'I… I did it! I used magic!' Lieren felt like a new Adorned, as if it was his first time casting a spell.
The moment triumphed entered his brain, his concentration waned significantly, the delicate balance and internal focus he had built up meticulously cascading like an avalanche.
'No!' Closing his eyes again and recalling the state of absolute focus he had made for himself, he entered a state of absolute concentration, his mind like an uninterrupted lake, with no visible ripples whatsoever.
In this state of zero, with all outer obstructions gone to the abyss, he felt himself—the paltry reserve of wild mana only he had much clearer. It was so close he could taste it.
But, then again, maybe not. As mana was inside him, he had no way of actually attaining such a superficial goal. Instead, he focused on something much simpler and realistic… but not by much.
Using his eyes as a medium, he funneled mana selectively—in much smaller increments than usual—and ignited Manavision in a significantly inferior form. The most he could do is increase his light sensitivity, allowing him to see his surroundings much better.
That, however, was nowhere near enough.
Manavision, the most basic of all magical Augmentation, had come almost second nature to him, allowing him to access different functions like increased motion perception, visual acuity, and clarity very early on.
Most Adorned like him were only capable of increasing their mana sensitivity and allows them to peer into a few elemental streams. Lieren, however, had managed to not only skip this crucial step, but practically master it on his first five tries.
In that way, he had remembered Alice's reminder to him—the presence of natural talent in him.
With a deep exhale, Lieren very slowly increased the amount of mana in his eyes. After a minute, his blue eyes glowed much brighter.
And his surroundings gradually came into focus. The room—his jail cell—was about thirty feet in both width and length. Beside him were torn rags and other obscenities and wastes. Whoever was in charge of this place definitely wasn't trying to impress anybody.
And to his left, supported by a pair of rusty chains, was a small cot with hay atop it, suspended at about his waist's height. Lieren was a rather small kid.
Beside him, chained up by a similar pair of shackles, was a corpse—a rotting skeleton with its wrists bound. It wore clothes, tattered ones, and had an empty expression, mostly from its severe lack of skin, flesh, and organs.
Whoever the skeleton belonged to had long been dead. Or worse, its flesh could have been harvested for some wicked ritual.
With his heightened mana sensitivity, Lieren felt his reserves drain much clearly. He didn't have much left in the first place, with the greater amount of it having either been used up already with his fight against Scorpio, or absorbed by the mana-draining shackles.
It was going down at a considerable, palpable speed. Willing his Resistance's density to thicken even more, he pushed his wild mana back into core, then sighed heavily.
'That was close. I almost lost all of my mana right there and then… Still, in the end, I didn't manage to improve my channels that much…' Using his Resistance, the mysterious power he intrinsically had, Lieren had managed to isolate the most mana-sensitive part of his body—his eyes.
This came as a shock at first, but then he was quickly reminded the speed at which he acclimated to using Manavision. Back then, it had come so naturally and quickly that Lieren didn't really have enough time to react, the enthusiasm to grow and enrich himself, pushing his talent to blossom even further.
In this way, he had—along with his vision-dependent spell: Invisible Abjuration—subconsciously improved his eyes' mana sensitivity and output. With the latter being one of Lieren's greatest weakness, this was a true boon to be realized.
Though, it could have come a little earlier…
'Stupid, stupid me. Who are you blaming for? This is your fault!' He mocked inwardly, sighing all the while.
By this time, the subtle glow in his blue eyes had already died down. The world grew ever so dark once again, shrouding itself from him grudgingly.
Clang! Shaking his arm, a grating rattle sounded beside him. It was the mana-draining shackle. Throughout the entire time he had been using Manavision, he had kept a close eye to this thing, feeling his channels with rabid focus, almost like an early-stage obsession.
Sighing, he looked down, then willed his Resistance to increase in density even more. It had already gone past its usual thickness, making his regular vision somewhat distorted and blurry, as if he was seeing the world through an illusory filter… which would have been terrible, if it wasn't for the fact that he can't see a single thing amidst the surrounding darkness.
