"Hmm." I hummed my head resting against Artoria's. We were still snuggled up on the bed, even as the sun started peeking through the window.
"Hmm." She mimicked me, giving a small smile.
"Hmm." I kissed her cheek.
"Hmm." She kissed mine.
We shared a little laugh, snuggling a little closer. I don't think either of us had the intention to continue sleeping any longer, but it was nice to enjoy the moment.
"Should probably get up soon…" I yawned, closing my eyes for another few moments.
"Do you have important things you must get done today?" I felt her hand run through my hair, sending a small shiver down my spine.
"Going to perform a large ritual." I admitted. "Should make me a bit stronger."
"….is it dangerous?" There was a small amount of worry in her voice.
"A bit, but I am taking many precautions, and I'm going to see about having the Archmage watching over me."
"Hn….you're not allowed to get hurt." She grumbled. "I will be upset with you if something unfortunate occurs."
I let out another yawn, fully opening my eyes again. "I'll make sure to be whole and healthy when all is said and done."
Her eyes shot open, then narrowed slightly. "Will, how dangerous is this ritual of yours?"
"It's…..only mildly dangerous, as I said, I will be making many preparations."
"And it will not harm you?"
"Not….permanently."
She frowned. "It will be painful then?"
"A bit, yes."
"I feel as if you are down playing it for my benefit."
I let out a sigh. "The biggest detriment to this ritual is the fact that it will be extremely painful….normally. I have Aura, which will mitigate quite a bit, and other stuff, but even then, it's going to hurt."
"I do not like the idea of you harming yourself." She said quietly, gripping onto my shirt. "Is this ritual that important?"
"It will be helpful, and I need everything I can get before I head out."
"You never mentioned where you were going, if it is going to be so dangerous then I shall accompany you." She stated.
I guess this was coming at some point. "I'm going to participate in a Holy Grail War." I wouldn't lie to her.
"You….." Artoria had many expressions flash across her face. "No. Absolutely not."
"Artoria…"
"No." She said sternly.
"I have to."
"What is so important that you require –"
"Scáthach." I said simply.
Her hands gripped me tight, it was clear she was holding in some choice words, and it made my heart hurt knowing it upset her. "You must miss her a lot."
"I do." I sighed again. "I keep trying to distract myself, but I can't stop missing her."
"I see." Artoria let go, turning around and sitting herself up on the edge of the bed.
I ran my hands down my face, sitting up next to her. "I would do the same for any of you." I reached out, lighting pulling her close, she allowed it, accepting my touch. "Don't think for a second that I wouldn't force myself into Avalon to get you if anything happened."
Her lips twitched slightly, like she wanted to be happy at my words, but held herself back. "I can understand why you must go, but I will not be happy about it. And I will be speaking to Meridia and Jinn about what you will be doing."
"Of course." I nodded.
"And you will return to me." She said flatly. "The Grail, those Grail Wars…..I have fought in two now, Wilhelm. Both of them had left me hollow by the end, and they had taken things from me that left an everlasting mark. I will not allow it to happen a third time." She turned to me, her face stoic. "Are we clear?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"Good." She nodded, pulling me into a deep kiss. I didn't take point, letting her lead and express some stuff she probably had a hard time putting into words. "Mayhaps Scáthach will be able to rein you in from doing idiotic things like this in the future." She broke the kiss in a huff.
"It's going to be dangerous, but I don't expect to die. If anything, I consider myself unrivaled in running away." I gave a cheeky smile.
"S-stop that." She let out another cute huff, holding back a smile. "I am upset with you, do not make me laugh."
"In seriousness, I'm making a lot of preparations, and I will be summoning a servant to assist me." I explained.
"I will….accept your words for now, but this conversation is not finished." Artoria relented. "Go, complete your ritual. I am less upset at you hurting yourself now."
"I'll come back once it's finished." I placed a quick kiss on her lips before getting up and grabbing my stuff. "It shouldn't take more than a day."
"Good, I will be coming by the College with Rin, no doubt. So I will be checking in at some point, and I will relay a message to have both Jinn and Meridia also check up on you." Artoria left no room for argument, she seemed a tad more worried now that I explained my plans to her.
Well, I couldn't really fault her either. If her or one of my other girls was going to do something dangerous, I would worry nonstop. Not to mention I'm touching on a very sore spot for her, knowing how the 4th Grail War went, and the 5th was probably not much better.
I still have a bit of time, I'll make sure I have many things prepared before setting out.
***
I quickly popped over to the College, the door still operating quite easily. I went straight for my little training room, and it appeared to have not been touched, not that anyone could do anything with it since I hid the 'mechanisms' to it within my own spell castings.
Walking inside, I started to erase the spell sequences already around. I had them memorized at this point, so setting them back up would be relatively easy.
I took out the book on Lightning Form, opening it to the page I needed. I had already theorized a modified version of this spell, one crafted for my unique biology as opposed to the imperial who created the spell in the first place. Not to mention I was filling in some gaps or correcting some errors I found along the way.
The person who created the spell wasn't exactly the most prestigious of mages, even if the spell itself was rather ingenious. But then again, new ideas and innovations don't always come from the top, often coming from the average or the lower end of the spectrum.
Taking out some Talisman's I set to create a Five Elements Mutual Generation up on the ceiling without invoking it. To utilize the natural cycle to bolster the spell further, since I was beyond most people, I needed it to be stronger.
I began to draw more Runes onto the walls, mostly to reinforce the concept of 'Lightning' within the room.
