He directed his intentions towards the ground rather than the air. And the results were instant. In fact earth spells turned out to be the fastest spells he could cast at the moment. They were the only spells that took less than 0.3 seconds to cast... all because of the abundance of earth.
’Wait... abundance of earth?’ Zephyr thought to himself. ’What if there was an abundance of water... or fire...’
Immediately Zephyr noticed that fact, he instantly rushed out of the training room and went in search of a pool. He remembered he’d seen a fountain in one of the inner courtyards and he immediately headed for that.
A short while after, he reached the fountain and tested out his theory, and at the end of it, Zephyr couldn’t help but facepalm partly in embarrassment and partly in glee.
"Why have I never thought of this?" he chuckled. Thinking back to it now, Smiling Devil had once mentioned something ... something about nobles in their world having various small rift worlds that were heavily concentrated with single elements that they used to train their heirs. He’d said it helped them learn spells related to that element faster.
Zephyr shook his head with a wry smile.
It wasn’t that he had forgotten, it was just that he’d filed away everything Smiling Devil had told him to some corner of his mind, not to be brought up. Who knew how many things the man had told him were lies.
But at least with this one, he hadn’t been lying. Zephyr noted at least a twenty percent increase in his spell casting time for any variation of water spells he wanted to create. Water arrows, water shields, the water jet cutter... Even ice spells were the same. He’d successfully shaved off the time his mana node used to gather and converge liquid molecules from the air.
’I need to have some water on hand wherever I go from now on...’ Zephyr made a mental note before turning to face a presence he’d just sensed entering the courtyard.
"I was wondering when you were going to figure that out." Komi said with a slight shake of her head.
Zephyr grimaced. "It must have been painful to watch."
"Not really. It was amusing actually." Komi said with a straight face. "It was like watching a baby learn to run before walking," she said with a strained smile. "But you’re a Pathfinder
Zephyr simply chuckled. "You’ve been scarce around here lately, anything wrong?" he asked offhandedly.
Komi paused before answering, "Nothing you should concern yourself with at the moment. How is your training going?"
As Zephyr was about to reply, he suddenly paused, watching her gait carefully. Something seemed off about it. "You’re injured." Zephyr pointed out immediately, causing her to frown deeply. She looked like she wanted to ask something before she sighed. "You keep shocking me with how sharp your senses are."
Komi sighed at Zephyr’s silence. He only stared at her intently with some concern on his face.
"You do not need to worry about it. It’s a small thing. I was out on a routine mission, and this happened because of my loss of focus for a moment." She waved a hand in dismissal.
"Well, it doesn’t look like a ’small thing’ to me." Zephyr air quoted. "There are people with healing spell models in this Sanctuary... and yet you’re still injured?"
"...Forget about it, Zephyr."
Zephyr studied her face for a moment before nodding and changing the subject to someone else. They both walked back inside, talking, before splitting up to go attend to their own things.
As Zephyr walked back to his room, his brows were furrowed in deep thought. ’It seems what’s happening is bigger than I thought... For Komi, the sage’s daughter to get injured like that...’ he scoffed, ’routine mission my ass...’ She was downplaying her injury. Zephyr could tell.
He needed to proceed to learning the next word immediately. He had taken a short time off to practice with the available spells he had, but playtime was over now.
The next time something happened he did not want to be babied by anyone!
As Komi walked down the corridor she branched into, she dropped the facade she put up while she was with Zephyr. The full extent of the pain she was feeling presently could be evidently seen on her face.
She bit her lip tightly, drawing a bit of blood as she reached her destination, opening the doors and scrambling towards one of the drawers in search of a specific pre-made spell model. Immediately she found it, she fell to the ground, resting her back against the table’s drawers and ripping open the fabric of her trousers that covered her left thigh.
She winced in pain, drawing a sharp intake of breath as she stared at the spell model that was twirling on her thigh like a living thing. It was a specially made spell model that had a single purpose— To cause pain. It dug into her skin and ate at her like a virus, spreading ever slowly. At the moment, the effect radius had spread even further than the ring sized shape it was originally. Now it was fist sized and growing more.
This was a wicked spell model whose true origin was unknown, but had been popularized and was used mostly by assassins and other nefarious organizations. Its main use was torture.
The spell got progressively harder to bear the more time it was allowed to fester. After a few hours, it would have stretched its effects to the nerves... That was when the real pain started, everything else that came before that was simply the appetizer.
But thankfully, Komi had not reached that point yet. The spell model she had in hand was something her father devised specifically to combat virus-like spells like these.
She slapped the scroll holding the spell model onto the virus and channeled mana into it immediately, activating it.
A guttural cry of pain tore through her throat as it took effect, combatting the virus violently, and essentially turning her thigh to a battleground.
The next few moments were extremely painful and tense. For Komi, it seemed to drag on like time was purposely being slow. She almost passed out from the pain, screaming her lungs out. Thankfully, where she was at the moment—her father’s laboratory, was absolutely soundproof. Even if Zephyr was right outside, he might not have been able to pick up the slightest peep.
Eventually, the pain subsided slowly until it stopped, and she was finally able to stop channelling mana into the spell model.
Her clothes were drenched in sweat as she shivered on the ground she had fallen flat-faced onto at some point. She slowly leaned back up against the table, wondering how she had been able to power through it all while still channelling mana all by herself. Usually a spell required someone else doing the channeling instead.
She panted heavily, gritting her teeth as she thought back to how she was infected by the virus spell in the first place.
They had been way too fast... faster than she’d anticipated...
Her father wasn’t here... which meant... He must have been captured.
"Dammit!" She punched her fist on the ground. It was time to move on to the next step.
She and Zephyr were now in danger!