For the next month, Fíliya's party traveled to many places in the Northern Plateau. Of course, they had to constantly avoid areas of human activity, so there weren't many places they could actually go.
But it was enough.
During their journey, Solitär and Aura had actually recovered their mana midway through, but the two demons had a tacit understanding, keeping Miss Fíliya in suspense for a long time before agreeing to lend her their mana a second time.
Before meeting with Flamme, Fíliya had specifically organized in her notebook the things she needed to convey to Flamme this time. She planned to use three to four meetings to let Flamme fully understand the modern world, and then she would train with Flamme.
This process took a long time.
After all, every meeting with Flamme completely drained the mana of the two Greater Demons. After draining Aura and Solitär's mana, she had to spend some time waiting for them to be fully replenished before she could meet with Flamme again.
By the time she officially began her training under Flamme's guidance, a full four months had passed since her first meeting with Flamme.
Fíliya couldn't help but feel that Flamme was truly worthy of her name in history. Sometimes, just a few words from her could provide significant inspiration.
How much stronger had she become during this period of training? Fíliya found it difficult to quantify her own growth by any standard.
But she was certain that now, even if Aura got serious, she could fight her for a very long time.
After all, her mana had grown considerably. Under the training plan tailor-made by Flamme, Fíliya was no longer the pitiful wretch who would run out of mana after a short battle.
She was even confident she could fight Solitär for a period of time without being instantly killed.
Perhaps they also felt the pressure coming from Fíliya.
These two demons, who had lived idle lives for several hundred years, had, for the first time ever, begun to train themselves.
For instance, right now, Fíliya felt very unused to seeing Aura in such a deep state of meditation.
After all, it was the first time she had ever seen Aura looking so serious.
She knew Aura had recently been tinkering with her Magic of Obedience (Auserlese). This puzzled Fíliya, as she considered the spell already perfected, despite its drawback of having a 'casting time longer than a lifetime.' After all, once successfully activated, its effect was irreversible.
She was just curious in what direction Aura intended to improve this Magic of Obedience... Surely she wasn't going for something sadistic?
Making it sadistic would only reduce the binding power of the obedience, which wouldn't be worth the trade-off. Even Aura wouldn't do that.
Mmm, I'm really curious.
With that thought, Fíliya sat up right next to Aura. She had to get to the bottom of it today, so she planned to wait by Aura's side until she woke up.
Fíliya once said that the Demon Race were the darlings of magic. As long as they didn't die, their mana would grow automatically over time without any need for training.
But 'no need for training' didn't mean the Demon Race 'couldn't train.' In fact, it was quite the opposite. If a naturally favored demon was willing to settle down and train themselves, the speed of their progress would likely surpass human imagination.
Unfortunately, most of the Demon Race lacked the internal motivation to train themselves, relying purely on instinct to squander their magical lives.
She waited for a long time, and only when the aroma of food wafted in from outside the tent did Aura finally open her eyes.
Really... She's in deep meditation, but she can still smell food?
Aura, what am I supposed to do with you?
"Hm? Fíliya? What are you doing here? Never mind... that's not important. I'm going to get something to eat."
Aura glanced nonchalantly at Fíliya, then started walking out of the tent on her own.
"Wait a second."
Fíliya said, reaching out and grabbing Aura's wrist, pulling her back.
"What do you want?"
Aura stared at Fíliya with some impatience.
"Mmm, I'm very curious about what you've been up to, Aura."
"Huh? Just for that? Can't you ask after I've eaten?"
"Nope. We've been living together for over half a year now, haven't we? You still don't know what kind of person I am?"
Fíliya asked with a smile.
"Hah?? How would I know what kind of person you are? For the Demon Race, what's the difference between half a year and the blink of an eye?"
Aura retorted in a very serious tone.
Heh... typical long-lived species thinking.
Fíliya couldn't help but make this sharp comment in her mind before continuing to speak to Aura.
"Anyway, my curiosity is piqued. What have you been up to so mysteriously lately? I'm dying to know what you're doing, it's driving me crazy. Spit it out!"
Fíliya decided to be direct. She had figured out that when dealing with someone like Aura, you couldn't beat around the bush at all.
"Tch, you're impossible... I'm just trying to figure out a way to cast my Magic of Obedience on multiple targets at once. I think you were right, controlling them one by one is just too inefficient."
Huh?
Fíliya admitted she was shocked (ΩΔΩ).
This Aura... what she was trying to do wasn't solving the casting time problem... Of course, that might be because the problem is unsolvable for her.
So what Aura was researching was initiating a mana contest against multiple targets simultaneously?
"But isn't that very risky? If you cast it on multiple targets at once, you'll have to pit your mana against the sum of a whole group's mana. Be careful or you might suffer a huge loss and become a shared slave."
Fíliya stared at Aura's face with a wicked grin.
But Aura clearly didn't catch her underlying meaning. She just placed her hands on her hips defiantly and stared straight into Fíliya's eyes.
"Hah? Who do you think I am? How could I do something so risky? Pitting myself against the combined mana of a group wouldn't even count as an 'improvement.' Let me tell you, what I, the great Aura, want to do is, even if the Magic of Obedience covers a hundred people, I would contest each of them individually at the exact same moment, and then control them all simultaneously."
"What kind of idiot would try to contest the total mana of a hundred people? You, Fíliya, you're always calling me stupid, but I don't think you're much better."
Uh... Fíliya was a bit annoyed by Aura's arrogant display, but she wasn't a petty person. Mmm... definitely not. And she certainly wouldn't get her revenge in the coming days.
In any case, Fíliya was still a little surprised. She was surprised that Aura could achieve something like this.
A separate contest with a hundred people in a single instant? If Aura could really pull that off, the value of her Magic of Obedience would rise by more than just a single level.
___
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