Cythistia's Duty

"What?" I repeated out loud.

"You have a natural talent for nature magic, and so you shall help me with it by communicating with me and healing me."

"Wait, I still don't understand, why me? Aren't there like, already a bunch of people who have nature magic already? What would I even do?"

"Even though there are other nature magic users, it's not enough. I need any help that I can get, and I hope you will accept my request. As for what you'd actually need to do, you just need to go around the city your people had built and use your magic on parts of my body that are lacking in life force, slowly restoring my power, even if it takes a while."

"I-I don't know if I can do all that."

"Nonsense, of course you can, your grandfather will teach you how to do it, he has a nature affinity also."

"W-What if I fail or mess up somehow?"

"Hahaha, that's be pretty hard to do accidentally, to the point where it's practically impossible, only outside forces would be able to do such a thing, and even then they would have to do something big to my physical body, or place a curse on you, which would be very difficult, especially if you're protected well."

"B-But I don't wanna be protected, I wanna be strong!" I complained.

"You can become strong, but right now, you're young, and can barely put up a fight against the malicious forces that seek my end. So, for the time being, you have to be protected until you're strong enough that these curses can't affect you."

"Okay..."

"Mm, it's good that you understand. I should send you back now or else I risk harming you by keeping you here."

"Wait, what does that mea-"

I couldn't finish my words as I was suddenly taken away from that white space and woke up back in my real body.

"CYTHISTIA!" Someone shouted at me.

I grumbled as the loud shout pierced my ears.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay."

As my mind recovered from being suddenly taken out of some weird space and then somewhere else, my senses also recovered, and I recognised that voice as my grandfather.

"G-Grandpa?" I muttered weakly.

"Don't worry, everything's fine, everything's going to be okay, you're going to be fine."

"Wha- Arrgnn!" I tried to talk but I had a sudden headache.

"Cythistia!"

I grabbed my head with both hands and cried out in pain as the headache got worse.

"Aarrrrgggghhh!!!"

"CYTHISTIA!" Grandfather shouted once more.

"[Nature's Purification]!"

As soon as those words were spoken, the pain I was experiencing disappeared and I felt a warm air wrap around me like a soft and fluffy blanket. I then felt a pair of arms hugging me.

I stayed like that for a while until I felt safe, and opened my eyes. It was a bit tough because of the light, but I did it.

"Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine grandpa."

"Good, I thought I'd messed up and lost you, thank Faunus you're okay."

"What was that?"

"I don't know, the ritual circle just suddenly went haywire and released a huge burst of magic. When my eyes recovered, you were just sat there with a listless look in your eyes. I tried what I could to make you respond, but nothing worked. But you just came back to all on your own, what exactly happened to you?"

"I… I met someone, or something named 'Efyos' who said something about the uh, the creation of the city or something like that."

"Ef… Efyos? You spoke to Efyos!?!?!" Grandpa screamed at me.

"Y-Yes?"

"Y-You actually spoke directly to the spirit of Efyos?" Grandpa asked me seriously.

"Y-Yeah, he said something about healing him with my magic. And that you did the same thing, and could train me to do it as well."

"I-I don't know how to process this, y-you spoke to Efyos, and, and…" He sighed, "Just, start from the beginning so I have the full picture."

"Okay…" He seemed really freaked out by everything that happened, so I did my best and explained everything from the beginning to when I woke up.

"I see, well, this is good news as it means that it is working."

"What's working?"

"The healing process that our ancestors have been doing for centuries to hopefully restore Efyos to his former glory."

"And I'm supposed to help with this now?"

"Maybe not right now, but soon. Plus we now know what your main elemental affinity is, so we don't need to do anything to figure it out."

"But, I wanna be like grandma!"

He chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I'm sure that with your determination, you'll be able to achieve that in due time, but for now, you need to be trained to even use your power, and I shall be the one to do so."

_

_

_

That day, after I was brought out of the chamber, it was publicly announced that I was a wielder of nature magic and that my grandfather would personally train me, making me his protégé.

My training was difficult at first, but that was because I didn't know how to use magic. When I did manage to figure it out, the training was a lot easier, but there were still some difficulties.

I also was required to go to a prestigious school during the week, which didn't help my studies.

Either way, I did my best to learn both, and although it was tough, I was able to keep up with both.

_

_

_

A few years after my awakening, grandpa took me out into the city to see the results of my training.

We went out to explore the city for spots that were lacking in life force, which I had come to learn was a form of energy that allowed things to 'live' which was a very loose term, as even rocks could become living beings in the form of golems if they accumulated enough life force. The spots could be identified easily as when I was looking with this spell, the structures of the city glowed a lot brighter, and the spots we were looking for weren't as bright

Nature magic was one of the ways that this energy could be created. There was a limit to how much we could actually create, otherwise Efyos probably would've recovered by now. Also, you can't just give something a continual stream of life force or else they'll literally explode from an overdose of energy.

Anyways, I was walking around the city with grandpa, looking for a spot to test my magic on. I was currently using a spell that one of my ancestors came up with that allowed us to see such spots. The way the spell worked was by infusing our Nature magic into our eyes and focusing on life force, and because the city was made from a living being, it was pretty easy to locate such spots.

We found one of such spots and went up to it. People made way for us as my grandpa was here. I'm sure that if I was on my own, I would have to explain what I was doing.

When we got to the spot, I quietly chanted a specially crafted spell that was made for this specific purpose.

"[Rejuvenation]!" I shouted as I pointed my palms at the spot that lacked life force.

I kept up the supply of mana until the spot became brighter that the area surrounding it, and stopped the spell.

"Good job." Grandpa congratulated me.

I smiled at his praise.

"Come, we have more places to work on, and when we get back, I have a little surprise for you."

My eyes lit up when I heard that there was a surprise waiting for me so now I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Huhuhu~ Calm down, if you rush this job, you'll find yourself missing some spots."

"Okay..."

After another hour of this, Grandpa had to go back and do his normal work while I stayed out here and continued doing this until I either ran out of mana, or someone came to pick me up as my surprise would be ready by then.

_

_

_

Around half an hour later, I'd almost run out of mana, so I decided to head back home as grandpa said.

Unfortunately, someone was in my way, and kept on getting in my way purposefully.