3.25.

"What did she talk to you about?"

"I don't think it's really that much of a secret. Just some information about Shiro and Evelyn's thoughts about my resignation from the party. Also their goodwill expressing their wish for continued cooperating."

'I don't know how much I should tell Schwii about the whole false history thing..'

"How about Risa's thoughts?" Schwii asked.

"She wanted to continue cooperation, same."

"Your hand."

"You sure you want to do this again?"

"Yes."

With a sigh, Sequencee stretched out his hand. Schwii grabbed it from behind.

"I'll start first this time," Sequencee said as he conjured a small red flame.

Saying nothing, Schwii did her best to mold the flame into shape. Sequencee could feel a stinging pain where their hands made contact. Schwii was also likely feeling the same, it just didn't show on her face.

The red flame began to flicker in an unstable quiver.

"Schwii, I think this won't work," Sequencee quickly retracted his mana, the flames dissipated.

"I was close."

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"Of course it does."

Sequencee and Schwii attempted synchronization. However, as adept as they were individual mages, when it came to this subdivision of magic, their magic wasn't able to negotiate a compromise. They were lacking some fundamental principle to making it work, but they didn't know what it was.

As the two discussed the possible alterations to their next attempt, the instructors arrived at the theater. They were slightly late today due to an urgent meeting that came up, likely to do with the exchange student programme.

"Good morning class," instructor Grian who finally arrived greeted everyone.

"Ah, it's beginning."

===

"Alator's Grand Chamber of Magic.." Sequencee muttered to himself.

He had a file tucked under one arm, as he examined the large map of the campus built in the middle of an intersection.

"So it's near the museum? No, it's underground?"

Confused, Sequencee asked around.

'I should've really done my research.. or maybe I should go back and ask Miss Judy?'

"Excuse me, do you know where Alator's Grand Chamber of Magic is?"

"Are you lost?" the student asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm kind of lost."

"The Chamber of Magic.. it should be near the museum. You head into the minka, there should be a connecting bridge to the museum auditorium. There, you can find stairs that lead downwards. You can also ask the guards there if you're still unsure."

"Thank you very much."

Sequencee followed headed northward. He was once again greeted by many of Rika's artifacts during the Last Era.

'There's an auditorium here?'

Sequencee asked the guards about it and was directed to a stairwell leading downwards. Holding onto the metal railings, he slowly descended.

'Why would war time magic be practiced underground?'

Reaching the middle section of the stairwell, he felt the air change. A heavy feeling pressed against his chest, suffocating him a little.

'A barrier?'

When he reached the bottom, he was surprised to find a cavern-like place more than twice or thrice as large as the Sage's Hall. The ground split into various elevations, black glass reinforced with anti-magic particles and bright spotlights covered most of the scene.

Structural components like platforms, lifts, and stairs were installed to help maneuver the people around the place. An odd device spinning in the deepest part of the cavern humming with a buzz which Sequencee didn't know the use for.

There were a group of twenty or so mages to the right-most side of the grand chamber. Sequencee cautiously made his way over. They looked like they were practicing something.

The air in the room stiffened as what looked to be hundreds of silver-blue magic circles appeared above. Ice stakes plummeted to the ground like hail in the thousands, and hitting the barrier generated by the spinning device below, the projectiles disintegrated into particles which individually, sparkled like a small firework show.

The grand magic kept raining ice when Sequencee finally reached the stage where the hundreds of mages gathered.

Din was standing before them on a rostrum. Light could be seen coming off the wand in hand; each of the twenty-ish mages held varying wands and staff in neat arrangement.

'This looks like an actual orchestra.. except it's using magic, not instruments.'

Sequencee thought that maybe magicians borrowed this idea of organizing mages into 'groups' from those real music orchestras. Though it was outside his expectations that mages would have to comply with strict positioning for the sake of aesthetic, it made sense considering the changes in the current era.

Din noticed Sequencee and waved his wand to signal to the ensemble to stop. The magic circles in the sky dimmed before finally dispersing. The glowing crystal fragments or orbs on the wands and staff dimmed.

Din beckoned Sequencee over. Curious looks from the ensemble members happened upon Sequencee's figure. Likewise, Sequencee swept his gaze over to the members to find that most people were elves.

"This is going to be our soloist for the upcoming New Dawn's Grand Magic Showdown," patting Sequencee's shoulders. "Feel free to introduce yourself," Din whipshered.

Sequencee nodded.

"I'm Sequencee, from the enforcer course. I'm a student studying under Third Grade Mage of The Arcane Magic Ensemble, Judy. It's an honor to be here today."

'I don't know if I'm supposed to be here..'

"Please give him a warm welcome?" Din smiled wryly.

