Powers

That man managed to turn Zeke's mind upside down "Heng…who are you?" Zeke kept asking himself "It is clear that you are an important person, but sometimes important people can become your allies or enemies".

He sighed deeply and turned to face the direction in which Heng's car was driving "I shouldn't think too much about this anymore, maybe I will never see him again and this will remain as an interesting meeting. I should hurry, Yuki is already waiting for some time" he said to himself.

Zeke got out of the road and entered a forest path. The path was quite wooded and untidy. Many branches of the trees came out of the road and blocked the way. As he walked this way, a lot of thoughts comed to his mind:

"This really could have been a nice way to walk by, if it had been taken care of properly" was one of them, and another question came after that "How did Yuki manage to get through all this so easily? Something I could cut these branches, would have been useful now...something like…" then a brilliant idea came to his mind "A sword".

"Yes, something like a sword would be nice now...but…" he suddenly stopped, disturbed by certain thoughts "Hmm, I guess it's worth a try" He stopped right in front of the woods that blocked the way and remembered what Yuki told him about swords:

'You should view your sword like an extension of your arm, a part of yourself. Swords made in Heaven and Hell are different from those made on Earth. They are created from magical energy meant to help the possessor become stronger. A sword becomes stronger the stronger its possessor becomes, if a strong sword is wielded by a weak possessor it will not work at full capacity'

Zeke brought his hands close to each other and created a free space between his palms. "She said something like gathering magical energy in a single point and it takes the form of a weapon, but I wonder...Will I be able to do that too…?" he wondered. A few seconds have passed, but nothing happened.

"Why...?" he asked, confused. "Why is all this happening...? I want to do it, I really want to...so why do I see only darkness around me?!...Shouldn't I have seen particles, or at least shadows of magical energy...? I think it's not the time yet…" He gave up and decided to take a detour and reach the meeting point. As he was walking to the meeting point his mind was full of thoughts.

"It seems like nothing is going as I would want to, first I met Yuki and my normal life ended, now when I want to do something about our situation and to get involved, but I can't use my powers at full potential…"

After another few minutes of walking, Zeke arrived at the meeting place. It was the place where they fought the Hals. Nothing had changed. The same battle marks were on the ground, the same claw marks were on the trees, and the same cracked stone where Yuki was thrown was still there.

"It was a pretty tough fight now that I'm thinking about it...but we got over it in the end"

The place was quite silent, there was no trace of life nearby. "I wonder where Yuki is," Zeke wondered. "This time she's late…I will definitely have a word on her…"

His thoughts were interrupted by what seemed to be an arrow, but this arrow was different from what Zeke saw in his life. He saw this kind of arrow only once in his life, and he recognized it instantly, because it was one he saw recently. Again he was interrupted by another powerful attack, which came from the same direction. This time was not an arrow, but an entire lightning spear that was thrown at him.

"YUKI WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" he yelled angrily.

From the dark, between the trees, a figure begins to appear, it was really Yuki who attacked Zeke. He told her that he understood he was late, but this was not a reason to try to kill him, but instead of listening, she attacked him again, this time with a polearm. She appeared in front of Zeke, in the exact same way that she appeared in front of the Hals at that time, seeming to teleport.

She used her weapon to attack Zeke in various places. Left shoulder, right leg, abdomen, head, left arm, right arm, left leg, she launched attacks in all these places while Zeke continued to avoid them, not being hit by any of them.

"Are you really that mad that I was late? Well It's not my fault! Don't blame me for that!" he said to her.

After the last attack that Zeke avoided, Yuki raised her weapon above her and launched a much stronger attack than before.

"Hey, this looks dangerous," he said, but that was not enough to stop Yuki. She launched that attack toward him, and he avoided it like the others.

This attack left a small hole in the ground from the impact and small sparks of lightning could be seen around it.

"Are you really serious about this?" Zeke asked again. Even so, Yuki's response was something Zeke didn't expect.

"I got you, lightning net!"

The place where Zeke stepped began to light up purple, after which Zeke began to feel something, a kind of current of electricity passing through him.

"What?! I can't move! Is this the same technique she used at that time?"

Yuki began to get closer and closer to Zeke. She moves slowly towards him, with the polearm in her left hand. A little of her black bangs covered her eyes, making her look much more menacing than usual.

