Facing her innocent gaze, as he heard her question, spoken in an equally innocent voice, with a sweet, and innocent smile on her face, Alnea looked at Yuri with a wry smile on his face. Her appearance was not able to deceive him. The white haired girl, who looked like an incarnation of innocence, and sweetness, could be even more scheming than the Lotus clan. Not in a heinous way, of course. But in a more playful way, pulling pranks on him, and often putting him in difficult situations.
She was playful only with him though. And his master. But even then, she would drag him along with her pranks, making him suffer his master’s flicks. Not that he minded. In any case, in front of everyone else, she behaved like a calm, and mature girl, who had everything under her control. Even with Cecilia, and big sis Serena. And they seemed to accept that as her true self. Yuri was, after all, an heiress of the Faed clan. It was only natural for her to be more mature than others of her age. And they were not wrong, in a sense.
Spending years of her life away from her home, while constantly hiding from all the dangers—rival Orthodoxies, and Heterodoxies— it was only natural for her to mature much earlier than her peers. However, because of her constant travels, and lack of companions, except his master, her maturity had come at the cost of repressing her emotions.
It was only after she had met him, accomplishing what she had set out to achieve—finding hope for her clan— that the emotions she had tucked away in a corner of her Heart had begun stirring. And Alnea liked to believe that the Oaths he had taken for her had helped open up her Heart enough for those emotion to express themselves. Or else, why would she vow to help him complete his Oaths?
Besides, it was not like they were normal friends. Leaving aside the fact that they had been living together for almost a year, with nearly a quarter of it being spent in a small cave, jut the connection they had between their Threads of Fate was enough to set apart their relationship from just normal friendship. And though they had not been Wandering the Origin Sea together for a past few months, it had not made any dent in their relationship.
On the contrary, they had felt their connection grow stronger with each passing day, until they had finally even begun to see each other’s figure in their heads. That was probably a side effect from constantly feeding Oren to the Rings of Fate, but once again, Alnea liked to believe that it was also a manifestation of their feelings for each other. A manifestation of their fates being even more entangled with each other…
Considering the bond they had, it was only natural for Yuri to act a little differently with him. And he wished to maintain the uniqueness of his bond for all the time to come. Just thinking of Yuri behaving in the same way she did with him with other people was enough to disturb his Serenity. And though the pranks she pulled on him often landed him in troubles, they always sent a surge of happiness, and contentment within his Heart.
So, whether it was to keep the Divine Treasures a secret, or to keep enjoying the unique bond they had, when Yuri asked him a simple question with an innocent look on her face, but sending all sorts of threats through the rings, reminding him of what would happen if he did not answer her question correctly, he did not dare to expose her true face.
“Since both of you already know about most of my abilities, let me go first,” Alnea said, scratching the back of his head, helplessly watching a brilliant smile bloom on Yuri’s face.
His white haired friend... amiable as she might appear to be, she refused to swallow any loss. In a sense, she was even more competitive than Cecilia. It was just that she was a lot smarter than Cecilia, and much more sophisticated in her ways, leaving no traces of her mischiefs. Nodding at his answer with a smile, one that said that he had made the correct choice, she left the stage to him.
“You already know about my Spirit Power,” Alnea said, bringing his hand back to his side, withdrawing his smile at the same time. “Though my Spirit Power has reached the limit of the Initial Stage, it did so only with the help of a Fortune Spring. I will have to temper it for a while, before I can even think of breaking through the bottleneck to the Intermediate Stage. So, I will be stuck at the Initial Stage for a while.”
“…Your bottleneck might not be as hard to overcome as you think it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“I will talk about it later. For now, continue with what you were saying.”
“You were the one who interrupted me,” Alnea said through the rings, before continuing to introduce his abilities.
“Next, let me introduce my Arcanas. You already know about my ‘Nightmare Arrow’ in detail, so let me skip it, and go on to the other six Arcanas; ‘Gravity Shift’, ‘Gravity Field’, ‘Green Touch’, ‘Shadow Shift’, ‘Shadow Spikes’, and ‘Nightmare Calls’. Of the six—no, even including ‘Nightmare Arrow’, ‘Gravity Shift’ is my strongest, and most effective Arcana. I still have to confirm with master for its Grade should be, but I am sure that it should reach the Intermediate Grade.
