"Try not to separate the two. It is temporary matter but it has the properties of being infinite, the source of all life as we know it and the way the universe will eventually return to. Indeed physicists have speculated that the universe as we know it may be no more than a random decrease in the entropy of the universe and that these random particles are the true form of the universe.

Also don't think of the particles as the actual substance of my creations, but as a medium through which I focus my magic thus at once creating the substance known as "darkness" which I can shape.

However the idea that darkness is in fact temporary particles is only a theory f mine and has yet to be fully proven or tested. Honestly magic based around shadows and darkness went out of style centuries ago because no magic-world magicians (the only ones who make new spells) cared enough or were able to, figure out what darkness actually was.

Mine is a hypothetical solution to the darkness paradox and may even be absolutely wrong.

And Nhieling you should keep this in mind,darkness theoretically contains everything, not just wrath, greed and ill-will. If you will recall love, passion, empathy and hope are things which you reject, so then doesn't that make them dark as well?"

Love... Hope eh?
I suppose it's a matter of point of view.
It make me think, there is a little artifact here about it...
Nhieling started searching into a drawer, and then draw out a item, with two emplacement to put the hand.
Here, if you wish to share it with me, it's called a mind linker, since it will allowed us to have a global glance . It's not dangerous, but may definitly change your way of seeing things. The risk is up to you. Are you curious to have a glance at what's is my true essence? I'll see your too. And then Nhieling put his hand on one of the emplacement.



Oh, and concerning your theorie, there is everything here to try it out, but the after effect if we make a mistake are... unknow.

"I don't quite think that will be neccessary... let me see if I have your character correctly.

You are a being who has lived for hundreds of years and during this time (or perhaps because of your exposure to your puppet) you have become cynical. Not pessimistic, simply cynical. To you life is a game, and I'm guessing that part of the reason why you partnered with Zeref is because you never wanted that game to end. You've had to sacrifice things for him but what does it matter so long as you remain and you can by and large do what you want?

You have come to the conclusion that there is no point, meaning or greater purpose in life. You do not let this fact bother you and instead use it as an excuse to do what you want so long as it doesn't tip the delicate balance between you and your master too far. You are an egoist and hedonist who has forsaken all ideals of selflessness or self sacrifice. You dismiss numerous social emotions such as love, intimacy or empathy but as wither a part of your cynicism or simply a means to hide some form of loss I don't know.

You didn't choose to become the guardian of this place to "help" the previous guardian die, you became the guardian because you wanted what was here and you could get it from the old guardian. Still, as I have said, before, to you life is a show or game and drawing on all the secrets of this place would be as you said "boring". These ruins are a cheat-code and you don't want to skip to the end? You want to enjoy every self-centered desire and find every amusement possible before you have another tussle with your master or the ones he is making you seek out.

To you most other people are as puppets in the grand show you hope to one day craft or maybe are even playing out already. You may grow fond of some of them and would be disappointed if a few were to leave the stage before you deemed it but by and large you would not be too broken up over the deaths of anyone you know.

All of your acts of charity kindness and even the granting of my request to come here, are all actions meant to provide you with a good temporary "feeling" which you recognize as driven by your egoism rather than love of another living being. You are an original hedonist in this respect as you do not seek physical stimulation but mental and creative stimulation with which you at times feel elated. As Aquinas once said, "it is better to live sadly for a day as Socrates then for a year as a pig." I believe this statement applies especially to you given your desire for mental over physical stimulation. Yet still, you remain reserved even in the face of astonishing changes or world altering possibilities. Which leads me to believe that you think you have either seen it all, imagined it all, heard it all, or have a very good poker face...

True or False?"

