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POV Julian Kingscrown

"Hello Barbatos, how has everything been?" I said as I approached him after leaving the Eden teleportation platform.

"Annoyed, because you bring your beasts here, at first I didn't see any problems because you always came with them and took care of them, but lately your bond gives them access to this place, so they spend their time dirtying everything" he said in a hysterical tone.

"Aren't you happy that there are more creatures here besides your bitter ass?" I said as I rolled my eyes.

"That's not the point, tell your bond to stop giving them access as if it were their treasure nest" he shouted.

"They only bring me part of the cores and rare minerals they find in the clearings, so don't start" I said covering my ears.

"Arrggggh, brat, cheeky" he shouted again the purple spirit remnant.

"Don't throw tantrums, haven't they broken anything or have they?" I replied looking at him.

"No, but they are dirtying these immaculate floors and destroying my peace with their shrieks" he replied in an accusatory tone.

"Annoyed", I said walking towards where I felt Sylvie's presence, whom I hadn't seen in a long time.

I think the last time I saw her was when I asked her to help the baby half-dragons hunt and that was before the Dire Tombs about four months ago.

When I moved towards her mana signature I saw her in a state of meditation, not only that the mana fluctuations around her were crazy.

It was too fast for this, I'm sure it would be within several more years, why now Sylvie is reaching her human form.

Quickly, I run up to her and shout, "Sylvie why didn't you tell me you were going to do this" I scolded my bond who seemed to be suffering.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to give you a surprise, but this is harder than I expected" she said in a tearful voice.

I put to full power, the mana vision and began to help with the circulation of magical energy within Sylvie's body that was running wild.

Her moans gradually subsided and her breathing returned to normal, but I still can't get into her human form and seeing that the flow was still active, indicated that the transformation was still in progress.

"Do you feel anything strange Sylvie" I asked trying to find out if she sensed something I couldn't see.

"No, but there is something that is preventing me from moving forward, it is as if something is restricting me" she replied.

When I heard her words I remembered that she had a seal placed by Silvia for her protection, I immediately began to observe her body to find the signs of the Ether that made up the seal.

It took me several minutes to find it, as it was something very small and located near her heart, because I don't know exactly what kind of art it is, I can only erase it with extinction, but I don't know if it will bring any other consequence.

As I debated Sylvie who was connected to me mentally spoke, "don't worry brother no matter what happens, I know you will be there to overcome it with me" she replied in a firm tone.

I took a short breath, put aside all my doubts and began to use extinction to remove the seal she had, it took me some time because the seal was very complicated.

But I managed to do it, when the seal was completely erased, a multicolored glow enveloped Sylvie and lifted her off the ground.

Her silhouette began to glow and lose her dragon form, little by little her real form was no longer distinguishable.

Finally, a blinding glow covered the surroundings and there in the middle of everything was a tender girl, she looked about 7 or 8 years old, with horns and a black dress dancing around the mana motes that remained after the explosion of particles.

She is much younger than what is mentioned in the novels, I suppose it is because she transformed much earlier than what was written in the canon.

She landed carefully on the ground and when she tried to take a step I saw her face crash into the ground.

"Pffff", I was about to start laughing, but I stopped when I saw Sylvie's accusing look, I approached her and helped her get up.

"Why didn't you catch me", she gave me a murderous look and cold enough to think I was a pig in front of her eyes

"I couldn't react fast enough, I was mesmerized by your beauty", I replied

She glanced at me for a second and began to get up with my help, she looked like a deer or a newborn giraffe.

Her legs trembled and moved like a twig in the wind, but I didn't mention anything because I felt that if I did Sylvie wouldn't talk to me for a long time.

I spent two whole hours, helping her coordinate her motor skills, but it was worth it now she could move freely.

But another problem arose, "Sylvie can you go back to your dragon form? I asked.

"Yes, probably", she replied as she did some coordination exercises with me.

"Can you hide your aura?", although she is not emitting the aura of an Asura like Mordain or Silvia. There is something around her that gives her a sense of distinct existence.

"Yes, but it's hard until I get used to it", she replied with an annoyed voice.

"This is fascinating, although I don't like the Asuras, I must admit that their abilities are amazing", Barbatos spoke as he watched Sylvie.

Two hours ago you were annoyed with her for letting the beasts in, I thought in my mind as I watched his brazen acts of observation of my bond.

"I guess you won't be able to leave until you fully control your aura, after all we don't want anyone to find you, the only person who has a way to hide his signature is Arthur and he is using Silvia's feather for that" I spoke to Sylvie.

"Really, aaaarggghhh I wanted to spend more time in the clearings", she said pouting.

"It will only be for some time until you can control the aura you emit, besides I want to ask you, are you able to disappear the horns?" I asked.

"It should be possible, but I will need a lot of practice" Sylvie said thoughtfully.

"Barbatos do you know what the Ether orbs are", I spoke changing my attention to the old purple ghost.

"What is that?", he replied with a confused face.

