The raged outburst continued till we went all the way through the tunnel, accompanied by an ever growing cold that the wyvern released. As we stepped into the hollow inside however the temperature changed drastically. Gone were the biting winds, replaced by a gentle warmth that continued to grow.

Even the light changed, directing our eyes up above to the opening in the ceiling, where the platform should be. In midst of the gap was the whisp, flickering its light unperturbed by the shaking mountain and the swarm of wyverns flying around it.

Opposed to before however the whisp grew in size, else we wouldn’t have seen it from below, while also changing its light towards a bright, warm hue of yellowish red. And while it shone all around, fighting off the cold, it also brought an intensified beam straight downwards into the mountain all the way below into the abyss.

“Guess this shows us our next target.” I set into motion but Narva stopped me.

“Can we just,” she began, breathing heavily in exhaustion, “take a break for now?”

I looked over to her. While I still had the adrenaline rushing through my veins, mostly using my own flames instead of my mana, she used most of hers, making her far more exhausted than I was.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” She said as she sat down on a step, leaning her body against the wall.

Sitting down next to her I began to speak. “You okay?”

“Yes, just need a few minutes to catch myself, I’m a little exhausted from that fight.” Saying this she closed her eyes. Soon her erratic breaths turned slower and slower, until she dozed of completely.

That’s more than a little. Well, take a rest for now. Looking over to the light shining from above I thought about our earlier fight. If she wasn’t there, I wouldn’t even have made it of that platform. And afterwards I still needed to use the black flames.

The voice didn’t came out this time, but I still felt the lingering anger, guiding myself to lash out at those that opposed me. Waiting for me to stand off against the wyverns once more.

I’ll need more than just the Flame Shield and the power to gather my flames to strike at once if I want a chance to survive. And the spell I used at the arena needs to pull energy from the white flames. I don’t know what will happen if I exhaust them and I don’t want to try it.

The one thing I’ve learned since coming to this world is that the system gives power to the people of Aeus. Power beyond the normal confines of their species. But even if I wished for it, somehow, I was outside of its reach. At least that was what I thought before I remembered what happened when I first met the whisp, a clear blue window floating in front of me.

Maybe… I couldn’t be sure, but it was worth a try. I whispered silently, trying not to wake her. “Status.”

I sighed. It was worth the try. At least now I know that I’m not left out completely. Still need to know how to get it to restart.

Thinking about what else I could use my thoughts wandered towards the magic circle I saw before when Narva used her magic. The lines it traced through the air stayed embedded in my mind. Remembering the feeling I got when using magic, I tagged at my mana, pushing it outside my body to form the circle.

But as I completed the circle I felt it draining way more mana than the barrier spell, all while it released just a little more than a gust of wind. Should’ve guessed that that doesn’t work so easily. It already felt wrong in the middle of that spell.

Starting once more from the beginning I loosened my control over the mana when I felt it going weird, but all that it did was to collapse the circle completely as the mana just dissipated into the surroundings. I need to do something else…

A few tries later I was out of ideas, the circle just sucking my mana without doing anything else. But I didn’t gave up just yet as I still needed to come up with other means of attack. At the next try I stopped when it came to the wrong portion, holding it still as I looked at it. Without any coherent guesses left I guided the mana like I felt it should be, only to soon follow the original pathway again.

As I finished I stared at the circle, differencing itself from the original in a few slight ways. With a last push of mana the circle activated at a far lower cost than the Windblade spell, at least lower for me, flickering once as a blade made of golden white flames came into existence. But as I watched in surprise of my accomplishment I forgot to shot it off, letting it dissipate as its time came to an end.

Another circle later a furrow was left at the other side of the cave, dust crumbling down alongside little fragments of rock. The spell completed but against the wyvern it would serve as little more than a distraction given their scaled defenses, until a thought came across my mind.

If that spell inside the opening stage used the white flames maybe I could use the black flames for the new spell.

But while the thought may seemed simple I created gash over gash in the opposing wall, littering the stairs down below with the rubble that fell down from it, until I felt my reserves getting low.

Shouldn’t use all my mana for training when something might attack us at any given moment. There’s still that swarm of wyverns out there and I don’t know what could be waiting down below.

Stopping with the training I took a look at Narva, still sleeping even though I made quite the noise while testing the spell as I soon forgot about her while experimenting. She must’ve been quite exhausted… I really need to watch out for her too.