Seated in his chair inside the greenhouse, Kuon sipped tea that had no taste on his tongue, his thoughts running off in every direction.
He'd gained a great deal from that training. Among other things, he'd noticed a piece of information that might well change the course of his current research.
" … Tell me, Vierra. Does the LSF have anything like a lab, an archive, or a library open to the public?"
Vierra didn't spend any time thinking about it. She nodded right away. "The main library there has areas open to the public, but for the deeper sections, you need at least an access card. As for the labs, you have to be a researcher officially affiliated with the LSF. I can access the library and its innermost rooms, but I can't just walk into the lab buildings, since I'm not a researcher."
'Well, of course it would be like that.'
If anything, it was a little surprising to Kuon that the general public could access the library at all. At Imperial St. Solenne University, even outsiders were forbidden from passing through the gates without a verified purpose.
"Are you planning to look for something there?"
"You could say that," Kuon answered curtly, closing his eyes without offering any further explanation.
He could have told Vierra what he wanted to confirm, but not with every viewer back on Earth listening in on their conversation. Because if the information he'd found had never been discovered before, then it meant he'd just made a remarkable discovery.
During his time inside the training room, Kuon had kept circling back to a problem that had long troubled his thoughts. Namely, the limits of injecting Aether into an object.
An object normally couldn't accept Aether, and would be certain to break down immediately. The reason was unclear, but Kuon's calculations had managed to reveal something.
To arrive at those calculations, he'd tried comparing it against his own ability to manipulate materials using Aether. Because technically—and fundamentally—injecting Aether into a material was one of the steps required to achieve material-manipulation magic.
The result was that Kuon discovered it wasn't Aether itself that ruined an object upon receiving it, but rather the 'absence of information' capable of changing or preserving its structure.
Aether, by its nature, is a particle that biological matter can absorb naturally. In the case of absorption by biological matter, there may be an automatic mechanism that converts Aether's properties into something acceptable, or even usable. The salted apples Kanon found were an example; the plants could naturally absorb Aether and even alter the properties of the fruit they bore. In the end, what emerged was an apple with magical properties: salty, capable of restoring a little energy, and even long-lasting in storage.
Unfortunately, non-biological matter, such as minerals or manufactured objects, had no such capability. That was why, when forced to accept Aether, their structure would break down and shatter instantly, with some percentage chance of exploding.
But if the Aether was injected with added information regarding 'change' or 'preservation,' the result was that not only would the object survive, it would even transform according to the calculations of whoever injected the Aether. In the case of material-manipulation magic, the Aether was given extra 'change' information, so not only did the material remain intact, it even reshaped its smallest structures according to the calculations Kuon desired and carried out.
'But this is still just a random theory stored in my head. It'd be better if someone had already discovered it, so I could confirm it.'
If it was true, then he'd just opened the way to a new field of research. But for now, given the scarcity of information, Kuon would set it aside for the time being.
"Oh, by the way, Kuon … Felix has been asking me since yesterday when you'd come out. It seems he had some kind of breakthrough during training, and he wants to spar with you if possible."
Kuon gave a light nod after thinking for a moment. "I think that's a good idea. I need to test my progress in practice, too."
Setting down his teacup, Kuon continued, "In that case, the four of us will spar this afternoon; we can rent a training room at the UAA building. Do you all mind?"
Vierra simply shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I'm curious about how the three of you have progressed after all that intensive training."
This time her gaze settled on Kanon. As the one who'd trained her and seen firsthand how terrifying Kanon's capacity for learning was, Vierra was interested in what she'd be able to show there.
***
"Two rounds of team battle. Me with Felix, and Kuon with Kanon. Want to add any special rules?"
Kuon glanced at Kanon for a moment, but she shook her head.
"I don't think so. But let's keep it simple. The spar continues until one team has fully fallen or is in no state to attack. Do you all agree?"
Felix nodded eagerly, while Vierra smiled faintly. "Then everything's settled. Get ready. We'll start the fight on the count of three."
