flipped through the notebook again, refreshing himself on all that they had collated so far of the enchantment surrounding the ancient rune.

“It looks like most of the enchantment that the rune interfaces directly with is only meant to shape and guide magic into it, rather than doing anything with the rune’s output.”

Nestor’s head turned back toward the Ancestor Gem, and Leon could feel the dead man’s magic senses probing the crystal again.

“I would agree with that,” Nestor stated.

“I haven’t been able to find any other enchantments in the gem that could have contributed to either the summoning of our Ancestor or the storing of my power. While it’s intuitively the case, I would confidently say that the ancient rune is doing both.”

“I would agree again.”

“If these two things are true, then it seems like this gem was designed for that sole purpose, and that the storing of my power is part of that.”

“You state the obvious and are in danger of repeating yourself.”

“Then I’ll make my point: the lightning is obviously the power of our Clan. The black fire is also straightforward enough: it’s from my Great Black Dragon half. So… what’s this power in the center?” Leon almost crouched to get closer to the gem, his golden eyes looking past the raging black flames and flashing silver-blue lightning beneath the surface of the gem and locking onto the black singularity at the core.

“It wasn’t there before you touched the gem?” Nestor inquired.

“No,” Leon confirmed.

Nestor cocked his head in thought, but he didn’t stay that way for long.

“You may be drawing upon another power,” he said. “Unless you have a third bloodline that you didn’t know about.”

Leon grimaced. “No, I think that would’ve been apparent by now. If I had a mysterious third Ancestor, then I think both the Thunderbird and the Great Black Dragon would’ve known by now.”

“Then that makes it clear: you’re developing a bloodline of your own.”

Leon turned that thought over a few times in his head. As far as he knew, humanity on its own couldn’t pass down power; only the methods that Ascended Beasts used to pass on their powers could do that, and as far as he knew, no human had ever been able to reproduce that.

However… ´How human am I?’

When he’d first met Helen, the young alchemist had contracted his aid in saving Anna, who had been kidnapped by a basilisk Ascended Beast. During the last phase of the hunt, Leon had slain the beast in his original Thunderbird form, and Helen had accused him of being an Ascended Beast himself. He was human, of course, but when that accusation had been made, he’d quipped that there wasn’t much difference between an Ascended Beast that could transform into a human and a human that could transform into a beast.

A statement made almost in jest, but he now couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t more truth to that than he’d first considered. He could assume the form of the Thunderbird, and if he wanted to, stay that way. It was as real for him as his ‘true’ body was, to the point that the only reason that his human body was his ‘true’ body was because he thought of it that way.

’And because of that enchantment in my soul realm,’ he briefly thought. He’d never considered experimenting with what might happen if that enchantment were to be damaged or partially erased while he was transformed, but… ‘No, too risky…’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Regardless, if he had some kind of power that he could pass down as his Ancestors had for him, then it would logically be…

He raised his hand and called upon that dark power that the Iron Needle had shown him, the power that he’d needed in the moments when it had manifested—black lightning briefly danced around his fingers, but he cut it off after only a split second since his skin had immediately felt like he’d lit himself on fire. In that moment, however, he’d noticed that his black lightning shared a color with the singularity in the gem: deepest black with a bright halo, as if all the light that hit it was sliding off and around the edges and blending together.

“Do I… am I… making a Bloodline?” he asked aloud.

The question itself was almost ridiculous, yet Nestor remained silent, his own metal eyes staying locked on Leon’s fingers.

The dead man eventually broke that silence with a simple request. “Leon, I must study this further.” He didn’t qualify what he wanted to study, but Leon’s response was the same no matter how specific he wanted to get.

“Yes.”

Extremely gingerly, Nestor took hold of the wolf head chain still attached to the Ancestor Gem and turned toward the door, through which a large golem entered. Nestor spoke no words, but Leon felt a tiny magical tremor interact with the golem’s enchantments—a silent order was given if his senses were true. Sure enough, the golem opened up a storage compartment in its chest and Nestor laid the Ancestor Gem within. The golem then shut its compartment, and Leon sensed some of the most powerful enchantments he’d ever seen layered onto a golem snap into place, securing the package within the metallic body.

