Chapter 164: Final Lesson.

Before Éclair could continue though, she finally realized her nose was still broken. “Ah, give me a moment.” Brutally, she resets the nose and with a hiss and sizzle it heals right up. Along with the wound on her leg.

“Right, now… who do I start with?” She mutters and eyes Liche. “Right, you start. Get up here.” Jolted by suddenly being called out, Liche failed to move at first, but under Éclair’s glare, she quickly jolted into action and made her way before Éclair. “Your magic, what do you think void magic means? What does the void mean to you?” She asks, taking Liche through a loop.

“Emptiness? Nothingness? Like, the literal void?”

“Yes… and also, no. And really, I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot?” She mutters that last part to herself. “But no, void magic can be compared to the color black. Is black a blotch of emptiness?”

Liche hesitated a moment… “No? I mean, black as a color is a mix of every color.” She said, a bit more grounded.

“Void is the same, rather, you can consider void to be the same as the color black. An amalgamation of all magic types, condensed into a single type of magic. As for what that means specifically, it means it’s very good at eating, or absorbing magic or magical properties, but that’s more of a byproduct of it not its true purpose. Now, for an example of what I mean, I need you to transform.”

Before Liche cold complain about her lack of energy, Éclair tossed her a handful of bronze coins. Smartly, Liche didn’t sass, or complain, and simply transformed.

“What now?” She asked.

“Now, I want you to sit there and feel how my magic interacts with yours, and I mean, really feel it.” Éclair says.

Liche nods and braces herself as Éclair crackles with tendrils of electricity snaking around her form. Only to be taken aback when a thin strand shoots out sending a steady surge of electricity into her being.

It didn’t seem to do anything. It didn’t seem even remotely dangerous and Liche was clearly taken aback by the lack of harm.

“Focus!” Éclair barked, causing Liche to remember exactly why Éclair was doing what she was and thus, closed her eyes and began to properly focus.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, yet, as the seconds passed, I noticed a clear, definite change. It was subtle at first, and yet, as the seconds passed, it became ever clearer.

Liche’s uniform, looked almost like she’d stepped out of a neon rave. Her nails, the lining of her clothing, even her miniskirt were all lined with a neon purple coloring. The same as her hair and eyes. Whenever she used her magic, they’d become even more prominent, and yet…

They weren’t purple now, rather, they were rapidly gaining an almost… yellow hue?

“That should be good enough.” Éclair said, “How’s it feel?”

At her words, Liche crackles with electric charge. Not much, but… it was notable.

“Like… Like somebody hooked me up to an industrial battery. Like I have electricity flowing through my veins.” Liche answers in awe.

Éclair laughs. “Right? Now, how about giving me a jolt?”

With a frown, it takes Liche a moment, but eventually she sends a bolt Éclair’s way, only…

“It’s not much…” Liche says, somewhat disappointed. The bolt was small, almost nothing compared to the total energy Éclair showed off, and even that was most definitely only a fraction of her might.

“Of course not. What’s happening is simple, you’ve absorbed my magic and taken on its hue. As long as you keep focusing on it, you can keep a hold of it.”

“And if I relax…” As she spoke, the yellow hue rapidly started to fade, forcing Liche to refocus. “That happens…” She said, mostly to herself and tested her charge again.

I noted, that the electrical charge she could give off was severely reduced.

“That doesn’t make sense though… whenever I use my magic, I always feel oddly detached, like I’m losing myself, why?” Liche asks. “Why now, does it feel like, I’m being centered, if not… amped.” She said, likely not meaning to make that particular joke.

“Because, what happens when you stick a tea bag in a lake? You think the whole lake is going to taste like tea? No matter how condensed that tea bag is, it’s only a single tea bag. The void is empty, only in that it yearns for purpose, yearns for something to satisfy its need for more. Even in nothing, you’ve found something. Colors to pursue, lifestyles to engage. Even without realizing your true power, that you’ve awakened your uniform says a lot about you, like a person dreaming of color, when they’ve only ever seen black and white.”

Éclair’s words made Liche pause. “That…” She starts and pauses again, as if she couldn’t quite comprehend what she’d just been told. Yet, something about her changed, the pull, the feel of her magic seemed to shift in some subtle way.

“Yeah, okay. Just focus on that feeling. Preferably, find others with magic you can leech off of and practice. However, before that I have one final bit to test. Can you absorb physical matter?”

“I… yeah?” Liche replies still lost in whatever emotions she was feeling. “Its really costly, but I can.”

“Cool, try to eat this.” Before Liche can react, Éclair smashed her hammer into the ground, cracking it, and with a swing sent fragments right for Liche.

