Mune's Decision

The vibrant blue colors radiated in Nova's eyes.

Mune's voice suddenly called to Nova.

『Get down!』[Mune]

He tackled Nova and pushed him to the side of the blast.

In the split moment after they hit the ground, countless bright blue beams of blue, green, and white lashed out and blasted the area away.

Mune silently let out a grunt as he struggled to get even further away.

Burned into Nova's eyes were the blinding silhouettes of intertwining snakes that fought against each other and consumed one another while traveling forward.

As the various colors escaped, a throbbing headache began to affect him.

『Ggh!』[Nova]

Mune suddenly caused the vibrant colors to disappear by covering Nova's eyes.

『Close your eyes! This attack has a strong effect on your mind!』[Mune]

However, it was too late.

Nova's mind began to experience many strange things.

After a moment, Mune took his hand off of Nova's eyes.

Nova stayed on the floor, only able to lift his head up a little.

He stared at Mune, but his vision was blurred by the attack the Leviatys used.

Through his clouded vision, he saw Mune promptly get up, draw his blade and finish off the Leviatys.

Nova's ears started to ring, causing him to not be able to hear everything in his surroundings.

『B-…..-ame.』[Mune]

A crimson flame with embers of black coated his katana as he used it to carve and cover the Leviatys in the fire before it stopped moving.

The flames ate at the Leviatys, causing its tendrils to fall apart and hit the water.

Nova's body began to lose feeling as he stared at Mune's body.

Mune noticed this and quickly ran over and shoved a small crystal into Nova's mouth.

The moment it made contact with Nova's body, the distortions and strange feeling in his body began to disappear.

The first thing that started to come back was his vision.

He saw Mune inspecting him for any injuries.

『Are you okay?』[Mune]

Nova struggled to spit out some words.

『E-Eg-Uh? Err- Ye…?』[Nova]

『Okay. You should be fine. You didn't have any mana left in your body to defend against the psychological effects. Make sure to reserve mana in order to prevent that next time.』[Mune]

Nova's vision was restored enough to see that Mune's uniform had a missing sleeve with a blue spiral symbol that glowed and moved on it.

『You...your arm!』[Nova]

Mune looked to the side and found the symbol before he stared over it, his eyes rapidly moving to examine the coin sized symbol.

『I… don't know what type of curse this is. I have to burn it off.』[Mune]

Nova thought of the black flame that ate apart the Leviatys and quickly interjected.

『DON'T!』[Nova]

Mune was left in stunned silence.

Nova quickly put his hand over the blue symbol and stared at it.

『Blessed Flame Rebirth.』[Nova]

The azure flame contrasted with the blue that looked like it was smoldering and scabbing Mune's blood.

The dirty blue began to fade away.

『Oh. Interesting… Are you a healing type? What is your seed orientated for, currently?』[Mune]

Nova continued to heal Mune's mark as he answered Mune's questions.

『The first ability I got was this one. I don't know what orientated means in this context, but I guess if you consider my current spells, I would be a support or utility seed.』[Nova]

Mune nodded and kept staring at the blue flame.

He quietly murmured something under his breath.

Nova didn't hear what he said, but he did hear a little bit of noise.

『Hmm? Did you say something, Mune?』[Nova]

『...Nothing important. 』[Mune]

After a long while, the mark finally faded off of Mune's skin.

Nova fell back on his butt and sat there, tired.

『Haah… I'm out of mana again...』[Nova]

Mune silently leaned down and handed a bag with a drawstring to Nova, before he sat down himself.

『...Unlucky. That was a high purity Leviatys.』[Mune]

He sighed and lied down on the remaining grass on the island that was destroyed by their battle.

『High purity? What does that mean?』[Nova]

Nova opened up the fabric bag and peered lightly into it.

Mune's hair began to settle down, beginning to cover his eyes again.

Nova looked over to Mune as he began to speak.

『It means that they have a lot of their ancestor's blood. The ancestors of most monsters have access to strong magic. It's a whole lot of history that I don't know much of. It just means that they have access to a whole lot of special powers like the beam.』[Mune]

Nova nodded before he looked back into the bag and pulled out a perfect spherical orb that resembled a marble.

Upon examining it in his hand, it had a complex light blue shape that shined and swirled around in the middle.

Just as Nova was about to ask what it was, Mune began to speak.

『It's a candy called a "Manarble". Eat it.』[Mune]

Nova was a little taken back at Mune offering him candy.

He put the candy in his mouth before it began to lightly bubble in his mouth.

The fizzing caught Nova off guard, causing him to almost spit it out.

『...Don't like it?』[Mune]

After Nova got past the initial shock, a sweet lemon-lime flavor filled his mouth that refreshed his tired body.

『...It's good.』[Nova]

After letting it sit in his mouth for a bit, he felt his mana come back considerably in a sudden burst.

『...My mana?』[Nova]

Mune quietly laughed to himself.

『Manarbles are used to regenerate mana. They're the best tasting out of all mana regeneration supplements too, with a bunch of different flavors.』[Mune]

He sat himself up and put his hand out, before Nova subtly passed it over to him.

He popped one into his mouth and kept talking.

『They don't regenerate as much as other things, though. The way they work is a little circle inside of them that draws and stores mana in them. It works well only if you store them for a long time.』[Mune]

Nova enjoyed the fizzing sensation in his mouth and nodded to Mune's words, happily.

『There's another name for Manarbles that I prefer, though.』[Mune]

He lied back down and raised a candy to his eye.

『Huh? What would that be?』[Nova]

Mune let a rare smile reach his lips as he spoke.

『It's called "Stardrops".』[Mune]

Nova silently nodded, preferring it to Manarbles, himself.

『They're called that because if you look at a star through it, the swirling colors make the star look like they're in your fingers.』[Mune]

Nova's mouth dropped a little at Mune's sudden change of character.

Mune suddenly started to stand back up while holding the bag.

『Catch.』[Mune]

He tossed the bag back at Nova, who scrambled to catch it.

『You can have it. You did good today.』[Mune]

Nova looked down at the dark fabric bag with a brown string on it.

Now that he paid attention to the bag, there was a white star on it.

『...Thank you.』[Nova]

He took out the same device as the one Anri used and pushed it onto the ground, causing a circle to form under them.

Nova felt a bit nervous to the result of him joining the team, but did it anyway.

『...So, did I..?』[Nova]

Mune realized he didn't say anything about that.

The circle flashed white and transported them to a small, comfy room themed around light colors.

Mune began to walk away as he spoke to Nova.

『...Congratulations. You're what I'm looking for.』[Mune]

Nova got excited suddenly.

『Then?!』[Nova]

Mune turned his head back, allowing Nova to see one of his eyes looking at him.

『Welcome to the Flowering Sun.』