After completing the demonstration of his signature technique, Phonikalachalara, Lakshman moved onto demonstrating three other techniques to his sister, Indira. The three other techniques are Maga Distrab, Phoenix Portal, and Restoration.
He demonstrated by first informing his sister, “Now, this is a technique that I commonly use to disable, destroy, or counter the spells of my opponents. I call it Maga Distrab.”
“Maga… Distrab?” She asked curiously, tilting her head in puzzlement. “What language is that in, annayya?”
“It’s in the ancient tongue that is lost and forgotten by now,” he told her with a smile.
“Okay but can the name be translated to the Human Language of today?”
“I believe so. Let me think… Maga Distrab… basically if it’s in the current era, it’ll be called Magic Destroyer.”
“Wow! Magic Destroyer! That’s quite the epic name!” She reacted excitedly. Becoming curious, she asked, “What about Phonikalachalara, annayya? Does it end with Destroyer as well?”
He shook his head and said, “No. Technically, it would’ve been called Phoenix Destruction Wave but because it has a mix of different characters when I invented it, I suppose I would’ve called it Wave of the Phoenix Destruction.”
“Wave of the Phoenix Destruction. That’s a long name,” she remarked.
“Which is why it’s called Phonikalachalara for shorter sake,” he replied with a smile. “So, ready to observe Maga Distrab?”
“Yes!”
Nodding, he turned and gestured for Valerian to come and join them. When he did, Lakshman smiled and requested him to attack him with anything simple.
“Attack you? Um…? Is it fine?” The Storm Titan asked curiously.
“Yes. Go ahead,” said his comrade with a smile.
Having no choice, Valerian aimed his hand at him and said, “Water Rocket!”
In an instant, a magic circle formed in front of him before a jet of water flew out of it at high speed. Before it could reach its target however, Lakshman smiled and waved his hand at it as if he was swatting an insect. The moment that he did, a powerful wave of wind blew towards the incoming wave and smashed into it, causing the attack to get nullified and destroyed with the sound of breaking glass.
“Huh?” Valerian reacted in amazement.
“Wow! So that’s Magic Destroyer?” Indira asked while jotting down notes on her writing pad. “Seems very useful and dangerous, although I do wonder what would happen if such a spell meets another counter spell.”
“It would get nullified,” stated Lakshman simply much to his sister’s surprise. “I’ve already come across enemies that utilised counter spells against my attacks, rendering my efforts futile.”
“You mean… like the battle with the Calamity Titan?” Indira asked curiously, and he nodded in assent. “Really? But then, is it really alright for me to know about these techniques, annayya? I just reaslied… you’ve told me two of your best techniques so far! What if people use this information against you?”
To that, her brother let out a light laughter before he smiled and said, “It’s okay. They’re only four techniques. I may as well be hiding over 100 techniques if they really need to pick a fight with me. So, don’t worry about it and use it for your assignment.”
“But… Annayya...!” She asked, looking worried.
Lakshman, on the other hand, smiled and said, “Anyone can choose to use whatever methods they have against me, and it’s not limited to using my own techniques against me. That’s why I tell you this, so remember: a master doesn’t always teach his disciplines everything he knows. He will surely have secrets and trump cards up his sleeve in case things turn against him. Remember that saying, okay?”
She blinked in surprise before understanding and saying, “Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
After that, he went on to demonstrate the Phoenix Portal, to which his sister was once again worried about its uses. However, he reassured her that no matter how the people were able to use it for themselves, the portal will be limited to only the places they know and it does not let them directly walk into someone’s room or bedroom.
“So, you can be rest assured that my technique will actually help preserve privacy and safety,” he told her cheerfully.
“That’s one bright side to it,” she remarked with a smile. “Then, what’s the fourth technique, annayya?”
“Restoration,” he told her, and she looked surprised.
“The Emperor Ranked Healing Spell?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“It’s not a healing spell to be exact. It’s actually a reversal of time,” he explained, and she widened her eyes in alarm.
