Epsilon Twilight
patreon
49. To Tell the Truth
🕑 Added 2022-09-24 12:30:46 +0000 UTC“Hmm… The framework is alright, but the matrix isn’t flowing mana correctly.” I said aloud as I investigated the spell formation in front of me.
“How?” Monica exclaimed in exasperation as she grabbed her black hair. “I have revised this spell over a hundred times!” This is the first time I saw her so expressive.
“Well, looking isn’t the same as observing.” Judging by her penetrating gaze, my joke wasn’t appreciated. “I didn’t say the spell matrix is incorrect, just that it doesn’t work as well as it should.”
“But I tried every optimization algorithm.” Monica sighed in defeat.
“Maybe it’s a new error that popped up after many corrections? Either way, it isn’t bad, per se.” I used arcane mana to check the mana circulation of the spell. “Not bad. Good enough. Not perfect. It does work. I can help you correct some errors, but you have the foundation and framework perfectly established. Force magic isn’t my forte.”
“Sorry for shouting. You are totally right, it’s just that this Spellcraft project is getting on my nerves.” She bowed slightly.
“No problem by me,” I told her. “Spellcraft is more like a hobby to me than a subject. You know that I prefer utility spells rather than the common offensive and defensive ones, right?”
Monica nodded to my question as I continued revising her force spell project for errors in the matrix. We weren’t used to work with matrixes as they only began appearing on high seven-star spells and upwards. And my current repertoire only had four seven-star spells.
“So, I took a liking to making my own spells as I don’t like my available repertoire,” I added. “Especially with Soul. I have thousands of Arcane spells to learn, but soul magic is kept to the hundreds.” I explained to her. “That’s why I created things like my soul minefield.” I really needed to come up with a name for it.
“That’s the thing you used against the duel, right? It’s okay if I ask?” I gave her a bittersweet look.
A few days had passed by since my duel against the noble pyromancer Saphar Nay, now at the beginning of the third week of the academy. My reputation went from an unknown commoner to an infamous sociopath who defeated a noble scion with ruthlessness.
It didn’t help at all that I hadn’t moved a finger during the duel until the end when I went to punch Saphar (something that the public wasn’t even aware of as my projection was invisible), reinforcing the idea that I had humiliated him so hard without needing to break a sweat.
The problem was that my humiliation wasn’t seen as an act of comedy but as one of cruelty. I had marked fear in the hearts of both the common folk and the nobility. It did have its advantages as no one dared to mess with me or my inner circle.
“Don’t remember me. I feel embarrassed of losing my cool as I did.” I acted in a childish manner. I wasn’t thinking straight, and things only came as good as they did because I was lucky Saphar was a moron.
Talking about the entitled pyromancer, I had yet to hear a word from him. Not that I did care, but as people were afraid to talk to me, few news reached my ears.
“H-how did you do it?” Monica asked with agitation in her voice.
“Do what?” I looked down at the short ellari.
“Fight him.” She looked me dead in the eye. “You fought a noble and you act like it was nothing!”
“Because it was nothing?” As I saw her expression worsen, I knew I had to elaborate further. “The guy was totally unmatched and didn’t know what he was doing. And there were no consequences. It didn’t matter if he was a noble or another student. But he had it coming.”
Monica avoided my gaze and stood still, taking in a mouthful of air. “Why did you fight him then? I only heard the rumors… and to be honest, I think they are bollocks.” I chuckled at her wording. “What?”
“Nothing, nothing,” I said while still laughing. “I didn’t think you were this type of person. But you are asking me why I accepted the challenge. Well… there are a lot of reasons. An entitled kid like him needs a good spanking once in a while,” Monica snorted as I talked, “but if I’m sincere, I did it because of Marissa. He insulted her and tried to hurt her, and then talked about her as if she was an object. If I’m truly honest, I had been too gentle with that piece of garbage.”
The force mage looked at me with an open face, asking “how could you badmouth a noble in public?”. Unbeknownst to her, every single person did it, or at least my parents didn’t care to do so.
“You truly love Marissa.” Monica commented with a feeble smile.
“Yes,” I responded without doubting. “A girl like her shouldn’t be pestered by such vermin. She should be allowed to flourish into something greater, not being shackled down by other people.”
“That’s, that’s not what I’ve meant.” She told in confusion.
To which I responded with a smile and a scoff.
I ditched the conversation in order to find where the manaflows were obstructed in Monica’s framework. There weren’t mana leaks, so it wasn’t easy to detect. The problem appeared to be the matrix at first glance, but I believed the problem lay with its connection to the framework.
“Found it.” I snapped out of a meditative state. “There are useless channels where mana is flowing. Though they are dead ends and don’t leak any mana, they are wasting mana that isn’t going to be used.” I pointed to Monica at the formula. “If you fix it, the mana efficacy of the spell should make a sustainable increase.”
