His Ryvia stretched to its limit around him, it fed back his perception. Ewan could see, hear, smell, and feel everything that happened in the zone.
Again.
Orange jumped into his spirit’s range as his other Astylinds watched from the side. Ewan sensed his landing position and compressed the air with his Ryvia, fashioning an invisible platform that hovered above the ground. Orange alighted on it then blasted away with his explosive Anima. But the platform couldn’t handle the recoil, it crumbled apart with a flash of fire. Orange crashed on the floor as Ewan grunted, the harsh feedback from his spirit stung him.
Luckily, the failure injured no one.
Again.
He created another base and condensed it with more spirit this time, his tensed hands trembled, the air distorted around the platform. Orange exploded away from it once again and succeeded this time. The platform still fell apart but not before supporting the little monkey’s launch.
The success came after several attempts, after many trials and errors. But it wasn’t at a practical level yet. At best, Ewan could allow Orange one extra movement in the air. It wasn’t at the level where he could let the little monkey fight airborne, which was the result he hoped to get from this practice.
Again.
…….
Ewan sat in the middle of the basement, his eyes closed, his spirit interference driven to the max.
Toast meowed and paddled his feet as he drifted through the air, circling Ewan. Orange floated after Toast with breaststrokes, his tail swaying left and right, as if he could ‘swim’ faster that way. While Iris bounced up and down behind Ewan, rotating with her roots sprawled out.
Two birds with one stone—this was a good method to practice his Ryvia and keep his little monsters busy. Yet, an unseen and unexpected problem occurred once he lifted them all—Frost.
Unlike the other three, Frost hovered close to the ceiling, flailing about, panic written all over his face. His pointy tail had curled, his eyes teared up, and he screamed at the top of his lungs. Ewan had never seen Frost like this. Even at his worst, he only had childish fights with Orange. At his best, he wreaked havoc with his spells with a calm mien. But now….
“A Demon afraid of heights…,” he said under his breath.
His Pa would’ve laughed his ass off if he knew about this, Ewan would never hear the end of that taunt. He needed to fix this, and he could only think of one method to do so. Overexposure led to numbness and desensitivity in relation to the specific aspect, Ewan already used this fact once when he faced the dead. Now, it was Frost’s turn.
……
He started from a low altitude. A Kyron’s jumping height—it didn’t faze Frost, but his anxiety still passed on to Ewan.
“It’ll be fine,” Ewan said and focused on Ryvia. He couldn’t afford any mistake right now.
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A couple of inches higher and Frost’s limbs trembled, his tail strained. Orange clutched his stomach and rolled on the floor, guffawing and cackling. The brat’s childish bellows echoed and annoyed Ewan.
Toast…
Toast, Ewan’s reinforcement, sauntered close to the little monkey and slapped him twice before racing away. Orange jolted up and chased after him.
Ewan heaved a sigh of relief from the dawn of quiet and attended to Frost.
“Just focus on me,” he said. “Take it slow.”
Inch by inch, he upped the height. Once Frost couldn’t take it anymore, he brought him down and rewarded him with a pat and a smile and a sugary slice of cake with creamy frosting. A few minutes of rest later, he started again. Up, panic, down, praise and cake, and rest, Ewan repeated the process until Frost numbed to a height higher than before, albeit drained and aghast.
Step-0 wasn’t Ewan’s limit, he wouldn’t let it, no matter how tough it was to advance. And the future of a Severynth included the open skies. Fear of heights was fatal to that future, he needed to fix it.
……
Fresh morning breeze caressed his skin with the sun clearing the distant fuzzy walls. His raven hair waved with it while he sat on the false chimney, admiring the view and fiddling with pebbles, his legs dangling in the air. His throat and lungs chilled with each inhale and warmed with the exhales. The basement had become his cave for days now, he only came up to do his daily business, so the gentle kiss of the early sun relaxed him.
The neighborhood was silent this morning, only the birds sang aloud. The ambience was of a holiday today, but he didn’t recall his calendar marking this date. Being out of touch with society had its perks, but it also came with some negatives. Nonetheless, the negatives didn’t concern him much since his Kyron life was behind him.
Boom…
He contained the embarrassment inside and hurled a pebble at the clear skies once the spell circuit glimmered in his soul space. The pebble shone an orange hue, it grew hotter and excited, and popped with a tiny fireball in the air. It scared the birds flying nearby and scattered their formation.
Ewan sighed. The spell was more than decent, depending on the material used, but the naming sucked. He’d already added the other spells he bought to his Spellbook; this was the only one left. And he hesitated on whether to change it. The spell wasn’t his creation, so changing the name without consent was a form of disrespect; he didn’t want to do it. But ‘Boom’ was really….
Forget it.
The name was only a shell, its core was the important part, and the spell excelled at that. At best he would never yell the spell name out loud…ever.
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Status: Healthy
Step-0 [3rd Awakening]
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 1.4
Spirit: 6.0
Anima: [Fire – 6.0 | Ice – 6.0 | Blood – 6.0]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [3rd Awakening]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-3] [Grade-C]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-3] [Grade-C]
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Blood Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-3] [Grade-C]
Equipment: Common Clothes.
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 302
Sol: 4987