Chapter 223: Foundations
Chapter 223: Foundations
“Hey. You did something pretty crazy in your exam,” Destiny sighed.
He, along with Danjo and Celestia, were walking down the paths of Scholaris. As the Fighting exam wouldn’t be until later, the two elves couldn’t leave, and Prota didn’t want to go back without them.
“Me?” Prota said, surprised.
“Yes, you!” Destiny exclaimed.
“Y-yeah!” Danjo said.
Well, Danjo’s reaction wasn’t much of a metric to go by. Actually, neither was the princess’s, although she had yet to say anything. In fact, Destiny was, by far, the most unreasonable of those three, meaning that if he was saying it was crazy, it was definitely crazy.
Still, it wasn’t as crazy as what had just happened.
“Would you spare me a moment of your time?”
Prota had refused, saying she would do so if she made it into the academy, as per Anta’s instructions. Still, it had been terrifying. Sofya wasn’t meant to approach her so soon.
“...what did I do?”
“You… people don’t usually just come up with new spells on the spot, you know that, right?” Destiny said, rubbing the back of his neck. “And you were teaching those two, weren’t you?”
“...obvious?”
“Mm,” Celestia said with a smile. “It was really touching, you know? You guys were like, bam! Whoosh! And your shields, and the cracks, and…”
Prota nodded. Well, it was good to know the princess was a constant in her life. Would that change if she found out she was Four? No, she’d been the same, even after the war had started.
“Prota,” Destiny sighed. “I…”
He looked around for a brief moment. Neither Danjo nor Celestia noticed it, but Prota did. He likely wanted to ask her something personal.
“Never mind. We can talk later. Just… are you at least having a good time?”
“Mm.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
Prota looked up to see him with a small smile. Right. Even he cared for her. She had done so much, to the point where she felt as though she needed to take care of him, but in reality, he likely felt the need to take care of her as well.
“Hey, but… do you, um… do you really need to go to Scholaris if you’re that strong?” Danjo said timidly. “I- I don’t mean anything by that! Just… what could you possibly need to learn?”
Prota stopped and turned to stare at him. She didn’t mean anything by it, but her cold expression must’ve scared him a little, because he flinched.
“Something else here,” she said quietly. “Someday. You too. Something important. Because you’re a good person. And you make good things. Me… already came here once. So, I’m here for something else. But, also important. Don’t worry too much.”
“Me… someone…”
Danjo blushed, having forgotten all about his inquiry.
“You’re a good guy, Danjo. I saw what you made in the Town of Beginnings. And your resolve to save your sister… that was something special as well. So, chin up, alright?” Destiny said with a smile.
“A- alright!”
“Hey, what about me?” Celestia jumped in. “Anything special about me, too?”
Prota looked at her for a second.
“...nn.”
“What? No compliments for me?”
“...too complicated.”
At that, Destiny burst out laughing. “Cel, even she’s not willing to butter you up!”
“H-hey, I’m plenty talented, right?”
Prota watched as the two bickered, with Danjo acting as mediator, trying to calm them down.
Right.
Perhaps these moments weren’t good for a story. They weren’t tense. They weren’t entertaining. The purpose behind these moments was likely nonexistent.
But it was these moments that reminded her that she was here for a reason.
~~~
“Alright! Time for more training.”
Prota flinched. She’d been lying in her bed, basking in the glory of her victory during her exam, when Anta had spoken out of nowhere.
“Training?”
“What, did you really think you were just gonna stop here? What did you plan to do at Scholaris? Just bum around?”
“...could’ve done this not at Scholaris.”
“Mm… good point. But, I don’t care! Alright, point one. What do you think we need to train?”
Prota thought for a moment. She could always refine her magic, but at this point, slightly finer magic wasn’t going to cut it. To fight Mystics, she needed a larger core in order to cast her most powerful spells. Other than that, would training do much other than satisfy her own desires?
“Bzzt! Wrong line of thought. You have new powers, now. Namely, me.”
“...Anta?”
“Right. Remember how we fought against Doctor? We can do that again. Now that I’m full of energy, we can fight together as much as we want. The only downside is that it burns through our mana much faster, but is that a problem against the enemies we need to face?”
Prota nodded. Right, the ability to fight as the most pure form of battle mage. Casting and fighting simultaneously, a whirlwind of incredibly hand-to-hand combat and long range magic side by side. She’d gotten herself into a trance while fighting Doctor, but there was no guarantee she could pull that off again.
“The second thing you need to train is the ability to pull the mana from spells directly. You’re on the right track. But we can’t afford to use [DEM] every time you reuse someone’s mana.”
“Train… it?”
“Prota. Your ability was called Soul Steal because its the closest thing this world knows about, but if we’re being honest, its real name might be something like [Greed].”
“...greed?”
