The day after the Null brother’s woke up, Xero had plans to return to Everlight because he wanted to consult Grunt about Ashley who had withheld the knowledge of her other form to have a leisurely life while he broke his back to train.
That said, it didn’t go exactly as planned because the morning he was about to leave, like a raging bull, a certain bearman rushed into the city and right into the Lord’s manor.
“BOY~! Where are you!?”
Standing high and mighty was Grunt sweating as if he ran a marathon just to arrive here. The snow within a half meter radius of him melted from the heat he radiated.
The family that was eating breakfast were shaken by the voice and ran outside to find Grunt. The bearman in question spotted Xero and instantly rushed over and grabbed the boy.
“Oi kid! You’re alright!?” he said as he spun Xero around and patted him to make sure all there was nothing broken or hurt. “I heard you and your folks were trashed by some bandits! Where are they!? Who are they!? I’ll rip their head out from their ass! Boy who did it!?” He shouted.
“What are you doing here?” Xero finally got to ask after Grunt put him down.
“I got a message saying you were injured by a bandit attack on your village.” he then looked around and raised a brow, “You guys sure invested a hell of a lot of money on a little village.” he said.
“That was more than a week ago, father and my two brothers along with Ashley were able to turn the situation around when they suddenly crushed their own cores.” Xero explained, “How long ago was it that you got the message?”
“A day ago why?” He asked.
Xero suddenly smiled wryly as he realized what was going on.
“My my Grunt, your favorite little disciple was in danger and you weren’t even here to protect him.” A voice like a chime said.
His face turned extremely serious as he looked at Xero’s wry smile. Grunt instantly figured out that he had been tricked and shit was about to hit the fan hard his way. Turning around he found Madrid grinning triumphantly.
“Madrid, what are you doing in such a tiny village?” Grunt asked.
“I was sent out here by the pope to set up a temple.” She said.
Grunt was scowling as he looked at her once he realized she had sent an the message using one of the men from her church.
“What do you want?” He asked.
She giggled, “Obviously you.” She said and suddenly jumped and went for a kick to disable his leg.
Grunt snorted and kicked off the ground and jumped straight over the walls. Madrid giggled as she looked at Xero before she lifted her hand and the little blue ice sword appeared. Jumping and landing with a light step she found his mana trail and suddenly vanished in pursuit.
The Null family was just stunned by it before looking at Xero, “Who was that son?” Nil asked.
“My PE teacher.” Xero sighed and turned around before walking inside ignoring the problems of others. This time he was even more relaxed since he would not need to go back to the academy, though he still had two weeks to go before the next monthly test so he would need to start his school studies and work again after the time spent worrying about his family.
It was not unexpected when they heard rumbles from far away and Madrid appeared again with an injured Grunt and a smile on her face.
“Xero, I must thank you so much for the sword, she is so strong.” She said and shook Grunt, “I’ll be keeping him a bit.” She giggled and flew off on her sword.
“And here I wanted to talk to him about Ashley.” Xero sighed but could do nothing about it.
Madrid had said that she would spend the time needed to set up the temple, in particular, she would wait for the settlers to come and populate the small temple that was low on hands.
With the Lumberjacks clearing the space between the Lord Manor and the main gate, particularly the path of destruction that Tiger Scar did, Xero began to use magic and form a large dirt road, about the size that would fit three carriages on the roads.
The toppled trees were collected by the lumberjacks if there were any left and they began to process the wood while the packed road was developed.
Then from Nil and the scholar began to talk about how to develop the roads.
The first thing that was decided was that there be a 20 meter wide space around manor’s walls clear of building. This was a requirement by the crown and is called the Lord’s Plaza. Within this place, the Lord controls and it is were the lord’s own merchants and goods are sold as well as announcements are decided. Also all roads to the gates connect directly, in a straight line, to the Lord’s Plaza so with three gates, each one had a road heading right to them opening the road in these areas.
Only the next day when Xero was leaving his house did Grunt appear glaring at him.
“So you escaped, that was fast.” Xero said.
“Fast my ass, besides having to contend with Madrid trying to cripple my movements she almost chained me down so I wouldn’t escape and I even had to keep healing myself because my attacks couldn’t surpass hers! That sword, you gave it to her didn’t you!” He pointed at Xero’s face.
Xero shook his head but suddenly Edge appeared. “Me and Ashley recently discovered to make permanent and bound flying Swords. Ashley ‘sold’ one to Madrid before I could stop her.”
He said and called the devil out who was grabbed by the bearman. “Make me one so that I can escape from that damned woman.” He said shaking the little devil.
“S-s-s-st-stop shak-king me!” Ashley shouted.