"Hey Yuki, wait! Can't we solve this in another way?"

Yuki didn't seem to listen to what Zeke was saying, she raised her weapon again and prepared to launch one last attack. Zeke tried to escape from the trap that Yuki placed, but the more he tried to move, the more electricity came from the net.

"This can't be my end, can it?" Zeke thoughed. He closed his eyes out of habit to prepare for attack, but when he opened them again, Yuki stopped just before she hit him with the weapon.

"You've lost," she said.

"HUH?!" Zeke was surprised. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

"Of course not, I told you we'll start training" she replied as she turned off all the spells.

"Well yes, but I didn't think that's what you mean when you say 'training' "

"Hmph" Yuki smiled "I wanted to teach you a lesson"

"And is that how you thought I would learn better? But first, WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU WANT TO TEACH ME?! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME HERE!"

"Well, we wouldn't have had this problem if you hadn't been so late"

"Do you think it's my fault?"

"Of course it's your fault, why didn't you come earlier?"

"I'VE CAME AS SOON AS I COULD!" he yelled "It's lot like this is a 5 minute road"

"This is not my problem, you should learn to respect what a girl says, and be punctual"

Zeke decided to remain silent out of frustration, he wanted to say much more, but he chose to shut up. "Anyway, shouldn't we start training?"

"Yes, we'll do that, but first, I'd like to ask you a question."

"Just say it, and let's get started."

"Zeke…" she said in a much more serious tone "What was your first thought when I attacked you?"

"Huh?" he asked, confused "What is with this question?"

"Just answer it!" she said instantly shut it down.

"Well…" he said, with a lot of confused thoughts "I don't know, I think I just wanted to escape alive"

"Didn't you feel betrayed?"

"Not really, I mean, I trust you"

"HUH?" she screamed confused "What do you mean you trust me? You've only known me for a few weeks! How can you trust me so much?"

"I dunno, I just do it"

"You're incredible…" she sighed. "How do you know that…?" she started to ask, but Zeke juts her off.

"Don't worry" he said "I don't think you'll ever betray me"

"HUH?! ARE YOU SERIOUS? This should be the other way aroun…?!" she replied in frustration, but Zeke shuts her off again.

"And who can I tell you about?" she said in a more serious tone "And what can I say? You said it yourself I have no friends. I have no parents to speak about you, or someone to whom I can boast that I am friends with a demon girl and that I have magical powers now"

Yuki remained speechless hearing his words. He then turned his back on Yuki and continued talking to her. "You know…I don't really want to say it…but…before you showed up, my life was pretty basic and boring, I can't say that I despised it, or that I prefer this life now, but..." his facial expression slowly begins to change "It's a nice feeling to be sought after from time to time, even if it's just for training...sometimes....the silence can be very loud at my place...".

Zeke's cheeks were already flushed. He couldn't look her in the eyes because of the embarrassment he was facing at the time.

"A...are you... into sentimentality now?" Yuki asked, stammering a little.

Zeke made the courage to face her, but that was not something that he was expecting. Yuki's face was also red, just like a rose that you pick up from a garden where it has been cared for days. They were both embarrassed by the situation, but the one who changed the subject was Yuki.

"T…That's enough with this!" she said stammering " I call you here to train, not to tease each other!"

Zeke started to laugh hearing Yuki's words "Well, here I can agree with you".

"Oh crap…" Zeke said to himself "I came with the intention of taking revenge for these unannounced midnight meetings, but...it seems that I wanted the same thing as her…If I said something now, I'd be a hypocrite."

"Huh? What happened?" asked Yuki "I see you're thoughtful"

"Nothing, nothing" he replied "More important what should we start with?"

"Follow me, I will show you once we're here"

The two approached a tree in the area that had a trace of the claws of the Hals with which the two fought earlier.

"The major problem you had in fighting Hals was that you couldn't summon your sword." she said.

"I admit, it was mostly my fault because I didn't teach you how to do it, and I took responsibility for it. That's why we'll start with the explanations for 'summoning spell' from scratch."

"I rely on you, Miss Professor," said Zeke, which made Yuki smile a little.

"It's good, then first things first, you've seen me use several types of magic to fight Hals some like electric weapons or traps that neutralize the target for a few moments. At one point I even communicated with you from a distance when Hals used his enchanted roar."

