After a few hours of rest, Rebecca and Artiel hit the road again. The sun was high in the sky when they finally reached the edge of the forest and entered the plains.
In the distance you could see the shrine and the rock formation it stood on. With a tight chest, the young woman came out of the forest and began to ride in the plain, followed closely by the young man.
He was in much less pain since she had treated him. Although he was still in pain, the pain was bearable and he could still ride for a while before he had to stop to rest. Seeing it, the young man had a complex expression.
He was eager to finally get to his destination but still didn't want to get there. He had tried as best he could to dissuade Rebecca from joining the strange character who had appeared out of nowhere to take her under his wing.
His mind was divided between being happy for her and a sense of selfishness. He didn't want to see her go to another man and even less someone who had looked at her like that in the village. Just thinking about it, a shiver ran through his body.
Yet despite all of this, he knew there was probably nothing he could do against the elf. He was way too strong for Artiel and even the captain didn't seem to want to face him. He was alone in his plan. He had two choices.
Trying to dissuade Rebecca and try to dissuade the elf from taking her as an apprentice. He still had a chance to do it. His last plan was simple: Join them. If he couldn't separate them, then he was going to join them by any means.
Rebecca was the first girl he had met before whom he couldn't breathe well. He had a hard time behaving properly in front of her and was very clumsy. He never knew what to do in front of her. But despite everything, he felt that she had something special. He wanted her, he wanted her from the bottom of his heart but didn't dare admit it to himself or admit it to Rebecca.
The two were riding when a sudden wave of mana crossed the plain, attracting the attention of Rebecca who stopped and turned her head. Behind, Artiel also stopped before following the gaze of the young woman.
- "Something is wrong ?" he said seeing Rebecca frowning.
- "There is something weird going on there" she said before changing direction and heading towards the source of the mana wave.
They then continued on their way before reaching the top of a hill, their looks shocked and surprised before a white figure appeared above them and approached. Rebecca immediately took out her wand while Artiel drew his sword before the young woman recognized the shape.
- "Master !" she said, jumping to the ground.
- "You were quick" answered Isaac, stopping when he reached a meter above the ground before looking at Rebecca then Artiel, intrigued. "What is he doing here?" he asked.
Isaac had not forgotten the face of his attacker. So when he recognized him, his expression immediately changed and suspicion appeared on his face. Artiel saw the change and dismounted his horse before kneeling on the ground, placing his hand on his heart and looking down.
- "I am Artiel Silk. Please accept my deepest apologies for what happened at the village. I was not in my normal state ..." he said immediately.
Rebecca turned to Artiel, nodding positively and approving the apology before turning to her master, hoping he was lenient. Isaac, for his part, was puzzled. The young man's reaction was indeed abnormal, but he had an idea.
- "And may I know why did you attack me?" he finally asked with a smirk.
Artiel froze for a moment before answering.
- "J -... I was drunk ... I saw a stranger --..." he began to stammer, fabricating a lie.
- "I advise you not to lie to me, it might stain the honesty of your apologies" cut Isaac immediately.
The young man then took a breath. He swallowed a little before resuming.
- "I was afraid for Rebecca" he finally said. "That a man could look at her like that made me act before I thought and… I'm really sorry," he finished.
Rebecca's face began to blush slightly. She was starting to be embarrassed, especially since the scene took place in front of her new master. Isaac for his part was delighted to see the reactions of the two teenagers.
- "We can put your hasty reaction on the backs of youth and youthful love. Your apologies are accepted, but try not to do it again. You can leave" Isaac replied after a long silence.
Artiel's expression was suddenly relieved before he suddenly stood up.
- "Excellency! If I may, may I ask you to be able to stay with Rebecca?" asked the young man without any qualms.
- "No" answered Isaac immediately. "As an apprentice her mind should be totally focused on her training. She doesn't have time for any distractions," he added.
- "I can be of great use to you Monsignor! I can cook very well, Rita even says that I cook better than Rebecca! I can hunt alone and manage ... I can also -" Artiel began.
Isaac rolled his eyes inwardly. He had seen a lot of them, people like that. It was as if a young high school student was ringing the doorbell of a young girl's parents to convince them to let her go out to a party. "Why is this falling on me ?!" Isaac thought. He sighed and had stopped listening to Isaac for a long time. He raised his hand to stop it and resumed.
- "Do all that. On top of that, if you want to stay, know that you have a good chance of being used as a guinea pig for our magical experiments"
Artiel, despite a moment's hesitation, answered.
- "It's not a problem! Thank you very much Excellency!"
- "Isaac" he resumed.
- "Sorry ?"
- "Call me Isaac" he said to Artiel before turning to Rebecca. "I don't want to hear Excellence, from Majesty or whatever. Here I am Isaac, period. Is that clear?" he finally said.
- "Yes !" they said in chorus.
Once things were cleared up, Isaac nodded, glad he had found a new guinea pig. What's more, a fairly healthy young man. His mana circuit wasn't as developed as Rebecca's, but it was better than nothing. As he reflected, Isaac did not notice that he was chewing the young man's body from top to bottom.
