Tale of Eldramir

Warren’s condition before agreeing was shocking enough to bring the entire room to a frenzy as no one believed that it was in any way fair. But as the room settled down, everyone looked towards Ezekiel to determine what he was going to do, as Warren wouldn’t budge.

Even Evelyn couldn’t change his mind, but the Guild and Church representatives were confused as to why she was insisting he retract the conditions entirely, and not even give Ezekiel a chance to fight.

‘They don’t actually think it’s possible for their son to defeat a Tier four Spirit Beast, do they?’ was the thought that went through everyone’s mind as they made their way to the training hall. Brucey accompanied them as the training hall would be large enough for him to enter and sit without being too cramped.

Evelyn didn’t accompany them, running off right away as she determined that she needed to go and get Wendy and Ellen from school. It wouldn’t take long for her to return with the twins, but she felt it best to go now, rather than risk being late.

So, as Warren, Ezekiel, Theo, and the rest of the people from the meeting arrived at the training room, Warren spoke up once again. Allon and Sherra continued to accompany them, as they were the one’s playing host to the Guild and the Church, even if they were mostly just there for show at this point.

“Now, Ezekiel, how much mana have you still got left?” He asked as he and Theo walked to one side of the arena.

“... I used up most of my mana defending myself from a Tier two Radiant Mage who tried to melt my face. So, I’ve only got thirty right now, compared to the seventy I had before.” Ezekiel stated as he stood across from Theo in the sparring ring.

The representatives and Alkena’s had gone to the stands to observe. Each was surprised at what Ezekiel was saying regarding his mana. Most mages would be quite upset at such a situation, given that that much mana was something that was difficult for many children to acquire before opening their first Chakra.

“Hearing Ezekiel’s words, Warren closed his eyes and entered his own meditative state, opening his eyes after a couple of seconds to look around the room. He then turned to address Naeri.

“Grand Scholar.” He said, using her official title rather than her given name, to show how serious he was taking this situation. “Did the information that was leaked include the newest discovery from earlier this week?”

Naeri didn't look shocked at Warren’s inquiry, as she figured that Ezekiel had likely talked to his parents about it, given that it was his discovery.

“Not the exact particulars, but everything prior to last week regarding Void mana accumulation has been revealed.” Naeri explained. “Why do you ask?”

Warren didn’t say anything as he turned back to Ezekiel.

“Son, I want you to use whatever visualization techniques you want, gather as much mana as you can from the various motes within this room as you can. You should be able to restore your mana to its highest point, if you’re careful.” Warren said as he locked eyes with Ezekiel. “If you’re going on this expedition, then they’re going to find out about your meditation anyway, so might as well give them a show. I’m sure they’ll keep quiet until you set off.”

Warren gave Reginald a glare as he said this, his eyes sweeping over the assistant from the Roaring Ruins Guild as well. Both swallowed nervously but knew that they would be the ones that Warren and Evelyn went after if additional news was leaked, given that Gerome had already promised to sign a Spirit Covenant.

“Okay.” Ezekiel said as he sat down cross legged, placing his hands out to the sides facing away from each other. Going back to his original attempts at Void gathering, he decided that he would push himself this time, and not hold back, given that his father would be pushing him further than ever today.

Entering a meditative trance, Ezekiel saw quite a bit of mana floating around. As he had decided to go all out, he first started with a swirling mix of stone and wind, once again in the shape of a yin-yang symbol, but this time he also split his attention to include a swirling mix of fire and water, with steam rising up as the two elements mixed with one another.

Sweat began to accumulate on Ezekiel’s brow as his pushed his mind to the limit to gather as much mana as possible. If it wasn’t for his use of Newton's cradle concepts that he’d discovered last week, he’d have never even considered meditating in this way. It was reckless, and there was no way he’d be able to expel the excess mana safely if he had too much of it otherwise.

But as this occurred, the Guild representatives and Naeri all looked on in shock as they focused their own mana to see what Ezekiel was doing. They saw the mana for Glacial, Flame, Tempest, and Cavern magic all flowing towards Ezekiel at once, disappearing into his body as it got closer.

