179 Sorcery

"So let me get this straight, you two spent the past few days sneaking into prisons. Then you had Wanjing consume the inmates. In doing so you were able to have her finish the conditions so that Wanjing is now a pureblooded Taotie. But now the law enforcement thinks there is a Taotie on the loose and are on edge," I say.

"Indeed, it was quite interesting to watch, she went into a similar state that Lia was in when she became a Scion, with the cocoon and all," Aurelia says without a hint of guilt.

"Meow, that's exactly what she did. She never let me rest and forced me to eat past what my stomach could take, that slave driver, meow," Wanjing says while purring under my petting.

"It's ok, I won't let the nasty Demon treat you like that," I say.

"T-teacher..." Wanjing says as she looks up towards me affectionately, but that doesn't last long as I say, "only I can push you around like that."

"Teacher!" she yells while trying to escape from me, but I keep a firm grip on her little cat form.

"Since we're done with the issue of your new pet, tell us what you all have been up to. I'm interested to hear about how you suddenly become a Demigod over the course of just barely a week?" Aurelia asks.

"It's like this..." I say as we explain what we went through from our first meeting to Her departure.

I go over how we were treated and the various new abilities I got. I also mentioned the things we heard about magic.

"I'm surprised She knew about not just magic but also sorcery. In Grauntia these should be topics that only a handful of people know about, most of which are the Old Nature Gods."

"From your words, I assume you were aware the entire time?" Lia asks.

"Indeed, I only never mentioned it since people from Grauntia generally don't have much talent in this area. I honestly only know just a little more than what you've told me, after all, magic isn't the speciality of the Eithgar, my kind relies on our innate abilities more than anything."

"Can you tell us more about sorcery? I've worked with Yue to use some basic magic, with some assistance from Serabane, but we weren't able to learn much about sorcery and She wouldn't tell us much," Lia asks.

"I can, but I probably only know just a little more than what She knew. Chances are it wasn't that she didn't tell you more about sorcery, but she couldn't since she didn't know more than what she already told you. Anyways, can you tell me a little more about how Cordelia suddenly became a Demigod, her explanation was, well, you heard it, it wasn't particularly clear."

"Hey, how was I not clear? I explained everything, didn't I?"

"I hate to break it to you, Cory, but saying things like, 'I ate a ball' and 'it felt like whoosh' doesn't make for a good explanation," Lia says before turning towards Aurelia, "I can't say anything in regards to the conversation they held at the time since She blocked off the space around them, but I did have a small talk about this event a few days later with Her."

"That is fine, just tell me what you can."

"She fed Cory something She called a 'Perfect Sphere of Hyper-Condensed Divine Energy' and it is exactly as the name suggests. She mentioned that if Cory failed to fully absorb it, her body would have in her own words, 'go boom', simply put Cory would have died and while she didn't explicitly say it, the rate of failure was high. I must say, I was very upset after I heard this, but I'm just glad Cory made it out without too much trouble."

"I suppose that Cordelia won't be able to make one herself and even if she somehow does manage, the rate of failure upon consumption is likely to be higher. That's a shame, I was hoping to have the chance to cheat my way to Demigod status as well. For what it's worth, Cordelia, can I have a look at the manual She left behind for you at some point?"

"I guess, but you won't be able to do much with the information, to be able to use this cultivation method you need to be someone like me who can easily absorb Essence or you'll need to spend a lot of time holding onto an Essence to absorb it normally."

"And how long would that take, actually nevermind, I'd probably be long dead before I meet the requirements. So I'll share what I know about Sorcery or True Magic. I'll skip the basic introduction you've already heard and move right into what the three branches are, you should have actually heard of them, but I doubt you've realised it. They are Time, Concept, and Eternity, I think you get the idea now."

"The Three Keepers that you've mentioned before, or rather, Akkre. Why does it feel like everything always leads back to him?" I ask.

"Because everything does always lead back to him, and it isn't just him but the other two as well, Raziel and Chronos. That is just the nature of their being, but I digress, getting back to sorcery, the Branch of Time is very straight forward, magic to manipulate time. The Branch of Concept isn't as straight forward, it contains things such as the manipulation of fate and destiny, along with some other strange and abstract things, the various inspection skills we use here should actually belong to this branch. The Branch of Eternity isn't as confusing at first glance, on the surface, it is the creation and manipulation of all the elements, and I don't mean the elements that we are familiar with in Grauntia, although I don't know the details. But supposedly delving too deep into its mysteries can cause mental breakdowns and send people into insanity. This also should supposedly apply to all three Branches but is most pronounced in Eternity. As for knowing how to perform any Sorcery, I haven't got that slightest idea. For most mages, being able to just learn a single technique from one of the branches is their ultimate life goal."

"From the moment I first heard about it, trying to learn some sorcery had become one of my long term goals, so I'm not surprised to hear about that. Do you think if I asked Akkre about it the next time we see Him, would he tell me?" Lia asks.

""Huh?"" Aurelia and I say.

Aurelia just looks at her with her brow raised and even I can't help but think that was a crazy suggestion. Did she maybe pick up some weird thinking from Serabane?

"What? I just thought there was a chance if I brought it up. Although I've only met Him once, from what I hear and from how similar you said He is to Serabane, I thought that He might gather up a bunch of old mages than drag them in front of me while telling me just to get some kind of reaction."

Both Aurelia and I want to rebuke that, but giving it some thought I can't help but feel like the annoyance might actually do something like that.

"Let's put that thought to the side for a moment, what are our plans now? I still want to find someone who has experience with automatons to help me with the Big Metal Dragons."

"I'm fine with sticking around for a while, I need to lay low anyway, as does Wanjing," Aurelia says.

"Wait, don't tell me..." Lia says as Aurelia finishes that sentence for her.

"Yeah, we may have gotten our faces seen on the lastest prison escapade. Oh and be careful of the cat's drool, it has who knows how many different toxins mixed into it, I learned the hard way. That mostly applies to you, Yue, the Dragon duo should be mostly immune to it."

"Alright, I had some reservations about being near a disastrous beast like a Taotie to begin with. Not that I dislike you, Wanjing, it's just a cultural fear if you will, I have nothing against you personally. And Cordelia, I can help you with finding someone to assist in your research or whatever it is you want, but I also want to observe," Yue says.

"I understand, meow. I also grew up hearing those old tales too, so I kinda know what you mean."

"Alright, if we're done, I'm going to go look for some food for dinner," I say.

"I think I'm going to just rest, these past few days have been rather tiring," Lia says.

"Same, if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep here for the night," Yue says.

"Ok, I'll see if I can bring some food back, but don't count on me not eating before I get back."