Officially Three

This is still my story, the kid, Kaff.

Of course, I would want to have a source spirit.

But if it would be like killing my parents or my best friend or my wife, then what's the point?

Yet it was a tempting desire, specially for someone that had been from another life of boredom and ordinary.

I went to school with a few eyebags because of last night.

I saw Dorother along the way and we went to the agreed venue.

"Could I call you Three instead?"

"Huh? Should I call you a kicking bag?"

"Dorother is too long!"

I braced myself for impact.

"Fine."

"Eh?"

"I hate my name, and it's my first ever nickname."

I just wanted to call her that because three syllables is too long for a name to be called. Wait, did I just assume that I would be calling her name out loud frequently?

We reached the Numbers Law room and found Skip reading again. But this time he clasped the book and stood, then pulled out two more chairs from somewhere behind him.

"Let's get straight to the things regarding Gemmatria. With the princess here, we can have a tester for my theories regarding magic. If not for you I probably wouldn't have been sought by her anyway, and still be stuck. Let me introduce myself again.

I'm a student at Borollo, and also a researcher. I am the sole math student here without a source spirit, before you appeared. A few of my books have been put out in public but they are barely considered books due to their thinness, as I could only get a few things right with theory. The grandmaster has specially asked for me to do the girl's bidding for now as you are quite a rare sight. This is for the sake of study."

Skip explained a more detailed run through of Gemmatria and magic.

Since times long ago, the Vates have used source spirit as mediums to conduct magic, and in which Gemmatria was used in controlling how the force, precision, and how much source power should be used. An imbalance of the three factors mentioned will lead to the backfiring initially, but the current studies that the Vates have made resulted in the backfiring almost non-existent.

The problems was resolved via chanting preset spells that were published by a genius of the church a few hundred years ago which even sped up the casting time, and it was the standard ever since. Until right now, candidates have been taught to memorize spells for casting magic.

The remaining problem was that Gemmatria used numbers in its magic, and heavily relied on it so if math wasn't learned, there would be no backfire, but the three factors of the magic used will make its potency weaker, or in a lot of instances, wouldn't even hit. In some cases, it would even drain the Vates of source power.

A practitioner that was able to do mathematical equations could even control the magic while on its flight, and even adjust the factors to make the spells even better, if not as ordinary as just taking a preset. For example, an elite Vates could reduce the source power consumption, yet even fire a faster Shant Bullet compared to a preset one.

A Shant Bullet is one of the most basic spells to protect one's self from enemies, and were the mostly used skill when suppressing people. It could not kill yet it would dampen an enemy's source, and distract them from doing calculations, and was the mostly used spell.

Kaff and Skip, for their cases, could have been elites if they had source power, but the lack of source spirit deterred them from being a Vates, and could only hope for a miracle to occur. Supposedly, ordinary people couldn't detect source magic when fired onto them, such as a simple Source Leto, which concentrates a source power in a point and then fired enough to make a bruise, but since they had both high mathematical abilities, they could feel it incoming, strangely. Gemmatria seems to be, in a way, a force that heavily relies on mathematical abilities, and there is still a lot of research to be conducted for a few mysteries to be unveiled.

"Now for my first experiment. Princess, give a sample formula for a Shant Bullet, set a target, and have Kaff calculate for you the three factors. Let's see if he can do it." Skip stopped explaining in a while, and he took out a small clay pot from one of the boxes behind him.

"But even you couldn't understand the formulas that were given to you by the other seniors from Gemmatria class... Oh well, let's see."

Dorother then took two papers from Skip's desk, and wrote a few circles, lines, and a few variables. After which, she overlayed them on top of each other.

"The Shant Bullet, the most fundamental spell, is easily viewed as an array of two stacks of formulas together. The genius that discovered this simple explanation... Oh well, just take a look at it."

Seeing the paper up close, the diagrams on the two papers seem to form a few geometry here and there. What was puzzling is that it seems like an electric current that's been embedded on paper. This thing's confusing, what do I calculate anyway?

"Oh. You should calculate these points here, here, and there. The force, control, and source. Just giving me these three points will be enough, even though they seem to be a bit long and have separate numbers, it's really considered as three factors."

I don't see what's...

Eh?

I suddenly feel dizzy.

What's this gray fog doing here again? I want this to go away. I'm just probably being reminded of my past life, seeing as this paper is alike to programming. Let's get this done anyway.

For the force, it's connected to a few circuits, but there's just one output.

The control node is really complicated. I had to borrow another paper from Skip just so I could try to calculate the values and not forget what I'm currently on hold. There seems to be variables on this paper, and I'm not sure if there's only one answer or if there should be two, or have I forgotten how to do this one.

For the source... It's actually so vague. It's just connected to one node, yet these three factors rely on it.

"Should there be a chant here or something? This is a string variable if I'm correct, and it's quite hard to break down to character... Blablabla programming stuff very crazy I don't wanna lean in on this part."

