“Ezmee!” Amara’s cheerful voice echoed in her chambers.

“Get off me you impudent mortal!!” Ezme exclaimed as she tried to shrug Amara off.

Amara smiled, hugging Ezme tightly as she was holding smoothies in each hand. “Make me!” 

“Insufferable! Do you want a smoothie or not?” Ezme glared at Amara.

“I doo. Tsk. Alright, I’ll let you go just this once.” Amara let go with a wide grin on her face. Ezme held out one of the smoothies as she turned away.

“Impudent mortal.” Ezme muttered, but couldn’t hide the curve of her lips. “You seem to be in a good mood.” 

“Sophelia came by as I was training Farsight. And I realized something.” Amara smiled.

“Sophelia?” Ezme asked and seemed a little upset. As if she was pouting.

Amara thought and suddenly smiled wider. “Are you jealous?”

“Insolence! What do I have to be jealous about!” Ezme exclaimed.

“Because you couldn’t make me feel good like she did.” Amara winked.

“Seal that impudent mouth before I do it for you!” Ezme shouted.

Amara grinned. “Promise?”

“You…” Ezme sighed. “Insufferable.”

Amara thought she’d teased Ezme enough. “Hey, do you know anything about how mana and di-”

Amara began as she suddenly felt like she got electrified and became unable to move a finger. Looking at Ezme, she saw that the angel wasn’t moving at all - looking up at her with clear eyes and a curious look and a bit rosy cheeks, but stood still as a statue. 

[Do not speak of forbidden knowledge to anyone.](God)

Tom? Peeping again I see. How am I supposed to ask Ezme for advice on it then? Asshole!

Amara remained paralyzed for several seconds before whatever was holding her let go. As she could move again, her heart galloped as it began beating rapidly to pump the adrenaline through her veins. 

Jeez. If I can’t talk about it, you could have warned me, Sophelia.

...Why didn’t she warn me?

“Hmm? Why did you stop?” Ezme asked as she cocked her head.

“Oh. Erm…” (Amara)

“As expected of a mortal, can’t even hold a thought long enough to express it.” Ezme grinned evilly. “Typical. You were saying something about mana.”

Amara paused as she thought. “I need to find out about mana. Especially how to get it.”

 

__________________

 

“Hmm. You’re going to need a basic understanding of mana before we begin. Explaining is a bit troublesome. Hmm. You said before that mana felt like pressure. Or do you have other ways to describe it? Or how you imagine it?” (Ezme)

They sat on the observation deck cross legged as Ezme began advising Amara.

“I don’t know. Maybe I imagined it as gas that floated around before I went to Teyrin, but it seemed to be sort of everywhere. In the ground too.” Amara shrugged.

“Yes! That’s good! Gas! I like that.” Ezme beamed. “What do gases gather around?”

Amara frowned. “I don’t know? It just floats around?”

Ezme shook her head. “Think bigger. Much bigger scale. You know the theories of physics from your world? What’s that guy called again who came up with a new theory during your last century...”

Amara raised an eyebrow. “You mean Einstein?”

“Yes! Think about gases on the scale of Einstein.” Ezme smiled.

Gases on the scale of Einstein? We’re not talking about farts are we? I feel like we’re being rude to Einstein now.

Alright, I guess Einstein is most well known for his revised laws of gravity. About how mass bends spacetime. 

“You mean gas gathering around mass?”  Amara asked.

“Very good! Now, for this analogy, mana is gas.” Ezme smiled and tilted her head as she looked at Amara.

When I was on Teyrin the mana gathered to me without doing anything.

“And mass is people?” (Amara)

“Nice!” Ezme exclaimed. 

“Now then, to succeed with what you wish, I propose you create a new skill for no other purpose than getting mana. Theoretically you could use Realm Gate. But it’s also designed to let things of physical nature pass through. You just want to get magical energy.” Ezme continued.

“Alright.” (Amara)

“Furthermore, I suggest getting a skill to see mana. Otherwise you might not see if it works or not.” (Ezme)

Amara used Farsight to look at Teyrin. As her eyes began stinging, she collected divine power into her eyes again - this time for a different purpose. She imagined seeing colourful particles everywhere on Teyrin as she made her attempt.

[Ding!]

As the bell rang in her head, everything in Teyrin suddenly looked like someone had put blue-shaded glasses in front of her eyes. Or as if Teyrin was covered in a blue fog that didn’t disrupt sight. 

Yes.

Amara deactivated both her sight skills and rubbed her sore eyes. “I got the sight skill.”

“Good. One down, one to go. Suspect the other one might be harder. You’ll likely have to use a similar mental image as with Realm Gate.” (Ezme)

Amara thought for a while.

What kind of mental image can I make? 

What if I consider the worlds that contain mana as barrels, and my skill as a tap? Bend space between myself and the target world, make a hole to let mana flow through. Guess that could work. 

“Hey Ezme, I need a world to try the second skill on. I can’t use it on any that are in my domain.” (Amara)

“True. Let’s use one of mine.” Ezme replied after a moment of consideration. “Just don’t drain it. You won’t be able to soak all the mana right away anyway, as it will spread out equally. Some might cling to you, waiting to soak into your body. But most of it will likely not.” Ezme warned.

Maybe I can create a skill that stops mana from leaving? Maybe I can enchant my room so it keeps mana here? That'll be pretty handy.

Following Ezme’s instructions, Amara’s Farsight was eventually brought to a world she could tap mana from. She even got a level in the process.

After activating Mana Sight, Amara activated the divine power in her body, and focused on her mental image.

[Ding!]

Yes.

Amara watched with Farsight as she saw the air change in the world, as if there were transparent blue dust particles being sucked in by a vacuum cleaner. She sensed the mana arriving, enveloping her with its pressure, even if it was a lot weaker than what she felt on Teyrin.

[Ding!]

As Amara felt her divine power drain, the skills deactivated. She couldn’t tell how much mana was around her, but it was there. Slowly seeping into her.

“Looks like it worked.” Amara said as she felt her body burn as it was instantly getting refilled with divine power from prayers.

“Good work!” Ezme chirped happily.

“Praise me more.” Amara responded with a wry smile.

“Impudent mortal! Make me.” (Ezme)

A dangerous smile spread on Amara’s face as she looked at Ezme.

Seeing it Ezme’s expression broke in panic. “No-no-no-no! Don’t you dare!”

Amara burst into laughter. 

“You know, if I didn’t have your help I’d be pretty screwed.” Amara said after calming down.

“Well you’re a bit fortunate I suppose. Originally you weren’t supposed to have any help at all, but as Father decided to use a mortal, he accepted one of the terms forbidding our champion from receiving divine power from other domains than the one affected by the armistice.” Ezme grinned. “As you don’t have one, it was no loss for your part. In exchange, you get a little free advice.”

Amara laughed again. “Are you telling me that Tom played the demons?”

“Impudent! But absolutely right.” Ezme smiled.

Amara suddenly realized something and frowned. Shouldn’t I be leveling up? I mean the last time- 

[Ding!]

[Ding!]

Why’s everything happening exactly when I think of it? Whatever.

Welp, got a level I guess. But I can still feel mana flowing into me - guess the system needs more? Maybe that’s the standard measurement for mana - how much mana one can hold in order to level up at once? Oh well.

Status.

Huh. Zero mana yet two percent. Guess I might be right.

Hearing Ezme slurp on her smoothie brought Amara's attention to her own as she raised the straw to her mouth.

It looks like the game is ready to begin.