Ash’s POV
The song itself was simple. During my travels with my family, I’d heard bards and bands playing on the streets of town, and my own mother would often sing to us, so I was no stranger to music. Leo’s voice was unusually high for a man, and with a lovely husky quality to it, which when mixed with his vibrato, meshed in a rather pleasant way with the instrument he referred to as a war crime against music. I still wasn’t quite sure why he seemed so dissatisfied with the instrument he himself had created, especially with how well it seemed to match his voice, but then again, I don’t really understand most of the things he tends to get up in arms about. I get confused every time he happens to catch a glimpse of himself with his flying knives and starts despairing, calling himself ‘a damn anime antagonist’. Like what the hell does that even mean? He refuses to explain it.
As we worked, Leo told me and Soph about the discovery that he’d made. My Aspect, it’s related to stories in some way. The reason it Manifested whenever I made a campfire is because of the story making process I do whenever I cast it. And in the same way, the song I just sang was another story, which is why it activated again. As for why it ended up Manifesting more of my Aspect than the campfire, I don’t really know. My top two theories are A), Sailorman happened to be closer to the core of my Aspect than the Fire outside of the storytelling process, or B), It has to do with how personal the story is. Now that I know the connection, I’m gonna start trying to cast more magic through stories in the same way, to get more information, and figure it out.
We felt Sophia’s silent agreement through the open channel. Because it was about his Aspect, she didn’t say anything that might guide him, but the demon voice that Leo called Sean stepped in. “As your tests have assisted me in progressing my own Aspect, it is only right that I offer you the same opportunity. Do not worry, I won’t outright tell you what it is, but if you’d like, I can tell you where to start.”
You know what it is? I couldn’t help but ask.
“Indeed. About a thousand years ago I happened to come across a Titled with the same Aspect, and I recognized it immediately the moment I saw the necklace you gave Desire’s Flame. Now, once you figure out what it is I won’t really be able to help you, as the Titled I came across wielded the Aspect on the opposite end of the spectrum. Think of it like how I am the Demon of the Deep Ocean, but there is another Titled out there who could be the Demon of Towering Waves. We both manipulate the Aspect of Reality that is the Ocean, but the way that I connect with my powers is completely different from the way the other demon might.”
Leo seemed to think about it for a moment and replied, Okay, that sounds good. Just make sure not to make it too obvious to figure out okay?
Sophia burst in, “Wait, this guy’s allowed to help you but I’m not allowed to say anything about it? How’s that fair!? I wanna help you too, you know!”
Leo laughed and responded, And if I ever happen to help you with your Aspect you are free to reciprocate with similar assistance. But what I don’t want is to take advantage of our relationship in order to score an easy ride, because what fun would that be? This help that I’m receiving from Sean is something that was earned, I’m not taking advantage of him. A relationship between any two people has to be built on a foundation of equality, giving just as much as you receive. But you Soph? You have given me more than I can ever really pay you back for, even taking eternity into account. This whole life I’m living now, every friend I make, every new place I go is all thanks to you. Hell, you even built us a damn house. I can’t just keep taking, I have to give in equal measure. However, due to the inherent differences in our states of existence, there really isn’t much that I feasibly CAN give you. You’ve already given me a world, so until I can repay that and help you get your own, how could I possibly accept any more from you?
Silence fell over the connection as my and Leo’s hands kept moving, gathering all of the strands of cloud. Off to my right I noticed the Knight with the stick also gathering some, helping us out and inspecting the material in his hand.
“I certainly see why the great and mighty Desire’s Flame fell for a human of all things. You’re a downright charmer huh?” A new female voice rang in my head. Process of elimination informed me that this was the Veronica that Sophia often complained about and stole from.
Am I? Leo asked with genuine confusion. That’s a new one.
“You’re definitely plenty charming” Sophia stated with a subdued yet pleased voice, “And you give me plenty Leo. But fine, Sean, give the man his hint.”
“Very well,” Sean said with a new sort of tone infused into his voice. A faint feeling of newfound respect maybe? Or maybe it was just a sort of appraisal from seeing someone in a new light. I couldn’t 100% trust my innate magic, as it was already flawed against mortals, so who knew how much it could be trusted with demons? All I had to rely on in this case was my own perception. “Rather than just telling stories in general, try to make magic based on the stories of people you know and understand.”
