15 New Blade
Ever since regaining the memories from his first life, Alex had come to appreciate the shower he took every morning. Hot water was truly a marvel of the modern era.
Just taking a shower in general every day was something amazing that he wouldn't be able to fathom back in time.
He sighed as he felt the warm water drip down his face.
He messed up again the other day. There were no obvious consequences, but that was basically due to luck and his luck was not high enough to constantly rely on.
The thought never crossed his mind before the incident. His mental defenses were all built in mind for intrusion that had a magical touch. The ease at which she entered without him being able to notice did leave him feeling a bit vulnerable, it was a lesson learned the hard way once again. For now he could simply keep up the channeling of prana to ward off more attempts but that may not suffice in the future.
He was thinking about all the possible worlds that had a means of mental intrusion or assault that was not based on magic that he would have to worry about.
Its like he blocked one road without realizing there were was another right next to it.
Thankfully the lesson was learned from a girl that was simply lost opposed to a hostile enemy.
This did open a whole new avenue of thought for him though. It was apparent that 'magic resistance' didn't affect esper as dumb as the thought was so he would have to be careful even if he body was ridiculously strong compared to a normal human. It was possible that some strange powers could affect him in some odd ways.
He would have to be more careful with the power structure in the worlds and pay attention to how it interacts with him as a whole.
His inflated ego made him overlook something obvious when he realized his strength in proportion to the general populace.
He was once again glad that this lesson came the way it did. He would adapt and survive like he always did and take this as a reminder for his future travels.
At least some good did come of it. That girl was truly hurting and from the 'treatment' that Touma went through, he should be back to normal.
He didn't see anything wrong with the boys brain but he wasn't a specialist by any means. He could barely even tell there was something 'wrong' in the first place just by comparing it to other parts.
Alex was surprised though that Touma didn't really fight him on the whole issue. Another person would probably freak out and get angry at him if he began forcing something so disgusting down the persons throat.
With the obvious jabs and shouting aside it seemed like Touma knew Alex was helping him somehow. The boy was eerily Mature for his age. Though that could be attributed to all the incidents he's been apart of in this city.
It also seemed to break him out of the depressed mood he was in. That was probably due to learning about the little sisters.
The boy was just as stupid as his brother-in-law. He probably said something very sweet without realizing it and said he would help her with what ever problems she was having.
Alex wouldn't even be surprised if Touma was oblivious to the affections he's been shown in the past. Not that he could really point fingers. He was definitely up there on the idiot spectrum with regards to situations like those.
He some-what knew of the path that Touma was beginning to walk down. It wouldn't be pretty and there would be lots of death along the way. He knew that he couldn't persuade the boy against it.
The only thing Alex could really do was train him and give a gentle push to people in his direction. At the end of the conflicts and on the battlefields he inevitable ends up on, he didn't want the boy to look back and see no one else standing there beside him.
The memories of his knights abandoning him still haunt his dreams.
The sour thoughts went away quickly as the water suddenly became cold.
He hadn't realized how long he had actually been in the shower for.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He was bound to make mistakes, he was only human afterall.
But it was another day and the world didn't come to an end so he could continue on unabated.
"Wonder how Kaori is doing with that sword." He mused.
Kaori had been a bit depressed about her sword becoming essentially worthless. Having the tip broken basically halved her attack patterns.
And she was still on edge about the whole incident with Accelerator from before, so he thought it would be a good idea to take her mind off it, if only for a bit.
He gave her a Noble Phantasm.
It was the lowest rank, an [ E ] Rank, but that was still MUCH better than the mystic code she was running around with before.
He didn't do it on a whim. He was able to discern the identity of the weapon he handed over, or lack thereof. It was a nameless blade that never made it's way into legend. Without the mysteries of a user or its deeds behind it, it wasn't very powerful in of itself.
It did have an interesting history though from before Gilgamesh acquired it.
It was a bit smaller than her Nodachi, more akin to a Katana but slightly longer. About a half way point, he wasn't sure if the blade type had an actual name like the former two.
It was a blade that slayed an oriental dragon.
That in of itself should have propelled it further in ranks, but it never made its mark in history. The dragon was unnamed, the user was unnamed and it never became famous after Gilgamesh's death.
It was durable until the point of absurdity due to being coated in the blood of the dragon. And because it did in fact slay the dragon, it did take on anti-dragon properties if only a bit. It was nowhere on the level of Balmung or Gram with regards to anti-dragon but it was a boon if one ever faced their ilk.
The look on her face was priceless when he gave it to her.
They hadn't been able to 'inspect' the weapons hes thrown around. Even before when Stiyl was an arms reach away from Gae Dearg he couldn't really get a good enough look at it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two Magicians and Index were in the 'practice area' as they had dubbed it over the past couple days.
Alex had left the bounded fields up and registered the group to come and go as they please.
Frankly, they were all a bit excited to see the saint test out her new blade.
They were dumbstruck when he told them the origin of it. It had no name but had slain a dragon. A real god damn dragon had bled on the blade she was swinging around.
And he just handed it away without a second thought, though knowing the amount of weapons at his disposal...he probably would never miss it.
Kaori had to fight the urge to 'play' with it until they could get to the secluded area.
She hesitantly gave it a few swings around from the other two. No form, nor mental image, just a couple casual swings.
The blade split apart the air like nothing she had ever felt before.
The blade felt both weightless and heavy at the same time, she just stared at the blade in confusion as she came to a stop.
A smile crept onto her face, a rare genuine smile that sung of happiness.
It was a good blade. Though she will miss her previous one.
It was with her for much of her life and she will miss it dearly, the Seven Heaven's sword as it was called. Her style will have to be tweaked to incorporate the changed length of the blade, it may take a few years to become as familiar with this new blade as her previous one but it would be worth it in the end.
There were also immediate benefits that could potentially out-weigh the long term detriments.
Her previous blade was also a good conductor of magic with the various materials mixed into its forging, but this new blade easily beat it on that account as figured out when channeling a bit of magic through it.
For now, as she incorporates the new blade into her style, she can rely a bit more on her wires and magic.
She wondered how she would fare against that man after she mastered this new blade. It was ironic considering he gave it to her, but it would increase her overall ability by a level.
On some level she desired to go out all in a fight against him. Even with their initial bout, which only lasted a moment, she was holding back quite a bit. She naturally had ability far above a normal human's but could further increase it with her powers. She didn't use it because she could sense the difference immediately. It only further solidified her decision as correct when he revealed his power.
She may have been able to draw the fight out for a bit with a combination of her magic and wires, but even adding on something like her stigma would probably not be able to reach him. It was a bit comical to think about; even using her stigma which is hailed as the power of god, she didn't have any confidence to defeat a human. And it didn't seem like he had the same burdens for using his power as she did. If nothing else, he merely needed to stall and she would lose. And on to of all that...he had all those weapons.
She was still thankful he did not turn out to be an enemy.
Though it was still frustrating.
In a rare fit of annoyance, she swung the new blade casually to the left without looking. A moment later there was a loud crash as something fell down.
Index and Stiyl were looking at her with their mouths agape.
She turned to look at what happened as well. She had just cut through a tree. A thick tree that she couldn't even wrap her arms around had been cut through so easily she didn't notice.
If she wasn't being watched right now, she may have kiss the blade she was holding.
It was truly a wonderful blade.
