I was tempted to scorch the entire forest, to burn every last acre to ash. Once I got back, I would begin a campaign to raze the forest to nothing. If I never had to hike again, I would be happy. Just endless walking. We kept the road in sight for the most part as we trekked to Umbra. I had no idea how far we still had to travel. Nautilus made me use all the and I had as we sparred which resulted in several skull crushing migraines. How much longer until we got back? The Nautilus torture express was the worst ride in the world. Her apparently deep-seated hatred for that she projected onto Luna and I by making us murder as many as possible was getting old. We had enough pelts of them to cover a division of an army. Was the bell ringing? No. We should have another two hours, ten minutes, and forty-two seconds. I think that ringing was haunting my nightmares; waterfalls of moltaug accented by the trumpets of that blasted bell. We would get revenge on her; Nautilus would rue the day she started this torture. Even now, that bell seemed to taunt me; maybe we should try psyops to slowly wear her down.

What could we use to slowly psychological torment Nautilus? I asked Luna. She flicked me.

As much as I am for getting pay back for these weeks of draconian lessons, we are not murdering Nautilus. We are not psychologically torturing Nautilus. We are not plotting brutal, horrific revenge on Nautilus. Luna snapped at me.

How about just a little? I negotiated. Behind us, I heard a bell ring. Luna and I immediately summoned weapons and went to strike before seeing it was just Lilas standing there with a shiza-eating grin.

“You guys seem a little jumpy.” Lilas taunted, ringing the bell in his hand again. Luna and I both glared at him as he laughed.

“When did you buy that?” Luna snarled at him. We should still have approximately two hours, nine minutes, and fifty-seven seconds.

“When we passed through the little town to get a few supplies. Totally worth the gold piece.” Lilas chuckled at us.

Where do we stand on torturing Lilas? I inquired. Luna was clearly debating the stance we should take.

It’s fine. We are going to take deep breaths. I’ll give Lilas credit, it’s a funny prank. Luna replied. Lilas looked so pleased with himself.

“I shall remember this Lilas.” I told him. Lilas just shrugged.

“Oh no. Anyway, let’s play chess.” Lilas retorted as he began projecting a board. was such a useful .

The two of us began playing again; it was infuriating how good at chess Lilas was. No matter what strategy I tried he would decimate me. At no point did I feel like I was even a challenge for him. Lilas was just as bad as Lux when it came to winning too which was not helping. I mentally tracked the time until Nautilus’s blasted alarm would go off as I played Lilas as I really didn’t want to get caught off guard. I was curious how close to Umbra we were. I really should know the layout of Speranza. That thought was unfortunately not helpful to me now as I was hiking through endless woods. Technically not endless, just an obnoxiously long distance. My estimate for Nautilus was off by about a minute twelve seconds. Luna and I fended her off in a blissfully short sparring session. needed improvement. I couldn’t alternate the time I erased that well as nearly every use ended being about two seconds. I was still drawing a blank on how to figure out the corresponding to my . One benefit was that horrid aura that plagued me was finally gone unless I actively turned it on. Engaging my and made me a lot stronger for a bit, but the two were taxing to maintain. did its job on making her attacks not directly land for a bit. I doubt it’ll work on area of effect or more augmented strikes. I needed a better version, but that was for later me to figure out. My was thankfully not exploding anymore, but I could only use the variant with any decency as the version was substantially more difficult to control unfortunately. Slowly my abilities were coming together.

Nautilus tended to force innovation and improvement, or we were going to pay the price as she walloped us. She stopped anything she saw coming. Wait. Wait a second. Did I have to use on her? What if I used it on my own attacks? Could she dodge or block something that point blank? Why didn’t I think of that before the spar? Now that I was thinking about it, couldn’t I use my to slow time while I launched a few attacks her way and then make one of them lurch forward? Or make her move to a bad position while adjusting to deal with them? I needed to be less linear. When I was younger I threw a needle through time at Uncle Nox. Wait. What if I tried that with ? What would the result be? I began manifesting to test with. How did I do it? I let the needle slip through time. I tried the , throwing two needles towards a tree. One vanished as soon as it left my hand, while the other went straight into the tree. A few seconds later, the second reappeared and hit the tree. Or am I delaying the throw of it? That was likely the more accurate way of looking at it. Unlike when I was younger, it didn’t instantly wipe my . Luna was looking at me curiously as I did a few more test throws. I could vary the delay between one and four seconds, which was definitely useful. I had a bow and arrows as well as a sword for physical weapons. I could shoot the arrows and use with them. I also could use the nail gatling against Nautilus. The sword was a good base for as I didn’t have good enough control to not be holding what I coated just yet.

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What are you testing? Luna inquired, looking curious.

A few different tricks to try against Nautilus. I answered. The bow and arrow might be more useful than I thought for manipulating where I was now that I was thinking about it.

Why not beating Lilas at chess? Luna teased. I looked at her smiling face.

Because Lilas doesn’t thrash me if I don’t do well enough. I retorted while gently bumping against her.

I don’t know, some of those losses were awfully fast. Luna taunted as she bumped me back.

Eventually, Lilas shall learn defeat. Same with Nautilus. I assured Luna. Just a matter of time.

