- Lucifer's side -
Lucifer's group was nearing the edge of Heliopolis' territory. Lucifer signaled to the group to walk the rest of the distance so he could quiz Fensyr on magic. Fensyr was surprisingly compliant with the request. Lucifer assured the group they would move quickly through the next two territories. Lucifer grabbed a book from one of the carts and read out of it.
"Three different types of energy?"
Fensyr was quick to answer, "Mana, lifeforce, and st-st..." he chewed on his fingernails, "Stamina!"
"Correct," Lucifer flipped a page. "Three different accepted planes of existence."
"Physical, mental, and uh...mana?"
"Energy," Lucifer corrected. "Energy is an A.L.E., which makes mana a partially correct answer but doesn't grasp the full plane. Difference between a conjuration and a creation?"
"Creations are permanent and can't be de...dema...." he looked at Peter mouthing the word "Material", "Dematerialized?"
Lucifer sighed, "Peter, I can see you mouthing the word. I'll give you the point since you knew the difference but not the exact word."
Tsukuyomi joined in, "Angels are creations, right?"
Lucifer ignored Tsukuyomi, "Define "interference" and which element is most affected by it."
Fensyr used his magic to start gathering sand. "It's when there's an object between someone and the thing they're trying to use mana on. Uh..." he gathered the sand into a ball, "I'm guessin' water is the most affected by it if my children's experiences are anythin' to go off of."
"Correct," Lucifer said while glancing at Fensyr. "What is-"
Lucifer stopped the moment he realized Fensyr had gathered a dense ball of sand. The rest of the group had thought there was danger and all looked in Fensyr's direction. Once the rest of the group noticed what Fensyr was doing, they couldn't help staring.
"What?!" Fensyr formed the sand into spikes, "Enemies?!"
"No," Lucifer shook his head. "How much experience do you have moving sand with your magic?"
Fensyr seemed confused by the question, "Almost none," he started forming the sand ball into different shapes. "I fuckin' hate the feelin' of this stuff though, so I was practicin' movin' it durin' most of our time in this territory. What, does this sand belong to Ra?"
Amaterasu spoke first, "Moving sand with earth magic is severely difficult. My father has mastered all the elemental affinities but even he struggled to learn moving sand."
"Huh?" Fensyr shrugged. "It's definitely more annoyin' than regular stone."
Lucifer closed his book. "Everyone get back on the carts. There's something I want to test in the next territory."
The group arrived in the next territory and got off the carts to see what it was Lucifer was planning.
"Make a highly dense stone spear," Lucifer told Fensyr.
"Dense, right..." Fensyr said as he started gathering stone with his magic. "How, uh, dense?"
"As dense as you can make it while still being able to control it," Lucifer answered. "Before you start, raise ten thick stone walls."
"Okay..." Fensyr said as he raised the walls with a look of confusion.
While Fensyr was gathering a massive amount of stone, Elijah whispered to Peter.
"How far from normal is this?"
Peter whispered, "Extremely. Assuming he can use this in actual combat, he might be world tier."
Fensyr finished his spear. "Now what?"
Lucifer created a rotating ring of fire. "Rotate it as fast as you can while still maintaining full control."
"Gotcha," Fensyr said. "What point is there in rotating it?" he made the spear spin.
"No not like that," Lucifer said. "More like this," he created a sideways cylinder of fire and rotated it.
Fensyr nodded as he made the highly dense stone spear start to rotate faster and faster until it was a blur. Lucifer tried his best to explain.
"Rotation can add destructive force to a projectile. Make sure you can maintain its form the entire time."
Fensyr looked to Lucifer, "This is about as fast as I can go before the stone starts breakin' off. Am I good to loose this?"
"Sure," Lucifer said. "As fas--accurately as you can."
Fensyr pointed the spearhead at the stone walls and launched the rotating blur. The spear blasted a hole clean through a majority of the walls.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Fensyr exclaimed. "I knew rotation was useful but I didn't think it would turn a spear into one of Death's swings."