…With the alarming feeling of his entire existence detaching from the world at an alarming rate, Lieren took a deep breath and looked down, his vision a shade of grey through a milky white filter.
Scowling, he Enhanced his ears as much as his mana allowed.
Distant chatters resounded.
"…Aries… captured… plans… manipulation…"
"…Yeah, I heard that boss is planning something on 'em. Don't know what, though. Isn't my job to care, either."
"True that, brother."
"Still, though, is that Aries really just a kid"
"Why do you ask? It's pretty obvious that he is just from looking at 'em."
"…Yeah, I mean, I get what you mean. I've seen him, too. It's just that… are we sure he's adolescent? The way he hasn't broken yet is just…"
"Unnatural?"
"Yeah, that's it. I knew you would get it! I've seen the way the torturemaster does things, felt some of 'em, too… and even then, that was just a drop in the bucket compared to what people captives usually go through.
"Lemme tell ya', it's not something a kid his age, young and green, can endure just like that."
"Knock that thought out of your mind, ya' numbskull. There's no use in something mostly empty, anyway. Ya'll only get in trouble."
"But—"
"No buts! Look here… that's no use for us low-level goons, we don't have enough power to be worth it. We're barely above nothing here. And in some cases, that isn't necessarily bad."
"…Yeah, I guess."
Lieren smiled unconsciously.
'What a great pair.' Opening his eyes, he dismissed his Enhancement and checked his reserves.
A grimace naturally formed on his face.
'Two… no, maybe two and a half minutes. I can use Enhancement on my hearing for about that long.' It was a shame that his ears weren't as mana-sensitive as his eyes.
Though it was extremely subdued by his Resistance, the subtle pull of the mana-draining shackles still affected him, which absorbed the mana that he circulated in his ears, further expediting his mana expenditure.
'I'll have to ration it, perhaps use it in bursts or lessen the rate of Enhancement? Hmm... but the hall seems to be quite long, and the guards are located quite far away. If I don't Enhance myself to a degree, then there's no point…'
As his thoughts swirled into a hurricane of confusion and searched for the most efficient way to use his already drained reserves, an unfamiliar voice resounded from the room beside him.
"Hey, can you hear me? You're that Aries guy, aren't you? Would you mind responding, at least? It's really embarrassing just talking to seemingly nothing like this."
◇◆◇◆◇
In the opulent villa of the Silata family. Personal bedroom of their second candidate.
Aquarius fiddled with his bracelet, his eyes closed as he ruminated the information before him.
One, two… Seconds bled into minutes as he counted his own breathing—a habit he made when the world was still nothing but a pitch black abyss.
And soon, the familiar impenetrable darkness greeted him, his blue pupils losing all their luster completely. Indescribable fear gripped his heart once again.
With a deep grimace, he pushed the intrusive thoughts away, barely keeping his sanity. He had felt this feeling before, all those long, long years ago…
But, now that he was given the chance to be free from it—to break through his dark past—the fear that constantly gnawed the back of his mind like a parasite grew even more powerful.
The longer he saw the world in all its beauty, the more dire he felt when he couldn't. This was his flaw.
…Stowing the deep-rooted emotions in the back of his mind, Aquarius sighed and reached out—one of the beads his bracelet emanating a yellowish light—in the impenetrable darkness, grabbing an illusory point in space.
A vaguely familiar figure appeared before him. It was tall, illusory, and with its face and other particularly defining features indistinguishable. He couldn't even tell if it was male or female.
Instead, he "looked down" at its center, somewhere around where its solar plexus should be, and reached out again, taking hold of a yellowish ball of condensed light… and shattered it.
Flash! Yellow light engulfed his "vision," taking it over completely.
Unable to keep the dread restrained anymore, he activated his Enhancement spell, his blue eyes shining with a bright glimmer for a brief second before dying down.
The world came into view once more.