“It’s a [DEM] ability, just like [Infinity]. Inherently, you can do anything within its limits, but you need to train it. John needed to train [Infinity]. You just didn’t see that process because it happened in a different world. So if you want to finish this properly, you need to understand how your own ability works.”
“Ok.”
“That’s it?”
“Nn. I’ll be stronger. Problem?”
Anta laughed. “No. No problem. We’ll need someone to shoot magic at us, though.”
“Kit.”
“...huh. That was a lot easier than I thought.”
Prota shrugged. “Easy solution.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
There was a moment of silence.
“...Prota. This is going to be training the basics again. You’re going to be learning an entirely new skill from the start. Is that… you know. Something you’re ok with?”
Prota frowned. Why wouldn’t she be ok with it?
“Alright, alright. I just… you know. You spent so long building up your skills. It wouldn’t be wrong for you to just stick with what you do best. Even among Mystics and dragons, at your peak, you could be considered one of the strongest in this world, you know?”
“In this world?”
“There are other worlds, you know.”
“...then no.”
Anta laughed. “Right. Our goal is John, isn’t it?”
~~~
A few days later, the results were exactly what Prota had expected. Granted, there weren’t many changes to this world that would influence such things, so changes weren’t expected.
“Wait, wait. Say that again. You’re going to show me something I’ve never seen before? I mean, I guess you’ve done that a bunch- wait, no! You’ve- well, the whole soul thing, but- argh! Alright, fine!”
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Once Prota had returned from Scholaris, Kit had easily agreed to help her train. However, once Prota explained exactly what she would be training, the Mystic seemed a little less pleased, although her enthusiasm hadn’t diminished at all.
“It’s ok,” Prota nodded. “I can get hit.”
“Wha- no, you can’t get hit! And that’s not what I was talking about! Argh, were you like this in your past life, too?”
Prota shook her head.
“Ah.” Kit calmed down a little. “Then, surely I was acting a bit more mature-”
Prota shook her head again.
“...what? Who could’ve possibly-”
“My brother. Made you very annoyed. Worse than me. I’m only asking for help. John… just liked making you annoyed.”
“This, um, this John of yours… he wasn’t by any chance, a villain from the start, was he…?”
“...no.”
With that, the training began.
Kit, in a sense, was the perfect training partner for such a skill. With her study of magic, her control over mana was fine and precise, making it easier to read.
At least, that’s what Prota had initially thought.
She’d started with mana reinforcement to her nervous system in order to buy more time for analysis. Given how Jinae’s special magic worked, she assumed it would be the same: analyze the mana and find a way to pull at it given its structure.
However, after getting hit with a few spells, Prota quickly realized this was not the way to go. It wasn’t that she couldn’t see the mana.
It was that understanding how it was formed meant nothing.
“You… You’re doing this wrong,” Anta said.
Prota frowned, only for her concentration to be broken. Time rushed back to normal, and she was hit by yet another fireball.
“P-Prota?” Kit said worriedly. “Hey, are you-”
She stopped talking as Anta popped out in her ghost form. This wasn’t something anyone had ever seen before, so it was obvious that even the Mystic would be dumbfounded.
“A- a- a ghost?!”
“...it’s me, idiot,” Anta grumbled. “Alright. Prota. Ignore this dumb fox and keep going. I’m gonna show you something.”
“Wha- dumb fox?! Do you know who I am?”
“Yeah,” Anta smirked. “Someone lesser than me. Alright, Prota. I’m taking over.”
Prota nodded, then took the backseat as Anta piloted the body once more.
“Hey. Fox. Shoot another fireball.”
“Ugh, you-! I like Prota a lot better, you know that?”
“That’s good,” Anta nodded. “Prota’s a good person. I’m not. So just hurry up, will you?”
“You… fine.”
Prota watched as time slowed down. She could see the fireball. She could see its mana, see its—
“That’s wrong.”
Anta’s mouth couldn’t move, but the thoughts came across loud and clear.
“For a second, let me take over fully. Just see what I see. Alright?”
“...ok.”
Prota didn’t know what Anta meant, but she trusted the soul. Instinctively, she let her body relax, and suddenly, she wasn’t in control of anything at all. She felt like she was just floating in the middle of nowhere, with no thoughts or actions of her own. It was a strangely comfortable feeling…
No. She still had to focus.
“Alright. Watch.”
Suddenly, the world shifted. She wasn’t seeing anything. Nothing at all.
“Anta-”
“Shh.”
The world… was slowly coming back.
But not in the traditional sense. She could vaguely see a rough outline of everything, but it wasn’t clear, definitely not clear enough to fight properly. But at the same time, she could feel everything.
She could see the trees, not by their trunk and foliage, but simply by understanding that the concept of [Trees] were there. Similarly, the ground beneath her feet had no feeling to it, and the normally earthy brown and bright green weren’t visible. Instead, the concept of [Dirt] and [Grass] were, in a strange sense, “visible.”