The four types of mana split into two groups, creating Void mana as the Flame and Glacial mana mixed together, just as the Tempest and Cavern mana did when they were also mixed.

There wasn’t much in regard to Flame and Glacial mana, with Ezekiel only able to make ten motes of Void mana from all the Flame and Glacial mana he’d absorbed from within his range. There was more from the Cavern and Tempest mana, granting him twenty-two motes of Void mana, which in total, left him with sixty-two motes of Void mana. Not quite the seventy he had from before, but still nearly double what he had prior to this.

Next was the hard part, expelling the excess Flame and Tempest mana without releasing his Void mana. Using his Void mana to push the Flame and Tempest mana to opposite sides of his body, he lines up additional Void mana and readied himself before slamming them forward, forcing the metaphysical momentum through his stationary mana and into the Flame and Tempest mana.

The two motes of Flame mana and six motes of Tempest mana shot outwards, leaving Ezekiel’s body and flying outwards until they went beyond his range of meditation.

Ezekiel then brought the Void mana back towards his core where he left it to settle with the rest.

Opening his eyes, Ezekiel nearly lost balance as he almost fell backwards. His consciousness was faint as he’d used up almost the entirety of his mental stamina to what he just did. Visualizing four elements at once was something he had never done before, but he knew that he’d need whatever edge he could get if he wanted to proceed.

Taking in a deep breath, and looking like death warmed over, Ezekiel stood up, forcing himself to focus on Theo, who was looking at him apathetically from across the ring.

“... Are you finished?” Warren asked with only the barest hint of worry in his voice. He had understood his son’s explanation of this new aspect of Void mana before, but this was the first time he’d witnessed it. Both we and the representatives were shocked when they suddenly noticed Flame and Tempest mana shooting out of Ezekiel’s body all of a sudden after the mana stopped flowing towards him.

“I’m back at sixty-two motes. I don’t think there’s any more I can do right now. Not without an hour or so’s rest and a fresh area with more mana for me to absorb.” Ezekiel explained.

This made sense to the others in the room. They were all official mages, high Tier ones at that, so their meditative range encompassed the whole of the training area, and beyond, out into the manor. Using his tremor sensing, Gerome could actually sense mana and people upwards of several blocks away.

Given that Ezekiel wasn’t an official Mage yet, it made sense that his meditation could only allow him to commune with the mana within a ten-foot radius or so.

“How long did I meditate for?” Ezekiel asked, he was starting to get a hold of himself again. “I... kinda pushed myself, so I couldn’t focus on how long that was.”

“It was about fifteen minutes; your mind has grown much stronger. If you weren’t focusing on four elements, I’m sure you’d have gone for over double that amount of time.” Warren said with a hint of pride, even as he tried to stay stone faced. “Now, grab a weapon, quickly, and let’s begin. Your mother should be back with your sisters soon.”

Ezekiel nodded before making his way over to a weapon rack and picking out a weighted wooden sword. Warren raised his eyes at that, as he knew that Ezekiel tended to prefer using a staff in his spars.

“Not using a staff this time?” Warren asked. “It seems like you really are taking this seriously. But that won’t be enough.”

Warren reached down to his side where there was a small pouch tied to his belt. Opening it up, Warren withdrew a sword that was far too long to have fit within the dimensions of the pouch.

Ezekiel was shocked. He’d seen this pouch plenty of times before and knew that his mother had one as well. He’d looked inside them a few times before as well, but as far as he could tell they were just fancy looking pouches that had colorful specks decorating the inside. He’d even felt around inside it before, but never noticed anything special.

“This is a Void Pouch. Their worth has been determined to be roughly a hundred gold for the smallest types, but they are a severely regulated Relic, and one of the few that we have managed to retain the method of creation for.” Warren explained. “Usually, only Guilds that specialize in crafting will make these pouches, using special tools created for the purpose of drawing and channeling Void mana from pure crystals. Once a pouch has been exposed to a person’s unique mana, only that person can use that pouch, unless they willingly sever their connection, or they die.”

Ezekiel was both amazed and confused.

