After my conversation with Luca, he offered me a demonstration of his dark magic power. I agreed because I wanted to see how far ahead he was in terms of power. Never have I regretted my decision based on curiosity as much as I regretted this.
Of course, the disparity between my and Luca’s power would be huge. I never really practiced my dark magic, while Luca seemed to have practiced quite a lot, and under my mom’s supervision.
[Scua stiellan] (Shadow Leap)Luca demonstrated how he ‘locked’ an animate being’s shadow, then teleported to where the ‘locked’ shadow was.
[Slieht rifter] (Death’s scythe)Luca’s dark scythe slammed on the ground, leaving it with a huge crack…
[Forhtnes] (Fear)This time, his target was me. I was prepared, but for some reason, I suddenly felt chills running down my spine and I was overcome with the urge to run away from where Luca was.
“Alright, alright, stop! I got it, I got it, Master! You demonstrated such high prowess in dark magic! So…First, shadow possession and even using it to teleport, the second one was to demonstrate your dark magic’s destructive power, and the last…was something like mind invasion?” I waved both of my hands to Luca, urging him to stop overkilling me.
“The last one is only the basic of mind-related dark magic usage,” Luca thankfully cooperated and stopped demonstrating his dark magic again.
“Are you learning mind manipulation side of dark magic?” I raised my eyebrow.
“Well, just in case. So I could reverse it,” Luca casually said.
“Oh…That surely comes in handy,” I nodded in agreement. I was overcome by my fear of screwing up my dark magic that it slipped my mind completely.
“Wait, what kind of dark magic did you use to help curb down my dark magic outbreak last time?” I asked.
“That one is magic absorption. Since it’s also dark magic, I can absorb the other party’s, depending on my power and their power…I failed to absorb them fully,” Luca smiled bitterly.
“Well, my mom already said that it was the best you could do, and that significantly helped me. Really, thanks, Luca. I hope there won’t be next time I bother you with such things.”
“Of course, but should push comes to shove, I’ll try backing you up. You’re the one who said to share burdens, right?”
“Uwaah, you used my words right back at me just a few while after I said that!” I didn’t expect that coming.
“Heh,” Luca smirked.
Just right then…
“Luca-niisama!! Lyra-neesama!!” A small redhead ran towards me. Behind her, a boy with his seaweed-like hair chased the small redhead figure and managed to get next to her. They were Leticia and Kiri.
Just as I prepared myself, seeing how the cute redhead wanted to pounce on me, Kiri shouted, “Lyra’s just recovered!”
In that instant, Leticia stopped herself from jumping and remained a few steps from me. She stopped so abruptly it surprised me as well. She then stiffly curtseyed before me and greeted me.
“Lyra-neesama, it’s been awhile.”
…My baby has grown up!!! (´；д；`)
“Leticia!” I approached her and patted her head.
“Ehehe,” Leticia giggled happily.
Then, we gently hugged each other.
“I miss you!” Leticia said, prompting me to increase my embracing strength.
“I miss you, too, baby!”
Leticia still wanted to be pampered like I usually did her, but she always held back at school, fearing that she would be teased due to it. Even my own adopted siblings, Freyr and Freyja, didn’t act freely childish as they were at home.
Hmm…younger sibling mode a bit supressed at school?
I agreed how it might be embarrassing to be seen as ‘childish’ or ‘pampered’ in public. Surely every child wanted their peers to view them with admiration, not teasing gazes.
After shortly playing with Leticia, Luca, and Kiri, I finally returned home along with Mom.
Upon returning home, I asked Mom, “Mom, when can I start training my dark magic?”
Mom was a bit stunned before she replied, “You want to start right away?”
I went silent a bit before I nodded, “Yes.”
The more I delay it, the harder it might get. Strike while the iron was still hot. Better ask this now than delaying then backing away.
“Alright then, let’s do a simple training right after this,” Mom said as she led me to her study room.
Mom then brought a square magic box and put it on the desk. She poured some of her mana in it and several small wooden blocks were formed.
“The first thing we have to have an understanding of is–,” Mom said as she used her hands to cast her wind magic to line up the wooden blocks on the table.
“How well you can control your dark magic power,” Mom said as she finished lining up the blocks.
I see.
The strength isn’t the question this moment, as it has demonstrated its power during the magic outbreak. The question is my control over my strength.
“There are ten wooden blocks here, all with a little bit of gap between them. What I want you to do is…Can you try destroying those wooden blocks with your dark magic, one by one starting from the one to your left side?” Mom instructed me.
“I will try,” I said as I nodded.
Then, I began concentrating my mind and silently brought forth my dark magic power to destroy the wooden blocks.
A dark mist began to surge from the table as it started to envelop the most left block in order to destroy it. As I felt that the target was locked, I immediately commenced it to destroy the target.
However…
“Ah…!”
In the instant I unleashed my dark magic’s destructive power, the two blocks next to the target was also engulfed in the dark magic that went out of control.
The dark mist also toppled the block next to them, causing a domino effect that toppled all the blocks in no time.
“Uuu…Is the table fine though?” I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t be able to control its power to this extent. Well, when I first learned ice magic, I also overdid it, but I was more confident after feeling that I became better at magic. Guess I was wrong, as this dark magic of mine hadn’t been polished that much. I only learned the basic of dark magic after all.
“Don’t worry about the table, I’ve covered it with light magic that could cancel the dark magic’s power,” Mom chuckled upon hearing my concern.
“It’s harder than I thought…I’ll give it another try!” I said, not wanting to give up.
The next attempt. Two and a half blocks were eaten.
Next one. Two blocks eaten, domino effect created.
Fourth attempt…Perhaps I was getting irritated that I ended up destroying four blocks.
Mom sensed that I was starting to get impatient, so she said, “Lyra, take it easy, no rush.”