"I remember that! So it was you?"

"Yes, now let me explain, all of these are parts of my 'elemental magic'. Every being is born with a particle of 'elemental magic' and throughout life, through much physical and mental training, they end up transforming this particle from 'elemental particle' into 'elemental magic'.

There are several types of 'magic elemental', mine is lightning, or some call it electro in some regions of Hell, it's the same thing. More details are useless for you, because you can't use them anyway."

"Why not?" Zeke asked, confused.

Yuki sighed and then replied "The reason is 'faith'."

"Faith?"

"Yes 'Faith'. 'Faith' is a concept that humans have misunderstood since the beginning of their time, and they have developed with this mentality, so it would be useless to explain to a human what 'faith' really means, but you're a special case Zeke, so I'll try my best to make it clear to you"

"So you're telling me that everything I knew so far about 'faith' and all that was a lie?"

"Pretty much"

"Hmph, it's good that I'm not one of those 'faithful' people, otherwise I would have been quite disappointed"

"To make myself understood, the best explanation I can give you for understanding what 'faith' really is and to help you in the future is something like this. 'Faith' is an imaginary force that exists inside every being, and which has the role of connecting souls with each other. As you well know every being has a soul, as I told you, 'faith' is the force that unites souls with one another. This is the principle that you will apply when you learn 'summoning spell' "

"Wait, what has the soul got to do with the summoning spell?"

"That really simple, to put it all in perspective, a summoning spell is a contract you make with the weapon summoned, each weapon is summoned based on your soul, if your soul is a 'strong one', the weapon summoned will be a strong one as well. This principle works and vice versa, if your soul is weak, the weapon will be weak as well.

And now comes the part where the force called 'faith' intervenes, once the spell is cast, your soul must make the connection with the forged weapon from your soul, if this connection does not take place, the contract will be canceled and the weapon will be destroyed, in the end, the part of your soul from which the weapon was made being lost forever."

"Oh...I see, so if you lose a part of your soul what'll happen?"

"Well, imagine just that, if your hand or foot suddenly disappeared, would you still be the same? Yes, you will still be the same, but you won't be able to do the same things as before. So it is with the soul, if you lose a part of it, you will have some mental deficiencies, you will no longer be able to feel certain feelings, and you will no longer be able to think as before, in short, you will not be as before even if in theory you are still the same."

"So, you're telling me that every demon does that to summon a weapon?"

"In short, yes, the difference is that the percentage of demons that manage to make a contract with their weapon is 100%"

"100?!" asked Zeke, amazed.

"Yes, 100%, we have not had a demon who has not been able make a contract with a weapon for many millennia" she said, making Zeke speechless "Look, I'm here to teach you what you need to do in order to be able to summon a weapon, you shouldn't worry" but these words made Zeke worry even more. He remained silent for a couple more seconds before saying anything else.

"I…" she said in the end, in a low voice, staring to the ground "I want to be strong Yuki…" he continued to say in a serious tone "I understand and accept that my life will not be normal from now on, and I can't say that I have done things that I am proud of in this life, so if only now I have the chance to do something good with these powers, I want to do it."

Yuki was pleasantly surprised hearing Zeke's answer. She started to smile, then she approached him, putting her arm on his shoulder telling him "It's ok, you will be able to do it, I'm sure of it."

Zeke expression has also changed, he smiled and told her "Thank you Yuki"

"We should start training now" she said after that, at witch Zeke replied with "Yes we should"

Yuki started explaining the summoning spell principles to Zeke again. She explained to him how the "magic particles" around him work, and why he wasn't able to see them. "That's because you don't have elemental powers" she said.

"Those particles can only be seen by those who can use elemental powers. Those particles are gathered in one place and make up elementary magic, that's their role. You don't have to focus on what's outside of you, but rather on what's inside, because your weapon is forged inside of you, not outside."

"And how do I do that? Should I apply the same principles? Like to imagine my sword taking the form of a weapon?" said Zeke, to which Yuki remained speechless.

"Are you sure you're not a demon or an angel? You're too smart to be human" she replied.

"I don't know if to take it as a compliment or as an insult"

"Take it the way you want, that doesn't matter now" she replied, remaining silent for a couple of seconds after that.

"What are you thinking about?" Zeke asked her.

