The houses that were on fire were being taken care off one by one. Using their prayers, the priests first doused the fires and created support beams to keep the houses from collapsing. Lucas was also one of the victims that needed help, the mercenary leader blocking their way only made them more suspicious.
"Priests, don't misunderstand, I'm not the one who brought this much ruin to the slums. It was all done by this mage!"
Micheal who stood at the front could immediately tell that the world didn't agree with what he said. With his gift of easily discovering lies, he knew that there was more to this story.
"My son, don't try to mislead followers of the Goddess."
"No, please believe me, do you think someone as lowly as I can use magic?"
"I can't see anything magical about you, no. But one of our followers came by to tell us a mercenary group has started a massacre. She told us you had a mage in your group!"
The mercenary leader had to make a choice, keep up his facade or run away. Either way, he felt cornered, if there truly was someone who saw them killing it would be his words against theirs. If they investigated even for a moment they would find that the sword marks would be led to their weapons.
The man dropped his weapon and raised his hands. "Forget it, take me in and let's forget about this.", he wasn't stupid. Running away now would result in his death, the priests had magical capabilities, he was doomed from the start. Coming in clean would be his best possible outcome, if he had to stay behind bars for a few years or die the choice was obvious.
His vitriol anger and hatred needed to make room for a more rational self, as a leader he knew how to dampen his own feelings to make the right decisions. He had left behind his friends in order to save his group, he had what it took to be a great leader. If was to be locked away for some time, he would do everything in his power to grow strong enough to enact his revenge.
Micheal send two priests to deal with the mercenary leader while he went to help Lucas out.
"It seems we meet again, my son. First defending your teacher and helping to discover the real culprit who turned out to be a lost sheep following the Demonic Cult. Now you stopped a mercenary group from culling the so-called weak and worthless. I sense constant turbulence in your heart, but it seems that you do know how to differentiate good from evil. Thank you, my son."
"Yeah, can't stop helping people.", Lucas said sarcastically which confused Micheal for a moment, but the shaking of Lucas' head made it clear to him, he was still recovering from the shock.
'What the hell are you doing?! Do you want to ruin our reputation?'
'What am I doing wrong?'
'Garh, just give me control again, I'll deal with this.'
While Lucas tried to get up out of the rubble, a hand appeared in front of him. Accepting Micheal's help he easily got up.
"Thank you, Micheal, you got here right on time, if you were just a few moments later I'm afraid of what would've happened."
"Oh don't worry my son, I could sense a strong killing intent and harmful pressure from here, so I knew exactly where to go. We were lucky that man decided to take the path of peace and reconciliation."
"Indeed, it was hard to fight against him, especially that mage in his group, Roy, I believe he was called? His fire magic was something quite impressive.", Lucas wanted to make sure the blame of the surrounding destruction wasn't pinned on him in any way.
"Roy? I haven't heard that name, he must be new around here. Either way, since you helped out the slums out of the goodness of your heart, you deserve a reward.", Micheal's smile bloomed up the entire environment. It was almost like the burning buildings in the background disappeared while looking at his smile.
"A reward? I don't think I'm worthy of such a thing, I simply did what anyone would've done."
"Hahaha, humble and righteous in one, difficult to find these days. Though I can tell you don't fully mean what you just said, but don't worry, I agree with your feelings."
Lucas didn't forget Micheal could tell truth from lie, he used it to gauge how much Micheal was actually on his side. If Micheal simply agreed with what he said then he would disregard his true feelings, acknowledging his intentions meant that Micheal did care for Lucas.
"Since I'm a priest I don't deal with monetary things, instead I'll give you this.", Micheal took out what looked to be a golden ring with a Holy cross attached to it. The ring wasn't actually made of gold, it only looked it. It didn't have any financial value, but it did have a meaningful value.
"When you carry this ring, you're seen as an aid to the church. If you visit any other of our holy establishments they'll welcome you with open arms.", Micheal said with a dazzling smile. Not long after he had to leave to help out with the rescue operations. As the strongest priest he needed to carry his weight.
Lucas also left, he wanted to look for Eleven, but with his mana depleted and stamina drained, he knew it was time to go back. He could sleep in Elam's cabin, rent a room somewhere or sleep in his dorm, but he never went there. He was already ostracized from being with his teachers and he didn't want any unnecessary attention.
Micheal watched as Lucas departed with a meaningful smile on his face. A nearby priest that was escorting Micheal followed his look and dismiss Lucas's behavior. "To sarcastically say you can't help but aid others, is he mocking us?"
