Ch 23: Elementum Orbis, the Elemental Circle

After treating Grey's EDE poisoning, Mythra takes him and Scott to a strange cave to train. Giving them a real crash course, can the two even survive when Mythra gets serious?

            Mythra’s House. Thursday May 31, 520NA. Grey awoke in one of Mythra’s guestrooms. He could see the sun shining through the window beside the bed. Looking around at the room’s white and gold décor, he wondered, “What happened? Wasn’t I just walking through Mythra’s house? I guess I passed out or something…” Getting out of bed, he walked over to look out the window. Outside he could see Scott and Amy, most likely practicing something from the looks of it, as Alexander looked on saying something he assumed were instructions on what to do for their training. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and from the other side he heard Mythra say, “Grey, are you awake? I saved you some breakfast.” Grey took a seat on the bed and said, “Yeah, I’m up.” Mythra opened the door and entered. She was wearing an apron over her clothes, and carrying a large tray with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and of course tea. Smiling, she said to him, “I hope you feel better. After you’re finished eating, I need to draw more of the EDE out of you.” She handed him the tray, and placing it on his lap, Grey asked, “You need to draw EDE out of me?” Mythra sat on the bed next to him, and while Grey worried about how close she was getting considering the events of yesterday, he simply focused on his food. As he started eating, Mythra said, “Grey, you know you were possessed by the Nameless One, right?” Grey, swallowing his bacon, replied, “Yeah… I feel pathetic when I think about it. I’d known it was possible my parents had been killed three years ago, but… they meant everything to me. Even though I couldn’t remember anything about them, it was a feeling that didn’t go away. I remember now, how they were always so kind and caring. They took me in even though I wasn’t really their son. But now… they’re dead because of me. Because of who I am.” 

Suddenly Mythra turned and hugged him, and struggling to keep his breakfast from sliding off the tray, Grey said, “Whoa, Mythra what are you doing?! You almost made me lose the tray!” Still clinging to him, Mythra said, “Your heart… Now I’m drawn to you even more… You’re just like me! Your heart has a deep wound in it, doesn’t it?” Taken aback, Grey said, “I’m… like you?” Grey wondered if she had meant the fact they were both half human or if she had some great tragedy in her past as well. Suddenly though, he got the feeling of anger coming from somewhere, and before he could look up to see her standing in the doorway, he heard Amy shout, “Mythra! What are you doing to Grey?!” Turning to look at her with an annoyed expression, Mythra replied, “What’s it to you?” Releasing Grey and standing to face her, Mythra continued, “Amy, was it? What business is it of yours what I do with Grey? What are you to him?” Suddenly on the spot, Amy struggled to figure out how to answer, stammering, “I-I… W-we’re…” Seeing Amy was getting nowhere with her response, Mythra smirked and said, “Unless you’re his girlfriend or something, you’re not really in a position to say what he can or can’t do with women.” Mythra turned to Grey, smiled, and said, “See you later Grey! Enjoy your breakfast!” Walking to the door where Amy now stood looking defeated, as Mythra passed her, she whispered, “If you don’t have the guts to show your feelings, you won’t get anywhere!” After Mythra had gone, Grey struggled to explain things, saying, “Amy, it’s not what you think! We weren’t doing anything! She just grabbed me, I swear!” Amy did not seem to hear as she walked away, looking depressed.

