Chapter 17: A Wills Unwillingness
As the battle began, Fayden's focus was not on his sister, but Arthur. He watched as Arthur went on the offensive, gales of wind wreathing his whole body.
Nathan calmly watched as Arthur approached him, the invisible blade in his arm sparking ever so often. It seemed he had not perfected it yet.
Arthur crossed the distance between them in seconds. His blade held diagonally as it prepared to cut into his shoulder, but right as he was about to reach him, something told him to move, to run and get out of the way.
He noticed Nathan's arm moving upwards, almost as if holding a sword but that couldn't be right. Nevertheless, his instincts had never let him down, so he listened, pushing his body back with a burst of wind.
Nathan smiled, "You know, you're actually the first one to evade that."
Arthur narrowed his eyes, so there was something there, something that he could not see. It seemed he couldn't take him carelessly. As earth mana rushed to his legs, he raised one up seeing how Nathan tensed for an earth based attack.
He grinned, his wind mana flowing down to accompany the earth right before he stomped hard on the ground.
Nathan had noticed the movement of wind mana, so he could only assume it was some sort of hybrid earth projectile based attack. He swung his sword in a defensive arc, hoping to deflect whatever came his way, but he was wrong.
A shockwave rippled from Arthur's foot, and as the earth loosened, the wind picked up, raising it into the sky, effectively creating a smokescreen.
A blur from Nathans right caught his attention and he moved to counter, but as his sword carved through the form of Arthur, it dissipated. His eyes widened. It was sound magic.
He gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to scream as his back was cut open. He supposed he should be grateful it was only a blade, and not a spell.
Arthur was confused, he was sure he had infused his sword with wind, but right before he could attack him it dissipated, almost as if it didn't want to hurt him. Strange.
Wind mana swirled around Nathan, and as he yelled, it exploded. As the dust was blown, and Arthur's cover blown he was instantly upon him, sword in hand.
Arthur knew he would lose if the blade touched him. If it didn't just burn him to death, it would for sure activate the gear. So he moved, calculating the trajectory of the attack, and assuming it's length to be the same as a traditional western sword, he used Dawn's Ballad to try and parry it.
Even though he didn't see it, he still felt it. It was like he was facing the sun, he felt his fingers scorch, stripped of the skin on them as his flesh began burning next. All in the span of a second, the same amount of time he had taken to redirect his weapon to the ground beside his head as it sunk in without any resistance.
Arthur was even more shocked seeing the scratch on his blade, a single taint in an otherwise mesmerizing blade. He was lucky Nathan's attack hadn't hit him.
Twin earthen hands emerged from the ground around him, moving swiftly and faster than it had any right to as the two hands slapped him before Nathan could react.
Disoriented, Nathan never saw the blow coming his way until it was too late. His body lurched to the air as he was thrown off Arthur, and he dropped like a ragdoll.
Getting to his feet, Arthur hesitated in approaching him. The gear hadn't activated, meaning he was fine.
Groaning, Nathan got up his head still reeling from the attack. "Fine then, let's see how well you fare against this."
The air suddenly grew a lot hotter, blue sparks lit up the sky above Arthur. He could only wonder how intense the attack was.
It was a massive spell, a firebird had been manifested behind Nathan, increasing the temperature of the area by a dozen degrees. And then, it dived.
'Papa, something's wrong! Mama has fainted! She's going to get hit by a powerful spell! What should I do?!'' Arthur heard Sylvie's voice in his head, he cursed this was the worst possible situation.
'Stay back, you can't show your true form just yet.' He warned, wasting no time in activating the first phase of his beast will as the golden runes appeared below his eyes as time stopped.
Thankfully, Tessia's location was behind him, so he didn't have to manuever around the firebird to get to her. And when he reached her, the first thing he noticed was the translucent black apparition that had been stopped halfway through.
Arthur glanced at the gallery, where Fayden was sitting only to find a similar construct. 'So that's how he teleports.'
He felt a pang of pain rack his body. Even though Fayden had healed him, he could not heal exhaustion. Arthur had already pushed himself past his limit the previous day. He had no more time.
Grabbing Tessia's fainting form, Arthur decided to use himself as a shield, infusing his back with mana. As a mid-silver mage himself, it wouldn't do much other than maybe burn off his clothes. Tessia, however, didn't have that luxury.
As time resumed, Fayden's Void Step completed as he watched the world howl spell coming towards him unfazed. He raised his arm, as if trying to grab something.
The fire split apart on impact, leaving Tessia and Arthur unscathed. As the smoke cleared, Curtis could only see Fayden's outstretched hand. His palm still glowing orange and his apathetic eyes, as if the spell had never even touched him.
"F-F-Fayden Eralith?" Professor Glory screeched to a halt.
"Sheesh, that wasn't a half bad spell Curtis, keep it up." Fayden gave him a thumbs up, as if his sister hadn't just been in critical danger.
The Professor looked behind him to see if Tessia was alright, but she was only met with a confused Arthur hugging Tessia, "A-Arthur too?"
Gently placing her down, Arthur got up to his feet. "Thanks," he muttered towards the older boy.