“Give me a sword like that.” He pointed at Edge.
“This servant cannot be cloned, this servant is one of a kind.” Edge complained.
Ashley rolled her eyes, “Yeah, a pain in the ass.” She said and looked at Grunt and grinned, she rubbed her hands as she looked at him, “I’ll sell you one if you give me a Nature Element type Rare Mana stone.” She said.
Xero’s eyes turned wide by how greedy this devil was.
“What the hell would you use that for?!” Grunt narrowed his eyes. Unlike Madrid who was under the influence of her own emotions, Grunt is in a fit of rage.
“Of course I am breeding strong swords. My race makes lots of swords so I need good material and the mana for it is required.” She said looking expectantly.
Grunt clicked his tongue and fished into his magic bag and fished out a green magic stone that was similar to the earth one and looked like a rough gem.
Ashley knew these high power people were filthy rich, even the poorest could pull out at least an uncommon stone out of his ass.
She grabbed it and stored it in Xero’s bag before summoning out a great sword and a sword spirit and gave him the instructions.
The entire sequence of events happened and what ended up appearing in Grunt’s hand was a very large great sword that was almost as tall as he was. Thing was that the sword was formed out of multicolored crystal and it had a blunt edge making it almost look like a shield. When it shrank, it became a small crystal and, like the others, it had a knight like personality. Grunt named him Shard to which it, surprisingly, accepted.
Grunt finally sighed as the sword melded into his body and allowed him to control it with his mind at will.
“Hey Grunt, I was going to go look for you yesterday at the academy before you arrived.” Xero said.
“What do you need?” He asked.
Xero smiled and began to explained the new information about Ashley and he narrowed his eyes towards the devil and grinned. “So a liar, that isn’t a good thing, kid you need to smash her into her place.” He said.
“She will just run away by using a trick with the aura.” Xero said.
Grunt snorted, “Things like aura’s are shared between master and Familiar, you yourself said that the description of the skill covers her and you and improves sword based spells and protects you from magic, weakening it and reducing damage.” he said.
“That is true but I don’t know how to consciously use it.” Xero said.
“Ask.” He said.
Xero blinked and blushed as he realized that indeed he could have asked and turned to Ashley but she turned her head, “Master will use it against me so I won’t say.” She instantly said.
With a sigh Xero said, “Ashley, tell me about the Sword Devil Aura and how to consciously make it work as well as that trick you use.” Xero ordered with the familiar seal.
She pouted and stomped, “The aura… is like a force… field.” She said stomping and trying to bite her lips to stop, “It can be controlled like… killing intent and is guided by it or mana. Mana is… weaker but by using it… master can coat weapons. Only using killing intent can master subdue the ambient mana to allow wind mana to flow in your body and cause your presence to become that of wind. The aura can also isolate the mana in your body and prohibits other from seeing or feeling it through their perception.” She said.
“Killing intent huh, as expected of devils. The aura literally intimidates the spiritual connection in nature that controls mana away from the it around the body to allow the body to ‘become like the mana it absorbs’.” Grunt said.
“Killing intent?” Xero frowned.
Grunt smiled, “Think this scene kid, your sister being raped, your family being killed and your home being burned.” Grunt said.
Xero thought and his pupils shrank as he was filled with rage at the thought. Suddenly the Sword Devil’s aura activated around his body and even the ground around him started to get cut up as a breeze was invaded by the aura and made it as sharp as a sword.
“That's good kid, Killing intent is your will to kill, normally to make it thicker, people usually hunt other humans and kill them. Soldiers, knights, everyone with some combat profession will develop a cold killing intent, common people are usually intimidated by it but a strong soldier can retain it inside him. Killing intent grows the most when you are in a life and death situation. Girl, no more slacking, when he goes to beat the shit out of you, fight back as best as possible without killing him and making him fear for his life. This is the best method for you both to grow mentally.” He said.
“I don’t want to hurt master.” She said.
Grunt snorted and crossed his arms, “Then let him remain weak and die when he can’t kill or make a decisive attack.” Grunt said.
Ashley realized what he meant and nodded.
After that Grunt nodded and looked to the right and saw the burning altar, “I’ve been wondering but what is that?” He asked.
Xero spent some time to explain the new situation of his family and the ability of his brother’s familiar to ‘forge’ object type familiars and making their bodies stronger.
WOOSH!
At the time that Xero was finishing his explanation, a large tree flew over the wall and Cinder appeared jumping over the west wall and grabbing the tree.
“Cinder, what is going on?!” Xero suddenly shouted seeing the massive tree being thrown around like a rock.