            “All right Alexander, that’s enough work on the basics for Scott.” Mythra shouted as she came walking out of the house, looking out where Scott and Alexander were hard at work on their training. Serius stood on the porch watching them as well, arms crossed in front of him. As he and Scott walked up to the porch, Alexander replied, “Oh? I take it you’re going to begin your lesson then?” Amy came out of the house, still looking down, and as Grey came out after her, Mythra continued, “Yep. You can continue to train Amy until she’s actually useful in battle. I’m taking Grey and Scott to assess their abilities!” Hearing this, Grey paused in his pursuit of Amy and said, “Wait, we’re starting now? I still have breakfast upstairs!” With a compassionate smile, Mythra said, “Sorry Grey, but breakfast is officially over! It’s time to get to work!” With a sigh, Grey muttered, “Ok…” Motioning for him and Scott to follow her, Mythra walked back into the house with them in tow. As they made their way deeper into Mythra’s house, Scott asked, “Um, Mythra? Why are we going to train inside your house? It’s a nice place, but from the way you were talking, I get the feeling the kind of training we’d be doing might break something…” With a chuckle, Mythra simply said, “You’ll see…” At last they approached a door that seemed rather different than the other doors in Mythra’s house. Green with a line of gold going around it, its shape was curvy and it had no handle, only a strange looking combination lock. Using her finger, Mythra turned each of the reels of numbers on the lock to form a specific combination. 8033. She then pushed the door, and it swung inward. Beyond it Grey and Scott could see only darkness, and gesturing for them to enter, Mythra said, “Step right in boys…”

            Entering the room beyond the door, Grey and Scott found themselves within some kind of massive underground cavern. Looking around at the glowing crystal formations, the enormous stalagmites, Grey exclaimed, “What the hell?!” Scott muttered in awe, “This isn’t possible…” As she walked inside as well, the door shut behind Mythra and she said, “Welcome to the Timeless Caverns.” Turning to her in the hope that she could explain, Scott said, “We didn’t even go down any stairs or… or anything! Your house isn’t built near any cave or rocks either, so just how did we get here?!” With a slight laugh, Mythra said, “Come on now… Are you really surprised by anything anymore? Hurry up and get with the program, because magic is very real!” Having been hoping for a more rational explanation, Scott quickly said, “Magic? You’re talking about your energist abilities or something, right?” 

            Shaking her head in disgust, Mythra replied, “Alexander didn’t tell you anything, did he? The elements that make up this world, magical energies, are commonly manipulated using EDE. Fire, water and ice, wind, earth, lightning, light, and darkness, these are the elements that make up the currently accepted elemental table. There are powers outside this table that can either be used only through EDE or only through magic, but aside from the strength and durability energists get from the EDE fortifying their bodies, the difference between energists who have ‘elemental’ powers and most magic users really comes down to the method you use those elements with. Manipulating magical energy directly without using EDE requires training in the use of incantations and magical arrays called rune circles, controlling it through the language of the world itself.” Gesturing to herself with a somewhat smug expression, Mythra continued, “I fight using a knowledge of both magic and EDE. With my knowledge of advanced spells, along with my ability to use incantations by merely thinking about them, I have become renowned by those who know me as the Spellweaver! Rune Swordsmanship itself is an ability that Alexander created to copy my unique EDE and magic combination, and uses an original style of magic incantations he devised from some ancient writings. Its versatility is so great that Amanus studied it as well, becoming Alexander’s first apprentice. So anyways, shake off whatever doubts you may have! Because the truth is that you have just stepped through a gateway between worlds, a gateway I created with my mastery of magic!” 

Walking further into the cavern as they remained looking around the cavern in wonder, she turned to them and said, “Now that my explanation is over, it’s time to show me what you’ve got!” Turning their attention to Mythra, Scott and Grey watched as she gathered EDE and channeled magical energies. A purple rune circle appeared behind her, and out of it formed a floating, old looking broom. As Mythra jumped onto it like it were a surfboard and rose into the air, she raised a hand in front of her and formed a red rune circle, and out of it shot a rain of fireballs. The rain of fire coming straight for them, Grey and Scott quickly moved to avoid, fiery explosions erupting behind them. Mythra continued to shoot fireballs after them, and still fleeing from the explosive barrage, Grey formed his twin swords and set his aura ablaze as he shouted, “D****t Mythra, that was too dangerous!” Running up a tall crystal formation, he forcefully pushed off of it with his legs, propelling himself through the air at her. Instead of trying to slash at her, he positioned his body to deliver a flying kick, but with an effortless aerial movement on her broom, she dodged his attack. Raising her hand at Grey as he flew by, a light green rune circle formed and from it came blades of wind. With no time to even raise his swords in defense, Grey was bombarded by the wind blades. Fortunately they were not powerful enough to deal fatal damage, but the blades still left painful wounds upon his body. A glow in both her silver and violet eye, Mythra said, “Sorry Grey! I’m afraid if you want to get out of here in one piece, you’re going to have to fight me without holding back!”