“A reversal… of time?” She reacted in amazement. “I don’t understand, annayya.”
“Mmm,” he made a sound as he was thinking of how to help her understand. As he was glanced around, he noticed the scar on his arm and smiled as he said, “Here. Take a look at this, Indira.”
She looked towards where he wanted and saw a long scar running down from his elbow to his hand on the back-end of his arm. This was not the first time she saw it and just assumed her brother did not want to heal that wound.
“This is the injury I sustained quite some time ago,” he told her, and she nodded as she too figured it out. “So, if I were to injure myself,” and he gathered energy in his two fingers and swiped them against his arm, causing the skin to tear and blood to flow out.
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“Annayya!” She exclaimed in shock and worry.
“It’s fine,” he told her reassuringly while raising a hand to stop her. “I’m going to use Restoration. Watch,” and he began applying Restoration to the injury he inflicted on himself.
In an instant, his arm was surrounded by green light and the wound closed while the blood disappeared from view. She noticed this and understood that his injury was healed, but she could not understand why the long scar was not being healed. This made her assume her brother was purposefully not letting the healing magic work on that scar for some reasons only known to him.
Once done, he turned back to her and asked, “It healed my injury but not the scar. Are you perhaps wondering why?”
“You probably just didn’t want it healed?” She asked, but he shook his head in denial.
“Wrong. The spell just couldn’t heal an injury that happened over a year ago,” he told her, and she looked at him in surprise. He smiled as he seemed to understand what she was thinking and explained, “You see, I do want to heal that scar that happened so long ago but… restoration won’t restore what happened beyond the limit of one year.
Say for example you lost an arm in an accident and wanted it restored within a year. Restoration will return you your arm, the arm you get is not a brand-new arm; it just restores your arm back to the last state it was in before the accident. As such, if your arm has a slight problem or so before the accident, then you’ll still be inflicted by that problem even after the restoration.”
“Oh…! I get it now…!” She said in understanding, finally realising why the Restoration spell was different to the other spells. Then she curiously asked, “Can it restore the dead?”
To that, he shook his head and said sadly, “It can restore decimated land, reconstruct buildings, but it cannot return the dead. If there’s a spell capable of doing that, then it’s the Real Fiction spell that only Sevedant knows about.”
“Real Fiction can do that?!” She asked in amazement.
“Yes, but only those deaths that occurred within its period of activation,” he told her in a serious voice, “and this includes only the area that it is activated in. So, if the spell is activated only in the Human Continent during the Phoenix Calamity War, those that died in the other continents will remain dead whereas those that died in the Human Continent will come back along with the restoration of all the destroyed landscape.”
“Oh! Is that what I saw when everything seemed to get restored after you fell through that void portal at the end of the war?” She asked, and he nodded in assent.
“Yes. When I realised how much loss we suffered during Orb’s rampage, I had Sevedant keep the spell active to protect the entire world from possible decimation,” he said and looked a little disgruntled. “I… think I put Sevedant in a really tight bind because of the amount of strain it would’ve had on him to cover the entire world and its people but… he was the only one capable of using that spell, so…” and he shrugged his shoulders in resignation.
“Couldn’t you have learnt it as well?” She asked curiously.
“I… probably could,” he responded a little hesitantly, “but Sevedant refused all of my attempts to learn it. So, I guess there are reasons only best known to him about why he didn’t want to pass on that technique.”
“Well, I can assume it being a destructive power and one that could lead to false hope that you could come back to life when there is the option to select where and when and what the spell will actively cover,” she replied, and he nodded in agreement.
“Yes. That is a possibility,” he replied in agreement. Then he clapped his hands and said, “I guess that’s that! Did that cover the requirements for you to complete your assignment, Indira?”
“Yes, annayya! It did! Thank you so much! You’re the best!” She said and ran towards him before leaping onto his back.
“Woah now! Careful!” He reacted in surprise, grabbing hold of her to ensure she would not fall off his back while happily laughing.