Liche quickly erected a barrier of void, eating most of the rubble with ease. Yet, Éclair doesn’t stop. Instead, she keeps shoving chunks at her, until its clear Liche is close to bottoming out.

“Right, how’s that feel?”

“Feel!? That…” Liche looks ready to bite off her head, but… frowns. “Huh?” She sways a bit from foot to foot. Raises a hand, lowers it.

“Well?” Éclair asks.

“I feel… heavier?”

“As you should. Consuming mass will increase your own mass. It doesn’t look to be permanent, and it won’t cost you anything to keep it, but you will likely tire out faster.”

“I can feel that, but… is this really valuable?”

As an Answer, Éclair chucks a stone at Liche too fast for her to react. Yet, on hitting her, the rock simply breaks to pieces.

“I… didn’t feel that?” Liche sounds confused. “I mean, yeah, I’m wearing my uniform but…” Again, she really does sound lost.

Seeing that, and seeing how Éclair wasn’t being too helpful, I offered something up. “Your probably more durable, stronger too.”

At that, Liche considers before punching at the nearby wall like an idiot. However, her hand doesn’t break, the wall does. “I guess it does…” Is her final assessment.

Eclair then began to explain other tidbits and information, like how she could improve it, what direction she could move in and such. I wasn’t sure how much of it Liche was getting. She seemed overwhelmed by the realization of what her magic really meant, and honestly, I wasn’t too sure why it had affected her so much. But it seemed rather personal.

Eventually, Éclair finished up and Liche was dismissed. Next, Talia was called up. She gave her a quick dressing down and quickly showed why.

“You say you have ritual magic as a thing, but what that means is your magic is capable of changing type at will. Psychic, water, ice, fire, lightning, light, dark, void, hell, you can do it all, even the most esoteric magic types if you’re given the time and means to decipher them. Why the hell are you only using the bare basics?” Éclair bit out, practically chewing Talia.

“I…” Talia started, paused, “Honestly… I don’t really, I’ve never really tried? I mean, back when I was with, you know, I, I wasn’t supposed to be a frontliner. Me and my team, we were focused on maintaining facilities inside the fortress. After the initial invading force was slaughtered by that girl with the steel web, the one that was suspended over the city, our leader started sending all of us outside our usual areas to try and occupy points of interest…”

Éclair looked over to Nyx, who just shrugged.

“We were trained to be proper combatants, plus, we had simple magics that could be utilized. Anyone that had more complicated magics were essentially put in slave roles. Or people whose magic were considered useless.” Nyx offered.

“Seriously? I mean, I should have expected that much, but it’s still stupid. Sometimes I wonder where Tora even finds their people, or what their criteria is… they often find either the biggest dumbasses, or the most dangerous people alive. Anyway, try infusing your weapons with different elements. Try using other magics.” Éclair sighed…

Talia hesitated, “I don’t, well, I’ve never seen many other magics?” She said, forcing Éclair to groan in audible pain.

“Fine, I’ll give you a crash course. Show you the different elements, see what you can do.” Éclair said, but I could tell she didn’t like it at all.

Éclair gave Talia a crash course on her own magic type. It didn’t take long for the lesson to finish and by the end of it Talia looked ecstatic. Literal tendrils of electricity sparked and snapped around her body. After a few more quick explanations and showcasing her own ability to make other elements with her magic, Talia was now capable of using a variety of magic types. Water came into being, small flames, and such were constantly flickering around her form as she familiarized herself with the different kinds of magic Éclair had just shown her.

They didn’t look very strong, to which, Éclair even pointed out. “Your magic isn’t anything to write home about, at least, in terms of power. However, your more of an item meister, someone that thrives off having proper tools and means at hand to make full use of your magical capabilities.”

“I’ll do that and thank you!” Talia cried out, practically squealing as she ran

“Right, next topic then.” Éclair says once she’s sure Talia has it down.

“Oh? And what would that be?” I asked.

“It’s about your little, experiment over there, Shi, was it?”

“Any advice? Information?” I ask.

“Yeah, so, first, you clearly botched the ritual or whatever you were doing. Miraculously though, she isn’t a dud. Rather, she’s more like a mistake, a mutation of sorts. So, congratulations on that.”

“Is that good?”

“Eh, if it were anyone else, maybe not, but I noticed you were feeding her your blood.”

 I nod, “I am, is that a problem?”

“No, rather keep feeding her your blood, and keep her on it. The only reason you have any kind of control over her, is because every time she feeds from you, she’s reinforcing her bond with you. If you had her feed off anyone else, she might actually go rogue, and well, you don’t want that.”

“And what else? I mean, she seems kind of, lacking for a fox, or rather, a lesser fox.”