Leo nodded, and sent back, So rewinding a bit, you don’t really have command over the Ocean’s surface? Just the Depths?
Sean responded, “The more experiments you have me do, the more I think that our Aspects of Reality are not whole. That ‘Unknowability’ concept that you were speaking about earlier seems to be the core of my specific Aspect. Rather than saying I hold dominion over the Ocean, I believe it’s far more reasonable to assume that I hold dominion over the Secrets Buried Within the Ocean’s Depths. The more I explore those secrets, the firmer my connection to my own Aspect grows, and I feel myself furthering along my own path to Divinity. However, along with that, I feel my connection to the surface, to the concept of freedom and exploration that you referenced in your song waning as my Aspect grows stronger.”
Leo seemed interested and said, So it sounds like rather than growing your own power, the path to divinity is based on how intensely you specialize. I wonder how that applies to someone like Sophia, who made herself an expert in space magic, something completely separate from her own Aspect of Reality, but did so in order to sate her Aspect of Desire. Does that still count? I guess we won’t know until we succeed in making her own personal world, but it’s still rather interesting to hypothesize. Though I do have to ask that you hold off on strengthening the connection to your own Aspect for now. I don’t know how that will interact with your mana control in unrelated tasks, and we can’t really afford any more uncertainties.
“That’s understandable. It’s not a particularly fast change anyway, as my surroundings are just about as far from Oceanic as possible, unless you count oceans of flame. I may as well hold off until the job is completed and I can return home.”
As Leo and Sean continued talking, I made my way over to the armored man, stretching out my hand for him to give me the material he’d collected. He gave me the tufts of cloud and said, “A rather remarkable material. Given his blindfold and pants, he just generates it from magic and uses it to make his equipment? What are its enchanting properties? How does he make substance out of pure mana like this? Judging by the existence of his clothing, dispersal isn’t a thing he needs to be concerned about, but why does my mana not go through it properly? I can see the enchantments on his pants, so I know that theoretically it can conduct mana, but for some reason mine just seems to pass through as though it isn’t actually there.”
He proceeded to ask me several questions I didn’t really know the answers to, so I just pointed at Leo, who was sitting down, basically naked, separating the different threads, and seemingly talking to himself about Divinity. The armored man didn’t seem to give a single flying fuck about how crazy Leo looked though, and walked right up to him and asked him all the same questions. I looked to the elven swordsman who was traveling with the armored man with a questioning gaze, and he replied, “Don’t mind my companion there, he gets a little obsessive when it comes to enchanting stuff. I’m Xavier, but everyone just calls me X. That dude,” he pointed at the man who’d interrupted Leo’s conversation, and now was sitting down, helping him sort out the golden strands from the white cloud, and seemed to be engaged in a rather animated discussion about the threads and their magical properties. “His name is Duke, a wandering Enchanting specialist who’s been hanging around the kingdom for a couple years now, learning our language. He’s a decent guy, just a bit weird.”
I gave a short laugh and responded, “You basically just described Leo there, though minus the part about languages. Though honestly he’s got so many projects that all go way over my head that for all I know he IS also studying that too.”
X sighed and shook his head. “Keeping up with a damn nerd gets rough huh?”
I reciprocated his sigh and shake of the head, “Indeed it does. He and his wife are really cool though, and straight up built me my own wing in their house, so they definitely are good people, despite the whole half naked, violent, and crazy appearance.”
X gave me a surprised look, “So you’re not the girl who stole his shirt? A shame, I’ve been having fun picturing him in those pants and clearly women’s armor.”
I laughed at the ludicrous image in my head, and said, “Nah, but I’ll tell you this, the top half that was taken from him: Even more ridiculous. It’s just a long shirt with a hood attached to it that he proclaims to be ‘divine attire’.” X joined in my laughter as we continued gathering the rest of the cloud, working and chatting for about half an hour. Afterwards, we made our way towards our respective dorks.
“-Travel all over, learning different languages, and you somehow still don’t understand me calling you a dumbass. How the hell you gonna have a specific staff for every kind of magic you know? This whole staff could be just two enchantments, one for creating fire, and one for controlling it. And then that leaves room for you to add on all of your other elements, rotate them downwards, so that anytime you need to switch concepts, you just go further down the staff. Maybe color code them or some shit so you can easily see which ring to send your mana into.”
