70 The Memories of a Soul (2/2)

Sarah looked down, tears in her eyes. She knew how much her brother loved magic, even if to everyone else he seemed to take it for granted with how he used his ability to learn in his Sleep. Her mother hugged her as Fredrick went over to Rainer, starting to cast another sleeping spell.

”It's okay. He'll still have Sleep Learning. He'll live a life better than anyone else. It'll just be without any real magic.”

The teenage Rainer could not even resist as he fell sleep and his memories started to alter, the very scene before his eyes fading as well.

Rainer shot up with a start, feeling a hand on his shoulder. Lilia looked over to him with worried eyes. Sweat dripping down his forehead, he calmed himself down not to scare her before speaking.

”Sorry, did I wake you?”

”It's alright Master Nvos,” She said before speaking quietly, ”Though it was a nice dream for once.”

Rainer sighed, letting his apprentice distract him from his still rumbling Soul and the lost memories coming into his head. He wasn't prepared to deal with anything that just happened right now.

Master Nvos…

He thought for a moment. She had insisted on calling him that after she read a Fae book series involving a Mage and his Apprentice. It made her happy enough that Rainer couldn't bear to tell her not to.

He noticed Tiamat now on his lap, in her full size. Nearly 3 feet in length, she grew quite a bit in the Miasma-laden Abyssal Plane.

Lilia sat back down against the headboard of her bed as she called the little dragon over, wearing magically constructed pajamas reminiscent of Earth. Apart from the Eldritch Dragonlings wearing the purple clothes.

”Come here Lesha,” She said, having been convinced by Kara that it was the better name.

The dragon happily obliged shrinking down to a smaller size and curling up in the little girl's lap.

”Well, I just came to tell you we'll be starting magic practice this morning.”

Her green eyes lit up at the prospect.

”Ah, but don't look so happy. It'll just be memorizing Runes before we can get anywhere else.” Rainer explained though the cheerful 11-year-old didn't look bothered in the slightest by that newest revelation.

”So, go back to sleep, okay. You'll need the rest. It's more complicated than it sounds,” Rainer said but just as he made to leave he heard Lilia make a small noise.

”Ah, could you stay until I go back to sleep,” She asked sheepishly.

”Sure. You want Tiamat to stay as well?” Rainer asked before she nodded. Recalling her earlier mention of nice dreams for once, he imagined it might be better if the Dragon stayed with her over the nights. Even if pretending to be a young boy had spared her a worse fate, working in a mine had still left more scars than just physical.

Even unable to clearly feel it like monsters such as Delilah can, Tiamat was a peak existence. Young or not. He hoped it'd help her, chastising himself for not thinking of her having nightmares earlier.

Preparing to lay down, Tiamat returned to full size as Lilia held the little Eldritch monster of legend like a body pillow. Just as the physically impossible flight of a Dragon was governed by magic so too was the strength of their scales. The little dragon felt far more pleasant than even those of a fluffier variety.

Rainer sat on the edge of the bed and turned [Arcane Presence] back on. Lilia was startled for a moment, before falling back to sleep only a few minutes later, comforted by the magic.

Rainer took out one of the empty books he had Laneth get for him. He took out an enchanted quill soon after, one that magically produced ink from the user's Mana, similar to the magical construction Fae are born able to use. After all, he needed a normal book to properly enchant it.

While he still needed to go over his memories of his Trial and how to replicate those books that held the [Draconic Runic Language], there was no harm in starting her on memorization.

He started writing down the Runic formula for [Arcane Bolt] as well as explaining each part afterward. Compared to all his magic, this was the one he knew best. Even more so as he partially thought over his recently acquired memories. They were still jumbled as old memories were overwritten and entirely new ones entered his mind.

No longer sleepy in the slightest, Rainer did his best to keep his mind away from the still incoming lost memories and instead focus on a mystery that may have just been solved. How he ended up on an entirely new world using only 14 Mana.

The [Archon] was all too familiar with Magic malfunctioning, such as his own armed [Arcane Bolt]s when he first met Kara, and her boot waking him up.

If the seal had automated defense systems, Rainer could only assume it took [Void-walking] as some sort of attack. Perhaps an enemy Mage attempting to teleport him away, confusing the seal which was likely made by someone who only knew of teleportation rather than any form of traveling across the Void.

And in that confusion not only was the seal removed, but it's power flung Rainer across the Void. Rainer ventured it may have even made sure he arrived somewhere safe. In truth, he had no idea how the Seal was affected and then likewise affected [Void-walking] apart from the fact it was gone.

It also explained Rainer's confusion when he first arrived in this new world. He thought it was a product of the system as to why his laser pointer strength [Arcane Bolt] became more akin to a cannon. But it was likely a product of the seal suppressing his magical power being removed.

