“Say again?” Malikai asked, assuming that he had somehow misheard the other boy.
“I said we should be friends.” Sora repeated himself before clarifying, “Think about it Kai. Can I call you Kai, you know what, that doesn’t even matter because I’m going to anyway. I lack interest in most people in general, with exception of those of great strength, talent, or perseverance such as yourself. And you tend to dislike associating with others as well. though your reasons may different from mine the result is the same, we both have family members and/or friends who want us to broaden our circles.”
“But, I’m guessing that if we become friends they might get off of our backs for now. And in addition to that it will also give you a more than willing ally of great strength (me) against your foes in the future, whoever they maybe. While also allowing me an opportunity to come face to face with foes willing to face the full force of The Daybreak Empire.”
Malikai remained silent as Sora spoke, following the latter’s train of thought, and eventually came to the conclusion that though it was random it was, in fact logically sound.
It was in that moment when he really looked at Sora and discovered quite a bit about the latter that he wouldn’t have if Sora hadn’t come over of his own volition, forcing Malikai to take a second look instead of just writing him off.
“You’re right. We’re going to be great friends.” Malikai said with a smirk, admitting to the validity of Sora’s earlier declaration.
“Great,” Sora exclaimed before stretching out his hand and asking, “Shake on it?”
“Of course.” Malikai stuck his hand out in reply, and the two shook on it.
Maeve the key witness to the formation of this friendship, which would go on to be called the greatest friendship in Pangea’s history, was somewhat shocked by both the ease with which such a bond was formed and the logic behind it, but she was also quite used to the unpredictability of Malikai’s behavior.
As such she simply watched the events unfold before her and fell into step behind them as the two of them then began to explore the Shopping District together; Malikai still picking up whatever Magic Crystal or Ore that caught his attention and Sora observing the surrounding environment as they walked and talked, mainly discussing the intricacies of their families and their various hobbies.
After a few hours of strolling the trio had wandered into a less dense region of the shopping district that served mainly as a walkthrough botanical garden.
As they took a look around the garden, Sora’s phone suddenly elicited a series of buzzes.
He took it out of his pocket and looked at its screen before giving a small groan.
He then turned to Malikai and, “I gotta go Kai. That was my older sister Mara texting me. She says see needs be and my sisters’ help to test something out, and if I don’t hurry up and meet them I’ll never hear the end of it. But I’ll see you tomorrow right?”
“Of course. There are some things that I want to show you that I think you’re going to like,” Malikai assented before asking, “Meet me at the northern training field tomorrow morning around ten?”
“Sure thing!” Sora exclaimed.
They then smoothly preformed a somewhat elaborate handshake they had come up with about an hour ago at Sora’s behest.
Sora then waved as he said, “See ya!”, before taking off with the same speed he originally approached them with.
After Sora left Malikai spoke to Maeve, “Its about time we left too.”
“Are we going back to the dorms?” Maeve asked.
“No, we’re heading straight to 'The Workshop' so I can have Topher help me do some research in order to make sure I send Rin out for everything the Gate requires. And I also need to put some finishing touches on a few projects.” Malikai answered.
‘Topher’, or Tophazein, was one of Malikai’s seven Elementals; one of two that was always with him but chose to use Elemental Cloaking. Making herself undetectable to all but those she wanted to be aware of her presence, held an extreme degree of sensitivity to Elementals, and/or held far greater power than her own.
She was an Earth, Air, and Fire Elemental of unknown age who Malikai formed a contract with when he was a few years old; and as her Beast-form was that of a small demon fox, he usually placed her on top of his head or one of his shoulders’ using Elemental Magic to fuse their senses granting him sight whenever he needed to read something.
“Okay. In that case I’ll have the guards go to the hotel so they can wait for your older siblings’ arrival tomorrow.” Maeve responded before leaving him for a moment to dismiss the guards following them from a distance.
When she returned Malikai locked onto the “The Workshop”, (the alternate dimension he has ownership over) and opened up a portal into it.
The two of them step through the portal and it closed behind them.
***
Sora’s POV
By the time he made it home his sisters Cara and Opal were already waiting in the large clearing behind the house.
He ran over to meet them in the center of the cleaning that was a few thousand square feet.
“Where’s Mara? Didn’t she need our help with something?” He asked when he didn’t see his eldest sister anywhere in sight or feel her Aura.
“She went to her lab to get whatever it is she needs our help testing out and said she’d be back in a sec.” Cara said.
And almost as soon as she finished speaking they suddenly felt Mara’s Aura quickly approaching from afar.
A minute or two later she dashed out from behind the tree line, with a speed not at all inferior to Sora’s, coming to a stop before them.
Before they could question her she reached into the space satchel she now carried across her body and pulled out a four foot long and fist-thick snake crafted from silver metal.