With such simple rules and victory conditions, Kuon could focus on the plan he'd already built in his head. Still, there was one thing he'd been wondering about for a while. He whispered to Kanon, who was preparing to channel her Aether.
"Do you know anything about Felix's new weapon?"
Kanon glanced at him briefly, then shook her head. "Felix didn't show up at all while you were training, so I haven't seen him since. Is something bothering you?"
Felix's signature weapon was a medium-sized crossbow. It gave him the flexibility to aim and fire easily—even in situations where he couldn't use one of his hands. In form, it resembled the generic crossbows commonly found on the market.
However, what Felix held now looked different from the one he usually used. From the end of the stock to the barrel, it looked longer and slimmer, with several wheels added to the tips of the limbs that appeared to be keeping the strings in place. Aside from those wheels, the most striking feature was an extra device mounted on top. From any angle, it was a scope.
'Did he modify it himself?'
If so, that was impressive.
Just as Kuon finished his monologue, the count of three arrived, and the fight began.
"I'm counting on you, Kuon."
Right after saying that, Kanon stepped backward. Kuon glanced at her for a moment, then was startled by what she did next.
After standing at a safe distance from everyone, Kanon immediately activated the magic she'd prepared.
The temperature dropped, and frost flowers gradually began blooming across the floor. From where she stood, Kanon let out a long breath, then sealed herself inside a solid block of ice.
"Did she really just lock herself in there?!"
Vierra, who'd still been trying to observe her opponents' movements, was startled by it.
Kanon's idea wasn't a bad one. Against a team without any major explosive firepower, sealing herself in a block of ice like that was an effective solution. Still, Vierra hadn't expected Kanon to actually go through with it.
Kuon hadn't known anything about this, so he was a little surprised. Even so, he quickly returned his focus to Vierra and Felix, who still stood not far ahead of him.
Felix looked ready to fire his crossbow, while Vierra held a defensive stance, anticipating Kuon's every move.
At the very least, with Kanon in there, she couldn't be attacked by normal means. That way, Kuon could focus on offense without having to account for Kanon's defense.
" … I'd like to call that cheating, but never mind."
Vierra sighed in resignation as she readied her dagger. Her wind magic was concentrated to support her mobility, and she shot forward at the exact moment Kuon took a step ahead.
But—
'Huh?!'
Vierra felt she couldn't control her movements properly. With just a quick glance downward, she realized Kanon had already taken command of this battlefield with her magic.
"Tch!"
Clicking her tongue, Vierra set her stance while still in midair, then used her wind magic to shoot herself back.
Kanon's ice hadn't yet reached where Felix stood, so Vierra managed to land safely. But the situation changed nothing. Vierra looked toward Kanon once more. Faintly, she could see Kanon smiling inside the ice.
"But by altering the battlefield like this, Kuon must be affected too. Do they have another plan?"
Beside her, Felix spoke. Vierra was thinking the same thing, but what they saw next would shatter that assumption.
Kuon looked at the icy floor beneath him, and unconsciously raised one corner of his mouth. "You could've at least told me first if you had a plan," he said. At that very moment, Kuon pulled an ingot from the pouch at his belt.
Vierra, who'd seen that same ingot over and over again, began to hear her emergency instincts ringing.
"Felix, stay somewhere hard for him to reach," Vierra said before leaping up and driving her dagger into one of the room's pillars. With the dagger lodged in place, Vierra held herself in that position to get a clearer view of the situation.
The metal in his hand quickly transformed into a spiked plate. By fastening it to his shoes, he could move across this ice quite freely. But just as he fastened the spiked iron plate on, an arrow came straight at him.
With the back of his hand, Kuon easily knocked the arrow down. But unexpectedly, there was another arrow behind the one he'd just knocked away.
'Three shots in a row?'
Thinking that, Kuon moved his head and dodged every one of the shots perfectly.
Firing in such quick succession should have been impossible with a standard crossbow. But it seemed Felix's modifications let him pull it off.
Now Kuon saw it too—there was an additional compartment right beneath the crossbow. Assuming Felix had modified it to hold his ammunition there, the crossbow was likely designed to reload automatically.
