Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

The combat training ended, but the gymnasium was still open. Few students were still practising in the duels while few laid dormant on the floor. After the class ended, the teachers told them, they could use it as long as the academy was open, which was until six in the evening.

Elior and the others were still there. Now the ones that practised were Shin and Lara. Even though the delinquent looking boy had never had proper training in the basics, he was faring quite well, though he lost most of the time. But the boy was quick to learn—only after Elior showed them the way a couple of times, he was coping it well, and he also kept his eyes on the posture of his opponent all the time instinctively and learned through the duel.

Lara was not as good as Shin, who could learn to think unconsciously in this way. That was her limitation, but contrasting with Shin, she was multiple times hardworking. And according to the tale of turtle and rabbit, steady and hardworking turtle or people always win. He had to find a way to make Shin similarly hardworking.

Ileana was sitting, looking closely at the battle, but it appeared her mind was elsewhere. Leroy had moved away hours ago after Elior disappointed him about the duel. She did not have as much fun in the duel as others. After all, she only learned the elementary spell of fire, and if she did not keep her concentration on, the spell would not even be able to light a candle.

"Why is it so difficult?" she complained, lighting a small flame above her arm.

"You only had a couple of weeks practising," Elior said. "The way of the mage is all about patience. Work hard like you are doing and success will follow you."

"You are again talking like the teachers," Ileana said, arching her eyebrow at him. "I remember you are drowsing in the classes about casting and spells, and now you are talking about the patience of all things."

"That was another matter. Those classes were too boring," Elior said, clicking his tongue. 'Not to say, all those things were below my level.'

Ileana only grunted a little and kept her attention on the spell. The little flame warped up for a while into a somewhat large weave before vanishing entirely.

"You are doing that wrong," Elior said. "I can see you have memorised the formula, and executed it right, but your usage of mana application is not on a par with it."

Ileana frowned and transferred her attention to Elior again.

"Look at this," he said and formed the elementary formula of the flame spell. "All you have to do is release the man uniformly in all directions. Stay within your mana application limit. If you try harder than your limit, it will always be hard to control. . . ."

As Elior finished saying that, and a head size ball of flame appeared above his arm. Elior did it and the ball spun and in the next moment, it turned into a cube of flame. He showed it to Ileana with a smile.

"How can you do that so easily?" Ileana was startled. "If I recall correctly, your affinity towards the fire element is not higher than mine."

"Affinity has little to do with it," Elior answered. "It's only an elementary spell anyone with a grade-1 affinity could do if he has sufficient mana, though it will take more mana and concentration than usual. The thing that matters here is mana application. The only way I could do it so easily was because my mana application is higher than yours."

"I see," Ileana said, her eyes glittering a little. She closed her eyes at the next moment and formed the magic formula into a circle. She put the mana into it uniformly as a ball of flame formed with her mana sense, though it was not as constructive as Elior's and only half of its size.

"You did it," Elior said.

"How did you spin it and turn it into a cube?"

"I just twisted the magic circle and improvised according to my will. It's just a minor trick, but quite useful. You can do it too with a little practice." Elior pondered for a while. "Even though these spells were elementary, it has an unimaginable level of quality to improve that the other spells do not have."

"Huh," Ileana rested her spell, and it dissolved into air. "Why did this spell disappear immediately after I stopped releasing mana into it?"

"That's natural, you need fuel to let it burn."

"That's not what I was saying," Ileana said. "Look at this."

This time, water rushed out from her spell and dropped onto the ground and flowed like normal water, but the moment she stopped supplying mana into the spell, the water started to vanish away. It turned into vapour and vanished as if it was never before.

"See," she said. "I can assume fire needs some fuel to burn, but for water or other elements, it's almost the same. It only takes a little more time to vanish entirely. It's almost like a . . ."

"Illusion?" Elior answered for her.

"Right. I can feel the elements were real when I made them, but the moment I stop, I feel like it was an illusion."

Elior knew the answer to it, but he could not answer it truthfully. After all, what would he say if she asked how he knew all these.

"You are quite wrong there, Ileana," he said hesitantly. "I don't think you made the flame or water. Well, you did create something, but it's more about manipulation. The flame, water, or air are already there; we just manipulate it with our spells."

Ileana arched her eyebrows and thought. "Your explanation does make sense, but I'm still confused," she said and sighed. "Wow, you are really helpful in this. Why didn't I ask you before this?"

"I'm not really good at these," Elior said, and he was not being humble.

Abruptly, Shin called him. "Sensei, I won."

Shin came towards them with a bright smile. Behind him was Lara. Both of them were soaked in sweat all over their bodies, but both of them seemed to be complied with their effort.

"Don't call me that," Elior said. "So, what's the score?"

"8-4," Shin answered, a little embarrassed.

Elior nodded and saw someone entering the gymnasium. The other followed his gaze and noticed the arrival of the silver-haired senior.

"Oh, crap!" cursed Ileana. "I totally forgot, I had an appointment with Senior Aanya and kept her waiting for half an hour."

The silver-haired maiden looked all over the gymnasium and noticed them. Her appearance caught the attention of most of the freshmen and all the upperclassmen practising there, though her atmosphere kept them away from approaching her.

"Girl, at least you tell me if you can not come," she said, coming before them. She was not wearing the uniform of the institute now. A pair of black jeans with a blue shirt and overcoat—casual clothing. Not a graceful dress for a maiden, but she looked stunning in it.

"I'm sorry, senior; I totally forgot about it."

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