“Wait, if they use pure crystals, then doesn’t that mean they’re something that Void Mages can create?” Ezekiel asked, thinking that this was another thing that he could work on in the future.

“Unfortunately, not. They use a series of enchanted glyphs and runes to channel the mana from the pure crystals, so they’re not something that requires a Void mage to create.” Warren explained, dashing Ezekiel’s hopes of having a new and personalized magic. “Now here, it’s not enchanted, but you’ll need this if you want to stand a chance.”

Warren threw the sword he drew from his Void pouch towards Ezekiel. It landed blade first in the ground of the sparring ring. Ezekiel dropped the weighted wooden sparring sword on the ground within the ring before pulling the new sword from the ground.

It was a hand-and-a-half sword, which, due to the fact that Ezekiel wasn’t full grown, was just short of a longsword for him, proportionally. Ezekiel gave it a few test swings before nodding his head and taking a ready stance.

The representatives in the stands were starting to look bored at this point but perked up as they were about to see what Ezekiel could do. Most of their familiars joined them, but Brucey stayed at the bottom and curled up to watch the show.

“Alright then. Ezekiel,” Warren said as he observed Ezekiel and Theo standing across from one another, “Theo will be fighting you at the strength of an initial Tier two Spirit, but he will retain his full mana capacity. Meaning that he will be able to continuously throw around low end Tier two spells without getting tired. You, on the other hand, don’t need to hide anything. Fight as hard as you can and do whatever it takes to win. If you manage to draw blood from Theo, I will consider this a win. Other than these rules, everything will be real, and Theo will only stop if you are unconscious.”

“Understood.” Ezekiel said, his eyes not leaving Theo’s form.

He discreetly readied his mana as his father raised his hand.

“In that case, begin!” Warren said with a yell as he slashed his hand downward.

Ezekiel immediately dashed forward and to the side, avoiding the beams of light that shot out from Theo’s eyes as Ezekiel moved fast enough to only be a blur to the eyes of a Tier one Mage.

He forced himself into a roll as Theo moved his head in Ezekiel’s direction. He was forced to expend another mote of mana in order to get out of the way of Theo’s beams as they continued to chase him. Seeing little choice in the matter, Ezekiel channeled some mana into his clothes, enhancing the enchantments to the best of his abilities, as he jumped backwards to get some distance to figure something out.

This was not a good idea, as Theo just continued channeling mana through his eyes to fire a continuous beam of burning light at Ezekiel, intent on wearing him down to no mana at all.

‘That’s six.’ Ezekiel thought to himself as he was forced to burn more mana in order to defend against Theo’s eyes.

Choosing to take a chance, Ezekiel focused mana into both his clothes and his arms as he took a hit from Theo’s eyes, and dug his sword into the ground, swinging the sword sideways at an angle. He then used the sword as a lever to heave the sparring floor upwards, giving him some small cover as a reprieve from Theo’s relentless attack.

Back up in the stands, the representatives and Alkena’s were watching with surprise as they witnessed Ezekiel’s abilities. They knew that Void mages could use their mana to enhance their physical abilities, but this was more than they had expected.

“The boy is doing fairly well for himself.” Nari commented as she watched Ezekiel dodge the beams for a while before falling back. “Shame that he’ll never pass this test.”

Gerome and Reginald just nodded, as did their assistants.

“Excuse me, Grand Scholar, but what do you mean?” Allon asked. He didn’t know much about fighting, but he was still a Tier two Mage, and his wife was also a True Hunter, even if she hadn’t gone on any excursions outside the city before. However, it seemed like Sherra was also confused. Feris, as well, didn’t know what was going on as he watched the battle from his seat on Sherra’s lap.

“Quite simply, mister Alkena, a Spirit’s body grows tougher as it grows in strength. Even if it is limited to Tier two spells and power, Theo’s body alone is much too tough to be cut by a simple sword.” Naeri explained. “Although, I’m surprised at you, Reginald. I would’ve thought you’d be jumping for joy, what with Ezekiel not being able to take up Gerome’s deal.”

Reginald said nothing as he watched Ezekiel lift the ground to create cover.