“This, is something me and my research team have been working on and planned to unveil in this round of Entrance Exam, replacing actual Demonic Beasts in both the Combat Assessment and Survival portions of the Exams.” She announced to her siblings while they looked on in wonder as the snake moved around in her hands seeming to possess some level of intelligence as it observed its surroundings.
“What is it?” Sora was the first to ask.
“An Automatron, a mechanical entity that isn’t technically alive. Something we engineered and endowed with limited Artificial Intelligence so that it could memorize combat patterns/techniques and formulate countermeasures in order to serve as combat puppets/dummies upon transition into combat-mode. We also built a program through which we can take control of it remotely, or switch it between survey, and combat modes. And finally, its insides are filled with Magic Pathways that are modeled after Magic Formations/Inscriptions allowing it to absorb and manipulate Mana in certain ways, or perform Magic of various Elements.” Mara explained enthusiastically.
“What Element of Magic can this one Perform?”
“Isn’t it kinda small compared to an actual Demonic Beast? Especially a snake-type? Also, what exactly do you need our help with?”
Cara and Sora asked respectively, whereas Opal continued to silently observe the snake and the snake her.
“This one can perform Fire Magic, its not really this small one of my assistants performed a size reduction spell on it, and I need your help because we’ve entered the final phase of development, field testing. And I figured that you and Opal would be the perfect people for that because you’ll be participating in the Exams, though I do hope that refrain from getting to excited and destroying them. And Cara would be the perfect one to both place a boundary to limit possible damage to the surroundings and undo the reduction spell.” Mara answered their questions concisely.
“Relax, we know how to control ourselves.” Sora brushed her off before turning to Opal and asking, “Don’t we Opal?”
In response Opal threw him under the bus by stating, “I do.” Placing obvious emphasis on the word ‘I’.
She then turned back to Mara to ask, “Is this the only one you brought?” Ignoring the evil eye Sora was now sending her way as she did so.
Knowing that her youngest sibling was worried she wouldn’t be able to let all her Contracted Elementals have a go Mara smiled and responded, “No, I made sure I brought a enough so that all your friends could help out.”
“Good.” Opal nodded in satisfaction before asking, “Then who gets to help first?”
“I do, I want to try this thing out,” Sora spoke up before asking, “Actually before that, how big does this thing get?”
Mara smirked and response and said, “You’ll that find out soon enough.”
She then through the elegantly crafted silvery-metal snake on the ground, causing it to coil up.
She then indicated for her sisters to follow her in retreating to outside of the clearing as Sora responded, “Okay then.” To her previous statement.
Cara then cast two spells simultaneously both enclosing Sora the clearing and the snake in a Spatial Boundary, and undoing the reduction spell that had been placed on the snake.
In an instant the snake expanded to be around a hundred times larger, reaching about 400 feet in length with an immeasurable girth.
Mara then pulled her tablet from her space satchel, logged into the Anima System and switched the snake to combat mode setting Sora as its target.
Immediately the snake locked its wandering gaze on Sora and fiery red patterns surfaced on its metallic body.
As a result Sora quivered in enthusiasm and smiled, stating, “This is going to be fun.”
In the following instant the snake shot forward with immense speed and power opening it giant maw to swallow him whole.
He instantly stepped to the side, dodging the snake’s attack with ease; looking on calmly as it pulled its head from the ground and stared him down before opening its maw once more.
But this time instead of lunging it launched a series of giant fireballs his way.
In response Sora sent forth a bunch of water arrows.
The two of them then descended into a heated exchange of attacks, the battle growing more intense as the did so, but the affects failing to spread outside of his sister’s Spatial Boundary.
Eventually the snake coiled up once more opened it’s maw and began to form a single giant fire ball of concentrated power.
As it got ready to shoot it at him Sora suddenly vanished reappearing the air behind the snake.
He then extended his index and middle fingers on his right hand raising them towards the heavens. He then swung his hand down in the snake’s direction casting the level 7 lightning spell blooming thunder both chant less and instantaneously.
In the following instant a bright-blue bolt of lightning descended from the sky followed by the world-shaking roar of lightning, zipping towards the snake’s head.
As the bolt of lightning moved at the speed of light, time seemed to slow, and Sora suddenly appeared before the snake, catching the lightning in his hand, absorbing both it and the thunder accompanying it into his fist, causing the world to grow both dark and quite all of a sudden.
He then swung that same fist and punched the snake square in the head, fusing the force of the lightning and thunder into one before channeling it into the snake’s body, wreaking the machine and causing the giant fireball to explode, sending debris everywhere.
As the dust slowly settled he descended slowly to the ground, before running his hand through his hair with a sheepish grin as he looked at his sisters and said, “It would seem that I did end up getting a little to excited. Didn’t even give the thing a chance to really attack.”
His sister Mara was giving him a death stare, while Cara stared on helplessly shaking her head with a sigh, and Opal said, “I knew it.”
