[Sirius POV]
I was inside the royal chambers of that world, a world fabricated by the shifting mind of a human, cursed to live forever.
"Will I be in this limbo, with everyone else here?" That was always my thought, but I didn't see anyone complaining about something like that.
Everyone there lived peacefully as if nothing was wrong. There were people over a thousand years old in there, others over three hundred thousand, and others were only hundreds of years old. Even so, they had all learned to live eternally in that absolute discomfort.
However, with some conversations with the demon that resided in the soul of the owner of this world, I discovered that this was not the case. There were supposed to be more people there, at least millions of people that Luz admired and had saved to live in a fantasy world after their deaths. However, they went crazy with eternal life and asked the owner of that realm, for their ages to start flowing normally.
Thus, within the world I find myself in, there are actually 2 types of essences, the real ones that came from other worlds and decided to remain eternal; and the false ones that are descendants of the souls who decided to become mortals in this reality.
The term "False Essence" is used wrongly so to speak, in my opinion, it is more a fusion between the ancestors essences, which mixed until they arrived in the current generation. I am still amazed at how a world, an entire system, exists in the mind of someone like Luz.
My thoughts about the situation I found myself in soon ceased when I heard that gentle voice calling me, it was Lady Sylvia. I got up and walked over to her, smiling as I smoothed my black cloak over my body.
"Sirius, my child, are you hungry?" She said as I realized now, she had a tray of cookies for me, I accepted them without question, eating them slowly.
"Kukuku. Looks like you liked it, I got this recipe from Luz at a time when we communicated with him..." She said smiling at me and with one hand petting me.
"Lady Sylvia... Any news as to what is happening to my real body?" I asked after eating some cookies.
"I already warned you not to call me Lady Sylvia, just Sylvia is enough." She said crossing her arms, but then returns to my question. "Well, he's been great, he even made desserts for people, but... Apparently he found a Decay Mana Art spell." When she said that, I felt disappointment in her voice, and I just sighed.
"How he find this?"
"Apparently some adventurers found a mana beast corrupted by the Vritra's abilities and took its core, and by some events, it ended up in Luz's hands." She answered me, I started grinding my own teeth.
"Really?... Hm... But were there many?"
"As I understand it, it was just a single corrupted core among many."
"Great, what about Zalgnity's reaction?"
"Apparently, he didn't connect the dots between Decay mana arts and that core. He told me that it seemed to mimic the power of corruption that he and Luz carry within." At the answer Sylvia said, I was relieved, calming down.
"Fine, that means the Alacryans don't actually have access to a true form of corruption... But... What would that be anyway? If what... the Vritra... did is not absolute corruption... What would it be?"
"I think you've implied something wrong. I said it seems to be a copycat, not that it doesn't do the same things... That's because Zalgnity just said it was a mimic power of him, and that if it goes against his true corrupting magic, he would win." She told me, making me think some more.
"So it means that it's not a question of the corruption that those half-basilisks manage to provoke not doing the same as the corruption of Zalgnity... In fact, the question is that Zalgnity's corruption overlaps against the Vritra's." I talked and got a confirmation from Sylvia.
"That's good to know... But even so, the situation isn't so bad that I have to show myself, is it?" I asked.
"No, when things get really tense, we'll do what we were planning. We just need Zalg to trust you more to access the library." Sylvia said, looking at the window of the room I was in.
Yes, the library. In this castle there was an area considered infinite, where all Luz's knowledge would be, this place is shown in the form of an immense library, and it is even easy to understand. The main areas of it would be the recent or strong memories he has, the furthest areas were memories he needed to think about more to remember. But there aren't only memories, there are also spells, abilities, and other misc things.
The reason I wanted access to this library was because I wanted to help him. He absorbed part of my soul when he arrived in this world, but he didn't get my memories or knowledge, just a sense of having always been hated...
And well, that's true, and I thank fate for letting him know about it. I was hated by everyone where I was born, I was considered a freak even though I was under 5 years old.
And even though I had super important parents, people around me still hated me and weren't afraid to show it in front of others. Even my father hated me... He saw me as garbage, as a kind of failure... But my mother, was the only one who cared about me, who adored me and who always tried to stay close to me...
"Damn, I miss her so much..." I thought.
I was still a little impressed by how much my nostalgic thoughts about my real mother ended up affecting Luz, or at least causing him to have visions. According to Zalgnity, Luz had visions in my point of view when he saw identical scenes with similar purpose to things I've been through. But so far, there have been few times.
"My child?" I was soon awakened from my thoughts by the squeezing of cheeks Sylvia gave me.
"Aaaaaah!" I made a noise a little embarrassed at the slight but sudden pain.