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“Ah, lil bro, Boss went to the mines to work for himself and said I can do what I want so I decided to start forging.” She said.
“But that’s a tree?” Xero thought.
He looked at the devil that was now clothed, she wore a child size brown overall that covered her lower body and had a bandages around her flat chest while there was a towel around her neck hanging down her shoulders.
She took the tree and put it in the center of the altar, “That’s a tree.” Xero said.
“I can forge with any material, also it's not armor I’m making.” She said simply and walked out before pulling out her tiny hammer.
Grunt’s eyes widened, “Devil’s weapon!” He said but at that moment she changed to her demon form and the altar began to shine.
The tree that stood with roots and all, including the leaves, stood several meters taller than her but she lifted the hammer and smashed down once the Altar was active and to the surprise of them all, the six pillars formed a kind of barrier and all material that fell out would be thrown to the altar.
The wood and leaves slowly turned black as they began to burn and were smashed slowly becoming splinters. What was amazing was the amount of mana in the forge that was rising and after the 30th hit the wood splinters suddenly burst into ash and two red vortex’s began to form as another hammer came down.
Ten hits later she finally stopped and reverted to her human form while huffing and walked over. Everyone looked as they saw two 5 cm large red cores finish forming and the ash in the air gathered into each core before they stayed in the air.
The glowing on the altar stopped and Cinder walked over and grabbed the two red pearls before walking to the corner of the obsidian altar and threw the two red pearls in the lava and jumped out towards one of the pillars and took her hammer and hit the side over a specific spot and then another. She did this to all six and soon the altar vibrated and went silent.
“Finally.” She said wiping her sweat off just as a pair of short scrawny hands stuck out of the lava while burning and withering.
“What did you make?” Grunt asked.
“Just two Ash Golem Minions, I will need material gathering servants soon so I shall start making them while there is lots of wood so I can be helpful to Boss.” She said but breathed out deeply. “But it takes so much energy and mana.” She sat down. “I can only make two of them every week.” She said.
Grunt’s jaw dropped, “Minions creation is a high level monster ability. You need to be able to gather souls or a spirit to fill their body.” He said.
“My forge gathers a lot of mana, there are fire spirits in the lava which is why they only activated after I threw them in. They just can’t get out yet because their bodies burn up quickly so I was able to bind them to the lava pit as their spawn pit.” She said.
They were surprised that she could do something like that but it made them see that devils weren’t to be underestimated. All three devils in the family had one method or another to make minions.
“I need to learn forging.” Ashley suddenly said.
“What’s all this about all of a sudden?” Xero asked.
“To upgrade my swords, I need to forge them.” She said and frowned. “Master, make me a devil forge skill as well. I really need a magical forge to improve my swords.” She said.
Xero was shocked by this but a chuckled from Cinder made them look at her, “Big sister is a sword devil, for her to make her most basic minions it takes a lot of material to make magic swords, then spirit swords and have them gather enough mana and then forge them. Big sis lacks the forge that she needs to grow older and into a stronger Sword devil.” She said.
These are all instinctive knowledge but it amazed Xero each time how the devils knew about each other's race.
“It’s not easy to make the Divine forge I made for her. I was really limited and had to make really complicated sequences to properly match it into place.” Xero said.
“B-but… i-it doesn’t have to be something like that!” Ashley pointed, “Any kind of forge will do, I just need it to be magical.” She said.
Xero smiled wryly but after seeing Cinder’s ‘Plated Devils’ Divine Forge’ and its magical formula, it was almost 5 times more complex than Ashley’s ‘Sword Devils’ Divine Greatsword and Ember’s ‘Feral Devil’s Divine Devourer’. The fact that the formula contains all the forge’s functions for the pillars as well as the magic formation did not help in making it. The hardest part he had was setting up the lava pit and the unique mana gathering formation that filled the lava with mana.
It isn’t an easy kind of spawning skill to make because of all the intricate parts that are required in making it.
“Hey kid, just try making something, self made skills are always better and easier to mold over time and they are good experience.” Grunt said.
Xero nodded, “Alright but I want to train to use the aura naturally instead of needing to think of really disturbing things.” He said and thought a moment, “Oh no, I need to go do my homework as well! I’m behind!” Xero said and ran into the house as he ran to do the works that had piled up.
“Tell the kid I already left.” Grunt said and Shard appears and he jumps on and flew off on the sword heading back to Everlight.
“I shall warn lil bro.” Cinder shouted but he was gone by then.
Seeing the last bit of the flash that was left by Grunt, Cinder finally stood up and huffed causing a dense black smog to be expelled from her body. “Ah these damned corruptive particles. I really can’t handle my Demon form for so long.” She complained.