This time, Felix appeared to be refilling the compartment. Which meant the crossbow could only fire about three or four arrows in quick succession, and had to be reloaded afterward.
That was the moment Kuon had been waiting for. He began quickening his pace toward Felix, intending to strike him, but a dagger flew past his eyes. Kuon stopped and glanced toward the attacker.
On the floor, where the ice had melted away, Vierra stood at ease, idly toying with her dagger.
"Do you think attacking in turns like that is a good idea?"
Vierra smiled wryly as she answered, "The biggest weakness in my teamwork with Felix is that we don't have a front-line attacker—neither a vanguard nor a guard. The pairing of you and Kanon is already perfect for building a team, but we don't have a luxury like that, so we have to get creative."
The moment Vierra finished speaking, she immediately hurled another dagger at Kuon. At the same time, another arrow came flying toward him. But this time, only one.
Kuon caught the dagger in his hand and hurled it at the incoming arrow. The arrow bounced away upon colliding with the dagger.
Halting his movements, he stood calmly in place. Kuon lowered his voice as he spoke, "That may be a good tactic, one you're used to using, but it won't work on me. Come at me all at once, bring out every bit of strength you have. Don't hesitate to use every tactic you know. Show me the strength you unleashed when you fought those Black Tide monsters."
'Did this just turn into an extra training session?'
Hearing the way he spoke, Vierra couldn't help but think so. She glanced toward Felix, who answered with a small nod.
"Watch out for the ice."
" … I know." Felix's hand tensed as he gripped his crossbow tightly, before finally darting forward with the help of Vierra's magic.
Kuon's eyes widened briefly at the sight, but he didn't lose his composure as he blocked the punch Felix threw.
"Letting your long-range attacker charge in and strike first means throwing away the advantage you already have."
Even as he said that, Kuon was rather impressed by Felix's fighting style.
While continuing his close-range assault with his fists and the small dagger in his hand, Felix would occasionally use his crossbow to fire whenever he spotted an opening in Kuon's movements.
But all of it ended up futile when Kuon casually deflected the crossbow's aim, sending the shot flying in a different direction. Kuon wasn't fully focused on Felix, either, because he also had to divide his awareness to keep track of Vierra's movements, since she'd vanished from his line of sight.
At that moment, an ice spear formed right beside him, and Kuon immediately smashed the base planted in the ground before taking it up and swinging it.
Through that action, Kanon was telling Kuon that Vierra was nearby. And Kuon didn't hesitate to swing the ice spear backward, directly blocking Vierra's dagger slash.
Even so, Vierra didn't stop at all. Though her surprise attack had been thwarted, she immediately switched to close-quarters confrontation alongside Felix. No elaborate tactics were needed; just a relentless barrage that left Kuon no opening to counterattack.
Felix also occasionally fired his arrows, which were then swept aside by swings of Kuon's ice spear. Once the ammunition in his crossbow ran out, he quickly stepped back and tossed several more arrows into the air, before loading all of them into the crossbow with perfect accuracy. Even as he did so, he continued supporting Vierra by throwing another dagger toward her.
Vierra caught the dagger flawlessly and began attacking Kuon with everything she had.
The ice spear Kanon had made for him was hard enough to clash head-on with Vierra's daggers, but somehow it began eroding bit by bit, until in the end Kuon had no choice but to snap it and use the two broken halves as makeshift weapons.
'The dagger's blade is vibrating … is that her magic?'
Creating vibrations in the air or in objects was something magic could do, but it was rarely carried out because it was too situational. It seemed Vierra rarely used it, too, which made it somewhat less effective.
Because of that, an idea came to Kuon—a way to teach Vierra something.
"You might have more experience than I do with applying wind-oriented natural magic, but let me show you something."
Vierra felt her danger instincts sound a loud alarm upon seeing the smile on Kuon's face. She immediately grabbed Felix by the collar and flung him far behind her, while she herself began deploying several spells at once to defend herself.
