One second. That was the time left for the harpy's stinger to pierce Theo's jaw and split his skull in half, lucky if it didn't completely obliterate him. That disdainful look from the harpy reminded Theo of how he was...
"And so, what makes you so powerful?" Kaiser asked Liam. In turn, the lieutenant remained silent.
In the emperor's private training ground, all the lieutenants and generals trained until the emperor decided to test his new choice: Liam Mason.
It is already known that in Egon, those who manipulate science have access to Weltna—equivalent to mana. This ranges from elemental manipulation to innate techniques. But for the cursed Le Fay, this term is broken. Without Weltna, without obedience to the laws of physics, only that which breaks all universal laws: true magic, witchcraft.
All of this lineage were hunted and burned alive, both by the lesser nobles of Egon and the rival empire of Mikoto. Therefore, it is rare to see a true Le Fay in combat. And the battle between Liam and Kaiser soon became the main attraction for the emperor's lieutenants and generals.
"Not much of a talker, huh?"
Kaiser walked up to Liam, removing his coat. Touching Liam's face, he leaned in, lightly analyzing the scars.
"These aren't battle scars. Why don't you heal them? I think you'd be more attractive to women, given that you already are," said Egon.
Kaiser Egon continued running his thumb over Liam's face, who did not respond in any way. Neither with eye contact nor physical contact. Until Egon accidentally touched the deepest scar on Liam: a deep cut on his throat. A gift from his father at the age of ten, the glass fragment went so deep that it pierced an artery. At that moment, the blue eyes of both met.
"Hmm," Egon breathed, tossing Liam's face to the side and circling the soldier. "Finally looked me in the eyes. So, how about telling me why?"
"You are inferior." These were Liam's first words directed at the emperor.
"What did you say?"
"You are weaker than me. Everyone here is. I see no point in relating to people like that."
"Good. The Egorian concept: I am better than everyone. Nothing is greater than our ego and pride. So, Liam. If you're better than me, why am I the emperor and not you?"
"Because I haven't wanted to kill you yet," Liam retorted. "To be the emperor, all I need to do is kill you. Just like you did with your father."
"This insolence of his towards the emperor is starting to irritate me..." muttered General Johan, listening to the two talk from afar.
"Then why don't you kill me?" Kaiser inquired.
"You're assuming responsibilities I don't want for myself. You're more useful alive," Liam retorted.
"I see. I'm weaker, huh? So if I beat you in a fight, will you obey me?"
"Try," Liam challenged.
The third lieutenant, James, just watched from afar, crossing his legs and finding a more comfortable position.
James graduated with Liam from the military academy, so they already knew each other. Besides, he also comes from the same lineage as Liam.
"This will be interesting," commented James.
"What will be interesting? Kaiser beating the spoiled brat?" Johan inquired.
"Why spoiled? Egorians are raised that way," said Lieutenant Mia. "All selfish, arrogant, proud, and vain. They've always been raised to think they're superior to everything and everyone, except God. You can deny it, but less than fifteen years ago, all of you were like that too. Isn't that right, generals?"
"General Johan, it's not Kaiser who will win," said James. "It will be the first drop of Egon's blood."
The more experienced generals fell silent. The newer ones held back a muffled laugh, and Johan couldn't contain himself at the rookie lieutenant's insult.
"The lion is at the top of the food chain in the jungle. What other living being would go against something like that?"
"Lion?" James inquired. "The personification of Kaiser Egon may be a lion. Nothing more fitting than the king of the jungle for the emperor. But to personify Liam..."
Kaiser and Liam positioned themselves for combat.
"There's nothing more fitting than..." Without changing his expression, while Kaiser's eyes widened, Liam moved the first muscle. "Death itself," James completed, releasing a sadistic smile in response to Liam's brutal advance against the emperor.
Liam's punch was three seconds faster than the sound emitted by the movement, yet Kaiser dodged with some difficulty. Counterattacking, Egon unleashed dozens of kicks, which Liam predicted before the initial movement was even made.