"You are so often staring at nothing, stop with these things. Being stuck in so many thoughts is very bad, especially where we are. As we have so much time to think here, spending all this at once will only make you stare the wall with your Mind empty in the future." Sylvia said warning me and then releasing my cheek that was slightly marked with red.
"I'm sorry..." I said in a cute voice and soon I felt a strong hug from her, my god that was heaven.
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[Luz Leywin POV]
It was around 5 am on Sunday, I was still in shock at how excited my disciple was, to the point that yesterday she ended up overdoing her training and passing out from exhaustion.
"Oh my gosh, she really doesn't want to miss her chance to have that cupcake recipe... Did you put a drug on them without anyone knowing?" Zalgnity was talking to me while I was in the bathroom, doing my hygiene.
"Nope. I just put the usual stuff... Maybe in this world there are no such foods, or if there are they must be for royalty only..." I said openly, since I was alone in that area.
Without my mask, I was washing my face a little and using blades of wind to cut the ends of my hair a little, again the colors that are in my first phase of Corruption Will, were stuck on me.
"Hmmm... Maybe if you get bored with magic stuff and such in this world, you could try opening a restaurant for nobles? Or a restaurant divided into sectors for nobles and peasants." With what Zalg was talking about, I could only remember a few worlds in which I had decided to take up the job of head chef. Wow, those were very calm times, most of the time I was the person who only cooked desserts and sweets. I still remember well the people who reacted most positively to my desserts...
"Oh.. The Velvet Girls were cute back then." I said to myself, sighing.
"At least they are present here in your mind realm." Zalg reminded me.
"True, but they've been ignoring me for a bit since world 6483... Geez... They just interact with the new essences." I laugh.
"This way it takes your weight off being everyone's guide, it's no wonder Sylvia is getting along well with several other essences around here." Zalg continued to say and I could hear a splash of liquid.
"Blood or Wine?" I asked curiously what he was drinking this time.
"Neither, it's vodka." I laughed at his response.
Now all dressed up, I put on my mask and clothes again. Being without the robe this time, it's been hot during the day, just wearing my beige tank top and my long black pants. Leaving my room, I walk through the halls of the residence I was in, walking first to the training room to get some things done. I was startled to see Claire already there, meditating and training the double augmented elements through her body.
"Claire?" I called out to her, but she seemed to be in deep concentration.
"Geez.. Should we stop her before she passes out from exhaustion earlier in the day?" Zalg asked me.
"Let's at least get her something to eat here. The way the maids work here, they probably haven't even prepared breakfast yet..." I thought/talked to my inner demon.
Leaving there, I went to the kitchen to prepare something, ending up meeting with some employees of the residence. I waved at them and explained the situation, thus allowing myself to use the kitchen once more. I made some buttered toast and filled two glasses with a pitcher of orange juice they'd made last night. I grabbed a tray and took my breakfast, along with Claire's, to the practice room, setting it on a chair there.
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"Hmm...." I walked over to my disciple again and watched her closely, waving my hand in front of her face, but nothing happened.
"Is it possible to pass out while meditating? Or is she so deep inside her own mind?"
"Don't ask me that, I'm not Naoto to figure something out that fast... Hm..." I thought/talked to Zalg.
"Hm? Naoto? Oooh! That girl known as 'Prince Detective'? The one you married in the wor-" I broke the mental link before he could continue speaking, taking a deep breath.
He really likes to annoy me by reminding me of my old loves... Geez... That was like what? Almost 5000 worlds ago, why remind me of that? I just said her name because was the first detective name that I thought.
Seeing that Claire wasn't really noticing me there, I ended up flicking my disciple's forehead, she instantly opened eyes that looked empty like a dead man's, with the iris mixed between red and green. But slowly their cheeks turned red and she jumped away, looking scared. "A-aaah!!! W-what are you doing here sensei?!? How did you get in?!?"
"I walked in here normally.. I saw you were meditating, and on top of that I went to the kitchen and came back with your breakfast... Wow, you're really focused huh?" I said, smiling under the mask.
"O-Of course I'm focusing! I want to make you and my uncle proud!" She replied, waving her hands in a rather agitated and adorable way.
"Relax. We still have until Friday for that... And also, after that, if you really need it, I can go back to teach you more things. But of course, your uncle has to ask this directly for me." I answered her and soon she fell to her knees, embarrassed that she hadn't noticed my presence there, even though I wasn't even trying to hide.
"Okay, take this here." I handed her a plate of buttered toast and a glass of orange juice. She accepted and had her breakfast sitting there on the floor. On the other hand, I ate standing up, watching her closely.
"Hmmm.. All this time we trained without using any items, we just kept our own bodies. How about today we train with sticks? Or do you prefer wooden rapiers?" I asked her as I was finishing my glass of juice.
