I was feeling much better after my Life Nova bath. My muscles were pleasantly invigorated and rejuvenated, and I had plenty of energy to burn off, even though my soul was still fragile. The feeling of being energized and exhausted at the same time was admittedly a little strange, but I was just glad it seemed to be working.

After I finished, I’d explained the egg to Bella, who was practically bouncing out of her shoes with excitement. “That’s AMAZING! What are you going to name it? What type of energy will you use? CAN I RIDE IT?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, and almost definitely not,” I responded in order. “Even if it’s big enough to ride I don’t want you climbing on my fucking bird. And I don’t know if it will be. As for the energy…I’m torn. I have plenty of options, but pretty much it boils down to offense or healing, and it’s a tough call.”

She hummed in consideration. “I don’t know. Both of them seem cool. Like you could have a kickass bird thing that blows shit up, or a cool healing phoenix thing. But you said the ghost crow is undead, can it even take on the purification fire? That’s like…life and anti darkness right?”

“I think it should be fine,” I shrugged. “It is MY ability. Plus it’s technically demonic. You think I should go with purification?”

Shrugging, my apprentice mulled it over. “Probably? You said that form is one of your strongest right? Like it can heal SOUL DAMAGE. That’s pretty rare. I mean sure, it has absolutely no defensive or even really offensive capabilities aside from against corruption based attacks, but still. Having a companion that can help speed up your healing would be a big deal, right?”

“That’s not a bad point,” I admitted. “I’m injured, and this could help. More than that though, like you said, even if my crow won’t be offensively powerful, the overwhelming bonuses to its sheer effectiveness will probably help it advance faster. And while I can use Zagan myself as I grow, we’ve seen here that having one or even two points of healing isn’t necessarily enough. What if one of my friends gets hurt and I’m not there?’

Taking out the egg, I studied it. I had Abomination Engine, Cosmic Collapse, and a dozen subskills for attacking. Zagan was my only healing trick, and while one could say I didn’t NEED more than one…

I focused on Zagan, beginning to dump power from my hands into the egg. Rather than just pour it in though, I decided to try something a little tricky. I condensed a Life Nova inside the egg. If this bird was going to be an embodiment of Zagan, I wanted it to be the BEST of Zagan. Soul Repair was what I needed from my new buddy, and Life Nova seemed to categorically improve every aspect of Zagan even beyond that.

I was surprised to see the egg do…nothing. It didn’t glow, or shake, or crackle, or any of the shit you’d expect a magic egg to do when you did magic stuff to it.

Bella stared at me. “Are you gonna do it? Or are we like…studying the egg? Oooh, are you teaching me another lesson? Am I supposed to study the shell to try to find some kind of special pattern that will give me secret knowledge about the bird inside?” She was getting noticeably excited as she brainstormed ideas, and I was almost sad to shoot her down. Almost.

“No Bella,” I said with a sigh. “I’m pushing power into it, it’s just getting absorbed directly. It’s an egg. There’s no hidden pattern on the shell that reveals secret wisdom. Or, I mean…” I paused, triggering my Eye of Revelation and squinting at the eggshell. “Nope, definitely not, I’m watching for a sign that it’s working, you don’t need to watch at all.”

I wasn’t going to be doing this for too much longer, honestly. I’d dropped all of my forms except Zagan, and despite only using the one, keeping up a powerful technique like Life Nova was a consistent strain. It wasn’t enough to tax my soul right away, more like lifting a slightly heavy barbell. It wasn’t too tough, but the longer I held it, the more the strain built.

Normally I’d have pushed it much further, but sadly I was on good behavior for Callie. I cut the output after about twenty minutes, and watched the egg carefully for any sign of hatching. Nothing happened, so I stashed it in my ring. I could feel the energy inside, but it felt inert.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

This was clearly going to be a slightly longer term task than expected, but it was fine. I had days to work on it. It was a shame I couldn’t use Beelzebub, but more than one Life Nova bath per day would tax my soul too much. Slow and steady would win the race for the egg so I could keep up my healing.

“So, what should we do now?” Bella chirped. “Should we just head back to the inn. Does being unconscious count as sleep?”

“No, it doesn’t,” I said with far more experience than I’d have liked. “But being irradiated with life energy for a few hours does, so no, I’m not tired. My soul is a little sore, but I didn’t push. Now we work on your staff forms a bit. I want you to try to make some progress past Minor.” I triggered Mornax. “You don’t need to hold back, between my armor and durability, you can’t hurt me with a Minor Skill.”

She pouted a bit at that, turning and stalking away into the trees, muttering about being underestimated. She returned a minute later, dressed in loose fitting workout clothes I assumed she had in her spatial ring, and her staff.