"Hahaha, no, my dear brother, the world didn't respond in the slightest to his statements. The world deemed it to be the truth, he simply doesn't realize it yet."
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Lucas didn't know if it was a good thing to wear the ring. It would on one hand show the ones in the know on whose side he stands and aid him. But the same could be said about the ones with a grudge against the Order that would dislike Lucas from the start.
The following days Lucas attended multiple lessons a day, by the end he would be tired and exhausted. Each and every day felt terrible, but he did learn a lot, so he couldn't complain.
When it came to his control it got a lot more refined, or that was at least half true. Due to his split personality he had different ways of thinking and doing. One side was very proficient in structuring a path and guiding the magic to his will. The other side just got more proficient in brute forcing it without damaging the magicules.
While one path was a lot more preferred, it was the brutal and reckless use of magic that allowed Lucas to create a lot more diverse spells. Since he could use his magic throughout his body he had a lot more freedom. Spells that normally covered the hands in a protective layer of fire could be applied to his entire body. Depending on the situation his fireballs could become precise and dense or have a big impact range and be a lot more explosive.
The guest teacher told Lucas once that the gift he had gotten wasn't very useful now, but would be extremely handy in the future. It wasn't comparable to an actual innate gift, but it did bring its benefits. He could in theory use his body to store magicules and even prepare spells beforehand and simply let them roam around his body, waiting to be activated. But that would require a lot more time and effort before he would reach such a level.
Time passed, and it was time for another session of Elam sitting down while Lucas had to lay down. Not that he wanted to of course, the pressure that Elam was exuding was simply too powerful for him to do anything about. Lucas had a lot of time to think laying there, to the point that he started to feel comfortable on the floor, like he had gotten used to it.
During his lessons with Gilbert he figured out how to visualize his own mental sphere. In the past he could somewhat realize what his mental sphere looked like, but now he could almost look inside of it, like he was standing inside his own mind.
He could see a gray-white dome of sorts that felt thin and flimsy, but reflected his own mind. Memories of times long past and current thoughts were fighting to take control of what would be shown on the dome. Images of Robert and Liam overlapped with his family. It was like watching a picture show, but with extremely accurate details and visuals.
What the dome showed depended on what Lucas was thinking, he could focus on the different runes he learned, and they would randomly pop up. Only the runes of light and dark were etched into the very dome itself, taking up their own place. Their presence was eternal.
The visuals changed sporadically, there were only two things that were consistent. The runes that were placed around the dome, but took up little space and something all too familiar.
At the very top the dome reflected a blood-red moon that constantly gave off its radiant scarlet light. Its constant aura felt annoying and looking at it made him depressed. Even though it was just a memory it still had an enormous presence and influence on his mental sphere. If he focussed on it for a few moments the entire dome would be occupied by the moon.
With the moon on top, the sides were filled with images and scenes of his burning family. Lucas always thought he got over his past, but it still had a massive influence over him. He held strong looking at his own despairing past, he didn't cry, smile or get angry. He was simply watching the very reason he never wanted to stop his own growth. The Scarlet Moon is a reoccurring event, meaning he would have to face it once more in the future.
If he didn't want the same thing to happen he would have to be a lot stronger. Inspecting the surrounding scenes he recognized a bunch of monsters. Steel Spiders, a Demonic Bear, Ogres, the strange crows. There were some monsters he couldn't put into words, but that didn't matter. If he were to fight against those monsters again, would he survive?
Steel Spiders were no issue as he had enough experience with them, but the giant ogres and the strange monsters, was he strong enough to emerge victorious? No, said one side, perhaps with training said another, either way, he wasn't ready yet.
The reason he wanted to spread the influence of the moon over his dome wasn't just for nothing. The first time he did so by accident it did give him quite a scare, but now he was going to take his chances.
'If we need a constant stream of strong emotions in order for our willpower to turn into pressure, there's nothing better than this.'
'I agree, during our fight we had to mix killing intent, anger and the fear of death in order to stop a single normal human in his tracks. If we want to push back the pressure of a Rank 2, we'll need to go all out.'
Lucas's idea was not to just use the Scarlet Moon as a memory, but carve it in his own dome to make sure he would always remember the most intense moment in his life. The fear of death was nothing compared to losing everything in an instant. He cared for many things back then, he had to close off his own heart in order to move on. If this feeling of despair could be turned into a source for his willpower he would be capable of instantly activating his pressure without any issue.
The only thing he had to do was to carve out the moon like the runes in his dome. There was just one thing stopping him from doing that, he didn't know how to.