Manegia

Year 1421

When Owen woke up, he saw the familiar ceiling of the infirmary. Groaning internally, he clearly remembered he was supposed to be in Spiri Raia, not back in the Court. Rising up from the bed, he tried to recall what happened before he woke up here.

That's right, I beat Typhon, Owen realized, remembering countering the dragon's curse over and over with a Vague Order he somehow was able to do and then stopping the laser beams before freezing the giant lizard solid. While he remembered doing it, he still wasn't sure how he did it. It just felt natural to me after Alicia... Wait, Alicia!

"Alicia is fine, Owen," Gabriel said as Owen turned to look at the Life Guardian. "It is you who is worse for wear. How are you feeling?"

"Sore, but good," Owen answered briefly. "How did I get here?"

"You had used too much maneg in quick succession in your battle and the surge of power you obtained along with adrenaline tired you out after it was over," Gabriel explained. "Fortunately, it is not as crippling as when you froze the volcano, but do be more careful in the future."

"How long was I out for?" Owen then asked given he felt rather refreshed after waking up despite the body ache.

"Two days, give or take," Gabriel replied. "Again, not as bad as the week-long recovery you went through after freezing mount Vulgis."

CREEK

"Owen, you are awake!" Alicia exclaimed as she practically kicked the door open. How she knew he was back up was beyond him and he doubt Gabriel had the time to message her with [Telepathy] between their conversation but he appreciated it. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Owen replied as Alicia sat on the other chair beside his bed.

"Hooray! Sleeping beauty's awake!"

"Right," Owen sighed. This time, he decided to be nicer given the occasion. "Good to see you, Voice."

"Gasp! Who are you!? What have you done to Short Cream!?"

"Are you okay, Alicia?" Owen asked her back, ignoring the pixie's woes. "Typhon punched a laser through you."

"I am fine thanks to you," Alicia smiled warmly. Owen had no reason not to believe her, the Life and Death Wizards allowed them to survive even deadlier injuries with little to no scar that they need to specifically ask to keep it. "You saved me again, huh?"

"Right," Owen smiled back, remembering a time similar to this happening before. Actually, Alicia was always by his side as he suffered in bed whenever he got sick which happened a lot.

PIING

Suddenly, the familiar sound of transfer could be heard faintly through the soundproof walls of the infirmary. Somehow, Owen got a feeling he knew who it was coming to the Court even before the signature was there.

PIING

TZANG TZANG CREEK

With the sound of launching steps, Owen's father opened the door and almost hit his head on the door frame that was a part of the bigger door meant to accommodate the small dragon Guardian back in the day which somehow managed to be inconspicuous. He was visibly panting, having rushed into Manegia after knowing his son was awake a few minutes ago. How he knew was Owen's guess given that Gabriel was still in the room and cross-world [Telepathy] required the Transporter Room but it still felt nice.

"Huff...! Hah...! Am I getting old now?" Joshua wheezed as he rested against the door frame before looking up to see his son. "Are you good, son?"

"Yeah," Owen replied happily. "I'm good."

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CREME~ CREME~ CREME~

"Whoa! Short Cream's glowing!"

"His eyes are glowing too," Alicia added, widening her eyes in amazement.

"So cool!" Rin muttered with sparkling eyes.

In the Training Ground, Owen recalled the same feeling when he faced Typhon. After taking a deep breath, he felt maneg permeating his entire body similar to the aura Aqua passively emitted. He also felt a significant amount of maneg in his eyes as Alicia mentioned. Unlike last time, it didn't feel too tiring to maintain. It was probably the adrenaline compounding to the effect that didn't happen here.

"That checks it. That's [Court Wizard's Aura]," Amelia nodded in confirmation as Owen deactivated it. "I say congratulations is in order being the second Court Wizard to achieve this."

"Who is the first?" Alicia asked.

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"Hanz," Amelia replied casually. "And he needed to say a long chant out loud to activate it. Owen here can do it as easy as breathing."

Literally after Owen made a full recovery over the week, Amelia showed up and dragged him into the Training Grounds just so she could make him do the same thing he did to defeat Typhon with Alicia and Rin in tow because they were there at the time - Owen expected this since the scientist kept visiting him the past week to interview him about his new powers. Despite being an in-the-moment situation, Owen was able to pull it off again as naturally as breathing or so Amelia described. He did feel something instinctive within him that told him how to do it again.

"Ooh!" Rin exclaimed before turning to Amelia. "What is [Court Wizard's Aura]?" she quipped with a neutral face.

"The ultimate form of Maneg Users," Amelia replied nonchalantly. "It's what allowed them to demolish any resistance from the many worlds they invaded."

Somehow, Owen had a feeling that was the case. The Maneg Users of old were exponentially stronger than the Court Wizards of today before the Mother Souls were damaged causing subsequent Maneg Souls to be weaker. They had to be to be able to face the strongest beings of any world they broke into. The Maneg System rewriting Fantasy Laws to its advantage wouldn't be enough if Maneg Users couldn't even make use of such a cheat, after all.

"It is the most powerful defensive Order they have," Amelia explained. "And it's quite simple, really. It allows the user to hide into the Fantasy Law itself."