Rebecca knew very well what he was doing, but not Artiel. Seeing the young man a little lost and especially disconcerted, the young woman made a sign to him to calm down and to wait without moving, which he did immediately. "So is that how she felt? Brrr" Artiel thought with shivers running down his back.
After a minute of observation, Isaac snapped out of his trance before observing the two teenagers looking at him calmly and noticing the situation.
- "Ah ... I did it again, didn't I?"
- "Y -... yes" replied Artiel embarrassed.
- "Do not worry. You are an Archmage, it is quite normal that you observe everything that happens so meticulously" resumed the young woman.
Isaac gave an amused chuckle before turning around in front of them including the large white rune shining on the ground. He almost forgot about it, but Rebecca and Artiel hadn't forgotten it for a moment. As soon as he turned around, Rebecca asked.
- "You were having an experiment, Monsignor? What is it?"
- "A rune to create energy. And no Monsignor with me, Rebecca" he said, coming forward and being followed by the other two.
- "Forgive me Exc -... hm" she said with difficulty.
"Hm, this is going to be harder than expected," he thought. He really didn't like being called by words like Excellency or Monsignor. This embarrassed him to the highest point.
- "Nevertheless, I will postpone the experiment. I will show you where you are going to live -" he began before being interrupted.
- "No at all! Continue, please" hastened to add Rebecca. To tell the truth, her gaze and her face reflected absolute curiosity.
Artiel on his side had his face filled with anxiety but didn't want to say much. He stood in silence with his horse looking at the great rune in front of them.
- "Back up. From really far away" said Isaac, gesturing them to back up.
Without delay, Artiel and Rebecca got back up and rode about a hundred yards before finally stopping and turning around. They had chosen to head to the nearest and highest hill so that they could see what was going on, allowing them to see the white rune in full.
Above, Isaac was floating in the air about thirty meters. With his face focused and reviewing what he had been trying to fake, he began to place the rocks in a circle shape above the rune.
After rechecking that all of the nodes were in place, he began the first phase of starting up and began infusing all of the mana runes. Immediately, the enormous rune of logic lit up and the rocks arranged in a circle began to rise into the sky under the rune's command.
Gradually, the largest rocks were placed about fifteen meters above the ground and form a sphere. Moments later, smaller rocks did the same around, creating five concentric layers.
Once the operation was complete, Isaac began to roam the surface of the sphere before being satisfied. He then moved on to the second phase. The containment runes activated and five barriers appeared one by one, each enveloping an additional layer of the sphere formed by the rocks.
In front of him was the famous combustion chamber or reaction chamber which would contain the most dangerous part of the reactor. The different layers were there to create a controlled and safe atmosphere to prevent any energy leakage.
With the containment field in place, Isaac activated the third phase and began to back away. This phase consisted of activating the runes in charge of absorbing mana to concentrate it immediately after. This was the most sensitive phase since a bad concentration rate could cause instability of the manicles and create unwanted and unexpected effects.
He had voluntarily set the concentration level to 1% and was going to increase it as he observed the reaction. Gradually, the runes gathered energy. The containment barriers intensified one by one as energy passed from one layer to another before finally reaching the center.
A small bluish sphere began to appear in the center of the combustion chamber. The sphere of about two centimeters was perfectly smooth and completely stable, relieving Isaac. So he decided to increase the concentration to 5%.
Little by little, the sphere of energy grows until it reaches thirty centimeters. From this size, the sphere would no longer grow because of the pressure formed by the barrier surrounding it and would therefore gradually gain in intensity and frequency.
This was an important part since too much increase could make the combustion chamber unstable and break the reaction. He gradually increased the concentration and after about thirty minutes, the concentration had reached 35% when the sphere began to destabilize.
Isaac took a mental note before slowly increasing concentration, rising to 42% as the sphere began to change color. Bluish in color, golden flashes appeared intermittently before disappearing.
Immediately, the young man changed his vision in search of spiritual energy and indeed, there was a rather small amount. Much weaker than the little that was contained in the old book. Isaac therefore decided to continue and increase the concentration until reaching 67%, at the end of which the barriers began to shake.
At this level of concentration, the sphere of energy would probably have created enormous squalls capable of uprooting a tree. Nonetheless, the barriers managed to contain the destructive energy brilliantly. The slightest leakage of a layer was handled by the upper layer which immediately redirected energy to the center.
In the center, the core was now almost completely composed of spiritual energy with a few strands of blue mana. Isaac was satisfied. He had succeeded in creating a stable and fixed reaction. "Functional prototype!" he says to him.
- "Shutdown" he pronounced with his mana.
Immediately, the main logic rune reacted and the combustion chamber gradually reversed. The concentrated energy was slowly dispersed by the runes. The contained spiritual energy began to dissipate before disappearing entirely, leaving the combustion chamber empty. Once the reaction stopped, the rocks began to descend and then placed themselves in a circle again before the rune of logic deactivated completely.
- "Magic experiment n ° 3. Prototype of the combustion chamber of the magic reactor. Final decision: Success!" he said aloud.