Then, the spell before her…
“That is a fireball.”
It wasn’t fire. It was, in this new world, a fireball.
“Prota. The world is made up of concepts. Fiction or reality, the things we see can be broken down into a world like this.”
“I… I see…”
“Sure you do. Neither of us are seeing anything right now. Of course, I don’t expect you to see like this all the time. It would be impossible to fight like this.”
“Then-”
“Don’t you see it? The fireball. And look at Kit.”
Prota couldn’t turn her eyes, but she could shift the focus of her vision. The fireball… seemed different. So did Kit. If she focused a little more, she could see things like [Hair], [Skin], [Eyes], and…
[Mana].
“That is what you’ve been taking. Not mana as an energy. But mana as a ‘concept.’ Do you understand?”
“...no?”
Anta seemed surprised at that. “Huh? Why not?”
“Then… why follow rules of Soul Steal?”
“Ah. Well… things get a little finicky with this stuff. Let’s focus on the first step for now. Look at the fireball. And take it.”
Prota looked back. Right.
She wanted to take a deep breath to steady herself, but that wasn’t possible in this state. No. She just had to go for it.
Unfortunately, there was no instruction for something like this. She could only act off feelings and hope it would work.
The [Fireball] stayed still. Then it shook a little. A little more. The structure of a [Fireball] began to weaken. Visually, it was impossible to explain, but she could feel it.
The [Fireball] turning into [Mana].
“Good. You’re not turning it into mana, by the way. You’re simply reducing the concept in your mind. Breaking it down. And now…”
Prota could feel it.
Mana was something she could “take.”
“Do it.”
Her vision snapped back to normal, and the fireball was gone. As a result, her core felt slightly more full.
“Wha- huh- what just happened?!” Kit exclaimed.
Prota’s head snapped to the Mystic. She hadn’t even realized it, but Anta had already relinquished control.
Right.
She had just turned a spell into mana.
“What did you do? I know you said you were going to absorb a spell, but- huh? What? That- that goes against all laws of magic as we know them!”
Prota couldn’t believe it herself. She looked down, staring at her hands.
“...I don’t know.”
~~~
“Alright. Now that you understand, it’s time to explain how this works.”
Anta had taken on a lecturing tone, but with how she usually was, it was hard to take her seriously. Regardless, she would be giving good advice, so it was in Prota’s best interest to listen.
“Ultimately, both your powers and John’s boil down to ‘concepts.’ The Mystics weren’t too far off when labelling this stuff as ‘conceptual magic.’ Your concept, to put it simply, it either ‘gluttony’ or ‘greed.’ Alright?”
Prota didn’t look too pleased about that one.
“Oh, come on! It’s not like that. Look. Anything you can recognize as a power source is capable of becoming yours. Similarly, every time you take some of it, you gain some understanding of that power as well. You’ve seen examples of this, right? And not just with mana.”
Anta was right. After absorbing [Infinity], creating spells at a higher level was suddenly easier. Absorbing John’s power was more and more simple the more she did it. She’d needed [Deus Ex Machina] or [Infinity] to absorb mana out of spells the first few times she’d done it, but now that she’d taken the stuff from Doctor, it was far easier to visualize that skill.
“This whole thing is a chicken or egg situation,” Anta continued. “I don’t know if it’s called Soul Steal because the dragons have that ability, or if the dragons named it Soul Steal and we just called it that, but it doesn’t matter. The point is, your ability is, at its core, the ability to ‘take.’”
Prota thought about that. Taking. Was that really what she boiled down to?
“Then John-”
“Ah! I can’t say that. Although, I think you already know one of his abilities, right?”
That was right. [Zero]. The ability to reduce something to nothingness, to erase it from existence in the purest form.
“Then [Infinity]...”
“I don’t know what the core of that is, to be honest. I don’t think it’s a very normal concept. If anything, it’s probably something very specific to him. If I’m being honest, I don’t think he knows what the concept behind it is himself.”
“Nn…”
Prota was lost in thought for a moment before realizing this train of thought was useless.
“Wait. Then… tendrils? Can’t take… mana?”
“Ah. Right. Now we’re onto the more practical aspect of this… if it’s practical at all.”
Anta muttered that last part in disgust, similar to how John spoke of ridiculous things. Well, that wasn’t a good sign.
“You know how John always has that whole power thing with [Infinity]? The multiplier thing? It’s not necessary. Actually, I think he hates it. But it helps him visualize a concept. Concepts are… well, they’re concepts. They’re vague. So it helps to have a more realistic standard to represent them.”
Prota nodded. That made sense.
