Allen swiftly swerved the bike out of the path of the projectile attack. Every few moments, Rautianen would send another of these fiery slashes towards them. Allen managed to maneuver out of the way every time. Simultaneously, ember-like particles sprung from whatever was destroyed and drifted toward the blade, progressively causing it to turn from white to red.

"When and where did you learn to drive like this!" Nera aggressively cross-examined.

"Now and here. The closest I came to riding a motorcycle was reading an instruction manual for one. I'm not sure how, it just feels natural, like I know exactly how to make the bike move how I want to."

"I don't get it, but keep it up until he runs out of ammo." Nera gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.

"About that, I don't think we'll last for that long just running away. His attacks keep getting faster and more accurate. Those flames...maybe he's the Grim Inheritor of Muspelheim."

"What?"

"It's one of the nine realms from Norse mythology. Remember, that spirit told me each of the Grim Pieces was connected to one, and I think he is connected to Muspelheim since it's supposed to be filled with fire."

"Cool trivia, is that going to help us survive?" Nera asked sarcastically.

"...No," Allen reluctantly answered., "I do have a plan that might."

"Here goes nothing! Hang on!". Allen warned.

"Wha!?" Nera yelled.

Right before a fiery blast could reach them, a burst of mana came out evenly from both of the motorcycle's tires sending it flying haphazardly in the air for several seconds and safe from the attack. The bike then landed bumpily back onto the street front wheel first then back. Allen struggled to keep it from spiraling out of control before he could steady it again.

"Alright, I take it back. You're a terrible driver!"

"Hey, that was my first time using mana like that. If I hadn't, we would've been hit dead on.”

"Anyway, you've noticed how it's taking in those embers and getting more red like a tomato? I think it's like a rage meter in a video game. The more damage he deals, the more his sword charges up for one super strong attack."

"Uh-huh, it definitely looks like he’s charging up for another mega bad move like the one that ripped apart that whole city block. What about it?"

"Well, we're going to take advantage of that."

Nera listened intently as he continued to elaborate his idea.

As he sprinted down the street like a raging beast, Erno Rautianen raised his dragon mawed blade up in the air once again. It was now gleaming bright red and the seams along the blade had light gleaming out from them.

"Tyrfing Replica - Auxiliary Access!"

"Now!" Nera shouted to Allen and raised the front of the bike up high.

The Marauder Craftsman swung his blade with the segments of it coming apart with tremendous forces to extend the sword over hundreds of meters and lashing outward in front of him as fast as the wind. Once more, a gale of destruction and mayhem was unleashed onto the streets as the whip-like blade tore up everything it came across while it rushed forward.

However, simultaneously, an immense blast of magical energy spewed forth from the back wheel of the motorcycle, causing the back wheel to explode instantly and launching the bike with Allen and Nera like a rocket into the sky and out of the range of Tyrfing's deadly assault.

"Impossible." Rautianen declared, eyes wide with shock and disbelief at what he was witnessing.

Eventually, the bike slammed onto the side of a fifteen-story skyscraper, a little over halfway up it, but before it could fall to the ground, Allen called out in exhilaration, "Not yet! The climb's just started and we're taking this thing to the peak!"

Mana swirled in the motorcycle and gathered at its wheels. However, instead of creating a repulsive force like before, it created an attractive force that kept the vehicle stuck to the side of the skyscraper as it began moving upward vertically. Allen had to put all his concentration into maintaining this and driving the bike further, especially with the bike wheel having been blown out.

"I hope you know what you're doing!" Nera shouted.

"Woohoo!" was all she got in answer.

"I'm not sure which one is the lunatic now," she muttered with a smile.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Rautianen smirked.

"Do you think I'm afraid of heights or something?" He chuckled lowly then flicked his wrist to straighten out the whip-like sword and sent it flying towards the top of the building with the end of the blade affixing itself to it. He followed by jerking the hilt of the sword and he immediately began to be pulled upward into the air at a pace that far outmatched the speed the bike was going up.

"I bet you weren't able to comprehend the extent of my Tyrfing's abilities this far! I'll reach the top first and then send you plummeting to the ground as charred pieces of yourselves!" He shouted as he was rising upward from below and about to overtake them.

Suddenly, Nera flipped off the bike and bounded off the side of a skyscraper and directly towards Rautiainen catching him extremely off guard.

"Magical Dropkick Pulverizer!"

