Dominant’s POV
“Yes, yes, it’s even better than I expected!” Ango declared as he turned Dominant towards a mirror. “Tell me what you think.”
Dominant had never seen himself look so…dominating. The fabric was slick and comfortable with rich crimson trim and a sheen that made it appear like liquid. There were shades of black so deep they looked like shadows and some that were closer to gray. The high collar and spiked bracers were also new features that made him feel like a proper warrior, a knight, or a lord in a way the other clothes didn’t. Ango had skipped the cape, but Dominant didn’t mind. He agreed the outfit turned out much better than the sketch.
“I like it.”
Ango grinned. “Of course you do, I’m a master and I knew the moment I saw you that you would be an excellent canvas. Now then, there’s just one final touch.”
The man spun on his heels, practically running into a back room. He emerged with a large box in his hands. “Here, open it,” Ango said, holding the box out to Dominant.
He took the box and lifted the lid, revealing a set of black armor made of a light metal scales that reminded Dominant of the mine. It didn’t look like any armor Dominant had ever seen before and when he picked it up he discovered it was all one piece and there didn’t appear to be any method for putting it on.
“You need magic,” Ango explained. “It’s like the suites magistrates wear, but I’ve modified it a bit. I was told you can’t use mana reliably, but that means you don’t have access to the best forms of protection. That’s why I came up with this.”
Dominant was confused. “But you said I need magic to use it, that means I still can’t use this suit.”
Ango shook his head. “This suit is designed specifically for you Dominant, to put it on you need only touch here,” Ango pointed to a spot with a jagged pattern. “with any crystal. This suit can do much more than you might guess though. Trying using different crystals here while wearing the suit and let me know what you think of the various effects.”
Dominant stared at the armor for several moments unsure what to make of it. He wasn’t sure how useful it would be or even if it would protect him in battle, but he thought it was at least worth trying and it would be better than having no defense at all. He thanked Ango for the gift and then headed for the door.
“You’ll definitely make an impression on the other lords,” Ango called after him.
Dominant paused at the threshold. “Do you think they’ll take me seriously?”
“Of course, I do! And when you come back from Stellanorte, everyone else will too.”
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Dominant felt a little silly wearing the armor, but he had to admit it looked good. The metal was lightweight and surprisingly comfortable. It fit him so well that it didn’t even chaff when he moved his arms and legs. He could wear it under his clothes and no one would notice.
He didn’t know how the doctor’s device would turn out, but he hoped it would still work while he wore the armor. So far he hadn’t noticed any problems, and as far as he could tell there was no difference in how magic worked when he was in the armor. However, the armor itself seemed to be capable of interacting with mana in some way and Dominant worried that might cause some unexpected problems.
“It’s reeeeaaadddyyyy!” A man yelled as he ran down the hall outside Dominants room. “It’s ready, it’s ready, it’s ready, it’s ready!”
Doctor Garnold was like a child with a new toy as he ran into Dominant’s room. “Sorry to intrude, but I wanted to show you the device I made. I call it ‘the Dominator.’“
The device was actually three devices, each small enough to fit in his palm.
Dominant reached for a piece, but the doctor pulled it back saying, “I said it’s ready, but it actually still needs something, a connector of sorts. I have a theory about using your body for the connection, but I’d like to test it in the lab first, to be sure.”
Dominant was surprised. “Test it? How?”
Doctor Garnold grinned, “Well, the way your body manipulates mana is unique, and I believe that you could, in theory, act as a sort of circuit allowing you to take in mana from the prongs, store it at in and then release it from the prongs. It’s a bit complex to explain; all you really need to know is if it works.”
Dominant nodded. “I think I understand.”
The doctor rubbed his chin, “Well, if you think you understand from that explanation, you probably don’t, but you don’t really need to understand it. You just need to let me use you for the experiments.”
Dominant had no idea how to respond. He was confused, a little worried, and he wondered what kind of experiment he was going to be involved in. Ultimately though, he knew he would do anything to use magic so he went with the doctor.
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The doctor’s lab was a mess, papers and various devices were scattered across the floor, tables, and desks and there were books on nearly every flat surface. Some books were open, but the majority were stacked in precarious towers that appeared to be on the verge of collapsing. There were at least a dozen variations of the handheld devices scattered all around the room. They came in a variety of sizes and shapes, but the general design was the same. Three small metallic objects, two with a rod shape and one a cube.
Doctor Garnold grabbed Dominant and pulled him to the center of the room where a strange circle was drawn on the floor. “Stay there and…” the doctor pressed the cube against his lower back and felt pressure at the same time as he heard metallic clicking. “…mana scales…you shouldn’t be using such things. How did you even—”
“Ango designed it specifically for me. I don’t really understand how it works yet, I’m not really sure he does either. He mentioned experimenting by using different crystals on it.” Dominant shrugged. “I just thought I’d give it a try.”
