"Are you sure you'll be fine without my guidance, Master?" Jibril's voice resonated throughout the mini-training room created by our combined efforts, as did Grayfia's at her insistence. This will allow me to train by myself and keep my dangerous skills from hurting anyone. Well, eventually I would take control over them but it's better to be safe.
She then began poking me in annoyance, and I hastily opened my eyes to respond back. "Ah, uhm, that's okay! I know you will be vigilant if anything happens, no need to battle it out to train..." My battle junkie instinct screamed at me in disgust for turning her down, but this was necessary. Getting my butt kicked and smashing stuff together on the fly is well- not gonna fly. As fun as it sounds- honestly, I'll cave in later- it's probably best to try this in a more calm and soothing manner.
"Hmph, as you wish, master. At least I have you all to myself for the time being..." She muttered that last part, but I let it lie. It was true.
I closed my eyes once again and resumed my inner peace.
I was floating- hovering, whatever- when I called upon my Star Star Fruit power. Trickles of starlight shot out from my body every so often, and when I examined myself closer I could feel the thrum of power from my new dragon race pouring into the skill. The little stars had gravity energy within them that lessened interference from, the planet's gravity or whatever, it's way over my head. I'm stupid okay?!
So now floating is far easier. Tons of energy were inside me, either spread out and branching from mana, my life force, or my divinity. There were even surges of draconic energy.
So now what is energy?
Shit, I don't know. But I do know that I'm filled to the brim with the stuff. It's insane how it interact with one another. The mana cycles with the divinity, but because there's so much mana the divinity doesn't have a chance to actually awaken, hence its dormant state. Yes, I can use it, but it's like I'm moving it through mud or sludge. Difficult.
Ever since devouring little motes of chaos and order, my energy levels skyrocketed obtaining balance. They don't tear me apart whenever I'm casting, at first they were filtered through the system, but now that I have it balanced the system doesn't interfere as much, and though I do feel sore whenever I cast things with different energy levels, it no longer tears apart my body.
Eve was right, as I grow stronger I will get in control of my power. It's difficult now because I'm still a child. But it's progress, my evolution supplements what I lack in biological growth.
Anyway! Back to energy. They make up every living thing, and from what I understand, it's primary name is mana, at least according to Eve. Essence is a step above, that has more to do with the origin so let's leave it out. The order goes like this; mana, lifeforce, spirit, and then finally divinity. But what I had to remember was that mana is the start of it all. I have those four types of energy within me they cycle through one another making it easier for my body, mind, and spirit to function. They purify one another and complement one another, now they do of course. My body is the one playing catch up, however. Both my spirit and mind are at mid-tier, so lifeforce is lagging behind while my divinity is dormant.
Now I mentioned branching, well- dammit, I reposition myself hovering more comfortably as I consciously cycle the mana within me. Okay, I say mana because it branches out into affinities, elemental power, or whatever you want to call the types of mana. The mana takes on an affinity, an effect based on a concept, such as fire. Now I have fire divinity and I could call upon this pure energy, but because it is dormant it is far less powerful than what I create with mana, sure there are technicalities like if I use a particular skill or call upon help from my races, but still you get the gist?
These branches sometimes spark to life within me, creating a ripple effect throughout my body, for example, I am using gravity mana. Well, the focus is highlighted within the skill because the sparks of branching mana within me wobble the effects of the gravity I am calling upon, so that's why it is important to build a foundation so it won't topple over the occasional spark of interfering mana. Especially since I have many affinities. It's why my Wrath skill is so volatile, not to mention my Halo of Destruction one.
I grimace when I feel another surge of fire mana well up within me. But something peculiar happens. Starlight erupts a bit away from it catching hold of it and dissipating, but then I catch something else. Starlight erupts, but it gets engulfed by a fire that sparked near it. It's almost as if my dragon side is recycling the mana and knowingly keeping them in check.
My control over the gravity mana stays in place, so introduce some chaos. Heh. I begin to chant a spell from my Holy Blaze Enchanter skill. It's one where flames seem to swim over my body and lash out like a solar flare at continuous intervals. A pretty wicked defensive spell.
I open my mouth and as the words spill out of me,
"Flames that weave a shield so bright,
Guardian of ember, ward of light!
Swirling, dancing, in fiery grace,
Protect me now, in this sacred space!"
my body is engulfed by the holy mana and fire mana that the skill called upon. I pour my own mana into the skill to help it and when I do, I murmur the name. "Solar Shield of Ember"
As soon as the spell locks into place over me, I feel the control over my gravity mana and the Star Star fruit skill wane. With a thought I send out stars in every cardinal direction and they begin sending beams of gravity to me locking me in place and stabilizing my control. This has the added effect of the solar flare exploding downward leaving molten rocks beneath me. I grin despite myself. The sweltering heat is nothing to me, but I could still technically hurt myself from the molten rock beneath me since it is no longer a part of the spell. Or can I? I'm immune now, yeah well, let's pretend I can be hurt.
