Multiple students can be seen panicking in class as lots of discussions, arguments, researching, and writing down notes with lots of stacks of paper. Reiji couldn't help but wonder why he had a class like this even though he was used to this type of advanced class knowledge compared to what he had in his former school year which was labeled as 'debate class'.
'Sorcery Theory Class'
A class which is heavily focused on researching how sorcery is founded and how it became complex and broken down into different types. From what Rei had known for the past couple of weeks, there are two types of sorcery which was interesting due to how unique it sounds compared to the mythology when he was watching some videos with Sylvie during the summer break in his 4th year. Divine Arts and Dark Arts, the two types of sorcery are similar to what he would call a blessing and curse if he hadn't heard the Fallen's explanation to why such a thing can't be a blessing and a curse by rather a work of art in sorcery.
Divine Arts had a lot of benefits such as buffing attributes of one's prowess, enhancing physical well-being, purifying energy and healing one's well being. However, its major flaws are devastating as one cannot go against its natural order when using it against what a person might think it's evil or purify what seems to be evil. Humans perceive evil in a way they can think of in their moral and laws while Divine Art will only deem evil if it seems to be pleased with nature itself.
On the other hand, Dark Arts is the same, the benefits of being immortal, enhancing one's prowess, physical and mental wellbeing, controlling the undead, and the ability to use forbidden techniques that are banned from history, although its drawbacks are needing a sacrifice or a medium such as sacrificing a soul or one's major character for the benefit also the medium to be used as a tool to control the amount of power they need to benefit such as becoming a host or the medium breaking or becoming unstable from the amount of energy it used or being overflowed when performed poorly.
Those are the reasons why Keith ridicules the idea of such blessing and curse which makes sense to Rei as well since there's no permanent enhancement without drawbacks. He understood why a lot of the students are debating and constant arguments are both beneficial and crucial to sorcery and prowess itself as its origin and process are still unknown to other aspects in developing an awakened or certain conditions to have a prowess. His thoughts were disturbed when a male with white hair stood in front of him while smirking. "You good? Of course you ain't. Outsider who has the malevolent being within him." He mocked before adding more. "You look relaxed? Or rather stupid… I guess if I were you, I would kill myself rather than prolonging the inevitable." Before it got heated a certain orange brown hair female interrupted him. "Then I guess I should fucking drain your blood out then…" Rei was surprised to see Rinka, after all he still had two classes left before his examination began.
"It's an emergency, Rei. We have to go now." She commanded as Rei immediately packed up his stuff before excusing himself from the professor as he followed her out. "What's the situation?" He asked as he walked alongside her to their classroom. "We'll explain it to you later once we arrive. Could breach the information by prying ears in the open." Her explanation made Rei understand the severity of the case as he nodded at her.
Upon arrival, he was immediately briefed on what was happening. Apparently, there was a maniac who was spreading and leaking information from their investigations regarding the incident over a week ago which Rei only knew from his friends. It was something about a student who was expelled prior to studying forbidden knowledge of sorcery when the headmaster and all council of the school board banned access to the restricted area except for sorcerers like Eunji or special access which is Rei's occupation as an active sorcerer. "Everyone. Be on the look out for a 20 year old, tall and skinny male with baggy clothes. He studied for 5 years in our academy until in the middle of his fifth year when he performed illegal sorcery which included two students who got tragically killed within the process." Eunji briefed every student in their class which included Rei, a total of 10 students responding to Eunji as they began their operation.
"Don't forget! If they use sorcery or any means of resistance nor attacks, use your prowess to defend or apprehend the target!" She shouted before every student ran out to execute her orders.
Rei wore his uniform as he checked every classroom, hallway, locker room, canteen, restricted rooms and dormitory yet he hadn't found anything or anyone at all. What's more annoying was the fact that he was being followed by the same white haired male that continued to mock him. "You're a vessel to the fallen and yet you still have problems finding them? Pathetic." His tone was already annoying enough if it weren't for Keith blocking it for him. "Oi brat. You're searching for them with the wrong method… who said you have to look physically for them?" His words struck a nerve in him since he's an idiot for not thinking about it in the first place but how could he search for someone like them?
