2 Chapter 59: Mana Manipulation

'You are kind of bad at using magic.' 

Lucilla frowned as she lowered her body, avoiding the thrust of a spear aiming to skewer her. She closed into her opponent, a human male, as he tried to recover after his attack. Using Filia in her left hand she cut through his spear without resistance. The polearm made from the bone of some kind of beast unable to withstand the sharpness of her blade.

Stumbling backwards in shock, the man nearly avoided being decapitated by Geminus in her right hand. Throwing the severed shaft aside, the man reached for the short sword hanging at his side. Before Lucilla could press her attack, she was forced to stop in her tracks, as an arrow flew in front of her, narrowly piercing her skull. Turning to the side, she found an archer had join the fight.

"Tsk." Clicking her tongue in displeasure Lucilla pointed Geminus at the intruder and focused on turning her Mana into arcane power. She used her sword as a conduit to focus her magic, allowing the image of what she wished to cast take shape in her head. After a few seconds she released the spell, an eruption of flame riveling that of a dragon's breath roared furiously as it rushed towards the archer.

Turning her attention back to the spear user, who was now using a short sword, she focused her Mana into Chi, letting it flow into her legs and eye's. Using the wind element with her Chi, she increased both her speed and perception as she dodged the downwards swing of his sword. She attempted to circle around the man, but he recovered far faster than she expected, and he graze her right side, causing her wince in pain.

Pushing through, she used Geminus to counterattack. Letting Chi flow through her arm and into the sword, she unleased a shockwave of pure mana, that not only cut into the man across his body, but gouged out the ground, leaving a deep rut in the muddy surface. Being far stronger than the surface the stood on, the man's armor managed to protect him enough that despite being pushed back, he still stood on his two feet, even if he now looked extremely haggard.

'You do realize you could save a lot more of your Mana if you just used the mana in the air around you.' Geminus spoke, criticizing Lucilla's fight. 'It might be slightly slower, but you have the unique ability to manipulate any type of Mana, not just yours. You need to capitalize on that more.' 

Geminus had been observing her new wielder for the past week or so. While she was an above average fighter, she was in no way talented. Immensely powerful but fights as if she didn't hold any power at all. Geminus soul was fairly young despite how long she technically existed and was fairly clueless when it came to the world. However, with matters like theses she had an instinctive understanding of what could be done.

From what she observed, Lucilla didn't just have the monster ability to manipulate her own Mana freely without the need of spell programming like most mortals. She was freely capable of manipulating any and all Mana in a given area. She still unconsciously did this of course. Most spells still used a little Mana in the surrounding area as a natural consequence of casting, so that part wasn't surprising.

What Lucilla did differently however was mess with the Mana in the air as if it was already connected to her from the start. Geminus couldn't decide if she should be impressed by the multitude of abilities she held or baffled by her sheer incompetence at using them. She of course didn't realize Lucilla had a knack of refining any natural skill she did poses, she just wasn't aware of how unless specifically told.

Lucilla for her part was only half paying attention. While Gem was giving her some useful information, she didn't really have the leeway of figuring it out. Her sword wasn't giving her any advice on the matter either, just kept commenting on her lack of skill. It was more distracting than helpful. On top of her youthful sounding voice made it sound like a child was mocking Lucilla, which just damaged her pride and distracted her even more.

While distracted by these thoughts, the archer had recovered from Lucilla's attack and had already released another arrow, this time imbued with the fire element using Chi. Lucilla managed to roll out of the way in time, but the moment the arrow hit the ground it exploded. It shook the earth beneath her feet, as the blast flung her through the air. She was covered in burns as her skin boiled from the heat.

Righting herself in the air she skidded to a halt as she landed on her feet. Looking back up she noticed that the spear user tuned swordsman had at some point, made their way next to the archer. The three of them faced each other, carefully watching each other's every move, the slightest twitch threatening to break this sudden peace.

'How about using Miasma?' Geminus suggested, causing Lucilla's eye's to momentarily glance downwards.

Her enemies, two ancient veterans themselves, notice this very brief moment of vulnerability. The archer released another arrow, this time with the earth element, straight into the air above Lucilla. Once it reached its peak, it split into multiple arrows, raining down in a shower of death atop the silver haired woman.

