Mereoleona had been pouting for nearly half an hour now after returning from the Kira estate.
She sat cross-legged on the polished floor, glaring at the window as if her fiery stare alone could melt the glass.
Every few minutes, she muttered the same words under her breath, as if repetition might somehow make them untrue.
"Nero's training with his mother…"
She puffed her cheeks, scowling harder. "That's so unfair! Why does he get to start magic lessons already!?"
From across the room, Lady Vermillion turned a page of her book with serene patience.
"Because, my dear," she said without looking up, "he's ready."
Mereoleona's fists clenched. "I'm ready too!"
"Are you?" Lady Vermillion asked mildly.
"Yes!" she blurted, springing to her feet. "I can control my mana just fine!"
To prove it, she thrust her palm forward and a small flame came to life… before exploding into a puff of smoke that sent a candle toppling from the table.
The maids gasped.
Mereoleona froze.
Lady Vermillion closed her book with a quiet snap.
A long silence followed.
Then, to Mereoleona's surprise, her mother chuckled softly.
"Well," she said, smiling faintly, "that's certainly something."
The little girl blinked. "So… you'll teach me?"
Lady Vermillion studied her daughter for a long moment.
The same untamed fire burned in those blue eyes....It reminded her of her own younger days.
Finally, she nodded.
"Very well, Mereoleona. We'll begin your training tomorrow at dawn."
Mereoleona gasped, her earlier frustration vanishing in an instant. "Really!?"
"Really," her mother confirmed with a knowing smile. "But if you complain even once, or lose focus for a heartbeat—"
"I won't!" Mereoleona blurted before she could finish, already bouncing in place. "I'll wake up before the sun! You'll see!"
Lady Vermillion rose gracefully, resting a gentle hand atop her daughter's head. "I don't doubt it. You are, after all, a Vermillion."
Mereoleona's grin widened.
Her tiny fists clenched at her sides, her mana raging around her like candlelight trying to become a bonfire.
"Then I'll be the strongest Vermillion ever!" she declared, her voice ringing through the hall with so much intent that even the maids couldn't help smiling.
The flame that sparked around her palm this time didn't blow up or go out of control.
It burned steady... small, but bright.
Lady Vermillion watched her daughter in silence for a moment, smile forming on her lips.
"Oh, my little flame," she murmured under her breath, her eyes softening. "You look far too cute to be making declarations like that."
Mereoleona tilted her head. "Huh? What'd you say, Mama?"
"Nothing," Lady Vermillion said quickly, hiding her smile behind the book. "Just… don't burn down the manor before dawn."
---
Dozens of swords rained down around Nero, each one forged from pure steel.
They came from every angle...straight thrusts, spirals, feints, curves that defied physics..each crafted by Abigail's magic.
Nero's eyes were a deep crimson as trace was activated constantly focused on analysing the swords' composition and weak points.
His body moved in a blur, enveloped in a dense mana skin.
The layer wasn't enough to block everything...gashes cut across his arms and shoulders as blades grazed him...but it kept him moving.
There were ten spells engraved within the crest branded onto him.
Right now only two were assimilated by him as any more risked damaging his nerves.
The first was Trace.
It flooded his senses with raw data
mapping everything his eyes caught and focused on, making him able to structurally analyse the swords within a split second and find their weak points.
The second was Battle Intuition.
A spell of analysis and self-hypnosis, that allowed him to instantly analyse all the threats he perceived and his self capability allowing him to formulate plan of action.
All the given three things happen instantly at the moment of activation.
But the strain was immense.
He could barely activate battle intuition two times a second...compared to the staggering thirty thousand a second his mother could achieve without the use of her true form it was nothing.
He dashed left, his crimson gaze locking onto a weak joint in one of the blades.
His palm glowed mana surged around his hand and the sword shattered, with a single strike.
But before he could breathe, three more replaced it.
Abigail didn't speak one sentence during the process, letting Nero figure it out on his own.
She'll only give guidance at the end of the exercise.
She also didn't need to given Nero was a genius she wholeheartedly had confidence on.
Each sword she conjured was a question
that Nero was able to answer perfectly with whether to dodge or destroy.
Her control over everything was absolute so to her it really was like a quiz she was giving Nero to train.
In the metallic barrage each sword was uniquely built and randomised...forcing Nero to never let up Trace and Battle intuition as it was impossible to predict the qualities of the next sword.
He destroyed one sword, dodged the other two, blocked the fourth with his arm before it exploded against his arm.
Trace...lock weak point..break..retrace..shift stance..reassess...dodge
His mind ran in loops, blurring the line between thought and reflex.
Sweat beaded on his brow, hissing as it met the mana radiating off him.
Each breath grew heavier, but his eyes remained fixed...red, unblinking, locked on every peice of steel in the sky
His heartbeat thundered in his ears, each beat syncing with the clash of metal.
He leapt sideways as another sword came down like lightning, the impact shattering the stone beneath him.
