"Alright. Now tell me, brat, what did you come up with after staring at this masterpiece of mine for so long?" With a gentle movement of his left wing, the breathtaking Aurora vanished into nothingness with shimmering frost particles trailing behind, forcing Zephy to flap his wings in a constant rhythm to stay afloat in the air.
The whole ordeal was so absurd, extraordinary, and out of this world — or rather, both worlds that it left me speechless for a couple of moments.
I still can't believe that this little bird is the Ice phoenix that was our family's pride and joy, and who just showed such an intricate magical aurora... I shook my head in disbelief, inside my mind.
"The Snow Crystal flakes... Each of them. They seemed like each of them had a mind of their own." I thought out loud, replaying the image of Aurora in my mind as I did so.
How the Crystals behaved.
Their Dance. Their Randomness.
And the Silver-Blue Ray that passed through in between, touching every crystal in a Rhythm.
'Char, what do you think? Any help?'
[...No Help. Figure it out yourself, Host. No cheating.]
'...'
Useless as Ever.
"Nothing more to say? At a Stupor, huh?" Zephy said, a hint of mocking smirk touching his beak.
"No... Just... I think..."
Fuck it, we ball.
Let's say what I think is happening. I am asking to learn anyway, not to prove that I know everything.
[Host, Language.]
'Shut up, Useless System.'
[...I'm not—]
Tuning out Char's words, I worded my thoughts.
"I think that Silver Blue Ray that flows rhythmically between the Aurora, touching every Crystal and reflecting from it, that makes every Crystal have its own random Dance."
Squatting down, I tried to explain my thoughts by drawing illustrations on the snow-covered ground beneath with my index finger.
The Snow Crystals, The Aurora, The Ray, and at last Zephy lying on top of the Aurora. Everything came onto the ground.
Exactly as I remembered. Exactly as I wanted.
"You aren't controlling and manipulating every Crystal to behave randomly by yourself. That'd be way too much, especially when you are just lying on it, yawning lazily."
I circled the figure of Zephy multiple times rapidly to emphasise my thinking. A habit that I picked up in my past life, whenever I needed to explain something during class or to just anyone in general.
Trying to explain my thoughts with illustrations. Be it on a notebook or on a board.
I did it every time. In my experience, Pictures can explain things better than plain words.
...tho that's a second thing that I have minimal experience to say from.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Zephy, who had been flapping his wings lazily, go still.
His tiny, ethereally shining eyes, which seemed mockingly dismissive some moments ago, held sharp focus.
He landed with a soft thump onto the ground, sounding extremely heavy for something of that small a frame.
"Interesting..." A low, chilling throb originating from his tiny throat accompanied the word.
"Very Interesting... Go on, Brat. These Old ears wish to hear everything that you have deduced." Staring directly into my eyes, Zephy raised his eyes and crown in a certain manner, like a curious researcher finding a test subject that had spoken some of his words.
His words made my stomach churn. A strange feeling whirled up inside my chest. Anxiety? Fear of being Judged? ...I don't know.
But it was certainly not a happy emotion.
Let's just continue. Not as I can do anything else anyway...
My index finger touched the frosty, snowy ground again as I began my theory.
"I think that 'The Silver Blue Ray' is the magic of the Aurora, everything else is just an illusion, or maybe an after product of it. Or maybe a result of it. Or maybe something else?"
I drew it like a mathematical equation, using mathematical symbols from Earth or even here in Melux, as they were the same!
Silver Ray + x = Aurora, or is it Silver Ray = Aurora? Just in a different way?
But what is that missing piece... Skills? Arts?
I glanced a look towards Zephy, and there was confusion written all over his little bird head.
"Oh, you don't know these symbols? This '+', right here, means—"
I pointed my finger towards the addition symbol that I drew on the ground, and tried to explain without giving any second thought in complete innocence, but...
