"A day seventeen years in the making, huh?"
Theo looked down from the window in the archmage's office.
The day's festivities were about to reach their peak.
Judging by the fanfare down in the town at the foot of the tower, the welcome ceremony was moments before starting as the front guard of the exotic visitor's caravan crossed the town's gates.
Down in the main street, the archmage himself stood, waiting at the helm of the orchestra and ready to meet with the man invited by the emperor himself.
A strange, master of mana from the yet unknown lands, bringing forth artifacts worth a fortune on their own and then another one in the secrets of how they worked.
The stale world of magic theorem was about to be shaken, and that fradulent archmage just couldn't resist the desire to herald this change himself.
Not like he had the skills enough to ever achieve it.
"Just a little longer…"
Theo stood in the empty office, filled with the treasury of the archmage's expensive collection.
Contrary to the grandeur of the office's decorum, Theo came bearing just his usual robes and humble five, simple rings. Each adorned by a differently colored precious stone, dimly reflecting the shine of the lone lit-up candle inside.
Theo was ten when he learned of his magic disability.
Narrow potential, they called it. A harsh course of a childhood disease left his mana-gate unable to grow.
It wouldn't be until he was fourteen that he fully realized the extend of his disability, blocking him from ever reaching anything beyond the rank of a middling mage at best.
No matter how much he studied or loved magic, he lacked the constitution to witness its higher realms in his own inner sea of mana.
By seventeen, he lead a successful diplomatic scheme in the royal court to push the old archmage to peacefully retire, replacing him with the upstart genius, Cornelious Magento.
His theorems breathed a fresh air into the already stale world of magic, stirring enough attention in the magic part of the society to rapidly accelerate his career, becoming the youngest archmage in history.
It's just…
None of the Cornelious achievements were really his.
Some, Theo planted in his head through various, quite nefarious means.
Others, Cornelious outright stole from him, never knowing it was all in line with Theo's own interest.
It was all because of that random day when Theo was fourteen, contemplating his unfair limits seriously for the very first time.
And as the young genius of the generation, he found a way to fight back against this unfairness. And for that, he worked, researched and then… gave away all of his research.
Because not only did it build up Cornelius in everyone's eyes, but it would also lead to other developments in the magical world. All because only in this way could Theo ensure someone as incompetent would remain as the archmage, while making sure to lay down the foundation for his ultimate goal.
And today, seventeen years later, Theo was finally about to harvest the fruits of his life-time labor. All that was left, was to wait.
'Just a little bit more…'
Standing high up above the town, at the peak of the archmage's tower, Theo could perfectly see into the street.
The front-guards of the caravan have all passed through, now moving to secure the passage for the convoy with the foreign dignitary.
Theo patiently waited.
Then, a huge golden carriage emerged from within the gate, pushing through the open entrance and right into the arms of the welcoming comitte.
Theo breathed out, locking all of his attention on a single spot within the distant sight of the foreign guest.
"Haaa…"
A short sigh escaped from Theo's lips as his face froze, only for his eyes to then return to Cornelius.
The archmage raised his hands, eager to welcome the guest…
Crack!
A green jewel in one of Theo's five rings shone with a brilliant light before shattering as it released all the mana stored within.
Theo, because of his disability, could never break beyond the fourth stage of a mage's growth. Cornelius, the fradulent, incompetent insert of an archmage, boasted the strength of the magic's sixth realm.
And with the shine of Theo's broken finger seeping through the very fabric of reality, Cornelius vanished straight from the stage at the city's gate.
All hundred of the office's magic candles shoot up in flames, flooding the office in blinding light from which Julius emerged.
Crack!
The second of Theo's rings shattered, binding Cornelious in thick, yellow chains that blocked the man from invoking six tier magic or below while also covering his mouth in a magic gag.
There was no need to distract the archmage All perfectly calculated, just strong enough to disarm his personal strength.
Theo had too many years to prepare for today to make a single, smallest mistake.
Disoriented and shocked, Cornelius gritted his teeth and switched to combat mode, readily activating the tower's authority to break the binds…
Crack.
Theo's third ring cracked, releashing a string of violet light that stretched from Theo's left wrist to the ball of light that shone upon the archmage's wrist.
Crack.
The string of light turned brown, solidified… and then shattered, vanishing into a cloud of shiny dust as, for the fifth and last time, the office filled with a click of Theo's ring shattering.
"Consider this my resignation." Throwing a finger at the still disoriented archmage now staring at his wrist, deprived of the shining light of the authority, Theo cracked a smile, dropped a magic grenade on the floor before jumping back, straight into the embrace of a shining portal created by the last of his rings.
//Chapter is still a subject to stylistic rewrite/edit//