The next several days passed similarly, with the two occasionally checking on Eradis and using the training room to duel each other. Despite using two different types of magic, they were tied for wins and losses. Milsa gave a compliment to that, “To be that compatible is a rarity, you two are certainly a cosmic power couple for sure. I can’t wait to see how you grow.”

  Ardonis had finally made progress on his idea, though copying the complicated spell was already tough enough without trying to shrink it down. Which required much effort to do, that was when he realized a different problem. “Fuck,” he sighed in frustration, the spell fizzling out. Returning the hand mirror he was using as a base back to a normal surface. He was so close to getting an image, but with every step he took forward, the magic would force him three back.

  Even the most tiny of errors in the magic would either make it explode, or fizzle out. Even errors he didn’t know were there to begin with. “Who knew merely shrinking a preexisting spell would be so damned hard, complex or not,” he grumbled.

  He felt arms wrap around him as Lucy giggled and kissed the top of his head, “Still not working out for you love?”

  “Unfortunately,” he said, sighing in defeat as he leaned his head back. “I’ve made good progress, but still, this spell is a lot more complex than I thought it was. I’m not sure if I’ll get it before we have to go down to the planet.”

  Lucy leaned down and gave him an upside-down kiss, “I don’t think you need to worry too much about it. After all, Milsa did say she was going to give us something to keep an eye on the prick.”

  “I wonder if it’s just the same thing that I’m trying to achieve…” Ardonis said, “I mean, I don’t really see why it wouldn’t be if we’re meant to keep an eye on him.”

  “That’s true, but who said that it had to be something new? Discovering how to do something yourself or in your own way has its own merit. Don’t put yourself down too much, not everything has to be a new invention love.”

  “No, but it certainly feels a lot better when it is something new rather than something preexisting,” he said with a pout, causing Lucy to laugh.

  “Then let me help out a little, what if instead of simply shrinking it down, you alter it with some arcane clairvoyant magic as well,” she said, an arcane rune showing up under the mirror, a glow illuminating upward around it in a circle. Taking the hint, Ardonis activated what he had figured out with the spell. Seeing a path that he hadn’t before, his eyes widened.

  He connected the magic together while shifting some of the complex lines of the spell. Lucy assisted with the arcane flow drawing connecting runes onto the spell, which kept everything in check and after an hour of working together, they got the result that he had been wanting. It was even better than he wanted with the arcane boosting the spell.

  “Lucy you are a genius, thank you,” he said, smiling widely and hugging her.

  She giggled, “It was really nothing more than a guess to assist you. But I am glad it worked out.”

  “Don’t be so modest, you had been watching me work on this the entire time, of course, you would get an idea or two of your own. You may not quite be as experimental as I am, but you are still very smart.”

  “I suppose we both have to work on accepting being praised huh?” she said with a bashful smile.

  Ardonis kissed her, “Not to ruin the moment, but I think we should test it out and see if we can use it to check on our mutual enemy.”

  After a few minutes of working out the kinks, they got it working and the surface of the hand mirror showed Eradis sleeping. “Is it nighttime where he’s at?” Lucy asked.

  “Hold on, let me try zooming out to see the surrounding area,” Ardonis replied, waving around a couple of fingers that glowed with a coating of magic. The image went fuzzy for a moment before it showed an open plain area with moonlight shining down. “I guess that answers that question.”

  Using the spell was a continuous drain on his magic, however it wasn’t much. He felt he just might be able to use it even while they are on the planet if he can get it down even lower. As he pondered that thought, something caught his eye and he quickly zoomed in on it as best he could. “What the fuck is that?” Lucy asked.

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  The large creature that was now the center focus of the mirror looked halfway between a bear and a lizard. It was hard to tell the size from where they were, but Ardonis suspected it had to be at least eight feet tall. Patchy areas of fur and scales all over the thing, a long tail with spikes on it, bear-like paws with sharp claws. It had both small and large teeth, as if it had the mouth of a smaller and larger species combined. The eyes were black with the reptile slit for the pupil.