That is until he realised that he could track them by copying a search prowess while mixing his passive to heighten his search. If he can amplify it at the same time then it's a bonus for him. "Rinka-senpai!" He shouted as she paid attention to him. "Is there anyone with search prowess?" He asked while Rinka answered. "There's one or two. A male and a female. One of them has the ability to search through souls and one has the ability to track footprints through mana!" Her answer gave Rei the authority to find those students. It would've made the search easier when he knew what they looked like, running around without knowing their appearance and names only made him look desperate and pathetic that is until he ran into Erika.
"Rei?" She called out as Rei was panting, taking his time to recover his breath before asking her. "Erika. Do you know the two students who have the ability to search through souls and the other tracks footprints through mana?" Erika gathered her thoughts for a bit before giving Rei an answer. "I have known one of them since they were in my class last year. It's a girl and I believe her name is Freya. She's a redhead, she's about 5 foot 7 inches, 6th year repeater student and her prowess can search specific people through souls. I don't know the latter though… Try asking Haruki or Hinata. Those two talk to a lot more people than me since I don't normally socialise." Her answer gave Rei reassurance to his duty since he can now search for one of the people he's looking for.
He eventually found the redhead as he showed his badge to show his authority. "I apologise for the sudden interruption. But this is an important situation, may I ask you to activate your prowess and explain to me how it works?" He didn't expect for the redhead to answer politely without asking him why he needed it in the first place. After excusing himself and apologising to her again, he immediately went to start searching once again while using the copied prowess he got from her. Even if he had it copied, he needed to use it wisely as once he deactivated his prowess; he would lose its strong effect as he would need to copy it again from the original user even if he didn't deactivate it he would start losing its effect slowly after the 24 hour mark. "Shit. I have 24 hours until the effects are this strong… my prowess only allows me to temporarily store it after the 24 hour period until I use up all its aura which makes me lose the prowess itself…" He thought to himself as he quickly searched for Haruki and Hinata since time was running fast.
He was lucky enough to find both Haruki and Hinata, he was even more lucky when the two told Rei about the whereabouts of the other search prowess user since they were asked by Eunji earlier before telling them to tell Rei if they met him on the way or not. Mark, also a redhead who's a 5th year student who has the ability to search through footprints by mana. Now with the information that he has, he can now search for the remaining person to execute his plan perfectly. Time is ticking faster than he had assumed since it was already lunch break which means that he's gonna have a harder time finding them since a lot of students will hesitate to cooperate with him since his status as a vessel to the fallen.
"Rei!" A voice Rei recognises, he turned to the location he heard from as he saw Erika walking alongside with the male student that he needed to find. The red headed male instantly activated their prowess as it allowed Rei to copy their prowess as he immediately thanked the two before heading off with two amplified prowess which he fused to effectively create better effects and outcome of the prowess. He was able to search a distinctive footprint and soul presence as he followed it while notifying his peers through a mana link. However, during his expedition he found something odd about its strange patterns, the supposedly only culprit wasn't just one but two to three unidentified individuals. "Reporting in. There may be intruders who sneaked into the academy, I can see three mana patterns along with their soul essence from the footprint." He reported before sensing a similar aura from the mana he had followed.
He was almost to the location before being pushed back by a certain white hair male. "Where are you going man? Stay here ~ Let us handle it." The white haired individual said proudly before running off along with his group to the place he was going to. "Fuck…" Rei groaned before getting up on his knees as he recovered his pace, reporting back to Eunji in panic since the individual got themselves involved when they weren't supposed to. "Three people went into the scene. Hikaru, Ren and Felipe, two 3rd year students and one 4th year student. I will immediately get them out as soon as I arrive at the scene.." He was immediately met with a concerning scene as his guts was right about the situation before pulling the three individuals with a prowess that he managed to copy from the three. The vine-like whip wrapped around himself and the three individuals as he was facing the supposedly expelled student by judging the clothes they were wearing.
"Y-You!!! Why did you have to save them!!! They were necessary for the experiment!!!" The dirty ragged individual screamed with rage and madness in his voice which startled Rei while the latter cried out dramatically.