Nera launched both of her legs and her steel-soled shoes into Rautiainen's chest like rockets with devastating power. This knocked the wind out of him and made him let go of his blade handle. Nera used the counter-momentum to propel herself back towards the building as she watched Rautiainen plummet to the hard ground from at least ten stories high.

He landed onto the ground with a thunderous crack of asphalt as his body impacted it. His blood splattered out onto the street in every direction around him.

Nera whistled nonchalantly as she glided through the air. A frantic expression then emerged on her face as she realized she was beginning to fall but she was quickly caught by a hand grabbing her arm. She leaned her head back to see that it was Allen standing vertically on the building. He was sweating profusely and his breathing was ragged. In his other hand, he was holding the specter stone they had acquired from the alleyway earlier.

"That was a real close one wasn't it?"

The bike rushed past them quickly as it fell to the ground with nothing to keep it from doing so any longer.

Nera smiled earnestly.

"You really are like a squirrel."

A loud explosion resounded as the bike reached the ground.

"And you really need to get better at giving compliments."

***

They carefully both slowly scaled down the building with their hands and feet using the specter stone. After finally making their way to a few meters off the ground, they jumped off safely. They both breathed a sigh of relief.

'"I never realized how much I took solid horizontal ground for granted," Allen stated.

"Let's make sure to appreciate it better now, right after we've finished dealing with the crazy hobo who just tried to kill us."

"He's still...alive, right?', Allen asked tentatively as they walked over to where the badly damaged body of Erno Rautiainen remained, he was not sure if he would like either answer.

'That guy was a terrible person, but I wouldn't exactly be thrilled with murdering someone."

"Worry too much about your enemy's life in a serious fight, and you'll be the one who ends up losing." Nera replied monotonously, visibly unnerving Allen.

"But relax, he's still kicking." Nera followed by kicking in his side, releasing a raspy groan from the blood-covered man. His eyes slowly opened as he glared at them vehemently.

"You bastards."

"Yeah, yeah. Now, tell us what this Grim Inheritor Trial is all about and there'll be more where that came from." Nera threatened as she folded her arms across her chest while Allen clasped his hands behind his head in a lackadaisical manner like it had nothing to do with him.

"Preferably, make it snappy," he added while yawning.

Rautiainen grunted angrily at their demands, "I don't care about what any other "Inheritor" is scheming. All of my business here is to track down and murder the vermin who killed the Grim Reaper, that's the only reason I came to this garbage dump of a city."

Allen and Nera were both shocked

"So they really aren’t the ones behind this?" Allen asked. Rautiainen’s statement seemed to confirm what the voice had told him in his dream.

'Wait.." The young man held up the drawing he had made earlier. "Is this who you're talking about?"

Erno's eyes widened. "How did you-"

"Someone was able to kill a monster like that thing? How!?" Nera suddenly blurted out, paying no mind to the drawing.

"...Huh, you're an Inheritor, you should already know that. Do your worst, I'm not afraid of any torture you or anyone could inflict. If you don't know anything then I have nothing to tell you."

"You're talking pretty tough for someone lying in a pile of rubble and their own blood." Allen commented.

"I'm not stopping until I find the one who killed the Grim Reaper and finish them off."

Nera snickered bitterly, "You must be mega upset that they died then. She glanced over to image of the woman in Allen's notebook, realizing the liquid dripping from her eyes and mouth was likely blood. "I don't know how it works, but we got that after running into you."

"It doesn't matter what the shows. The only thing I felt for that woman's death was a searing regret at not being the one to kill her myself. But I wasn't surprised that someone else among the Inheritors, those who have also come in contact with the Grim Reaper, also shared the same goal as mine." He scowled.

Nera was getting slightly unnerved by his statements but did not let it show.

"I really don't care how you feel about it honestly. Just tell me as much as you can or else."

"It's hilarious that walnut-sized brain of yours thinks you're capable of threatening me, you really are just a lab rat."

"Huh?" Nera uttered as she heard the sound of whishing metal.

Up above their heads, the still faintly glowing red dragon-mawed blade was retracting itself rapidly until it reformed itself. It then came crashing back down to Earth like a meteor, right for Nera who was just barely able to dodge in time. It still managed to scratch her arm through her jacket before going back into Rautainen's scabbard.

"That's better." He promptly jumped onto his feet. An imprint of his body still remained on the ground behind him. He started stretching and twisting his joints while Allen and Nera looked on in unease.

"Thanks for letting me take a quick rest, but I think it's time I finished what I started."