            Dodging as a blast of lightning shot up at her, Mythra looked down to see Scott charging towards her, his battle staff scraping upon the floor of the cave as he shouted, “You just pushed this way too far Mythra!” Smirking, Mythra replied, “A loyal friend, aren’t you? I see your affinity is for the lightning element.” Scott pushed a button upon his staff and it split apart into multiple segments connected by conductive wire, becoming a whip like weapon with much greater range. Lashing out with it, Scott barely missed Mythra as she dodged again and again, and Mythra called out, “Impressive! That’s a handy weapon there! However it doesn’t appear to be an Anima Weapon. It’s interesting how you two have similar personalities, yet you have learned your affinity but not the ability to use your Anima Weapon, while Grey is completely the opposite.” Continuing to lash out with his whip staff, Scott shouted back, “Anima Weapon? You mean the EDE weapons some energists can summon?” Mythra gathered a mass of EDE into her hand, which crystallized into a wand, the end of it with a swirly looking shape and studded with a dark purple gem. Pointing it at Scott, Mythra said, “This is an Anima Weapon, a weapon created by my very essence!” The gem glowed and explosive stars of purple arcane magic spewed forth from it in a cone toward Scott. Fleeing as the rain of stars rained down after him, Scott found cover behind a stalagmite, muttering to himself, “This is really getting out of hand!” Meanwhile, Grey had struggled to his feet. Moving as fast as his injuries allowed, as he reached Scott, he took cover as well as he said, “We won’t win unless we do this together.”

As Mythra slowly hovered closer to their hiding place, Grey and Scott stepped out. Scott, having contracted his weapon back into a staff, charged at her with Grey right behind him. Flying back out of their range, Mythra pointed her wand at them, and the gem glowed again as a large star of arcane magic formed and shot forth. Scott raised his staff and Grey leaped onto it, and with all his strength, Scott thrust Grey at Mythra as he leaped off the staff towards her. Grey sliced the arcane star in half horizontally with a wave of energy from his sword, the halves sailing past him as he continued towards Mythra, who effortlessly deflected the wave with her wand as Grey chanted, “Ego Voco Vos, Ventus Acies!” Finishing just as Mythra dodged out of the way and raised a hand to counter like before, as light green runes glittered upon his swords, Grey channeled EDE into them and unleashed bursts of wind that propelled him towards her. Slamming into Mythra, he continued to pour on EDE, driving her straight into the side of a stalactite on the ceiling of the cavern. Falling, Grey began to slow his fall with his wind swords, as down below Scott spun his staff so that the ends scraped upon the floor. Having grabbed hold of her broom and slowed her fall as well, Mythra struggled to mount it once more. Touching down safely, Grey landed upon the top of a rock shaped like a stone pillar and chanted, “Cesso, Septimo Spiritus Aqua.” Then looking up at Mythra, he called out, “Look, we don’t want to hurt you Mythra! Just cut it out already!” Having regained her composure and gotten back on the broom, Mythra laughed and said, “Please! Don’t get so full of yourself! I know your potential, my dear Grey, but as far as I’ve seen you have yet to control it! That’s why I’m training you, and this lesson is far from over!”