Like that, the brother and sister headed towards where the rest of them were while Priya and Valerian rose to their feet.
“I take it you’re done?” Priya asked her twin sister.
“Yes!” Indira replied happily while being given a piggyback ride by her brother.
Seeing her twin enjoying her time while riding on her brother’s back, Priya breathed a sigh and said, “Don’t enjoy it too much.” Then she turned to Valerian and asked a little eagerly, “Can we go out there? It’s our turn now.”
“Ah. Sure,” he told her, reacting in surprise by her change of attitude towards her brother and to himself.
Indira watched them go before an innocent smile appeared on her face as she asked her sister, “Are you perhaps… jealous, Priya?”
This stopped her twin in her tracks and made her turn to look indignantly at her, red faced and exclaimed, “What?! Of course not!”
“But your reaction doesn’t match your words,” said Indira insistently with a cheeky smile. Then she asked her brother, “Annayya, please give Priya a piggyback ride also after her session is over.”
“Yeah. I can do that if she wants,” replied Lakshman, looking happily at Priya.
“I didn’t ask for it, and you don’t go along with it so meekly!” Priya told them both in an annoyed voice and turned away to walk towards the open field with Valerian.
As she and Valerian got away from them, the Storm Titan turned to her and asked, “Do you hate it that much?”
“I… I don’t hate it,” she replied weakly.
“Then you like it,” he said in a statement.
“I… I suppose so but… do I have the right?” She asked him weakly.
“What do you mean? He’s your brother. Surely you have the right to be pampered by him,” he told her coolly.
“Yes, but… I mistreated him… I almost hated him for… for not being there when the decimation of our family happened,” she told him through gritted teeth and clenched fists.
He looked at her for a moment in silence before smiling a little as he said, “In that case, your crime is a lot easier to forgive than mine.”
“What?” She asked, looking surprised. “What did you do?”
Valerian placed a hand on his chest and said, “I suppose your brother hasn’t informed you well enough about me but… I’m a Leviathan and the last of my kind living in this world where I slept through all this time at the bottom of the sea. When I awoke, from the memories I had intact from my past time, I mistook your brother for the man that decimated my clan and attacked him with blind rage. In doing so, I nearly caused problems for his new born children and yet… despite my blunder, he still forgave me and even let me join the ranks of the Nine Pillars of Power as the Storm Titan. Such is the great depth your brother has in showing mercy to his enemies and willingness to forgive and forget the wrongs done to him by others. So, being related by blood and the fact that your shortcomings were due to immaturity is enough proof that you can be forgiven for your misdeeds. So, please accept your mistakes and face him, face the brother that you’ve missed so long. It’s what you have, something that I no longer can do at this time.”
He looked suddenly sad at the thought of being the last of his kind alive with no family or relative other than the Phoenix Titan and those close to him. Priya looked at him with a saddened look on her face before she made a smile and grabbed his hand to his surprise.
“You’re not alone, Val! You have my brother, you have comrades, and most of all, you have me! We’re friends!” She told him brazenly with a bright smile.
For a moment, he stared at her in surprise before her words sunk in and made him blink rapidly in alarm. Then his face turned bright red, and he looked suddenly embarrassed, causing him to turn away from her while muttering to her.
“P-Please… let go of my hand…”
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know you disliked it,” she said with a saddened look.
“No! I didn’t say I disliked it!” He told her and gripped her hand firmly, causing her to flinch from the sudden pain. Realising this, he turned back to look at her in alarm and said apologetically, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t… I didn’t mean to grip so tightly!”
He let her hands go and as she retreated her hand to examine it, she turned to smile up at him coolly.
“Despite you looking so skinny, you certainly hold a lot of strength. I’m impressed,” she said to him and smiled sweetly.
Valerian looked at her bright smile and felt his face turning bright red before he turned away and asked, “Can we… start already?”
“Sure,” she said, her smile shining radiantly on her face as she pulled out her writing pad and held a pen at the ready to jot down notes on it.