"Rapiers!" she said very excitedly, so as per request, i got a training rapier for me and another one for her.
We positioned ourselves in front of each other, staring at each other firmly in the depths of our eyes. I could hear a crack and then she was heading straight for me, trying to use wind magic to propel herself.
"Unfortunately, the way the silence was broken gave away your movement, next time, wait for the enemy to attack..." I said dodging, without using any spell.
"Or when you reach the Sound Deviant skill, you can make everything silent~" I said playfully watching her try to attack me again, but I dodged it quickly.
"Ignition" I spoke in a soft voice, starting to fill me with fire around me like it was an explosion coming from my mana core. The fire ended up covering my wooden rapier as well, but instead of burning, it felt like the flames and the wood were talking and accepting each other.
Claire took advantage and started to lunge at me again, with yet another rush of wind, her body slowly taking on a layer of wind around it. Our rapiers met, hitting each other hard, I could feel her trying to use her wind to put out my flames, but they were too strong for that to happen. We stayed in that tie, our rapiers tending to force each other while claire looked at me smiling and was trying to go all out. I, on the other hand, wasn't affected that much, but I still continued to act, so she felt on the same level as me. I dashed back and launched a fireball, using the residual fire from my blade.
The fire was getting closer to Claire, but soon she slashed at it, using the wind. Thus destroying my ranged attack. Following the logic, she made a vertical cut throwing a ball of wind at me. I parried the blow by simply positioning my rapier in front of me, when her ranged attack hit me, the flames on my blade overheated and sucked her spell. We were exchanging more and more rapier blows between us, my disciple's mobility was reduced to lunges of wind and a few impulses of fire with the use of her left hand. As I used my body agumented in fire to propel myself in any direction possible, in addition to demonstrating my acrobatic skills in some deflections.
Kaspian ended up appearing at one point, along with two maids, who were bringing us trays of our lunches. We had been training for 7 hours without realizing it, which even surprised me a little.
"How is she doing today, Diamond? I see you let her start using equipment in her training." Kaspian said looking at me.
"Obviously, it lacks some light details that she can improve at the beginner level in my workouts. But other than that, and the fact that she's overdoing, she's a excellent disciple." I answered him and started to eat what they had brought, it was a set of meat, vegetables and pasta.
"I still can't believe she started training for real just because of that dessert." As he said that, I could hear his niece make a noise of embarrassment and then walk away from us to eat her lunch in another corner.
"Mr.Bladeheart... I don't think you should judge a woman by her sweet tastes." I said looking at him and then he scratched his own cheeks and went to Claire to apologize.
I sat there in a chair, just waiting for Kaspian and the maids to leave, to come back with the training. He was having a conversation with her, but I didn't pay attention, I was trapped in my own thoughts. When they left, Claire and I stared at each other for a while until I got up. Her face was still slightly red in the cheeks but her gaze was a little sad.
"Do not care what your uncle said, okay? My sweets aren't a bad motivator." I said that, thinking she was still upset that her biggest motivation at the moment was a cupcake recipe.
"Hm... Didn't you hear the conversation we had then?..." Claire spoke and I sighed, nodding my head over the fact that I hadn't heard anything.
She sighed and then continued to speak "As the case may be... My uncle congratulated me for focusing more and more on our training... But he complained about the motivation being as childish as possible..."
"And he said what would be the best motivation? I mean, if he's going to complain about something like that, he should say what he thinks is best." I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"... The motivation I should have... Was to make the most of our training... Because the adventurer's work is unpredictable... One moment you're here... And another... You're inside of a mana beast's mouth..." she said still looking at the floor.
I was expressionless for a moment, under my mask. Due to my curse, I never think about my death, I think about taking care of other people, never about myself. With her saying that, it reminded me how short the time is to be with closest friends.
Geez... I can't believe I remembered that logic just now... I'm a really dense person sometimes...
I lifted my mask a little, just enough for her to see my mouth, and I smiled at her as I said it, my voice modified by sound magic. "Don't worry Claire, I'm not easy to kill... Seriously... Before this whole situation now... I've been in a lot of trouble and none of them have killed me." She looked confused at me, and I continued to speak.
"For example... This arm of mine here, it was at one point cut off by a thief... And I managed to fight without it and then put it back with the help of a healer... And look, it's not that bad, isn't?" I kept lifting my right arm and moving it a little.
My disciple approached me and noticed the scar there, which was a single line that went around the area below my elbow. She was wide-eyed and watched me right after that, I didn't lower my mask and continued to smile at her. "Everyone... goes through hardship. I might be less likely to die than a simple country farmer. Or something like that... You never know."
