331 Frost Stone Ritual (1/2)
Tycondrius elicited the help of footman Tanamar, real name Athanasius Mors, for Athena Vanzano's ritual. He insisted upon weapons, but not armor. Against attacks powered by frost mana, Tycon doubted the effectiveness of leather and steel protection. He wore more than one layer of clothing, as well as an unnecessarily stylish wool scarf.
The drawn formation took the space of most of the basement vault. The tables and shelves were pushed out of the way and several sections of script and shapes were inscribed onto the stones. Tycon tried to summarize what exactly he'd done with the various sections.
Neither of them seemed to understand even a modicum of his efforts.
It allayed Athena's reservations. Tycon took a miniscule amount of solace in that.
Empty night... He wished they'd understood just how gods-damned hard he worked. Ultimately, however... he was not designing a ritual for praise. The true goal was to aid Athena's breakthrough to Bronze-Rank.
Tycon opened the box, unleashing the Frost Stone's blue glow upon the room. He designed the fantastical display with the intent to impress the two.
”Is... is that... my brother's Frost Stone?” Athena's eyes glowed in wonder, quite opposite of the grimace of disgust a few evenings prior.
One of the settings Tycon changed in the stone was the form the mana exhibited within the crystal. Before, it had formed into a handsome snake skull. Now, it was a glowing, stylized lightning bolt, reminiscent of the Vanzano heraldry.
That change, too, took a lengthy amount of time... but was well worth it, considering Athena's look of awe and Tanamar's nod of respect.
...
With the Frost Stone in place at the formation's center, Tycon performed last-minute checks of all of the formation's functions. No apparent errors.
He also checked Athena's condition...
« System, inquiry: Check the affinity between the Frost Stone and Athena. »
⟬ System response: 99%. ⟭
A higher affinity rate could only be a positive change... It... was a dubious jump in number, though.
”So... I just stand here, Sir Tycon?” Athena pirouetted gracefully within a circle at the end of the formation.
”Indeed,” Tycon smiled politely. ”I will be operating this section, which regulates the mana flow.”
”I'm ready! I'll take ALL OF IT!!” Athena declared with confidence.
Tycon narrowed his eyes... ”I will increase the power steadily, depending on your tolerance.”
”All of it?” The blue-haired noble smiled sheepishly, ”I wanna get stronger now.”
Tycon shared a worried look with Tanamar, ”I'm having second thoughts.”
”It's kinda too late to back out now.” The footman shrugged, ”Anyroad, you've already done all this work. You've even tested it a hundred times over.”
”Something to that extent...” Tycon grimaced. He'd tested it in its completion three times-- more than enough, but far from a hundred.
The most likely negative result was Athena suffering the effects of mana overload, which was even more plausible considering her overly confident personality. Tycon was relying on the fact that the girl had a keen mastery of mana sense and would know her limits.
A little mana overload was fine. She would be able to expend additional mana by casting spells, with Tanamar and himself provided as 'target practice.'. If she lost control, the two of them would attack the young lady, forcing her to use her mana defensively.
”Miss Athena, if you would, sit down and circulate your mana,” Tycon ordered. ”Your goal is to accept the flow of power, regulate it to match your own, and absorb it.”