            Scott looked over at Grey, and Grey nodded back. Stabbing his staff into the ground, he left it there and began heading towards the edge of the cavern as Grey leaped towards the stone ceiling of the cavern. Reaching the ceiling he stabbed one sword into it, and as he released it and fell away, he shouted, “Iacio!” Shooting from the blades came blue lines, tracing a large blue rune circle upon the cavern ceiling. With a tone of confusion, Mythra said, “But that rune circle is for-” She left her sentence unfinished as water began to rain down from the rune circle upon the cavern. Reaching the ground, Grey landed on his feet and jammed his remaining sword into the ground as he chanted, “Validus Terra Obex!” A dark green rune appeared on the ground, and rising up from it came walls of stone that formed a shell around Grey. Mythra, soaked with water as the rain continued to pour down, looked down at the shell and said, “Now the stone barrier? What is going through your head? Wait… Oh no!” It was too late. Shooting out from Scott’s staff came powerful lightning, and jumping from drop to drop, it was conducted upwards until it reached Mythra. With a scream, she hung in the air with electricity crackling around her, until Scott’s staff finally stopped expelling lightning. Mythra fell to the ground as Scott ran up the stone barrier, which began to unfold from around Grey and sink back into the ground. In a worried tone, Scott said, “You think we overdid it?”

Suddenly they heard Mythra laughing. Rising to her feet with broom and wand in hand, she exclaimed, “You certainly make up for your lack of power with your cunning! I see I’m going to have to stop taking it so easy on you two…” As a powerful aura erupted from Mythra, she rose into the air on her broom once more, and holding her wand before her, she said, “Let me show you… my Grand Anima Weapon!” Taking the form of energy again, her wand became a mass of EDE. The mass of EDE grew, and as it twisted and contorted, it took a different form. Around her crystallized seven floating crystals, one red, one blue, one yellow, one dark green, one light green, one black, and one white. Gathering the crystals before her in a circle, Mythra shouted, “Behold my Elementum Orbis! Empowering my mastery of all the known magical elements, it enables me to channel a spell from each crystal, allowing me to cast one spell for each of the seven offensive elements all at once!” From the crystals of her Elementum Orbis, seven rune circles formed before her, one of the corresponding color centered at each crystal. Seeing where this was going, Grey shouted at Scott, “RUN!” Just as they both began to flee, from each circle came wide beams of the corresponding elemental energies, a beam of fire energy, a beam of icy energy, a beam of lightning energy, a beam of nature energy, a beam of wind energy, a beam of dark energy, and a beam of light energy. The explosion as the beams struck at where Grey and Scott had been shook the entire cavern, and sent Grey and Scott flying. As dust clouds filled the cavern, Grey struggled to his feet and muttered, “What the hell do we do against something like that?! At this rate we’re going to cause a cave in…” With a smug laugh, Mythra called out, “Are you impressed by the power of my Elementum Orbis? What clever trick do you have to defeat me now?” Struggling up, Scott yelled back, “Alright, we’re impressed Mythra! Can we please just stop?! We aren’t learning anything doing this!” Smirking again, Mythra replied, “That’s just because you’re not paying attention! I told you before what you lack! If you can’t figure it out, I may as well put you both out of your misery!” Scott ran for cover as Mythra fired her Elementum Orbis at him again.

            Taking cover behind a stalagmite, Grey thought, “What we lack…?” Suddenly he remembered what she said earlier, “It’s interesting how you two have similar personalities, yet you have learned your affinity but not the ability to use your Anima Weapon, while Grey is completely the opposite.” Rushing over to where Scott hid and diving for cover as Mythra fired her seven colored beams after him, as Grey reached Scott he got to his feet and asked, “Scott, how did you learn your affinity?” Obviously confused by this out of the blue question, Scott said, “What?” Mythra’s ears twitched, and she smiled a bit as she muttered to herself, “Took you long enough…” Meanwhile, Grey was hastily explaining himself to Scott, saying, “I’m starting to think she’s trying to get us to learn from each other. It’s true up till now I never worked on developing an affinity because Alexander wanted me to learn Rune Swordsmanship. You teach me about how to learn my affinity, and I’ll teach you how to summon your weapon!” Somewhat skeptical of his plan, Scott replied, “That would be great if she weren’t hovering overhead raining death on us! Besides, affinities are a special manifestation of your power, so they’re almost always different. Mine allows me to create and control lightning, and also lets me absorb static electricity for extra power. I don’t know how to teach it, the Special Forces just helped me develop it, and it took about a month before I’d started to really get it down! The only real reason I was such high rank in the Special Forces was because I got promoted after I fought you in Luminosa! I should have still been a Lieutenant Colonel!” Making a calming motion with his hands Grey said, “Ok, ok! That was a little more than needed to be said… Look, how did the Special Forces help you develop your affinity?” As the two conversed behind the stalagmite, Mythra remained where she was, hovering in place and listening to them using her exceptional hearing as she thought to herself, “Honestly, this is taking too long. I guess I’d better figure out something to do for a while…”

