April 6th, Hogwarts Castle Courtyard, early morning.
What could be more beautiful than watching the fruits of your labors? Everyone answers this differently, but one thing is for sure, there is little that compares to this. A sense of pride both in yourself and in your work. If your efforts are aimed at someone, then your pride may be slightly different. Pride in another person's actions and efforts. So in our case, Calder, looking at Neville, felt a slight sense of pride.
"Magic is an amazing thing," the guy thought, watching his friend, who at that very moment was already running the eighth lap with a concentrated face. There was no fatigue observed, as before even after the first or second lap. Progress is obvious. - To achieve the same progress, an ordinary person without a gift will need at least a year and a half. Neville only needed three months. A very amazing effect," Neville stopped running and immediately began a set of exercises. Lying emphasis, push-up, squat emphasis, jump as high as possible with a clap above your head, and then repeat. And so thirty times. - Although, perhaps, the effect of mana is not so great, and the whole point is in Neville himself? Hmm, quite possible. Or maybe his gift in herbology is involved in this?" - a flash of insight, that's what happened to Calder.
Indeed, mana also affects interaction with plants, but there is another energy that affects them in the same way as mana. And this is prana. Even during the winter holidays, the guy noticed that "living and healthy" human prana is favorably perceived by plants. So maybe it's the same with Neville? Perhaps he has not only incoming mana, but also prana?
"We need to check," the guy's eyes lit up with interest. He was already anticipating the results of the research and their consequences. "Preferably now, so that you can change Neville's training later."
He waited a couple more minutes until Nev finished his next approach and called him over.
- Nev, can you stop for a minute and come to me? "We need to check something," Calder told the surprised guy. And for some reason, this had never happened before. Usually he waited until the end of the training, and only then talked about something.
- Yes, Col. What did you want? - the boy asked approaching him. Sweat rolled down his face, but there was no shortness of breath. In general, Nev has changed quite a lot over these couple of months. There was no longer so much excess fat. No, it still remains, but not in such quantities. It also partially disappeared from the face. It's good that you have to wear robes in the castle, otherwise some people might have questions. Or maybe not, who knows.
"Listen Nev," Kol began. "You already know that today there will be a new round of training," a neat nod from the boy. Yes, new magic training was supposed to start today. - Well, during today's training I came up with an idea. More specifically, as I said earlier, I need to check something. You do not mind?
"No," Nev shrugged in response.
"Okay," Kol nodded. "Then sit here, close your eyes and just don't resist." If you feel any discomfort, tell me right away, okay? - said Calder, at the same time, with a wave of her wand, creating a mat on the ground next to them.
"Okay," Nev said, sitting down on the mat and closing his eyes. - I'm ready.
- Okay, I'll get started.
Approaching Nev, Calder once again scanned the space with his vision. No one was around, even Snape was absent today. It was good, fewer unnecessary questions.
Standing behind Neville, Kol, placing his hands on his shoulders, strained his magic vision and carefully began to introduce Mana into the guy's body. It was incredibly difficult, after all, his mana is hostile to another person. But water wears away stones.
Gradually, step by step, his mana penetrated Neville's body. Finally, after two minutes, mana was able to penetrate the guy's body and... found nothing.
"Am I doing something wrong? - Calder thought. - What? Maybe you need it with prana? But how will I see her? Although, you can try the same as with mana, just direct Prana into the eyes."
No sooner said than done. In an instant, all the mana left Nev's body, and prana came to replace it. With her it was much easier, but still quite difficult.
Finally, prana was able to penetrate the guy's body, but Kol still didn't see the result, something was felt, yes, but that's all.
"It's not that again," Calder's thoughts began to gradually speed up, visually "slowing down" time. — Mana doesn't work, prana doesn't work either. If with mana it is possible to see another Mana, then prana simply enhances the primary characteristics of the eye. What should we do? — for several minutes, Calder stood and simply looked into space. Poor Neville was already starting to get nervous and no wonder, he didn't know what was happening.
This went on for some time until, finally, Calder noticed a slight itch from where he had not expected it at all. The Thestrall and Unicorn genes responded to his every action with prana and mana. All this time, these genes were simply stored in a kind of space of the metamorph, which is connected with himself, but does not have a big influence on the guy himself.
