“Wait, wait, wait,” Erica interrupted, shaking her head. “I think I’m following but I don’t think I’m following.”

“Where did you get confused?” Akira asked.

“When we started on the hypothetical situation,” she replied, frowning. “So let me see if I got this right. Elemental gems can change mana into elemental mana.”

“Yes,” Akira nodded.

“But it’s not practical to use for energy.”

“Also yes.”

“Okay. Ignoring the part where I’m not sure how elemental mana can produce energy, it’s not practical because it’s too slow and the necessary resources needed to make it somewhat possible are kind of impossible to get.”

“Yes.”

“Great. So now here’s the part I started getting lost on. The hypothetical. Are you saying that someone is gathering everything in order to quicken the speed of the mana transformation thing?”

“That’s correct,” Yuki said, nodding.

“And that someone is Mason Inc.” 

“Mhm.”

“So that they can build a laser beam,” Erica finished.

“Well, that part isn’t a given, but everything seems to be pointing toward that,” Yuki corrected.

“Possible laser beam then.”

“Mhm. Is there anything else you don’t understand?”

“No, I think I got everything,” Erica sighed. “So. What are you going to do then? About the laser beam.”

“Well, it’s not confirmed yet,” Yuki replied. “I’ll need to get someone else besides Uriel to investigate this. It’s also possible that the two people that bought the elemental stone from Jeremy were normal people from the government. Why the government would want such a stone, I wouldn’t know.”

“But you think Mason Inc. was the one that bought the stone,” Akira said.

“No.” Yuki shook his head. “I think someone who was from the government bought it. However, it probably wasn’t a normal person from the government.”

“Normal?” she asked.

“They probably had ties to a group outside of the government. I can think of one group in particular.”

“You think it was the Shikaku?” 

“I think it’s a very strong possibility.” He glanced at the train track and say the train approaching them from afar. “The train’s coming.”

“The Shikaku also kind of own Mason Inc., don’t they?” Erica asked.

“Essentially. Or at least, they’re very close partners,” Yuki said.

“So by extension, the Shikaku are trying to develop a giant laser beam using elemental jewels.”

“Yeah. That’s what I came up with,” he nodded. “I won’t know for sure until I look into it more. I hope that it was just the government wanting to gather interesting relics of sorts.”

The train rolled up slowly and the doors opened to let them on board. Yuki had paid for round trip tickets already, so all he needed to do was tap his watch against the scanner and have their tickets be read.

“Anyway,” Yuki continued as they sat down. “The thing that I’m worried about is that if I’m correct, then this laser beam would be quite problematic.”

“What do you mean?” Erica asked.

“Well, the problem I pointed out the first time about the laser beam was that it would be easy to block since pure mana is pretty easy to divert away or dispel,” Yuki said. “But now, it probably isn’t pure mana and is elemental mana.”

“Okay. How much more difficult is that to block?”

“A lot more difficult. Barriers work by absorbing the impact of a blow. That means whenever a spell hits a barrier, it absorbs the mana of the spell. The amount it could absorb before breaking is based on the strength of the barrier.”

“I didn’t know that,” Erica frowned. “I never really used barriers.”

“That’s the basic principle behind barriers,” he said. “Obviously, the stronger the spell, the more mana the barrier has to absorb in order to block it. Now here’s where things get a bit complicated.”

“The type of spell affects the strength of the barrier, doesn’t it?” Akira said.

“Yup. Some spells are structured in such a way that they are resistant to outside forces absorbing the mana behind the spell,” Yuki explained. “Unless the barrier is made in such a way to counter this, this means that the barrier has to do more work in order to break that resistance in order to absorb the blow. Others are made to break through the barrier by destroying the underlying spell behind the barrier. But we won’t worry about that. What’s relevant here is that the type of mana also affects the necessary strength of the barrier.”

“How so?” Akira asked, intrigued.