            After half an hour had passed, behind the stalagmite the Grey and Scott, having exchanged information, now worked on their respective focus of training. Gathering a mass of EDE before him, Scott said, “I think I’m actually getting it!” However he lost it after a moment instead of managing to crystallize it, and with a sigh he said, “Or not… I dunno if this plan’s gonna work.” Grey, focusing upon EDE he’d gathered, said, “Well it does seem that she wanted us to work on this together. I mean she’s not coming after us after all. Do you really have any better plans?” Shaking his head, Scott returned to trying to form his weapon. Meanwhile, Mythra sat up in the air waiting and reading a book. Finally, after another half an hour had passed, Scott and Grey stepped from behind the stalagmite with confident looks upon their faces. Both quickly narrowed their eyes as they laid eyes upon her, sitting in the air reading a book and sipping a juice box. Noticing them, she quickly threw away the book and the juice box and said, “W-what?! You’re the ones who took over an hour to figure things out!” With a sigh, Grey replied, “You could have taught us yourself! I’ll admit I definitely learned something from all this, but wouldn’t it just be easier if you’d told us straight up what to do?” A sly smirk on her face, she said, “Perhaps, but then again not everything in life is easy! I had several reasons for teaching you in this way. One, I was able to see your current level of strength, as well as how resourceful you can be. After all, if you were weak and stupid it wouldn’t be worth my time to train the two of you. Two, it was a good way to judge how well the two of you can work together, both in and out of battle. Three, experience against a powerful opponent is always useful! Anyway, I assume you’re ready? Show me what the two of you have learned!”

Reviews

[Ryan Henderson]

Wow! I am LOVING Mythra's character! She is teasing, affectionate and seems to have a liking towards Grey. I also love the friction between Amy and Mythra, as this suggests that there will be some rivalry between them coming up. I think that because Mythra is more bold than Amy with her feelings towards Grey, I think that Grey may take a liking to Mythra, but then something may happen that convinces Grey that Mythra is not the girl for him and he chooses Amy. I don't know, Romance is REALLY NOT my strong point. Great work with this!

One thing that I did not mention in my last review that I probably should have is this; I really want to know for sure what Mythra looks like. I don't think she was described other than the fact that she is young. I would REALLY like to know how YOU pictured Mythra as you wrote the book. Did your image of her change as the book goes on? Did your liking for her change as the book went on? Please, message me some time on this.

Very nice work! No spelling errors as usual and I loved it as usual. Very nice chapter, one of my favorites. Keep writing!

[KeithKVH]

Thank you for the review! I'm glad you're liking Mythra and I apologize it seems that Mythra's appearance seems to be unclear. I will message you more about her, I do think I described her though, it was near the end of Ch 21: He of the Infinite where she first appears. It is understandable that it was lost since you had some things to take care of right after reading that chapter.

I will review your chapter twelve soon, glad that nothing happened to it. With the system on the site, I know people who accidentally deleted whole books. xD

[Ryan Henderson]

Lol! I will go back to chapter 21 and read about Mythra. Sorry if forgot it, I did have something to take care of.