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“In any case, as I was saying, by using ‘Gravity Shift’, I can basically shift the centre of gravity of my selected targets for a few moments, allowing them to gain freedom from the pull of the ground. The shift in gravity is applicable only for a short time though, so we cannot fly, yet. Still, as long as I mark either of you as my target, you can jump to ridiculous heights, or even walk along the walls of the canyon. I can also use it during the fights on the Oren Beasts to disturb their balance. It is like an all purpose, support type Arcana.”
Pausing for a moment, Alnea turned towards Cecilia, and looked at her with a teasing smile, before continuing with what he was saying.
“In direct contrast to ‘Gravity Shift’, ‘Gravity Field’ is an area of effect type of Arcana, that indiscriminately increases gravity to twice its initial value, in a small area, affecting both friends, and foes...”
“…Don’t remind about that,” Cecilia said, looking at him with a glare. “That’s your worst Arcana to use in a team fight.”
“It is not my fault! I had already warned you about it, and you said that it was fine.”
“…You should have been more descriptive about your warnings.”
“…The results would still have been the same.”
“What are you trying to say? That I am dumb?”
“Hey, I did not say anything like that. But if you are going to admit it…”
“Alright, you two. Stop arguing. We do not have time to play around.”
“…Why? What’s wrong?”
“Did Lady Nyssa give a message?”
“…It’s not like that,” Yuri said, shaking her head. “You will understand later on. For now, let us finish this introduction as soon as possible, so that we can move ahead our main topic.”
Alnea looked at Yuri in confusion, but found her looking back at him with a solemn gaze. That was enough to tell him that she was not just teasing him, or trying to change the topic. So, after a nod, he continued from where he had left.
“I have already talked about ‘Gravity Shift’, and ‘Gravity Field’. Next in line would be ‘Green Touch’, the only Healing Arcana that our team has right now… Or at least, that is what we know. We do not know about your Arcanas after all.”
“I do not have any healing Arcanas.”
“…Then it is truly the only healing Arcana of our team,” Alnea said, to which, both Yuri, and Cecilia nodded in acknowledgement. “I can only heal some exterior wounds with ‘Green Touch’, and cannot do anything about internal injuries, but it should prove useful emergency situations. It is still an Initial Stage False Ranked Arcana though, so do not keep your hopes too high for the healing effect.”
“No need to sell yourself short,” Cecilia said, looking at him with a grin. “Having a healing Arcana, no matter how weak it is, is better than not having one.”
“…Especially when we have someone like you,” Alnea added with a chuckle. Cecilia, of course, could not let that slide, and was about to respond to him, but he did not give her the chance, and continued with his explanations.
“Other than that, I also have ‘Shadow Shift’, and ‘Shadow Spikes’, Arcanas based on the Mysteries of Shadow branch of the lineage of Night. Using these Arcanas, I can manipulate the shadows of my enemies in certain ways, and even attack them through it. Unfortunately, these Arcanas are pretty much useless in the darkness of the canyon.
“Unless, of course, I use some of my Aspects to aid me in creating shadows. But then, that would not be very cost effective, and would also alert other Oren Beasts in the area. Most probably, I will refrain from using them unless absolutely necessary, or if the situation demands them. That leaves me only with ‘Nightmare Calls’, an Arcana based on the Mysteries of the lineage of Night.”
“Nightmare Calls… Is it like Nightmare Arrow?” Cecilia asked, looking at him with concern, to which, Alnea responded with a smile.
“It is indeed like ‘Nightmare Arrow’, in that it also specialises in creating illusions, but you don’t have to worry. Unlike ‘Nightmare Arrow’, the illusion that ‘Nightmare Calls’ creates is not a psychological one, but a true illusion, formed through the medium of sound. That is why there is the term ‘Calls’ in the name. It should not have the side effects of ‘Nightmare Arrow’. Probably.”
“…Are you sure?”
“…I will know that only after trying out the Arcana on Oren Beasts, you know. I have only recently created this Arcana, so I have not had the chance to test it. But it should be fine… I guess…”
“…Let us wait until we confirm it with Lady Nyssa.”
“That will be too late. We don’t know when master will—
“Cecilia is right,” Yuri said, cutting him in between. “Using an Arcana with unknown side effects is too dangerous. You should refrain from using it until we confirm it with big sis Nyssa.”
“…That’s not what you said when I told you about it.”
“…I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“…Traitor.”
“That’s better than letting you hurt yourself.”
“…Fine, I won’t use it.”
“Good,” Yuri said, nodding at him, finally letting out a smile. “That should be enough about your abilities as an Arcanist. Next, tell us about your abilities as a Warrior.”