After the eventful rest day, the training returned to normal, with the original plan of one-on-one training in the morning and small-scale team training in the afternoon. Despite the promise of massive five-on-five battles, the more controlled and sensible training exercises are smaller battles to test out specific strategies, kind of like three-on-three basketball to practice for five-on-five matches.
So the thing on the menu today is a handful of two-on-two scrimmages, with Wu and Lera being paired together, Fatera going with Augen, Matty going with Lily, Shin going with Braka, and Yuna and Ver having their own little thing going.
After Wu and Lera first had their talk towards the start of the week, things had been, at the very least, a little awkward between them. But soon, everything seemed to have returned to normal, particularly if they focused on the subject at hand. And right now, Wu had an idea.
"So...hear me out." Wu said, dragging Lera to sit down beside him as she listened closely, her hairs tied up in a ponytail behind her head, deviating from her usual look yet charming and adorable nonetheless, "You know how your Void Domain is projected in a slightly different way than mine, right?"
"Yeah?"
"And how it doesn't matter how we used it, Void domain still stifles any use of the Wave within it?" Wu continued as Lera nodded at the two now very well-known premises to Wu's original Cast.
"What if..." Wu said, clapping his hands together, "We develop a Cast together which allows us to create Void domain in whatever shape we choose?”
"That will provide more flexibility in battle, true...but if our goal is to use Void Domain as an ultimate equalizer, then wouldn't what we already have been enough?" Lera asked, her eyes blinking as the gears in her head turned. Wu smiled, clearly enjoying the conversation.
"But what if don't have to?" Wu asked, "What if we can make a Void domain that's shaped so specifically, that our allies can move through it at ease, but not our enemies? And what if we make it so that it changes through time, so it actually tracks the movements of our allies, thus giving them pockets of space from which the Void domain doesn't exist, and that they can use their abilities?"
Lera blinked a few times, her mind comprehending the concepts of Wu's proposal but struggling to figure out the execution.
"How would that be possible..." Lera murmured, "An ever-morphing Cast that nullifies the Wave, but only within certain regions in space? I...I don't know how that can be done..."
"Listen to me, Lera." Wu said, his hands grapping onto hers and drawing her attention quickly. Her face reddened slightly, though she kept her hand within Wu's, enjoying the moments of physical contact, "On my world, far more complex projects had been attempted and successful. That's the whole point of science. It's about building blocks, one stacked on top of another, one building off another. We can always start simple, and take one step at a time. Then, eventually, even powerless humans like me can reach the stars..."
"That's very...poetic." Lera smiled.
"No, within the realms of known science on my world, going to another star is completely feasible." Wu said, his face looking extra serious before he returned his attention towards the matter at hand, "Anyway, so here's how we should start. Let's start bringing together our Void Domains."
If Lera had to be honest, she didn't quite get half of what Wu's saying. But it doesn't really matter until Wu immediately tossed away his shirt and started dancing excitedly as he walked towards her as she laid out her own Void Domain over the sandy beach in front of him.
As a reminder, Lera's Void Domain is projected through a rectangular volume, controlled through mapping of the cartesian coordinates nature of her Cast Array conjured from Rapid Layering. In contrast, because Wu's own Void Domain had been tattooed into his own body, it projected outward like a sphere, controlled through the mapping of aptly named spherical coordinates system.
Mathematically, a combination of Cartesian and Spherical coordinates, and transformations back and forth between them, is enough to describe most complex shapes. For their own purpose, approximating individuals as stacks of spheres in a coordinate system appeared to be sufficient.
"And that just involves adding an additional module to the Void Domain Cast on your end, mostly..." Wu said, smiling apologetically before he drew out the plots on a rough piece of paper, "Because your Cast Array is so perfectly suited for modifications, and...I don't exactly want to cover my entire body with tattoos..."
"I agree." Lera said, looking down at her version of Void Domain and the tightly packed Cast lines on it, "You look better without all of the lines."
Then, her eyes widened, and she suddenly raised her head to look at Wu, "I am sorry! I didn't mean-"
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"I know." Wu said, continuing his work even as Lera bit onto her lips and clenched into a fist.
Just what the hell was she saying?! Lera scratched into her own thighs in frustration. Wu is already acting distant as it is, and now after this...
"Here, try to make one of this." Wu said, handing the piece of paper over, "Any maths on paper is simply a manipulation of logic in a computer system, which Cast-writing is essentially based on. So if you add the additional control module in with these logics, it should change a void domain's projection from a cubed-shape to a sphere."
