I had sat back at the table in front of Virgil and was about to try casting the spell, but before I could, Virgil had a few more things to add.
⌈Magic circles can be formed at any range you want, depending on how much energy you have. Above you, below you, to your side, behind you. It all depends on you. And since you are at the very beginning, you will not be able to cast a spell directly above an enemy yet, but of course no seasoned mage would ever stand still and let you do that anyway.⌋
A single magic circle flashed around Virgil in quick succession. Above him, to his left, below him, behind him, and then on top of me as well. Pause.
⌈You can start.⌋
I nodded and closed my eyes. Then I started drawing on my stellar energy.
I thought about the magic circle I had been drawing for hours. I thought about how it looked, what was inside it, every line and rune, and slowly began reconstructing it in my head while reciting the incantation out loud at the same time.
The incantation had been the easier part to memorize. The moment Virgil had spoken it to me, it had stuck.
"I am the Son of the Stars," A magic circle began forming slowly above me, like someone was drawing it in the air in real time.
"I am the heat that comes and melts everything, not the flame of the Sun, but the warmth of the stars."
The circle was almost complete. But I could already feel how demanding it was, holding the image of the whole thing in my head while saying the words without letting either one slip.
"Therefore I shall melt, until there is nothing left to be melted."
The magic circle finished. It was complete and it looked exactly like Virgil's.
I opened my eyes and said:
"Heatwave."
The spell glowed and then triggered.
A wave of intense heat burst from the circle in a full 360 degree radius, spreading out across a range of twenty meters and washing over everything within it, Virgil included.
The flowers inside the range started melting almost immediately, softening and drooping at a fast rate. The chair I was sitting on and the table began to go as well, though at a slower pace. Virgil's chair, for some reason, was completely untouched.
Before casting I had asked Virgil whether the spell would hurt me, and he had told me it wouldn't. My body carried the same heat, so it would simply cancel out against itself.
Let's push it.
I increased the heat output by pouring more stellar energy into it. The spell was greedy. It ate through energy faster than I expected.
The temperature climbed. The melting sped up. The chair beneath me started getting seriously hot and I shot up off it before I could find out what burnt skin felt like.
"Hot, hot, hot!"
I stayed standing but I did not stop the spell.
I watched the chair and table go soft and then collapse entirely.
"Goddamn. I wonder what temperature that even is."
I looked over at Virgil. He was sitting with his legs crossed, watching me calmly. Him and his chair looked completely untouched despite the fact that I had already pushed the heat to a level that felt borderline absurd.
Of course it wouldn't affect him. The man was just built different.
****
Virgil watched Lucas in silence. He said nothing, but his thoughts were anything but quiet.
This kid... Not even ten hours had passed and he had already memorized the spell and cast it cleanly on the first real attempt. Not only that, he had done it in under a minute. For someone at his stage, that was fast. Genuinely fast.
Virgil's lips twitched.
When they had first met, Virgil had not wanted to teach Lucas at all. His first instinct had honestly been to kill him. He had not appreciated the fact that his avatar had handed his affinity to someone else without a word, not after millions of years of silence. Even if Lucas was compatible, Virgil had no issue waiting another millennia for a worthy successor. Compatibility was not enough on its own.
But then something had stopped him.
When Virgil had touched the boy's soul, he had felt it. A barrier. Something that blocked anyone from reaching inside, and not just anyone. It had stopped a god as strong as himself from prying in. That was not something a mortal soul should have been able to do.
How could a mortal block a god unless another god was involved?
He had checked it there was another god involved that had some put some kind of power on the boy, but he found nothing.
Lucas had become a mystery to him. Strange and unexplained, and not something Virgil could solve at the moment, though he would eventually.
But that was not the only reason he had found himself taking an interest in the kid.
Lucas reminded him of himself, back in younger days. Impulsive, a little naive, but with something behind the eyes that made you watch more carefully.
Something...much darker.
And on top of that, Virgil had started to enjoy talking to him. After millennia of silence and solitude, even a god could go quietly restless. Lucas said and did things that would probably earn him immediate obliteration from any other deity, and yet Virgil found he did not mind. Which was strange. Genuinely strange.
Was I perhaps feeling lonely? Was I that desperate for someone to talk to? Virgil turned the thought over and then shook it off firmly. Hell no. This deity has never once felt lonely in his entire glorious existence.
Even if that were true, he would never say it out loud.
Even if he was starting to enjoy having Lucas around.
I just want to see how the you from now will change into the you from tomorrow. That is the bet we made, after all, is it not?
****
After watching Virgil's chair remain completely unaffected even as I kept cranking up the heat, I finally let the spell drop.
I pressed a hand to my head. A wave of dizziness hit me, the kind that comes from burning through too much energy too fast.
I looked over at Virgil, who was still watching me quietly, and asked. "How is your chair still untouched? You I understand, but the chair I do not get."
Even the flowers on his side of the range had not melted.
Virgil said nothing.
I frowned. Is he ignoring me again? Wait, please do not tell me he is one of those people who fall asleep with their eyes wide open.
That genuinely did not make sense to me. How does someone sleep with their eyes open? Was that some kind of strange god thing? Voodoo? What was happening?
"Virgil!"
That got through. He blinked a few times like someone coming out of a long trance.
⌈Ah, my apologies. Congratulations on casting your first spell.⌋ He tilted his head. ⌈Can you repeat what you were saying?⌋
For some reason, his neck was really starting to look like it needed a hand around it.
I sighed and repeated myself.
"Your chair. It is not melting. Mine went, the table went, even the flowers on my side. But yours are fine. Why?"
⌈Is it not obvious?⌋
"What is obvious?"
⌈Because I am simply better.⌋ Virgil smiled with full confidence.
My left eye twitched.
This guy and his ego. Not that he was wrong, but still.
⌈Your spell is just that weak. It cannot touch anything on my side because everything here is wrapped in my aura.⌋
"Ah." I nodded. "That makes sense."
⌈Of course it does.⌋
"Motherfu—"
⌈Now then, let us move on to the other spells. But before that, you need a basic understanding of the remaining affinities.⌋
He cut me off without even blinking.