115 Unnatural Occurence

The smoke coalesced in front of him into the figure of a woman.

『AREA!』[Nova]

A black portal started to wrap around him, but she suddenly put her hand out and made contact with Nova's portal.

The black portal suddenly shattered and erupted, not allowing him to escape.

『...Eh? Are you trying to escape?』

The shadow of the woman loomed over Nova.

Mune continued pounding at the door, but the noises from the other side seemed muffled.

『...Can't talk? Well, that's alright...』

She placed a hand over his forehead, causing his body to seize up and for him to fall to the ground.

….

After a bit of a while, Mune managed to get the door open, holding his sword.

Nova was leaning on the wall, panting and out of breath.

『Nova! What the hell was that?!』[Mune]

『I… don't know! But it disappeared as soon as you were sent flying out!』[Nova]

『What the hell is your door made of?! I couldn't even cut it down!』[Mune]

『I asked… Oswald to create a barrier… He might have spent a lot of time on it...』[Nova]

Mune patted Nova on the back.

『Circulate your mana, and take this.』[Mune]

He handed Nova a Stardrop.

『A… Stardrop, huh?』[Nova]

He took a breath before circulating his mana with the Stardrop in his mouth.

『I got a bunch from Grandma Rika. They should restore your mana much more effectively than the other ones I gave you.』[Mune]

The mana overflowed through Nova's veins, helping him recover from that ordeal.

『Nngh...』[Nova]

He pushed his mana circulation to the maximum, but he felt a foreign force in his body.

Each time he continued to push his circulation further, he heard a voice in his head that cut back and forth repeatedly.

After he kept circulating it a bit longer, he managed to drive off the voice.

『You alright now?』[Mune]

Nova stood normally, taking a breath.

『...I'm fine. I don't know what that was, but it's over now.』[Nova]

Nova went ahead and walked forward, despite a lingering feeling of fear in his body.

Reischneid seemed to remain quiet.

「Did he… do something again?」[Nova]

Nova shook off the thought and looked around for any clues to what that might have been.

He walked into the main room of his apartment and looked around for anything.

Mune called Nova over across the room.

『Nova. On the dining table.』[Mune]

On the table was a blue, a red, and a green card.

Nova walked over and looked at one.

He grabbed the blue card, which had the name "Etoile" at the top, along with a magic circle and a short description at the bottom.

『A spell card. If you study it well, you can learn the spell. Though, these are quite rare.』[Mune]

Nova's eyes had a complicated look.

『Really?』[Nova]

『Yeah. You can only get this if you have some achievements with the kingdom.』[Mune]

This basically confirmed that Nova's father had something to do with mysterious business with the kingdom.

Nova wasn't scared of Mune stealing it, so he showed them to him.

『...How do I use this, Mune?』[Nova]

『The top is the spell, and the middle is the circle that you have to remember. This seems to be a quick cast spell that you point and use. You raise your finger up and aim, then you say "Etoile" with the circle on the tip of your fingertip. It's likened to a "shooting star", with 4 lagging tails. It has high piercing damage at a low mana cost. Quite useful.』[Mune]

『Ah… Thank you.』[Nova]

Nova took it back and began to memorize the magic circle, which was quite simple for him to remember.

『Let's look at the other ones while we're at it.』[Mune]

He looked at the red card, reading it out loud.

『Fluxoria. Selects a section of space to drag enemies or objects toward it before it is impaled by attacks from all sides. The chant goes "Within the confines of this reality, lies the truth that is the words of the lord. As such, this lord declares that your reality ends here."』[Mune]

『...That sounds really strong.』[Nova]

『...It seems that the color of the card determines the difficulty. Take a look at the card.』[Mune]

Nova took the card and looked at the circle, before quickly furrowing his brow.

The circle was several magical circles within each other, with no way of knowing how long it would take Nova to cast it.

『...I'll pass on this for now.』[Nova]

He slipped the spell card into his necklace casually as Mune began to read the last one.

『Ah. Easiest one. A wisp of light. Though… it seems that this is in another tree of magic from the traditional wisp...』[Mune]

Nova kept staring at the Etoile spell card while Mune was explaining.

『Another tree of magic?』[Nova]

『Hmm.. Yeah. Like qi versus mana, this one relies on the conversion of mana to "nature energy". Reiki is the one used for Tsukikaze onmyou talisman arts, though I'm not sure if you've seen them before. There are countless types of energy, such as life energy, blood energy, spiritual energy, and even a vague type of energy called soul energy.』[Mune]

『So… what does that mean if I create a wisp with nature energy versus mana?』[Nova]

『The spell gets some effects that are related to the said type of energy. Most likely, the wisp will develop its own ego, or just have some semblance of life.』[Mune]

Nova half-heartedly listened to Mune as he kept examining the Etoile card before he felt a sudden chill down his spine, causing him to speak with a tone of urgency.

『...?! Mune, are you ready to go?』[Nova]

『Are you done here? We can go ahead if you are.』[Mune]

Nova put the card into his necklace's storage space.

『Right. Then, let's go.』[Mune]

They opened the door and rushed out, not noticing the shadow of a woman following Nova's shadow on the ground.