Peacemaker

"Really guys, let's calm down," Persephone said, giving an awkward laugh. 

She turned to the group. "Do I have to remind you idiots she's a cryo-thane?" she whispered.

Luna stepped forward. "And Gian's a pyro-thane. The girl back there isn't a half bad fire mage," she studied Persophene's face now, "And you're an enchantress, aren't you?"

"We can take her," she added.

『The Messiah System has detected a side quest string.』

『Quest: 'Peacemaker'... invoke quest name for more information.』

As Persophene tried denying the fact that she was an enchantress, and Kate tried calming Artemis down, Gian pulled up the quest box.

━━━━⊱༒︎ 『Peacemaker』 ༒︎⊰━━━━ 

Quest difficulty: Low

Description: Conflict has been detected within the Messiah's group. It is the Messiah's responsibility to control violence within his group.

Completion Criteria: Calm the group down.

Rewards: Unlock Augmentation Store

━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ 

Gian sighed as he read the description. He had already been pushing his social skills to their limits, trying to get the survivors to band together, and even that hadn't turned out too well. Now this?

'No. Why am I complaining? I'm getting powers from a task I already had to do.' 

He closed the system interface and cleared his throat. "Persephone's right, I think we should all calm down and talk this out," he said. However, no one listened; the arguing continued. And now it seemed that Artemis was even more restless than before.

"Can you listen!" he shouted.

The arguments stopped for a moment, but he could tell that it wouldn't last long.

"I won't kill anyone," he said, pointing to Artemis. "And I'm not fighting anyone either," he added.

"I don't know what personal issues you guys have, but in case you've all forgotten, there is a group of murderers on the train," he continued. "And a whole lot of students who don't even know that yet."

Luna balled her fist, opening her mouth to say something before sighing in defeat.

"But, we can't just leave the attacker here," he added, turning to Persephone. 

"Can you use your magic on him?"

Persephone stared at him as if she were confused, brows furrowed.

"Give it up," Gian pleaded. "Your secret stays here," he continued. "Won't it?" he asked, looking to the others. They all nodded. "And Artemis looks like she couldn't care less about you."

That was true; the entire time during their argument, her attention had been solely on Gian. Perhaps she perceived him as the biggest threat in the group, even with his injury.

Persophene sighed. "Well, this won't be free."

"I'm using the last bit of my potion on this," she said.

Gian turned to Artemis. "You aren't against enchanting him, are you?"

Artemis's eyes squinted at him. She was suspicious, but couldn't find a counter argument.

"Great. We're all in agreement."

『Congratulations. Side Quest completed.』

『Augmentation Store has been unlocked. Invoke store name for more details. 』

"But you guys have to look away," Persephone said, approaching the frozen attacker. 

She turned back to look at Artemis. "Unfreeze him will ya?" 

Artemis gave a grunt, waving her wand. With that, the ice began thawing, revealing only the attacker's upper body.

'She didn't chant,' Gian thought to himself. His interest was piqued.

As Persephone knelt down, she began undressing. Gian found it weird, she hadn't done that the first time, what was different now? 

"Turn!" Persephone shouted.

The group turned around, their only hint as to what Persephone was doing behind them being muffled whispers.

Gian moved to Kate. "The silver-haired girl, Artemis, she cast a spell without chanting," he whispered. "How do I do that?"

Kate shook her head. "She's just editing a spell she already cast. You don't have to chant when you do that," she explained.

Gian nodded. 'So does that mean I can control my flames after I cast the spell?' he thought to himself.

"Still, it's not common for a first ascended mage to be able to do that," Kate continued. "She's just an exception," she added, looking to Artemis. "But for a Judicio's daughter, it's not a surprise."

'If I ask her, will she explain it to me?' Gian thought, quickly realizing that it was unlikely. They barely knew each other, and from the now vacant expression on her face, she was probably only interested in fighting.

An awkward silence filled the room as the four of them stood facing the wall.

Gian took this moment to inspect the newest addition to his system.

'Augmentation Store.'

━━━━⊱༒︎ 『Augmentation Store』 ༒︎⊰━━━━ 

Available augmentations (mana-series):

[Mana-eyes]—cost: 1 Side Quest Completion.

[Mana-heart]—cost: 10 Side Quest Completions.

[Mana-brain]—cost: 20 Side Quest Completions.

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Locked]

━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ 

'Mana-eyes?' Gian invoked the name, and the system interface disappeared. 'Is it broken—'

His vision began glitching, dimming and brightening haphazardly, before suddenly going black.

Before he could even react, it came back.

『Mana-eyes will be active for the next 2 minutes.』

"Gian?" Kate whispered, looking up at him.

He stared at thin air, wide-eyed. 'This is...'

Tendrils of mana bled into the air like slow-moving smoke, invisible before, now radiant hues of the six elemental colors hanging in the air.

Trails of it clung to the dead on the floor, wisps still coiled around their shattered cores, flickering faintly before fading. 

When he turned his gaze to Kate, he saw more. Mana trailed around her; of the six colours, red clung to her the most. He looked down at her chest, a core burned at its centre; dim and turbulent, about the size of a marble. 

He turned to Artemis. Blue clung to her, but it was unlike the kind that hung in the air. Hers was a lighter shade, glass-like almost. Her core was larger than Kate's, though only slightly. And whereas Kate's was dim, her's was bright.

'I can see, raw mana?' 

The concept was unheard of. Even back in Enquath, the highest level scholars could do their best to theorize how many moved and acted during spell casting.

His heart drummed excitedly. With this, was there any normal mage who could compete with him?

And to think all he had to do to recieve this holy grail of magical science was complete a stupid side quest.

He was convinced, if not before now more than ever. The Messiah system was a god making cheat.

Just then, a thought occurred. If he could see mana, how did spells look?