“I feel like I’ve underestimated this family far too much today.” Reginald said. “Besides, correct me if I’m wrong, Gerome, but given that it’s not enchanted, that sword should’ve snapped under the pressure the boy just put it under.”

“Indeed. It seems like Void mana doesn’t just enhance the user’s body, and elemental spells.” Gerome said. “It will certainly be costly, but it may very well be possible for Ezekiel to win this.”

Naeri, having now noticed the same things as Reginald and Gerome, was also having a change in opinion as she continued watching Ezekiel hide behind his newly created cover. The lifted ground from the ring was now being worn away by Theo’s beams, slower than he was capable of, but still fairly quickly.

“Well, even if he can enhance that sword, it means little if he can’t get close.” Naeri stated.

Just as she finished speaking, the doors to the training room opened as Ezekiel dashed out from cover. In walked Shari and her friends, along with Evelyn, Wendy and Ellen. Peni and Stephen entered last, bringing up the rear as they closed the doors behind them.

Seeing Ezekiel fighting with Theo in the sparring ring, they all stopped and stared, only for Wendy and Ellen to nearly shriek in amazement. Luckily, Evelyn was quick enough to cover their mouths to keep them silent.

Shari, Drew, Riley, and Yennifrey were also shocked, but their exclamations were not nearly as loud as Wendy and Ellen’s nearly were.

“Is that Ezekiel?” Riley asked as she saw Ezekiel charging forward, sword in one hand, and the other raised, the sleeve enhanced to a ridiculous extent as he charged towards Theo as fast as he could.

He suddenly needed to start dodging attacks as Theo changed from a continuous beam to multiple shots, the impacts throwing Ezekiel off before he could start dodging faster than the other kids could follow with their eyes.

‘Twenty.’ Ezekiel couldn’t help but wince as he kept mentally counting the total mana he had used. He figured he’d need to spend at least twenty-five if he wanted to draw blood, so he’d likely only have one chance.

Jumping back and forth, and not taking his eyes off of Theo, Ezekiel knew that this was his best chance to get in close to try and land a blow, as there were small openings between the shots Theo was firing. He was nearly there, too. Just a little bit closer.

“Come along, children. Let’s go sit down and let this finish.” Evelyn said through a tensed jaw as she pulled the kids out of their stupor and brought them to the stands. Wendy and Ellen, seeing Brucey at the bottom of the stands, immediately went over to play with the dog sized bear.

“What’s going on?” Shari asked Evelyn as they walked up the stairs to the stands.

“You’ll find out later.” Evelyn said shortly as she kept on walking. Shari, knowing she wasn’t going to get anything more from Evelyn right now, shut her mouth and followed to take a seat.

The rest made their way up the stands, moving to take a seat close to, but not directly next to, the representatives. Drew, noticing the sashes tied to their arms, immediately froze up as he saw leaders from two of the top three Guilds in the city watching his friend fight.

Yennifrey, noticing Drew’s shock and awe, quickly took in what he was seeing and tried to snap him out of it. Not wanting her friend to embarrass himself.

“Drew.” She said as she dug her finger into his side. “Freak out later. You want to make a good impression, don’t you?”

Drew, snapping out of his stupor, thanked Yennifrey and moved to sit down with his friends a little way away from the representatives. But he couldn’t take his eyes off of them, subconsciously choosing to ignore Ezekiel in exchange for staring at them.

Reginald and his assistant just scoffed at Drew’s behavior, but Gerome, Garrad, and Naeri couldn’t help but chuckle as they saw Drew staring out of the corner of their eyes.

Back in the ring, Ezekiel had finally gotten close enough to land a blow on Theo, and was about to strike with all his strength, partially channeling mana to do so, only for Theo to leap out of the way.

Ezekiel was then hit in the chest as Theo opened his mouth and fired a much larger, but less intense, beam of light directly at his chest.

“Ezekiel!” Shari called out as Ezekiel went flying back to where he’d first started this fight.

Warren just let out a sigh as he saw Ezekiel land and roll on the ground. He knew Ezekiel had just expended a bunch of mana, and likely wouldn’t have enough to try again. In a way, he was relieved, as he had no desire to see his son go off on a Ruin expedition when he wasn’t even an official Mage yet.

