Auriella opened a portal to some kind of arena. My sense now more sensitive, including my awareness of mana, I realized she wasn’t using magic. It was more like she directly ripped a hole in space and used some unknown energy to connect that hole to another space. It caused fluctuations in the ambient mana, which I had previously mistaken as her casting a spell, but this time I realized the fluctuations came after the portal was already completed and open. It was just mana flowing between the two places like water, balancing the levels on both sides.

I followed her through the portal while trying to probe it’s construction and gain insight. I still didn’t understand whatever power she used. Perhaps like mana, whatever power she used required a special organ in order to detect or use it. If that was true, I wondered how many other forms of energy existed undetected.

Once we emerged, a young glowing man exclaimed, “My Lady, what are you doing here? This place is—”

Auriella brought forth her crystal sword, pointing it toward a group of what looked like soldiers training in a square. “Cease your drills.” She commanded. “I have need of the arena.”

Immediately the soldiers cleared out from the space, moving at speeds I wouldn’t have been able to follow yesterday. Within seconds all of them were standing with us on the platform.

Looking at the space, it felt strange to think of it as a room. It seemed like this one room was large enough that it could’ve contained the entire city of Avantia. For all the space, it was mostly empty. There were several large platforms like the one we were standing on. The soldiers had been on others previously, but now the other platforms hovered empty.

The man who greeted us was frozen with wide eyes and a slack jaw, his gaze fixed on me. My new appearance was shocking to me, but I didn’t expect it to trigger such reactions in the divanory.

“What are you staring at, Ludicello; get a nature stage set up. Set parameters to high intensity...and apply a barrier just in case.” Lady Aura spoke quickly and with a level of threat that implied impatience. Her testy expression seemed to confirm her desire for quick action.

When the man hesitated, Auriella’s eyes narrowed further and her lips curved dramatically down. Ludicello scrambled backward, nearly tripping over himself on his way toward a boxy console. It was similar to the control console for the forge, but also different. This one had many more knobs and buttons and seemed a bit more complex. As his hands flew over the controls, the room began to transform.

Crystal formations rose and sank from the floor forming various types of terrain. Small mountains and valleys, plateaus and great basins, then a sprawling lowland. As soon as the crystal foundation was in place vegetation sprang up, covering almost everything in a layer of green.

Exactly where you would expect to see rocks, the crystal surface became rigid, hard and earthy. Water, springing up from an unknown source, filled some of the basins, but others remained empty. As rivers began to flow into lakes, flowers sprouted in the field. Trees sprang up, growing into a small forest and reaching maturity in mere minutes.

Whatever magic facilitated all this was similar to the power Auriella used, effecting mana, but not dependent on it. There didn't seem to be a need for a person to control it either, instead it seemed everything was managed by mechanical devices manipulated by turning the knobs and pulling levers on the console.

When the process was completed, the walls of the room seemed to disappear making the space appear to go on endlessly, but I didn’t think they were truly gone. An unnatural breeze stirred to life, whipping through the trees and tousling my hair. A heatwave, more intense than one felt on the hottest summer days—or moltess as it was called on Aeros—bore down on my back. Sweat quickly soaked through my clothes as the pressure of gravity increased, causing standing to became laborious work.

"This should do," said Auriella. "Now let's begin." She finished with a gesture towards the landscape below.

"You want to fight me?" I asked, hoping I was wrong. Even with my new skills, it seemed painfully clear that our match would be unbalanced.

"Of course not." Auriella chortled. Shaking her head she continued, "I want to test you." without waiting for a reply she grabbed my arm and flung me from the platform.

Landing heavily on the grass below, I rolled onto my feet. The area seemed calm and still aside from the swaying grass, but I felt something like a sixth sense telling me there was something dangerous nearby.

I pushed out with a pulse of mana to probe my surroundings. As the wave of energy passed over the area, beasts that resembled snakes rose up all around me. They had four small legs, like lizards, but they didn't use them for walking. Their bodies were covered in smooth scales ranging from yellow to brown. Each snake creature had a distinct pattern and a different colored gem, or crystal, set in its head.

Looking down from the platform, Auriella said simply, “Survive.”

At the sound of her voice, one of the eight serpents lunged toward me. The beast moved as if unencumbered by gravity; my movement felt sluggish by comparison. I stepped left to avoid the creature’s fangs, but its razor sharp scales rubbed against my arm, leaving me with a nasty scrape.

