TBATE - Brother's Once More

A New Weapon

"Okay, let's see if we can do this."

I sat down in a lotus position, leaving my hands on my knees.

'Oi, are you sure about this? I don't even think solidifying mana is remotely possible.'

"But it's always worth a shot, dude. It doesn't need to be good right now, I just need to be able to form and solidify it. It could be a short blade or the longest greatsword in existence, all that matters is I managed to solidify mana."

'Oh, so you're one of those glass half-full motherfuckers.'

"Um, excuse you? Who are you to diss me? You're literally a voice in my head right now. Besides, I'm not a glass half-full guy."

'Mm-hm. Whatever helps you sleep at night.'

"Let me concentrate now. Please."

As I closed my eyes, I felt the abundant atmospheric mana around me. While I had the image of what I wanted to create, I wasn't sure if I could mold the mana enough to create it.

While my attempts to mold mana into the correct shape was pretty much a hundred percent successful, I couldn't mange to solidify it.

"Why can't I do it? What am I doing wrong here?" I laid back flat on the floor in frustration.

'Maybe we're approaching this the wrong way.'

"How so? Mana has no limits, so shouldn't I be able to do this? What are we doing wrong here?"

'Mana has no limits... That's it! Oh my god, we're such dumb geniuses!'

"W-what, what's going on?"

'It's the mana!'

"What?"

'If mana has no limits, why are we trying to shape it?'

My eyes widened at the realization.

"That's it! Oh my god, what the hell?! Why didn't I think of that?"

'Exactly! Mana has no limits, so why are we giving it a limit?'

"Yeah, we really have been approaching this the wrong way! If it has no limits, then it also has no fixed shaped, so solidifying mana doesn't require molding. You only need to visualize and form!"

'But wait, isn't that a billion times harder since you have to cleary visualize what it is you're trying to form?'

"Only if you don't have a clear image of what you want to create. You need to have a clear description of what you want to create, meaning the shape of the blade doesn't matter."

'So if you want something sharp and fast, you'd get any blade that could be considered sharp and fast?'

"Exactly. Mana has no true shape, so it follows the form of a clear vision. You need to know what you want to form the blade. The actual blade's shape won't matter as long as it fits the image of what you want."

'The things we could do in the future concerns even me now that we've brought this to attention. I don't even think Arthur would understand these principles.'

"Yeah, probably. The only other person I can see even remotely understanding these principles is Eleanor."

'The kid? Are you sure you're not drunk?'

"I'm serious, dude. I can sense it inside of her. It won't be as good as mine, but she'll have a high innate control in mana manipulation and molding, even for a sprouting mage."

'Yeah, I sort of felt that before when I took over at the auction. She'll have some pretty high innate talent for mana molding, alright.'

"Alright. Let's try this again. Different approach, different result, am I right?"