“Let’s start with pure mana which is what powers every spell that isn’t elemental in form,” he said. “Let’s say I create a bullet out of mana. This bullet has two properties. One is to pierce and the other is to destroy. Mana is used to allow this to happen. If I launched this at a barrier, depending on the barrier, one of two things will happen. Either the barrier was made to resist the impact of the bullet and let the bullet waste all of its mana as it tries to pierce and destroy or the will absorb the mana that is in the spell.”

“I see.”

“Now, pure mana is easy to absorb since it’s pure. Everyone knows what it’s like and everyone knows how to manipulate it. That’s why every barrier in the world would be able to resist a spell powered with pure mana.”

“But elemental mana is different?”

“Correct,” Yuki nodded. “Elemental mana is made by imbuing mana with elemental attributes. This no longer makes it pure. Therefore, a simple understanding of mana is no longer enough. One would have to understand the element as well.”

“So if a fireball was to be launched at someone that was created using fire elemental magic, then the person would need to be of a fire attribute in order to block it with a barrier?” Akira asked.

“With a barrier, yes. Specifically a barrier that is aimed to absorb the impact,” Yuki said. “There are a number of other ways a person can block or dodge the attack but if they want to use a barrier they need to have a very good understanding of that element. Normally, that only happens if someone is of that attribute.”

“Oh, I think I understand why the laser being elemental in type would be a problem,” Akira said with a small sigh.

“Mhm. If the beam is elemental, then a conventional shield wouldn’t do. It would need to be erected by someone of that attribute. And that person better have a massive reserve of mana or the greatest and most efficient barrier ever.”

“If the beam is one element, I’m sure people can gather many of that element and then they can merge a barrier together,” Akira said.

“They can. But what if it’s a rare element? Like earth for example. There are not many earth attributes in the world,” Yuki replied. “Actually, not earth since many earth elementalists are supports and so they might be able to block it given enough people. Let’s say wind. They’re very far and few between. They wouldn’t be able to block a beam of that scale over a large enough radius.”

“I see.”

“There’s also the problem of we don’t know what element the beam will be until it’s unleashed,” he continued. “It could be water. It would be fire. It could be anything. We don’t know if that water elemental jewel is the only elemental stone they have.”

“Which is why we need to investigate this,” Akira finished.

“Correct. I wouldn’t worry about this right now,” Yuki said. “I’ll get Uriel on this and maybe see if Tiar can find out anything else. So while we wait for results, I’ll be working on my project. You’ll help, right?”

“Of course,” Akira smiled.

“What can I do?” Erica asked. Yuki glanced over at her. “I don’t want to be bored, you know.”

“You can help us,” he shrugged. “Or train. I’ll be training as well, so you can help me with that.”

“Great,” she grinned. “Let’s see if I can’t tier up before we need to do some work.”

“I also have classes,” Yuki sighed. “So I’ll be going to the Academy on weekdays.”

“Oh yeah. Wait, you talked with Selene right?” Erica asked.

“Yes.”

“So what did she say?”

“Just to tell if I plan on doing something like that again,” he said. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll be going class without my disguise from now on.”

“You’re going to go like that?” Erica said, waving vaguely at Yuki.

“As an elf, yes.”

“Oh. Okay.” She sounded a bit dejected to Yuki’s ears.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“So everyone is going to see the real you,” Erica said.

“Yeah. After what I did, it’s only natural.” He stared at her for a moment. “Do you not want me to?”

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?” Yuki thought for a few moments. “Oh. It’s only my appearance, Erica. They won’t know anything else. That’s between us three. Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, but I kind of liked being one of the few people to see that side of you, like physically,” she frowned.

“Well, you know the real me emotionally. And many other things. I would say that’s more important.”

“You’re right, I guess,” Erica sighed before smiling. “No worries. I hope everything turns out okay when Monday comes around.”

“Me too. Now get some rest. This train ride is going to take a bit.”