He inspected himself one last time to make sure there was nothing else on his Soul through a long use of [Arcane Sight]. Already having checked his Soul after Amer did the ritual to break connections a half day after coming here, he found nothing else as expected.

Ever since learning of the existence of the Soul through Gunthar, Rainer was left with many questions. Clearly, Gunthar had both a memory and personality without a brain, so what exactly existed in a Soul?

Was a brain merely a temporary storage and translator of what existed in the Soul? Were the now violet flames in Gunthar's skull a replacement for that?

Rainer twisted his Soul Storage Ring as he thought over one of the Souls in there: Yulia's. He kept it for many reasons, and with the thoughts of revenge dying down he really only wanted her knowledge on how Luna was created. If he ever planned on using his healing spell on the violet-eyed Fairy in the future it would do to know her unique qualities, among any other problems that may be related to her creation.

With both her and Tiamat sharing the same transformation ability it also brought up a huge interest for Rainer in discovering why that was. No other Fairy could transform like Luna could.

It was lucky for him that forcing the information out of Yulia wouldn't make him feel guilty either. It was now only a question of creating a medium to interact with her Soul and preserving the memories she had when she was alive.

Sighing, he went back towards finishing a Runic primer for Lilia and thinking over his experience with the book enchantments in the Trial. He wasn't quite ready to tackle all the lies he endured over the years, despite himself agreeing with the reasoning.

A small smile was brought to his face as he thought of his sister being on his side. He'd have to use tracking magic again soon and see if he could at least use [Void Seer] to see her.

Kara stood face to face with Laneth in the courtyard of the mansion. Different from her usual attire she changed to black leather pants and boots, but along with the usual white buttoned shirt tied higher up.

Two average enchanted blades, provided by the Prince, spun in her hands as she readied for the duel. Through her magically constructed clothes, enchantments glowed as her mind accelerated in preparation for her body to do the same.

Launching at a speed far surpassing anyone in the first tier, she lunged forward. Two blades clashed with a single sword.

Rainer sat off to the side watching the two. Luna in her smaller form slept on his head. It was still a few hours till they needed to get ready for the festival. Lilia sat next to him, but with their duels being a regular scene she was far more interested in the book Rainer wrote for her. The otherwise absolutely silent and unmoving girl only spoke when there was a word she didn't know, taking much delight in questioning Master Nvos as his apprentice.

Looking at Kara it was hard not to notice the sheer joy she had from the duel. She belonged in battle, that much was as clear to Rainer today as it was when he first saw the whirling dervish that would become his partner.

It wasn't so long ago he stood opposite of a Wyvern-riding [Lich] and with sheer exhilaration struck him down with a spear of arcane and light. Not even the [Arcane Rage] tearing apart his body dampened that mood. But as time went on it was harder to enjoy battle when the death of those you loved hung in the balance. At least for him, no matter how much he enjoyed his magic.

Rainer stared down at his hand as he thought over the next body enchantment he was preparing. Similar to the one Mira used for storing her weapons he'd create the same for Kara. But the goal here wasn't that exact enchantment. It was to open a way forward for his eventual target, Void-walking.

Unintentionally, the Body Enchantment created by the Fae to store items, often only a single one, created a separate Void-like space. And just as Rainer created [Void-walking] from the Runes involved in [Sleep Learning] so too did he plan to use the Spatial enchantment to create a [Void-Walking] enchantment.

To him, this was the only way he'd feel content with Kara taking her Trial early. With her massive Aura pool and class bonuses to body enchantments, he had little doubt she couldn't abuse such an enchantment to its full potential. Though, he ventured, he'd likely have to create something to simulate [Void Detection] as well.

Which to him was only a bonus rather than another requirement.

Compared to every detection skill he has, [Void Detection] stood above them all. Using the Void to glimpse all around him not only had the greatest accuracy but due to his Void-related bonuses had by far the greatest range.

Clashes of magic and aura covered weapons rang in the background. It took only moments before a heavily aura clad blade hit Laneth in the gut and sent him down. Even with his superior level it was hard to compare to both Kara's powerful dual classes as well as her demonic aura and physique. Then there was her Aura pool surpassing most tier 2 Aura users.

”That's 13-67” Kara remarked, giving Rainer a surprise. But Kara wasn't in her Werewolf form. Though he doubted a duel in that state would be as friendly as this one.

And Laneth after all only leveled one of his tier 2 classes with a Fruit. The other was earned. Even with a possible physical stat disadvantage, he wasn't a pushover. After all, his strength lay as a [Spellsword(2nd)] not a pure warrior.