Holding Egon's left leg, Liam kicked behind the emperor's right knee, completely unbalancing his opponent. Not satisfied, Liam drove his elbow into Kaiser's face and smashed him to the ground. Still trying to process, the emperor thought:
'I couldn't even react...' he pondered, panting. 'His response time is incredible. He didn't think, he just acted, unlike me.' He reasoned. 'As soon as the fight started, I didn't think he would attack so quickly. I imagined he was the strategic type who would take more time, but that wasn't the case... Besides, I couldn't use my innate technique from the start. Is this the ability that Morgan's witchcraft gave him? The ability to nullify Weltna?' Egon concluded.
"Do you understand now, Kaiser? You're only alive because..."
"Yes, I understand. It seems a rivalry will arise," said Kaiser.
"Never. Rivals are equivalent people. We already have the answer of who is superior," he said, extending his hand. Accepting the gesture, Kaiser stood up, saying:
"Liam, I've always recognized my weaknesses. That's why I keep in mind that there's still a ladder to climb to become a true emperor. Are you willing to accompany me?"
"Willing, I am not. But since I'm being forced..." Liam retorted.
"Relax, Kaiser," said James, jumping on Liam's shoulders. "The idiot here feels honored by your offer."
"Sorry. But who are you?" Kaiser inquired.
"Ah! Of course. I'm Second Lieutenant James. Rookie."
"So you're the other Le Fay? Splendid," he said, smiling as he stretched out his hand for a handshake with James.
And without knowing it, the most powerful trio in history casually met for the first time.
All this memory passed through Theo's head in just 0.800 milliseconds. Time became an irrelevant concept, just like on a boring day in class, time seemed to stand still. Of the remaining time for the stinger to hit Theo, only 200 milliseconds were left.
"I can't... I can't be like him. If I were, I wouldn't be so weak. I... give up."
His entire body relaxed, allowing the harpy to attack him.
At the last second, the mark on his hand exploded in a gust of wind that threw Theo back and scared the harpy away. Taking advantage of the distance, Theo's body moved on its own to execute a silent spell.
Pulling from the mark on his left palm a green energy arrow, which soon turned into wind. The arrow, though made of energy, was casually affected by the ambient wind. Unconsciously, Theo's lips moved:
"Artemis: Sagitta Lunae Divinae Cervi."
The wind arrow was shot at the harpy, but before reaching the beast, it split into two small deer antlers, circling the harpy in opposite directions like the moon around the planet.
Seeing the show of natural lights, Theo woke up again. He had passed out, but his own body hadn't given up on fighting. Even so, Theo was sure he hadn't acted.
Theo fled through the forest while the arrow continued to spin around the harpy. The beast just stood paralyzed, processing it. As a being whose instinct is to prove itself the best of that element, the harpy was undecided about which to attack first: the sorcerer or the spell, unable to distinguish one from the other.
Joining again into an arrow, it didn't take long for the spell to explode into a strong tornado.
One minute fleeing through the forest.
That was how long Theo lasted to circle the hill and return to the crystal's territory, but not alone. After getting rid of the spell, the harpy appeared again behind Theo, hunting him fiercely.
"Aryna, now!" Theo ordered.
Instantly, Ivan and Antony advanced against all the beasts attacking Aryna. Gesturing a gun with her fingers, she remembered the words Theo had recently said.
"Take a deep breath. Close your eyes." Aryna followed each step respectively. "Focus on your core. There's nothing but billions of particles trying to escape from a limited sphere. Compress! Push them back in. Turn them into just one..."
The more nuclear energy someone has, the greater the energy discharge in a single attack. With Aryna, it's no different: even in her spell that requires the least energy, she released the equivalent of 50% of an initial core—blue or yellow, being the weakest cores.
With this, deviants with greater energy capacity, like Aryna, use a complex technique where energy is compacted. Generating billions and billions of energy particles all the time, the technique allows the deviant, with immense concentration, to turn those billions of particles into just one, reducing the cost by 100%.
Having a limited energy source, this is something Theo is aware of but cannot use. Since even after compressing the energy, there must be an external source to fill the space of the other particles. But for Aryna, the situation is different. The term infinite energy refers to a hypothetical situation where the core itself, even if empty, will generate energy on its own without needing an external source like natural mana to replenish the charge.
