*AETHERIUS*
Several weeks had passed since my encounter with Elowen. During that time, I helped her with her mana control, even though I had nothing to do with her element.
My father supervised her swordsmanship training. He no longer forbade her from using the real sword, so he continued her training, while Mom taught her how to better manage her healing ability.
Since Elowen manifested her element early on, she hadn't been able to do it and had to focus on Mom's teachings. As for me, since my conversation with the shadow, I revisited its explanation. Because you accepted my power, your own power has decreased.
So, if my power waned, and anything I achieved before accepting yours meant something to me because I couldn't assimilate it as I did with Otto before, although my power at that time wasn't enough to sustain it for long since I had barely manifested my ability.
So, during all that time, my core reached the brown stage thanks to my training with the shadow and my element. Although my body hadn't been able to assimilate again, I hadn't given up, so for the moment, I didn't give it much importance.
Being out in the open field, I continued training. I couldn't combine shadow and lightning as I once did, but I knew how to use the shadow, though I could barely create a couple of apple-sized orbs around me.
I molded the shadow orbs into a whip-like form, making them move in different directions but still attached to my side like an extra limb.
A few meters away from my trees, I thought, "I can try that," so even with the orbs at my sides, I grabbed them and launched them, causing them to grab onto the trees. I made the whips retract, and I was pulled towards the trees by the whips, like swinging.
This made me collide with one, and the orbs in my hands vanished. "That hurt," I rubbed my side from the impact. "Let's put that aside; we'll see how I can use that later," I moved away and returned to the open field, now focusing on lightning magic.
I meditated for a bit and began to stretch. I invoked mana into my right palm, and it turned into electricity. I stretched my arm and aimed at a dummy I had left here, and the lightning shot out, hitting the target. I managed to control the amount of mana that came out of my attacks, making it quieter so my mother wouldn't scold me, doing it several times. But now, in motion, I slightly opened my arms in its direction while keeping electricity in my hands and jumped.
While in mid-air, I created electricity whips as I spun sideways, splitting another dummy. I landed on the ground and rolled, spinning my body on the ground. I got up with my arms, and my legs were up; I opened my legs and spun on my arms and back again.
I passed the electricity from my hands to my legs and feet still in the air while spinning. I flexed my arms that were supporting me and jumped as much as I could, kicking, and an arc of electricity was released from my legs to another dummy, hitting the target.
I landed on my feet this time, clapped my hands while extending my senses over the area, letting the electricity flow I had left expand. At one point, I summoned lightning above a tree, creating a distorted orb of electricity and shot it towards the dummy.
I summoned my weapon, imbuing it with electricity as I passed the long staff of the weapon over my arms. I passed it once behind my neck to reach my back and passed it over my waist while placing my hands on it again. I swung it, and a powerful lightning bolt was sent to the largest test dummy I had.
This time, I got carried away, and an explosion was heard. "Oh no, I hope my mom is in a good mood," I prayed because she started getting annoyed when I dropped a lightning bolt and blew something up.
I sat down for a while to rest and invoked shadow magic. Although I knew that if it really came from the "shadows," I could use it from someone else's shadow, but I never wanted to try it because I didn't want anyone to know about that ability.
So, I tried it with my own shadow, expanding it beneath me while four more whips emerged from my shadow. I launched the whips at a dummy, and one whip hit the target, while the others remained static.
I felt or rather sensed that a shadow was approaching. "I can use that sense like radar," I said as I stood up to find out who it was.
Otto appeared along with Fredic. "Hey kid, it's been a while," Otto fist-bumped me. Fredic also greeted me, "You've grown, and I can see you're in the brown stage already; that's good news," he looked at me while glaring.
"Growth is part of life, isn't it?" I said, and he just nodded and laughed, "putting that aside, what are you guys doing here?" I asked them.
"We just came for your sister's birthday and to escort you to the capital to make sure your journey for your exam doesn't encounter any surprises," Otto chuckled, "thanks, I guess I should say," I bowed slightly to exaggerate the thanks.
"Well, anyway, let's go to my house, I'm hungry, I hope mom has already made something," I said as I moved to their side. "Who else came?" I became curious, "Atheria, Valentina, and Sara," Fredic replied.
"That's great, more company," I laughed, and we arrived at my house... Atheria greeted me when we entered, "My fiancé, you've really grown," she smiled as she helped my father with the food, I didn't think Atheria cooked, I thought to myself.