An applause rang through the assembly of mages.

"Did you look through the pieces?"

"I did."

"Do you think you can manage the first spell?"

"In a way, yes?"

'I don't even know what the first spell is.'

Sequencee did spare some of his midnight training session testing the formulae written by Din. None of the resulting magic looked like they had any offensive capabilities. The defensive grand magic did form into a deformed shield though.

'Well, I'll see what happens when I pair it with the others.'

"To begin, I'll only have those in the front two rows of core wand members to synchronize with him. The grand spell we'll enact is Twelfth Starfall. Sequencee, that position there is yours."

"Alright."

Sequencee went to the small platform prepared for him further down the stage. He placed his file and arranged the papers on the stand. So far, he had only practiced the spell without matching any of the timing annotation, so he had some reservations. He had a slight fear that things would blow up like how it did when he tried synchronizing with Schwii for the first time earlier.

He twisted his body to look at Din.

"You may begin first," he said.

Sequencee nodded. Conjuring the key formula for the Twelfth Starfall grand spell, Sequencee raised his palms high into the air.

Din waved his hands, the wands held by the mages in the first two rows began to glow as clear lines connected themselves to the orb in Sequencee's hand. The magic grew heavy in his grasp.

'Wow. It's actually stable– wait, do I hold it longer or wait?'

The weight of the mana accumulated continued increasing.

Din gave him an odd look.

'Now?'

Sequencee entered the second stage of the formula, opening a magic circle above him, he had it point towards the humming device deep in the basin before him.

'Hm? Is it a meteor spell?'

Iridescent light poured out from the magic circle as a huge white lump fired out from within, leaving a clean icy white trail behind. It fell onto the barrier and disintegrated into a flashy show of light.

'Oh, I can adjust the trajectory.'

Sequencee fired the second Starfall, this time moving it a little to the right. Each time he performed a Starfall, the weight on his hands would lift before growing heavy once again.

'So they're in control of the mana supply, output and scale of the spell; and I'm the trigger? What if I kept firing in rapid succession? Actually, how in the world do I stop? Do I just stop? Or will something happen if I stop?'

Sequencee continued releasing Starfall as noted inside the written formulas. On the twelfth Starfall, the supply of mana was cut, and so did the backing behind the grand spell. The magic circle crumbled the moment the last spell fired, but the catalyst orb in Sequencee's hand remained.

"This is confusing," Sequencee said.

"It was not bad for a first attempt, congratulations everyone!" Din announced.

Sequencee didn't know if this discomfort stemmed from knowing that he didn't have control over a great portion of the spell or that the mana requirement was so large that he would be emptied by the fourth Starfall if not for the support of the other mages.

He had to depend on others–

'Is this what I need to learn? How to work with others? How to work within limitations?'

Normally, Sequencee used magic by deciding the wanted outcome before choosing a spell; here, picking a spell came before deciding the outcome. Because of it, there were certain outcomes that can't be achieved due to characteristic restrictions.

Sequencee attempted Twelfth Starfall another time. Timing was important here as the weight of mana in his hand decided the strength of each Starfall. Another was the falling speed and shape of the spell. If he loosened his control, the Starfall would come out weak, on the contrary, tightening his control would cause it to accelerate.

"Let's try it one more time," Din waved his wand, signaling the third attempt.

'I think I got it.'

Compressing the mana into a tight chain, controlling the balance of the output by adding his own mana, and holding the trajectory of the spell firmly in his grasp–

Again, the bluish-white magic circle appeared in the air, however, this time, it was much, much smaller.

Uuuoomm–

A ripple of mana and light shook the atmosphere as the first Starfall crossed the hundred distance in less than a second. A powerful gust accompanied by the warping sound of air being torn at its very fabric. Making contact with the barrier, particles exploded into the air.

Another Starfall shot through the atmosphere, slamming into the barrier. Then the third, fourth, fifth– a Starfall every second. The uniform rate and impact each Starfall carried was almost machine-like.

Uuom– Uuom– VUOMM–

The last Starfall glowed in a blazing gold, sending a powerful shockwave in its wake as it left the magic circle. Like a heavy object falling into water, a deep ripple could be felt from inside their chest. Springing back upwards as it hit the barrier, aurete particles shot up with great momentum and scattered into air like confetti thrown into the sky.

Twelfth Starfall ended with the slow reversal of the magic circle.

"Excellent."

"Really?"

"I will not withhold if you have any wishes to improvise, so feel free to do what you can to improve on what could be added."

Sequencee bobbed his head vertically, finding it somewhat dubious.

"Now that you've gotten the gist, let's proceed with the whole ensemble; shall we try?" Din said with almost a grin.