"Eeh!" Rin gasped in surpise.

"It is exactly what you think," Amelia continued with a smirk. "By being in an entirely different plane of reality, literally no attack can hit you. You, meanwhile, can make as many Orders as you want and have them shift back to reality just as it's about to hit the opponent. It is really the true expression of the Power of Ignorance, not just maneg but yourself entirely pretending whatever's trying to kill you isn't there, winning every battle of attrition."

"Wow," Alicia muttered. "And Owen and Hanz have that?"

"Nope," Amelia quipped with a trollish grin. "Their version is a downgrade. It's nothing more than a full-body shield, one that no one has been able to replicate manually. Not without it being a maneg drain or making you a human statue," she shrugged.

True, Owen didn't feel too much drain of maneg than it should have. And to actually have it protect him, the ice maneg would have to encase him as he did to many of his adversaries. By that logic, [Court Wizard's Aura] should never work, but it did.

"Of course, it still has the benefit of making your Orders resolve faster since it's right on your skin ready to go," Amelia continued with a shrug. "All without draining your reserves like there's no tomorrow."

That was true as well. When he fought Typhon in that state, there wasn't any such delay from the Order cast compared to the usual. Granted, it was only a split second of delay from the Order given and carried out but Owen has heard such an amount of lag was unacceptable to video gamers.

"Anyway, let's talk about the new Order you used with it!" Amelia then said excitedly. "You finally pulled yourself together, huh?"

"Yeah, I do," Owen nodded resolutely.

"Uhn?" Rin tilted her head in confusion at what Amelia and Owen were talking about.

"It's nothing, Rin," Amelia waved off as she then produced a lot of things out of nowhere. "Now, show me what you can do, Owen."

"Right." If there was one thing Owen knew about Amelia it was that she always went above and beyond to study maneg, even if it meant getting beaten up by Alicia's father one time.

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"I don't know if I should be impressed or terrified," Amelia muttered as they all saw the results in front of them.

It started simple enough. A glass of water Owen froze with his new Vague Order as control, nothing too special. Then Amelia made him freeze hotter objects like molten metal. How Amelia convinced Master Zekie to lend her his equipment not to mention letting her use it for this was beyond him. Regardless, his Vague Order solidified the molten tungsten almost instantaneously when his conventional [Deep Freeze] would have struggled to do so in comparison. He had a feeling it would have made the freezing of the Vulgis volcano effortless if he had it back then.

The real absurdity started from the smoke of a grill burning wood. All Owen did was command it to freeze and now they're seeing the dry, white air particles stay in place instead of floating away and that was not to mention the fire burning the wood being frozen as well no matter how much it made no sense. Amelia even touched them with her hands just to make sure their eyes weren't tricking them.

Finally, Amelia ordered a ball of light maneg to which Owen also froze in place. While the sight of what frozen light looked like was surreal and all, the Court Wizards were focused more on the maneg construct itself being locked in place with Owen's Order. Never before had an Order interacted with another like that. Not even a Maneg Beast was born out of it despite expecting and being prepared for it.

"And they're not even breaking off its own for all this time too," Amelia muttered further, rubbing her chin. "Alright Owen, shatter them."

"Right," Owen nodded as he looked at his handiwork. "Break."

SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER

"Ooh!" Rin exclaimed in amazement.

It was a rather beautiful sight, seeing motes of blue light floating away into the atmosphere as all of the frozen objects were broken down into tiny, glowing particles like glitter. The way the light reflected off of them also enhanced the aesthetic. Owen didn't pay much attention to it back at the fight with Typhon, but now that he did he could see why Rin thought as such.

"Stop the problem and make sure it doesn't happen again," Amelia commented, analyzing Owen's performance. "So that's your answer, Owen?'

"Pretty much," Owen nodded with a shrug.

"Well, it's obviously an upgraded version of [Deep Freeze], but it's definitely something else," Amelia then said, moving the topic on while seeing the last of the motes fade away. "To be able to freeze even other Orders and then smash them into pieces makes it one of the best already. And you said you use it to counter Typhon's curse?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Owen confirmed.

"So even conceptual phenomenons can be stopped and destroyed," Amelia nodded in understanding. "It must be a sight to behold."

"Uhn! It was so cool!" Rin beamed, her eyes flashing in excitement. "Ruze-senpai even froze the dragon's laser attack and then shattered them!"

"Is that so?" Alicia chuckled. "Wish I had seen it for myself."

"Definitely a Wish type Vague Order," Amelia remarked, having jotted down her observations the entire time on the board she was carrying or was it a tablet? Owen wasn't sure. "And it can with or without [Court Wizard's Aura]," she then muttered to which Owen realized that fact. "Anyway, what are you going to name your Vague Order or do I get to do it?"

That was a good question. Amelia did end up naming Alicia's Vague Orders, [Avatar] and [Mundane Ordering], since she would have given them terrible names. He named [Deep Freeze] that name because of how it froze things from the inside and outside all at once. This Vague Order was essentially a step above that. Glancing at Rin waiting for his answer excitedly, Owen figured out his answer.

"[Ultimate Freeze]."

"..."

"..."

"...I was thinking of [True Freeze]. How about that?"

"...Yeah, let's go with that."