Greg was tempted to throw the assassin's failure back in her own face. The woman had failed, not from poor planning or execution on her part. Instead, several factors that no reasonable person would have been expected to anticipate had thwarted her plans. The poison she had used against Reina was potent enough that it should have killed her in a matter of seconds. Even with a third-tier healer onboard, this was the kind of poison that no third-tier mage should have been able to deal with. How was she supposed to know that his teacher wasn't actually a third-tier mage as her mana would seem to suggest. Using techniques from tiers far higher than the third tier that she could currently match, his teacher had brought Reina back from the brink of death. The assassin's disguise had been perfect. Forget Olivia and Greg, the assassin had managed to fool Captain Tharion who'd been the first mate's friend for many years now. How was she supposed to prepare for a young man with the eyes of a

"Becoming a mind mage didn't change me immediately. For many cycles, I was the ruthless blade my masters desired me to be. However, with access to their minds, my victims were no longer just targets, they were actual people. People with hopes, dreams, people they cared about and that cared about them. It's one thing to have a man beg you to spare them as he has a child at home waiting for him. It's another thing to feel their pain and despair at the thought that they might never see their family ever again. It's one thing to steal from an alchemist to give your masters a competitive advantage. It's another thing when you can look into the alchemist's mind and see that they planned to use the discovery to improve the lives of those around them, whereas to your masters, the discovery would only amount to figures on a page. It's one thing to know that children feel fear too. It's another thing to know that the fear of a child is much more raw and pure than that of an adult. Even worse, t

"You need to be prepared to leave me behind."Greg's tone was calm but no less firm because of it. He had hit a wall. Over the last two days, Greg had spent every second doing nothing but trying to come up with even one viable way his family and allies could make it out of the black zone unharmed. In the face of the kind of powerhouses that he would be dealing with, however, there was only so far that clever schemes could take you. If any single one of the three, the world serpent, the Primordial, or Morpheus, wanted those aboard the ship dead, then there was very little they could do to avoid that fate. Even more daunting was the fact that, they didn't need to have any ill-will towards them to pose a lethal threat. If anything, Greg was certain that none of the three hated any of the mortals aboard the airship. They just didn't care one way or the other. If a fight broke out, they wouldn't be holding back on their account. The shockwaves from that fight would be enough to do the ones

Greg walked onto the deck of the airship to find almost everyone there standing at the railing. His mother, sister, Lothar Calyn and Athalia were all looking at the city full of towering skyscrapers. Greg knew that even in his former world, the towering edifices of wood and stone would have been marvels to look at. Given that this was a city locked inside a black zone, they couldn't exactly source building materials from somewhere else. They had thus been forced to make use of the two most abundant resources available to them. Earth and trees. Greg didn't know if there were plant-specific mages or if this was some special application of life magic he was looking at. Rather than buildings, it would be more accurate to say that they were looking at gargantuan trees embedded with stone houses all along the trunks. Not hanging, but embedded. And as if that wasn't impressive enough, Greg was almost certain that there were corridors and hallways within the trees. Otherwise, given the lack o

Thick, cloying, invasive, disorienting... Greg had been prepared for any number of things when they crossed the boundary into the city and the denizens of the city were free to attack. What he hadn't been prepared for was the environment itself being the first obstacle that they had to overcome. Mana in the air was usually like the slight scent of flowers in a meadow. Not hard to detect if one turned their attention to it but usually subtle enough that one could easily relegate it to the background without even noticing. The moment they crossed over the wall that marked the edge of the city, however, it felt like he'd gone from breathing freely to having a pillow pushed against his face and being asked to breathe through it. Greg turned as he heard thuds on the wooden floor of the deck. Greg turned to find that both his mother and sister had fallen to the floor unconscious. Lothar, Calyn, and Athalia, weren't passed out yet, but from the way they were swaying unsteadily on their fee