Ahahaha, the first time I saw you I though : He's interesting : He have power, leading skill... I though you could become someone that would make the world change, but maybe I was wrong, you could go farther than this, since you've got the intelligence and the social skill too.
Yes you're true, but you've done an understatement. I accept that each of my action are leaded by egoism, but I think you've misunderstood something.
Nhielind sat into a chair, his aura turned darker.
All this feeling you're so proud off, time just rip them off. I don't do into heroic fantasy now, but I have been a lot different into the past. Self sacrifice, even through being nice, is just a pure form of egoism. "I'll be an heroes", "I'll won't have to see my dearest one die", "it'll make me feel better"... Everything.
Time devour everything, do you think you would remain the same after 100 years? 200 years? 1000years?
I'll pass on this point, it's a difference into our point of view maybe.
Now one other question : can you still speak about love when you already know that you'll survived the loved one? Can you still felt any love after seeing the one you love die?

And now, the point where you misunderstood : My main point isn't to be cynical, it's to be greedy. In the past I've wanted everything, and I've got it. The power? It's just a fool dream, it won't make you happy, never.
Eternal life? I've got this, and it's not because you don't fear death that you're happy either.

No matter what you get, you always think that it's something else that will make you happy, but what to say when you've try everything and it still don't work? Then you understand that it's not getting a desire that make you happy, it's just working for getting it.

I'm not some kind of monster that is just "playing" with people, being greedy mean that I also want things like : seeing my friend being happy, feeling that you've help someone.... It's just that I'm not an hypocrite and say that I do it for other, I do it because it pleased me to do so.

Oh, and I'm not seeking excuse for what I do. The fact that I don't think that a greater purpose exist is just linked to the fact that time will erase even the greatest empire, if human foolishness don't do it before.
Moreover, what if your greater purpose mean that you'll have to kill your enemy, don't you think that it"s still ironical? To get what you want to have to step on feets sometimes.

I had the same kind of discussion in the past, it was with one of the better tactician that ever lived. If I remember well, I helped him to become someone. Little by little, getting power, his aim was to build a better world. An idealist, like you, that was well intentionned. One day he asked me : Why are you always so cynical, in the win as in the defeat? I answered him : because you see your aim becoming closer, when I, see each day tone of men suffering, dying, being torturated for this same purpose, and that I'll see what this men sacrifized themselve for fall to dust on day.

Yes, I'm cynical, yes I'm egoist, but don't think that I overlooking things like the others suffering. It's because I'm an human myself that I become what I am. Life is a great game, but my game never implied useless suffering. I'm not a sadist, neither an anti-social. I'm sure playing with others too, but I wouldn't create situation where I would make others suffer more than their own action already condemned them to.

To end it, I have a question myself : what would you do of eternal life, if I said you that it's perfectly possible for you to get it?....

"Obviously I would expect there to be a catch... and even if there wasn't one, I would grab the person who offered it to me, throw them into a vat of boiling bleach, bash their teeth out against the wall, drop their still living body in a meat grinder, feed the meat to a pack of starving wolves and then burn the wolves.

It's nothing against you personally Nhieling, but by and large, I have deep loathing for most immortals. It may just be the way that I was raised, but a major part of my hatred comes from my grandfather. My grandfather was immortal, and after living for so long he became bitter and despicable. i wouldn't want to become like him and so I'd never choose immortality."

Vampires aren't immortal. They're undead. The antithesis of immortal. A truly immortal being is one like you, filled with enough energy that you simply can't be killed. Your innate magic of "giving life" probably would have kept you moving and active even if you hadn't made that deal.

Vampires are caught between life and death. They are not dead so they cannot die, but they are not alive so their ability to change and alter their personality over time is limited. Thus you are more likely to find that a vampires personality has changed very little from the month after they were turned.

My grandfather was a God. You might have heard of him. In the past people used to call him Pluto.

You're right about the fact that I would probably stand up from the dead if I were to die with the power I've stored through century.
So he's a god. It's expla....
Suddenly Nhieling poker face broke :
WHAT????! The same one you've kill? Do you understand the consequences of killing a god? And more that this you've got a god blood running through your vein.
Tell me more please... Tell me everything you can about it. I've heard about him, but there is hundreds of gods living over the magic world so I don't remeber well.

