Legacy of the Dark Sage

After so many times of failed attempts to mold his magic, Kyran decided to rest.

He lay on the floor in the middle of the training room and stared absentmindedly at the array drawn on the ceiling.

'What am I doing wrong? Is imagining the shape not the correct way to do it? Or is it because my magic doesn't have a solid form, to begin with?' He wondered.

He lifted his left arm and spread his hand as if reaching for the ceiling before summoning his magic. A purple ring appeared above his palm, which rotated in slow motion.

'My magic really looks strange,' he thought.

Nolan said it before. Magic manifested differently among every mage.

Like his magic, other magic did not have shapes. He also read about it from one of the books Stella selected. However, though it did not have a shape, its appearance was similar to its natural element. Thus, it was easy to identify.

For example, fire magic looked exactly like a real fire when a mage summoned it. And when a mage molded fire magic, it would adapt the imagined object's shape, but the base would still have the characteristic of fire.

It was the same with Dante's earth magic.

When Dante molded his magic into arrows, the moment it hit him, it still felt like solid earth. Even if it looked like an arrow, it did not have the edge nor the sharpness of a real one.

'Dante is good in molding his magic, too.' Kyran thought.

He remembered how Dante could mold his magic as easily as if its second nature to him. Not to mention he could mold several pieces at once; he was practically a cheat.

'Second nature...' Kyran thought with a sigh. 'Some people are just born to be really good at something, huh.'

If anyone knew what Kyran was thinking, they would probably pop a vessel. He was already complaining when his innate magic was enough to crush any other mage's self-confidence.

Taking a deep breath, Kyran canceled his magic and lowered his hand before getting back into a sitting position.

"It's second nature to him probably because he practiced like crazy. Don't compare and get discouraged," Kyran reprimanded himself.

He knew Dante had the advantage of years. And compared to him, who was only learning about using his magic now, he was way behind. Anyway, his training earlier was not really unproductive. While he did not progress, he had an inkling that something was missing in his 'imagination'.

Because Dante was his only reference, Kyran tried to recall the scene when he fought with him.

'Although he was still using arrays, his magic attack was almost flawless.' He remembered.

Then he recalled the time when Dante summoned several lava-like arrows.

'He created multiple arrays, and then the arrows appeared on...' Kyran suddenly stopped. Slowly his eyes widened as realization hit him, 'The arrows... they appeared on the array as arrows!'

He finally realized what he was doing wrong!

He immediately looked at his palm and roused his magic. A wry smile appeared on his face as he muttered, "No wonder I can't do it right. I've been treating the rings as my magic's initial state when in fact, it is already a shape. You can't make a square out of a ring."

Once again, he roused his magic. In the middle of his palm, a purple dot slowly appeared and expanded. It was shaking a little, but it already had a vague square shape instead of looking like rings.

Kyran was ecstatic when he saw his magic finally appear in a different shape other than a ring.

'Now, focus and imagine the shape more clearly.'

His magic's square shape became more distinct.

"Try another one," he murmured and looked at his right hand. "This time, a triangle."

​ A small purple dot appeared in the middle of his palm and slowly expanded. Unlike with the square, his magic was able to form a triangle shape without any problem.

He looked at both his hand. The two shapes slowly circled above his hands.

Kyran grinned and said, "Nice."

For the next few minutes, Kyran tried out different shapes on both his hands. The shape he created would always be different on each hand. His reason, of course, was to summon magic simultaneously while dividing his focus.

When he was satisfied, Kyran decided to move to the next step.

The truth, he wanted to learn molding techniques because he realized he lacked something. This realization hit him while he was reading a book about some recorded mage battles in history.

He realized that he would be at a disadvantageous position in a more high-level mage battle because he lacked a weapon.

If it was only a normal weapon, he had a few inside his pouch. But the weapon he needed was actually a magic weapon.

Magic weapons were crafted using special materials with magic attributes. Using such weapons, a mage could integrate his magic into the weapon and even multiply its power.

Dante also had one. A great sword most likely possessing earth attributes. Even the psycho bastard had a staff.

With the kind of magic Kyran possessed, he doubted whether there was a weapon where he could integrate his magic. He could already see the outcome of the weapon being destroyed. And so, his only option of having a weapon was to create one using his magic through molding.

Fortunately, Kyran could hold his magic without a problem.

"Alright, now let's try it-."

BANG!

The doors to the training room suddenly burst open, and Kyran's heart almost leaped out of his mouth from shock.

He immediately turned his attention to the doors.

"So, here you are, you rascal." A huge man with unruly short dark brown hair, with a big cross-shaped scar on his forehead, stood at the entrance looking at Kyran with a malicious grin.

Kyran slightly frowned and stood up.

"Who are you-!"

Before he could finish his sentence, the huge man unbelievably disappeared from his view and reappeared a few feet above him. The man's fist poised to hit him.

Kyran knew it was too late to dodge, so by reflex, he lifted both his arms to protect his head, then bent his knees to brace himself for the impact.

The man's fist hit Kyran's arms.

"Ergh!" Kyran grunted as the force of the man's fist, bore down on him.

The floor cracked beneath him and exploded, instantly filling the surrounding with smoke.

"Humph," the man harumphed and jumped back.

The explosion of the floor immediately triggered the training room's array, and the array formation on the floor lit up.

From the smoke, Kyran also jumped back the moment he saw the floor start to reconstruct itself.

Kyran gritted his teeth. Both his arms and knees were still trembling from the force of the scarred man's punch. He could also vaguely feel the bones in his arms cracked.

What the hell was wrong with the scarred man? Barging in and suddenly attacking. Who was he?

Because of the smoke obscuring his vision, Kyran could only stare at the spot where he believed the scarred man had retreated.

"Nice defense. It seems you take after your father." The man commented with a hint of disdain in his voice.

'He knew my father?' Kyran thought in surprise. But then his eyes narrowed as he realized who this man was.

Since the man knew his father, that only meant this man was a member of the Conclave. As to why the man attacked, Kyran already had an idea.

Kyran smiled faintly. He already anticipated that there would be some Council Members who were dissatisfied with his actions. That was why at the meeting later, he planned to apologize and explain himself. If they were still dissatisfied, he was willing to compensate.

Who would have thought that one of them could not even wait for the meeting to deal with him?

The smoke finally abated, and Kyran saw the huge man looking at him in full contempt.

"The Lord of the Tower said not to lay a hand on you but, I just can not agree to her decision to let you off after what you did here." The man said.

Kyran lowered his arms and stood straight. He remained silent while looking at the man.

"Good thing, the Head of Conclave understood my concern and agreed to tell me where you were."

Kyran frowned muttered under his breath, "The psycho bastard?"

The man scowled after hearing him. The cross-shared scar on his forehead made him look more menacingly.

"What did you say?"

Kyran remained silent. He was looking intently at the man, trying to find some clues to what he was capable of. So far, with the man's strength and build, it was almost certain that he knew combat. However, Kyran was not yet sure whether he was only a combat specialist or a combat mage.

"Humph. Acting all tough but in the end, you're just a scaredy-cat-."

"A psycho bastard."

The man halted. His eyes narrowed as he glared fiercely at Kyran.

"What?"

"You asked me what I said, right? I said the 'Head' was a 'psycho bastard'." Kyran replied and glared back at the man.

The man's eyes glinted malevolently. A devilish grin appeared on his face as he growled, "You're dead, rascal."

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