The small murmur must've been heard by them albeit with difficulty, yet they didn't hear what I said, I bet.

Freak, I can't figure this out. This must be something a person with a source spirit could only relate with, or I haven't studied enough. Four years without any brain exercise after all is quite the hurdle.

I can't help but ask.

"Three, is source power... Also considered as numbers in your thoughts?"

"Now that I think about it... No. To draw power from our source spirit, we were just taught to feel the flow while a senior sends his power and circulates it on our body before we officially start our classes. In my case, it was the grandmaster who did it for me. He just commented that I took a bit longer since his power was difficult to contain at first since he's stronger than most people."

"Can you do that for me too?"

"I can, but it wouldn't do anything. You wouldn't feel anything either because you have no source spirit. Let's give it a try though."

She put her hands on my back, and golden light started to flow from her hands to my back. It went on for a full minute before she asked if I could feel anything, and I could only shake my head in denial. I could see the light, yet I couldn't feel it.

Seeing?

"Could you instead circulate inside youself? Would we see the light inside your body if you do that?"

"What's the point then? I'm becoming a lab rat by the minute," she pouted but she still sat cross legged and did what was told.

"If I'll be able to solve this then hopefully..."

I tried to remember the positions the light traveled through within her body, and tried to feel the various body parts in myself, and then asked her to do another circulation on me once again.

For a full minute, there were various points in my body that seemed to become cool and warm at the same time, and was a sensation that was unique for the first time.

I closed my eyes and envisioned the circulation once again. I could hear her asking if I could feel it, but my consciousness faded slowly as I visualized myself in front of me, sitting with the light circulating in me.

After full five minutes, Three stopped and I opened my eyes.

I started writing the three factors on another paper, and Three's eyes glowed along with delight appearing on her face. She fired a Shant Bullet in an instant without delay, and it hit the small clay pot that Skip brought out...and shattered in pieces.

Or that wasn't a Shant Bullet?

"This is a high level Shant Bullet. Low source cost, fast travelling speed, with a dense force contained. The control... Is precisely on the mark. This is off the charts. I couldn't come up with a modification at this level. Oh my... uncle should see this..."

The bells tolled and snapped us three out of stupor and us two students went back to class. Skip however, continued to just stare at the hole that was made through the wall because of the Shant Bullet released...

***

"GRAND... Skip?"

"Skip has already informed me of what happened earlier."

As usual, Three's uncle is still quite overwhelming even if it was already the second time that we met.

After classes had ended, instead of having a meal, Three dragged me towards this room and insisted that we ate here instead, and this is where we are right now. In the presence of someone might I couldn't bring myself to munch on my bread and kept it on my pockets instead.

"I'd like to put you Kaff, on the Numbers Law, and consider you as another researcher along Skip. But your age doesn't seem quite to match the position there. Let me think about what the school can do for you in a few days as an honor for discovering such a method of calculation. In the meantime, you may do as you please with the three of you..."

After discussing things with Skip and his books, we kids got out and shared a few pleasantries with the grandmaster and left the room. I immediately took the food from my pocket and munched on it, before staring at Three.

"Seems like I'm quite the guest student here, don't you think?"

"Why don't you seem happy? This is a big and good thing!"

"I just don't feel well." With this discovery, I wonder if they'll cut me up or something and check my brain. There's some kind of premonition that doesn't sit well on my mind as time continues to tick.

Dad? Mom?

Now my whole body is... Gemmatria?

I quickly grabbed Three with me and ran as fast as I could. With my body of a four year old, she instead ran away fast while pulling me.

A loud boom sounded out behind us without warning, accompanied by a thick cloud of dust. The large doors flew open, deattaching from the hinges, and some kind of spell seems to have been broken and a layer of light from the doors dimmed, and they broke into pieces like how it should have been. The pieces disappeared before touching the ground, as if made from magic.

"Your self-repairing gates are quite powerful, but from the inside they could only hold back this much?"

A voice of a woman spoke from behind, and walked out slowly from the dust cloud.

"Dorother, run away with Kaff. Call my brother for help." The grandmaster's voice felt like it crashed into my ears. I bet the whole school would have heard it if that was the case. I looked harder and found behind the dust that the grandmaster was leaning onto Skip, it seems he was injured.

Yet his eyes were calm, and held a tinge of hatred for the silhouette of a woman in front of them.

Before I could even analyze things, Three pulled and dragged me, and we ran as fast as we can outside the hallways and out of the school gate.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"I dunno! We have to find Dad, follow me!"

"How about---" I was about to ask about the school, but it was already strange enough that there weren't any other people besides from us four and the woman.

"Where's everyone?"

"I also don't know!"

I saw Dorother's face turn pale with fright from the sight, and continued.

"The enemy is stronger than uncle... only my dad can do something....."