The wound was shallow and only bled a little. Almost as soon as it happened, I felt a warm tingle around the scrape. The injury healed fully within seconds.

Using my momentum I spun away from a second set of fangs then ducked under a spike tipped tail. A vicious hiss alerted me to a serpent dropping down from a tree branch. The creature snapped at my shoulder, a nauseous fluid dripping from its mouth.

The beast’s venom soaked fangs penetrated deep into my flesh with searing pain like the bite of fire. With my right hand I grabbed the creature by its neck and with my left, I gripped its jaw and twisted. The bone snapped with almost no effort. Pulling harder, I freed my shoulder from its grip then spat a fireball down its open gullet.

The fire looked more like a flickering shadow in the brief moment before it ignited the snake’s venom and spread quickly through its body. Purple-black flames completely engulfed the screaming serpent, forcing me to let it go and back away.

The creatures hissed as they followed after me, moving faster than I could even with burst constantly active.

"Is that all you can do?" Aura shouted. "When I saw your new form I thought maybe you had actually achieved something, but it seems you're still only a—"

Pushing mana from my palm, I shot a bolt of lightning at another of the snakes. The concussive blast drowned out the rest of Aura’s words and the dark flash was blinding. Unlike ordinary lightning, the bolt was nearly black and seemed to absorb light rather than emit it.

Mana was muddled along its path, leaving me in a state of suspense as I couldn't see the snakes. The blindness only lasted a few seconds, but it took me several more to make sense of the scene before me. The bolt eviscerated everything it touched and melted everything on its path. There was nothing left of the snake, not bone or ash.

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I repeated the spell quickly, directing lightning from my palm toward another of the beasts. In a dark flash, the snake was consumed, unable to dodge or counter my lightning.

Then three of the remaining creatures started glowing. The gemstones on their heads emitted bright light as colored orbs materialized in front of them. Not waiting for them to release their attack, I shot another, larger, lightning bolt. The gigabolt split in three, weaving erratically to hit all three serpents.

The dark maelstrom blackened the room with repeated flashes as the bolts struck one after the other. The darkness lasted longer than seemed reasonable. Mana between me and the snake-like creatures began returning to normal, then distorted wildly again.

Reflexively I cast barrier. A thin translucent film of black mana appeared in front of me, just as my spell returned. The gigabolt dissolved into the barrier, crackling across its surface before fading completely.

I reached for Stylnyx, then remembered I didn't have my sword. I'd have to search for it once I got back to Aeros. Switching gears, I lifted spikes of earth directly beneath each snake. The beasts died quickly, but there were still two left.

From the left, a volley of icicles shot towards me. At the same time, but from the opposite direction, a wide array of wind blades sliced across the field. Both spells seemed comparable to or greater than the storm magic used by Styrmir. There was no escape, not without some form or teleportation.

I couldn’t see anyway I would survive, but I wasn’t just going to stand there and die either. Thinking of Styrmir—how the storm whirled aggressively over miles, but seemed to remain calm in the space near him—I forced mana from my core as quickly as I could, molding it into a vicious tower of swirling wind blades.

The cyclone grew in both size and intensity quickly, creating a sort of void zone ten feet across with me at its center. Like the lightning and fire, I noticed signs of darkness woven into the magic. Mostly that the wind appeared like thick black smoke, similar to the dark magic Stylnyx used to corrupt people. There also seemed to be a corrosive element that sickened everything the wind touched.

The serpents’ magic struck against my wind with the fury of a dragon. My twister wavered, becoming unstable and drifting left then right. As some projectiles broke though, I realized how foolish I had been. As I struggled to dodge and burn the projectiles, my winds struggled against the incoming wind blades. A wind blade slipped through, grazing me as I strafed around an icy spear. My cyclone was on the verge of collapse. It needed more mana.

Forsaking any attempts at dodging, I focused entirely on feeding the fierce winds. It wasn’t long before I was covered in scrapes from projectiles grazing past me. I bit my lip harder each time something struck me directly. The injuries built up faster than I could heal, but I didn’t stop or slow the flow of mana I was feeding to the twisted winds. Soon, my cyclone regained its shape and seemed to find new strength.

The snake’s wind blades were absorbed into my twister, feeding its anger with their power. The projectiles were cut, ground, and broken into tiny bits, then launched out in every direction like millions of little bullets.

