As Phoenix, Blade, Ava, and Solaris are looking for ways to shape the next era to fulfill all of their goals for it, Ava warns Phoenix, “The greatest warden of all, Celeste, is worried that you would be too powerful to contain and stop from breaking cosmic laws if you attain your full potential. Do be careful, Phoenix.” Phoenix replies, “Why would I do that? I’m a system admin, aren’t I?” Ava tells him, “Tell Celeste, not me!” Suddenly, a celestial teleports in front of them, a male one, from the appearance of it. A tall male celestial with long, silver hair that isn’t trying to hide the intent to harm they have that quickly attacks Phoenix. Well, it tried to! Solaris uses a skill to protect Phoenix, as Ava draws her sword, a katana, with Blade distracting the celestial. Ava hits their foe, but doesn't kill them. Because of that, Phoenix swiftly casts Solar Obliteration on it, and a huge sphere of flames appears above it and severely injures it, but doesn’t kill it. Not only does it survive, though, but it completely heals itself in less than a second. The celestial then yells, “Be warned! If you continue on this foolish path, you shall perish to the endless power of the queen of celestials, Echindna!” As he prepares a spell that causes his source to self destruct very, very destructively. Before that fully happens, Phoenix manages to hit him with the spell Anti Source Laser, which was made to destroy sources, hence the spell’s name. Blade then destroys what little remnants of the source that were left to make it impossible for the source to be regenerated via source regeneration magic. Just before they left, all 4 of them picked up on a… Strange mana signature, and so, they turned in order to investigate the mana’s source. Almost immediately, Solaris noticed some kind of orange-yellow crystal radiating said mana, and asked everyone else, “Hey, do any of you know what that crystal is?” He also picks it up. Phoenix requests, “May I have it, please?” Solaris hands it to Phoenix, and Phoenix tries to use his cosmic authority to force the system to give him all of the data regarding it.
[Scanning…]
“Scanning? That is interesting.”
[Scan Complete]
[Shard of the Era Engine’s Key - 1]
[Rank: EX]
[The first of the 10 shards of the Era Engine’s key. It will lead you to the other shards, and when it is completed, you will be able to greatly influence the next era’s fate]
Phoenix tells everyone else what he learned about the crystal via the system and then shares it to them for further reference. He then states, “We should probably follow the shard’s directions.” “Agreed,” Blade, Solaris, and Ava replies simultaneously. Suddenly, a dark red energy that was definitely not mana, and Phoenix asked, “What is that?!” He then thought, “System, please identify the energy.”
[Energy: Aether]
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[Aether is the space inbetween space, the time between time, it is one of the few things capable of defeating magic other than magic itself. It is also able to defeat the void. In order to use aether, you need to have at least one class that uses aether, such as Aether Crafter]
Phoenix tells everyone, “The system is telling me that the energy is aether.” Before he could say anything else, Ava notifies him, “I think we know what aether is. I just didn’t think it was real.” As he is nodding his head, Phoenix commands the system mentally, “Open the class menu so I can choose another minor class. Filter out any classes that can’t use aether.”
[Class Menu - Aether Using Only]
[Aether Crafter - Requirements not met]
[Aether Touched - Requirement met. An Aether Touched is somebody who can control aether to use Aether Invocations, which are similar to spells, but with a different energy and more complex effects.]
[All other aether using classes are incompatible with magic users, so they have been hidden]
Phoenix then mentally commanded the system, “I choose to add Aether Touched to my classes.”
[Class (Aether Touched) is highly compatible with your main class. Would you like to change Aether Touched to a new class specialization?]
A class specialization is something that allows you to specialize in abilities from other classes that have at least a 85% compatibility level. Phoenix decided to allow the system to change Aether Touched into a new class specialization.
[A New {Conditional} Stat Has Been Unlocked!]
[Aether: <10,000>]
[Aether Pool: <100,000/100,000>]
[Aether Invocations]
[Spatial Warp - 1,000 Aether + {Special} (Active) Upon Activation, You Travel up to 1,000 Miles + 1 Mile/Extra Aether]
[Aetherize - 0 Aether (Active) Upon Activation, You Transport the Target To Your Aether Stores. The Maximum Dimensions of a Target Depends on your Aether Stat]
[Call From The Aether - 0 Aether (Active) Recalls something you have Aetherized. |Note: Recalled Items will have a spiritual quality|]
[Gate to the Ether - 50,000 Aether (Active) Creates a gate to the Ether, which is where aether originated from]
[Collect Aether - Passive | Collects Aether from your surroundings until your aether pool is filled. +1%/sec]
Phoenix decides to check the shard for directions to the next and a notification pops up.
[The next piece is in the |Ether| dimension]
Everyone else saw it, as well. Solaris, looking extremely concerned, asks/exclaims, “HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET THERE?!” Phoenix answers, “Via a gate I am about to create that will get us there.” He then uses Gate to the Ether, which, well, opens a gate to the Ether. He then feels exhausted very quickly, since he just used half of his aether pool in one go.
[Aether: 50,000/100,000]
Blade, who has just been looking at the situation with mild curiosity, says, “Let's go!” That is exactly what they do. When they enter the Ether dimension, all they see for millions of miles is… Breathable nothingness. At the very edge of Phoenix’s vision, though, he sees an outline of an island. Suddenly, a strange energy passes through the local 1,000,000 miles. Somehow, Phoenix just knows that the energy is primordial. He is curious how he does, though. Fortunately, the system doesn’t give him much time to.
[The aether reacted to it, and the Warden Archives alerted you to what your aether reacted to]
He asks Ava, “What are the Warden Archives?” Ava answers, “Basically just a huge record of all data that any warden has ever unlocked. Why?” Phoenix replies, “The system told me something related to it.”
[You have reached Warden of Magic Lvl 1,000. Would you like to ascend now?]
He then asks Ava, “What would happen if I ascended my class?” Ava answers, “You would return to level 1, but would be a LOT stronger than before, and your authority over other wardens would increase 50% of your level.”