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“At least I know what my damn enchantments are gonna do before I make them, so they don’t end up completely screwing me over! Sure the ‘one cohesive system of enchantments’ idea is cool and all, and I’ll definitely be trying to work that in, but how are you gonna make a cohesive system of enchantments for something completely new that you just have no idea where to start? Language may not be the most reliable, but it’s definitely the most understandable, and the more you understand it, the more reliable it becomes!”
Leo noticed me and X approaching behind him, and without turning around called out, “Ash, if you had to choose between a spell where you knew exactly what it was going to do, but in order to make it do something else you had to come up with another spell to control it, or a whole bunch of spells that did exactly what you needed them to do, but occasionally would glitch out and just do something completely different, which would you pick?”
Duke didn’t seem to appreciate his summation of their argument and called out, “X, if you had to choose between jumping into a field with no clear path to improvement, so you had to figure out every next step yourself, or a field that may not be as reliable at the moment, but does have a very clear and understandable path for improvement, which would you pick?”
The two of them glared at each other. Well, I think they were. To be honest, between Duke’s head being completely covered by his helmet and Leo’s by his hair, beard, and blindfold, to me it just kinda seemed like they were just facing each other. X replied to the pair of them, “I’d choose neither, and just stab whatever’s causing my problem in the first place.”
Duke let out a scoff, “What? You’re lost in the woods, what are you gonna do, cut down all the trees to see where you are?”
Leo chimed in, “How would you get to the moon? Just cut through space and walk there?”
“Yes.”
Silence descended as Duke looked at X’s serious expression, and Leo turned to Duke. “Bruh, I can’t tell if your buddy is a meathead or a badass.”
Duke answered, “Bit of both. His official title is Lord Xavier, his family owns one of the surrounding towns around here, and he’s even got some ties to the royal family. Definitely the kinda guy who gets shit done you know.” It seemed that he took their petty argument about their different approaches to enchanting and decided to extend that to ‘whose traveling companion is cooler’. Oddly enough, Leo for once actually seemed to pick up on the underlying tone and joined in, coming over to… stand behind me and scratch my ears?
“Cool, but is he a catgirl?”
Duke tilted his armored head in confusion and asked, “No, he’s very clearly an Elf?”
Leo put on a smug sort of grin as though he’d won. “Exactly. Everyone knows catgirls are supreme. Tough luck ‘Lord Xavier’.”
X had a rather amused expression as he played along with Leo’s tomfoolery, “Alas, I must concede my defeat.” He turned to me and bowed, shoulders trembling with silent laughter, “You have bested me this time catgirl, but know this,” He glanced up from his bow, his long black hair tied in a braid behind him, with a loose strand gently floating over his face. His eyes looked up at me with a kind of quiet intensity, like the air before a storm, or the gentle crackling of a small brush fire, before it spreads to become a raging wildfire. “I will not lose to you a second time.” For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t tell if he was still joking, or actually feeling such a deep competitiveness. As though somehow, acknowledging a loss, even one as meaningless and purely fabricated for amusement as this one, was something that he simply couldn’t allow.
He then stood up, and approached Leo asking, “So as an enchanter I assume you’re also a ranged fighter like Duke? Probably good to know in case something happens so we can organize.”
Leo cocked his head to the side, saying, “Yeah, honestly it probably would’ve been a good idea to sort all that out along with watch stations, give everyone clear cut responsibilities. But as for me, I’m whatever range of fighter I need to be. I spent a long time just wandering around alone, so I had to have options for whatever situation I came across y’know? The knives you saw are my long range option, magic for midrange, and I’m fairly decent with CQC and knives. Other than that I’ve at least dabbled in just about every weapon you can think of, bows, spears, staves, swords, blowguns, axes, hammers. You’re a dedicated swordsman?”
X smoothly replied, “Yes, and fire magic for a midrange option. I may not be as versatile as yourself, but specialization seems to work for me.” Leo nodded and replied,
“There was a man hailed as one of the baddest dudes to have ever lived, the greatest martial artist. He once said, ‘I fear not the man who has practiced 1000 kicks, I fear the man who has practiced 1 kick 1000 times.’. There’s nothing wrong with specialization, as when you end up in a situation that’s favorable to you, or manage to force the situation to accommodate itself to your specialization, you’ll practically be unstoppable. Swords are going to be strongest against lightly armored humans, and fire magic at midrange would be particularly suited for attacking large swarms in a given area, so lightly armored humans that group up in one area to attack, you most likely specialize in fighting bandits, and mostly take escort jobs like this one right?”
