Confrontation

"Every single mage has access to at most two domains, with each domain being different than the other in what essence they control," lectured Caligo as he stood in front of the class, "but there is still a single commonality between all of the domains."

As he talked, a mist of vaporous death essence was created and contained carefully in the air above him.

"These are known as Amplification Levels, and with each level the essence undergoes a qualitative change. The first Amp for us Mors users is vapour or mist, take your pick in terminology."

Caligo then pulled out a bowl and held it out as the vaporous essence condensed together and turned into a dark liquid. It slowly dripped down and eventually it filled the entire bowl, with Caligo showing off the liquid by swirling it recklessly.

"The second Amp level is liquid or condensed and finally..."

The liquid in the bowl stopped flowing around as the bowl moved, and instead it slowly raised upwards in the shape of an open hand that slowly closed and opened.

"The third and final Amp is solidification, which allows us to do some interesting things if you are competent enough to learn how to do it.

"Mastering all of your domain's Amp levels is a requirement for becoming an Adept, but for those of you with multiple domains you only need to do it on one of them."

The now unmasked Cyrus paid close attention to these words, whilst pondering what exactly his Amp for Vita is as no matter how he has ever used it there has never been a qualitative change like that with the Mors domain.

'A trip to the library is in order, again.'

The lesson continued on, with Caligo going from student to student and seeing what level of Amp they had already mastered and giving the ones who showed promise some lovely and not painful at all one on one attention and care.

---

Walking through the halls whilst hurriedly reading Great Scholar Boyd's notes so as to better commit it to memory, Cyrus was forced to pause his reading for a moment to spare some of his sense to maintain the coils in all of his limbs.

'What a waste of Will, having to keep these going whenever I travel through the halls. Even I am starting to want to find the mastermind behind these attacks and giving him a good thrashing' grumbled Cyrus as he was forced to read at a slower and more disorderly pace.

From the world within the dark half responded,

'Soon I will be able to lay down a trap for them. I just need to master a new technique I have been theorizing but I need to have a full day or two of testing. In fact I just finished mapping out the process of experimentation, but I cannot actually do the work itself in here.'

Interested in the plan of his partner, the unmasked Cyrus was about to ask but his feet took him towards his destination just then.

He was standing in front of the Vita department entrance, all so that he could watch a sho-, so that he could help his closest ally grow as a person.

Entering the room, inquiring where Minerva was resting, and ignoring the look the receptionist gave him, Cyrus went off without any shame towards the room and entered at once.

Feeling the frosty air that hit him the moment he entered the room, Cyrus smiled a bright smile and said,

"Looks like you have a lot to say, but not to me of course."

And then he immediately tossed the problem to his partner by throwing the mask on without any delay.

'Nice' commented the dark half, not even bothering to comment further on the busy body nature that his partner had adopted recently.

Looking straight into the abyssal black irises that seemed to want to chop him to pieces, the masked Cyrus fully entered the room and closed the door with his usual permanent smirk. He did try to make it look less condescending and mocking, but seeing as that was his natural state it barely changed.

The frosty air, literally, started to freeze the outside of his skin slightly as he noticed he was covered by a network of pure Aqua essence of a crystalline nature.

Though it was weak, so much so that he just shrugged it off.

"Come on now, is this any way to treat the man who saved your life? Again?" said Cyrus as he approached all the while, "Look at me, the best ally to ever exist, pushing onwards without care for myself to rescue the damsel in distress. Honestly, someone should right a book about me.

"I am just so compassionate and kind and caring, all the qualities of a hero...wouldn't you agree?"

The frosty air receded, replaced by what was either frustration or disbelief from the audacity of the man in front of her.

"If you take the exact opposite of all those traits then you would be correct, but the term villain would be a more accurate descriptor then," said Minerva with varied emotions in her tone, "but of course, considering your recent actions the term villain is only fitting."

Having finally reached the side of her bed, Cyrus took a seat at the chair that was set aside for visitors and replied,

"If you had the chance to save someone who you happened to actually care for a bit, but you had to slap them to do it, the obvious choice is to go through with it despite having to hurt them.

"While getting slapped may suck in the moment, I think that being alive outweighs that downside."

No longer angry, Minerva looked away whilst she heaved a sigh and laid back down while saying softly,

"But what if that slap was felt like a sword through the heart instead..."

Cyrus could tell that he was at the crux of the metaphorical argument, with his fate heading in one direction or the other depending on how he answered.

But he froze...for the words he wanted to say did not seem like the right answer. Logically speaking, rationally speaking, and any other way he could analyze it...that should not be the case, but still he felt that he was about to err...almost instinctively.

Having noticed the dilemma that his normally completely unsympathetic half was having, the bright half had the urge to cheer and dance around in glee but he controlled himself and quickly gave the advice that his partner needed,

'You are about to give a logic based answer, but what she needs is an emotional one. I know you are no expert at this, so do not try to go all in. Just give a little at least, start by apologizing and then speak honestly. I will stop you if you take the wrong path, but next time you should do it on your own.'

The words of the empathetic half reached the unempathetic one loud and clear, allowing the reason for his hesitation to come to light.

'This feels horrible, but I will try...'

Taking a deep breath and wiping the stupid smirk from his face, Cyrus reached over and adjusted Minerva's gaze so it met his own by moving her chin gently.

"I am sorry for going about what I did in the way that I did, I know from your own mouth the problems you have.

"Though I may seem insensitive, and quite frankly I am, I have seen enough suffering in my life to recognize it in another. But you also must know that what I did was the best decision I could make.

"Remember what I told you, and only you, in my laboratory? Such methods would best be hidden from sight, but I still used it to stop you from possibly dying by your own hand.

"While I could have surrendered, I did not want to take the chance without knowing what exactly you see when you enter that weird state of yours. I had no time to sit and think, I just acted in what I thought was the best way.

"Even so, I am sorry for having to go about it in the way I did."

Combining what he hoped was raw emotion with logical reasoning, Cyrus almost prayed that what he said hit the mark else all may have been lost.

Letting Minerva have her space, while also secretly relieved that she didn't recoil violently from his touch, Cyrus leaned back and paid careful attention to the facial expressions of the ice woman in front of him.

She was silent and unmoving for a few moments after Cyrus had finished his piece, but soon she turned towards him with a look of faint surprise. Soon that surprise turned into contentment and then to that of utter seriousness.

Staring at Cyrus like she was drilling deep into his soul she said,

"I understand and I can forgive you...but you must atone."

Pulled into the serious mood, Cyrus nodded gravely while considering who she would ask him to kill in atonement...maybe she wanted him to annihilate her family? While that would be difficult for the current him, it was not impossible...

The two's gaze clashed, as even the current Cyrus could start to feel the tension in the room raise and sweat began to form on his brow...

"You must...

Take me book shopping!"

And thus all the tension flew out the window.