Lera nodded, quickly whipping up her Cast-writing ink and creating the control module. The writing was simple and elegant, yet so clever even as Lera didn't quite understand the mathematical notations left behind by Wu.
Then, the first draft of the new control module was created. Connecting that behind the current control module for the Void Domain, Lera then guided some Wave through the circuit as the environment around them shifted slightly, and Lera felt the familiar sensation of Void domain draining away at her, though its intensity is far weaker.
"Look!" Wu said excitedly as he pointed his finger forward, and a dark orb floated in space like an ominous toy. As Lera conjured up a Wave orb and sent it forward, it popped like a balloon upon hitting the dark boundary.
"It worked!" Lera shouted excitedly, "But what now...?"
"Now, we flip the script." Wu smiled, "The first successful step had been taken, but our journey had only just started..."
That was a simple proof of concept, that the shape of Void Domain can indeed be controlled. Or rather, that the region of space that had the Wave distorted within can be controlled by the Cast Array projecting the Cast at fixed frequencies, thus giving off an illusion of a solid shape of Void Domain existing in mid-air.
Now, they just have to flip the script, instead of creating a void inside of the regular Void Domain, which is what they really wanted. So now, instead of projecting at a specific frequency to create a spherical Void Domain, they want the opposite. They want a safe space that's the shape of a sphere. If we can create a safe sphere, then creating a stack of them won’t be an issue.
It really is as simple as flipping the connections over, and as the Void Domain became activated once more, Lera marched through it with great difficulty before reaching her hand into a sphere of light this time. Then, her eyes widened at the weird sensation before she lit up her finger with a glow of the Wave despite the rest of her body remaining in the rest of the domain itself.
"This is...crazy..." Lera said, her big beautiful grey eyes staring into Wu as he watched on with a big grin on his face. Even though Lera wanted to celebrate her success with a big hug right now, she knew exactly what Wu would say.
Unless they suddenly recruited the Blob onto their squad, the spherically shaped 'filled space', coined by Lera herself as an opposite of the Void, won't be remotely useful in battle, because it’s literally just the air everywhere else. Additionally, the location of the filled space is also stationary.
The shape-changing aspect was easy enough, as all Wu had to do is to remember the equation of an ellipsoid. However, the real-time movement of the volume is much harder. It's not that it's impossible to program the filled space to move across the Cast Array, but rather, the movements need to be driven by the movements of their allies, rather than any pre-determined route.
That was where Wu hit headfirst into his first roadblock, and for the next few days, neither of them could figure out anything that will actually make it work. Talking through the idea with Fatera and Augen, neither had any good enough ideas.
Then, Ver came budging in angrily.
"Why didn't you ask me about it?!" Ver said, picking Wu up by the collar before shaking him around, "Why don't you just ask your allies to put something on so their locations can be tracked?! The Kraken is able to track all the fish in the ocean because of their special scent in the water!"
That...could be an interesting idea. Wu blinked a few times and thought back to an extremely similar technology on his world...
Real-time motion tracking. By wearing sets of reflective materials that are ridiculously identifiable to the motion tracking cameras, typically reflective materials under infrared light, the movements of the body segments can be tracked with great accuracy, barring measurement errors.
They could do the same here...but instead of tracking through infrared, they can track through the Wave. And instead of using light-reflective materials, they needed Wave-reflective materials, that are also somehow able to break through the Void Domain?
Or what about they take it even one step further. What if they could create an anti-Void Domain? As the Void Domain works by creating Wave-gradients that are insanely large in magnitude and small in physical size, thus preventing any flow of the Wave, what if the individuals carried another Cast that will create an equal or greater Wave gradient of their own, thus preventing the influence of Void domain on them?
Similar to how Fatera was able to fight back against the Void Domain. The stronger an individual is at channeling the Wave within their body, the greater Wave gradient they are able to intrinsically create.
That just made everything far simpler for Wu and Lera. Instead of having to create a shape that tracks onto their teammates, they can just make a Cast that helps them counteract the effect of Void Domain!
As they put their ideas to practice, Lera appeared hesitant as she neared the finishing touch on the prototype of the Anti-Void Domain Cast.
"Are you sure about this?" Lera asked, "After this is made...there will officially be a counter to Void Domain."
"Well, counters already exists, and I am not THAT desperate..." Wu said, nodding firmly, "I am sure with your help, we can come up with something even better than the Void Domain..."
Lera nodded, and thus completed the Cast. From now on, all of Wu's squad-mates will be integrated into their Void Domain's battles.