“Mmm…” Monica pondered as she examined the spots I had described, though I knew she had other things in her mind. “You are right! I knew I could count on your mana weaver abilities. Thank you!” She bowed to me in thankfulness.
“As I said before, not a problem,” I told her. “Friends are for helping each other, and besides, if I’m the one with excellent mana control on the group, then I should use it every chance I can.”
“That sounds like an excuse for training.” Monica argued too similar to Marissa.
“Well, what can I say? I do like training and honing my skills.” I got up from the chair and stretched my back. “It’s always fun to look to the past and see how noticeable the difference between my abilities is.”
“I can totally get behind that,” Monica said as she also got up. “What are you going to do now then?”
“I suppose I’m going to read some soul spellbooks while we are in the library.” I pointed at the end of the library. “If you need any more help, you can call for help.”
“Will do.” And with that, I went to the dark side of the library. With my Soul Sight spell, I noticed as Monica stood looking at me, but I didn’t give it much thought and continued my way.
I arrived at the end of the library, just to find the mysterious book in the same spot as ever. I always expected it to disappear at any moment. In a macabre way, the leather-bound book felt alive. But I dismissed such things as paranoia and focused myself on more important matters. Its origins made no sense and I had yet to discover a clue from the enormous anthology.
My only clues would be that was a compilatory tome of the books in the academy library and that it contained tens of original spells. This narrowed down the possible suspects by a lot, my strongest theory was that the author was a scholar or a teacher on Soul from the academy.
Even if I were right about my theory, I was in no position to go to every soul teacher in the academy and ask them “have you written this mysterious and possibly illegal book?”, which was asking for problems. And besides, it would be weird.
For the moment, I expected that some clues would fall down from the sky while I learned the most spells from the book. Just in case I had transcribed some high-tier spells like Possession and Mystic’s Dominion. The latter would be impossible for me to cast even with years of practice because of its insane level. But it was still a solid practice for my Spellcraft subject.
Both sounded extremely illegal from their description, and if not, incredibly dangerous. Though I couldn’t learn them as the former was high eight-star and the latter a solid tenth tier. The time would probably come.
*******
“Alright.” I inhaled deeply. “I’m ready.” I said with total confidence exposing my right arm.
“Are you really sure about it?” Marissa expressed her repulsion.
“Magic be damned, Marissa! Shoot me already!” I shouted at her before I changed my mind.
“Here I go then.” Marissa gathered air in her hands and threw a single wind knife at my exposed arm.
In a blink, I dispelled the magical projectile. “What do you think you are doing? That was going to cut my arm!”
“Tch.” The girl clicked her tongue and readied a weaker spell.
“Mmm!” I grunted as I held the pain. “Yup, that hit good. Oh! Yes. It hurts.”
“Are you a masochist?” I quickly threw an Arcane Chip at Marissa, though she blocked it with ease with a barrier. “Hey!”
“Hey to you,” I said between muffled sounds as blue blood trickled down my purple skin. “I’m the one getting hurt here, you have no right to joke.”
“Right, right. Are you going to cast the spell or just lecture me?” Marissa reminded me of my true objective.
“Here goes nothing.” I looked at the cut on my right arm.
For starters, it was pretty shallow so even if blood flowed down, I was at no risk of bloodletting. I began by overflowing my soul with mana in order to activate accelerated regeneration. This activity was simple, and in theory, could heal any wound given enough mana and time.
That wasn’t my objective, though. I had already done some practice with soul regeneration, not only it did work on injuries, but it could also make fingernails and hair grow as I had tested. I wasn’t going to deny it, but perhaps that was the reason why my hair was longer than Marissa’s. But I wasn’t going to affirm it, either.
For the time being, I was planning to use a ‘simple’ seven-star soul spell called Renew. Instead of the cantrip approach of basic soul regeneration, Renew used mana more efficiently without the need of filling the soul with mana.
It could be considered a trade-off between mana and time. Renew had a long casting time, but it was a whole lot more efficient than the previous method. It also had the effect of invigorating the body, which on second thought it was probably the main objective of the spell considering the name.
But most importantly, it wouldn’t regrow my soul. Normal people would be horrified at having their souls damaged, but I need it to be as it was. My soul was too big for my body, and if it grew larger it would destabilize my elemental equilibrium. And lady-knows I wouldn’t want to re-equilibrate my Arcane and Soul affinities once more.
My wound shone dimly as it began to mend itself. The few trickles of blood that had escaped were still on the area of effect of my soulspace and they slowly reunited and entered the cut, akin to time going at the reverse. You wouldn’t have this with common soul regeneration.
“Neat.” Marissa commented as she observed my blood swimming upwards like a fish climbing a waterfall.
When all the blood finally reunited inside my body, the cut hastily regenerated. Creating flesh out of seemingly nowhere and closing the wound.