With no more words, he leaped at them. Nera snapped her fingers to incite her metal gauntlets to cover her hands and ran to meet his assault. With a clang of metal on metal, their clash began.

Fortunately, he had lost a large amount of his power from the chase and his fall, dropping him down closer to Nera's level, but even with that and him being covered in dirt, blood, and wounds. He still had the upper hand and in only several moves, he knocked her off her balance when she went for a kick with his sword and then swung directly at her exposed torso. She hurriedly blocked with armored arms but was still sent tumbling uncontrollably along the ground and right into Allen who steadied Nera back on her feet. He then preemptively covered her an aura just in case Rautiainen decided to attack them head-on.

"Do you think you can beat him or are we too out-leveled?"

"The asshole is strong, but his weapon's even more troublesome to deal with."

"It is pretty exquisite," Allen noted, admiring the mystical armament.

They both wondered what to do next. They did not see any openings to escape nor any help on its way. They were going to have to confront the enemy before them and they were going to have to do it on their own. With only a dead-end in front of them in the shape of a fiendish man, it made perfect sense why they could only stand and observe Rautiainen's movements.

"What's wrong? A quick exchange and getting knocked around a little bit and you're giving up already? Fine, I'll at least give your deaths some honor by finishing you two off with a mystic skill of mine."

"Don't get too cocky. If we had as good a weapon as yours. This battle would be over in an instant for us-"

She was caught by her noticing a dazzling purple glow from her jacket pocket that she was clutching. She then pulled the glow's source out, the same purple-fabric wrapped cylinder from earlier.

"That may be your good luck charm, but I don't think it's going to help out much."

"That wasn't my idea, and it doesn't glow usually..." She continued on to say perplexed and tilted her head. Suddenly, it began to shine even brighter and expand to become three meters long while the ribbon at the end of the rod morphed into a curved blade with an arcane symbol mystically appearing on it. After the glow subsided, Nera was left wielding a giant bizarrely designed scythe in her hands.

They both gazed at it with stunned expressions.

"Why haven't you used that before!?!" Allen exclaimed.

"Because just like with the mirror...it didn't do that before!"

"That scythe...how could you have that? No, that can’t be real Dream Reflector." Rauianen clicked his teeth. "Hmph, that ace in the hole fake isn’t going to be enough to scare me off."

With that, Rautiainen crouched down and pressed his fingers onto his sword as an assortment of magical orange symbols that was different than the one they had seen before gradually expanded out from his hand towards either end of the blade. An immense amount of magical power began sweltering off of him.

"Hey Nera, let's try to use that scythe. It'll be our last gamble."

Nera nodded, "Sure, use mana propulsion again, but directly on us this time. Use up everything left in the stone!"

"Roger!"

Allen began gathering all the mana he could at his legs.

Rautainen smirked, "Looks like you're finally done running away, I'll be sure to make your deaths an extravagant spectacle in return."

"Marauder Craft - Assault 4, Annihilation Strike!"

Rautiainen shouted out as his blade ignited with a raging fire and he vaulted forward like a comet. In response, Allen unleashed all the mana he had stored up to propel him and Nera at Rautiainen with similar speed. The exchange of blades was over in an instant. Both parties were on opposite sides of where they had started.

It was a moment of stillness as they waited to see who would fall but neither did. Both of their attacks had failed to land their mark due to the extreme velocity of the confrontation. Allen had a searing cut on his shoulder while Ruatianen appeared to have sustained no outward damage.

After that moment, Nera's scythe, in a burst of light, morphed back into a regular ribbon wand to her and Allen's dismay as it seemed they had now lost their secret weapon with their opponent still not defeated. However, before they could think about what to do next, they heard Erno Rautiainen's voice from behind them.

"That sensation…so that is the real thing. In that case, I'm leaving. I realize now that there's no way two weaklings like you could kill the Grim Reaper, and you're both too much of a hassle to deal with right at this moment," he solemnly announced.

Allen and Nera turned back in confusion.

Before they could say anything in question, Rautiainen raised his sword leisurely in front of him and monotonously said, "Expanse Open."

As soon as the words were spoken, an explosion of flames erupted out from him and afterward, he was completely gone without a trace.

"Did he just...give up?" Nera pondered in disbelief.

"That's what it looked like. Let's not question it too much and get the heck out of here before he has a chance to change his mind."

"That sounds great to me." She then looked down at the innocuous ribbon wand she was holding in her hand as Allen looked on. After the heat of the moment was over, they both realized what that symbol on the scythe had been. It was something they learned from the Layman’s Necronomicon, the mark of the Grim Reaper.

