Chapter 227: Twin Blades of Conflict (2/2)
”That's just a slave contract!” The Celestial Blaze shouted in outrage. ”There's no way I can accept such an agree--! My apologies, My Lord. I will gladly comply,” it instantly switched attitudes when it saw Rakna reach for the hilt of Juuchi Yosamu.
”Great,” the therian clapped and the magic circle turned into a maelstrom of power than entered the Celestial Blaze's body and deeply anchored itself into its soul without resistance. Once this was done, Rakna returned to his frost star state and lit a cigarette.
Coincidentally, he saw his two swords change a bit along with Obsidian Blood. He hummed, while the Celestial Blaze wept about the unfairness of the world, and reached for one of them.
”So, any spell that I cast while in one state automatically is converted to the other,” Rakna noted to himself and pulled the sword with the white aura out of the ground. ”It also looks like my magic improved by crystal makes it more stable. But it doesn't seem to have a qualitative difference,” he muttered and raised the blade above the Celestial Blaze, who shuddered at the sight.
”Wha-what are you doing?! I already can't do anything to you!”
”Calm down. This won't hurt you,” Rakna retorted and swung the sword down before it could say anything. The sentient flame saw the sword's aura phase through it and the trail continued until the flames that had been cut off from its body.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the Celestial Blaze saw its body completely back to normal, the other bits of fire having disappeared. ”Huh?” It exclaimed in shock and frantically looked at itself; whole once again.
”Yawarakai-Te,” Rakna uttered to clear his confusion. He slid his fingers across the blade swathed in white aura and puffed a cloud of smoke. ”Or 'Tender Hands'. Unlike his apprentice, Masamune forged a sword of mercy. While suspended above the creek, the fish swam right up to it, the air hissed as it gently blew by the blade, the leaves were repelled while the ones split by Muramasa's blade would be mended back into full upon contact. Yawarakai-Te doesn't cut what is innocent and similarly, it heals what is unjustly cut by Juuchi Yosamu.”
”The magic formation behind such a spell must be tremendously complex…” The Celestial Blaze said in awe. ”How did you learn it?”
”By feeling,” Rakna shrugged and the blaze twitched. ”Well, I did give it some thought. This spell's source, however, is not a magic formation, but a matrix.”
”What?!” The Celestial Blaze yelled.
”{What?!}” Even Fray was astounded.
Of course, both of them knew about Spell Matrixes. The basic way of putting it was that matrixes were magic formations folded into smaller shapes. For example, if one started from simple magic circles, if you were to fold enough of them, at some point, you would end up with a sphere.
That sphere is called a Matrix. But it comes in other shapes. Some absurdly complex matrixes have been folded into specific forms, like origamis. The point was that matrixes were exceedingly hard to design, much less create.
Some mages spend years making one single matrix because the more magic formations you layer to make one, the more complicated it is for them to harmonize together.
”This is this spell's matrix,” Rakna uttered and extended his hand. A small part of his mana came out of his palm and formed a matrix in the shape of a sword. It had runes, formulas, and markings in red and white. But the most mysterious thing about it was that everything was contained inside a crystal with engravings on it.
”{My goodness, you actually made a matrix…}” Fray muttered as his studious personality went to work and made him draw the magic formations layered inside the matrix onto a blank book of his library. ”{How much mana did that take? Matrixes are essentially compact spells on the scale of a ritual and they tend to be highly costly.}”
”It took 3 000 MP from me. But the original cost is actually 6 000 MP. The only reason I can use it is thanks to my reduced mana consumption,” Rakna said and dismissed the matrix as the Celestial Blaze was still gaping at it. He then was about to dispel the swords when his scarf began to move.
”Hm?” Rakna looked down with a scowl as one of the ends of Sonata exfiltrated itself from around his neck and moved around as if it was sniffing the air. ”What's wrong?” The therian asked.
He wasn't surprised to see his weapon act on its own since he had witnessed it a few times already after it assimilated the Church's Holy Sword. It had gained a sort of semi-sentience from it. It was not to the extent where it could think or even have an ego, but it certainly had primal urges. Which were mainly eating other weapons.
Even if Sonata couldn't evolve from it, it could now eat weapons to repair itself faster or sometimes decrease the cooldowns of the perks.
Rakna watched silently as the scarf seemed to search for something. And then, it happened; the fabric came in contact with one of the katanas, and Rakna's eyes bulged.
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
The Twin Blades of Conflict are compatible for an Assimilation.
⠀
Do you wish to evolve Skulking Sonata?
Yes/No
⠀
❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
”…what in the flying fu--”