"He called himself a god but really I don't have a better explanation for what he was. It was clear that he had lived for millenia, that much I am certain. I am also quite confidant that at multiple points in time he was worshiped by the people of Earth. He was omniscient and could tell the exact placement of every atom in the world simply by closing his eyes. He was also omnipotent and could alter matter to suit his purposes. I'd seen him rearrange the atoms of a recently deceased corpse and make it alive again as a fully formed human with all the thoughts, memories and personality it had before its death.

In my studies I have learned that he used a form of magic called "transcendence". The idea behind it is quite simple but to actually practice and achieve it is infinitely difficult. A "Transcendent Mage" discovers the method for transforming non-magical forces into magical ones, and then drawing those forces through themselves or an object they created. The simplest form of this is transforming physical forces into magical energy. Heat, lightning, light, kinetic energy. All of these are the basics.

The next step however is to transform immaterial things into magic, drawing from them to fuel ones power. Fear, reverence, love, general worship were some of the more powerful forms. By proclaiming themselves Gods and getting people to worship them, sacrifice for them, bleed for them, the Transcendent Mages of earth obtained more power than they knew what to do with.

Via this wellspring of power, the mages were able to fuel spells constantly regenerating dead cells, fueling spells unheard of since ancient times. Becoming beings of myth and power which are still remembered today. There was only one flaw in their power. People could stop believing in them. As they became more reclusive and fearful of one another, they stopped making public appearances and demonstrations. By isolating themselves, their worship died down to a level which could not sustain them. Those that still practiced did not truly believe, or had too weak of faith to support their Gods.

And so they lost their wellsprings of power, becoming merely powerful mages. Many stopped using the regeneration magic. Others sought to rekindle their previous worship and died trying. In the end, they had lost their divinity and almost human.

My grandfather was different. Acting as a God of Death he could still indirectly draw power through the natural fear of death mortals have. So long as people feared death he could live. However as H.P. Lovecraft once wrote "even death may die". To maintain his power he used it only sparingly. Using it only to keep himself alive. I caught him in a moment of weakness, when he had diverted his power from keeping himself alive when he manipulated the undead of his realm to attack a trespasser.

So does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"[b]As for the energy you use... I think that it's the most basic form of transcendence. All mages can do it to some extent. You may notice that some mages can transform their will power or emotions into greater magical power or ki-energy. What truly makes something 'transcendent" is when a mage draws their power from someone elses soul, or possibly even tapping into the non-localized energies which you spoke of.

And before you go anywhere with that bloodline stuff, I wasn't actually related to him. He raised me and told me to call him Grandfather. Aside from him being an erstwhile diety and his constant cruelty I new little of him. However the one thing I'm sure of is that we had no blood relation to each other whatsoever.

What's more, I imagine then that the old world gods of the Greek and Roman empires were mages who had discovered these energies and then inserted themselves into the equation... but without constant recognition by the masses that this was the case the "gods could not maintain themselves in that stream of pre-existing faith. This leads to the even bigger question of "where those streams are now"?

Oh, it's a shame you don't share the same blood. As you may know, most of people want to get immortality, great power etc... But don't do anything to make it come true. It would be the greatest irony that one of the first one that don't want all of this get it by accident... World is humor, dark humor.

Anyways where this stream are now... Hmm it's actually the most interresting question. For what I know, this stream were here before the mage cames, they probably still exist. In the case of the magic world, when a god or a mage using this streams happen to disapear, nature tend to make new one to replace them. When it come to faith... Well I guess that the energy that once belong to believer return to them.

I have a question : If you were to use this method to get immortality, what element would you choose? What one do you think will be at the same time the safest and the strongest?

Mortimer thought or a minute before replying.