I bounced on my toes, enjoying the flex and stretch of my muscles. I was getting good enough with Mornax not to lose my form the second my feet left the ground. There was a sort of…holding period, like since I was still TECHNICALLY standing still, it didn’t count. Regardless, I maintained my durability as I started to put my staff through its paces.

Passing it between hands, I whirled it around me, limbering up as I stretched and bend to reach full extension, making sure my reach was at its furthest. It felt nice, calming. One big thing teaching Bella was doing was helping me conceptualize my Staff Art as a martial art again. I’d gotten so used to treating it just like DS Mastery I’d been letting my physical technique slip.

After a second of hesitation, Bella charged with a war cry, and I strode forward to meet her with a grin. Mornax’s stance opened the fight, a low, solid plant of my feet for defense, catching the first blow before transferring into Belial as I redirected it. A sharp thrust courtesy of Mephistopheles, a series of feints for Beelzebub, and some quick footwork to slip into the Blindspot for Bael.

It felt fantastic. Every form served a purpose. Part of an arsenal, a set of tools for any situation, and ones that could be rotated or swapped out as needed for multiple different situations. And just like I could mix and match them into combinations to make domains or techniques, I could do the same with combat stances to utilize their power more effectively.

Block to deflect to strike, evade then counter, I felt myself becoming more in tune with my staff as I worked through all my stances without using their forms. More than that, I felt Bella learning and testing as I was, figuring out which stances countered the ones I was using.

I grimaced as her staff grazed my throat as I tested a combo stance that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, Mornax shrugging off the damage but not quite the pain.

Bella’s next attack came at me like a fastball, and an explosion (well, explosion might be a bit of an overstatement, but a puff at least) of black flame slapped me in the face, driving me back as my mask tanked the attack.

My black flame was armor piercing. She had no shot of getting me with a Skill at…whatever her level was, but in the future I’d have to watch that. I was more interested though, in the current advancement of the Skill. I pulled back, and Bella looked horrified, leaping away in dejection. “Oh no! Master! Did I hurt you? That went right in your eyes! Are you blind now? Did I blind you? But you’re so YOUNG! I assume. I’ve never really seen your face but you sound young but you’re an Ascendant, so you could be a thousand which I guess is young for an Ascendant bu-” I put a hand over her mouth.

She kept talking for a solid thirty seconds, muffled by my hand, before trailing off. “I told you, you can’t hurt me.” I said reassuringly. “At least not physically. Every time you do that babble thing it breaks my spirit a little, but I’m pretty sure that’s just what it means to be a teacher.”

My apprentice’s pouting glare was obvious even with her face covered, and when I removed my hand she turned her face away in indignation. “See if I worry about you again, jerk.”

“You shouldn’t be,” I informed her dryly. “You should be worrying about YOU. Now, did you just hit Lesser? Because I knew it would be fast but I didn’t know it would be THAT fast.” Me teaching her personally as the creator was clearly helping, because even as an Ascendant picking up a new and very complicated formerly unique Skill should take time.

“Beginner,” she said smugly. “Don’t forget I’ve been practicing on my own. I’m totally kicking ass at this whole apprentice thing. You were like ‘pow Bella, I will easily defeat you’ and I was like ‘not today Master, I’ve surpassed your skill’.” She sounded smug as she dramatically whipped her staff around, so I reached out and conked her on the head with mine. “Ow! That was mean!”

“I assumed you’d dodge,” I said loftily. “After all, you’ve surpassed my skill.”

She sulked. “You could let me have a LITTLE fun. I was just joking around. I know you’re way tougher than me.”

“A situation you will likely NEVER remedy,” I agreed glibly. “But you’re doing well. You seem to have a knack for this. Or I’m an amazing teacher. Who can say? I can. I can say. It’s all me.” I grinned behind my mask as I heckled her. Mockery built character. I’d learned that from Abel. Or I was just continuing the cycle of abuse, it was hard to tell at this point.

I felt a flash of soft amusement through the bond, and I sent a reproachful flash of teasing back, amused my wife was checking up. Then I turned back to my disciple. “Well, do you want to go for another round or two, or did the rank up make you eager to run off and do dumb, possibly dangerous experiments where no responsible adult is watching.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Actually that’s- OW!” I smacked her on the head with my staff again.

“Trick question,” I scolded her. “That’s my decision, reset, we’re nowhere close to done. What kind of layabout quits training ten minutes in?

Rubbing her head, she stalked away, muttering uncomplimentary things I pretended not to hear. Another lesson I’d learned from Abel. Complaining about their crazy mentor is a student’s gods given right. Everyone needs to vent.

We spent the rest of the evening sparring, and while she didn’t reach Intermediate or anything, Bella made a lot of good progress with the Goetia Staff Art. When I got back to my room and dropped into my bed like a rock, it was almost sunup, and I was exhausted. Still, the day hadn’t been as bad as I’d expected when I woke up from my blackout. Now I just had to stay amused for the next five days. What could be easier?