The air was calm and quiet when Raiden and Freya sat cross-legged in the training room, their nerves cald as their grey and dark eyes locked onto each other’s.
Raiden’s odachi sword was undoubtedly his favorite weapon, but with it completely broken, he needed sothing else, and he couldn’t imagine anything better than mastering mana the way Freya does.
"I don’t know how to put it in words, but just like everyone, I can release it within each part of my body," Freya said in Noorian, gently scratching her cheek nervously as she still didn’t understand how exactly she used her mana.
However, Raiden was ready for this mont. He was going to guide her to the right path. She had to tell him.
"Not everyone can feel mana in every part of their body, Freya." Freya gave him an awkward smile. "It is a fact that we are made of mana..."
The mont he said that, Freya’s eyes widened in realization. She leaned slightly toward Raiden. "That’s it... I think I rember now."
Raiden gave a silent fist-pump of triumph. "I can rember spending hours ditating in the wilderness with my ntor to build my mana reserve."
Her eyes widened even more with excitent as she rushed to get all the words out, as if they would escape her. "Since we didn’t have any natural resources in Noor, I had to absorb mana from the mana beasts and lost familiars that wandered through the desert."
Raiden’s expression shifted into confusion. If he could rember correctly, Levi said Freya’s ntor vanished ten years ago—when she was seven. She was left to wander the wilderness at that age? How brutal was the ntor? And what puzzled him most was whether they had even gotten a glimpse of how strong Freya actually was then.
"How did I defeat her then?" he muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?" Freya asked with a curious expression.
Raiden gave a faint smile and shook his hands awkwardly. However, he dropped the act instantly, and his expression shifted.
"How did you absorb mana from external creatures, and how did it contribute to your mastery?"
Freya’s eyes dropped to the floor. "I don’t know... but I think it’s no different from absorbing air."
Raiden narrowed his eyes and turned to her. "Was that what you did to deliver your final strike against the cursed doll?" He paused for a mont, and his tone dropped. "You absorbed our fractured mana, didn’t you?"
Freya nodded, her eyes still darting to the floor, as if she felt bad about her action sohow and that’s why she couldn’t speak freely about it.
But to Raiden, this made him realize how much they were lacking in mana usage, and with the assassins finally having witnessed their abilities during the battle with the God Beast, they would most likely take advantage of their weak mana application.
If any of the assassins could absorb mana as effectively as Freya did, then once they attacked, they would end up unleashing mana, which would only make their enemies stronger. They had to fix it before it was too late.
"Don’t worry about it... no one will bla you for it. You did what you had to do."
At that mont, it wasn’t about Raiden anymore. He wanted to get everything Freya knew so he could share it with the others more effectively, and combined with what Milo wrote in the book of Aaron about mana, they could actually improve quickly.
"You should have told us sooner... I an this is sothing we really need to work on."
Freya turned to him with a confused expression. "Really?" Raiden nodded.
"I thought it was a forbidden technique. I an, I could feel the others’ mana leaking out of them almost all the ti." She smirked. "But for you and your familiar Ash, not so much."
Raiden was startled. She could feel mana in the air—he thought to himself as he swallowed nervously.
Freya then took a deep breath and exhaled. "This is going to be a theory, but I think that’s how I do it."
Raiden nodded as he listened patiently.
"I believe I made my entire body the core of my mana... I heard Leo reading the book of Aaron the other ti, and it said the mana core can be found at the chest." She turned to Raiden. "Though I didn’t understand everything he was saying, I knew that wasn’t how I viewed mine... my mana is , and I am the mana."
"Am I making sense?"
"Of course," Raiden said with a nod. He had never considered mana could be viewed in such a manner, and that made him question Milo’s claim to being the most civilized person among them, since he didn’t even write about this.
"Since I view it that way, it allows to feel it in the air. I can tell what is pure air and what is mana since my body is already used to its texture."
Raiden simply nodded, taking in everything she was saying.
"And just like how air can be breathed in and out, I can do the sa with mana. So with trees, harmless animals, mana beasts, and humans alike, I just take in the mana they’re letting out by letting it resonate with ."
She closed her eyes. "And infusing my flas into it, I simply extend it out of my body since I already consider it a part of , and my flas are also a part of ." She touched her heart. "Because Free will never hurt ."
She smiled and turned to Raiden, whose expression was growing dimr little by little because he could feel sothing but wasn’t sure what it was.
"So, since my flas are a part of and my mana also is, I can easily set myself on fire without burning myself."
Raiden heard everything she said, but that wasn’t exactly what he was paying attention to. He could feel so people approaching the house, but he couldn’t sense any danger.
Considering their situation, for soone to co to them without any intention to cause harm was rare, and based on his tingling senses, there were multiple people, so it couldn’t be Aeris, the traitor.
The mont Freya finished speaking, he spoke up. "I think there are intruders... I’m not sure, but I don’t want to wait to find out."
Freya’s eyes widened. "Really?" She asked as she rose to her feet, and Raiden did too, but her eyes betrayed her thoughts. She clearly wondered how exactly Raiden always managed to know about intruders.
However, that wasn’t a question he would answer if she asked, and at that mont, there were more pressing things to deal with. Raiden began leaving the room, and Freya followed as they made their way to the living room.
The mont they reached the living room, they saw Levi and Leo sitting there, and on the sofa was Ash, sleeping. Raiden gestured at them, and they imdiately knew there were intruders. However, Raiden paused and stared at Ash, walked closer to her, and checked her temperature. She was completely fine.
She had been sleeping an awful lot and randomly ever since Raiden got the heart of dragon ability and she healed from her wounds. Though she used to sleep a lot before, this wasn’t normal.
"I think she’s in so kind of hibernation mode... nothing to worry about," Leo tried to assure him after he saw the sad expression on his face.
Raiden let out a sigh, gently brushed his hand against her, and left the room. Outside, just on the fields, were Speed and Soul; their energy seed a bit down, as if they were tired, and a glance at their dark auras confird it. But that wasn’t where his attention was focused—he could feel the intruders getting closer, and this ti, he felt danger.
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