It's Me

Once he settled into the dreamscape, he saw that Reischneid was already there waiting for him.

He had a complicated look on his face.

『...It's hard to say this, but because your affinity for mana is so high, it'll probably be hard to learn nature energy.』[Reischneid]

『Oh… Well, why did my flames melt those smaller blood creatures?』[Nova]

『Each of those had a tiny amount of blood energy in them versus the giant golem. It was probably mixed with mana as a filler. She probably figured that she could have just absorbed more of it from you and returned it to its place… which is most likely that feather.』[Reischneid]

『So that feather…lets her use blood energy?』[Nova]

『...It lets her store blood energy… I think. Her usage of it is quite weird.』[Reischneid]

『So, how does that work? Is it a guardian?』[Nova]

『No. Could be a pseudo-guardian, but the way blood energy works is that it gets stored somewhere, then they use the catalyst that stores the energy to use magic.』[Reischneid]

『...Not all energy works the same?』[Nova]

Reischneid shook his head.

『Of course not. Qi influences the body, Onmyoudou influences the spirit, Mana influences the world. They all cast differently, and even have different requirements. Why should these be any different?』[Reischneid]

『So that means we have to get that feather pen out of her grasp, right?』[Nova]

『Right. That's all we have to do.』[Reischneid]

『But… nature energy...』[Nova]

He walked up to Nova.

『We can't learn it in here anyways, frankly.』[Reischneid]

『Huh? Why not?』[Nova]

『This is the land of your imaginations and dreams.』[Reischneid]

He put his hand up and formed clouds above them.

『Anything that lies beyond what you have dealt with does not help.』[Reischneid]

『...Then, I can't use nature energy in here… because I haven't even grasped the basics behind it yet?』[Nova]

『Bingo.』[Reischneid]

Reischneid got into a familiar stance.

『At this point, I think Cif is right. We'll train you in your other attacks. You'll have to master True Gale and everything else in battle.』[Reischneid]

Nova's eyes lit up.

『That means…!』[Nova]

『We're going to move onto cramming the next moves into your brain.』[Reischneid]

A giant smile appeared on Nova's face.

『...Why didn't we do that from the start?!』[Nova]

Reischneid's brow furrowed at how excited Nova was.

『..Because. We had to repeatedly use it to try and ingrain the moves into your fighting style and develop a cohesive moveset.』[Reischneid]

Nova's excitement kind of faded away after hearing Reischneid's reasoning.

『...Wait, and the reason why we're not doing that anymore…?』[Nova]

『Well, they say that the second before you die, you'll access anything you have in an attempt to stay alive!』[Reischneid]

『I'm… in danger?』[Nova]

『That's correct!』[Reischneid]

He snapped his fingers and a giant swarm of black imps started to swarm around them.

『Uh… Reischneid…?』[Nova]

『Man, can you believe that the world used to be swarmed in these things?』[Reischneid]

They rose up, like a tidal wave of darkness.

『...Oh my god.』[Nova]

『To be honest, my fighting style was created with help from somebody.』[Reischneid]

The wave of imps swarmed down on Reischneid, completely leaving Nova in a state of stunned silence.

A split second later, all of the imps had suddenly blown up and turned to dust.

『...What?!』[Nova]

Reischneid looked over to Nova with a cheeky grin.

『Did you see that?!』[Reischneid]

Nova got his bearings together and closed his jaw before...

『...Nope! Not at all!』[Nova]

『...Oh. I guess there were too many imps...』[Reischneid]

He summoned another wave, this time of a manageable swarm.

They rose up once more, and just as they were about to fall on him…

『Watch.』[Reischneid]

He analyzed the flood precisely.

『Impact Form: Shifting Flow.』[Reischneid]

He put his fingers out and precisely plucked a singular imp out of place before quickly forming his other hand into a claw.

『Typhoon Form: Divine Wind!』[Reischneid]

Several visible things appeared in the air, resembling raindrops.

They constantly fell onto the imps, reducing the wave to no more than dust.

『How was that?』[Reischneid]

Nova was shocked.

『...Amazing!』[Nova]

『Right? Oh, also… You were working on a variant spell for your Blessed Flame Rebirth, right?』[Reischneid]

『Uhm… I stumbled upon it on accident, so I'm not too sure how to do that again.』[Nova]

『Did you have a name for it?』[Reischneid]

『I thought of calling it "Starflash"...』[Nova]

『Okay! Awesome!』[Reischneid]

He suddenly summoned a sword and inflicted a deep cut onto himself.

『Reischneid?!』[Nova]

『Use that to heal me. We're gonna do 3 kinds of training at once!』[Reischneid]

『Alright!』[Nova]

Nova ran over and put his hands out concentrating on the desired outcome of his spell.

『...How do I do this?!』[Nova]

Reischneid started to look concerned.

『...Imagine your flame, but condensed… I think? And imagine my wound healing instantly.』[Reischneid]

Nova tried his best to imagine it, but had no avail summoning the bright blue flash of light.

『Starflash! Starflash! Scream it out loud!』[Reischneid]

『Starflash!』[Nova]

Even then, it didn't work.

『...Alright! We'll start off by… Trying "Blessed Flame Rebirth, Variant- Starflash!"』[Reischneid]

『Blessed Flame Rebirth, Variant: Starflash!』[Nova]

This time, he managed to invoke the blue flash of light, healing Reischneid's injury and draining a decent amount of his mana.

『...Haah...』[Nova]

『Okay! Let's strive to hammer into your brain that "Starflash" is an entirely different spell! That way, you can just cast it by calling it "Starflash"!』[Reischneid]

『Ugh… Alright...』[Nova]

『And since I'm teaching you the entirety of the basic moveset for the Torrential Rain Fist, we won't have any time for any copy and repeat exercise. We can do that later when you master each one individually.』[Reischneid]

『...How will I use it if I don't know how?!』[Nova]

『The exercises up to now have led to this. Concentrate on the feeling of using True Gale, just on other parts of your body. I'll even fight the same thing as you, if that makes it easier.』[Reischneid]

『...So I'm still just copying your movements?』[Nova]

『Kind of. It's more like I throw you into a pool of water and you start drowning while I swim perfectly fine.』[Reischneid]

『...That's awful, Reischneid.』[Nova]

『Pfft. All is fair. If it doesn't work, we'll have to revert to you learning one by one.』[Reischneid]

Nova straightened himself up, remembering the boredom of holding a stance for hours.

『...No, I don't think we will.』[Nova]

Reischneid broke into an incredibly amused smile.

『Oh, yeah. I'll simulate my best life or death situations for you. Let's do this.』[Reischneid]

He snapped his finger and a silhouette appeared.

『...Reischneid…?』[Nova]

『Yeah. That's right...』[Reischneid]

They stared at an identical copy to Reischneid, staring coldly at them.

『It's me.』[Reischneid]