"It is a kind of artifact that you enter and it takes you to a kind of spiritual zone, where you can train, besides in theory you could go through something similar to a false death, since the sensations are very real" I replied.

"That sounds interesting, tell me more", he said forgetting the complaints he had when I arrived.

I proceeded to explain to him the characteristics of the orb, saying that the spiritual body inside the orb received damage, but recovered after several minutes and its capabilities to accelerate time within that space.

"I can help you with the spiritual world, since it is something similar to what I did to end up in this spiritual form, but accelerating time is something I can't do, it requires too many things that I don't know where to start" he replied.

"That's more than enough for me", even if I can't give them a long time of training, the real experience and the closeness to death will help anyone who trains here to reach new heights.

"Well, follow me we will start planning how to make the artifact, but with our limitations it will not be a small orb, it will be something of a relatively large size", he spoke.

"There shouldn't be any problem", I replied.

After that, I spent the next whole month between Xyrus Academy and Eden, training with Kathyln who came to see me often, also Claire joined at some point.

It seems that they already knew each other because of the social parties among nobles and that her brother occasionally mentioned her as a very diligent senior student.

"You're late today", Clare spoke as she greeted me.

"I have things to do besides training with you and I think I told you that I would usually be late" I replied in a tired tone.

Working on three things at the same time is taking its toll on me, the Ether orbs or rather now large Ether capsules have consumed a lot of time and resources, fortunately the beasts bring a good amount of cores and rare minerals, I should make them bring flowers maybe Gideon has a use for them or they could serve me to make elixirs.

As for the way to increase the body of the non-mages, I have been studying the runes on Cynthia's body and I am very close to reaching a solution, but I am missing a key component and that is a core replacement.

Finally I have been training Clare and Kathyln, I managed to raise their core level without raising too many suspicions, what I wanted to achieve with this is that they were on par with Tessia who reached the orange stage before I left, of course.

I also tried to teach them mana rotation, but like Tessia they can't get the hang of it, so I have to wait for one of the training items I asked Gideon for.

That was my routine until a few days before Xyrus Academy restarted its classes and there are exactly ten months left for me to enter as a full-fledged student.

"Haaaahhh", Claire screamed as she approached to clash swords with me, "Clink", the sword strike between her and me resonated, "Crack" at the same time a dozen ice icicles rained down on my head so I backed off while dodging the non-lethal projectiles and destroyed the ones that tried to close my path.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, how the hell do you have so much stamina, plus your magical processing is insane, are you human at all?", Clare said as she recovered the air from her lungs.

Ignoring Clare's strange and precise comment, I directed my gaze towards me, another opponent I could see Kathyln several meters behind Clare giving support, but her breathing was very irregular, at a glance I saw her chest rising and falling at a fast pace "huff, huff, huff".

"We should leave it here for today", I spoke.

They looked at each other seeming somewhat reluctant, but they accepted the proposal and began to put away their weapons and walk towards the waterfall area.

"It's a pity, in two days I'll enter the academy again for my fifth year, but I feel like I've learned more with you than with them. Besides, my progress in refining the mana core is advancing by leaps and bounds" she said grumbling.

Anyone would be like that if they were receiving my help, I thought as I remembered her growth, she has great potential as a dual element mage, unfortunately she was not taught systematically from a young age.

If she had received the same treatment as Kathyln training with someone like Varay or me, right now she could fight in a one-on-one with Arthur if he does not use the Realmheart, the mana rotation and if two of his elements are blocked.

She would probably be very close to Kaspian, what a waste of talent if I had not intervened her growth would have been slower and she would not have brought out all her latent potential until many years later, when she had passed her best time.

Come to think of it: Kaspian, Jasmine, Cynthia, Virion, Bund and Priscilla in the novel were characters who reached their full potential when their age could no longer keep up with their core.

That means that it is not a problem of luck, but of systematic education, this world, or rather, if there is one after the war, needs many reforms. I thought as I approached the girls in the waterfall area in the training room

----------------------------------------------------------POV Tessia Eralith

"Why" I screamed as I cast a plant magic spell at a tree and it fell like a dry twig.

"Boom" a loud sound escaped, from the impact of the crash of the large specimen against the ground along with its uprooted roots.

"My girl you should calm down", I heard the voice of my nervous grandfather, as I saw the damage caused to the castle.

"You won't let me go grandfather", I shouted annoyed as I remembered the events through the orb in the last weeks.

Julian was too close to that black-haired girl, she is so cunning and not only that, now there was another redhead who approached him in a very friendly way.

I know we are nothing more than childhood friends at this point and Julian has not shown exactly romantic feelings for me, but as his childhood friend I should pay more attention to me.

It's all my grandfather's fault, he hasn't let me go to the academy with the pretext, that I haven't overcome the first part of the assimilation and he won't let me go until I finish it

I turned my gaze to him for a second "hmmm" I snorted and quickly left the training yard

I heard a low voice of dead fish coming from the grandfather saying "brat, I'll make you pay for this"