"What is this? - Kol was surprised. — After so much time, did they react? But why now? — a few more tens of seconds passed in comprehension. - Exactly! The unicorn is life, that is, prana, and thestrall is death, the absence of prana. That's what made me nervous and haunted me. They are like two sides of the same coin. However, I have already tried combining their actions with each other. Why now? What changed? Except that…"
Carefully, Calder began to integrate the Genes of these two horses into himself, simultaneously. Because these genes did not want to live alone. Kol started as before with his hand, otherwise you never know.
A moment later his attempt was partially successful. For a moment he managed to combine them. They worked in sync, the guy holding the perfect balance between life and death. This dance was mesmerizing. They intertwined, danced, played, but did not mix.
However, not everything can be so rosy. The guy's body was not ready for this, literally a minute later it began to reject genes that were too strong for itself. Without allowing another explosion to happen, Calder removed the genes at the beginning of this process, returning the body to its former stability.
"So what do we have. First, the genes of unicorns and thestrals are ideally combined with each other. Second, because of impatience, the guy began to walk from side to side. His movements were followed by Neville, who was tired of just sitting there, so he opened his eyes, noticing his friend seriously thinking about something. - My body is too weak, it simply cannot hold these genes for a long time, simply dying. Third, without much harm, I can use this combination for about forty seconds, and then I will need to get rid of the original source of the problems. What comes out of this? — the guy stopped in place, coming to a realization. - Why not put them to work, but only in the eyes. Let's chalk it up to the fact that the eye is more complex than the hand and cut the time in half. That turns out to be twenty seconds of "work." "Calder even clapped his hands in anticipation; it happened so unexpectedly that Neville jumped on the spot. - Need to try."
Turning around on the spot, Kol again approached Neville, who was watching him with all his eyes.
- And so, Nev. Now everything will become clear. You, as agreed, sit still and don't move. Well, I'm checking what I need. Ready?
Nodding again, Nev closed his eyes again. At the same moment, he felt a touch on his back. And as soon as Kol approached so quickly.
At the same time, the young metamorph, according to a proven scheme, introduced Prana into the guy's body. As soon as this happened, he waited a little more so that the "connection" with prana would be stable.
"Great," he nodded to himself. — Everything is fine, no problems found. Now it's time to get started."
Concentrating to the maximum, the guy began to integrate the Thestrall and Unicorn Genes. Carefully monitoring all processes, Kol did not forget to monitor the prana that was in Neville. If he has to, he will forcibly break off contact with him, thereby causing harm to himself. He didn't want to harm his friend in any way.
Fifteen seconds. That's exactly how long it took him to integrate the Genes. Was it worth getting into place when the guy immediately, without wasting time, sent Prana and Manu at them. Time is fleeting.
A moment of waiting and a completely new world opened up before Calder, something he had never seen before.
What is magical vision? This is the same Magical perception, but only transferred to the visual part. That is, it is the ability to see magic, its flows, its dance, its life. It's the same in magical perception, or flair, whatever you want to call it, everything is the same, but in magical vision you not only feel it, but also see it.
What is Prana? This is life in its direct definition. Thanks to Prana, organisms live; without it they would die. The unicorn is the "ideal", the standard of life. His blood is so full of prana that whoever drinks it will be instantly cured. Of course, if you take blood by force, then at the last moment the unicorn will purely subconsciously give a "command" for the blood to destroy the enemy. Any medicine is poison. So blood becomes poison.
What is death? Lack of prana. Thestrals are the "ideal" of this concept. They live without prana, which is seemingly impossible, but somehow they don't give a damn about it.
But what do a thestrall and a unicorn have in common? There is a pinch of opposite in each of them. A unicorn can kill with blood, but a thestral still lives, even though it has no prana.
So what will happen if Manu, life (Prana) and death (lack of prana) are combined? The answer is simple, everything is layered on top of each other. The effects of one will transfer to the other. All this will be accompanied by an incredible load on the body, literally at the limit of what is permitted.
So in our case, although not yet completely, the feeling of mana has transferred to life and death. Calder saw the light in an instant. He saw Prana and its absence in everything around him. The intricacies of life, death and mana. How they influence each other, how they get along. All this became visible, but not clear, in an instant. However, his head immediately began to spin; the flow of information was incredible. Twenty seconds was an exaggeration, seven seconds was no more. Therefore, without wasting any time, Calder focused on the Neva.