“You used it yesterday, what else do you expect. Stop using it so often or you will start to affect your mind and then affect your master.” Ashley said.
Plop! Plop!
Suddenly the sound of lava landing on the ground was heard and the two looked at the forge altar and saw the little 50 cm tall bodies slowly crawl out before being sucked into the red pearl and plunge back in.
“Their growth is quite good.” Ashley said.
“I shall go find Boss once they come out.” Cinder said as she walked to the forge and Ashley watched until the Imps walked out.
Cinder put her hand on the ground and slowly the lava pit began to close and all the the altar disappeared turning into particles of light along with the pillars.
She then picked up the two imps and ran off out of the manor taking her forge and minions.
The following days Xero worked mostly on his school work but after he had finished all the month’s work, he took Ashley to the Guards sparring arena where he began to ‘beat’ Ashley while ‘teaching’ her manners while training himself to use the Sword Devil’s Aura and to incorporate Edge into his fighting style so as to not seem so unnatural his own movements all the while fighting Ashley. He found that she was quite skilled with the sword and he discovered that she had the ability to summon and control all the swords she has eaten and making them float around at her control.
As for Xero, sword fighting, magic using and use of magic itself started to be put through various trail tests as he fought with more and more natural flow.
***
BANG!
“Again~!” the shout of a young blonde girl came from the training field. This field was within a majestic almost castle like mansion inside an incredibly impressive property that was backed by hundreds of servants and guards maintaining the place all of which was surrounded by 15 meter stone walls.
“Young miss, this servant wonders if there is something going on with your dragon?” A young woman asked. On her forehead was a pair of horns that curled back while her ears were longer and covered in green scales. On the woman's back was a long tail while her face was human and beautiful with bright emerald eyes and long slit pupils like a lizard.
The young miss in question is actually Univa who, after acquiring enough money for the entire year’s expenses has been focusing on training. This woman on the other hand, was part of one of the races that served the Crost family for generations. What was once called the Lizardman race, a brute savage race, was ‘domesticated’ as guards and several crosses with humans formed a hybrid. What was impressive about it was that the Lizardmen were stupid, lacked magic ability and had no dragon blood but the new species, that mixed their blood with human blood, actually evolved the blood in a manner that caused them to develop dragon features, particularly the horns. Not only that but they awakened magical abilities and became a rather powerful race.
Seeing such a thing, the Crost family ‘bred’ these hybrids slowly adding more human DNA until they reached the current state where the race is no longer lizardman but a new one called Dragonewt. They serve almost exclusively the Crost family who were their ‘creators’. Males of the species are more muscular and have a unique ability, as they are monsters, to spawn a set of dragon wings which further supports the name. They are regarded as ‘slave monsters’ because of this fact since they develop Innate spells and skills though very basic ones. Still one such skill allows them to communicate and understand dragons and another is to understand the state of a dragon’s body.
The reason this woman asked if there was something wrong with Tryus was because she had done several searches but hadn’t found out why the dragon was failing to do a simple Fire breath spell after over 100 tries. Even if it was difficult at first, most dragons develop the skill after around 30 tries in its weakest stage and from there they grow as they use it more.
Even so Tryus can’t even activate 50% of the spell.
Univa knew of course, she has watched it enough times but she would of course not say it. “No, it seems that there are a number of channels blocked and it is causing the eruption.” She said once more.
She watched the dragon return to the seal and she turned and grabbed a fire and wind mana stone and drained them allowing her dragon to be summoned.
It snorted as it was ready for another round.
“Young miss, maybe his body strength is lacking, maybe young miss should try hunting some wyvern and dragons on the Dragon mountains.” The dragonewt maid suggested.
“Maybe it’s my own strength compared to his, I should probably do some more tr…”
ROAR!
A suddenly roar from Tryus made Univa looked as she saw his throat suddenly light and he opened his mouth. In front of it a small distortion in space and ten bolts of lightning shocked around it but suddenly something wrong as that power suddenly went out of control.
“Miss!” The maid said and jumped next to the girl and jumped away covering a good distance in a few bounds.
When the two turned back they saw that chaos spread that ball of… distortions, suddenly shattered causing space itself to begin to collapse around it and a huge storm began to spread. Tryus who had not moved a muscle was swept up and it roared in agony as it was ripped apart by the chaotic storm and soon the body flashed and returned to the seal but it was flashing and radiating with energy.
Univa felt the energy that was destroying space itself had left traces in Tryus and he was absorbing and assimilating a very tiny trace.
After a moment, the storm swept a space of 10 meters before it began to subside as the ‘cracks’ in space began to ‘close’.