The ice beneath Vierra's feet began melting as she raised the heat in the air around her. Her blood felt like it was boiling, and she kept the vibrations in the air going to chip away, little by little, at Kanon's defenses. But now, she was forced to stop that and retreat.
At the same moment, Kuon raised a single finger before his smiling lips. "Let's call this the Banshee's Wail."
A second later, the air around them began to tremble in utter chaos. Along with it came a thunderous boom, like blazing thunder, followed by a shrill, ear-splitting sound—exactly like glass shattering all at once during a great earthquake.
"Are you insane—guh?!"
Vierra gritted her teeth as she tried to shield her ears. Quickly, she began using her trigger to heighten her Aether sensitivity and analyze the magic Kuon was using.
In that instant, her breath felt as though it had been forcibly pulled out of her, nearly making her lose consciousness. Even so, Vierra didn't let her awareness waver.
'Air manipulation … vibration? No, that's not right. This is … sound waves?!'
Based on that, Vierra began designing her own calculations; an air shield that would block Kuon's sound waves. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to dampen the effects.
"Thanks…."
Behind her, Felix had just bitten his lip until it bled as he struggled to get back on his feet.
"No problem. Are you alright?"
Felix nodded. "My halo is still vibrating, but my ears are fine. More importantly, are you alright, Vierra?"
Felix could see Vierra still furrowing her brow in pain. Naturally, as a member of a race with sharp hearing, something like this was torture for her.
But it wasn't just the two of them who were affected. Kanon, inside her block of ice, showed an uncomfortable expression as the ice protecting her quickly cracked and eroded under the sound waves.
The sound waves from Kuon lasted for two minutes. A short time, but the effects were truly immense, with a wide area of impact.
With the broken ice spears in both hands, Kuon walked over to Vierra and Felix.
His eyes gazed coldly, but there was a faint, strangely gentle smile on his face. As he drew near, he immediately aimed his spear at Vierra, then asked, "Can you two still fight?"
Vierra displeasedly dispelled her shield with a sigh. "Thanks for the ear damage. You win."
Kuon snorted for a moment, then held out his hand to Vierra and Felix, who sat helplessly with their ears still ringing.
"Sorry, that might have been excessive. The point is, I wanted to show you another application you could use with your magic. Did you like it?"
"It was pretty fun, thanks for the inspiration. Banshee's Wail, right? Compressing air, friction between particles and atoms until they produce sound waves … it's still hard for me to master, but I think I can learn it in the near future. But are you sure you want to give me that technique?"
"It's a fairly simple thing. As long as you understand the nature of atomic particles and the concept of air itself, sooner or later you'll develop your own technique. After all, you're able to use magic to pull the oxygen out of your own lungs, so this little thing will be very easy for you to master."
" … I'll take that as a compliment—ouch, my ears are still ringing."
Kuon said nothing more and turned his attention to Felix.
"Did you build your crossbow yourself? I have to admit, that's an impressive modification."
Looking at it closely, Kuon's assessment of the crossbow was that it was a 'modern hunting rifle.' Not only did it resemble one in shape, its specifications could even surpass that, with Felix's Gift, Light Way.
Felix nodded happily when he finally heard the praise. "Thank you. I'm planning to make it lighter and boost its power even further, but the materials we have in Narc't don't give me many options, and it has to be compatible with standard arrows so I can restock my supply without any trouble…."
Kuon was interested in helping him modify the crossbow, but decided to restrain himself for now. In a relatively short time, Felix had managed to modify his own weapon into something better. Kuon didn't want to interfere with the development of that potential by offering direct help. It would be better to teach him a few things, and let Felix adapt them on his own according to his ability.
" … I like seeing all of you chat so casually like that, but could you help me out?"
A voice rose up, reminding them of the person still behind them.
Kanon was there, her lower body still trapped inside the block of ice she'd created herself.
"Can't you get out?"
Kuon raised an eyebrow, his face full of questions. Kanon should have had complete control over her own magic, so there was no way she could have failed to free herself from a spell she'd designed.
Kanon turned her face away and spoke in a small voice, "There are a few reasons, I'll tell you later. For now, help me, I'm stuck."