Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst

A couple of months later, Erik could be seen in Eleonora's mansion studio, where they held their lessons. At first glance, the studio seemed more like a workshop than a traditional study. It was filled with countless metal objects of intricate and complex shapes, with solid stone desks and worktables covered in tools of all kinds, from hammers and pliers to magical artifacts whose purpose only she knew.

"Well, Erik, now that you've mastered the basic techniques, how about we move on to the intermediate and advanced ones?"

Eleonora looked over at Erik, who was sitting at a desk forged in something like bronze that shone with a rich, deep patina, almost organic in appearance, with its legs and edges adorned with a series of runes precisely engraved.

"Of course, master," Erik nodded enthusiastically as he grabbed his notebook and prepared his pen.

"Then let's start with the first one," Eleonora extended her right hand, and a sphere of mana appeared above it, which then moved towards Erik and started to circle around him. "This is called emission, and as you can see, it’s the ability to send your mana outside your body."

Erik watched the small mana sphere in surprise, quickly jotting something down in his notebook as the sphere disappeared, and then he asked, "Master, is it like my flying slashes?"

Eleonora smiled slightly and quickly corrected him, "Not exactly. While it’s true that your flying slashes use this technique, they do much more. But I suppose you had to discover emission when you created them, and since it didn’t give you the results you wanted, you added more things to it."

"Yes, master, that’s what happened at the beginning. I wanted to mimic the void blades of the mystical wolves, but what I initially created was very weak and didn’t resemble the power of the originals at all, so I tried many things until I got them to what they are today, which are pretty close."

"Yes, we’ll talk in depth about your flying slashes later. For now, let’s continue with the techniques, though the next one is something you’re also familiar with. It’s called reinforcement, which allows you to enhance the physical or magical properties of an object or being through mana."

"Isn’t that a basic property of mana, master?"

Eleonora smiled bitterly at Erik's sincere confusion as he looked at her with doubts. After shaking her head slightly, she responded.

"No, it’s not. Mana users generally have to train for several years to do it. While it’s true that some can do it instinctively in their own bodies, not many can, and it’s not so easy to do with external objects."

"I see..."

Erik commented, starting to reflect while jotting things down in his notebook occasionally. But shortly after, Eleonora spoke again, redirecting the star-haired boy’s attention back to her.

"Well, let's move on to the intermediate techniques. Thirdly, we have shape control, and it’s basically this." Eleonora extended her hand, and using only her mana, she created a beautiful bird that flew toward Erik and perched on his head before continuing. "It’s essentially controlling the shape and movement of your mana. You also use this in your flying slash, by the way, but it's something we need to work on much more, as it’s the foundation for the next technique."

Seeing Erik focused and looking at her with great joy, Eleonora smiled with satisfaction and continued explaining with a cheerful voice.

"Now comes what is possibly the most important technique for practitioners of the Aegis system and sacred geometry."

Eleonora extended her hand, and a beautiful, simple magic circle appeared from it, essentially a mixture of different interconnected geometric figures within a circle that began to spin as she continued explaining.

"This technique is known as Mana Formation, which involves creating complex and very precise formations with your mana, such as magic circles or runes."

With a small smile on her face, Eleonora extended her hand and gently stroked Erik’s starry hair, who had run over as soon as he saw the magic circle and was looking at it in great detail.

"So, I can finally cast spells, master?"

As he asked, Erik looked up and gazed at Eleonora with bright eyes, while holding back with all his might the incredible urge that arose within him to celebrate at the top of his lungs.

“Fufufu, yes Erik, you will finally be able to cast spells.” Eleonora's words almost made Erik jump with joy, but the star-haired boy restrained himself and began to clench his fists tightly, celebrating inwardly.

For her part, Eleonora couldn’t find her disciple’s expression any more endearing, so she simply hugged him. Since Erik was now almost as tall as she was, she began to spin gently with him, as if they were dancing to an elegant piece of ballroom music.

“Congratulations, Erik, you will now finally embark on the path of magic.”

“Thank you, master.”

Eleonora and Erik ‘danced’ around the studio for a while, as Eleonora felt very comfortable and completely at peace, enjoying the warmth of Erik. While Erik, for his part, was thinking and fantasizing about all the things he would do with his new spells.

After a while, Eleonora stopped the little improvised dance, and after adjusting her robe slightly, she commented with a beautiful smile on her face.

“Well, let’s continue with the lesson.”

“...”

At Eleonora’s words, Erik nodded, then quickly sat down in his chair again, after which Eleonora resumed the lesson.