“And the pain’s gone.” I moved my right arm freely after the wound had closed. “This energizing effect from the Renew removes previous pains and gives you a small boost of energy, I like it.”
“I wish I had that during classes.” Marissa commented as she looked at the violet sky.
“For the pain or the energy?” I joked.
“Ha. Ha.” She groaned after feeling called out. “This spell means I can take our sparring more seriously.”
“Ha ha ha, ha. No.” I stoically laughed at her comment. “One, our sparring is already dangerous enough. Two, abusing soul healing strains the soul and I don’t want to lose the equilibrium of my soul after so many years.”
“You have always talked about equilibrium this, and equilibrium that. But why does your soul needs equilibrium? You never explained it to me.”
Marissa’s question was pure in nature, only curiosity to be satisfied. But for me, it was a bit more serious. I didn’t want to lie to her but explaining the reason why I needed to balance my soul would reveal my biggest secret.
Was it time to tell it to her? Honestly, I didn’t know. I had maintained this secret to her for almost two decades now, I know I could trust her, that she wouldn’t divulge it. But at the same time, did it really matter?
“Marissa…” As I began, words died in my mouth.
“What?” She asked innocently.
Should I really do it? While my parents didn’t tell it to their own parents, they trusted Novela to keep the secret. And while my grandparents looked like blabbermouths, it was really my decision as to who to tell it to, not my parent’s.
“Follow me.” I got up and walked elsewhere.
I was being paranoid here, but I didn’t want anyone to see, listen, or detect us. It didn’t help that I was in the spotlight for my little showmanship a few weeks prior.
“Where are we going?” Marissa asked after walking for minutes in silence.
“To a secluded place.” I noticed how suspicious two teenagers walking away from the campus could look, so I made sure to keep a normal walking pace.
I finally found a good spot in a clear of one of the small groves scattered around the campus. It looked rather familiar.
“This reminded me of the clear we spent time as children back on Thal’mer.” Marissa said as she observed the myriad of colors the canopies presented.
“I was just thinking that.” I began conjuring some spells in order to ensure maximum secrecy.
Firstly, I casted a quick pulse of my soul to detect any living beings. I only got one ping back, so there wasn’t any person present, at least physically. Then I spellcasted a pulse of arcane mana to detect intrusions of magic. No response. So, there wasn’t a capable mystic spying on us, or any mage at that.
“What with all this secrecy?” Marissa asked after she noticed the pulses of magic.
“Can you make a barrier to keep sound in, Marissa?” I asked her.
“Why? What has this to do with your soul equilibrium?” She argued in confusion.
“Just do it, trust me.” I look her directly into her blue eyes. She answered with a nod.
As Marissa prepared the soundproof field, I spellcasted a Mana Void. This way if someone directed magic at us, it would be dispelled automatically. It also distorted the line of sight for outside lookers, so lip reading would be difficult.
“Done,” Marissa stated after establishing the barrier. “What did you want to tell me?”
“Marissa.” I put my hands on her shoulders and looked once again into her eyes. I looked at her dark blue skin, her icy hair, and her pointy ears. I wouldn’t back down. “Are you willing to keep the biggest secret of your life?”
Nervousness dissipated from her as it transformed into seriousness. “Yes.” She added with a nod.
“Marissa…” Words were hard to say, it was the equivalent of revealing that I had lied to her for her entire life. “I don’t have a high Arcane affinity; I don’t have a medium-high Soul affinity either.”
“Of course you do, I have seen your acts of magic. You wouldn’t be able to do such things with lower affinities.” Her mind instantly made the connection that I had a lower affinity than stated, as the contrary didn’t feel logical, it wasn’t logical.
“Marissa…” I inhaled deeply reading my words. “I have a dual Superb affinity.”
Her gaze was petrified, his expression indescribable.
*******
“Marissa…” Edrie spoke slowly, words troubling in his mouth. “I have a dual Superb affinity.”
What? How? It doesn’t make any sense. Is this a joke? That was what Marissa immediately thought when Edrie revealed his secret. But the fact that she kept this to her mind instead of telling it to him was because she believed his words to be true.
So many things made sense now.
Why he had such a slow mana pool formation, why he had those spontaneous bleeding, why he was able to conjure spells before anyone else and with ease. Also, it justified why Edrie had recently acted so weirdly in the mana purity class when being confronted about his affinity. A million more things occurred to her that only strengthened Edrie’s claims.
His dispelling, his soul equilibrium, his choice to dual-wield elements. It made so much sense. If she herself had a superb affinity for two elements, she would have practiced both without a doubt.
But what shocked her most was the dispelling. Edrie had become a master in dissolving spells into nothingness, but every arcanist in the academy, and prior to their school at Thal’mer, just treated the field of magic as common elemental magic like her wind.