For a moment, Leon wondered what might happen to the Thunderbird as she was still manifested, but a quick scan of the palace told him that the golem’s defense enchantments weren’t negatively impacting her at all, at least as far as he could tell. She remained with his wives, gossiping with them in a way that seemed almost… like she was still evaluating them now that she could speak with them face to face.

“I will set aside all of my other projects for this,” Nestor said at the door. “This… this requires dedicated study.”

He left without another word. Leon remained where he was for a few minutes longer, idly perusing the notebook while collating what they had learned during their study. Even if they still weren’t clear on exactly how the Ancestor Gem did what it did, he could at least say with some confidence that it was not reproducible, at least in so much as the enchantment made use of the gem’s internal crystalline lattice to take shape. The crystal itself was as much a part of how the gem functioned as the enchantments it was filled with, and finding another one to use as a copy was… not impossible, but at least effectively so.

For the time being, Leon was content to let Nestor study it anyway. He’d need it back at some point, but he’d at least still be able to converse with his Ancestors in his soul realm.

When he pushed himself back to his feet, he left to see to the rest of his duties as a King. He’d been gone for more than a year, having not seen to any but the most critical of business during his time back from the Demetrion Cluster, and while he was confident Iron-Striker and the rest of his ministers had done a fine job, he still had to see to his Royal business.

Not to mention he had other things on his mind, too…

---

When the door to his study shut, Leon cast his gaze about the room. Marcus, Anzu, Alix, Anna, Daryun, and Zhang all joined him, all but Marcus looking at least curious if not a little confused as to why he’d summoned them here.

Instead of jumping right in, however, he looked at Daryun and Zhang. “How are you two settling in?” he asked politely.

“Well enough,” Daryun replied.

“My quarters are adequate and my needs are met,” Zhang added.

“Good, good,” Leon responded. “And Scarlet Star?”

Daryun shared a look with Anna, who had been taking care of his horse in his absence. “He’s better than ever,” he responded in a ringing endorsement of Anna’s skills, though Leon hadn’t doubted her at all in the first place. “I’ve honestly considered letting him live his life out in retirement—hopefully with a few comely mares to share his stall and a wide field to run through.”

Leon smiled. “A fine retirement that would be, though I can’t help but ask: are you sure? The bond between a warrior and his war beast is strong…” His eyes flickered to Anzu, who smiled back at him.

“I have seen the metal monstrosities that you command, King Leon. They have convinced me that he is not as needed in your Kingdom as he was in mine. Though… if he lives long enough to become an Ascended Beast, I would embrace him as the closest of friends.”

Leon nodded in approval. “We’ll see if we can’t make that happen. Anna?”

“Setting aside some good pasture is easy,” she smoothly replied before her eyes turned to Daryun. “Though, if you want him to ascend and take human form, then he’ll need training. Training from you.”

“I would never shirk my duties,” Daryun immediately confirmed, to Anna’s quiet delight.

A slight lull in the conversation followed, and Leon turned his gaze to Zhang. “How are you doing, Zhang? I haven’t heard any reports of you coming and going…” Leon knew the man was still grieving; it had only been a few weeks since Yun’s death. He was willing to give the man all the time he needed, but he wanted him here for this meeting, at least.

“… I have been training,” Zhang replied. “I have sworn myself to you, and I will fulfill that oath to the best of my ability.”

Leon nodded again, though this gesture came with marginally more apprehension compared to the previous time. As he considered what to say next, he momentarily caught Marcus’ eye, who looked at him with a degree of expectation. Leon frowned slightly and decided to just focus on the purpose of this meeting.

“I spoke with Marcus the other day,” Leon said as he made eye contact with everyone in the room. “I broached the topic of something with him, something important that I have been considering for years now but have never committed to. But now with Daryun and Zhang joining us, I have decided that the time is ripe to resurrect an idea that I once had that I failed to commit to. A certain title, and a position that came with it…”

Of those in the room, only Alix understood. She slowly turned to Marcus, who grinned back at her, which in turn elicited from her a slowly growing smile of anticipation. Anzu, Anna, Daryun, and Zhang, on the other hand, clearly needed him to directly state it.

