-Caelum-

It seemed that Mistress Eunice was right about the rain expectancy. We were met with falling raindrops as soon as we stepped back into the training field, so Vash took the initiative and brought me to a large open library that looked like an ancient, abandoned archive housing sources of deep knowledge.

It had a large and wide staircase in the middle, with two separate, smaller staircases leading up to adjacent balconies, where even more bookshelves were situated. The left side of the entire place was noticeably more illuminated than the right side; the sun’s rays gently piercing through the arched windows.

Vash took his stance in front of the staircase, his hands placed on his hips as he started the second part of the lecture.

“Alright, Caelum, let us start with summarizing what we talked about earlier.”

“Sure,” I nodded. “Grimoires, also known as the manifestation of your soul, allows us to perceive organisms that exist on a higher frequency. The Gaizer’s Productivity Spectrum explains this problem by theorizing the relationship between us, Humans, and the Earthen Beings.

However, upon any sort of interaction one may have with such a Being, it is able to adapt to the normal human frequency, and still cause intervention even after one dismisses their Grimoire.”

“Perfect!” he smiled, causing me to softly sigh through my nose in relief. It was quite the information I had to consume, so, just like Vash had told Vaelen earlier, I did seem to be a lot more… “adaptive” when I actually set my eyes on something.

Nevertheless, he continued.

“Now, let us move on to the next part…”

He then spread his right palm out in the air and fluttered his fingers. He then pressed his thumb against the side of his pointer-finger, as four different black cards suddenly appeared in between the gap.

“Close your eyes. I’ll be shuffling these cards around. I want you to pick one of the cards from my hands when I tell you to.”

With a short sigh, I closed my eyes and could hear the whispering shuffling sounds of the cards gliding against each other. After several moments, I followed his command and picked one of the four black cards. I afterwards slowly opened my eyes and beheld the enigmatic-looking card in my right hand.

It appeared to be a Tarot card that comprised an illustration of an encircled crimson-red dragon in a grey sky that was consuming its own tail, very akin to Ouroboros, but instead of a snake, it was a great-winged dragon.

“In spite of how simple your action was, what you did was something called ‘Advertent Physical Soul Projection’,” Vash began. “In simple words, it means that your body acted through the provocation of your soul. Your soul reacted to an instigator, that being the card you’re currently holding.”

I gently brushed my thumb over the card’s smooth facade and slowly nodded.

“It looks… interesting.”

“These are ungraded relics,” he responded, as the other cards vanished from his hand. “Mystical Tarot cards that represent the four Holy Spirits of the Sixth Angel. The one you are holding right now is the Holy Spirit of Smuldra; the Hex representing the following forms of conjurations:

Enhancement, and Conjuration. Now, you’ve heard me say the word ‘conjuration’ three times now. This is important for you to remember because many people tend to confuse these terms.”

Hm… so, he’s saying that the term ‘conjuration’ has different meanings?

“Conjuration by itself, within the context of Hexery, describes both the conjuration of your Grimoire, as well as the ideology of ‘Hexery’ itself. For example; the ‘idea’ of casting spells and magic under the influence of your Grimoire, is referred to as Conjuration. This explains the ideology of Hexery. If you’re looking at the conjuration of your Grimoire, it explains the ‘action’ of casting spells and magic by using your Grimoire.

However, the official term applied to the ‘idea’ and ‘action’ of your Grimoire is Rahma for the idea, and Dahma for the action of casting magic with your Grimore. In other words, Rahma = the ‘idea’, and Dahma = the ‘action’. ”

“Ah, I see,” I muttered, crossing my arms. “You say that there are two terms that use the same word. One, conjuration describes the action of using your Sequencer abilities by using your Grimoire, while the same word also describes the idea of casting magic and spells with your Grimoire. But to simplify, or, better said, to make things more understandable, Rahma essentially describes the source of one’s conjuration, while Dahma describes the action of one’s conjuration.”

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“Excellent!” he exclaimed. “I’ve already noted the Smuldra characteristics; Enhancement and Conjuration. Since you now know that you, as a Smuldra user, are able to summon magical elements, what do you think Enhancement stands for?”

I took a few moments before answering.

It seemed quite obvious that ‘Enhancement’ equalled to being able to enhance your body or the sort, but, due to his tone, for some reason I thought that the seemingly easiest, most notable answer wouldn’t be the actual right answer. Yet, I was at a loss and decided to go with it anyway.

“I will assume that it allows me to enhance my body? For example, my muscles would grow stronger under the Enhancement influence?”