"Oi, do you take me as a fool, brat?! 'Course I know what those symbols mean. I was here when the people who made them were still kickin'," Zephy grumpily said. "Syria, that Witch, she brought a Damn notebook filled with all this junk when we went to fight off the demons. Her fancy school didn't think she was serious, so they gave her homework hoping she wouldn't fail... she still failed. Complete idiot, that one."
His gruff voice cut me off in the middle of my words.
"...Wait, are you talking about Lady Syria, the one and only person ever to wield all the elements at once? Witch of the Destruction?" Involuntarily, I pointed my snow-covered finger towards Zephy and let out a squeal.
"Geez..." Zephy, flicking my finger away in annoyance from his face with his left wing, continued.
"Yeah, That Girl. Complete Idiot, she was. Used to throw full Fireballs the size of that serpent, just to kill a mosquito. Such Inefficiency."
Zephy walked towards my side to see my illustrations from my side as he continued muttering the tales of the Heroes under his breath.
"But those are the tales of the Past. And your understanding, that you managed to get with just a single look... It's way better than that empty-headed walking disaster of Magical Destruction. She just had absurdly amazing Intuition for this Kind of stuff. Zero Proper Understanding. Tsk."
Zephy turned his tiny head up to look at me in the eyes, who was looming over him, or rather, he himself walked under me, didn't he?
"You got the gist of it. That 'Silver-Blue Ray' that you can see here..."
He projected the Aurora again as he began to explain.
"That is called Mana. It is the base of everything related to elements and Magic. And those crystals that it touches are made up of another energy that is abundant in nature, called 'Aether'. Aether reacts to the Mana and takes the form in the way the wielder of the Mana commands it. And as a byproduct of the Aether's solid form reacting with the flowing Mana, that produces the Magic. The Aurora that you are seeing."
By repeatedly tapping the Aurora with his talons, Zephy emphasized. It seemed like he also shared that habit with me, or was simply mimicking my actions.
"So... Mana isn't gonna produce magic by itself? Then how did I manage to use it a couple of times without Aether? My blessings? Or something else?" I asked, manifesting a simple gust of wind around my finger while doing so.
A simple gust in the shape of a ring, circling the right hand's ring finger.
"Your Blessings. They didn't just play a huge role in it; they played all the roles in it. After all, they are literally the powers of a Sovereign who commands that particular Element of Aether."
Having perched on the Aurora, Zephy preened his feathers, simultaneously explaining the answer to my questions without being annoyed.
"However, for that to work, you also need absurdly pure Mana and a stupidly large amount of Inherent Mana of your own. You have the capacity of Inherent Mana on the level of that Witch. I repeat, Capacity. As for the Purity of it, I'll need more time to figure that shit out. It could honestly be on a level of mine, a being made out of purest Mana. Gifted, aren't you, heh?"
Though the last few words he said overloaded the capacity of my brain, frying it in the process and halting my thoughts for a few good moments.
Pupils dilated, eyelids stopped blinking, and I could swear that my heart also stopped for a split second by the sheer hope and relief I felt when those words fell into my ears.
...You have the capacity of Inherent Mana on the level of that Witch. I repeat, Capacity...
...It could honestly be on a level of mine, a being made out of purest Mana. Gifted, aren't you, heh?
I... I have a genuine chance to fulfill my promise if what he said is true.
That realization felt like it made the fog just a bit clearer towards my goal, one that I hadn't even known how far away or how difficult it was.
***********
Don't get all smiles just by hearing that, Brat. All the geniuses I have seen none ever perfected their magic technique cause of the sheer potential they held for it. Every single one of them got satisfied when they became the "strongest". No one ever even got close to their ceiling cause they let their egos inflate.
I'll be eager to see how you'll turn out. It'll certainly be damn interesting.
With a side glance while continuing to preen, Zephy thought as he saw Aiden staring at his hands in Hope, and a slight, relieved yet genuine smile tugged on his lips.
**********