Soothing Chime

"Are we hitting big bro?" Illococoo excitedly asks as she appears behind Saya, having left her 'students' to practise meditating.

"Don't just jump up like that! But yes, go ahead, he can take it." Saya states, folding her arms and flashing a grin at Michael.

He shrugs, "Bring it."

"Alright! Take this! Qo Geyol Rein!"

*CRAACKOW!*

A dragon breath of lightning rockets out towards Michael, blasting his shield and quickly sucking away his mana. If the attack kept up for a minute or so, he'd be completely out... At least, until Michael cast a couple low-cost healing spells that instantly regenerated his mana...

"Hah... Wow! That shield's really good!"

Michael nods, "Yeah it is, now onto the next test..." he says, turning towards the cliff. He casts the spell, causing four bird-like flames to appear around him, each slowly flapping its wings as if actually flying and not simply floating.

He commands them to strike the cliff below him, all of the birds simultaneously shooting out and exploding against the hard stone, flames spreading and quickly melting anything they come into contact with.

"A bit boring compared to what Megumin can do... Not that she's anything impressive." Saya remarks.

"I thought it was pretty..." Illococoo adds.

Michael shakes his head and places his two hands in front of him, "Next test, Sun Ray." he announces, casting the spell and becoming momentarily blinded by the gigantic laser he ends up firing, the thing shining around the sky and parting clouds as it flies off into space.

All of the snow in his immediate vicinity had melted, the subsequent water already turning to steam. He shakes off his smoking hands and glances over at the gaping duo, "Think Megumin can do better than that?"

...

"No..."

"That's what I thought." he grins in self-satisfaction. He moves on to the next test, ignoring Supernova as he didn't want to destroy the world and conjuring an Arcane Orb in his palm, the intensely glowing blue sphere fluctuating in his hand as it absorbed the ambient magicka around it.

He doesn't put too much mana into it, fearing a far larger result than he wished before tossing it. It moves through the air and collides with the peak of another nearby mountain connected to the Throat, the Orb exploding into an arcane shockwave that sucked up all the nearby magicka before dissipating.

The spell wasn't bad, merely unsuited against inorganic, magicless, or mindless targets. Considering how flexible it was, it made most other combat spells obsolete. It bypassed all armour and resistances and dealt a proportional amount of damage to the mana used in its creation. Unless he was fighting something weak to certain elements there wasn't really a point of using anything else, barring its slowness.

Next to test was Arcane Imprisonment, a spell he could thankfully use on himself without any potential danger. He casts it, his vision blurring as he finds himself in a weird realm surrounded by infinite glowing blue lights... He couldn't move anywhere, seemingly locked in place with no way to manoeuvre, even teleportation failing to work.

The spell ends and he reappears where he'd vanished, no worse for wear.

"Michael, are you okay? Did it go well?" Saya questions.

He nods, "No changes... It's odd, it kind of felt like Dimension Gate if that spell was designed for imprisoning its target..."

"You think it could transport you to other worlds?"

Michael shakes his head in doubt, "No... Whatever it does locks you in place, Dimension Gate wouldn't work in that realm either..."

She nods, taking some notes, "What's next?"

"Icarus Dive. To be honest, I already know what this does, I just wanted someone to fly around with."

"Is that why you came when Illu was teaching?" Saya mutters in realisation.

"Yep... How's about it, Illu, wanna fly?"

She nods excitedly, "Let's!"

He casts Icarus Dive, two large wings made completely of fire appearing behind him. They flap tentatively and Michael confirms that they worked somewhat like his frost wings... Speaking of what, he summons them as well, a small flash exploding from his back as the flames turn a stark white, no longer generating heat, but cold.

"Huh, I'm not sure if that's how this is supposed to work..." he mutters to himself, confused at the phenomenon. Was it because his affinity for both fire and frost was so high? Because they were equal? Or because the spells didn't innately interfere with one another.

He could speculate of course, this 'cold flame' being a powerful combination of the two elements. Both fire and ice could burn, so maybe the white fire was a combination of all their best attributes?

Shaking his head and spotting Illococoo flying around impatiently above him, he leaps off of the cliff and begins zooming around, Icarus Dive making him stupidly fast. Arctic Burn gave him the control he needed to fly around Illococoo, beating her own wind-enhanced speeds.

"No fair! How did you get so good so fast!" she complains as he does laps around her, the two racing around the Throat of the World while her Greybeard apprentices watch in mild awe.

"Any reason I'd give is BS, so, because I'm a god, biiitch!" he laughs, patting her head as he flies away.

"Mou! I'll catch you, you big bully! Ven Gelah Bod Tiid Genel!"

*SHHZOOOOOOM!*

She rapidly speeds up, not quite as fast as him but doing far better than before... He slows down somewhat so she wouldn't pout for the rest of the day.

And so the duo continued like this for hours more, the whole of Skyrim talking about flying stars above the Throat of the World for the next month or so.