Looking behind, I can see a large circle that glowed about a hundred feet above where the grandmaster's room was supposed to be, and then it was slowly coming down, crushing what seemed to be a barrier that was formed above the grandmaster. Are they battling already?

Dorother also took a glance for a second, and then became more faster than earlier.

"I'll be a bit rough, we need to get there fast!"

She then held my shoulder and started to float, and was a lot faster than running. To be precise, we were probably travelling 50kph if I'm measuring correctly, and it was the limit.

***

Meanwhile back at the grandmaster's office...

Standing in front of the grandmaster was a woman who wore white robes with an inner dress that fit her curves rather tight. Her body's outline could be fairly seen, and would make most men get in an accident.

The woman looked at the girl and the boy fleeing the scene, and a puzzled look appeared on her face.

"That boy seems familiar. Not sure where though. Anyway!"

Her chest heaved as she let out a faint sigh. She raised her hand, and a dark red circle of light flew from her arm, to her hand, and she pointed above the room. The circle moved above and disappeared into the ceiling.

"You're determined to finish me here?"

The grandmaster also raised his hand towards the skies, and a golden circle flew up and also disappeared into the ceiling.

"With your current Vates level and progress, you still try to resist? Let's see for how long then." The woman then shrugged, took a chair and sat indifferently. She was looking at her nails by then.

The grandmaster shot out another circle of golden light and a bit of blood could be seen spurting out of his mouth. Behind him, Skip, had already fainted due to the high density of source power that surrounded the room. Both sides have released pressure that engulfed the whole area, and as an ordinary person without a source spirit, his body couldn't take the pressure and collapsed while he aided the grandmaster.

"Let's say that the girl actually reached her father, what could they do if you aren't here anymore?"

The woman flipped her hand and something that look like a white piece of clothing seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She then performed a few hand gestures with her other hand, and the clothing became red, then a screech sounded out and red mist slowly filled the vicinity.

Going back to Kaff and Dorother(Three), they were speeding towards near the edge of the city, while floating up higher and higher, some people watched and knelt down when they saw the two flying.

***

"Give me your flight spell drawings, I'll try to make up something!"

She nodded and we rested on a roof for a bit, before using her fingers to create the diagrams in the air with her finger. It stayed for a while and she redid it for four times before I was able to understand with difficulty.

Rushing my brain, and with the suspense of a few people dying, I urged myself to rush the calculations, yet tried not to make errors.

Finally, within just a minute, I provided her with the three factors, and her feet immediately glowed and she pulled me gently, before raising up a small barrier with a chant, before flying with unbelievable speed.

How is a child like also able to control this magic to this extent? Or has she made our speed relative to the distance that we're going to and are able to control such speed based from it...

Cancel the thought, we just have to reach her house, and inform her dad about what's happened. The city was very large, spanning probably twenty kilometers, and I wasn't able to tell where we were anymore. The surroundings turned brown for a while, then green, then I saw a black dot in the distance, becoming a person after a few seconds coming over us.

"Dad!"

"Who's the kid? It seems that brother's right about what's happening. Stay at home for now. As for the kid, treat him as a guest."

"Yes, master." Some voice from nearby just popped out from nowhere, and I wasn't even able to pinpoint it but it was a good thing it wasn't an enemy.

Her dad's voice wasn't even finished talking when he already disappeared as he said those words earlier, and Three went rushing towards home. I only saw a blinking gold of light for a second before it was gone.

"As a kid, these experiences were quite overwhelming, yet you were unfazed." The unknown voice came from the side and Three called out to him.

"Sorn!" Then she hugged the guy that wore a pitch black suit. He had no hair, and his eyes and eyebrows were pointy as daggers, and his entire body felt like a fish bone. He was thinner than I was, yet his body bore a certain pressure similar to the grandmaster.

"Young lady and respected guest, please follow me for now."

He letup with a smile and slightly bowed towards Three, then flew towards what seemed to be their home.

The surrounding perimeter was reinforced with an unknown material, and above was a slightly transparent dome that looked like a barrier. The house inside... If it was called a house, then it wasn't a stretch to call our house as a closet in a patch of land on that massive area. The surrounding area was covered in dense fog and a group of large trees, and on the gate as we neared, a sign hung which displayed the word "Flairfly" in shiny bold letters.

"Fairfly? Is that your family name?"

"I haven't said it yet then? Yes, that's our clan's name."

Still with a worried look on her face, she answered while we descended towards the gates, and some kind of bubble passed through our bodies.

"As long as you have the token that I gave you, you can enter our place anytime."

We went in, and instead of being on the road going inside, we were suddenly facing the front doors already. Was that teleportation?

I could see a smug look taking form on her face. Seems like she's becoming more at ease now, showing off her house like this. We entered and suddenly I feel my body collapsing.

"Kaff?"

I turned towards her and noticed that her body was full of sweat, and it was the last thing I heard before blacking out.