"The one that's safest AND strongest would most likely be light. Light in and of itself is not dangerous except to benings with an "unholy aura". The real danger comes from when people try and access shorter wavelengths, emmitting more deadly kinds of light. Gamma and x-rays to be precise. But still, you don't here much about a sun god killing. Indeed, by utilizing the power of light, one could draw not onlyfrom it but from peoples faith in it as well as the sun.

Why, what do you think would be the most powerful element to draw godhood from?"

I wasn't thinking of concrete element, and more of feeling. Light isn't a bad idea either. Concerning the feeling, what's the one that you think would be the best? What is the most basis feeling of human kind? Don't send me a cute "love" please, I pretty sure that none of us think this is the strongest point of human, even through being the more poetic.

"Conflict" he replied without hesitation. "The basis of humanity is conflict. Without it we have nothing to define ourselves. Wars, arguements, debates, indecision, a differing of opinions with irreconcilable differences and the only viable option is for the two to clash. Conflict highlights the differing views of humanity, both when it is against each other or against the elements. A world without truth, or lies or love could still exist but a world without conflict means everything is the same. And that might as well be death."

Mortimer had nothing to respond to that. He could argue but that would be pointless as Nhieling clearly had faith in this worldview and nothing Mortimer could say would change it. Instead he decided to change the subject.

"So you must have been coming here to learn something before you asked me along... what was it that you wanted to learn of exactly?"

Oh, just this, said Nhieling looking at the book he was reading while speaking. It's just the theory about dimensional switch. The original spell that shundo came from. Now a a lot of different way to copy this spell existed, such as lightning step etc...

You also gave me an idea about something else, I'll have to try it out.
Anyways, what are YOU interrested in? I alredy knew what I came here to, it was just for help me remembering somes things, but I still don't understand anything about your motivation. And your aim for coming here is still unknow from what I know.

"My motivation for coming here.... well I'm here because you are. My motivation for coming here was to obtain a judgement of your character and see whether or not I can trust you... and I can't.

Which is a good thing because if I trusted you then I would assume you were untrustworthy. By being a greedy, selfish, sonofabitch immortal (no offense) you've show to be the best candidate for a very important task.

I need you to take these letters and after the next great battle give them to Kagami and Kitty."

Removing two white envelopes from his coat Mortimer placed them on the table in front of Nhieling. "I should warn you now that in several days we are all going to experience another great battle, similar to the one which turned everlast magic school into a pile of rubble. And it is after this battle that I will require you to give these to the vampires.

Do you think you can accomplish such a task?"

"You'll do it because you're curious and want to know what I have planned... also if you don't 'll just recreate the teleportation seal you used and come back here whenever I want."

Ahahahah. Threatening me is useless. Do you really think that the ancient would have let this city unguarded? The only thing that prevent them from awakening is that the guardian is here. Their most horrible form of magic are still here. I already tell you about the living weapon.
After all, you can still try, since the moment you get here I'll know it too. But I doubt than anyone could pass the defense of this city if they activate.

Now with your futile threat, I only put one and only condition, just follow me. They arrived to a little room. Without any window. Nhieling show him an orb. Just put your hand on for one second. I swear that it isnt dangerous, and won't harmed you in any way. It's not to get in your way, it's just data for personal use. it's not even connected to mind reading technology, it's just some physical data that I need.

Mortimer had an inkling of what it was actually. Placing his hand on the orb he waited for the effects to fully activate.

After a charge of power went through his cells, Mortimer draw the hand out.
See, it was nothing. Since this trade is done, would you mind doing some practical training? I just need a moving dummy that can use shundo, you'll be perfect.

At this request Mortimer couldn't actually refuse, nodding his head he followed Nhieling to the next area where apparently he would be used as a "practice dummy".

Mortimer hadn't been used as this for... well alright it was last week. He had with increasing regularity been used as either a training partner or practice dummy.

And somehow he didn't think that the training Nhieling had in mind was going to be all that pleasant for him... not one bit.