Being who I am, I sent a letter to Legosia to let him inform me of every capability his talwar has. The most obvious capability it has is the switches on the handle that open the dome-like guard. That would reveal jets that make his slashes faster and deadlier.

Beyond that, Legosia tells me the blade was basically weightless. I have a few theories on this, which I’m hoping to test soon. Considering that a new shipment of metal from Tekel has made its way to Sanasira.

-From The Last King of Elneshe’s 7th Note.

Rozu stood in the middle of a field, breathing deeply. In front of him lay a table of different materials. Devourers picked at the piles of those materials and ingested them, their bodies transforming to the same texture, the same heft of it. Rocks, metals and even some elastic materials were placed on the table for their use, only a few small bits used by each Devourer.

It was a misconception to think you could truly become what you Devoured, Rozu knew. The blood pumping through his veins wouldn’t work then, nor would he survive the change in his body. But hallowmancy somehow did, by only partially changing the body of the Devourer. Perhaps that why they called it hallowmancy in the first place, a miracle that couldn’t be replicated.

“What are we doing here?” Fezashi asked, looking over at the table. Rozu had, inexplicably, been assigned to the boy again. It’s like they’re punishing me, he considered. But he couldn’t let the boy distract him. He had training to do. Much more training.

“This all looks like junk,” he added.

“It’s not junk!” Rozu snapped, “Devourers need materials if we’re going to work on the battlefield.”

Fezashi had grabbed a piece of copper off of the table and was hitting it against the table.

“Why not just get the hardest one?” Fezashi asked.

“Wouldn’t work. That’d make you tougher, but you’d become slow as a snail,” Rozu explained as he plucked the copper out of Fezashi’s hand and threw it against the pile.

“The best material depends on the situation and what you need. Take some flint and you can start fires with your own nails. Some iron and you can pin down the enemy without letting them escape….”

Fezashi listened throughout the whole lecture, surprisingly staying quiet. Rozu searched that pile for his usual materials as he droned on. Iron, dense rocks, maybe even something light in case he needed it. But none of them satisfied his curiosity. They wouldn’t help him if he faced off against Dero again.

Rozu threw the stone in his hand back onto the pile, looking around himself at the other practicing Devourers. One of them did a few kicks in the air, before landing back on his feet and running over to a book beside him. He noted down some words on that tome, not noticing when Rozu approached him.

“Hey, you,” Rozu said, the Devourer turning to him and staring.

“Can I help you, sir?” he asked.

“Let me look at that book,” Rozu requested. He held out a hand and the Devourer hesitated before placing his journal in his hand.

Hmmm, yeah, this works… Rozu thought as he began ripping pages out. The Devourer looked startled, but Rozu moved the book away from him.

“I’m just taking a few!” He told him and the Devourer recoiled. He then threw the book back at him, the man fumbling for his book in the air. Really? Just use your powers! Rozu chided internally, but he headed towards an empty spot in the field to test it out.

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“Are you going to eat that?” Fezashi asked.

“What? You want some?” Rozu asked in turn before chuckling.

He began by ripping a scrap of the paper off and then placed it on his tongue. He Devoured the thin scrap and the change started spreading across his body. It felt lighter, but weaker along with it, like he was thinning somehow. Crinkles appeared on his body at odd angles, mostly near his joints. His skin lightened as well, from the tan that he usually sported to a paler shade.

Now, we’re going to see what this is all about. Rozu performed a kata, one that most Devourers had learned for their training. He twisted, ran, jumped, kicked and punched the air all in the effort of finding out how strong the form really was.

But throughout it all, he couldn’t find what made it so great. He could move a bit better he supposed, but his muscles were also weakened by it. He felt like he could rip apart at any moment, like actual paper. How did Dero do it? Rozu thought, as a nut came flying through the air.

Rozu channelled his bewl into his body and strengthened it, ducking so fast it amazed him. He dodged the acorn and looked to its source, finding the same Devourer as before grinning awkwardly and apologizing.

“That was great! You’re like a cat with those reflexes,” Fezashi applauded, but Rozu’s attention was elsewhere.

So, he used both. But where did the old man learn this? It was an esoteric style for any Devourer. They’re supposed to be offensive focused fighters, so why bother with all the dodging and running. Hmph… he’s a coward, then.

Rozu kept the bewl running only so long as the transformation remained, till the last bit of paper was out of his body.

“Do you need more?” Fezashi asked as he leaned down to rip another piece.

“No, I’ve already got everything I need from this,” Rozu replied.

“What about something else?” Fezashi asked.

“What do you mean?” Rozu asked.

“What about water? Air? Cloth?” Fezashi fired off a number of suggestions like that, as if waiting for a reply would take too long for his imagination.

“Every one of those is horrible. Water would turn me into jelly. There’s a reason we don’t use that. Air is even worse, while Cloth would turn me into a walking bit of embroidery,” Rozu explained.

“Hmm….” Fezashi held out his hand in front of Rozu.

“Can you turn into me if you take a bite? Just a small one?” he asked.

“…Yes, but…” Rozu turned away from the boy.

“There are reasons not many of us do it. It’s… an uncomfortable process,” Rozu said nothing more on the matter further than that. His hands shook at the memory of when he’d tried it. I’m not afraid. It’s just not right what happens when you do it.

“Oh… okay,” the boy replied. He didn’t ask any more of Rozu, who set back into his daily training instead. He focused on quick jabs that day, hitting the wooden dummy in front of him as fast as he could.

Fezashi tried giving him pointers, but the boy really wasn’t a fighter, because all of his suggestions were absurd.

“What if you make one arm out of metal and the other out of rock?”

“The power doesn’t work like that! It’s all across the body!” Rozu told him, annoyed. Every few moments he’d have to stop and lecture Fezashi on how his powers actually worked. And every time he failed to notice that the boy took pleasure from the lessons instead of thinking of them as reprimanding.

Rozu tried to hit the dummy faster and faster each time, even with the strength of iron weighing him down. Maybe if I make it slower, he thinned the line of bewl connecting to his powers, making him less iron and more man. It sped him up, enough that he could do a flurry of blows against the dummy.

Left hook, right jab. Right hook, left jab. He kept hitting the dummy over and over, chips of wood flying off of it as he did. It shook in its place on the ground, Fezashi having to help with standing it up. The boy shook at every impact, but Rozu didn’t notice.

His eyes narrowed till all he saw was Dero in front of him. Not the surroundings, not the people around him, not even Fezashi. All that was between Rozu and his pride was Dero. The one who’d shamed him. The one who’d gotten away. The one who let him leave. As if it wasn’t worse than giving him death.

What was the old man thinking of now? Was he gleeful in embarrassing Rozu? Or was he planning his next assault. Maybe he wanted another chance at him just as Rozu did. But you won’t get it, old man. I’m going to kill you. And I’m going to make it hurt.

He hit the dummy so hard the face of it blew off and landed several feet away. Rozu huffed, the skin of his knuckles raw from the constant blows. Fezashi had closed his eyes, and some splinters of wood were in his hair that Rozu noticed.

“A-are you done?” he asked, opening a single eye to look up at Rozu. He turned towards the head of the dummy, the one that was still too close by. I will never be defeated by you again.

“No, not for today.”