“She still has her uniform and weapon, but her magic has clearly degenerated. If anything, I’d say just keep feeding her and let her grow. Eventually she’ll re-manifest her abilities and specialties. If anything, her growth is going to be rather impressive, and she’ll probably be a lot stronger in the end compared to if you’d done the ritual properly. Though, admittedly, I’m not an expert on this stuff.”

“You might be right; she has been growing a lot since I first created her.” I answered back.

Éclair smiled. “Good, now, again, just keep feeding her and eventually she might figure out her other abilities. If not, well, give it time, I guess.”

“Nothing else?”

“Nothing for now, best to let her be to be honest.” Was Éclair’s response. Which was a bit underwhelming. “Now… for the final member here, Joan. You have a rather, interesting set of magic.

Joan, didn’t seem enthused to be called out. Not that it deterred Éclair any.

“Light magic is rather jack of all trades. It has a special benefit of being strong against dark aligned magics and entities. It can be used for healing, constructs, and a myriad of other fun things. Without transforming, your combat sense is impeccable, but that doesn’t make up for the lack of a uniform. As for your uniform…”

Éclair considers a moment.

“Yeah, so, your uniform is a whole other ballgame from what you got. It changes your typing quite a bit. From a defensive healer type to an attacker and purge type. Your shields passively gain retribution effects, your ability to heal looks to be reduced as well, but in exchange the offensive power of your magic skyrockets. That, and it washes away other magic types, hence the term purge. It’s a good set of skills, though odd.”

Joan continues to say nothing as Éclair hums.

“What is surprising…” Éclair says, eyeing Joan, “Is that weapon of yours. A piercing and an execution ability are exceedingly rare.”

“Rare how? And what does it do?” I ask, since Joan was keeping her mouth shut.

“Well, it’s rare as in, outside specific perks, her weapon has an effect of instantly killing people. That light, if it reaches a certain point, she can unleash a devastating attack that can instantly kill and even extinguish the soul of whatever she hits. Instant death.”

“That… isn’t that a bit much? And… you were hit quite a few times, are you sure what you did was safe?”

“Hm? Yeah, I was perfectly fine. She was nowhere near being able to execute me, I assure you of that. Even if I hadn’t worked it out of system, she would have needed hundreds, if not thousands of more strikes to even get close to reaching the threshold.”

Joan frowned but didn’t argue.

“And what makes that ability so, rare?”

“It’s rare because it allows you to circumvent a lot of annoying perks and abilities. A lot of monsters and even veteran magical girls have what you’d call, multiple stages or forms. A lot of perks, when near death will give a sudden boost in strength. Some are just bursts of healing, or surges of energy, kind of like the boost you get.” She says, eyeing me. “Others are a bit more nuanced. Like, when killed, coming back as an undead, or when put into a critical state your body and soul are sacrificed to summon a demon or entity.”

I frowned. “And so, this ability of hers allows her to just, what, ignore that?”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a tough one. Just about every magical girl beyond a certain point kind of needs an execution skill of some sort, but I mean, they usually have really annoying criteria.”

“Does that mean you have one?”

“I do, but again, I haven’t really ever used it. Either because they don’t last long enough, or because if their strong enough that I need it, well, why the hell am I even fighting it?”

“That is… fair I suppose. Doesn’t that make it useless?”

“Depends. It lets you kill certain immortal entities, so, yeah, it is a good skill to have. You don’t necessarily need a gold coin for it, so its not that special, but learning one is, well, it’s close to the final skill you’ll ever pick up. At least, from my own experience.”

Which means, it’s both valuable and not? I didn’t really know what to say to that, and Joan, she didn’t seem to care either way.

“As for my verdict, your fine to use your uniform or not. Your skills are enough that I think you’ll be fine without it and honestly, the loss of utility could put you in a bad spot, so, yeah, I’m not going to say you should use your uniform.”

Joan seemed a bit surprised by that, “Are you… are you serious?”

“I am, just make sure you don’t hold back when the time comes for you to transform.”

“I… I won’t.” Joan answered back firmly.

“Good” Éclair declares, then looks to me, “Now, that should do it for today. As for the next time you show up, I’ll have a proper spar prepared for you.”

“Sounds good, and what of the others?”

“Feel free to bring them along, though, Liche and Joan should probably spend some time honing their skills more. More specifically, I’d like Liche to get her weapon before she comes back, as for Joan, once she gets over her issues, we can work on getting her some training done.”

Joan scowls, but doesn’t argue.

“I’ll keep that in mind and see you next time Éclair.”

“See you next time Prima.” Éclair responds back, and like that I collect everyone and we head home. We ended up splitting up as we left the Lower District. I could tell Liche was lost in thought, and Joan was equally bothered by what had happened. Neither seemed to be in the right state for a conversation, so I simply left it as it is.