Lucilla used water magic to create an ice barrier above herself, as the swordsman closed in. Seeing this Lucilla gave the man a cruel smirk before her surrounding erupted in a dark cloud. The miasma permeated the air before the two of them could react, engulfing the swordsman without a fight. The archer was far enough away for them to retreat, if just barely.

With how thick the dark grey cloud was, the archer deduced that area had a very high concentration of the pollution. Not caring about his new partner, the man drew his bow and programming another explosion spell into the arrow before letting loose in the inky cloud. He didn't understand why the woman would do something so reckless, but he wasn't taking any chances either.

"...." Nothing happened. He heard what sounded like a muffled explosion, but he didn't see or hear anything. It was highly unnerving for the archer.

Taking a step back, as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, he heard a distinct crunch of ice under foot. Looking down, he found black ice had formed just underneath the muds surface, spreading through the area. Warning bells resounded inside his head.

Before he could sprint away, a black cage made from ice surrounded him, blocking his escape. It wouldn't be hard for him to escape such a simple magic cage, but the ominous blackness of the ice gave him pause. Those few seconds of hesitation was all Lucilla needed to launch another spell at him.

Using dark magic, she impaired his mind, causing him to feel nauseous and dizzy. The world spun around him as he grabbed for the closest thing to him for support, which was the bars of his ice cage. All that did was make him feel worse as his vision was plague with the shadows of creatures he couldn't understand, their visages twisting as the world spun around him. The unescapable feeling of dread filled his entire being as he started breathing heavily.

"... That was far more effective than I thought." Lucilla said a little stunned.

The archer turned towards her voice, and his eye's widened filled with pure terror of what he saw. "St- stay back! Monster! Beast! Forsaken!" He cried as he fell and tried crawling away.

Seeing this a cruel smile dressed Lucilla's face, as she looked at the man pleased. She didn't know why but seeing someone act this way was always amusing to the silver haired woman. She didn't know why he was terrified of her suddenly, but that didn't matter.

'He must be seeing something awful for him to almost collapse from fear by just laying eyes on you.' Geminus commented, a hint of amusement in her voice. 'The combination of dark magic and Miasma is far more effective than I gave it credit for.' 

"I agree." Lucilla responded. "I wonder what I look like to him right now."

'Want to finish him off and call it a day? Everyone that arrived today have been easy to handle for once.' 

Lucilla couldn't help but nod in agreement. Someone with this level of strength use to kill her almost instantly when she first started, but she was relatively even with them now. Of course, there were still those far stronger than these men, and they kill her without much trouble, but Lucilla was happy with the progress she's made. Raising Geminus again she started turning her Mana into arcane power before stopping.

She wanted to try using more Mana from the air around herself to create the spell this time around. She spread her senses to her surroundings, feeling the Mana that surrounded her. She still ended up using the Mana within her own body to help manipulate the natural Mana around her, but she managed to cut her Mana expenditure in half.

A crimson red light surrounded her body as she held her right arm high in the air, flame coating her sword as a large-scale flame spell conjured into existence. A fox made from pure flame formed in the air, much larger than Lucilla herself. It jumped from its position above the silver haired woman towards the ice cage. It opened its mouth as the cage and the man inside was consumed the orange and red flame.

The last thing the archer saw before her was consumed by the flame was a monster made of shadow, with glowing pure red eyes and a smile that stretched across its face. It seemingly mocked him for daring to exist.

-- -- --

Walking through the gate back to the regular part of the soul realm, Lucilla looked at her hands as she thought about what just happened. It wasn't as intense, but she felt this sensation once before. During the day her mother died. She destroyed an entire town with her power, despite not actually having the Mana compacity to do so. She still didn't.

She looked back up and down the mountain towards the small town below. Unlike the undeniable hell that was Athrem, the rest of the soul real was fairly pleasant to be in. Lucilla could hardly believe they existed on the same realm. The two sides even looked different, while on that side a large wall of solid stone stood in the way, Here the gate was located on the top of the mountain, close to its peak. There seem to be an invisible barrier stopping people from preceding after a certain point, but for the average soul, it looked like a regular land scape continued on past the mountain range.

"I think I'll check out that town." Lucilla said after staring at it for a while. "I wonder if there's a bakery down there?"

With thoughts of sweets and family occupying her mind, she released her wings and took to the sky.