Certain that nothing could've survived, I brought the vortex to a halt. As the dark wind dissipated motes of black mana fell like ash, corrupting everything they touched. I noticed then, that the earthen spikes were also infused with dark energy as they were only things, aside from me, not affected by the black mana particles.

"So you really did take his power." Auriella said, sounding somewhat mystified, "but, I suspect that's your limit. It would be impossible for one of you lower beings to wield any greater power. A shame, but for the best. If you posed a threat to us, I wouldn't be able to send you back."

The condescending remarks were getting a bit annoying, but I wasn’t in any state to complain.

Leaping from the platform, Lady Aura descended gracefully on her bladed wings. Her radiance burned away the black mana without letting a single corrupting particle touch her. As she landed softly, the grass beneath her was somehow purified and sprang back to life.

Her eyes moved over me slowly as she examined me head to toe. When she was done, her eyebrows furrowed slightly and her lips curved into a frown. as she crossed her arms over chest, Lady Aura closed her eyes for several moments. When she opened them again, they’re was fierceness in her gaze that sent chills down my spine.

My whole body was on fire with alarm. Auriella hadn’t moved a muscle, but I knew I was in imminent danger. I sprang backward, keeping my eyes fixed on the angelic creature and creating as much distance as possible.

With a smirk Auriella said, “On second thought…”

The ground where I had been standing burst apart, torn asunder by five brilliant blades. The swords flipped and whipped through the air, each twisting unpredictably as they cut separate paths toward me.

“…maybe I should test you myself.”

Extending an arm toward her, I fired a bolt of purple-black lightning. In a blink, one of the five blades swung upward intercepting the attack. Sparks exploded out from the impact, igniting trees and scorching the earth.

Three of the five blades converged on my position. The first strike, a downward slash, I sidestepped. I ducked under the horizontal slash that followed. The final blade struck at me with a series of thrusts. I stepped left, then backward, then finally I was forced to spin around the blade.

Completing the rotation, I fired another bolt at Auriella, but she was gone. My bolt struck one of the impaled lizards, disintegrating it and blasting apart the rock spike.

Then Auriella’s swords sliced at me again. This time all five of the weapons encircled me, spinning rapidly as they approached. I leapt out of the encirclement, flipping over one of the blades.

At the high point of my jump, I noticed a streak of golden light dashing towards me.

“Barrier!” I cried as the spell activated then shattered immediately.

A glowing foot slammed into my sternum. With bone shattering force, I slammed into the ground. Every inch of my body screamed in pain as I lay in a crystal crater unable to move.

Lady Aura soared above me, her hair flowing in the wind as she shot several beams of pure light from her fingertips. I saw the beams in slow motion as they descended toward me, I knew this was the last thing I would see.

The space trembled and hummed with energy. My heart pounded so forcefully it was all I could hear. Mana rushed from my core, trying to mend my broken bones, but it was too late.

Something welled up from the pit of my stomach, determination, a desire to survive…no—it was hunger, a desire to consume everything before me and dominate my enemies.

The light beams were now only inches away, their tips like spears reaching to pierce through my chest. Reassured by repressed desires, I relaxed and waited patiently.

The moment her magic struck, would be the moment that marked her doom. Almost silently, I whispered, “feed me.” The greed and malice in those words shook me with an unsettling fear of what I was becoming.

Only an inch separated me from what would be a truly wonderful feast. Time returned to normal as sparks burrowed into my chest. A sharp metallic clang sliced through my ears and the beams of light struck a distant mountain, shattering it into oblivion. A single golden sword hung over my chest, staying perfectly still and showing no indication of having just deflected five mountain destroying beams.

It wasn’t one of Auriella’s weapons; the unwavering sword was held by a different divanory, one whose presence couldn’t be mistaken.

I could only see her backside, actually just her hair. The shimmering locks flowed all the way down to the ground, but not quite touching it. I could also see her wings; they were magnificent, larger than the other divanory.

Dissolving into the air, her sword vanished and her arm fell by her side. “You fool,” she fumed. “Would you have killed him to spite me?” I was certain of her identity once I heard her voice. The mother of light as Aura had called her.

My confidence shattered as my adrenaline subsided. I had been foolish to think I could somehow survive and turn the tables on Lady Aura. Even if I did manage to survive the attack, my body was still broken. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything to her. The feeling of power that came over me was familiar and yet different, but it confirmed one thing, I was still cursed.

Dropping her head, Auriella frowned, bit her lip, then let out a puff of air before saying, “I’m sorry, mother. I got carried away.”