And the next duel showed that, after a quick burst of a Mana shield sent Kara to the ground and a sword threatened her neck.

”68” Laneth said with a smirk.

The duels continued. Though eventually they switched to less competitive practice and more of a training of skills. Laneth even switched to a dagger to mimic a common Fae Assassin's fighting form.

Rainer thought for a moment of a perfect date for Kara, given Luna's choice for tonight. And seeing how much she enjoyed this battle he imagined going out and fighting when their lives weren't on the line might be just the perfect thing. Especially if she had a new Void-walking Body Enchantment to test out.

A few hours later Rainer stood outside his shared room as he awaited his two dates. Wearing an attire no different than usual apart from nicer looking fabrics that made up his boots, pants, and a now violet shirt matching the runic lines on his coat, he hadn't had much to do in terms of preparation.

In the end, he'd never leave anywhere without his enchanted overcoat. Which left picking a different outfit for the festival a moot point. Combined with [Arcane Awakening] his Constitution was high enough that it took a real effort for even his own aura strong party members to hurt him. Let alone actually cut through his overcoat, an armor in its own right.

And in the middle of battle, landing such a clean hit was quite difficult. Even just his natural skin represented the equivalent of plate armor, where anything other than a perfect hit would only be a glancing blow.

At this point, little of Rainer's abilities brought jealousy to the party. Except for his Constitution.

After all, any gains an Aura user had in that attribute were hard earned from years of difficult training. And they needed to, for it wouldn't do for their own arms to break after a casual swing of the sword. And Aura Enhancement and Aura Cladding only went so far.

Rainer looked down at his hand for a moment as [Arcane Awakening: Storage] flared to life. A chain of Arcane exited from storage and whipped around the hallway before returning. He had filled the created Void with over-strengthened chains soon after he woke up, and as he hoped they cost nothing while inside.

Being woken up in the middle of the night, Rainer opted for a few hours of sleep shortly after watching Kara training. Having the thought of the body enchantments on his mind, he couldn't focus on anything else during his short [Sleep Learning] session.

With his experience of creating the black Void opposite to his white one, so that he could use Void abilities in [Sleep Learning] the enchantment went easily enough. Bolstered by his [Archon] class bonus it was almost too easy.

The rest of the time was spent figuring out a way to Void-walk through the use of [Arcane Awakening]. While mostly for Kara he soon realized the benefit of it. Whether it was the [Arch-Lich] or Matheus, neither's ability to stop him from casting magic affected [Arcane Awakening].

And having such a teleport, fueled as well by Arcane Power, could one day be the difference between life and death.

He studied examples of Fae movement skills alongside his own recently created storage skill, but he accomplished little else other than exploding his legs from influxes of mana and magic. The [Archon] bonus required both a closeness to the actual skill as well as often a concentrated effort in learning it.

Several hours of refreshing his body on account of immense pain and missing legs showed him just how much he lacked any closeness to such a skill. But as always, he did not doubt it existed.

He was brought back to the present as the doors opened. Shaking away the fog slowly creeping from repeated nights in [Sleep Learning], he returned to full attention.

Luna walked and quickly did a spin, showing off a black strapless and backless dress. Her hair was done with a circular braid going around her head and the rest of her silver hair let loose.

Kara exited soon after, her hair tied up in an elegant bun, wearing something reminiscent of what a lot of the Fae wore at the past Ball. At least, if you ignore the two blades still at her side. Only a few wraps of red silk covered her chest, and she wore a similar colored red skirt reaching half-way to her knees. Luna wore decorated sandals but Kara opted for nothing on her feet, not uncommon for the Fae.

He smiled at the Wolfkin remembering just how underdressed she was when they first met and figured she had been leaning towards the opposite only recently. Perhaps another factor of their last night's conversation for her to feel more comfortable?

That, and maybe the fact that the Mana-obsessed Fae actually didn't really hold much towards physical appearance. Clothes for them were often an expression of, utility, fun, and taste rather than a means of showing attractiveness or status.

”Beautiful as always Luna,” He mentioned taking the Fairy's hand, as Kara went to the other side. Rainer glanced at Kara for a bit longer, opting her to say the words for him.

”I'll accept the stunned silence in place of words,” Kara grinned, ”Luna has always said variety is important. I suppose that's for compliments as well.”

”The most important,” The Fairy remarked, not even paying attention to what was actually said as she lead the two joining hands with each other forward.

Rainer and Kara shared a smile, before letting themselves be led forward. Both were familiar with Luna's comments about needing variety and not another Fairy since he had her. And both hoped for a wonderful time for Luna's first outing.

Neither bet on it going without a problem though.