Suddenly, Ezekiel stopped rolling, and forcing himself into a spin, Ezekiel grabbed the practice sword from before, and using the mana he’d focused into his previous swing, Ezekiel threw it as hard as he could, using some of the momentum from his roll and spin, and let just a little bit of the mana leak into the sparring sword itself.

‘Thirty-one.’ Ezekiel mentally counted. He’d now used up half his mana in this fight and would barely have enough to finish this.

The sparring sword flew at Theo faster than he could move out of the way. It struck Theo right in the side, but the surprising thing wasn’t the hit as Theo didn’t even flinch from the impact. It was the fact that the sword shattered into multiple pieces, which then began to grow, and wrap around Theo’s body.

Peni gasped in shock at this, as this was nearly at the level of Tier zero life magic.

It wasn’t anything so special, of course, as it was only Ezekiel channeling Void mana into the miniscule amounts of Life mana that resided in the wood. It was only a single mote, but it was enhanced by multiple motes of Void mana.

Surprised at the branches wrapping around his legs and body, Theo turned his head to snap and tear at the branches digging into him, briefly taking his eyes off of Ezekiel as he did.

Seeing the minor lapse in concentration, Ezekiel immediately pushed six motes of Void mana into his body, enhancing his whole body several times over.

Using both hands to swing as hard as he could, he focused the rest of his mana into the sword in his hands, making the metal shine, even as it cracked from the stress it was now suffering under.

Theo, knowing that Ezekiel was going to use this moment to attack, moved to jump backward once again, but this time, Ezekiel was prepared.

Rather than follow through with the swing, Ezekiel instead let go mid swing, throwing the sword directly at Theo, who was now in midair due to his attempt to jump and dodge.

The sword spun briefly before making impact with Theo, right on the top of his head. A small trickle of blood stained his fur as the sword just barely managed to scratch him. Something that Warren, Evelyn, and the representatives noticed with their high-level sense. Sherra, still being fairly new to Tier three, and not having the same level of experience, was not able to see this, but was still amazed by the clean blow Ezekiel had managed to land.

Whilst Warren and Evelyn immediately felt a mix of disappointment and pride at Ezekiel’s success, their son’s actions as the sword landed surprised them all.

“TAKE COVER!!!” Ezekiel screamed as he used the last of his enhanced strength to jump back and over his previously created cover, landing in a heap as he did.

The rest of the people in the training room didn’t even have a second to think as the sword Ezekiel had thrown immediately blew up. A shattering sound like a rock through glass spilt the air as fragments broke the sound barrier and fired off into multiple directions.

The Guild representatives immediately covered themselves and took the shards without too much issue, as their own bodies were tough enough to only suffer a few scratches at best. Their assistants were also close enough that they could be covered without issue.

For the rest, seeing as how they weren’t Tier threes, they were quite a bit more vulnerable.

Luckily, Brucey reacted immediately, growing to his full size and covering the kids from getting hit by any shards. Half his body was cut up pretty badly, but it wasn’t something that he couldn’t recover from.

A couple seconds passed as everyone recovered from the shock and the blast. Brucey and the representatives all channeled their mana to expel the shards that had hit them. Brucey shrank down to his dow size after all the metal was expelled, licking his wounds as he did, feeling more annoyed than frustrated or pained.

As they all looked to the arena, They saw Ezekiel curled up behind the shallow cover, no injuries at all, as he stretched out. He looked around, taking in what he could see, his gaze stopping briefly over his friends in the stands, before peeking out over his cover to take a look at his father and Theo.

Warren didn’t look too much worse for wear, as he had thrown up a shield of light at literal light speed the moment Ezekiel had yelled. Theo, on the other hand, looked like he’d had better days.

Luckily, the force behind the blow ended up being spread out, as there was no one to direct it, but he had still suffered what was essentially a sword shaped grenade to the face.

He had several cuts all over the top of his head, and there were metal shards stuck in his mane.

It seemed like his eyes hadn’t been damaged, likely because he had been channeling mana through them to fire laser beams and had strengthened them ever so slightly.