Years ago, that had become a splinter of doubt inside her, but lately, that splinter only carved deeper into her mind. After Edrie’s one-sided duel, every arcanist who saw it was greatly interested in dispelling, even if they didn’t look after him for advice.
Marissa saw how people in Combat Application classes tried to dispel magic, only to be overwhelmed by massive mental damage after failing, and those who managed to succeed could only weaken the spell, but never erase it as Edrie did.
It wasn’t just because Edrie was a mana-weaver, an arcanist who preferred to manipulate mana directly instead of the arcane, but also his monstrous affinity. He went beyond any common standards.
That was why he was so adamant to spar with only one element because he was leagues better than I with half his power. His growth rate is also halved by learning two totally different elements, and yet, and yet…
Marissa unconsciously crackled a burst of laughter after she noticed the disparity between them. She was a mere peasant with medium-high affinity, while he was a king of kings, an ellari with a higher total affinity than the strongest mage in the world.
“Do you remember all those years ago when you asked me what my affinity was?” Edrie asked her. He ignored Marissa’s unstable laughter and looked at her with kind eyes.
“Yes.” She responded taciturnly still unable to know how to speak to someone like him, trying to hide the water tearing from her eyes.
“Do you remember what I said?” His voice was calm and soothing, containing infinite patience and tranquility.
Marissa nodded. “That you were a high user.”
“And how did you react?” There was a light smile plastered on his face.
“I was angry, I couldn’t believe another child could have a higher affinity than I.” Marissa’s intermittent laugh had erupted an incontrollable chuckle. “Now I notice I couldn’t have been any more wrong.”
“At that moment I was laughing internally and asking myself what if I told her my true affinity? Though I delayed that doubt a bit, the moment finally arrived.” Edrie spoke to her as the purple rays from the Mana Void illuminated his face. “What do you think, Marissa?”
“Why?” That’s the question that plagued Marissa’s mind.
“Why what?” Edrie asked.
“Why did you remain by my side, someone so useless as I?” She spoke her true feelings.
To which he responded with a muffled laugh. “Sorry, sorry. Your statement surprised me.” Edrie said without a hint of malice. “You aren’t useless at all. You are a genius, you always managed to stay at my level no matter how wide the difference in our capabilities was. You always rose to the challenge, Marissa. You are far better than I could ever be. Even when I tried my best, even when I abused me every advantage, sometimes, not a lot of times, but even if they were few, you managed to overcome me.”
She rose her face to look at the man before him, who surpassed the two meters mark with ease. Her throat was burning, no words came to her. Tears flowed down across her blue face as the floodgates opened.
“You did good.” Edrie entangled her into a warm embrace as he patted her head. “You did good.”
Marissa always was stressed that she was unable to reach Edrie who was only a step above the elemental ladder, but now, now she saw she wasn’t going up a single step, but how steep of a wall had she been climbing.
And she almost made it.
“I did it.” Marissa finally told after minutes of silence only accompanied by sobs. “I did it by myself…”
“Well, you were pretty lazy. Doesn’t matter how genius you are if you lack motivation.” To which Edrie held his stomach in pain as a punch faster than lightning hit him.
“Did you really have to break the moment?” Marissa said in feigned annoyance as she wiped her tears.
“Mmm…” Edrie groaned in pain. “It was getting too theatrical for my liking.”
“I’m going to give you theatrical.” She threatened with her punch risen.
“Ha…” Edrie began laughing as the scene transformed from a tragedy to a comedy. Involuntarily, Marissa followed him on the uncontrolled spree. Their throats felt coarse, and their heads dizzy once they stopped.
“What now?” Marissa asked in doubt.
“Well, I’m feeling pretty hungry,” Edrie responded nonchalantly.
“You know that’s not what I meant.” She penetrated his friend with her gaze.
“You already know the answer to the question, Marissa.” On the other hand, his eyes were welcoming. “Nothing is going to change besides you now keeping my secret.”
“I know, I know, it’s just weird. It’s such a big thing, Edrie.” Marissa sighed as she grabbed her hair in half-desperation, half-exasperation. “I still can’t believe it.”
“Well, you must. There’s no other choice.” His voice contained no worry whatsoever.
“Why are you so oblivious to this? You have a dual Superb affinity!” By now, Marissa was sure that Edrie’s words were true.
“And I ask you one thing, Marissa. In the grand scheme of things, does this alter the relationship between us?”
“No…” The aeromancer looked down at her feet, she felt as if she was going to break into tears at any moment, unbeknownst to the fact that she already did a long time ago. “Not if you don’t want to.” She fidgeted on the place.
“And do you think I want?” The clear blue eyes and the deep lavender ones collided in a magical clash.
“No.” Marissa avoided his gaze.
“Then that’s all I need.” Edrie finished with a smile. “Now, I’m starving so let’s get something to eat.”
Comments
Monadologist
worth the buck 50 =)
