A lot had happened since Nick last read Semreh's grimoire, from the dungeon raid to the hunt for demonic influence in the grassland, but he hadn't hesitated to take it with him when he left Floria for good.

First of all, a clearly magical tome that still managed to elude his attempts at uncovering its secrets was far too interesting to leave behind, which wasn't even to mention its worth.

I could probably sell this to Archmage Tholm and make more than I have from selling thunderhoofs so far.

Even as he considered the option, Nick dismissed it. One thing his past life had taught him was just how valuable magical knowledge could be, and he still hadn't been able to get through the whole thing. Only once he had would he be able to assess its true worth.

That became even clearer as he read the two new pages that had appeared where there had previously been none.

As Semreh grew in power, his influence spread across the land, bringing it new life. One day, after his followers brought in a successful harvest, a winged being appeared at the edge of his territory. He claimed to be a wanderer who had strayed too far from the right path and begged for help, as his food and drink had spoiled in the summer heat. The villagers of a small community let him in, offering him some of the fresh fruits they had just picked, and led him to their well, where he drank from in great gulps.

As always with the grimoire, it didn't bother to explain things in detail, using a parable-like tone that required multiple readings to understand all the hidden meanings.

The moment Nick read that the wanderer had wings, he immediately became suspicious. The local religions didn't seem to have angelic messengers, but he'd encountered a [False Angel] in the ether, which told him there had to be some sort of connection with divinity, or infernal beings.

Considering what he'd just been doing, it seemed too suspicious that this story would be entirely unrelated to demons.

The wanderer stayed in the village for seven days, regaining his strength and offering his services, such as climbing high trees and rooftops with his powerful wings or delivering messages to the men in the fields.

Then, on the seventh day, he was gone, along with the harvest the villagers had worked so hard to gather. Frustrated, they searched for the winged man in the fields and nearby forests throughout the night, carrying torches and pitchforks, intending to confront him about his theft, but they couldn't find him.

That was, until a learned man who had been studying under Semreh himself settled down and began to pray for His guidance.

There was a deafening roar that shook the earth, and people grabbed onto trees and rocks to avoid being thrown around.

When the rumbling ceased, a new path was opened in the earth, and the people walked in, thanking their god for his guidance.

Deeper and deeper they went until they found the remnants of ancient mausoleums, and there they saw all the food they had worked so hard to produce.

Before any of them could take it back, however, the winged man appeared again. This time, he had shed his disguise and named himself Seere, Faithful of the Eastern King.

This proclamation alone caused people to scream in fear as they felt his terrifying power unfold, poisoning the air and forcing them to kneel.

That was when He appeared and saw what was going on.

The parable ended suddenly there, followed only by a magic circle. Nick looked through the next pages for the rest of the story but found nothing and sighed in frustration.

"I guess I have to learn this to get the rest, huh?" He asked aloud. He would still have studied the circle, of course, but being forced to do so annoyed him.

He could tell from just a glance that the drawing showed a spell, but it wasn't like any he'd ever seen before.

Nick had been expecting some kind of exorcism. Semreh seemed like a chill god, as much as that was possible, so he'd hoped the guy would be okay with him invoking his name to banish demons without giving up pieces of himself, but that wasn't what this was about.

Following the swooping patterns, Nick tried to make sense of it, but the only thing he learned was that this spell required a lot of mana.

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"I really should know better than to try untested magic like this," he muttered to himself, but he couldn't resist jumping out of bed and heading toward one of the many experimental rooms Tholm had set up for his students.

Luckily, everyone was still busy with the artifact the Archmage had been working on, so he had his pick. Slipping into the first available one, Nick cautiously began shaping his mana into the forms described within the circle.

Nothing happened, except for a vague feeling of buildup that disappeared the moment he tried to make the spellform come together.

Sighing, Nick opened the grimoire again and tried to see if he'd made a mistake. "No, it should be right… Ugh, is this a visualization-heavy spell? How am I supposed to even know what to think about?"

Still, he had a couple of options. The first was recalling the events that led to this new page being revealed, so Nick started running through the spell again, but this time focused on his encounter with the Three-eyed Vermin.

That seemed to have an effect, as the buildup continued much longer, and the mana started to take on a hue he hadn't seen before. Yet, it still failed once more before any visible result could appear.

Not disheartened yet, Nick went through the second option and reflected on the parable he'd just read. He wasn't entirely sure there was a lesson in it, not with the way it had ended so suddenly, but it was the only other idea he could come up with.

The now familiar buildup proceeded without issue, but this time, it didn't fade away after reaching an invisible barrier. Instead, it lingered and grew, albeit more slowly than before.