“I offer you five a position in this Kingdom that only Marcus has ever held. A position of privilege and expectation that serves directly under me, to act as my hands in places where I cannot go, as my eyes in places I cannot see, and as my voice in places that cannot hear me. I offer you five the position of Paladin.”

Alix, who had only been waiting for him to say the words, immediately replied, “Yes, yes, yes! A hundred times! A thousand times yes!” Her enthusiasm was reflected in her glowing smile, and Leon could understand why. In the Bull Kingdom, the position of Paladin meant the pinnacle of one’s career as a knight, the ultimate expression of that position, the goal—whether they knew it or not—or nearly every knight to ever serve the Bull Kings. Though they had long since left the Bull Kingdom behind, that idea remained, and with Leon bringing it back, Alix took it with both hands.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “It would mean leaving your position in the Tempest Knights behind…”

“Alcander hardly needs me!” Alix replied. “And we have many worthy Captains who can replace me!”

Leon nodded, gratified with her enthusiasm. He turned to the others to hear their answers.

Anzu, as he’d expected, answered next with a confident, “I accept, Brother. I am whatever you need me to be.”

“My brother is all I need you to be,” Leon answered. “But I am grateful beyond words for your acceptance.”

He and Anzu nodded at each other, no more words needed. They were partners, closer even than Leon and Xaphan who had a contract enforcing their close partnership.

Anna was next. “So if we accept… we give up our current positions?”

“Yes,” Leon replied, “but gain one of much greater prestige. I won’t hold it against any of you if you refuse, however. You are already my Royal Beastmaster, and if you love that job, then I would never tear you from it.”

Anna looked thoughtful for a long moment before saying, “I would answer affirmatively, but I would have to check with Eirene first.”

“Get back to me whenever it’s convenient,” Leon responded. “And if you need any added motivation, I’ll give the position of Royal Beastmaster to Eirene, if she wants it.”

A devious grin flitted across Anna’s face. “That’ll certainly help convince her that this is a good idea…”

After her provisional acceptance, Daryun was the next to answer.

“I have sworn my spear to you, Leon Raime. If this is how you would ask me to serve, then this is how I will serve.”

“I am grateful for your trust,” Leon stated. He finally looked at Zhang, the only one yet to answer.

The man locked his gaze with Leon, and after a moment, simply said, “I accept.”

After a moment’s pause, Leon answered with just as much brevity. “Thank you.”

A tense moment followed, broken when a laughing Alix wrapped an arm around Marcus’ shoulders. “How long have you known this was going to happen?!”

“Leon and I first spoke about this… oh, about a year ago?”

“And you didn’t tell me?!” Alix cried in mock betrayal.

“It was a secret,” Marcus shot back with a cheeky grin. “Also, I’m not currently a Paladin, I would remind you. I am content in my role as the Chief Inspector.”

“What?! Then… why?” As she asked her question, Alix released Marcus and stared at him in confusion.

“He’s here to pass on the mantle,” Leon explained. “My first, and so far only, Paladin, welcoming five others into the atrophied position.”

“You make it sound so desirable,” Marcus sarcastically stated.

“It is,” Leon said as he straightened up and addressed the other five. “We’ll hold a more formal ceremony in a few months. Until then, try and keep this matter to those in the room. Iron-Striker knows, as do most of the high ministers, but still. And… thank you, all of you, for your trust and loyalty. As this Kingdom expands, I will have to rely more and more on men and women like you, who will make this Kingdom’s growth possible.”

More kind words and well wishes were exchanged, and when the meeting ended, joy bloomed in Leon’s chest. While he hadn’t expected any of them to turn him down, that they had all accepted—even provisionally in Anna’s case—was a great confidence booster. These were people who were going to have his back, and given that he would be rubbing shoulders with the strongest mages in the universe during the Belicenian Games, he needed the best.

In this respect, he considered himself well-served.