"Okay... I'll try not to worry too much, it's just that I always had this view, that being an adventurer is very dangerous, but seeing you and other amazing adventurers, I ended up forgetting that bad detail... So when my uncle reminded me Besides that, I was a little bewildered." she said, now still looking at my scar and then looking at me. "But why do you smile so much, Diamond?"
"Some people like optimism in life, positive thoughts and etc... But my smile has many motivations. The first is that I'm happy that even though I don't want to, now you're going to really take this training seriously. I do love something with someone I admire, no childish thoughts, and that's fine, especially for a mature girl like you." when I said that, I could see her face getting too hot.
"The second is related to a classic phrase... 'The more beautiful someone's smile is, the more that person has suffered, in order to show incredible and genuine happiness in calm moments.'..." I continued to speak, giving a I take a deep breath at the end.
"I really believe that phrase a lot." I could hear Sylvia talking to me mentally, I continued to smile.
"Well... Let's continue our training! If there's going to be excessive sentimentality between us, let it be the night. All right?-" I was interrupted with the red-haired girl hugging me a little. This was quite unexpected for me, but then she lets go of me.
"Okay! Let's continue!" she said excitedly.
"Um... Why did you hug me?" I said confused and adjusting the mask.
"It's never bad to get a hug. Especially when it's someone like you."
"Like me...?"
"Yes. You're the worrying type. Don't think I haven't realized that the compliments you give me are so I don't lower my performance by thinking too much about things outside of training." when she said that I simply enveloped myself with a layer of mana of wind and fire mixed together.
My disciple did the same, taking her wooden rapier. Meanwhile I was striking a fighting pose, without taking my rapier, I would go unarmed. We stared at each other for a little while and then she lunged at me, her training weapon wrapped in wind.
I dodged to the left, but then I noticed that her blade changed direction, as if she had foreseen my movement. I dodged her horizontal cut by ducking and then I jumped up and started using the walls and ceiling of our training room as platforms for myself.
I bounced from side to side, like a rubber ball that keeps bouncing insanely in an enclosed space when it's thrown. Claire was at the center of the chaos I was creating, she was in a waiting pose, holding tight to her rapier, with a smile on her face as she tried to focus on attacking me.
The minutes, hours and days passed in the blink of an eye, but Claire and I had enjoyed as much time together as possible with training, having a conversation or another going on during it all. Today is Friday, 7pm, my last day as claire's mentor during my vacation, and my final day before returning to my adventurer job, but of course, Kaspian had already arranged a quest for me to start doing on Saturday, to investigate that suspicious C-rank dungeon.
At the moment, I was with the Bladehearts, at the dinner table, eating a special meal since tomorrow my mission would be intense. Kaspian informed Claire about this mission this afternoon, so now she was aware that I wouldn't have a really calm time on my return to work.
"I wish you all the luck tomorrow, even though it's a C rank dungeon, be careful…" Claire said to me as she finished eating.
"Don't worry… Oh and here's what I wanted to give you." I say taking a paper and putting it on the table, in front of her.
"What would that be?..." She looks confused and starts reading the paper silently.
"You've managed to achieve a stable mode of basic control of the fire-wind fusion. So as promised, here's the recipe for the cupcakes." I said smiling under the mask and she got up, going to me and hugging me.
"Be careful not to get fat~" I said playfully, and she gave me a tight squeeze in the hug.
"Relax, I'm going to 'burn' all the calories anyway." She answered me, making me laugh a little at the joke.
I got up to go to my room, but before that Kaspian stopped me so he could talk. "Diamond, when you wake up, the maids will have already prepared some packed food for you. You and I will go to the guild together, after that you can go ahead to the dungeon while I will see if the help team is operational for your mission."
"Thanks Kaspian. But I didn't need the food, really." I said scratching the back of my neck.
"You'll need it, since that dungeon, as easy as it is to go from the entrance to the boss room, it has numerous dead-end corridors and different paths in that can direct you back to the main path." He reminded me, and I gave a little laugh.
"Okay, I'll take it. But if you'll excuse me, I have to rest well for tomorrow." I said waving at Claire since she was unlikely to wake up early to see me out of the residence and so I went to my room.
"Are you going to pass out to get ready in your mind realm?" Zalg said in my mind after I entered my room.
"You know me well..." I said pointing two fingers to my head and letting out a sound attack against myself, it was potent enough to affect my mind the least necessary, to force a faint.
My vision blurred as I fell onto my bed, everything went black, a pure void. Soon I opened my eyes, seeing myself inside the great hall of my imaginary castle. I got up carefully from the ground and walked, seeing several essences of people I knew along the way, until I left that Castle, finding myself in the immense green field that I used to train. Zalgnity and Sylvia were already there waiting for me.
It was time for my little warm-up before my new quest.