  Ardonis quickly checked back on Eradis, who was still sleeping, he zoomed out only slightly to get an understanding of how far the creature was. And it was not very far at all. “The thing looks creepy and powerful,” Lucy said. “But I doubt it’s a real threat to a god.”

  “Don’t forget, he has his power restricted down to like twenty percent or something right now. I’m sure there are a good number of things on the planet that won’t mean much to us will be able to do something to him,” Ardonis said, trying to figure out whether or not he could send a mental message.

  Lucy groaned, “Are you sure we can’t just let the thing eat him? It would save us a lot of trouble down the line.”

  “Maybe so,” he said, both hands moving through the air as magic flowed around him. “And I agree that he’s certainly an asshole, but he hasn’t done something so bad as to be killed like that.”

  She sighed, “That damned hero complex of yours…” she trailed off. “You never were able to get over it. Then again, I suppose that kindness is one of the reasons I fell for you.”

  “Not a hero complex, that would mean I’d be willing to get in over my head to save others from something I couldn’t handle. That isn’t the case,” he said as he worked. “If I can do something, I will, standing on the sidelines when I am perfectly capable of helping just feels wrong. If there truly was nothing I could do, or if this doesn’t work, then Eradis will be left to his fate. I know you feel the same, at least in regards to helping when you have the power to.”

  Lucy stayed quiet, knowing that what he said wasn’t wrong, and she didn’t try to interfere with what he was doing. That didn’t mean she agreed with saving the jackass though.

  Ardonis closed his eyes as the magic around him intensified, making it look like he was covered in an aura the colors of a galaxy. His eyes suddenly snapped open and they glowed with the same colors and intensity. “Wake up you idiot,” he said in a deep god chant, clapping his hands together with all the force he could muster.

  Lucy looked over at the mirror to see Eradis suddenly jolt awake and look around confused before assessing the situation he was in. Though the magic winked out a moment later as Ardonis sighed and plopped back in the chair, the magic that was surrounding him gone, as well as the glowing eyes. “That took a bit more out of me than I thought it would. It turns out there are some pretty powerful defensive layers to intercept messages between here and the mortal plane.”

  “It must have if it took over half of your mana to cast,” Lucy responded, “What exactly did you do anyway? I mean, sending a mental message obviously, but what specifically?”

  “Just a slightly modified long-distance telepathy spell, it allows me to bypass someone’s mental defenses for a few seconds to send a message through without being blocked. The spell itself isn’t very costly in mana, but it does take a moment for the magic to charge up depending on the distance.”

  A second later, Milsa burst through the door, “Sorry for intruding or whatever, but what the hell are you two doing in here to set off what felt like a bomb of magic power?”

  “Saving a certain idiot who was about to get killed because his guard was down by sending him a telepathic warning,” Ardonis answered.

  Milsa’s eyes went wide, “You what? How did you get through the magic defenses separating the realms? That is something even I still struggle with.”

  Ardonis shrugged, “I had to sacrifice about half of my mana, but it wasn’t anything too hard to get through.”

  She shook her head, “No, you don’t understand, those defenses are set up specifically so that only the gods of the planet can send such messages. The only ones who can bypass that are…” she trailed off, narrowing her gaze as she analyzed him. She scoffed, “Of course, one of the aspiring true gods would have that kind of potential hidden away. Why would it be any different?”

  “Ma’am, what are you talking about?” Lucy asked after sharing a confused glance with Ardonis.

  “Supreme gods,” Milsa said in almost a whisper. “They are the only ones that can bypass such things. But a Supreme god is a very rare potential that only a few gods have. Well, the chances used to be much higher before the great reset, but I digress. I could be wrong though, you could have just gotten lucky, so don’t go around thinking you are special just yet. We’ll have to see how you develop over this long journey of yours before we can truly tell. And considering that you are in here… I assume you were successful with your experiment?”

  Ardonis nodded, “Thanks to Lucy’s help I managed to get it down. How usable it’ll be on the planet is another matter, I’ll be tweaking it for the few days we have left and making it a permanent enchantment on the mirror.”

  “A good plan,” Milsa nodded, once more, let me remind you to not get cocky about your potential whether you can become a Supreme god or not, being humble is a virtue.”