Opening one of her eyes with a reverse wink, Cecilia looked at me with curiosity, "What are you doing, Lucas?"
"Analyzing your elemental nature. Close your eyes, Cecilia. I'm almost done," I replied, making her close her eyes once again and delving deeper into the mana currents surrounding her. It was a delicate process, but I needed to understand her attributes to synchronize our attacks effectively.
The further I went inside her core, "It can't be?" I could feel her attribute's essence, and she can evolve her attribute's grade, just like my darkness and destruction.
As I concentrated, a soft glow enveloped Cecilia's hands, revealing the elemental aura unique to her. I nodded to myself, satisfied with the revelation. I should've guessed it was the opposite element of mine. Damn, this girl has got just as much talent as my current body. What an interesting girl she is.
"You have a rare and intriguing affinity, Princess. Your elemental nature is elusive, almost like a dance of Light," I remarked, reopening my eyes.
Cecilia seemed intrigued and with an obvious scoff, "Of course. I'm a Holy Light attributed person after all!"
Hmm, her real attribute is the Angel's horn, the ability to gather energy from the sun and light elements around the atmosphere. Which basically means, she is a Palladium Grade attribute wielder, masking herself as a Gold grade attribute wielder. No wonder my sense was getting blocked by the light elemental particles.
Well, it doesn't matter. Even as a Demon King, I can still combine my darkness with light, as both the elements have a similar origin. However, using the sun's energy directly without a cooling factor would burn her essence with that mortal shell. How is she able to use her attributes then? Its not safe for her to use her attributes without a cooling factor like extreme cold attribute or my darkness attribute.
I chuckled, "It's neither good nor bad; it's unique. Your affinity could complement my abilities well, considering I'm the extreme opposite of you in our attributes' path. I need to adjust my attacks to resonate with your elemental flow."
She grinned, "Well, Lucas, I hope your adjustments include winning this mock battle."
I smirked, "Of course. With our combined prowess, victory is inevitable."
A combination of Holy Light and Abyssal Darkness. Who could've expected this?
...
The two hours of preparation time were over as our mentors came back with tense expressions on their faces.
Cecilia and I had planned out our attacks and strategy to win the battles against Bran and Diane. Seemed like Bran and Diane were also confident in their preparations, as they were certainly smiling with a confident expression on their faces.
"Alright you brats. Are you guys ready to face off against each other?" Master Gladius asked with a smirk.
As the mentors gazed at me and Cecilia, we gave them a cocky nod, with a smile. And, it was the same for Bran and Diane, too.
"Alright! Take your positions!" Professor Daria instructed as she walked out of the arena with Master Gladius, standing as our referee.
"Listen again teams. You shouldn't use any attributes, and you should only use mana as reinforcement and boost, is that clear?" She asked as she once again listed the rules.
However, we already knew that much wouldn't be enough to bring a little entertainment. "Uhm, man. Can we use Aura?"
Just as I asked that, our opponents as well as the mentors were flabbergasted, starting to stare at us with confusion.
"Did you say..Aura? You are saying, you both are capable of using aura?" Master Gladius asked with a shaken-up expression.
The greatest ability a mana-arts user could utilize, when they combine their own mana and the essence of their attribute into the same form, resulting in the application of manipulating the ultimate power called Aura or battle Spirit.
My miniature version of absolute domain with killing intent and my deadly demonic aura are also small versions Aura, which I was able to awaken due to my black heart's inherent demonic essence.
However, true power of an aura is only attainable, when a person who had mastered all six of the fundamentals of mana along with their attribute utilization could even try to trigger their attribute's essence to integrate it with their mana.
However, their success rate of awakening their aura is less than forty percent, and if one fails to do so, their essence will be broken, majorly resulting in death or extreme conditions of an unconscious state.
That's the reason, there aren't many Emperor Ranked mana-arts users in this world. And that certainly explains why there are only three Saint Ranked entities in this whole world.
The miniature versions of Aura I use are all because of my already integrated Essence of Abyss and Essence destruction. Needless to say, it's all a fragment of my original Demonic essence from the abyss itself.
So, I'm confident I could break through Saint Rank, easy. Not to mention, Cecilia, with proper cooling factor in her attribute, she could just as become strong as me. With that in mind, we just experimented in something new, Cecilia and I.
If Aura awakens when integrating mana into the essence of our attributes, what happens if another mana, originated from another person, could result when experiencing fusion with my already integrated Essence of Abyss?
"Haha. This brat is sure surprising people with idiocy. Do you think it's easy to awaken aura at your age and cultivation progress?" Master Gladius was super surprised as well as pissed to hear something he was dedicating a whole life for. Not to mention, Professor Daria wasn't even speaking a word, as everyone present there starred at me and Cecilia's confident smile.
"Your highness. Please, don't try something that could lead you to..."
"What? it's just a small experiment, Diane!"
Bran was blinking at me in curiousness. I'm sure he was not surprised even a bit, after he saw everything I was able to do when I awakened as Lucas, in this mortal realm.
"Your highness. Please, don't try something that could lead you to..." Diane ran towards Cecilia with a saddened face as Cecilia comforted her with her smile. "What? its just a small experiment Diane!"
"Well, Sir. Can we?" I interpreted the mood, as suddenly,
"Show us," professor Daria said out loud with a curious expression.
"What-"
"Show us you damn kids. Show us, what you were planning," She instructed with clenching her fists.
"Daria You-"
"Well. I want to see too. If Lucas is really confident, he would have really succeeded in what he was doing. Show us brother!" Bran said with a proud smile, and without any complex expressions, he was eager to improve after me.
"Shhh" Master Gladius sighed. "I'm still worried, but, your highness, would you be really okay?" he asked with concern. Well, Cecilia is a princess after all. If she were to die, the whole Themis Academy, Trident household, and our mentors would just be convicted to some conspiracy.
Giving them a confident nod, "Yes Professor Gladius. With Lucas, I know, I will be safe!" Cecilia said as she held my hands tightly. I could sense her nervousness, at the same time, I can feel, she had her trust in me.