With infinite energy and the particle compression technique, all Aryna needs is enough concentration to keep up. Concentrating, time became nonexistent for Aryna. It's as if the universe gave her the necessary time to think.
The green particles of Aryna's core, which were trying to escape the energy sphere, compressed to a subatomic level. What was once a star was now just a photon. Slowly, the empty space of the core filled itself.
A single drop of water began to slide from the tip of Aryna's right index finger. In the blink of an eye, this drop turned into a high-pressure water jet that pierced the harpy's core. Extending her arm upwards, Aryna split the beast in half as if cutting paper.
"Yes!" Theo mentally celebrated.
His body was so tired that he couldn't even move his lips or express happiness. Even so, he used his last movement to create a gust of wind that threw him against the crystal.
All the birds turned to the crystal as soon as the harpy died. Antony and Ivan ran to protect Theo's advance while Rebecca created a barrier with the same goal.
Just two steps from the crystal, Theo felt the purity emanating from it. Just one step away, the crystal began to crack. Something that, if it lasted another minute, would give life to a grade six monster in Paul's conception.
But Theo managed to prevent that from happening. And how? Simple: by grabbing the crystal that was about to implode, Theo absorbed all that immense amount of energy until the crystal finally became colorless.
The horde of birds generated by the arcane soon exploded into green particles.
Rebecca fell to her knees, sighing with joy. After all, the nearly hour-long fight was over.
"What do you mean?!" Antony complained, dissatisfied with the outcome. "Why did we let him take the energy from the crystal?"
"The fight only existed for that to happen," said Rebecca.
"Huh?"
"On the first contact with Amiah, we heard Theo talk about a certain problem," said Ivan. "Paul explained to us that the problem was Theo's limited energy source. That's why, since we arrived in the forest, we only looked for ether animals. Even though we didn't succeed..."
"That was the reason we started the fight against this crystal. It was the reason you entered the territory, wasn't it?" Aryna inquired, treating Antony with disdain.
"Of course," he stammered. "Obviously, it was for that. I was worried about my friend. Obviously, I knew that," Antony replied, in a not very convincing tone.
"Sure..."
As the particles ceased, Amiah and Paul decided to go see their students. Four of them were physically well, except for Theo, who was on the verge.
"Now that we've completed the mission..." said Aryna. "We're going to Fulmenbour, right?" she asked Paul.
"Yes," Paul retorted. "But we're not going for leisure. So forget about buying hundreds of clothes," he reprimanded the two girls. Aryna exchanged angry glances with her mentor.
"Can you get up?" Amiah asked Theo.
"Yes," he replied, pain in his voice. With a brief effort, Theo managed to stand up.
The other students were already following the trail through the forest with Paul. They seemed less worn out than they really were.
Theo looked at his left palm for the mark, but it was no longer there. "Was that a surge?..." he asked himself.
"What is it?" Amiah asked.
"It's nothing..." he retorted, looking at his hand. "Yeah. It's nothing. Can we go back?"
"You should already be in the carriage," she replied in a sarcastic but serious and concerned tone.
"That feeling before... it was definitely an ether explosion. It didn't come from the harpy, I'm sure of that. The kid doesn't have enough energy for that. So who..." Amiah thought.
"That mark before... Was it an energy illusion? No... The feeling was too real for an illusion..."
In moments of crisis, energy particles gather in a single place. Directly affecting the individual's brain, these same particles generate an illusion of some kind. Usually, these illusions make the deviant gain confidence and momentum, thinking they are more powerful when, in fact, they are getting weaker. Although they affect vision, energy illusions stop there. They are nothing more than visual, incapable of creating sounds, sensations, feelings, or smells.
"The worst part is that... I simply performed a spell I've never even seen before." As he walked, Theo closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. "Practicing meditation while walking is complicated, but I think I can guide the energy to my hand..."
As he guided the energy through a vein to his left hand, his body froze. Theo's eyes widened before weakening. His vision became blurry, accompanied by his muscles relaxing.
And finally, after a tiring escape from a griffin, a small trip to Hades' spiritual realm, only three hours of rest, and half a day of battles... Theo's body succumbed to fatigue, falling to the ground like a stone.