Peace came to this world after the war between the Astera Holy Kingdom and the Kawachi Imperial Empire ended. It ended in our kingdom's victory. Yet even still, I had to do many more jobs, for the faint prospect of finding what I needed to Awaken the two Successors that surrounded me.
" | Flame Lance | | Icicle Shards |!" With Kou's Magic being shot at me, I stood still in this empty plain and shot forward with my Fragments. Even without chanting, countless fireballs and cold-ice shards swarmed around Kou like my Fragments. It seems plainly that her Magic Potential was indeed much higher then any normal Magician, even those of Court Magicians.
Seconds went by and all the projectiles launched towards me stopped harmlessly meters away; 25 meters to be strict. My swarm of now hundreds of Fragments shielded me by simply bloating out entire flanks. I let this go on for a few minutes to serve as my own shielding training and Kou's Magic training. After a few minutes, I decided to be merciful and conclude our training quickly. " | Distortion Field |." I had finer control of Dark Magic myself, as well as... increased power of it. After stopping all Magic, I Dissipated forward and started my assault. In this open plain, closing in through sight was an easy task. Starting here, I started my relentless assault with my short spear and Dark Magic Enhancements.
I held no real expectation that Kou could match me in terms of her 1 year sword skill--, oh, wait, I also only had a year and a half of combat skills too... Well, I make myself an exception; Kou only had a year of sword training which I challenged often with daggers, spears, and swords. I also used her as my own training to better refine my Dark Magic Enhancements.
Dark Magic Enhancement was basically the enhancement of materials. In this case, my short spear was a smooth wooden stick with a easy to hold handle. The tip was a flat tip so no harm would be done, but my enhancements made the spear itself as hard as the wooden training sword Kou used.
I thrusted my spear forward, and quickly saw my short probing attempts swayed away by Kou's sword. In a mix of not over extending my reach but threatening to strike a blow on Kou, I kept my pressure on Kou. "Tsk~!" A narrow blow to Kou came as she narrowly swatted my spear away hastily.
I saw this gap in her defense and charged forward, knocking Kou down to the ground. Her sword and my spear fell down next to us as I blocked her hands with my legs. I quickly took my actual dagger from the side of my short pants and pointed it to Kou's neck. "This is game." I removed my dagger from her neck and got up, before putting the dagger back into the holster.
Kou shortly got up after our small dangerous spar. "No fair!" She cried as she made light punches on me.
"All is fair in war." I told her. "Besides--, you do not necessarily need to stand your ground here. Also it would be different in real combat." I told her.
I could come up with some basic critics, but her main one would be her tendency to not move from her initial position when defending herself. She does much better when I tell her to attack me rather then take my blows head on, but a mobile defense would be much better then staying in a position.
"I--I know..." She utters.
I walk behind Kou and pat off the dust and dirt that stuck to her dress when I knocked her down to the ground. "Playing fair doesn't work when your enemies will do everything they can to kill you, remember that." After patting off the dust on her and seeing Kou make a small nod to my advice, we head back and spend the time chatting along the way.
-----
"Tenshi!" A voice--, or more specifically Asashio yelled in the open commerce district to me, suddenly. I turn back to spot Asashio and Aikito - who grew last time I saw her.
I turned to greet the two. After getting through the crowd of people, "Greetings--, but could we head to a café or where before anything?" I asked. I wanted to get talk to Aikito, who I never saw for a while. Kou and Aikito meet often, but I rarely get to see Aikito. Though I did see Asashio often, as we had an odd tendency to meet each other in our travels and missions. Me as in missions for the Apostle, and Asashio as in missions from the Holy Family.
Asashio and Aikito followed me as I went off. I knew where I wanted to go, so we went to a sweets café I was an often customer to. After we got our seats, we started our order and our conversation.
"How have you been Aikito?" I decided with a safe conversation starter.
"I'm almost as tall as you Big Sis Tenshi!" ... haha--, err...
"Hehe--..." Asashio gave a small chuckle and a smirk... I only realized how short I was when even these young girls who were younger then 14 were taller then me. Even Kou who was a slower bloomer was nearing my height. Not to mention, Kou and Aikito both grew in their body size. Even Asashio started getting taller, so I was left wondering why I stayed the same for all this time.
"And Sis Asashio is keeping my Magic Lessons and I learn with Kou while I am over here. I even learnt Firestorm!" Err--, what...? If I remember, Firestorm was a High Level Spell that required extreme focus and imagination to use. It was one of the few spells, along with Wind spells that I couldn't block with my Fragments.
"Congratulations, I'm sure you'll be a great Magician." I told Aikito. I looked over to Asashio... "I have been doing countless extermination of things on my end, so how is your end Asashio?" I left out the fact that I haven't done anything for about a month out, so I had no information of anything recent.
"Err--... that was why I came to see you..." Oh, okay... "I was asked by Pristina to give you this." Asashio handed me a small golden scroll... "It is a map, but... I don't know what it marks."
I opened the scroll-map and on it were many marks with a cross. "I see--, I'll see to this later then." I put the scroll away in one of the many inside pockets I had on my dark dress.
We kept the friendly atmosphere here and kept our friendly conversation until an hour of conversing. I went back to Jewels de Lapins to tell Kou and Yatori I would be gone, then left...
The map made some major points of attention to me... Three cross points at the ruins Kalian, 2 in the ruins near the capital Astoria, and 6 at the massive Forest of Dark that blocks a major part of the Kawachi Empire and the Holy Astera Kingdom. There were single crosses at some other spots, but they were few and away from any urban areas.
I could investigate the spots at the ruins in Kalian and Astoria, but the ones in the Forest of Dark would impossible for now.
"... Lets go..." I told myself.