Plan on using and dropping Nautilus somewhere? Luna joked. Wait. Luna had a point. That could be used offensively. Could I manipulate that many at once? If I practiced my more. Currently? Maybe.

What did you just realize? Luna probed.

I can use offensively. I informed her. What else could I use more offensively? ? Limited unless I was trying to drop an anvil on someone. ? That had potential; the red-haired man did something similar.

See? I’m brilliant. Luna declared with a flick of her hair.

Yes. Quite brilliant. I agreed. Luna looked happy as she walked next to me now.

I alternated talking with Luna and mulling over how to innovate more until sunset. In about thirteen minutes forty-four seconds the alarm should go off again. I recovered my , and practiced swapping between my weapons before it went off. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. I immediately made several knives of , throwing them at Nautilus. I used on one, one was normal, and used on the third to attack the wide-eyed Nautilus as the chime went off right before the third dagger nearly hit her. I gave her no rest as I immediately had my bow and arrow out. I rapidly launched four arrows in various directions. One I used to make it go behind her as I used to go into the air. I immediately made a spear of to throw at her. The knife I used on appeared making a bit of a pincer. Luna took advantage of my multiple attacks to rush from a different side, going to punch Nautilus. With , I saw where she was going to be, and threw another spear at that point before using on her. Luna kept going, looking like she was about to connect with Nautilus. Thanks to , I knew Nautilus was about to unleash a lot more . I used to grab Luna and pull her into the air away from the wave of Nautilus unleashed. Nautilus was glaring at me with her silver eyes glowing. That cannot be good.

I dropped Luna, using so she reached the ground faster. I used to reposition, but Nautilus was having none of this. Where I appeared were several projected arms trying to attack me. I used to see if I could make Nautilus punch herself, but she just dissipated the attacks. Luna tried attacking. Nautilus launched several projected attacks at her while keeping her eyes locked on me. Luna used her own to deflect the attack, repositioning to keep pressure on Nautilus. I activated my , making the world go grayscale. This was about to either be my best or worst idea in a while. I summoned my sword, coated it , and then used to be in front of Nautilus. I swung behind me, away from her, while trying to dash around her. I used on myself so my attack was dead on. Nautilus deflected my attempt and kicked Luna away in one smooth motion. Luna got distance and began using her to buff me. I threw several more knives, using and to stagger them on Nautilus. I grabbed one with , trying to stab Nautilus while pivoting into a downward slash. When she adjusted her position, I formed my nail gatling on her side, unleashing the barrage into her as her hand was palming my sword away. Her fist was about to knock my lights out, so I used to appear where one of my knives were and slash at her. I tried to use on the knife I swapped with so she’d punch a fixed knife, but an overwhelming wave of nausea overcame me. I couldn’t power through as I collapsed puking. My head was screaming at me as I barely rolled away from my own vomit.

My vision was a bit blurry as I laid on the ground. Okay, that was too much at once. I needed to practice my more if I wanted to attempt doing that level of and manipulation. The entire attempt lasted a grand total of nineteen and a half seconds. I could hardly move my head hurt so much. I heard a little more sparring, a thunderclap, and then saw Nautilus looming over me. Please have been good enough. Please have been good enough. She picked me up, carrying me over to a tent. Yay! It was good enough! Luna was getting healed by Egoff as Nautilus set me by the fire. She recovered my for me while I was swaying, struggling to remain sitting upright. Luna got up, walked over, sat next to me, and leaned against me. I leaned on her, so I was more stable. Even with my back, I had a horrible migraine from trying that.

“Aight, lad, no more innovatin’ fo’ now. That wa’ a bit too much t’ safely spar.” Nautilus ordered. What? That was odd.

“But you sai-“ I began. Oh speaking was agonizing.

“I know wha’ I said. Ya will hur’ yaself if you push i’ much more, so fo’ now we gonna dial it back a lit’le so ya can practice what didn’ make ya collapse.” Nautilus cut me off. I wasn’t going to argue. I needed to practice my while I was like this so it was more effective. Just a few more minutes to stabilize a little more.

“Now, ya two need t’ do ya nightly practice. Lass, I got some words for ya.” Nautilus instructed while beckoning Luna.

I wondered what those two were going to talk about. Luna was getting a lot better alternating between going on the offensive and using her to support. To be honest, Nautilus gave Luna a lot more lessons than me; part of me was a bit jealous. I couldn’t hear what was being said from a distance, and I knew I needed to get practicing. Nautilus was showing Luna a few more basics of the fighting style she was teaching her. I hoped we would get strong enough. I have no idea how strong we need to get. For now, I guess the red-haired man is my goal. Or Nautilus. Nautilus was a tad less frightening and a lot easier to visualize, so I would stick to her as the goal post for now. The ground was not that comfortable to sit on while I practiced my , but I didn’t have a choice. I missed home. I missed Lux. I missed my family. I wanted to be back in the castle. I at least had Luna. Luna was quite nice to have around. It was warm and comfortable with her. She’s made this journey a lot better. The journey thankfully should be over in the near future. We were getting back soon; it couldn’t be much longer until we were finally home.