"Hah… hah…" Aquarius huffed and puffed, sweat rolling face and back like a waterfall.
Looking down at his trembling hands, he sucked in a deep breath and clenched it into a fist, utilizing his channels in an almost instinctual way.
Fwoosh! He lit his own two fists in fire, wreathing them in orange-yellow flames up to his elbows.
A deep, immolating pain radiated from the back of his mind.
"Gah!" Unclenching his fist, he deactivated the spell, ridding himself of the immolating pain akin to being burnt alive.
Fatigue spread throughout his body even more as he heard someone whisper in his ear:
"Calm down. Don't rush. Use your instincts to test your limits first, then strike only when the most opportune moment presents itself." It was a calm, even tone. The tone of those long deceased.
Clenching his fists once more, Aquarius conjured a ball of water to envelop his undamaged fists. The cold and soothing waters stayed afloat, wrapped around his fist like a glove, giving him a vague sense of calm.
It only lasted for a second, though, as he clenched his fists a moment later, igniting his channels with a spark of fire mana, enveloping both arms with burning fire.
And, at the same time, he felt his mind burning with illusory flames, warping his vision and sight entirely, turning the world into an avant-garde oil painting, its shape and form indecipherable.
He almost went blind from the resulting pain.
Taking deep breaths, he slowly but surely lowered the input and output of the unfamiliar spell, gradually lowering the illusory flames burning at the back of his mind in the process.
"…There, just like that. Calm yourself. Compose yourself. Let power course through you; not burst. Control the flames like how you would your arms and legs." The calm voice resounded.
"Easier said than done, you dead commoner." Grimacing in immolating pain, he took slow and deliberate breaths, calming his shaking hands somewhat, finally familiarizing himself with the stolen power.
Crik! At the same time, he heard—felt something shatter beside him, and the ghostly presence whispering in his ear die down, vanishing into thin air.
Fwoosh! A flood of knowledge suddenly entered his mind and soul, sinking deep into it, as if he was a deep pool of water.
Standing up and looking at a mirror—something he preferred not do—Aquarius saw his blue eyes reflecting the light of his burning arms.
The corner of his lips curled up into a slight smirk.
At this moment, he knew he had successfully stolen and accommodated yet another spell from one of his felled enemies.
Releasing his fists, he deactivated Burning Gauntlets, a fire-based Transmutation spell that covered the caster's both arms with scorching fire. It had the downside of emulating the sensation of being burnt alive to the caster, albeit it in a much more suppressed manner.
The spell's only flaw had been suppressed, mostly to accommodate its caster, thus reducing its destructive output and creating an equilibrium with the spell's main debilitating condition.
…Closing and opening his fists in quick succession, Aquarius familiarized himself with the spell further, quickly learning the ins and outs—the inner makings and fundamental purpose it held.
"…Its main purpose is close combat, utilizing martial and battle arts to further its deadliness… Though I know a couple moves and seen my fair share of Fighters… well, fight. I wouldn't really call myself a close combatant.
"Midrange, maybe. But not up close. I'll only use this spell when absolutely necessary. It'll make for an unexpected trump card. With my elemental affinity, I bet it would come as a great surprise!"
With a gratified smile, Aquarius turned away from the accursed mirror, picked up a stack of documents—reports by his subordinates and Rogues—and activated Burning Gauntlets.
Fwoom! Orange-yellow ignited themselves seemingly from his skin, coursing through his arms and fists, all the way up to his elbows, and then to the stack of documents he held in one hand.
Fwoom!
The stack caught on fire with a crackle, turning into ash mere moments later.
This time, the illusory flames didn't burn his mind like it had mere minutes before.
Aquarius had already acclimated to the flaws of the spell and lessened its effects on his psyche!
As the orange-yellow flames on his arms died down, gray ash fell to the floor, and his thoughts began to wonder.
He fiddled with his proof of participation, closing his eyes.
"Just a couple more to go." He muttered to nobody in particular.
The sun beamed. It was high noon.