“Well, picking up where we left off, now we only have the last of the intermediate techniques, which is one you know very well: ethereal projection. It’s very useful for training and combat, so don’t forget to keep practicing it.”

“Of course, master.” Erik nodded and wrote something down in a new notebook with a blue cover that appeared out of nowhere for a moment, then he stored it back in his storage ring.

“Let’s continue then. Next are the advanced techniques, some of which you already use. The first one is Essence Transformation.”

Eleonora raised her hand with her index and middle fingers extended, somehow mimicking a blade, while a metal rod appeared in her hand. Using only her fingers, she began slicing it into small pieces as if it were an onion, something that surprised Erik a bit, but the beautiful woman with golden eyes continued explaining with a smile.

“Essence Transformation is basically changing the properties of your mana, and although most people use it to convert their mana into their aligned elements because it’s easier, you can also make your mana have properties like sharpness, solidity, or things like that.”

“Like my arrows and the edges of my machetes...” Erik muttered under his breath, though his tone was full of realization, as he jotted down different notes in his notebook.

“Exactly,” Eleonora casually waved her hand, causing the sliced metal pieces to disappear, then continued speaking, “This ability is very useful for things like your slashes or preparing a spell. Additionally, if combined with the next technique, it can increase the power of spells.”

“The next one?”

“Yes, the next advanced technique is known as Mystic Confluence, and it’s basically the ability to influence Myst using mana, which is super useful for enhancing spells and, in your case, creating solidified Myst arrows.”

“I see…”

“But this technique has a significant complication, one you already know from experience, which is that to use Mystic Confluence, you need to have a deep connection with Myst. Additionally, you must adapt to its concentration in the surroundings, or you won’t be able to mobilize Myst properly.

To overcome that problem, there’s the next advanced technique, known as Mystic Adaptation. Although it’s considered an advanced technique, the truth is it's more a set of tricks that help you quickly familiarize yourself with the Myst in a specific area.”

“That’s great! When I first arrived, it took me a while to get used to the high concentration of Myst, so that’s a technique I need to learn by all means.”

Erik commented with a smile as he nodded in understanding, something that made Eleonora smile bitterly. After all, a normal mana user would take days, if not weeks, to fully adapt to a place with a different concentration of Myst, even with the tricks of Mystic Adaptation.

Therefore, it was common for a mana user to try to avoid conflicts when they had just arrived in an area with a Myst concentration very different from what they were accustomed to. That was nothing like the couple of hours it took Erik to adapt to the impressive abundance of Myst at the university, compared to his planet or Sigrún's ship, allowing him to send his flying slashes with ease.

But due to the immense smile on the boy's lips, Eleonora didn’t have the heart to be upset with him. Besides, it wasn’t as if Erik was trying to pull off Sigrún’s typical ‘humblebrag.’ So, Eleonora just held back her annoyance and continued with her lesson, all while starting to plan how to prevent her Erik from picking up that annoying habit from her sworn sister.

“Yes… You need to learn it, but for now, let’s continue with the explanation. The next technique is a bit problematic in your special case, Erik, as it’s known as Elemental Synchronization. This involves synchronizing the elemental affinity with natural elements through Myst, to enhance magical abilities, and it’s what most mages use to improve their spells. But we’re still researching how to adapt it to your case.”

Eleonora commented, feeling a bit uncertain about what to do with this particular technique, since people without elemental affinity were extremely rare. Almost all of them, except for a few, were knights, which made obtaining reliable information even more challenging.

“It’s certainly problematic. During my time on the island, I could never come up with even a small lightning bolt, no matter how much I tried.” Erik couldn’t help but reflectively comment, to which Eleonora responded with a small smile.

“Are you interested in lightning, Erik?”

“Of course! They’re super cool and useful.”

“Fufufufufu.”

Hearing Erik’s enthusiastic response, Eleonora covered herself completely in lightning, causing Erik’s mouth to drop open in awe as he stared at her with bright, excited eyes.

“My affinities are lightning and metal. What do you think?”

Erik ran towards his master and began to excitedly examine her lightning-covered figure from all angles, so Eleonora, a bit amused and at the same time satisfied, struck a few poses for him.

“YOU’RE SUPER COOL, MASTER! TEACH ME!!!”

“Of course, I’ll teach you. Although at first, you’ll have to rely on a spell, over time we’ll figure out a way for you to do it naturally.” Eleonora commented affectionately as the lightning cloak disappeared from her body.

Upon hearing his master, Erik couldn’t contain his excitement and hugged Eleonora tightly, who returned the embrace with a big smile, while the star-haired boy expressed his gratitude.

“Thank you, master, you’re the best.”

“Fufufu, of course, I am—after all, I’m your master.”