Alice raised her hand, and with but a thought, her spiritual force formed a vortex above her palm. A harsh, extremely hot gale blew out and away from her, causing a random tree some distance away to erupt into flames.
Above her hand, a giant fireball quickly appeared. It was at least 10 meters in diameter, and the heat it emanated was enough to scorch the ground and turn the grass to dust.
Standing around a hundred meters away from Alice, Loki stood with his arms crossed, looking at his student with solemn eyes. They were in a training area, meaning that as long as Loki did not utilize any rank 2 spells, there would be no damage caused to the academy.
After a couple more seconds of charging up, Alice's eyes shot open, her blue pupils seemingly ablaze. "Roaring Fire!"
Her hand that had been 'holding' the giant fireball above her made a throwing motion, and the giant fireball was launched. It left a trail of absolute destruction behind it, and even the reinforced training ground seemed to have trouble resisting the immense heat.
However, unlike the training ground, Loki did not seem at all troubled. With a snort and a wave of his hand, the mighty fireball was extinguished with ease.
Alice just looked on with a wry smile and bowed, "I truly still am lacking a lot when compared to Teacher, huh..." He said depressingly, but as Loki walked to him, the man just waved offhandedly.
"Princess, I'm over 300 years old. The fact that you could cause me to have to even defend in the first place speaks greatly about your skills." Loki praised, knowing that a moody student meant a snarky student. Besides, he meant what he said.
Despite attempting to act sad, Alice couldn't help but perk up at his words. It had been a busy week since her promotion to official magus, and she'd spent a lot of the time either meditating to stabilize her powers or learning everything she could about said powers with Loki.
She'd nicknamed her innate spell 'Roaring Fire' simply because she lacked any other name for it. After all, naming it 'fireball' would have been a bit... lame, even if it really was just an oversized and overpowered fireball.
Loki caressed his chin, falling into thought for a moment before asking, "What's your conversion level? I assume it should be around 40 to 50%, correct?"
Alice nodded, "Yes. I was surprised too, but apparently, eating that extinct fruit caused some sort of reaction from my meditation technique, allowing me to directly reach a 50% conversion level." She explained, feeling a bit proud of herself.
Semi-converted rank 1 magi could easily trounce any newly-advanced magi, and while they weren't overwhelmingly more powerful, there was still a difference of at least two to three times their strength. The same held true for a peak rank 1 Magus compared to a semi-converted one.
Despite that, Alice was in no rush to continue advancing. She'd already been told that a new residence was being constructed for her within the innermost section of the Mausoleum, and since she'd already signed the offer to become the official heir of the academy, all of the other troublesome matters were handled quickly and with an ease that surprised even her.
Loki smiled wrily at her answer. "Incredible. Compared to you, I, who took well over 30 years to become an official magus and over 250 to become a rank 2, I cannot compare at all." Loki said, looking wistfully at Alice.
"So... are you going t try to speed up your growth?" After a couple of minutes of silence, with both student and teacher thinking about their own things, Loki eventually asked the question.
Alice blushed a bit, shaking her head. "N-no... I don't want to risk harming my growth cycle. Puberty is important to the body, and I don't want to mess it up." She explained, her cheeks bright red. While her 10-year old body did make her cute, it was also a bit problematic at times. Still, Alice would rather allow it to simply grow on its own, even if it meant having to endure being short for a couple more years.
Loki nodded, "Understandable. As an official magus, even if you're my student, it is inappropriate for me to scold you. Hence, you can do whatever you want, but I am glad you chose the sensible option." He knew his student disliked being treated as a kid, which he'd learned through subtle observation. It was why he treated her and expected her to act like a mature girl, and so far, she hadn't disappointed him.
"Anyways, you've improved your spell control greatly. How's your study of the rank 1 spell models that I gave you?" Loki asked, curious. Perking up, Alice immediately went into a rant.
"They're great! I'm very grateful that Teacher showed them to me. I've been able to learn a lot from them..." She said, talking about all sorts of theories and ideas that had come to her while studying and practicing the spells.
Loki listened, very much interested. While he knew most of the things she said, some of them were completely alien to him. In the end, he had to excuse himself from their meeting, as he'd suddenly come up with a sudden surge of inspiration that he needed to test out immediately.
Honestly, Alice knew the feeling, so she didn't complain despite the lesson ending a few hours earlier than scheduled. She'd also had those moments where she just needed to throw everything aside and keep ahold of the mysterious feeling of enlightenment, and every time, her teacher would always excuse her and allow her to leave.
Hence, for the first time in an entire week, she found herself with some free time. Loki had told her that he'd been able to schedule a 'vacation' for the both of them that would last two months, and not one day more. Apparently, even Loki, with his prestigious status, wasn't able to keep away the academy's darling for too long, regardless of the fact that he was her chosen teacher.
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Running a hand through her hair, Alice sighed in exasperation. Unfortunately, the trip would take place in a year. The grand-elder himself had apparently decreed so, deciding that Alice still needed to be kept at the academy for longer, and despite both hers as well as her teacher's promise that they would return within the set time frame, their opinions didn't matter.
Hence, Alice now had a year to improve as much as she could before she went to visit her father. It hadn't been stated directly, but Alice knew that the higher-ups in charge wanted to keep her here so that she could improve as much as possible. She hadn't yet met with these so-called 'higher-ups' yet, but through Loki, Alice was able to understand their way of thinking.
Since she would be their next leader, they naturally didn't want to displease her too much. However, at the same time, there was a growing worry that hostile factions, even those within the academy itself, would attempt to get rid of her, and that just couldn't be allowed. Hence, they wanted her to get as strong as possible, and as quickly as possible before they loosened the chains holding her.