"Hey." Allen interrupted Nera from her thoughts. "He called that scythe the Dream Reflector and we sort of saw a dead Grim Reaper appear in the mirror..."

"It can probably show someone their worst nightmare right before they die. Sounds like something that the Grim Reaper would've had."

"Yeah."

She looked down at the good luck charm she had for as long as she could remember.

'Looks like there's no denying that I have a connection to the Grim Reaper now." Nera solemnly admitted to herself.

***

While they were walking through the city streets, Allen suddenly spoke up.

“So, that was another Inheritor. If what they said is true, then what that voice said is true too about the Grim Reaper not being behind this whole thing.” Allen stated frankly.

“You’re still going on about that? Don’t get any delusions of being a hero, even if we were to find out who set this mess up, they’re probably an Inheritor too. I’d rather avoid any of them until we find out how to get things back to normal for us.”

“But finding out who’s behind the Grim Reaper Trial might be the way we can have that happen,” Allen argued.

“Hmph…” Nera was reluctant to admit Allen had a point. “Fine, I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for anything related to the Trial but you better hope that finding out who’s behind this isn’t the only way. You may end up having to deal with more than you bargained for.”

After a long time of walking, Allen and Nera were now passing through the area where Rautiainen had first attacked to find all the damage had been already fixed but there was still a good number of people lying strewn all over the ground with no one else in sight.

Allen quickly got his phone in an attempt to dial for help but was only met with static on its screen.

"What's going on? They used magic to fix everything but left these people for dead. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a single trace of any kind of public safety enforcement despite this place being blown to smithereens."

He kept furiously punching buttons on his phone trying to get it to work. He looked over frantically to see Nera nonchalantly staring at her flip phone with static also showing up on it.

Nera scoffed, "As if they would bother with something at this scale."

"What do you mean? Who's 'they'?" Allen could not fathom how she could be so calm about this situation. To him, these people could die at any moment if they did not get medical treatment soon.

"To put it simply, the Underside is sort of a gray zone where the regular authorities can't get involved since they don't even know it exists. This leaves it up to the ones who run Atelier City, the Hieronymus Conglomerate, to decide if they want to bother to get their extra special forces to deal with it but they usually don't unless it's something really big and endangers their interests. They consider it too much of a hassle otherwise."

"So what!? People are just left to fend for themselves and no one bats an eye like it's everyday business as usual? I should've known a place in the Underworld would be a literal hellhole but this is way too far if guys like Rautiainen can trample over anyone they want without retribution here and that people are just left on the street like thrown-away trash!?" Allen protested loudly, flailing his arms at the dozen or so people on the ground seemingly unconscious.

"Pretty much, except for a few exceptions. If there's an extremely valuable Specter on the loose, someone from the Traverser's League may decide to hunt it down and if things get really out of hand to the point where the threat could extend outside the Underside, the Astrean Paladin Order will step in to contain it.”

While listening half-heartedly to her explanation, Allen began walking up to one of the people lying on the ground

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to check to see if they have any phones that will actually work on them, so I can call some ambulances. Everyone around here may be content with ignoring them, but I'm damn sure not. I can't accept something so cold-blooded."

"Hmph, you're probably in the minority here then. The Underside allows magical people of all different types of backgrounds to be even more free than a regular person in mundane society and many of them like it that way. Plus, these aren't even 'real' people anyway," she proclaimed ominously.

"What are you talking, they're-"

Allen's words were caught in his throat as he observed the grotesque spectacle unfold. The people laying on the ground suddenly had their scattered parts pulled back to themselves by some imperceptible force.

Allen watched on in stunned horror as the blood flowed back into their veins and limbs twisted to retake their original position. After being fully mended, the eyes of the person Allen had been approaching abruptly opened without warning. This frightened him so much he instinctively took several steps back.

"Zombies? I've seen enough of those movies to know that this is not going to end well," Allen voiced worriedly.

"Not quite, Lackey, these are what they call Marionettes. They say that the Underworld is meant to be a sanctuary for those at the edge of life and are bordering death such as people in critical condition and those that are in deep comas. Their detached minds drift into the Underworld until their time eventually comes and the Underside's overseers provide artificial and self-repairing bodies for them to dwell in till that happens."

"Seriously, I honestly would've expected the undead more than remote-controlled puppets. I guess it's more like Frankenstein's monster than Zombies or maybe Liches... " Allen started muttering to himself, trying to find the most applicable comparison from his monster trivia knowledge.