Swords rained across the training hall.
It had been more than two hours.
And still, Abigail didn't stop.
Nero's mana skin was beginning to fail.
He could feel the exhaustion seeping in, the small tremors in his limbs, the slowing response in his eyes.
But stopping wasn't an option.
He knew that as long as he stayed here, he'd grow.
He just needed to push a little further.
Just as he thought that...a feeling danger spread.
Abigail raised her hand slightly.
Mana surged from her.
A thousand swords appeared above him, crowding the air until the ceiling was no longer fully visible.
For the first time, Nero hesitated.
His heart pounded so hard it hurt.
Battle Intuition flooded him with data danger signals, escape routes, survival estimates.
But every single path ended in one conclusion:
DEATH
It hit him like ice water.
In that moment, as he looked up at the ocean of blades suspended above him, Abigail's silhouette seemed to merge with the storm..looking every bit like the embodiment of death.
Nero's knees almost buckled.
Every instinct said to stop.
But he didn't.
He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand.
Even if it was impossible even if he couldn't win, he wasn't going to stop here.
The moment stretched on in his slowed down vision.
The air grew thick, heavy.
He could hear nothing but his heart.
His mind was scurrying to find a solution....
Just then, a memory surfaced about his mother's words about magic....
"Magic is the recreation of what already exists.... the imitation of reality itself."
Magic ultimately was ....Recreation.
The word echoed in his mind again and again.
And then... it clicked.
Did it really matter what his magic really was ...?
As long as he could mimic everything isn't it fine....?
Yes, the human mind cannot possibly store all the information that is required to reproduce magic from scratch but isn't it fine as long as he forgets evrything the next instant...?
In fact if he could understand even for a moment the magic construct behind a spell shouldn't be be able to dissolve it as long as he injects it with an exact reversal of it ?
The idea was born from extreme naivety bordering on crazy, the logic was flawed and there was no reason it would work...but there was also no reason it wouldn't.
The fear drained from his eyes, replaced by a strange calm.
His breathing steadied.
Then, his mana skin vanished.
It looked as though his defenses had collapsed.
A faint glow began spreading through Nero's body.
His veins lit up with bright blue light, looking like flowing rivers beneath his skin.
He raised his hands slowly.
He sent the mana throughout his body, into his bones, into his muscles, into the tiniest fibers of his body.
He was reinforcing himself from within, shaping his own body like one of the weapons before him.
The first sword descended.
Abigail expected him to dodge.
But he didn't move.
The blade struck his hand and a bright flash erupted for a fraction of a second when steel met flesh.
For an instant, it was as if the world froze as mana expanded on the surface of the sword.
Then the sword dissolved into raw mana, vanishing completely.
Abigail's eyes widened slightly.
She had lost her connection to the weapon before it got obliterated.
And then...Nero moved.
The ground beneath him cracked from the sheer pressure as his body blurred into motion.
Each step left faint afterimages behind him, streaks of blue light tearing across the air like arcs of lightning.
The swords that once pressed him into a corner now looked painfully slow. His perception had expanded...his thoughts, his senses, his every muscle perfectly synchronized.
He reached the next sword.
A single flick of his wrist shattered it.
Then the next—each sword breaking before it could even finish its descent.
Abigail's eyes followed him silently as her creation after creation fell apart like paper sculptures.
Within seconds, a hundred swords had already been erased from the air, dissolving into motes of light before ever touching the ground.
Her lips curved into a smile her pride for him swelling.
The boy who had been on the verge of collapse just moments ago was now dancing through the storm she had unleashed.
When she first started training him, she had wanted to see how far he could go before achieving real growth.
Now, she was watching him go beyond even that...
Then, abruptly, he stopped before another sword, his eyes burning bright crimson and blue. He clenched his fist, ready to strike and in that instant, every single sword in the air disappeared, dematerializing in unison.
The metallic rain was gone.
Nero stood there, panting softly, his chest rising and falling.
Slowly, he turned to Abigail, eyes unfocused, his face blank but understanding that the test was over he relaxed....
Then his knees gave out.
Before his body could hit the ground, Abigail was already there. She caught him effortlessly, lowering him into her arms.
His skin was cold. His pulse was erratic. She could feel the backlash of what he had just done overclocking his body, forcing his mana channels open far beyond their limits achieving a flow state that enhances his base abilities by more than twenty times.
... he was smiling faintly, as if satisfied.
Abigail exhaled softly, brushing a few strands of hair from his sweat-drenched forehead.
Her voice was quiet, almost tender.
".... You really pushed yourself past the edge."
She looked down at his peaceful, unconscious face ..
"... you did well, Nero. You really did."
Her hand glowed faintly as she placed it over his chest, pouring gentle restorative mana through his body.
As the golden light wrapped around him, she couldn't help but think if this is the pace he's growing at... then my decision really was the correct one...
Her smile deepened...She hughed him tighter her arms tightening around his body.
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Power Stones and Reviews please