He noticed the other two strange aura that he had picked off when following the trail, the unidentified aura was strangely shaped like a wereworld or an elf judging by the outline that only he could see. There wasn't even a warning as he immediately defended himself and the other three by pushing the enemy's attack whenever they struck him. To others, Rei looked like he was blocking something that they couldn't see except for the slight mana flow that we being leaked from the fight while to him he was having a slight trouble of blocking and parrying since the unidentified being is rather strange that it kept on changing their shapes from elves to werewolves then humanoid creatures that he has no clue what to identify. The current set of prowess he was holding was a bit of terrible and better match for the fight, the two search prowess fused giving him the benefit to track the soul and mana although the vine-like whip prowess he acquired was quite average at best before he had to manifest another one to continue on after having it breakdown slowly. He needed to buy time or rather find another opportunity to gain the upper hand in the fight.
Firstly, Hikaru; the white haired male who can manipulate gravity wasn't the best choice since copying it and amplifying it would deem useless since the target is not one that can be physically moved despite the fact of feeling the force behind its attacks being harder than his previous fights with those heavy weighted training dummy. Secondly, Ren; the green haired male who he had already copied, had deemed his prowess useful although it's much since he was already having trouble parrying and defending at the same time. Lastly, Felipe; he had seen his prowess and it wouldn't affect the outcome that much since the only thing it could do was enhance their physical strength and endurance after being able to turn their skin into as hard as a steel.
He had no choice but rather hold on until reinforcements could arrive. In his fight he was able to adapt to the patterns as he blocked each attack and then able to parry for a bit even if it wasn't that much damage. "How?! How are you doing that?!" The insane theorist shouted as he demanded Rei's explanation. "You brat!!! You aren't supposed to be able to follow them!!! They are the perfect specimens!!! Humanity's greatest evolution!!!" His rambling made no sense to Rei since he was focused on defending and parrying which he is able to do now after lasting for so long in the fight. Eventually, Rei had succumbed to his loss after not being able to follow a parry and a block after becoming desperate to land a hit to the theorist as he felt the solid hit that would've knocked him out if it weren't for his constant training with his senior. He was on his knees, trying to get his bearings as the invisible entity was about to finish him off until Rinka had arrived.
"Blood Release: Crystalised Spear!" Rinka executed her technique as she threw it to the theorist not before the invisible entity ignoring Rei as they defended them. "You alright?" She asked as Rei started to copy her prowess while using its passive to heal himself even if it couldn't to make himself to his best performance. "A little bit… I could hold on for a couple of more hours…" He answered as he manifested a scythe before hardening it like Rinka's spear blood technique, the scythe similar to the ones he had used in his previous expedition prior from the day before. The atmosphere of their encounter grew intense as the group he was protecting had now fled ever since Rinka's arrival. Rei knew that the unidentified beings he was fighting against were stronger than himself and Rinka, if they were a S-rank then those invisible beings are probably a level higher or another category which could label as low end SS-rank which was rare and their chances of winning are 30% although the chance of one being critical injured are a 95%.
They immediately started fighting as Rei followed Rinka's opening, their mana flaring bright which Rinka was able to see what Rei was dealing with while the theorist nervously bit his fingers in anticipation of something that could satisfy him or not. Rinka started with a crystalised blood dadao sword as she swung it as fast and hard as she could while making a rounded crystalised blood shield to defend her left side. Rei immediately followed up by trying to land a critical blow on the left before changing his style to swing it from the left to the right as an attempt to hurt them. To their surprise, nothing happened as they were only pushed back when they countered them back with their own attacks. Rinka immediately used her dadao sword to block her right side as the entity swung their hand or claw quickly which almost injured her in the process. "So physical attacks can't hurt them…" she muttered to herself before manifesting a sharp lasso made out of blood as she tried to capture which only ended up being futile as nothing got tied up despite the visible outline of the mana that's making out their body. "Rei… Do you have any ideas on how to approach something that you can't touch?" She asked as the ideas and strategies she had moments ago went away after confirming her thoughts against the invisible individuals.