There were also safety measured installed. If I lost consciousness, the Runes would self-destruct, essentially canceling the spell sequence.
Taking off my shirt, I tossed it inside my ring along with my vest and tie. I took out a small blade and cut my palm, letting my blood spill into a bowl to collect a small amount.
Dipping my finger in it, I started to draw a Primordial Rune onto my chest.
The Primordial Rune representing Nature, as lightning is a facet of the natural world. I was doing this to facilitate the spell with the blessing I had of Odin, to lean more onto the Norse Cosmology. It should give this spell a little more 'oomph' when all was said and done. The conceptual weight added of an entire Cosmology as a foundation would bring my Lightning Form to a whole new level.
Well, I keep calling it a 'spell' but that wasn't quite right. Technically, it was a spell, but it wasn't something to continuously cast on yourself. The spell was going to force the concept of lightning and merge it with my body, my person. To put it in blatant terms, I would add the Element of Lightning next to my current Element.
"Archmage, please keep an eye on me, make sure no one interferes." I called out, not very loud, but I had no doubt the man heard me. He always knew what was going on in his college.
I began the final preparations, a spell circle drawn out as described and shown in the book, along with some runic letters native to this world. The circle was rather large, all things considered, but it was surprisingly efficient.
Putting away all the stuff I didn't need, I sat down cross legged at the center and steadied my breathing.
In and out, I followed a rhythmetic breathing exercise to calm myself down and to mentally preparing myself as my Aura flared up, making sure it was also steady.
"Ready Ddraig?"
[Yeah, I'll keep a look inside on what's happening.]
My circuits could be seen, glowing along my upper chest and down my arms. Their warmth was something I had become used to, but it was a sort of comforting feeling all the same. I started to channel my magical energy and pushing it down into the spell circle, actualizing everything.
The spell circle lit up and slowly the room's atmosphere began to shift. Lightning began to spontaneously arc throughout this stone chamber, bouncing off the walls. It grew, becoming more and more numerous, the arcs of lightning filled nearly every corner until they coalesced and I braced myself.
They all shot right down onto me.
"AHHHHH." I let out a pained shout, the surprise of it amplifying the feelings and the lightning drilled into my core being, into my soul.
I clenched my fists tight, and grit my teeth to reel back the outburst.
"RRRAAHHH." I grit out, my fingers digging into my arms. I felt it, the lightning discharging all around inside of me. There were remnants, pieces that didn't go straight down into my soul that were content to tear apart the insides of my body.
My Aura flared up, its healing properties offsetting the damage. Even as parts of my skin were burned and torn apart at the rampaging element, my Aura started to dampen and heal the damage.
I growled, mentally swiping my ring and taking out a potion of regeneration. More potent than a normal healing potion, but not as immediate. I chugged it, letting the alchemic liquid fill my stomach and contribute to the healing.
The Runes around the room glowed, as to command the element and force it to where it was supposed to go, they synchronized with the Primordial Rune on my chest. The lightning that bounced around my body, was pulled towards the center and forcibly stuffed into my soul.
I coughed out blood even as the lightning left my physical body, the brief amount of time I had it inside of me was enough to damage my internals.
There was no time to consider it though, just because my physical body was no longer being bombarded, it didn't mean the pain subsided.
The body is a reflection of the Soul, and currently, there was chaos within my soul. I couldn't help but start rolling on the ground, clawing at the stone flooring, the excruciating pain unrelenting.
[Hold it, brat, it's almost over.]
Ddraig's words echoed in my ear, but they barely registered, I smashed my head against the ground in an attempt to keep myself conscious under this relentless assault. The stone beneath me having cracked and indented after who knows how many times.
[Brat, you need to focus. Compress it.]
I grit my teeth again, lifting my head up, even as my body was violently shaking. I tried to stand up, but collapsed back onto my ass, and decided it was good enough. I focused on the Lightning, and began the process of forcing it down.
I took several haggard breaths as the pain started to subside, the tingling in my body was settling and the Lightning wasn't rampaging anymore.
Slowly, I released the Lightning, letting it seep out as I absorbed it properly.
The spell circle around me glowed bright, the intertwined concepts allowing me to fully take in the element, shifting my core self and adding the concept and making it mine.
My breathing started evening out as the elemental power ran its course. Slowly, but surely over the course of alteast an hour, I subsumed the remainder.
Opening my eyes again, I held out my hand, and lightning danced across my palm.
"Fucking hell." I let out a breath, falling down onto my back.
[That was intense.]
"Yeah, hurt like a bitch too." I groaned, looking at my arms where there were still parts of my skin that had burst open.
[Maybe you should have done without the Five Elements Mutual Generation?]
"I don't know if the spell would stick with everything inside of me, besides, I only had one chance at this, I wanted to make it as strong as possible." I sighed. "I didn't expect it to be that painful, If I were honest. The first burst of it actually made me scream…."
[With this Element added on, there should be some interesting changes.]
"Yeah, basically anything affected by my soul should see something – " I paused.
[What?]
"I never considered my Power of Destruction." I quickly took out the Sword of Destruction, channeling my Aura to it to ignite my bloodline power. My Power of Destruction, it usually acted almost like fire, to flare out and consume everything in its path but now...it crackled.
[A mutation?]
"Possibly, more testing is definitely needed." I looked at my power with a wide grin on my face. "But I could really get used to this."
I was captivated by how it arced and crackled along the blade.
***
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