“W-what was that?” Univa asked trembling.
“I do not know but we should go find the master. He is sure to know.” The maid said not giving the girl a moment to react and picked her up and began to run at a very fast pace to the office of the girl’s father.
When they arrived he was working and the bowed due to her disturbing but suddenly explained about the strange phenomenon and the eyes of the man widened before shrinking and looking at the girl.
“Let us go see.” He said and called a few skilled mage and one of the families Identifiers to see through the phenomenon.
Univa bit her lower lip but could only follow behind and arrived at the practice field where they saw the scene of destruction.
“Call it out and have it do the same thing.”
Univa nodded and summoned out Tryus. Like before his eyes shined as he used the two powerful breath abilities together.
With a small strange dragon that had strange abilities in identification magic, it looked at what was going on but when the space distortion started there was need for the dragon as all the experienced men looked in shock.
“Get back!” The father of the family shouted and grabbed his daughter and everyone jumped back a few hundred meters away. Unlike the ‘calm’ first try, the spell advanced incredibly to nearly 75% before the distortions shattered space. This time nearly 300 meters around the dragon fell under the collapse of space. Space itself shattered and an immense energy of matter breaking and the laws of the world's breaking happened releasing and intense power.
The cries of the drake in the center of the storm could be heard and even as its body tried to return it kept begin swept up and one by one, pieces were swallowed up into the cracks and break apart into particles.
The storm this time was at another magnitude and it drew the attention of the entire house as a massive 300 meter wide crater, smooth as if it was carved out by hand, appeared and a black grey energy was coming out from it.
Only after a while, were nearly all of Tryus’s body had been consumed by the storm a small bit was able to escape and hide inside the girl's familiar seal. The part housed the slowly forming dragon core while the rest had been shredded like minced meat.
“F-father… what is this?” Univa asked.
“Child, tell me, does your dragon have two spells of the same attack but opposite attribute?” He asked serious.
Univa bite her lower lip and nodded, “When big brother helped me get troll blood, Tryus got Dragon’s Aura, Dragon’s Claw and Fire breath but I messed up on fire breath and made it Blizzard Breath. I went to a classmate and he helped me make the real Blue Flame Dragon Breath.” She said looking down.
He sighed, “So that’s it. I see, Fire and Ice. I wonder how many people made that mistake already.” He sighed. “That was a Chaos spell. It happens when there is a forced merge of opposite element mana. In this case fire and ice.” He said.
“Wouldn’t that make steam?” She asked.
“No, it's a merge at a very fundamental level almost at the level in which it goes against the law of nature. That is why the reaction was so huge. Chaos, this word holds true to it’s meaning, the spell, when training, it will cause chaos to spread. Space itself will shatter because the two spells are mixed but improperly.” He said.
“So what do we do?” She asked. “He keeps activating them together no matter what I say.” She said.
“You probably have the same start up sequence, you simply need to change that or shatter one of the spells and be done with it.” He said getting up and looking at the massive damage. He knew even he wouldn’t survive a storm like that.
“Get the earth dragons here and tell them to restore this to its proper state and rebuild the practice field and anything that was caught up in the mess. Univa, follow Reina and she can help you modify the sequence. I will not take it away since it was probably fate for you to have both but for now, don’t ever try to do the Chaos spell again.” He said and walked back to the mansion.
Reina was the identifier with the strange dragon as well as a high level mage.
She took the girl and at the very start of the sequence they changed a few parts along the start and in some spots around the spell and changed how they would start up making it impossible for them to be activated together without willingly doing it now.
“Don’t try that again Young miss.” She said and left while Univa returned to her room.
She sighed as she fell into bed and looked at the ever glowing familiar seal and she closed her eyes and felt if there was anything going on. There was no new skills forming but eventually she found a flow of mana flowing into the two breath attacks.
There were some runes and sequences that were shining.
These were different from one another but each on the same spot on both sides they shined.
She hadn’t noticed before but now she did. The mana was flowing into these runes and forming a copy. Then she felt something, the traces of chaotic energy in Tryus’s body flows right above both and as it passed, a copy of each glowing rune was pulled out and flowed to the small energy. Slowly it built two small sequence of mana, one for each spell, before that trace of energy folded in on itself forming a single rune. She did not know the meaning but the two sequence connected with that and the rune was at the center. Mana circled it and formed a connection and bonded the two sequence into one.
After that it just settled down in as it flowed in between the two spells as if it did not matter at all. Univa could not make sense of it but she felt that this rune was something amazing since it came from that space turbulence. She did not want to touch it at all so she just left it be.