Chapter 89: Angel Magic
Time passed quickly, and the year X777 arrived.
At the beginning of the year, Ur had finally earned enough money to buy a house. She bought a pretty one with a small garden right next to Noah's, large enough for her, Ultear, Gray, and Lyon to live in. Ur's family moved into their new home and held a housewarming party, inviting Noah and all the others they spent so much time with. Everyone partied late into the night.
The next morning, Noah woke up a little late. When he came downstairs, he saw Ultear, Gray, and Lyon already eating breakfast in his living room with Erza and the others.
"Don't you have a new house now?" Noah asked them. "Why are you still eating breakfast here?"
"Just because we have a new house doesn't mean we can't eat here, does it? We've lived here for so long, it just feels more comfortable. What, are we not welcome?" Ultear retorted. Gray and Lyon, their mouths full, nodded in agreement beside her.
Noah rolled his eyes. "Of course you're welcome. You can come over whenever you want."
After breakfast, they all trained together and then went their separate ways to do their own things.
Sorano had been training for several months and was now ready to officially start learning magic. Noah brought out a catalog of the magic he possessed and let her choose. Her eyes immediately fell on Angel Magic. When he asked her why, she answered directly.
"When I was captured and imprisoned, I would look at the sky outside the window and think of angels. I just wished I could be like an angel."
Seeing that she could talk about her past ordeal without any hesitation, Noah knew that it no longer had a hold on her. He nodded and took a look at the Angel Magic she had chosen. He had collected this magic a while ago and had only recorded it as research material, never learning it himself.
Angel Magic was a type of cost-summoning magic. It required the caster to convert a portion of their own life force into "angel coins" to summon angels. Different types of angels could inflict different types of damage, but the cost of summoning them also varied. Generally, the stronger the angel, the higher the cost. And there was a very bad drawback: if these angels were defeated, the angel coins would disintegrate and vanish, and the caster would suffer immense pain.
Noah reviewed all the data on this magic again and found that, aside from its name, it had nothing angelic about it. Everything required a price paid in life, and the magic itself wasn't even that strong. It was a complete trap.
"Are you sure you want to learn this magic? I don't think it's very valuable. The price you have to pay is far too great for the reward."
"You don't recommend I learn it? Then I'll just pick something else," Sorano said. She was the type to listen to advice, and she knew how vast Noah's magical knowledge was. His suggestions were definitely worth taking.
"Let me take another look." Noah looked at the description of Angel Magic again and realized that improving it wouldn't be too difficult. The First Master, Mavis, had improved Fairy Law to remove its life-draining drawback, and Noah had already memorized the process and had it explained to him by her. After so many years, his own magical knowledge had grown immensely, making the task even easier.
Besides, when learning magic, a genuine liking for it always helped the process. He didn't want to crush Sorano's enthusiasm. On top of that, improving this magic would help him accumulate more research on the nature of life and lifespan.
"It's not that you can't learn it," Noah said to Sorano. "How about this: I'll improve this Angel Magic for you, eliminate its various drawbacks, and then you can learn it."
"Really? Thank you so much, Noah!" Sorano was so happy that she threw her arms around him in a hug.
Noah's face turned red. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, tossed her out of his research lab, and slammed the door shut.
"Come and find me in a few days. The magic should be improved by then."
Sorano just giggled. "Are you shy? So cute!"
Noah began to improve the magic. To have to expend life force just to summon a relatively weak angel... there was clearly something wrong with the spell. He completely rewrote its framework, changing it so that the angels' strength was related to magic consumption, and completely removed the cost of life force. Next, he strengthened the functionality of the angels, making it so the user could summon a suitable angel for any situation. After his improvements, the magic was completely unrecognizable from its original form. Only now could it be called true Angel Magic.
When he walked out of his research lab, he saw Sorano and Yukino sitting on the living room sofa, reading. For the past few days, aside from going out to train, Sorano had been staying at home, and Yukino had been at her side. She loved being with her sister.
The moment she saw Noah, Sorano put down her book and launched herself at him like a torpedo. He held her off with one hand on her forehead, stopping her in her tracks.
"Noah, did you finish improving the magic?" she asked, still pushing against his hand.
Noah held her back with his left hand and handed her a book with his right. She immediately stopped struggling and took it with both hands.
"This is the improved magic. I don't know what that original thing was, it was truly awful. My version is like heaven and earth compared to that one!" Noah said proudly.
Sorano looked like she was about to pounce on him again, but he held her back. "Alright, go and study it. There's a lot of material. The main thing is to remember the abilities of the various angels so you don't summon the wrong one."
"Okay! I'll go and study now. Yukino, come on!" Sorano pulled Yukino up from the sofa, and they ran back to their room. As she was being dragged away, Yukino didn't forget to turn back and wave goodbye to Noah, who smiled and waved back.
With Sorano's magic settled, it was time to prepare for the next big event.
This was the year X777, a very special year. Many important things were related to it. Most importantly, this was the year he had promised Layla he would open the gate. It was time to fulfill that promise. And this was time travel. To travel from 400 years in the past to the present, and to succeed... such a rare experience had to be documented. He needed to collect sufficient data. It would be a huge boost to his own understanding of time and space.
To collect enough data, Noah began to place various detection instruments around the gate. The gate itself was an heirloom that had been passed down through the royal family of Fiore. Thanks to Jude's early communication with the king, although the king didn't believe anyone could actually open it, he had still given them permission to proceed.
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