This is the right path, but it needs something else.

Continuing to feed the spell mana, Nick tried to think of what else he could do. The parable hadn't been very detailed, as it was clearly cut halfway through, but it had to contain some hint, or the spell would have fallen apart by now.

The only magical thing that occurs, besides the possible demon stealing the harvest, is the priest praying to Semreh for guidance, but I'm not doing that.

If this was the god's way of converting him, Nick would much rather abandon the whole endeavor. But something told him it wasn't the case. No, there had to be something else…

"I guess I could try that," he muttered, and, using every ounce of control [Parsimonia] gave him, started casting [Empyrean Intuition].

It was by far his most-used spell, meaning he'd long since perfected it and knew exactly how it would unfold, yet as the ether opened to his sight, something was clearly different.

The unknown spell was affecting the eddies of power around him. Not by drawing on them to feed itself, as spiritual magic might, but by twisting their flow until it became more stable and peaceful.

"How is this not spiritual magic?" Nick asked aloud, confused yet utterly sure he wasn't using any kind of emotion-attuned mana.

Semreh's strange spell was somehow touching the ether without truly doing so. It was imposing order in a way that reminded him of one thing, and one thing only: Xander's [Aura], which he used to establish laws within his range.

This was a very limited version, designed specifically to prevent unnatural distortions in a specific area.

Nick hadn't been able to tell at first because the Tower's wards already filtered out anything that might cause a disturbance. If he had cast it in the Green Ocean first, especially when the dungeon was there and the Feral Gods were trying to expand their influence, he was sure he would have noticed much more easily.

Instead, it was only thanks to the extreme precision of [Empyrean Intuition] that he knew he was doing anything at all.

The spell wasn't just building up without reason. Instead, it was constantly expanding its influence, searching for unnatural energies, and would keep doing so until it found some.

The growth was very slow and limited in range at this point. The entire time he kept it active, it hadn't even covered the whole room he was in, let alone anything outside of it. But maybe that was a good thing, since it would have been noticed if it had been more flashy.

I have a feeling that even the little effect it's having on the ether is only possible because I understand it so well. Yes, this spell probably requires me to grasp whatever it needs to influence, and the better I understand it, the more effective it will be at suppressing it.

A ding echoed in his mind, and he knew he had it right.

The name wasn't [Aura], nor was it [Domain], but Nick was pretty sure he'd just stumbled upon the magical version of those two arts.

I guess it makes sense that if a martial artist needs a way to express their power outside their body, and a God needs a way to act on the material world, a mage would need a way to ensure their casting isn't disrupted.

The amount of Exp he gained from a [Beginner] spell alone told him it was a very big deal. Usually, he only earned more than that with extremely advanced spells, like [Crest of the Thunderbird], which needed [One with the Storm] to work at all.

[Territory] was a spell he was confident would serve him well, but it would likely take a lot of work to develop, if the speed it was going at was any indication.

Even the Vermin I fought earlier, which is the weakest kind of demon, wouldn't have been affected by a spell this slow. But I guess if I knew a demon was about to be summoned, I could prepare in advance and forcibly calm the area, thus probably preventing the summoning from succeeding in the first place.

Unfortunately, he doubted he would be that lucky very often. No, [Territory]'s purpose was clearly to serve as a counter to the demonic disruption against normal mana.

"I bet I can make it work on some monsters, too. Purely physical creatures like trolls probably wouldn't even notice it, since they don't show mana externally, but anything that uses spells would suffer from its influence."

The possibilities seemed endless, and considering his other skills, Nick could see a way for him to become a true terror through complete control of the battlefield.

Turning his attention back to the grimoire, Nick flipped to the last page, eager to see if it would give him another spell of the same caliber, but the pages after the circle were still blank.

Although the book was completely inert in its current state, he got the impression that he would need to show some progress with [Territory] before he could read any further.

"Well, thanks anyway. This is a big enough deal to keep me busy, especially since I have no intention of abandoning the lessons with Lasazar, even if I now have a way to actually fight demons. I still need to understand them before I can suppress them."

Frankly, it was a bit frustrating to be handed such a spell after he had used his one-time boon to learn anti-demon magic, but considering what he had been shown, he couldn't complain.

Worldcraft promised to be useful well beyond fighting demons, just like [Territory] did.

Now I guess it's just a matter of becoming skilled enough at both to face a Prestige Artificer, to keep up with my studies, and to finish selling the thunderhoofs to gather the cash I need to buy the orichalcum. Plus, I have to convince Tholm to teach me ways to actually fight an Artificer of that caliber. I suppose I won't get bored anytime soon.