“You’re on the right path,” he nodded with a closed smile, as the sun’s rays grew more prevalent, casting a large shadow over the place we were standing in. “It not only allows you to enhance your body, but it also lets you enhance the characteristics of your Grimoire.

Let’s assume you’re in a battle, and you’re using the arrows of your Grimoire; With training, you are able to enhance the destructive capacity of your arrows.”

“I see…”

“But! Before we dive deeper into your Hex, let’s traipse over the other Hexes.”

He then flashed the black cards into existence once more. He took the middle card out of his palm and threw it out in the air. And as if the card had been tied to invisible strings, it floated in the air, right before us both.

This was the second Tarot card that comprised an illustration of a middle-aged man in a forest that had the legs of a goat. He held his arms wide in the air as if being embraced in a holy divinity. In his chest, a vertical hole that seemed like a dimensional crack was seen; and from within, two, dark grey hands grasped his chest.

“This is the Holy Spirit of Jegdruuke,” Vash began, as I squinted my eyes, attempting to discern the inner chest area. “This is the Hex that represents Enhancement, Conjuration, and Metamorphosis. Jegdruuke is often considered the ‘defensive, dexterous’ kind of Hex, mostly because of its Metamorphosis characteristic, which allows users to transmute themselves into defensive organisms or structures.

Their Conjuration characteristic is basically the same as Metamorphosis, but it allows its users to summon defensive forces and organisms on their own. And finally, their Enhancement characteristic is much like Smuldra’s Enhancement, but is more commonly utilized for protective measures; such as enhancing your body to withstand powerful attacks.”

He then reached his right palm out in the air and telepathically brought the Jegdruuke card into his palm. He afterwards picked the next card with his left hand, and threw that one out in the air, causing it to float before us.

The third card represented an eerie image; In a land of complete mist, a fair-skinned, slender lady was seen. She had long, curly black hair, was dressed in a black delicate dress that was engraved with ancient carving, and her eyes were covered with a black blindfold.

Her left hand was carrying the head of a youthful blonde-haired man, grasping it elegantly by the silken strands of his hair. Her right hand cradled the head of a young, beautiful blonde-haired woman, which was also held up by the strands of her hair.

“This is the Holy Spirit of Eden,” Vash began. “This Hex represents the following: Exodus, and Manipulation. An Exodus characteristic means that they can ‘emit’ their soul pressure to enhance other organisms, as well as any form of matter. In other words, it allows them to heal others based on their soul pressure.

Manipulation means that they can use their Exodus characteristic to have some form of control over their designated target that has been indulged in their soul pressure.”

He then turned towards me with a smile.

“Are you following it so far?”

“…Kind of, yes.”

“Then summarize the previous two Holy Spirits for me.”

I cleared my throat nervously.

“…Alright! So, starting from the jegduk?”

“Jegdruuke,” he chuckled. “You say the ‘uu’ as a ‘huu’.”

“Alright… So, the Jegdruuke Hex represents Enhancement, which lets you enhance your own body for defensive measures, Conjuration, which allows you to summon defensive characteristics, and Metamorphosis; which allows for one to morph into defensive structures or creatures.

Following that, we have the Hex of Eden. This one represents healing abilities: Exodus, which lets you emit your soul pressure to influence your targets, and Manipulation, which is a follow-up from Exodus, allowing you to manipulate your targets with the amount of soul pressure of yours that is in them.”

“Splendid!” he said joyously. “Finally, we have the Holy Spirit of Medunta.”

He proceeded to throw the final card in the air after the Eden card was put back in his palm. This Tarot card showed a clothless, genderless, human-like entity suspended in the air, curled up in a fetal position. Its face was featureless, and its complexion was as pale as snow.

“This Hex encompasses the Unique forms of Conjuration. The term ‘Unique’ is used for various of terms in Hexery, but we will only need two right now. Let’s start with the ability to develop a so-called ‘Artifact’. This is a term that describes one’s ability to master the characteristics of other Hexes, as well as one’s naturally-born ability to contain characteristics of other Hexes. In other words, people of the Medunta Hex are either born with Artifact characteristics or are able to cultivate Artifact characteristics.”

“…Interesting.”

“The Unique Conjuration only has one single categorization, that being the ‘Artifact’ characteristic. As said before, it is basically a fancy way of showcasing one’s ability to master other characteristics.”

The last card was brought back into his palm, and the card I was holding suddenly released itself from my grasp, and floated in the air, back to the place where it once was.

“Let’s dive deeper into your Hex; the Holy Spirit of Smuldra.”