"Hmmm, you caught the spell principles faster than I anticipated, the truth is that it wasn't very complicated either, but I still have my doubts if it's good to start directly with the summoning spell..."

"Could you detail more?"

"Well, since you're the first human to use a summoning spell, I'm not sure if your body will be able to handle it. As I told you before, if your soul is strong and summons a strong weapon that your body can't handle, the result will not be too good. But at the same time, we are in a time crisis because we do not know when the next Hals will appear, so a power up is needed as soon as possible."

She started biting her nails, still thinking of a solution. The situation seemed pretty complicated if you looked at it from Yuki's perspective, so she had every reason to be stressed, but the thing that calmed her down was Zeke's idea.

"Why don't we do both in parallel?"

"Huh? What do you mean? Can you hear what you are saying?"

"Yes I can, and I find it a very good idea"

"Ahh look Zeke I know that you are quite confident in your abilities, but your skills can't make up for the lack of a weap..." said Yuki, sighing, after which she was interrupted by Zeke. He had a stick in his hand, which he held out to Yuki.

"I say it doesn't hurt to try, and draw a conclusion after that." he said smiling

"Are you really challenging me to a duel?!" she exclaimed in astonishment. "You really can't help but get on my nerves, can't you? She continued sighing. "But I agree, let's do it and see the result after"

She picked up a stick, very similar to Zeke's and prepared for the duel.

"Let's see if you're going to be so confident after you lose in front of me"

"Great words from someone who got beaten up by a Hals"

"You little…You really know how to piss me off…"

The two rushed towards each other and began to attack each other, a battle that would last until dawn had just begun. A battle in which many strong attacks were launched, many strategies that were destroyed, a battle in which both fighters gave their best, but the winner could only be one of them, a winner that will be announced on another occasion.

A few hours after the battle with Yuki, Zeke, who hadn't slept at all, was now on his way to college for the last day of school from the summer program. Zeke's University was a very good one, offering students an extra month of training during the summer vacation.

Zeke was already a top student, as Herrler noticed, he was a very good boy and a very smart one, but even though he was already very good, he never missed an extra hour of school training, or at least he wasn't used to missing out before meeting Yuki. Now the summer program was almost over, and Zeke's vacation was officially beginning, he had four weeks in which he could do whatever he wanted, or so he thought. He was still very sleepy because of the white night spent with Yuki.

"I really should have slept before I came to school..." he yawned while rubbing his eyes. "I can't believe how fast they've repaired this place, just a few weeks ago, this place how just chaos"

Once he saw in front of the university, Zeke saw a familiar face, it was Luis.

"Oh, hi Zeke!" Luis exclaimed.

"Hi Luis" he yawned as he covered his mouth.

"Oh man, you don't look really good"

"Thanks," replied Zeke, smiling.

"How much did you sleep last night?"

"Not at all, after I finished the meditations with you I had some work to do that took longer than I initially anticipated, and by the time I realized it was already morning."

"Oh man, I'm sorry for you, it should be awful to have so much work to do"

"Sometimes yes, but usually I don't mind it, I really have nothing better to do anyway, but how about you? Why are you here on the last day?"

"Oh, well, I said it doesn't hurt to get more training, I'd still like to get there a little earlier so I can take part in more training, and learn this place better."

"You're not wrong though"

Their conversation ended when it was interrupted by another familiar figure to Zeke. Dressed in a dark-blue suit, with an elegant tie, eyeglasses, and a hat whose color matches the suit was Mr. Herrler, who looks as well dressed and elegant as ever"

"Oh? I'm glad to see you guys understand" he said.

"Oh, Mr.Herrler, good morning," Zeke replied, as friendly as ever.

But for some reason Luis remained silent. Herrler noticed this, and he decided to continue the conversation with Zeke.

"And? How were the boys' meditations?"

"Very well, Luis is really a very intelligent person, I will like to work with him from now on."

"I'm glad to hear that, Zeke,"

"And for you Luis? How was it?"

Luis was still silent, until at one point he began to mutter something "They...went well...Dad..."

"I'm also glad to hear that!" replied Herrler, smiling

There was a moment of silence, one quite awkward, nobody said anything and everyone seemed to be staring blankly, all of that until Zeke broke the ice, realizing what had just happened.

"Wait! Did you just say 'dad'!?" he asked, very surprised.