"I got one but I don't know if it will work…" Rinka raised an eyebrow at him as she needed to know what he got in his mind despite the disadvantages they have at the moment. "They're made out of aura reserves- I mean mana reserves, so I assume that we could harm them through the raw energy of spiritual energy…" He explained while Rinka tried to process the information while Rei continued. "I mean from my perspective… Since from my place, we call soul as aura, spiritual energy and mana as aura reserves, essence core as aura core then raw techniques or techniques as prowess usage… in theory these things are basically made out of converted energy from the raw material of spiritual energy…" he said before defending himself while helping her evade the oncoming attacks. "I think these things can be damaged by raw spiritual energy waves instead of executing a technique since they are basically just a technique that's made out of spiritual energy that's stable instead of unstable from the raw output… and I'm thinking of making them unstable by pouring out my spiritual energy into them that's not a technique and in its raw and purest form…" His explanation made Rinka a bit uneasy since they have no information whether those can hurt them or worse give them more power and gain more benefit in the fight but it's better than nothing as they strategised how to execute their plan.
Rei and Rinka moved in somewhat a perfect harmony as they executed their strategy as Rinka moved in, acting as a tank as she executed her technique. "Maximum Output." The once red and liquified blood slowly turning darker and more harder than liquid formed around her entire body as it took on a menacing appearance, looking like a nightmarish knight with sharper claws, edge and helmet. "Black blood overflow" she muttered as she manifested the same spear and shield but in a darker, sturdier, sharper nightmarish look. Rei took the opportunity as he started to gather all his spiritual energy up to the point it looked like he was leaking out his own soul. Rinka kept the entities busy as more of her armour started falling off, withering slowly while her weapons were barely solidifying as some started to drip. She knew her limit was only 5 minutes and yet it felt like she's pouring everything out in a lifetime.
Sorcerers and sorceresses have limits, since the anatomy of each race varies depending on their physical form. Humans are made up of three bases: the soul which is basically like a heart except it doesn't depend on something to keep on working unless it's damaged by a foreign substance or the user is dead by a direct hit to the heart or the soul. It also creates spiritual energy in raw and purest form since it is kept in the body like how a bone marrow produces blood to keep the heart pumping except it's the soul that creates spiritual energy to sustain the reserves of a sorcerer. Next, the essence core which allows them to channel spiritual energy to a part of their body depending on the prowess they possess. This doesn't apply to Rei as his body has no essence core since he needs to have space to fill up the required prowess he possesses from what he had copied; and having essence core would only hinder his capabilities and overall capacity for copying prowess. The same applies to Rinka Yamashita to an extent as her blood manipulation technique requires her to control blood from own body which is already soaked with her spiritual energy. A special part in her anatomy which is included in her bone marrow which is called Chirurgia; it's what allows her to have access to control her blood since it's already exposed to her natural spiritual energy which causes them to become a raw output of a technique hence the mutation of her prowess inheritance. Lastly, spiritual energy flow which is basically what allows prowess users and sorcerers to be able to control the flow of their spiritual energy henceforth the existence of essence core to easily allow them to gather all their output on one part to control their technique or channel them through multiple essence cores for mana waves or hybrid prowess techniques.
Why do sorcerers call them mana? A term for them to differentiate the process when cultivating their prowess mastery by controlling a specific aspect of spiritual energy in them which can be identified as stable version of spiritual energy output henceforth naming it as mana due to its property being in total control than letting raw spiritual energy to create outbursts or unnecessary waste of output. It is why the fight between sorcerers or creatures are often arrogant due to ignoring the mastery aspect and rather focused on raw power. Which is also the reason why the headmaster wanted Rei to be in the academy due to his innate potential despite such a high control over his prowess even if he hasn't reached his peak yet.
Rei had gathered all his theories after getting lots of headache from the past few weeks when trying to differentiate the studies in prowess and sorcery, he didn't try amplifying the power had copy but instead he dropped everything out of his arsenal as he flared up his aura which started to leak his own spiritual energy before throwing himself at the enemy. "Eat shit!" He shouted as the invisible beings started to deteriorate and squirm in pain, their body being unstable as their mana continues to reform itself as if trying to repair nor heal them. His mana wave completely caught the theorist off guard as they desperately called them back before executing a technique.
"Maximum output: Reformation…"
The last thing Rei saw was an overwhelming wave of mana forming around the theorist, its aura slightly similar to Keith except he was neither malevolent nor benevolent…
Except…
It felt like…
A seething dissonance…