Mahō and Light

Mahō and Light chapter 2

Chapter 2

While Mark was sleeping, he felt a poke on his face and woke up to Nyx inches away from him and giving him a suspicious look. "Yes?" Mark said, being confused. "You left with Jack and ranked up without me?" Nyx said as she pulled out her phone and showed that he was now a C rank. "Whoa! That's pretty sick." Mark said as he walked into the bathroom and brushed his teeth. "Remember the guy with the oni mask? Well, his name is Akira, and he's A rank." Nyx said "Hm, that's pretty cool," Mark said as he washed out his mouth. "Also, the guild tryouts are in 6 hours," Nyx said while leaning on the counter. "Oh yeah, that reminds me! I need to sell some stuff." Mark says while walking towards the front door. "You should probably change. Your clothes are kind of burnt and you're all bruised up." Nyx says as she rubs Mark's face. "Ow," Mark said. "Yeah, get that checked out," Nyx said, "while you were asleep, they delivered our uniforms." Nyx said as she walked towards the door and handed Mark a box. Mark opened the box to see a black sweater and pants with armor hidden underneath it. Mark went to the bathroom and came back with the uniform on. "How do I look?" asked Mark. "Meh, you look fine." said Nyx "Good enough" Mark said as he walked out of the room with Nyx following. Nyx and Mark walked to a city and entered a shop where he sold all the gold. As Mark was doing so, he looked back on his and Jack's adventure. And he remembered the woman. Mark's expression changed, and when Mark got his money he walked out with a saddened expression. Nyx noticed that and tugged on his uniform. "Is there something wrong?" Nyx asked. "There…was a monster, but she didn't look like a monster..she looked human and she acted like one as well. And I stabbed her through the chest. At the moment I felt only happy because I got to go home. But then I remembered, she was talking about her father and…I don't think I can be happy to go home when I took away someone else's option to go home as well." Mark says. Nyx wasn't sure how to respond. She was never really good at talking about serious topics. "Killing the faceless knights and shadowy figures and that dragon meant nothing since they didn't have faces or at least ones that I could understand. But remembering her body dropping to the ground and her blood on my sword…it doesn't feel too good." Mark says. "It was you and Jack or her. You shouldn't feel bad about that…right?" Said Nyx. "I shouldn't, but it felt wrong," Mark said as he walked into a nearby store. "Hello there, welcome to Bob's Smithing shop. How may I help you sir?" the man said while behind the counter. "I want to buy the best sword I can afford, please." asked Mark. "Well, how much are you willing to spend?" asked the man. Mark opened his wallet and sat and thought about it for a moment. "About 80,000 pounds," Mark said. "Follow me, sir." the man said as he led Mark and Nyx to another room. They walked past a few doors and the man unlocked one of them and allowed them inside. Mark walked around and saw shiny swords, guns, daggers, and much more. "Any swords with mainly elemental effect?" Asked Mark. The man pointed to a long sword with a bandage wrapped around the handle. "This is the Arsonon, a legendary sword that can alter elements and enhance element-based spells. It's an A-class weapon and it's only 60,000 pounds." Said the man. "I'll take it," Mark said as he took the sword and paid the man. "Would you like a receipt?" Asked the man. Mark nodded, took his receipt, and walked out. "Wanna help me test this out?" Mark asked Nyx. "Sure, I need some practice anyway." Nyx said as Nyx and Mark walked off. Meanwhile, Somewhere in the city, Jack was walking alone into a large building. Jack went up the stairs until he made it to the top. When he made it to the top he saw a huge double door. Jack knocked on the door and Heard a woman's voice telling him to come in. Jack walked in to see a woman wearing a suit and tie with spiraling yellow eyes, wearing a suit and tie, and long black hair going all the way down to her chest. She sat on her desk with a chair in front of it. "Hello, Jack. I haven't seen you in a while. What brings you here?" She asked with a smile across her face. "Hey Silvie, I