Training

LANCE ALEA POV

It seems like a battle of unseen proportions has taken place, the trees in a huge radius fallen down or ripped out of the ground, and an enormous crater reaching at least 250 meters in diameter and 50 meters in depth. A huge number of black spikes were sticking out of the ground, along with smaller craters all around.

"I have located the princess, there is an unknown person approaching her. You have permission to attack." Varay said, creating multiple ice spears and shooting them at the enemy. Four golems of magma and earth were created around the enemy by Olfred.

The attacks closing in on Arthur Leywin suddenly 'broke', the icicle breaking into small pieces of ice while the golems melted, spewing magma everywhere.

After closer inspection, the enemy had white hair ending in orange, pale skin with complex runes etched onto it and a.. a Teal blade!

"Cease fire! That man is Ar-!" My yell got interrupted, as Arthur Leywin looked at us, releasing a pressure that even Varay had a lot of trouble withstanding. Amplifying his voice, he said

"I am not in the mood to deal with you ordering me around, leave."

He sounded angry, with every word releasing more and more bloodlust at no one in particular.

Turning to Varay, I said. "We should go, he sounds like he doesn't want to be disturbed."

She seemed to think about it, but said.

"What are you planning on doing with the princess?"

"Use her as a portable food source." - The princess giggled at this - "No, what do you think? Obviously taking her back safely, because I am the only one who can protect her. You can't, not from the beings I've fought here a little while ago."

"I am entrusting the princess to you, Arthur, but only because she trusts you."

Said Varay, gesturing us to follow her as she flew away.

ARTHUR POV

Walking into the barrier, I wanted to relax a bit before taking off. I sat down on one of the tree logs, thinking about what I could have done differently.

I knew that Varay had actually not flown away, but was instead camping a few hundred meters away, shadowing our every move.

Kath approached me with a somber face.

"A-arthur, don't be so angry. You saved us."

"But I let two of them escape! In the grand scheme of things I didn't do anything! I tunnel visioned on one of them because of my petty revenge!" I yelled

Seeing Kathyln take a step back, I realize I've let out a bit of my bloodlust.

"I'm sorry Kath, I didn't mean to take it out on you. It's just that I've failed, and now I will have to deal with the Asuras of Alacrya possibly coming after me."

Kathyln got an angry expression.

"You haven't failed! Yet again you just failed to live up to your impossible standards! You can't be so hard on yourself, you saved the lives of everyone here!" she shouted, pulling me into a hug which I desperately needed.

"Let's go to the castle, Art. You need to relax a little bit, alright?"

I nodded

"You're right.. Sylv, can you handle so many people? I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, It's fine." She said as she transformed into a dragon again.

'I thought you didn't need to sleep?' she added telepathically

'I thought so too, but I think it's because my mana is largely depleted. I'm basically a mana core' I chuckled

"Hop on"

Kathyln gave Sylv the directions, and as we flew out the cold grasp of sleep finally won, everything around me fading to black as my head fell on Kathyln's shoulder.

...

I opened my eyes, finding myself laying in bed in a spacious and rather luxurious looking room.

'Arthur, how are you feeling?'

'tired, but much better. How long have I been asleep?'

'About a day, during which you were sucking all the mana out of the atmosphere so fast that the defensive wards and other artifacts in the castle weren't working, so Varay had to supply them with her own mana.' She said, chuckling

Does this mean that I've gotten stronger, or just my mana core replenishing itself? After pondering about it, I think the former is true.

'We're coming into your room now, get dressed.'

I got out of the bed, finding entirely new clothes fashioned for me. Dark shoes, black socks, long black pants resembling my disciplinary committee uniform pants, a long sleeved dark blue shirt along with a jacket of the same color to go over it.

The doors to my room slowly opened, my family coming in one by one.

...

After my family reunion, I went to take a look around the castle. It was a grand castle, where the royal families and nobles resided along with the lances.

Wandering the halls, I ran into grandpa Virion, who immediately pulled me into a bearhug.

"Damn you, boy! Why didn't you tell me you came back?" He loosened his grip on me, grasping me at arm's length to get a better look.

"Nice to see you again, Gramps. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I had a problem I needed to take care of first. Anyways, is there a free training facility that I could use?"

"There is one that the lances use to train, I can get you a pass if you want."

My expression turning into a grin, I replied

"Yeah, that would be great, thank you gramps."

...

I wandered off to the training facility, finding a special training room much bigger and more saturated with mana that my training room at Xyrus academy. I asked a maid to find Kath and bring her here, because I wanted to continue her training from Xyrus.

Myre said she knew someone who taught themselves how to use aether better than any other Asura could. This proved to me that there was a way to teach myself to use aether, and that's what I'd be doing while Sylvie spars with Kath.

I didn't have to wait long, as Kath joined me inside the training room within 5 minutes of me waiting.

"Hey, Kath"

"Hello" She said as she came to sat beside me.

"So, what do you need?" She said, looking around the room.

"Sylv needs a training partner, and I also want to give you something." I took Cadell's horns out of the pocket in my jacket, handing one to Kath and tossing the second one to Sylvie.

Kathyln gave me a confused look, tilting her head to the side.

"These contain a monstrous amount of mana, it will definitely help your core progression if you use it." I answered her silent question, getting a nod in response.

Sylv has already started absorbing mana from the horn, laying in a loaf position even though she's a dragon, getting a laugh out of both of us.

After Kathyln was done inspecting the horn, she also started absorbing the mana inside.

I activated Unleashed Realmheart, watching the aether particles. From what Myre told me, it's supposed to work similar to moving your muscles, instinctively.

I concentrated on one aether particle in particular, willing for it to move. Minutes went by, my will not faltering.

At least an hour went by, my attempts unsuccessful. What could I be doing wrong?

Another 15 minutes of pacing around the room, and I had an epiphany. I was metaphorically pushing the aether instead of guiding it. Myre herself told me that aether is stubborn, that it needs to be guided instead of controlled.

I sat down with renewed vigor, starting the process over again.

14 days later

I was once again meditating, trying to gain control of aether. Kath has barely used 30% of the mana inside the horn, but her core has turned bright silver while Sylvie had used almost the entire capacity, getting to white stage pretty quickly.

It was peaceful, no attacks by Alacrya so far. This only stressed me out, however, since I couldn't know if they were planning a large scale attack until it was too late.

An hour, then two, then the entire day passed with me sitting and meditating, constantly trying the same thing over and over.

I felt insane, doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome. I was hyperfocused, constantly willing the aether particle to move over and over again.

Again, and again, and again, and again, and.. suddenly, it moved.