X gave Leo an appraising look, before admitting, “I do indeed. To work all that out you must have quite the combat experience.”
Leo stretched out his hand and shook it, indicating yes and no, “I’ve been fighting since I was 5, practicing various styles and studying various weapons, but I never actually killed anyone until about a couple years ago, when I became an adventurer and got attacked outside of a town. So compared to the average joe, I’m considerably better at fighting humans, but compared to someone like you who fully specializes in it? Nah, I’m more of a backwoods hunter.”
X lifted his sword onto his shoulder and asked, “How about I be the judge of that. Care for a spar?”
Leo paused for a moment, then used telekinesis to summon a nearby branch into his hand. He then used some kind of magic to shave off the nubs and twigs attached to the sides, as well as all of the bark. After years of crafting things with wood, he’d become rather adept at using magic to shape it to his liking. Soon, he held what was basically a three foot long wooden rod, perfectly cylindrical, and he gave it a couple of test swings, checking the weight and balance of it, before nodding in acceptance.
The four of us walked about 100 yards away from the campsite, less distance than Leo and I would go for training, as it seemed an unspoken agreement that neither of them would use magic for this spar, only their swords and technique. X and Leo, as the two about to duel, were off in the front leading, with me and the large, imposing armored man called Duke were trailing about 10 yards behind them. I couldn’t help but notice that Duke’s walk seemed…rather awkward. As though maybe he wasn’t used to wearing armor, all of his motions were just a little too large. His steps were too long, his arm swinging too wide to be completely natural. I turned my attention away from him, and refocused on the strongest fighter I knew, and the person he had acknowledged as an expert. When they found a clearing, X turned away from him, taking three steps.
His left foot went forwards, and he unsheathed his long sword halfway.
His right foot, he brought the still half sheathed sword over his head.
Left, he swung down, the sheath flying off the end of his blade and sticking itself into the ground in front of him.
He then lightly flourished the blade behind him, turning at the same time in the same direction so that the tip of his sword ended up perfectly lined with Leo’s throat, the long thin body of the blade guarding his own at a diagonal, the hilt of the sword being held with both hands right in front of his left hip. The smooth, graceful movements, the nonexistence of even the tiniest wavering at the tip, gave off a worn sort of feeling. This routine, the three steps back, the unsheathing of the sword, and the flourish into his ready stance, these were something he had done hundreds of times, maybe thousands.
Leo called out, “Ash, what are the three fundamentals of fighting that I taught you?”
“Distance, timing, and angle of attack.”
“Correct.” He announced. “However, when fighting against other people, there’s a secret fourth one. Your goal is to figure out what it is without help, okay?”
I was confused, but I figured there was a reason that he wasn’t going to tell me what it was, so I agreed. I paid close attention to the match that was about to begin, trying to find that secret fourth fundamental of fighting that he’d talked about.
Leo turned his body so that his left side was facing Xavier, his legs spread oddly widely and bent at the knees, his wooden sword held in just his left hand outstretched in front of him, his right hand pressed flat against the small of his back. It lacked the same polished look as X’s set up, but then again, Leo had mostly only ever fought against monsters. The few bandits that we’d come across also hadn’t survived long against Leo’s flying knives.
“How good of a fighter is X?” I asked Duke, who, despite tagging along with us, seemed to be rather disinterested in the spar.
“I’ve only ever seen him lose a few times, all of which were duels against members of the royal family, and even then it was a close fight. Between his blade skills slicing all of his enemies into mincemeat and his powerful fire magic roasting his enemies alive, along with the ‘special artistic flair’ he adds into his fights, they even gave him a certain nickname that he absolutely loathes, so feel free to use it when you’re talking to him. They call him the ‘Chef of the Battlefield’.”
I giggled lightly at the stupid name. It wasn’t intimidating in the slightest, and it was easy to see why he’d hate it. Imagine trying to strike terror into the hearts of your foes, and one of them calls out, ‘Oh my god run, it’s the BattleChef!’.