The control I had over both of them wanes and steadily drops because of the tugging war between my mana reserves, that thankfully will never run out. If it did I would be in for a lava bath. Out of pure curiosity, I let out my Aura of Infinity, and my head was thrown back by the whiplash of information coming in. I sift through it but it drops my concentration so I pack it back into my body. It gave me back info on how I could pour tiny motes of fire into the gravity well in order to create a magical circle that forms a combined spell that features both gravity and fire primarily with a bonus holy buff on the one who cast it.
Shit, that's fucken cool, that wouldn't have been possible before, and I know this because it was my mystic human race that was feeding me this information and using my Aura of Inifnity to simplify it. It's not possible now because of the amount of time it would take to create such a thing, but it will be eventually. I think it has more to do with the new skill I received upon evolving and the new human race is just feeding me the information and potential of it. Arcane Fusion is the name and it allows me to meld different types of magical energies together, creating unique but insane effects.
I relax a bit, taking the mana firmly by the reigns to not lose control over it until the solar flares just make me bob up down within the gravity domain I created. As I relax, I enter a meditative state, courtesy of my martial arts skill, allowing me to just be conscious enough to manipulate the elements within my fingertips.
This process allows me to ponder over why this is difficult and easy at the same time. I am able to bend the elements to my will, but why is there also a struggle? It cannot be just because I don't have proper control yet, is it only because my body preventing me from actually harnessing it appropriately. that seems to be the only conclusion I can come up with and it doesn't really matter in the end since little by little my will is able to extend to the mana I am controlling.
Cycling through the meditative state, I begin to comprehend the energy within me. It's in a constant state of rebirth and death. This might have to do with the ability I got from the liquid chaos, so it extends this deeply within me huh?
I swim out of it, wake myself up, and then begin trying to move my body with the forms and techniques. It's insanely hard. The flare and the gravity both struggle to remain constant as I try to move. My concentration slips, causing me to slip, but with this mistaken movement, I react instinctively to the technique seeping into my mind. I fall forward, still floating, I use my tail to through my weight and it erupts in cobalt flames that strike the ground beneath me keeping me airborne longer. I then transition into a right-hand claw swipe, but I let the cobalt flames drift out of the claw and they manifest into a palpable fire energy attack that gouges out the ground. The gravity balls wobble in response, just barely hanging on as I try to stabilize it along with my solar defense.
The breath that I did not know I was holding was let out and I take in gulps of air. I opened my weary eyes and I felt the dizziness hit me. I shake it off and maintain myself aloft. Stationary training won't be as useful if it's high-paced, but it will be if I am fighting defensively. Hmm, either way, it's good to have as many plans as possible.
I grin to myself and I fall into a trance of cycling through as many spells as I can, or at least the ones I have available to me. They range from encircling flames that form rings around me, to balls of fire levitating and exploding on impact. The gravity is far more robust and difficult to control, I could already form miniature black holes, so tiny that they only suck in what's in the immediate vicinity. But if I create a solar system look-alike with me acting as the- literal- sun attacks from the outside either get swallowed up or explode outwards from the balls of fire. It's not as dangerous because of my immunity and the attack ends up sucked into the black hole anyway.
I rotate to a more pronounced holy energy fire and notice that there is a spell I can apply to myself that constantly heals me and this gave me the idea to create gravity bombs that rattle and chip away at my own scales but it rendered moot because of the healing and my own rapid healing. Shit's insane man.
And then days pass by. Throughout them, Jibril excitedly speaks to me about ideas she has and she also helps me by throwing out devastating attacks to my defensive position. She remarked on the potential of using my Halo of destruction to produce a constant aura of annihilation along with a self-sustaining gravity pulse that pushes the annihilation further and sticks to living things. It's particularly nasty because every being has gravity, my attack amplifies their gravity and acts as a pulling force that attracts annihilation to the living being. Utterly annihilating it.
Jibril and I stared in shock when we went through with it with a monster she captured.
We were trembling in jubilation.
"Perhaps I should incorporate my new affinity..." I mutter to myself. I haven't mastered everything obviously, but I did perfect the solar flare defense already. Jibril and I spent far too long on the annihilation one... for reasons.
I went to school and hung out with everyone, but I focused on my training primarily and I was rewarded with my progression mastery of my skills going up percentages. Hehe. It feels damn good.