Serena's immersion in this magical world continued to unfold, marked by the enduring darkness of the night. The image of Elyssia departing on the majestic beast with a throne remained vivid in Serena's memory as she succumbed to the call of slumber.
Upon waking, Serena refreshed herself and made her way towards the underground labs with a sense of purpose. However, her father, Dr. Evans, intercepted her on the way.
"Hey Serena, your friend is waiting for you; she's at the city gate," Dr. Evans announced with a smile.
"What? Really?" Serena responded with a mixture of surprise and excitement.
Without hesitation, Serena hurried to the city gate, where she reunited with Elyssia. Elyssia led Serena into the mystical woods, where Serena's desire to explore the world of magic burned brightly. She expressed her eagerness through gestures and mimicking spellcasting motions.
Elyssia responded with a warm smile, comprehending Serena's curiosity and determination. She beckoned Serena to follow, guiding her deeper into the forest surrounding the city.
As they ventured further into the enchanted woods, Serena couldn't help but marvel at the otherworldly flora that responded to Elyssia's presence. Flowers blossomed, and vines danced in harmony with Elyssia's gentle commands. Serena reached out to touch a luminescent flower, which emitted a soft, soothing glow, captivating her senses.
Elyssia generously shared her knowledge, explaining the fundamental workings of magic in their world. She demonstrated simple spells, conjuring small, shimmering orbs of light that floated around them. Serena observed with rapt fascination, endeavoring to mimic the motions and gestures.
Time seemed to blur as hours turned into days during Serena and Elyssia's exploration of magic's intricacies. Serena's determination remained steadfast, bolstered by Elyssia's patient guidance. Despite the unique challenges posed by Serena's advanced technological knowledge, her adaptability allowed her to craft a distinctive style of magic, fusing modern technology with ancient mystical arts.
One day, Serena was abruptly awakened from her magical reverie by Dr. Evans' voice. He playfully questioned her about her extended sleep and invited her to his workplace to reveal a new creation.
Serena, momentarily disoriented, realized that her extraordinary journey into the world of magic was a dream.
As Serena entered the workplace of Mr. Evans, she was surprised by many people gathering inside the place. Their collective efforts had led to the creation of the first design for a magic user costume in just about one day. Although the costume remained entirely in a fictional stage, the brainstorming of hundreds of members had already finished theoretically. It was just a matter of time before it could be built practically.
Dr. Evans explained to Serena, "This costume will provide extraordinary hearing, vision, and even our own type of magic, the ability to fly, and more."
The design of the costume displayed was a robotic figure that looked like Elyssia. Serena was curious, "How would it work?"
"Check it out yourself, girl; we may change anything at any time," Dr. Evans said as he walked out of the room, leaving Serena to examine the details of the costume.
ElectroMage V1
Power sources come from thermoelectric generators, strategically placed throughout the costume to absorb all the incoming heat-type energies. Additionally, micro-batteries are included, capable of storing energy and easily recharged outside the costume, ensuring a continuous power supply.
Micro Plasma engines are placed in various parts of the costume, including the hands, feet, and back. They provide exceptional maneuverability for controlled flight and rapid ground movement, responding instantly to the wearer's commands.
Two Mark 4 guns will be built into the hands of the costume as weapons.
The costume's visor features an advanced augmented reality display that offers "ultra vision." It can switch between various modes, including infrared, night vision, and enhanced zoom, providing the wearer with unparalleled vision in different conditions. Similarly, the costume's auditory sensors can filter and amplify sound, allowing the wearer to hear the faintest of sounds or filter out loud distractions.
"EM01," the AI within the costume, operates with lightning-fast reflexes, capable of analyzing threats and responding with faster reflexes compared to humans. It can predict and counter attacks, enhancing the user's defensive capabilities.
The Electrical Mage V1 costume has a sleek and futuristic appearance. When the robe transforms into wings, it forms an intricate, glowing pattern of circuits and symbols across its surface, showcasing its magical and technological fusion.
However, the costume does have weaknesses. It uses a substantial amount of energy when functioning, and if the conditions demand the user to stay in function for an extended period, it will require constant recharges. Furthermore, its durability is quite low. While the robe can function as wings when flying or as a shield when in battle, it cannot do both simultaneously. These limitations presented challenges that Serena couldn't help but ponder as she marveled at the incredible possibilities this technology presented.
Serena was surprised that this type of costume could be built in the period of time when she was sleeping. Yesterday before the battle, she had in mind that they must create nothing less than a magical things to survive here. But this one was too fast for her to even catch up. Current weaknesses of the costume will be fixed later, and more features will be improved in future versions.
"What am I supposed to do?" Serena mumbled.
"Well, you should go to find Elyssia and talk with her about things, I guess. Maybe she could help us brainstorm," Dr. Ethan Foster replied to Serena.
"Right, I wanted to go ask her about some things."
...
A craft rose from the city and headed toward the woods. Everything was dark, and Serena couldn't see anything even with lights from her craft. Just in a few minutes, Serena suddenly saw a ray of fire rise near her craft and she looked down to see where the fire was coming from.
There was Elyssia and two other figures in robes standing on a hill, and the ray of fire came from one of the two figures. Serena's craft landed slowly near them, and Elyssia commanded the two skeletons to go away, so Serena would be comfortable.
The conversations between the two became more friendly, but the language barrier was still an issue. Elyssia was amazed by the craft, which could travel much faster than almost everything she had ever seen and also had powerful weapons and high durability. Serena was still amazed by the powers of Elyssia; Elyssia sometimes would just float around in the air to grab various types of fruits to eat and to let Serena try some.
The two talked for hours, their conversation a bridge between two different worlds. Serena shared electronic devices displaying footage from her childhood home, the enormous station known as The Void, with its cutting-edge technologies. Elyssia, in turn, summoned a few skeletons from the ground, directing them to act as toys to replicate her own childhood memories. Her extraordinary memory was on full display as she reenacted moments from her past, creating a unique connection with Serena.
As Serena watched the skeletons mimic Elyssia's childhood experiences, she couldn't help but be amazed by the richness of Elyssia's world and the depth of her magical abilities. It was a moment of bonding between two individuals from vastly different backgrounds, united by their shared curiosity and newfound friendship.
Before returning to the city, Serena asked about learning magic again.
"I don't know very much, but maybe I can ask some warriors in my army who used to be in academies," Elyssia agreed to help Serena. Elyssia explained that the necromancers were widely feared, and necromancing magic could only be inherited from parents and could not be learned, unlike other magics. Necromancers were responsible for keeping all the undead from venturing away from their graveyards, and the necromancers themselves also could not leave the graveyards ever again.
Serena understood the life of Elyssia since she also used to be a lonely girl with no friends in The Void's station. Not much different from Elyssia's current life.
She had everything she needed but lacked freedom.
A figure with a robe appeared together with a voice Serena did not understand. The figure and Elyssia talked for a few minutes, and then Elyssia told Serena to give her hand to the figure in the robe.
The figure held Serena's hand with his skeletal fingers and started looking from fingertips to the elbows carefully.
After the process of checking Serena's hands, eyes, hairs again and again, then talking with Elyssia for many times, the figure finally left.
Elyssia explained that the figure was a teacher in a school before he died, so he knows very well how to decide if a student will become a magic user or not. And even though Serena is very different from the natives, the figure said that learning magic was possible, but Serena would never learn complicated spells because her body is too weak to control larger amounts of magical energies and making her body become more capable of magical energies is impossibe with current knowledges of Elyssia or anyone's in her army.