"Hello Therius, hello kiddo," Valentina and Sara greeted me, "hi girls, it's been a while," I returned the greeting.
"In a few hours, we'll finish things up and celebrate Elowen's birthday," my father entered the house.
"And thank you for coming and doing us such a favor," he thanked the group, "it's okay, there's no need to thank us, after all, it's also our vacation," Atheria said.
*****
Time passed, and everyone in the village gathered in our backyard and started decorating, food, drinks, and more gifts began to appear. Walking through the yard where the party was, I began to thank the townsfolk for coming to celebrate Elowen's birthday.
On the other side of the yard, I heard the children of the village laughing, and among them was Otto, carrying the children with his muscles, and Fredic making snowflakes for them. On the other side, I saw the boys almost my age who would also be taking their exam this year and the next.
They were very close to Valentina and Sara. They didn't find their behavior inappropriate since they didn't take them seriously, and Atheria was with my mother and father with Elowen. To be honest, I don't like these kinds of scenarios where there are many people, but it was my younger sister's birthday, so I let it pass and headed to the field to be alone for a while.
After being alone for a while, I felt a slight movement. "What are you doing here alone, Ther?" I heard Viola to my left. I startled because I didn't feel her coming, and I could see she used mana to do it since she was getting good with wind magic and trying to make as little noise as possible. "Oh, nothing, I just wanted some air since the alcohol was starting to smell," I replied with a laugh.
In the background, I heard singing, and the instruments began to play. "Do you want to dance?" I stood up and offered my hand to Viola, and she kindly accepted.
We reached the center of the patio where people started to gather and began to dance. Viola and I joined in, dancing, jumping, and laughing. I really started to feel more comfortable in this life.
Calm, without worries, without the need to fight for my life to secure a position just to live with a purpose, but here, everything is more peaceful. I have what I desire: a family, friends, and comrades I can trust. In the other life, many of my supposed friends abandoned me, and the person with whom I would spend my life ended up leaving me behind, alone, except for him, who accompanies me despite being enemies. We were also friends, and he was there by my side even in the end.
Remembering his face and his name, "Brais."
Even while dancing with Viola, I laughed, and my sister joined us, embracing her tightly. I whispered to her, "Thank you for being in my life, my girl." Upon the gratitude, she hugged me even tighter as she leaned on me to be held. When she let go, I stepped back a bit to give myself some space since I had a gift for her.
Everyone gave me the space I needed, and Elowen stood beside Mom. Concentrating on gathering mana in my hand, static formed, and then a lightning bolt appeared after a few seconds. With my hand raised, I launched the lightning into the sky. After a few meters, it exploded, creating an explosion of many colors—blues, reds, yellows, oranges—and sparks emerged, forming small round shapes. After the first launch, another and another followed.
(N/A: Fireworks, obviously)
Everyone looked expectantly at the sky filled with lights, the happy children with their parents as they held them in their arms, Elowen with Mom and Dad, Viola with her parents, all looking with wide eyes at the night sky with beautiful lights.
Even with the music at full volume and even after a dozen shots, the last one was going to be bigger, creating more static around me. I fired it with both hands into the sky, and it went much higher than the others. When it exploded, hundreds of sparks of different colors emerged, dozens of them covering the sky. Not a single spark fell on us since they all detonated and disappeared after a few seconds.
Since the last one was bigger, it took several minutes to stop. Everyone still looking at the sky, Elowen ran towards me once again, making me step back. Due to never practicing this and my body losing mana, feeling tired, my father appeared and prevented me from falling by placing his palm on my back.
I looked at him, and he looked at me happily. Elowen, still in my arms, screamed loudly with tears in her eyes. Looking at them closely, they were of a green emerald color. "Thank you. Thank you also for being in my life, Brother Aetherius," and I just rubbed her head as I hugged her. When she let go, my father helped me stabilize. When I turned to the party, the music had been replaced with applause and happy cheers. My mother approached me, hugged me, and kissed me on the forehead. "Wonderful show, son."
I just laughed, my father still holding me. Viola came to my side and helped me walk to one of the tables with food. As the music started again, and everyone's happy laughter filled the air, Atheria and the others sat next to me and ate with me while, like the others, talking and laughing.
I love this life.