“But why can’t I do it, Mom? I think I’ve gotten really better at magic, this shouldn’t have happened…,” I ranted my frustration away.
“Ah, that’s the case. You’ve gotten better at magic so far that you expected this to be like icing on the cake. You’ve forgotten how it was when you first started with the other magic. Don’t worry, you’re actually getting better. Let’s try again with a cool head,” Mom reminded me.
“…Okay,” I took a deep breath before I tried another attempt.
Fifth attempt, two blocks destroyed with no other effect—even the third block wasn’t touched.
Sixth attempt, one block completely destroyed, the second block was damaged as well.
“That’s it, good!” Mom complimented me.
I actually was getting tired of concentrating. Yes, my mana or magical power consumption didn’t really tire me much, but controlling it exhausted my mind.
But Mom said it would get better, and I remembered that was also the case when I first learned magic. So I should just keep trying.
Finally, in the next attempt, I managed to take down only one block. Then, it was easier to take down the other blocks one by one once I managed to do it—or not. I messed up several times in the middle, still.
As I was thinking on continuing until I managed to get all ten down one by one, Mom decided to end today’s training here and continue later on.
“It’s quite late. Aren’t you hungry?” Mom asked.
“Uh, now that you mention it…,” I was concentrating for quite some time that I got hungry. Besides, I felt that the more I tried just now, the more I messed up, so perhaps it was wise to call it a day now.
The training seemed simple, but the simple training turned out to be arduous.
Thus, my first time training after I woke up ended right there.
That night, Alt-nii and the twins volunteered to help my training for the next day. Mom and Dad also gave me some books about dark magic that I could read and learn by myself.
I refreshed some knowledge about dark magic that night.
As expected, dark magic that was related to mind manipulation was the hardest to do. Luca’s demonstrated [Fear] was like the basic example of it, though. I read about how [Fear] was used to intimidate beasts that adventurers might encounter in the middle of their journey, thus saving their lives. There were actually other uses of mind manipulation magic that wasn’t evil in nature.
On the next day which was luckily still a holiday, my siblings all helped me in training my magic.
Compared to the simple yet arduous training Mom gave me yesterday, today’s training session was easier.
Alt-nii took out his FS board that he often used to play around. He rode on the sleek board that was powered either by solar energy or magic to float and dash about. The flying skateboard was a hit especially among teen boys, especially during sport week as there were FS-board competition. Unfortunately, Alt-nii was only interested in using it as a play, and never really interested in taking it into competition.
My training with Alt-nii was a challenge to manipulate Alt-nii’s shadow to at least stop, as he rode on his FS board. He also imbued his FS board further with his wind magic, so it was a bit hard.
The rule was that I had to step on either Alt-nii or his FS board’s shadow and cause both of them to stop. When I tried stepping on Alt-nii’s shadow, his FS board continued to dash without the user on top of it…and when I tried stepping on his FS board, Alt-nii jumped and could move about.
When I succeeded in making both of them stop—it only lasted for a moment as Alt-nii used his wind magic to power up, causing him and his FS board to move again. I increased the power to my magic and make him stop again.
But all in all, it seemed like a game of chasing someone, so it was really fun. Even Freyr and Freyja laughed seeing us doing this training like this.
After I succeeded in stopping Alt-nii and his FS board until the allotted time, Freyr and Freyja demanded to train with them.
Freyr and Freyja collaborated in manipulating the soil and the plants to create animate targets for me to practice my dark magic.
[Scua trendel] (Shadow ball)My practice aim today was creating a good small shadow ball that was powerful enough it could destroy its target once it was hit. This training also drilled my concentration again to aim the shadow balls to the targets. I tried first with one shadow ball before finally trying to up the challenge by controlling multiple shadow balls at the same time.
Even so, because I didn’t really have to limit the destructive force that much, this training was more enjoyable than my training with wooden blocks yesterday.
Freyr and Freyja also considered this to be their own magic training and also collaboration training. Perhaps since they were twins, their minds were kind of synchronized that their collaboration was so smooth.
Also, their targets were allowed to attack me, so at the same time, I tried to practice using my dark magic as a form of my defense.
[Nifol clûstor] (Dark barrier)I decided to try practicing from Spraec incantation first, as it was easier to do.
Mom was our supervisor all along, so she gave some pointers and evaluation to all of us about our magic usage. Meanwhile, Dad was out to inspect some matters in our territory.
“That’s good, but you still need more training to train the power output, Lyra,” Mom advised me.
“Uuu…Yeah, it’s hard…Say, what’s the best way to gain control of dark magic, Mom?” I asked.
“Eh? Well, technically, one can master their dark magic once they can gain control and win over the darkness in their hearts…As the yin-yang theory said, there should be good and bad in a person,” Mom smiled profoundly.
“Aah…I see, so that’s really needed to really master it, huh…,” I cast my eyes downward.
But how do I start cleaning up the darkness in my heart that’s my past life?
How can I confront it again and break free from the chains of my past life?
If only I had no memories of my past life, what kind of darkness might dwell in my heart right now?
I wanted to really consult this matter, but I…
I looked at Mom who smiled at me with a questioning look.
Should I just confess it already?
But I’m scared…
What will happen once someone knows about the secret I’ve been keeping in my heart ever since my birth?
“Uh, Mom…,” my mouth opened on its own.
“Yes, Lyra?” Mom immediately asked.
Uh-oh, my mouth should be tightly closed, really.
“I…Actually…”
Should I just say ‘screw it’ and say it?
Is now a good time?
Or should I just keep it and try dealing with it by myself without involving others?
I don’t want things to be awkward later on, but I don’t know how I should start doing it by myself…
The light god, or Aion-sama, can you somehow contact me through telepathy and give me a hint already?!
Author’s Note:
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