Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Home

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"Haha, even if she only has a fraction of your talent, she'll still be unrivaled in Bahamut." Mother turned toward Krystallo with a look of fondness.

But her clumsiness struck again like a curse. "Aaah!" *thump*

"Haah…" I let out a sigh as Ilios ran up to her to help her get back up.

"I’m alri-" As Ilios started casually lifting her up, she paused and turned to him with a look of disbelief. "You’re that strong?!"

Ilios just sat there and held his head up with pride, taking her shock as a compliment.

-Gosh, he's so cute…- Lightly shaking my head to keep myself from getting distracted, I quickly continued over to them. "This should be far enough out right?"

"R-right! Can we start?" Krystallo was still unfathomably eager to learn.

"Haha, yes, we can. Go ahead and have a seat, we need to first find out what your attribute nodes are." Father looked eager to get started as well.

*thump* Immediately sitting down, Krystallo stared at Father with a gleam of determination in her eyes.

"Alright, since you seem ready, start by pulling some mana from your reserve, like we did earlier, and funnel it into one side of an attribute node. Then, take control of the energy that comes out the other side and accumulate it in the palm of your paw." He held out his paw as he spoke, before a small, swirling fireball appeared and promptly dissipated. "Like that."

After a short moment of silence, Krystallo reluctantly nodded and held out her paw.

The silence continued for another moment before slowly but surely, a small sphere of water formed in the air.

Mother's face lit up like a child opening presents on Christmas. "Water! Was that one of the ones by your breath gland?"

"Y-yes! Does that mean I have a really good water affinity like you?"

"Haha, yes, sweetie! Now try the other node next to it."

"Hehe~, alright!"

This time, the sphere started forming a few seconds faster, but it looked like nothing was happening.

I was actually the first to even notice it. "Is it wind?" I honestly wasn’t too sure though, since the sphere was so subtle, and wasn’t flowing at all. -It's just a weird sphere of still air…-

But Krystallo’s face saddened the moment I spoke. "Awe..."

Mother turned concerned right away. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"I wanted it to be fire..."

Father immediately jumped in. "You still have two other nodes, Krystallo. And it's not like they're bad affinities either." He wore a reassuring, fatherly smile.

But it didn’t seem to be quite enough, so I decided to add something. "Krystallo, wind is far from a weak element, if that’s what you are thinking."

"What do you mean? So what if I can create a weak breeze…"

"Who said you could only do that?" I was honestly shocked. "Father, just for a demonstration, fire a really hot breath at me. The hottest you can muster."

Krystallo and Mother both jolted upon hearing my request, but Father followed through without hesitation. *fw-FWOOOSH*

In an instant, a massive wall of fire appeared, engulfing my entire body in a ferocious blaze.

Krystallo quickly turned nervous as she felt a wave of heat blast over her as well. "I..isn’t that too hot.. even for him?"

But before Mother could try and reassure her, Father stopped his breath.

*tttsssss* The humid air sizzled as it rippled the surrounding light, but eventually the smoke cleared, revealing me sitting there, completely unscathed.

Krystallo’s eyes went wide in an instant.

Seeing her shock, I wanted to brag, but I didn’t brag about myself. "See?" I held my head high as I puffed up my chest slightly. "All I did to be completely immune to that was use wind magic to push the air around me away, and redirect the flames!"

"But didn’t you use fire magic to redirect the fire?"

"Haha, nope! Wind magic is better at controlling flames than fire magic itself! Watch this." To show her what I meant, I held out my paw and created a small ball of fire that slowly expanded to shape a star. "This is purely using fire magic. Now, I will use the same amount of mana, but half with wind magic, half with fire."

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She watched eagerly as the flame eventually dissipated and was replaced by a much smaller spherical flame.

But it only stayed that way for a moment.

*fw-wooOOSH* Immediately growing to nearly a dozen meters tall, the star made of fire completely dwarfed the previous one.

Krystallo’s eyes went wide immediately. "Woooah!"

-Hehe... Mission accomplished!- I smiled proudly seeing her cheer up. "Now, let's see what your other two nodes are."

"R-right!" She quickly sat back down with a look of enthusiasm before sticking her paw out again.

Almost immediately, there was a small spark. *Crackle*

Then, before we knew it, a smooth, candle-like flame began to form.

Mother, Father, and I all stayed quiet with warm expressions as we waited for her to notice.

And her reaction was exactly as we expected. *Gasp!* She immediately looked up at me with a fiery look in her eyes. "Now it’s only a matter of time before I surpass you!"

"Pffftt-" I tried my best to hold in my laugh, but her pure, limitless confidence was just too funny.