"Once you die for real, that's it. There's no magic in the world that can change that, these things are just faint shadows of people who are on death's doorstep." Nera shrugged, motioning to the Marionettes that were now drearily walking away as if they had not been brutally shredded apart moments before. Their eyes were as cold and lifeless like they were walking corpses.

"So, even if they're in puppet bodies, they are still technically living people aren't they?"

Nera's smile waned and her expression darkened as she solemnly said, "Sure."

***

After all the Marionettes had left, only Allen and Nera remained on the empty street. His eyes were vacant as he stared at the scenery of the desolate city block. There was no longer a trace of any kind of conflict here now. It looked like that whole battle had been nothing but a dream. However, the truth was apparent to Allen. His fists tightened so much it almost felt like his palms would start dripping with blood.

‘This place is so messed up. If I didn’t wake up this morning, would I have ended up like those Marionettes? If I wait around doing nothing, will I become one of those specters? Is being looked over like I don’t exist or turning into a monster the only two options I was given? No, that can’t be it. I gotta keep trying to do whatever it takes.’

"I have an idea.” Allen announced as he put on the best confident grin he could squeak out. ”If we're going to deal with batshit crazy stuff anyway and we need the money to get that Periapt and get our lives back to normal, why don't we start hunting down specters for money like those "Traversers" I keep hearing about? Let's start our own specter hunting service."

"Okay." Nera quickly agreed.

"Now, I know it seems risky but with that wicked cool scythe of yours... Wait, you're on board, just like that?"

"Well, we do need the money, and I already fought specters from time to time, and my scythe is incredibly awesome, so why not? Let's do it!"

"Alright, all we need is a catchy name. Hmm, how about Spector Beaters, Dream Snatchers, no, how about the Supernatural Odd Jobbers or ..."

"I'll let you think about it for a while, is there anything else we need instead?"

"Fliers, and lots of them, a business runs on advertisements. I can take care of that of my own but there's something I need to figure out actually if I'm going to be of any help."

"What is that?"

"I noticed right before I caught you on the side of the skyscraper. I wasn't able to control mana at all until I grabbed you. I thought we were both goners for a moment there. I tried again to use mana on my own but it didn't work, got any idea why?"

Nera put her hand to her chin and pondered this for a few seconds before opening up her mouth to speak, "It could be because you don't have a stylus. A tool Crafters use to amplify their magic. Even though I can't use magic, my jacket and gauntlets are infused with ether to make them more durable which probably allows them to act as a stylus for you."

"Is that so, well let's go somewhere and get the cheapest stylus they have!"

***

"This is really the cheapest stylus you have?" Allen and Nera were now in another item store but this one was more focused on the magical tools known as styli that Allen had just learned about recently. The shopkeep this time was a large burly man that looked like a medieval blacksmith who was currently displaying to them the least expensive stylus he had available, a small thin gray case.

"Yeah, the next cheapest one is around five-hundred dollars. Do you want me to bring that out?" The shopkeep questioned.

"No, it's fine. If I bought that, I wouldn't even be able to afford ramen for a month. I'll...take the harmonica." Allen hesitantly stated. The disappointment was clear on his face.

The shopkeep smiled widely, "That'll be one-hundred fifty-nine dollars and seventy-four cents then."

Allen reluctantly handed the money over.

"Pleasure doing business with you." With that, the shopkeep handed over the minuscule instrument. After that, Allen and Nera proceeded to leave the mystical item shop.

"This is a lot less cool than what I was expecting to get. I thought I'd have an actual weapon to fight with."

"Come on, all you need is to have it on you to use mana, right? Just fight with your bare-fists and you should be good."

"That's ironic coming from the same person with metal gauntlets. But yeah, I'm able to manipulate the flow of mana now." Allen closed his eyes briefly as he channeled the mana stored in the harmonica's crystal outward onto his fingers momentarily and took in the familiar sensation that resembled an airy flowing metal wrapping around them. He opened his eyes. He checked his phone and saw it was almost nine.

Allen sighed.

"Looks like I wasn't able to make it to that gaming session after all."

"Alright, I think it's time to hit the hay. I'm exhausted."

"Same," Nera yawned.

After this, they kept walking until they returned to where they had entered the Underside and exited through the wall in the same way they came from.

***

After a thankfully uneventful walk, Allen arrived back at his apartment, the Rocky Cavern. Allen had a feeling that the name was supposed to positively allude to the building’s exterior looking like it was made out of rocks straight out of a forest somewhere. However, the name only emphasized how run-down the place was compared to the rest of Atelier City.

