[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
"Work damnit!"
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
*Cli-*
"Screw you!"
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
*Clink*
After five attempts at casting Chill without an invocation, I finally manage to produce the tiniest, measliest ice crystal. It falls from my fingertips and shatters on the floor of the tree. Ugh, I can't focus with Mephis gone. I guess this must be why people mostly use incantations. The slightest distraction and the spell falls apart without the words to control it. I spend pretty much the whole time while Mephis is gone, practicing my silent invocation with Chill. After almost two years of spellcasting practice, as well as using mana to see the future, the amount of mana I can utilize each day has increased tremendously. Mephis says that it is normal for a growing person to rapidly gain mana in their youth with regular practice. However, he has never heard of anyone starting as early as me, nor improving as quickly. While I once struggled to manifest even a single ice crystal with an incantation, now I can cast Chill all day before starting to get tired, so it's not a problem to keep working.
"Man, when is Mephis coming back?" I gaze worriedly at the door as light comes in from the holes carved onto the ceiling of the tree. However, I know that the village he is visiting is almost a full day's walk away. Though for someone with Mephis's speed, that time will be a lot shorter. To get there and back though will take him time, and if there are assassins to avoid, it may be even longer. Sighing, I can only return to diligently practicing. "Okay, one more time!"
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
#
By the time evening arrives, I tell myself that it is a long trip, and Mephis did say it would probably be at least a whole day or even two before he returned. My worry has hampered my chantless spellcasting, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Looking at the pile of ice crystals which are melting on the floor, I can at least grin a little bit. Heh...when Mephis comes back, I'll properly show him the fruits of my hard work! Maybe he'll even change his mind when he sees how advanced my magic has become without a teacher!
My only concern is that while casting Chill without an invocation, is immensely convenient, at the moment, without a conduit like the Bloodstone in Mephis's glove, my magic is very weak unless I chant out the full incantation. Even if I successfully cast Chill, manifesting a tiny ice crystal is unlikely to be very useful in combat. A Mud Boar would just shake it off. No...I still need to get stronger! Until even without chanting or a conduit, I can take care of myself! I have to convince him that I don't need a teacher!
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
*Clink*
More...it's not enough.
More.
More.
MORE!
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
*Clink Clink Clink*
Three ice crystals blossom. However, these ones are not the same as the ones from before. They grow bigger, fully forming to the size of my child-sized hands. A jet of cold air flies out and freezes a small path like a beam as the crystals are shot forwards like shotgun pellets into the wall. They lodge against the insides of the tree with a bang.
*Crack*
The tree groans and my mouth falls open. With Mephis's glove, I can cause a huge amount of ice to form if I say the incantation, but I've never managed to create a beam which simultaneously turned the crystals into missiles.
"This...now this is something worth learning!"
However...the mana used is surprisingly high.
Feeling a bit woozy, I don't immediately try to it again, but instead stop and memorize exactly what I did last time. I just imagined pushing out the air. Like I'm using Gust. And then combined that with the pattern of Chill. Huh, I need to practice this more. Maybe the basic spells can be combined based on your will? I mean it makes sense. Chill can be manipulated into different combinations with your mana to create ice crystals, cold air, and freeze things solid depending on how you use it. Why shouldn't you be able to mix multiple spells at once? I guess the real limit might be how well you can focus on multiple things at once?
"Hehe...hehehe!" My laughter fills the inside of the tree. As someone who has spent two lives simultaneously dealing with past and present, there is no one better at multi-tasking than me! This world's magic...it's like it was tailor made for me to use! Wait...what if I tried to cast a chantless spell while chanting another spell?
"Okay, one in my head and one out loud!"
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]
The sound of the chant for Gust fills the cabin while I focus on silently casting Chill with all my might. Just like how I learned to hold the future and present in my mind at the same time, I do my best to silently maintain my focus on both chants while thinking about icebergs tipping in a howling wind. The spell activation is not fast like when I purely casted it without an invocation. Maintaining the focus to say and think different things at once requires an insane amount of focus which perhaps only I could possibly have. It takes several seconds before I can finish the invocation in both mind and mouth and bring the mana to the right places to cast the magic-
*Clink*
*Shing*
First a small ice crystal forms in the air. It's not terribly large, my silent casting is just not that good yet. However...I don't expect what happens next. A huge gust of chilly wind streams out of my fingertips and accelerates the crystal to absolute max. It comes out so fast that it flickers in a way that reminds me slightly of how Mephis moves when he's serious. Then the crystal smashes into the lamp. However, it's going so fast that it goes right through the porcelain without shattering it, like an armor penetrating bullet, and smashes into the wall behind.
*Thud*
I freeze as the light inside the tree reduces greatly. The noise from when the ice crystal hit the wall was different this time. Not a tinkle as it shattered, but rather a hard knocking noise like someone putting their foot through a wooden board. I walk over to the impact hole. As I approach the wall, I can barely see that the heartwood of the tree has taken on a blue, frosty appearance, as if frozen. When I touch it, it's freezing and stings my hand. Looking at the impact hole, I gasp. The crystal has pretty much disintegrated into powder on impact with the wood, but it's left a hole several centimeters deep in the wall.