Garnold smiled. “This will make things easier!” He declared already tinkering with the rod shaped pieces. As he worked, he explained, “This back piece here, it’s like a battery…sort of. And these little rods are the input and output. They’ll send mana along your suit to the battery pack and if you want to cast a spell it’ll come out from the prong in your right hand.”
By that time he was done fiddling and handed the devices to Dominant, placing one in his left hand and the other in his right.
“As long as you’re hold it—”
A pulsing beam extended about three feet from one end of both rods. The beam was flat, hot, and vibrating audibly against the air. Dominant thought they resembled swords, only he imagined they might be a bit more dangerous than a typical sword. He remembered seeing Talent use a spell that was like this. He had called it a mana blade and it was able to cut through stone with ease.
“Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing? Don’t move, you’ll kill yourself!” Garnold screamed, his voice a mix of fear and excitement. “I was trying to tell you, they’ll activate automatically.”
Dominant froze. He had already figured that out, though he thought that warning should have come before the doctor put the devices in his hands.
“Tap the dead end on your leg and it’ll shut off.” The doctor said, pointing at the leg of his suit. “The mana in the suit is what controls them. You can use them together or one at a time, but they’re most deadly when you—no, no I can’t spoil it.”
Dominant nodded and did as the man instructed, tapping the rod in his right hand on the suit. The mana blade fizzled from existence then he repeated the motion with the other blade.
Doctor Garnold chuckled, “Well, that was exciting, wasn’t it? Now, if you don’t mind, can we get started on the experiment? I want to make sure the advanced functions work properly.”
Dominant nodded, moving to tap both rods, but the doctor stopped him by holding out a hand. “You can activate them like that if you want, but you can also send a bit of mana to the rod you want active and as long as you maintain the flow of mana it’ll work fine.”
“But, what about my—”
“That battery on your back will handle it. It’s got two functions. The main job is to store up excess mana incase you need to cast something big, but it also ensures that a small channel of mana going to each prong produces a mana blade and nothing else. It may change elemental affinity based on your mana, but it won’t explode or shoot out random spells. To cast a spell with the built up mana you’ll need to—no, no I’m getting ahead of myself again.”
Doctor Garnold gestured for Dominant to try and activate the blades, which he did. The doctor grinned, nodding and laughing as he clapped his hands.
“Good, that’s good. Now, just hold it for a few seconds and then I’ll show you how to release a stored spell. Oh, and don’t worry about running out of mana. The battery will keep the spell from draining you to the point that you pass out, but it can only hold about one gigacrys of mana.“
“Gigacrys?” Dominant hadn’t heard the term before, and wasn’t how much mana that was, but he thought it sounded more closely related to crystals.
“If you don’t know, you’ll learn. The short answer is it’s a measure of how much mana a crystal can contain. In this case it’s enough mana to compare with what an average mage can manipulate at one time. If you want to do stuff like what Talent does, or absorb the magic of a judge, you’ll need to find a tera leach crystal and bring to me so I can attempt to make a new battery from it. A nova crystal would be even better, you’d never need to worry about capacity again, but those are near impossible to find. You’d be better off just finding more giga crystals and using them together.”
Dominant stared at the doctor, trying to process everything he’d just said.
The doctor sighed. “Just forget about that for now. You have more important things to worry about, like impressing those lords, and not killing yourself.” Doctor Garnold laughed. “Now, try to release some of your mana into the prongs.”
With a sigh and a silent prayer, Dominate pushed mana into the prongs. They needed a better name, he thought; he supposed he could just think of them as a whole and call them the dominator. As his magic flowed into the devices, the mana blades hummed to life.
Dominant felt the energy flowing out of his body, but only for a second. After activating, it seemed like the mana just cycled between him and the blade, keeping them active, but requiring him to constantly channel. He could feel the power of the device, like the potential for chaos was barely restrained, it was a power that felt…dominating. It was intoxicating and he wanted more.
Dominant smiled. “So what next?”
The doctor rubbed his chin, “I suppose you should practice with the basic functions first. Give the blade a little swing, but don’t put in too much force, it’s not like a normal sword. If you swing too hard you might fall off balance or worse.”
Dominant nodded and gave a few experimental swings. He felt a little silly swinging a blade of mana around a room. He could see the doctor watching him closely and Dominant was worried that he might end up slicing through a table, or a stack of books, and embarrassing himself in front of the man, but he found the blades easy to control. He wished he had something to try cutting, but he could experiment with that later.
“Good, good. You’ve got the idea. With mana blades, it’s about control, not force or speed, but Sandra can teach you more about that. Now let’s try absorbing a spell.”
The doctor had Dominant hold up the prongs then he cast a simple fireball spell into them. The mana blade flashed red and then faded, but Dominant felt the energy of the spell. It made his whole body feel warm before it faded into the battery.
“Now you have a couple options to release the magic you just absorbed. You could send into to blades giving them a flaming effect, or you could send the spell back at me. Unfortunately that function isn’t as versatile as if you were truly cast the spell. It works more like a magic gun, have you ever used one of those?”
Dominant shook his head. “Well, don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it quickly.”