A true team… Alnea already knew what Yuri was going to say. Yet, when he heard her words, he still could not help himself from clenching his fist, or stop the shudders from travelling up his spine. However, he also knew that he could not let his emotions run wild. As Yuri had said, they were still within Night Canyons, a Forbidden Area. Making noises without any rhymes, or reasons was not a wise choice. But it was alright. He did not have to express his excitement by himself. His Aspects were already doing that for him.
Flaring with a bright shine to them, his Aspects came to life, and began dancing around him, lighting up the cave with their golden, and silvery blue glow. Just to add in some fun, his trickster Aspect even kept changing its colour, adding in all sorts of hue to the light in the cave. Besides, it was not just his Aspects which were going on an ecstasy trip. Even Cecilia’s Aspects were the same, dyeing the cave in their colours, and light.
Fortunately, Alnea managed to hold back his Light element Aspect, saving them from the trouble of Oren Beasts running in from thousands of metres away to join in their fun. Even then, the light in the cave was bright enough to cause quite a ruckus among the Oren Beasts in the nearby area. Those Beasts were not enough to actually threaten them in any way possible. Still, Yuri did not like the idea of facing some tens of Oren Beasts at the same time.
Looking at them with a frown, she released her own Aspect, a bluish white blob of light. Not the Aspect that he had chosen for her. It was similar in nature, but it was a different Aspect. A much more domineering, and fierce Aspect that supressed all the Aspects in the cave, and forced them back to their owners.
“You two do know that letting your Aspects run freely like that has the risk of you losing control over them, right?” Yuri said, stretching her hands out to gather her Aspects at the tip of her first finger, coercing the other Aspects within the cave into lowering their brightness. In fact, her Aspects were so domineering, that some of his Aspects even directly ran back to their homes. However, in the domineering presence that she was releasing, Alnea also found a trace of concern, and worry, one that matched the tone of her words.
“…It’s fine,” Alnea said, resuming his control over his Aspects, while trying to reassure Yuri of his safety. “As long as I stay true to my Heart, true to the promise that I made with them when I gained their recognition, they will never betray me.”
Cecilia nodded along with him, and said, “A Serpian would never fall to her own Aspects.”
Alnea had many words he wished to say to Cecilia’s bold declaration. Of the three of them, if anyone had the highest chance of losing control of their Aspects, then it was her. She was the most impulsive one, after all. But then, he was probably just as impulsive as her, so he chose not to dig his own grave with his counter. Instead, he turned towards Yuri, and said, “We will pay attention. Just continue with what you were saying.”
“…I doubt you will do that, but you are right. I cannot waste time. Let me introduce my abilities then. As I had said before, my Spirit Power has also reached a bottleneck, and is currently stuck at the limit of the Intermediate Stage, just as how Alnea is stuck at the limit of the Initial Stage. And because of how our Spirit Power is still a little vain from experiencing the Fortune Spring, it will be difficult for us to breakthrough to the next Stage in the next month or so.
“We can, of course, look for Fortune Springs, and break through with their help, but I would prefer breaking through with my own efforts. At the very least, we should get rid of the vain feeling in our Spirit Power, before looking for new Fortune Springs. And that hold true for you too, Cecilia. You may have broken through to the Intermediate Stage, but your Spirit Power also needs some grinding.
“In any case, none of us can use Fortune Springs at the moment. Still, that we cannot use Fortune Springs at the moment does not mean that we cannot do it in the future. And so, we need to continue our search. However, we have basically checked through the territories of all the intermediate phase Oren Beasts in the canyon. If there are still any Fortune Springs left, then they probably are in the territories of the advanced, and peak phase Oren Beasts. We cannot do anything about the latter, but I think we can deal with some advanced phase Oren Beasts if we fight them as a team.
“Besides, fighting with our life on the line can stimulate our potential to its limits, helping us get rid of the vain feeling in our Spirit Power. It can even help us break through our bottlenecks. This is why big sis Serena has gone to the Grand Chasm in the first place, to seek a breakthrough to the Fifth Stage of the True Rank. Of course, my original plan was for all three of us to seek breakthrough in these fights, but it looks like I underestimated you a little, Cecilia.”
Cecilia began fidgeting awkwardly, as Yuri’s honest praise forced her blood to rush to her cheeks.
“It was thanks to the Fortune Spring,” she mumbled, trying not to sound too overly proud of her achievement. “If not for the Fortune Springs that we encountered, I would not have been able to reach the Intermediate Stage so soon after I started Wandering. And like you said, all those fights should have also helped. If Lady Nyssa would not have brought me along…”
“What are you talking about?” Alnea said, staring at Cecilia in confusion. “We have been training together for nearly a year. How could master leave you alone?”
“I am not doubting Lady Nyssa. But…”
“You are thinking too much, Cecilia,” Yuri said, bringing Cecilia’s attention to herself. “Have you forgotten about the ‘present’ I gave you on your birthday?”
“No, but…”
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“There is no but. Things have been already set since that day. A Faed never shirks her responsibility. Even if big sis Nyssa would not have thought of letting us form a team, I still would not have left you behind. You do not have to worry. Just do your beast, as you have been doing up until now, and everything will be fine.”
“…I will.”
“I know,” Yuri said, taking Cecilia’s hands in her own, tapping them in reassurance, while looking at her with a smile, and stayed like that for a few moments. It was only after Cecilia’s cheeks began turning red once again, that Yuri let go of her, and turned back to include him in her vision as well.