Neville himself felt something indescribable. In an instant, something appeared behind him that could not be seen, only felt. "It" saw through him, all his secrets, all his fears. He was overcome with horror before "It." However, as soon as the obsession came, it immediately disappeared. In an instant, not a trace remained of him except the horror that the guy experienced.
*Boom* Something fell behind him. Turning towards the sound, he noticed his friend lying on the ground with bloody tears.
- Kol! — the boy rushed up to him. - What happened to you? Are you all right? Answer me! Well, say something," Neville was incredibly scared for his friend, it was the first time he had seen him in such a state.
- Shut up for a couple of minutes, okay? "My head is pounding even without you," Calder answered in a hoarse voice, languidly waving his hand.
"Phew, you're okay," Nev smiled. - Almost…
- To her.
The courtyard fell silent. Everyone thought about their own things. Nev was recovering from the fear he had experienced, and Kol was thinking about what he had seen while his body was recovering.
"My guess was correct," the guy's thoughts gradually regained their running speed and clarity. — Neville's prana is much thicker than that of ordinary people. She's on the same level as me, before the epic with the troll. Only if mine is "neutral", if you can call it that, then his is more "live". Now it's clear why plants are drawn to it. Apparently there is not only an exchange of mana, but also prana. Perhaps Neville will need to do some plant meditation. This will have a positive effect on him," Kol grinned, imagining a picture of a living cocoon in the center of which his friend was sitting and meditating. — True, Nev's prana is not active, but I think this can be corrected. »
About ten minutes passed before Calder completely recovered. As soon as this happened, Kol was blown up in an instant. Carefully wiping away the trail of tears, he looked at his friend:
"Listen Nev carefully to what I want to tell you," the guy's face was serious, it was immediately obvious that the topic we were going to talk about would not be easy. - You already know about Manu, with the help of magicians, wizards and sorcerers. There is another energy in the world that is not inferior to Mana, its name is prana. The energy of life
- The energy of life? — the guy was surprised.
"Yes," Calder nodded. "You already know occlumency at a more acceptable level, so I'll tell you about it." Every living, and I repeat, every living creature has prana. Thanks to her we live. These are not only people, but also animals and plants. Each person, and not only others, has his own certain amount of prana, as well as its concentration. For example, me," Kol pointed at himself with his finger. — I discovered it in childhood and then began to develop it. Now you," the guy pointed at Nev. "Now, without training, your prana is at the same level as I had when I entered Hog," Neville's eyebrows went up. - Yes Yes. And don't be surprised. "It just happened," Kol shrugged.
"Then if there is so much of it, why don't I feel it?"
— There was no trigger to unlock it. But don't worry, I'll provide it for you," Kol's smile became incredibly sinister. Poor Neville's ass nerve was itching. - Now I will demonstrate the capabilities. First without prana, and then with it.
The first thing Kol did was a banal jump. If without prana I managed to jump about one and a half meters (the influence of prana and mana over all these years could not help but have an effect) without much effort, I jumped so slightly, then with prana it was about three meters. From place. Yes, it was incredible, Neville opened his eyes in shock.
There was more to come. Running and long jumping, lifting weights, etc. The impact test was the icing on the cake. Having created a boulder, Kol first hit it without prana and a couple of cracks appeared on it. Afterwards, he closed his eyes and concentrated.
In an instant, he opened his eyes and, as he exhaled, struck with a fist saturated with prana. From the contact between the fist and the boulder, the wind spread in all directions and the grass was pressed down. Dust got into Nev's eyes. The poor boulder was covered in cracks, but did not fall apart.
Turning to face Nev, Kol smiled:
"And I'm still at the beginning of the path of understanding prana," he pointed a finger behind himself. - But let me show you something more grandiose for you personally.
- For me? Is there anything more amazing? - said the guy watching his friend sit down on the ground and grab a small sprout of ivy with his hand.
"Yes," Kol smiled. - Look.
Nev looked at his friend's hand with all his eyes and did not understand what to expect, but in an instant his eyes became at least the size of a soccer ball, and maybe more.
Right in front of him, from under Kol's hands, ivy began to grow in a green glow. With every second it grew larger and larger until it completely entwined his friend's hand.
Having stopped serving Pran, Kol sighed tiredly, this was not usual for him, and looked at Nev.
- How do you like it? Will you learn not only to use mana, but also prana? — he asked, grinning.
The answer was his eyes, which were filled with a thirst for knowledge and the brilliance of green stars.