“Then, you were using a concept that made sense to you, one that was explained to you. Maybe you… don’t get what a concept is? It’s not an axiom. It’s the general connotation of an idea, an abstract thought-”
Anta stopped. Prota was already lost.
“Conno… tation? Axiom?”
Anta sighed. “It’s an opinion.”
“Ah.”
“The point is, how you interpret what ‘energy’ is depends on you, and to stretch it a bit, how you take it is up to you as well. Haven’t you seen how John uses [Infinity]? It’s just supposed to be an increase in power, right? Then why can he change it so suddenly? Why can he abuse it so freely? And think of this. It doesn’t boost his defense, right? But when he hits other people, he’s never hurt himself. Why not?”
Prota’s eyes widened. Right, his ability was absurd. Both John and herself chalked it up to nonsense, but…
Was there really some logic behind it?
“The concept of ‘power’ for John is just that. He’s stretched it as far as he can, abusing the absurdities as much as he could. Well, I don’t know if he’s the one who came up with that idea… but the point remains. Then, for you, the easiest way to understand Soul Steal was to use it the way dragons do. Think about your progress.”
She thought back, but she still couldn’t really understand what Anta was saying.
“Do I really have to spell it out?”
Anta sighed.
“Look. Back when you were on the streets, you were taking souls from people. Not their mana. Souls. Even someone who doesn’t know what Soul Steal is would resist that to some degree, yet you, who didn’t even understand your own power, were taking entire souls. Then, as soon as John taught you your power, you managed to tone it down. Really? Do you think an ability rooted in logic would change on such a whim?”
It was true. Prota’s power had fluctuated far too easily for it to simply be explained by a little training. Come to think of it, why had she seen tendrils—
“It’s because Zero said it was like that. Then John, who is Zero, also saw that, and you, who were influenced by them, internalized that. Your perception became a temporary reality.”
Right. Even after that, after learning about Soul Steal in this world, she’d been limited by whatever rules a dragon had to follow. She’d dropped Soul Siphon and Soul Copy after realizing that her control over mana wasn’t based in this world’s logic, but her own skill.
This whole time, the strange fluctuations, the random changes…
Had they really been because of her?
“Good,” Anta nodded. “You understand. Then, we need to work on your powers. For now, you just need to learn how to see spells as [Spells] and not actual spells. That- that sounds stupid when I say it out loud.”
Prota nodded, but she understood.
In order to steal the mana that made up spells, it wasn’t about understanding their flow and deconstructing them. It was about understanding that these were, conceptually, masses of mana, and were therefore things she could take from.
It was a stretch. But then again, that was the whole point of her power, wasn’t it?
~~~
Unfortunately, it would be a little while until Prota could train her power properly. She’d been munching on a snack in the courtyard when a presence snuck up on her.
This was rare, considering how sensitive she was to other people, but then again, she wasn’t used to finding souls unless she was actively searching for them.
“Hello.”
She nearly jumped as Haze Windwalker showed up behind her, hands clasped in front of her, a calm expression on her face.
“Ah. Um. Hello.”
Prota responded with a respectful bow of the head. To be honest, she wasn’t sure how John had been able to act so calmly around this woman. She was the definition of danger. If Hart was a threatening presence, then the mother, Haze, was that but tenfold.
“Do you have a moment? I hope I am not intruding on anything.”
“...ok.”
That was a lie. Prota wanted nothing more than to bolt. It wasn’t a matter of strength. It was simply a matter of comfort. Just because you were better in combat did not necessarily make you the more threatening presence.
The two slowly made their way to a large clearing, with a packed dirt ground. It wasn’t official in any sense, but the purpose was clear.
A battleground.
Prota’s heart sank.
“You’ve said some extraordinary things. And, my son told us of your performance at Scholaris. I have no doubt you are someone who returned from the future.”
She slowly withdrew a thin rapier. Slowly, the blade began to light aflame, turning a bright blue.
“...you taught Destiny,” Prota said, remembering something from another life.
“That is correct. It seems you, too, have taught him some interesting things. I’ve heard you’re an excellent combatant. Stronger than he. And once again, if you truly are going through a second life, then you should be at that level. However, I must apologize.”
“...huh?”
“I still find it hard to believe. And it seems you are involving my son in something dangerous. Of course, I cannot forget the favour you have done for him. And I do not believe you to be a bad person. On the contrary, you seem especially kind. However… you must understand that I cannot allow someone with no skill to lead my son into danger.”
She took pointed her blade at Prota, crimson red eyes glinting in the sunlight.
“So. Please indulge me in this one favour. Grant me a single sparring session.”
Prota sighed.
“Anta,” she thought.
“Yeah. It’s a good opportunity to test it out. Not the spell thing. The other thing.”
“Nn.”
Blue shifted to red as both existences occupied the body at the same time. Haze raised an eye in suspicion, but remained composed nonetheless.
“Alright. Let’s do it.”