"Hmph, you just wait! You may be bigger, but I will be stronger!" Her genuine determination was honestly adorable.

"You should be prepared to dedicate a lot of time to practicing magic then!" My expression turned smug, little did I know it would just fuel the fire.

"Mmm!" She quickly flashed a look of determination before creating another fireball.

But Mother was quick to intervene. "Haha, calm down you two. Sweetie, I know you’re eager, but we need to check out your last attribute before we can st-" *flash*

Not even waiting for Mother to finish, Krystallo created a bright ball of light, before scattering it and creating another ball of fire.

"Haah…" Mother let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "Since you seem so enthused to use fire magic, let's start with that."

Krystallo’s attention was pulled from her tiny fireball immediately. "Are you going to teach me a spell?!"

Father once again took over as Mother hesitated. "We are going to start with a simple breath, first." Seeing her look a little disappointed, he quickly reassured her. "I promise we will do proper spells later, but we should start small." He looked a bit nervous, like he was walking on eggshells.

-Is he nervous that she won't be able to do a proper spell yet?-

But he continued regardless. "Alright, now gather some fire attribute mana in your breath gland, swirl it around, and add more until you feel some pressure build up, then release it!"

Although a shockingly fitting explanation, I was a bit unsure how she would interpret it.

But she looked confident. "Hehe, you all should stand back so you don't get caught up in it!" Quickly readying herself, she turned away from us, bent her knees, and opened her mouth.

We all watched in suspense, undeniably curious about what the breath would look like!

And then!

*puff* A tiny flame, no bigger than her head, shot out of her mouth before instantly dissipating.

I had to hold back my laugh with every fiber of my being. -I can’t laugh… It's not funny… I can't laugh…-

But Krystallo seemed to notice what I was doing. "Don’t laugh!" She looked back at me like she was on the verge of tears.

Seeing how genuinely distraught she was, I finally managed to suppress it. "Hooh… Here, let me give you a tip: the more flames you compress in your breath gland and the more pressure you feel, the larger the breath will be. Try taking a bit more time to build up the pressure this time."

Her expression quickly calmed down as she fell into focus, looking far less cocky this time.

We all sat in silence for a short moment before she eventually opened her mouth again.

*fwoo-puff* But although the flame was much larger, extending out several meters, it dissipated the moment it ran out of fuel.

"Hey, that was pretty good!" It was honestly a good start, but it was lacking something. -Father may not believe she can do it, but I do...- "This time, see if you can weave wind magic into the flame. Not only will the wind make the flame hotter, but it will be bigger as well."

"I-I’m not sure I can…" She looked a bit defeated after seeing her comparably pitiful breath.

Slowly walking up to her, I gently set my wing on her head. "Just try. I believe in you!"

Her lack of confidence slowly dissipated as she started to focus once again, before eventually standing back up and opening her mouth.

*fwwooOSH* This time, the flame was several times bigger, easily burning the grass in the field a few dozen meters away.

"See? I knew you could do it!"

A wave of excitement washed over her in an instant. "Did you see that, Mom?! That was AWESOME!"

"Haha, good job, sweetie! To think you can use two attributes at once already!" Mother quickly ran up to hug her. "I knew you would be talented!"

"Hehe~..." Krystallo giggled with pure, childish joy.

It made me want to fuel it a bit. "I can give you another tip if you’d like."

"ABSOLUTELY!" She had no hesitation.

"Alright! Now this time, instead of just weaving the mana together, spin the wind around the outer edge of the flames as fast as you can."

Mother looked a bit worried though. "T-that’s too-"

I gently nudged her to tell her it would be alright before continuing. "Whenever you’re ready, aim at that tree over there." I gently pointed to the treeline around a hundred meters away.

"That's a bit far..."

"Come on, have some confidence! You have me guiding you!" I gently rubbed her head as I lowered my head to her level. "Use the wind itself to compress and spin the flames."

"O..okay..." After falling back into a deep focus, she slowly opened her mouth, this time not opening her eyes.

*Cr-rackle-Fwooooosh* Like a compressed beam, the flame crossed the opening and hit the tree in a flash.

*Pshhh-crackle* The flame wrapped around the tree as it lacked the power to blast straight through it, but once the smoke cleared, a sizable crater and large burn mark were revealed.

"I.. I did it!" Slightly out of breath, Krystallo's face washed with excitement. "I DID IT!!"

Mother and Father were both completely stunned, but I was purely happy for her. "See? I told you to believe in yourself!"

As I gently rubbed her head, she looked up at me with a childish smile. "Hehe..."

It was a smile that truly melted my heart. -My lord, she’s so adorable…-