Fayden rolled his eyes, "As if that would've done anything more than scratch you."
"Still…"
"Arthur, she's my sister. What kind of a brother would I be if I were not there to protect her?"
A smile broke into Arthurs face, "I don't remember that being the case when she got kid-"
"We do not talk about that."
"Okay, time out what just happened?" Professor Glory interrupted their conversation.
"What do you mean?" Fayden asked innocently.
"How did you two suddenly appear beside Tessia?"
"Maybe we're just fast?"
"Fast enough to cross the distance between you in an instant?"
"Professor." Arthur cut in. "Shouldn't taking Tessia to the infirmary take precedence?"
"Right…" She backed off, still musing about the situation as she placed the elf princess on her bond.
As she flew off, Nathan walked in, "Whoa, what just happened. How did you disappear?"
Fayden sighed, 'Out of the frying pan into the fire.'
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Thankfully, Nathan didn't pry when Arthur told him he couldn't reveal how he had 'teleported,' leaving them to go visit Tessia.
Cynthia Goodsky was with the silver-haired girl when they entered the room. Fayden had his suspicions, but Cynthia's presence confirmed it.
"It's her beast will isn't it?" he asked, although he already knew what her answer would be.
Cynthia sighed, "Yes, it seems the will is rejecting her."
"...What?" Fayden knew how dangerous that could be, his grandfather had drilled it into him.
"It will affect her assimilation, and even then it might not go away."
"How did she even get a beast will?" Fayden asked, frustrated.
"Uh, I gave it to her. I didn't think it would be this bad."
"YOU DIDN'T THI-" Fayden inhaled deeply. "You didn't think you should've consulted me before giving it to her?"
Arthur winced, "The will is from an Elderwood Guardian, a beast made of plants. It shouldn't be rejecting Tessia, a plant mage. None of us could've seen this coming."
Fayden sighed, "Yeah, you're right. But next time, inform me before doing something like this."
"Yeah sure I'll let you know the next time I get the core of a S-Class mana beast whose will perfectly suits one of my friends."
Nathan's and Beelzebub's face flashed past his vision, and he chuckled, "You'd be surprised how often that happens."
Arthur rolled his eyes, "Keep being cryptic and I'll start calling you the Oracle of Zestier."
Before they could continue bickering, someone knocked at the door. "Pardon my intrusion."
A middle-aged man walked in wearing the distinct uniform of an emitter. The three mages instantly knew it was time to go.
Outside Cynthia bid them goodbye, claiming she had some duties to attend to, leaving the two boys alone.
"I saw it, you know." Arthur spoke as they walked the hallways. "The way you teleport?"
"Oh? Do tell?"
"You create an apparition at your destination, perfectly replicating your physique and clothes and take it's place."
'He's wrong, it's more like you warp to the closest shadow or nacht particle.'
'I know, but it looks like that, so I don't blame him for coming to that conclusion.'
"I, uh, had a spell idea based on it." Arthur continued, noticing how silent Fayden had gotten. Should he not have said that?
"Go on."
"What if you keep the apparition instead of dispersing it, give it more details and have it look as close to you as possible. It's effectively a cloning technique." He elaborated.
"Hmm, your theory has merit, but there is one mistake."
"Where?" Arthur furrowed his eyebrows, he didn't see any errors in his judgement.
Fayden grinned, "My teleportation spell, or as I like to call it, 'Void Step' is far less complicated. It simply teleports me to any nearby shadow or Nacht particle."
"Oh. Wait, nacht? What's that?" Arthur looked puzzled, wasn't mana the only magic particle in this world? Apart from the purple motes he saw?
"It's something I named, it's basically the result of nuclear fusion between mana and the weird purple motes mixed in."
The confusion disappeared from Arthur's eyes, "Ah, so that's what I saw…. You can see them too?"
"In my integrate phase, yes." Fayden answered. "I assume the same is true for you?"
"Yeah, it seems Noctis and Sylvia had that in common."
Fayden hmm'd, noticing the stars getting closer, "See ya tomorrow then, now I need to make Nathan believe I don't have some teleportation spell."
Arthur chuckled, "Good luck, you'll need it."
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Arthur Leywin walked alone, there was a lot on his mind. However, none of them were about his hospitalized childhood friend. Sure, he was worried about her but there were more important things.
The terms Fayden had used when talking to the professor, 'concentration camp' and 'Auschwitz,' were both terms that became familiar during the second world war back on Earth. He still remembered learning about the history of his old world in the academy.
A smile crept across his face as he remembered how Nico would always whine about history and geography classes, much preferring to be in his Physics or Chemistry classes. Cecilia who would force him to attend his classes. Markus who would make snide remarks about anything and everything, a deep hatred in his heart as the fire of revenge burned in his eyes, much like his own.
The one man he had learned to trust completely, even when he was king. His right hand man, the best duelist in the country and his brother in all but blood.
He sighed, that life was behind him, and he would like to assume it was for the better.
"Who are you Fayden?" He asked nobody in particular, but for now he was sure Fayden had reincarnated too. He just didn't know who he was.
"Were you an enemy, or an ally?"
The answer to that question could change their lives forever, and fate itself would spiral off course.
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