Of the bad qualities it possessed, there were many to name. From the water that would only stay hot for a short time before turning lukewarm to the air conditioning that barely worked to keep the place from being a sauna during the day, and, last but not least, the uncomfortably thin walls that gave Allen what seemed like a front-row seat to the melody of the city’s bustling traffic and the train station that was nearby.

Nevertheless, this was where Allen currently resided, if begrudgingly, since the rent was cheap. He walked up a flight of stairs and to his room three doors on the second floor. He took out his phone and pulled up the digital key card stored on it. He was met with silence as he opened his door and entered his room while shutting the door behind him.

The inside of the small apartment was filled with all sorts of merchandise based on literature, games, shows, and even history. He had an entire shelf filled with comic books from all over the world. Another shelf was filled with video games and more traditional tabletop role-playing game set boxes.

After making sure everything was in order and lying stuff he still had on hand on his cluttered desk, Allen dropped onto his bed.

“Sheesh, It feels like I got done with the longest shift ever. Speaking of work, I’m so glad I didn’t have work today. Amy would’ve definitely gotten on my case about that.” Allen mused through his voice being muffled by his bedsheets. He lightly chuckled.

‘It almost feels like everything’s back to normal.’

He was incredibly exhausted by all the fantastical events that he experienced at rapid pace. A rest was all too welcoming. However, when his half-closed eyes spotted the Layman’s Necronomicon laid on his desk, his curiosity got the better of his tiredness.

“I might as well give it another look.”

He got up groggily from his bed and pulled up his chair to his desk. He glanced over the ominous tome with a skull on its cover and noticed for the first time what was apparently the book’s author’s name, Helgi Hundingsbane. He then opened the book up to its table of contents then slid his finger up the page while he took note of each of the section titles.

‘Dangers of Spectral Encounters…’, the section Allen learned about miasmal degradation from.

‘History of Infamous Necromancers…’, the section that had sparse details about the Grim Reaper.

‘Arcane Items and Locations..’, this was the section that revealed to Allen the existence of the Theurgist’s Periapt.'

‘Methods for Summoning Specters…’, a bizarre-sounding section that Allen was slightly curious about reading despite its dangerous implications but he decided to put that off for another time. The one section he was adamantly interested in reading about now was the first as well as the shortest one.

‘...Rudimentary Principles of Craft and its Relation to the Netherworld. Maybe this can give me a better understanding of magic,' Allen thought as he flipped the book to its beginning.

“Although this is a text primarily focused on specters as well as objects and people associated with them. I think it is of the utmost necessity to assess the basic nature of Craft and how it applies to our understanding of the Netherworld. Craft is a required tool when it comes to effective dealings with these monsters that have spawned from the ethereal world.

“First off, many see Craft as an accomplishment of order that is diametrically opposed to the chaos of the both familiar and enigmatic realm we call the Netherworld, however, that can not be further from the truth. In fact, Craft is intrinsically linked to the Netherworld.

"The Earth is the reverse of the Netherworld. Dreams are the bridge that connects them, and craft is the forge that is brought forth from that darkness."

Allen stared intently at those last few sentences and pulled out the mandrake’s specter stone from his pocket. He held the crystal up to the faint moonlight shining through the window blinds.

‘If Craft is the forge then maybe the heat of that forge is mana and ether…is the iron. Maybe if I focus mana into a condensed space, it might become more intense like heat would if it was compressed in the same way. That could be worth a shot.”

After formulating this theory, he decided to try it out. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the crystal in his hand trying out drawing out the mana within. In a matter of moments, the mana flowed from the specter stone and around his entire body. Allen lifted his arms up and down in observation.

Mana was like a dense mist that had a texture resembling a smooth viscous substance but with no resistance or weight.

Controlling the mana functioned sort of like controlling a limb but Allen realized that he also needed to properly envision how it moved. If he tried to make it move faster than it could then nothing would happen. He learned that as he tested out the maximum speed of his mana drawing.

‘Now, for the real experiment to begin.’

Allen started to focus the mana into his arm. It was more mana than would naturally go into it and he started to concentrate greatly to keep focusing the mana. It was not too long before the mana dispersed throughout his entire body again.

'The more mana I tried to condense, the more concentration it required. I had only got about a fourth of the mana condensed before it started to feel like a rapid stream of QTE inputs. There has to be a more effective way of doing this.’