Lucifer stared at the destroyed stone walls. "Yeah...do you...do you happen to have experience with rotating stone?"
Fensyr scratched the back of his head. "Every lycan with earth magic does. We use flat discs of dense stone and rotate them fast as we can to cut down trees. I remember my Mother tellin' me I had a talent for it when I was a child..."
Lucifer covered his mouth with his hand as he tried to assess Fensyr's strength. "How many duels have you had since becoming Vazoluna's leader?"
Fensyr exhaled and shook his head. "Fuck, I don't...I save the duels for the end of the week," he started counting on his fingers, "I guess it would average out to about one a day for the first century. Pass that, can't say."
Lucifer asked a question while doing the math in his head, "Duels that involve challenging the territory leader always include the Death-rule. How many have your matches have ended with your opponents dying?"
A look of shame washed over Fensyr. "I can't say for certain...more than half though."
Peter exclaimed, "That would give ya a higher lycan body count than Death!"
"Trust me, I know," Fensyr sighed. "If my kind were better at math they'd have probably realized that by now. Fuckin' pains in the ass..." he looked at the surprised faces of the group. "Is this really that unusual?"
"Very," Amaterasu said.
The other members of the group assumed that Fensyr might act proud of his strength. Fensyr's disappointed sigh prompted Lucifer to ask what was wrong. Fensyr looked down at his hands and then back up to Lucifer.
"Y'know it's nice knowin' I'm stronger than normal, but...it's not the talent I would have wanted for myself."
Amaterasu folded her arms. "You should be grateful for any strength you have."
Fensyr ground his teeth. "S'at so?"
Amaterasu stopped folding her arms and eased her expression. "What I mean, is that most beings don't have your strength. Most would have died by now in your position. Your strength has protected you and your family from danger."
Fensyr didn't respond. He walked to one of the carts and jumped in. Lucifer stopped Amaterasu from pursuing further conversation. Yvere whispered to Peter.
"If I had been responsible for tens of thousands of my kind's deaths, I'd probably hate my strength too."
Peter responded, "We'll talk about it more when he's ready," he shook his head. "I've been normalizin' these insane body counts for so long now..."
"Peter?" Yvere asked, concerned.
"S'nothin'," Peter said. "Nothin' new, anyways."
The team made their way through Verdyr at a brisk pace. Titania popped out of the ground at one point to ask Lucifer for a toll but exclaimed with joy when she saw Fensyr.
"I love the smell of forest lycans' mana! Like trees in the rain," she smelled Fensyr while petting his head.
Fensyr looked to Lucifer with severe confusion. Lucifer signaled to just let Titania do it. Titania left, accepting Fensyr's presence as toll payment. Lucifer apologized to Fensyr afterward and the group made their way into Passage. The group arrived at Kahvis' main camp. Lucifer turned to face the group.
"We'll be here for a day or two. I have some things I want to discuss with Kahvis and-"
The sound of a concentrated flame drew Lucifer's attention. Before Lucifer could turn around fully, Ash had landed on Lucifer's back and wrapped her arms around him.
"Surprise Firefly!"
"I'M NOT HERE FOR A DUEL!" Lucifer shouted in fear.
Every member of the group, except for Peter, prepared for a fight. The look of terror on Lucifer's face made Amaterasu shudder.
"STAND DOWN!" Lucifer ordered the group. "She's not a threat."
Ash tussled Lucifer's hair and smiled. "I owe Death for this. You should see the look on your face."
'I'm going to murder Death,' Lucifer thought.
"Is this your teacher?" Amaterasu asked.
"Pleasure," Ash waved.
As Amaterasu noticed the sharp orange of Ash's irises she tried to deduce who this being was. No living god matched Ash's description. As Amaterasu thought more about Ash, her mind started to wander. The more she thought about Ash's orange eyes, unbeknownst to herself, the less she questioned.
Ash noticed Amaterasu's look of contemplation. "Care for a duel?"
"NO!" Lucifer said.
"Not your call, Firefly," Ash patted Lucifer's head.
Amaterasu rubbed her eyes. "Of course."