“That was enough of digression for now. Coming back to what I was saying, you know about my Spirit Power. Next would be my Arcanas. In total, I have created around twenty Arcanas, of which, only eight are of the Intermediate Stage. Not much, considering how I have Wandering for over a year now, and have been at the Intermediate Stage for nearly six months.
“However, I can assure you that all eight of my Intermediate Stage Arcanas are of at least the Intermediate Grade. Of them, ‘Eyes of Death’, ‘Death’s Breath’, ‘Death’s Touch’, and ‘Death’s Arrow’ are from the lineage of Death, while ‘Dark Resonance’, ‘Hands of Darkness’, and ‘Darkness Arrows’ are from the lineage of Night. Only the ‘Eyes of Destiny’ is from the lineage of Fate.
“Naturally, as you can tell from the names, except for ‘Eyes of Death’, all the other Arcanas from the lineage of Death are purely offensive Arcanas. As for ‘Eyes of Death’, I can use it to mark someone, anyone, even Beasts. Of course, they can counter it with some Arcanas from the lineage of life, or simply have someone with greater proficiency in the Mysteries of Death than me remove that mark from them. But until they do so, my mark will continue to chip away at their life force, till they finally die of exhaustion.”
A shudder ran through Alnea’s back as he heard Yuri describe her Arcana.
“That sounds like an offensive Arcana to me,” he said, trying to gulp down his fears. “…Is this the Arcana that you used to kill all those Oren Beasts back then?”
“No… That was from ‘Death’s Breath’.”
“…Are you sure that you are the Faed clan’s heiress, and not of the Kah clan?”
“…It is not my fault that I encountered all those Mysteries of Death,” Yuri said to him, before replying to what he had said earlier.
“By offensive Arcanas I meant Arcanas which attack our opponents directly, like Cecilia’s ‘Blades of Darkness’. Although I can use ‘Eyes of Death’ to kill our enemies, it is more like a negative buff Arcana that deals damage over a period of time, rather attacking at once. And if the enemies have the right skillset, then it can be easily solved, even by Oren Beasts.”
“…Still, that Arcana is quite scary,” Cecilia said, looking solemnly at Yuri. “Since we know which Oren Beasts have Innate Abilities related to the lineage of Life, we can use your ‘Eyes of Death’ at the beginning of the fight to mark those Oren Beasts who will not be able to deal with it. This way—
“We can discuss about the strategies later,” Yuri said, glancing between him and Cecilia with a wry smile. “At least let me finish first.”
Hearing Yuri’s words, Alnea had to call his trickster Aspect to hide his embarrassment. He truly had been acting a little too excited. Was it because he was finally learning about Yuri’s true abilities, about the gap that separated them? Or was it just because of the excitement of her recognising his strength?
He did not know… but at least, he had been able to hide his embarrassment. Cecilia, on the other hand, lacking the right Aspects, had to lower her head to hide her flushed cheeks. Not that it helped her in any way. Still, sometimes, just the act of doing something was enough to help people get rid of their hesitations.
Seeing that both Alnea, and Cecilia had turned silent, Yuri nodded, and said, “Now, coming to my Arcanas from the lineage of Night, I can use ‘Dark Resonance’ to merge the senses of my Spirit with the Darkness around me, effectively increasing the range of my senses to nearly three times of its original range. That may sound a little similar to Cecilia’s ‘Dark Sense’ in effect, however, both the way that the two Arcanas go about achieving their effects, and the actual effects are completely different.
“In any case, for now, just know both the Arcanas have their own advantages. Next, would be ‘Hands of Darkness’, and ‘Darkness Arrows’, both of which are exactly what their names describe them to be, so I do not think that I need to give a detailed explanation about them. And that brings us to my last Arcana, ‘Eyes of Destiny’. An Arcana I created just to gain the ability to spy on fate.
“The Arcana is not very effective though. The things that I can spy with it are often very hazy. And even then, there are too many possibilities that fate could take. What I think might be right choice at the moment could end up being the wrong choice in the long run. Still, as long as I do not use it for making important decision with lasting consequences, things should be fine. Probably.”
“…What’s the point of Arcana then?”
“Let me explain it in a better way. Think of a boat travelling down a river, with every point of the river branching out into several distributaries, which then also branch out into just as many distributaries. Spying on fate is like looking at that river. At my current level, I can spy at only the bend of the river that I am at, and the different paths that the boat can take from that bend.
“For now, I cannot see what will happen further down those different distributaries, but I can see what the immediate consequences of choosing a distributary would be. Not very clearly, of course. I just know if the consequences would be good, or bad. However, spying on even that little bit of fate is too costly, so I would not be using it in battle. Besides, it would not help much in a fight anyways.”
“…What do you mean that it is too costly?”
“I am talking about Oren, of course. It takes too much Oren to use the Arcana. Using it just once can exhaust half of all my Spirit Power. That is ten thousand units of Spirit Power. An Initial Stage False Wanderer would not even have enough Spirit Power to cast the Arcana. Even I have to stay still, and carefully manipulate my Oren for quite a while before I can use the ‘Eyes of Destiny’.”
“…And?”
“What do you mean by and?”
“What else do you have to pay?”
“…You are quite perceptive,” Yuri said, looking at him in silence for a few moments, before shaking her head with a smile. “Do not worry about it. It is nothing much.”
Seeing that Yuri was not willing to talk about it, Alnea sighed, and used their connection to talk directly with their thoughts, saying, “What is it?”
“…Like I said, there is nothing to worry—
“What is it?”
“…A day of my life for every moment in the future that I spy.”