Needless to say, Ezekiel had most certainly drawn blood. Something that no one in this room would be able to dispute.

Seeing the damage, he had done, Ezekiel could only wince in regret as he thought about how much pain Theo must be in. He hadn’t thought the damage would be this extensive, but he also did n’t know what else he could do to win under the conditions he had been given.

“Ezekiel...” Warren said quietly as he saw what his son had done. “Come here.”

Ezekiel, now feeling actually nervous. His father’s voice seemed to hold a cold fury within it. Something that Ezekiel had never heard from his father before. He cautiously walked towards his father.

SLAP

Ezekiel’s face was thrown to the side as his father slapped him the moment he was within arm’s reach. It was nowhere near as hard as it could’ve been, but Ezekiel was still nearly floored all the same. Never, in this life or his last, had he been slapped like this before, let alone by a parental figure.

The rest of the room also looked on in shock. Evelyn actually let out a gasp in surprise as she saw her husband strike their son.

Ezekiel looked back up at Warren with tears beginning to pool in his eyes.;

“Wha-”

Ezekiel was cut off as Warren bent down to hug him, tears flowing from his own eyes as he did.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again! Do you hear me!” Warren practically yelled as he held his son. “Don’t you ever do anything as dangerous as that again!”

“... Dad...” Ezekiel was at a loss for words. He’d never seen his father cry before.

“That wasn’t the same as your experiments at meditation. You were always careful with that, and always focused on your extremities. But this was different!” Warren stated. “If you hadn’t gotten to cover in time, and if those shards had hit you, it doesn’t matter how tough your body is as a Void Mage. The moment those shards hit your body, they’d go right through you, and if one of them hit your head...”

Only now was everyone truly realizing the extent of the danger that Ezekiel had just put himself in. The danger he had just put all of his friends in.

“It if was just an accident, I wouldn’t have hit you. I’d have been scared as hell, but that would be all.” Warren said as he held Ezekiel’s shoulders, pushing him back enough to look him in the eye. “But you knew that would happen, didn’t you?”

Ezekiel was silent as his father stared him down. Finally, he broke his eye contact and looked to the ground in guilt.

“... I thought it might... after I channeled more mana into it.” Ezekiel muttered quietly as he continued to stare at the floor.

Theo looked on, giving a low rumbling growl as he approached. He had removed the shards from his face at this point and was nearly healed as he channeled his mana into a spell to fix his wounds. Warren looked at his bonded Spirit before closing his eyes and sighing as well.

“I don’t know what the Relic showed you, but the only thing that matters to me is your life, and your wellbeing.” Warren said. “So, promise me that you won’t purposefully risk your life on this expedition.”

Ezekiel looked back up at his father in shock. He was almost certain that he wouldn’t be allowed to go given how mad his father was.

“I did say there were conditions. Plural. Didn’t I?” Warren said, his tone neutral, but there was a hint of disappointment. “Well, you drew blood from Theo, but there’s still more. You need to promise me you’ll never purposefully enter harm's way again, for any reason besides it being the only way to get safe.”

Warren then turned Ezekiel around so he could look at the representatives on the stands.

“The second, is that you do what Guild Leader Gerome tells you, no matter what.” Warren said. “He won’t be able to make you do anything that’ll harm you. I’ll get him to agree not to humiliate you or treat you like a slave either. But he will be bound to ensure that you are safe, to the best of his abilities, so you will do as he says, or you will not be going.”

Ezekiel looked back at his father. Eyes brimming with happiness, even as his father looked disappointed at Ezekiel’s success.

“I promise.” Ezekiel said with a nod of his head.

Warren stood up, brushing off his pants as he did.

“Then let’s go get you ready to go on your first expedition.” Warren said as he and Ezekiel walked towards the stands.

Warren looked toward the representatives with apprehension, knowing that his son had both impressed and surprised them. He was originally on the fence about showing off his son like this. But the looks of surprise still on their faces almost made it worth it.

Ezekiel also looked toward the stands. But his focus was on someone else. Someone he still had to apologize to.