The clearing was silent, save for the sounds of insects in the trees, and soft scattered words spoken by the other 6 adventurers keeping watch by the campfire. One second passed, two seconds, as the two swordsmen looked at each other, gauging who would make the first move. There was about a foot of space in between the tips of their blades, until…
Leo sprang forwards, stabbing his wooden sword towards Xavier’s left waist, lunging past the tip and along the side of X’s blade, X shifted his weight to his right foot, swinging his left side behind him and slashing downwards at Leo’s back. Leo stepped forwards with his right foot, turning his lunge into a charge, leaving the space X’s sword would soon occupy, and Leo brought his left foot next to his right, shifting his weight and making a slash of his own towards the back of X’s head. X changed the course of his swing, twisting his wrists to bring the hilt up to block Leo’s slash behind him, and Leo responded by using the collision to bounce his sword in an arc over his own head, coming back around to attack his face, which X blocked by bringing the sword behind his head forwards and in front of his head. To attack X’s face with the imaginary inside blade of his wooden sword, he’d had to step in close, which X took advantage of by stabbing at Leo after the block, but Leo had once again used the collision from the block as an impetus for his own sword, bringing it back around and squatting down even lower to attack X’s leg, which he protected by swinging his back leg around behind him and cutting his own sword parallel to his body, striking against Leo’s wooden rod. Leo then hopped backwards and when he landed, sprung off to his right, landing back in a ready sort of stance, both of them breathing slightly heavier than before.
The whole exchange had lasted only a few seconds, but in such a short period, they’d clashed four times. If Leo called himself only okay at fighting, then how strong was someone actually good at it? Was he just underestimating himself? Or were there truly monsters in human clothing out there who could make even him seem weak?
Leo charged in again, being far more aggressive in this match than I’d ever seen him sparring against me, and little by little, he started losing ground. A couple of minutes into the battle, he misjudged the distance he needed and missed X by an inch, and once his sword passed, X stepped in, bringing the tip of his sword against Leo’s chest. Despite having clearly lost, Leo had an odd grin on his face. Was he just having fun? “What did I say? Fuckin unstoppable.” This moron, was he really happy to have lost because it proved him right? I accidentally thought into the private channel I had with Sophia.
Her response came through the open channel, “Are you seriously demonstrating that you would rather be proven right than win?”
Leo let out a laugh, and replied, Isn’t being proven right a kind of winning too? Besides, X is a duelist. I didn’t expect to win this. Not that he wasn’t ridiculously good, because god he was. His sense of distancing and timing are impeccable, and in 8 out of 10 exchanges he’d get his hilt to my end, taking control of the flow of the fight. There were a couple of times when he shifted his lines before I even started attacking. He’s an utter monster, and I stood no chance. That would be like Sean challenging you in fire magic and expecting to win. I learned a lot in this fight, so I’m good.
“While that’s very mature of you, I don’t like seeing you lose, so you better kick his ass next time. You understand me Leo?”
Yes Ma’am, Leo responded with amusement, but added on, I’m glad that you don’t like seeing me lose, but at some level you should probably expect it, especially for fights with rules like this one. I fight a lot, but only because I’ve always had to. At the end of the day though, I’m not really a fighter, I’m a tinkerer. I appreciate you expecting me to win no matter what, and I’ll make sure that if nothing else I’ll stay alive and come home to you, but if I end up going against a real fighter in a head to head match like this, I’m almost certainly going to lose.
“I refuse to accept that. I’m your biggest fan, I have to root for you to win. I’m sure Ash over there agrees, no matter what odds you’re up against, we’ll believe that you’ll pull out a victory, so you better do whatever you have to to win. Sorry, but them’s the rules.”
Leo fell silent. Still. Wait, no, not still, he was trembling slightly. I couldn’t be certain, but I think if he could, he may even have cried. After a minute or so, I…felt Leo’s response. It was odd, in that there were no words. Leo had mentioned before that the way his mind worked, he usually had to translate his thoughts into words first, before sending them out, so my best guess was that he just sent his pure thoughts, without translation. Or maybe he couldn’t fully wrap his conscious head around what his thoughts and feelings were, so he just sent through the raw information, forming a vague pressure on my mind, causing my heart to race, tears to stream down my cheeks, my throat to close up, my head to spin. For a brief moment, I experienced the world the way that Leo did, chaotic, confusing, broken. But more than that I was able to understand what he was trying to convey. Gratitude, Appreciation, and pure, raw affection for the two of us who stood by him, who believed in him.