Sam was trying to hide, but Joseph noticed him. He looked up at him when Joseph paused next to his hiding spot."Sam, you and Todd are going to be rea.s.signed, along with Logan and Dylan. I no longer need guards. My mother, Lady Nadette, is to be guarded with your lives. Do you understand?"
The boy glanced at Stella, who was pointedly ignoring him, and nodded quickly before darting away.
Joseph sighed as he watched him run. He had discussed with Stella how he wouldn"t need the four as guards, especially now that he was nine years older. They knew that with his pitiable gone, he would terrify people with his newfound power. Being surrounded by people openly afraid of him would take some getting used to.
Once they reached the outside of the city, he started to draw a circle on the ground in order to sacrifice all of the gra.s.s. The spell was going to kill it all anyway.
By the time he was done, using a finely controlled SHAPE EARTH, his parents, Selena, and all of the high mages had a.s.sembled to watch. He saw that there were also some of his advisors and some of the northerners.
"This is the spell I learned for Selena," he told them. "I will need to make some more modifications before we can use it in the future, but for now, this will suffice for a demonstration."
FORCE WALL.
That should contain any blast and keep everyone safe.
CAGE SUN.
First an ATMOSPHERE DOME appeared in a sphere above and in front of the crowd. Then everything except hydrogen was expelled as the inside was filled with the modified spell as it used CREATE AIR and CREATE FUEL together. It had taken a bit to get all of it programmed into a single spell, but the end result was beautiful.
They all watched as the hydrogen reached critical pressure. LIGHTENING STORM ripped through the dome, stripping off the electrons while the protons started getting smashed together with a PUSH focused in the center. That"s when the first bit of fusion happened, and it was off.
The sound was greatly m.u.f.fled by the force wall, as well as the heat and radiation being completely blocked. Joseph noticed most of the crowd grabbed their ears.
The ground immediately melted so he quickly used the mana from sacrificing the gra.s.s to create a GATE that vented the hydrogen into s.p.a.ce, stopping the spell.
When properly controlled it wasn"t cla.s.sified as a planet destroying spell, but as a demo it was pretty unstable. He couldn"t wait until he had his kingdom established so he could build a true reactor. He intended to draw off part of the power to keep the spell going.
Ironically, magically created fuel couldn"t be used to draw power from the reactor, but there would be so many steps in the way from it, that he fully intended for it to work. It wouldn"t be very efficient, but would be able to produce permanent mana and electricity.
(FIRE IS PAYING EXTREMELY CLOSE ATTENTION TO YOU.)
"Oh! Little Joseph! FIRE liked that a lot! Can you make it so that fewer spells are required so that I may cast it as well?"
"Hmm. Probably. I will have to work on it."
As he turned to see the rest of the audience, he wondered if maybe he had overdone it. They all seemed to be overwhelmed. One of the non-mages had peed his pants.
DESTROY WATER.
NO SMELL.
Maybe no one would notice now that the evidence was gone. Selena was girling out, swaying back and forth as she stared at the place the caged sun had been. Stella was holding her poker face very well. She had seen a lot during her time with him in the bubble. While impressive, she had complete confidence that she would see it again.
"See mom I worked hard."
"Yes, Joseph," she responded in a very small voice. If it wasn"t for the fact everyone else was quiet, except for Selena"s happy humming, he wouldn"t have heard her.
Turning to the head mages, he gave them a big smile.
"We are going to go about training a little differently. I have learned how to place my skill directly into your heads, to allow you a chance to learn more efficiently. We will start tomorrow morning. I want beds prepared for you to lay in, during the process, as it will be mentally exhausting. Be sure to bring your top three students with you, as well."
They all nodded, too afraid to ask questions, and hurried to leave.
Joseph turned to his father, "I worked very hard for that spell."
"Joseph, I didn"t even know magic could do that. That seems like an incredibly powerful spell. No one would dare to attack us if they knew what you are capable of now."
"Oh, that wasn"t an attack spell, that was a spell that will provide us with mana and energy."
"That may be so, but I can guarantee that any enemy that sees that, will believe otherwise."
Joseph frowned as his father escorted his mother away. They were proud of his accomplishments, he knew, but he couldn"t help but feel that he had lost something just then.
"Joseph," said Stella, as they were left alone. "Don"t beat yourself up too much. We talked about how everyone would fear us."
"I know, but I never wanted to see fear in my own parent"s eyes."
"As everyone gets used to magic, that fear will fade. They will get used to it. It"s just so new to them. They need time to adjust. I had nine years, and I still need time to adjust."
"Ha! That"s the most I"ve heard you say since you told my mom off," he said, laughing out loud.
"I understand the type of spirit she has. She feels a need for control where she has none. I merely made her aware that she has no control over me, and to not even try. I am sure a day will come when we will be good friends. After all, we both have a common goal."
"And what"s that?" he asked, suspiciously.
"A girl never gives away all her secrets," she said with a smile.