3 ~Chapter 2~ Magic

"Hey, I'm sorry about all that," the woman says as she bows slightly, "I just can't have you getting the carpets all wet and ruining them... Anyway, welcome to the city of Shesa's Mage Association headquarters, I am Ava, how may I help you? "

"A Mage Association? Huh... I wonder if it's possible for me to join I can sense mana around me but that doesn't necessarily mean I can manipulate it to perform magic in this world..." I think to myself as I explain to Ava how I was drawn to the building by the large amount of residual mana collected here.

Ava asks me if I am interested in taking a magic compatibility test after she figures out I am mana-sensitive. I gratefully accept not for the reason of necessarily joining The Association but to figure out if it is possible to tap into my old holy powers. Ava leads me down a long dimly lit hallway with a lush red carpet with golden thread bordering.

The hallway leads to a large double wooden door with intricate silver decals forming into the shape of vines intertwining around the frame. Ava slowly pulls open the door and a number of bright lights rush from the room almost blinding me.

"This is the grimoire library of the association, this is where all the grimoires within Sasha City are kept. This is also your magical abilities will be tested please come stand here," Ava says as she approaches a large magic circle drawn out on the floor using silver. I situate myself with the center of the magic circle and look down at the pattern trying to decipher what it means but the runes and patterns are foreign to me and I can understand anything.

"I must learn this world's runic system if I want to gain at least a fraction of my former power..." Thoughts and worries rush through my mind. "How powerful are the humans here, are there other races I need to be wary of?", "Do demons exist within this realm?"

All these things flowed through my head in a torrent of thoughts as Ava paced around the magic circle before stopping.

"What I'm about to do is inject some mana into the circle which will then flow into your body and unblocks all your natural passageways, so mana can flow freely within your body enabling you to use magic."

Ava then goes on to explain that all humans have mana but the amount of mana people has very and there is no set way of determining how much mana an individual has before the passageways are unblocked during a ceremony like this one.

Ava holds out her hands in front of her and exhales slowly, green and silver particles form in front of her hands in a large free-flowing orb. The orb then slowly floats toward the circle and merges with it.

When the orb of mana merges with the magic circle it lights up and I feel large amounts of mana rush throughout my body. I feel my own mana burst through its seal and flow throughout my body like a raging ocean before quelling down after several minutes.

I hear Ava gasp and I open my eyes and look at her, her face has turned pale from shock and she stares at me dumbfounded.

"What...what are you... your mana...and that aura around you..." she says as she tries to stay composed.

I look down at myself and notice that I'm surrounded by a pure golden aura, but there is something weird about this aura... it's not normal mana but instead the very same holy mana I had as an angel. I focus within myself and try to sense my own mana but realize that my mana isn't normal either.

From what Ava told me earlier all humans, monsters, and other species all have mana and are able to use magic, magic is unique to all of these species and it's not uncommon for species to create new unique spells that cannot be used by other species. The only thing that is a certain fact in this world has a finite mana source, mana does regenerate with time but there are caps to how much mana an individual can have.

This was the case for as long as anyone could remember and there was no existing documents that suggest otherwise, today that rule was broken as I not only had my holy angelic powers but also possess an infinite mana source.

I stare at Ava skeptically as I exit the magic circle and place my hand on her shoulder, "Ava, hey Ava, are you okay?" I ask trying to shift her attention from my abnormality.

Ava just stares at me with fear in her eyes and whispers something under her breath and darts away leaving me alone in the library. I stand in silence for several minutes before starting to look around the library.

Within the library, each of the walls is lined with bookshelves that are jam-packed books. I walk up to one of the shelves and scan through the volumes, there are several books within the shelves ranging from history books to spellbooks. There is one book that catches my attention with a pure white binding, I pull the book from the shelf and feel a faint trace of mana within it.

I open the book and see that the pages themselves are completely blank. Confused, I try to run some of my own mana through the book to see if that changes anything. Letting out a deep breath I shut my eyes and feel my mana flow from my core through my body into my arms, and fingertips into the book.

The book glows a bright golden color just like the aura that surrounded me earlier. Suddenly a cool female voice sounds within my head, "Slave contract formed; [Grimoire of Holy Light] now belongs to and is under complete control of Markus Caldwell. The contract cannot be broken by none other than the master of said contract..."

Shocked I drop the book, except it doesn't fall onto the floor but instead floats in place. I walk slowly up to the grimoire and place my hand on the now open pages and feel that the old residual mana which was once there is now completely gone and has instead been replaced by my own.

Within a corner of my mind, I feel something awake and suddenly another voice resonates within me, its the voice of a young girl.

*Yawn* "My... how long have I been asleep? Hello master, I am Myu, the spirit of the [Holy Light Grimoire]"

Then the room goes freezing cold and a thin wispy mist flows into the room from under the door and I hear the sound of several footsteps along with hushed voices, one of them is Ava, "He's in the library... what is he... is he some sort of demon?"

Panic starts to fill my body and I can feel Myu start to get restless within my head. She suddenly tells me to run as the door breaks down and several armed soldiers and mages burst into the room closely followed by Ava and an elderly man.

The old man stares at me and I feel his eyes drill into my very soul, without a single word he waves his hand and the mages start chanting a binding spell as the soldiers slowly edge towards me like I'm some sort of injured beast that could attack at any second.

"Run, get out of here, you idiot!" Myu shouts in my head causing my ears to ring violently. I quickly look around for an escape route and my eyes look on to the nearby window.

"Stop him!" the old man shouts and the soldiers charge at me. I jump through the window and I hear the sound of glass break all around me.

I hit the ground and quickly push myself up and start running, I hear both Ava and the man yelling. "Get back here Fallen One!" is the last thing I hear.