While thinking such things, Alice was also concentrating on casting her rank 1 spells. She had been kindly gifted over 10 spell models, 4 of them from her teacher, and 6 of them had been given to her by the academy board. While she could only claim proficiency with them, her teacher had already been impressed, so she guessed she wasn't doing too badly.
By the time the sun in the skies fell beneath the horizon, Alice was sweating slightly, the effort needed to cast as many spells as she had wasn't something she could easily ignore. Still, despite feeling quite a bit sore, she was plenty satisfied. Before, she thought that she could crush her previous self thousands of times over easily, but now, she knew that even that assumption was wrong.
The power of rank 1 spells could easily sweep aside anything rank 3 acolytes could throw at it, and even just the radiation from her body would be enough to slaughter them. Even if she hadn't jumped directly to becoming a semi-converted magus, she would still have easily swept aside any number of acolytes.
After spending a few minutes doing stretches to get rid of her soreness, she began to walk back to her temporary room, the one assigned to her until her new residence finished building.
However, that was not to be. Her senses alerted her to danger, and faster than even she thought possible, she'd jumped away from where she'd been standing, landing over a dozen meters away.
Her eyes scanned the training ground, quickly finding the offender. It was a cloaked person that was hiding within the shadows, and he'd just thrown several spears made of darkness at her, and he looked to be charging up even more.
Alice's eyes narrowed, feeling that something was amiss. Her mind raced for a bit, and within moments, she came to a conclusion.
She remembered the hint that her teacher had given her a couple of days before. "Princess, many are worried about the fact that you haven't truly tasted blood before. You should try it, it tastes great."
At the time, she'd been suspicious of the statement despite the humor behind it, and if her assumptions about what was happening were correct, then this man was doomed to die from the start.
After all, Alice could tell that he was a mere newly-advanced magus. Even if she hadn't dodged the previous attack, it would have hurt, yes, but she wouldn't have been in any danger of death.
All of these thoughts sped through Alice's mind at the speed of light, and within moments, she decided on her course of action. She swiftly rose from her crouch, and with but a thought, her body turned to flames, separating into several equal figures that all rushed towards her attacker from different angles.
She couldn't see the man's face, but she could taste his surprise and fear at the turn of events. The man tried to retreat while throwing those shadow spears of his, but Alice was faster. While a couple of her fakes were hit and vanished, she safely arrived right in front of the man.
Her hands seemed to transform as they transformed into claws and despite the man having his protective field that all official magi possessed, he was still easily struck, her claws rending a terrifying wound on his torso.
She lacked experience in real combat, but the sheer difference of power between the two made that factor obsolete. Perhaps, had they been of equal strength, the man would have very likely won, and Alice knew that. Hence, she didn't hold back one bit, striking with everything she had.
The man coughed blood, but Alice wasn't dumb enough to fall for it. She dodged the droplets with ease, barely noticing as the ground they landed on violently sizzled, and instead retaliated by casting yet another spell.
Flames rose from her body, turning into the shape of a giant snake above her. It opened it's maw and quickly chomped down on the man, directly crushing the counter-spell that the man had thrown its way.
The man let out a silent scream as the violent flames scorched him, likely giving him a fifth degree burn all through his body.
Despite that, he lived, and that was only because of Alice's wish for him to do so. Had she wished so, the man would have simply turned to dust from that attack, or instead of the snake-flame, she could have just used her innate spell, which was stronger than that attack by a whole level.
She walked up to the man, her hands returning to normal. Woman, she silently corrected herself, staring at the naked person in front of her, the lack of a penis making her gender obvious.
"Was my performance... satisfactory?" She said aloud, almost yelling but not quite. As expected, it wasn't long before a dull clapping could be heard.
"Bravo! Yes, very satisfactory indeed, Fire Princess. I am thankful for your kindness in sparing my slave, but I've been given orders. Please, go ahead and finish your masterpiece." She turned to the source of the sound, but instead of a person, she found an owl with a human face staring at her with far too big eyes.
'Finish my masterpiece, huh...' Alice thought, knowing exactly what he meant. Honestly, she didn't hold it against him, knowing that his words rang true. He was indeed acting under orders, all the clues so far pointed to that.
She crouched down to the moaning and writhing woman, who was obviously in deep pain. There was despair in her eyes, and she glared at Alice, trying to at least save her pride.
"I'm sorry, but we all have different expectations placed on us..." Alice murmured, placing her hand on the woman's head. Spiritual force raged for an instant, and then it was over. A quick death, a merciful one.
Alice felt numb, but not the kind of numb she'd expected. Instead, she could only feel a dull acceptance at the fact that, yes, she had just ended another human's life.
Her life here had hardened her. She'd long known she'd have to take a life eventually, and honestly, she'd been given a lot of leeways already, and she was thankful for it.
She closed her eyes and remained silent for a moment, wishing to, at the very least, properly send off the first person to die at her hands. She didn't know the woman, didn't know her story, but that didn't change the fact that she too had tried to kill Alice, and that Alice herself had tried to show mercy.
She rose to her feet, staring at the strange owl, who had begun to laugh shrilly. "Yes, yes! Run the rivers red, girlie. Make all the blood-people scream as their souls vanish into the skies... Hehehe" The owl laughed mentally, and even as it took flight and vanished to the horizon, Alice could still hear it's shrill laugh.
"... Creepy." She murmured. She felt depressed now, and without access to a proper lab, she couldn't even clear her mind by running some experiments.
With a sigh and shrug, she decided to just go to sleep, resuming her walk back to her temporary home, something that should have gone off without a hitch, and yet, it had instead gone so strangely.