Holy crap!
"It...worked? You can really just combine spells like that? And the power if I chant one of them out loud is much higher. Plus, there's no sign that I'm silently chanting another spell in my head. So, people would expect an ordinary Gust to come out but then an ice crystal would shoot at them? My god...this would be devastating. I wonder if even Mephis could anticipate something like this?" My eyes are gleeful and I rub my hands together in excitement. With this...I won't be so useless anymore! Even a wild beast would not enjoy being hit by this! I'll call it...how about Disguised Casting? Ugh, it really is quite tiring though. After this and the last one, I'm running very low on mana, I think.
Blinking my eyes, which have become a little heavy, I sit on the bed while surveying the results of my hard work. Never in either of my lives would I have imagined I'd ever be capable of something amazing like this. This...this is so cool! Being able to see the future was great and all, but I could never show it to anyone. However, in this world, magic is commonplace! While I should be careful, I don't have to worry so much about hiding it!
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Scrrrrrr*
The sound of the door opening is accompanied by heavy breathing and loud footsteps which scare me. It takes me a second to realize why. Mephis moves much more quietly than this! In a split second, I draw the dagger from my belt and begin to utter the incantation for Chill.
[Frozen Wind of My Soul-
"Kid! Get up! Now!"
It's Mephis.
Immediately, I bite my tongue and cut the incantation for Chill short. Without waiting even a second, I already know that the situation is serious because Mephis never panics like this. He normally travels like a ghost, but now he is stomping about and yelling as if the devil himself is chasing him.
"Coming, Mephis!" I hop out of the bed and rush out the door. He is waiting for me outside and in the fading sunlight, I don't see anything wrong. He looks the same as always, tall and lean, if a bit frazzled. "Did something happen?"
"We need to go! I messed up!" Mephis's words drive fear into my heart as he grabs me by the hand and without even shutting the door to the tree, begins to pull me away. "Come on! Leave the door, it doesn't matter! Don't stop running!"
"W-Where are we going?" I want to be calm like him. In my previous life, when I had access to the future at all times, and I was grown, I never was afraid like this. However, in this world...it's different. People kill each other at the drop of a dime here. Even if I peek into the future, it won't be enough to change anything in this lawless place. And my body is that of a child. Not to mention I'm almost out of mana. Shoot, I should have been more careful to save some for emergencies! "Mephis?!"
"I'm taking you to town. Maybe he won't expect it. We'll go the long way and then try to sneak our way to Lian's friends. Listen to me carefully, Kid. There's a map and instructions in the letter I gave you. If anything happens, just keep running. Don't stop, don't even sleep until you get to Sines Town! And don't look back!" Mephis's voice is dark, grim, and completely empty. Even when he fought off the assassins from the night of my birth, I don't remember him ever acting like this. My soul shudders as if someone has cast Chill on me.
"It's that bad?" I can barely breathe. He's really pushing me, not holding back like he usually does. If it wasn't for the swordsmanship and physical conditioning of the last few years, I would probably fall on my face and gasp for breath. I want to speak more, but all I can do is pant, "Ha...ha...."
"The worst. It's the worst situation!" Mephis glances over his shoulder and I can't see what he's looking for. The sun is setting, but it seems our night is only beginning. "Don't talk! Just focus on running! We need to go faster! He's definitely on our trail by now!"
"W-Who?"
"Jarold Westblade. They really hired an Enforcer from one of Meirkeep's Assassin Guilds! We have to avoid him at all costs!" He explains quickly but I don't understand much of what he's saying. Meirkeep? Assassin Guild?
"Strong?"
"More than you can imagine! He's too dangerous! But if we can get to the village, he may lose our trail with all the people. It's our only chance!" My guardian huffs and mutters grimly to himself, "I was so, so stupid! Oh, the message is sent, it'll be fine to just head back. Just because I snuck in easily doesn't mean that someone won't be keeping watch when I leave! Gods damn me! I'm an idiot! How could I go shopping..."
"N-Not...an idiot!" I manage to breathe out and Mephis just pulls harder. "It was a mistake!"
"Stop talking." He commands and I obey him, focusing on running. "What was that?"
*Tch*
Maybe it is just some of the reflexes of my old life. Or perhaps it is because I have trained with the wild beasts of the Dead Forest. In that slim second when Mephis hears something, I don't know why, but I open my second sight and peek into the future. The spinning dagger which comes whirling into Mephis's shoulder, I see it clearly. All I have in this life, all I can manage to see, is one second.
One measly second ahead.
MEPHIS!
I don't have time to speak. There is no time for words. Only a chantless spell can change our destiny before the dagger strikes-
[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]
*Cli-*