just wanted to talk to you for a bit. May I sit?" Jack asked. Silvie nodded as Jack sat down on the chair in front of her. "I wanted to ask if you wanna join me and Deimos. Speaking of Deimos, where the heck is he?" Jack asked. "Here." Jack heard from behind as he jumped off his chair. He looked back to see a man with white hair, with a red streak, wearing a black trench coat and black jeans, black shoes, a white shirt, and a large sword with a golden handle on his back. "Dude, I said stop just teleporting in the room without a heads up." Jack yelled as Deimos simply chuckled. "Ah, Deimos. It's great to see you as well. I'm guessing you want me to join as well, don't you?" Silvie asked. Deimos sat there with a grin on his face. "Yeah, you'd be a very great asset to our guild. You may be only an A-rank, but your abilities could give you the power to take on higher ranks. And I think you have tons of potential. And you're smarter than all of us." Deimos says. "Hmm. I'll think about it. Aren't you getting 5 potential recruits? "She says while tilting her head and keeping a smile on her face. "You should get ready for that event. I'll have my answer by then." Silvie says. Meanwhile, Nyx and Mark were outside in the woods preparing for a sparring match. "Ok, use your strongest summon." Mark said. "Yeah, I'm not trying to kill you." Nyx said. "Then tell it to hold back," said Mark. "It's not that simple. My summons have their own thought processes and the only known way to make them listen to you is to force them into submission. And I have 12 possible summons to pick from and I've tamed 7. The rest are too strong and could easily kill me at my level." Nyx says. "Ok, then what's the strongest one you can control?" Mark asked as he pulled out his sword. Nyx stretched out her arms while spreading out her fingers. "7th summon, Ra" She yelled as a phoenix came from her shadows. The phoenix was all black with white eyes and purple flames emanating from its body. It looked to be around 15 feet. "OK then. Well, I asked for this." Mark said as he took a stance and braced himself. "Try your best, but don't kill him." Nyx said to Ra. Ra nodded slowly and charged at Mark at near-light speed. Mark was shocked and blocked Ra's attack with his blade, but Mark still gets launched through trees. Ra spat fire at Mark while he was attempting to recover. Mark blocks the flames with his sword. Mark looked closer at his sword, and saw his sword was absorbing the flames, with the bandages turning orange. With a single swing of the sword, Ra's flames went right back at Ra and hit it in the face. Yet it had done no damage. Mark runs into the woods to escape Ra's view. Ra flew above the woods looking carefully. Ra then shoots flames to burn down the entire woods. Causing a giant smoke cloud. Mark uses this moment to charge up his MahÅ to shoot an energy wave from behind, catching Ra off guard and doing decent damage. Mark jumps up into the sky, he envelopes his blade in lightning, and strikes the bird. Ra lets out a screech that creates a shockwave and pushes Mark back. As Mark was falling, Ra's eyes turned red as it looked at Mark in the eyes. Mark feels his body going limp. From his point of view, everything went black. Suddenly, a distant memory started flowing into his brain. Mark blinked and he was much younger. "What…" Mark said in confusion as he felt a tap on the shoulder. He looked back and saw his friend Jack. But also younger and his hair was black and not dyed red. "Come on. We've been playing for too long. Our parents are probably worried sick!" Jack says as he starts jogging off." Jack says. "No..not this memory…why is this coming up now.." Mark says. Mark doesn't want to move, but something compelled him to run with Jack. "please…I don't want to…I" Mark was on the verge of tears, but then he blinked to see he's back in his normal body and saw Nyx sitting next to him. "Mark realized he was lying on the ground and tired standing up. "Ow…did I black out?" Asked Mark. "Yeah, sorry. I should have told you about Ra's abilities." Nyx said sounding guilty and concerned. "He can burn almost anything and manipulate energy at the subatomic level. And he can sense your feelings and alter your mind. I'm sorry if you saw something traumatic." Nyx says while hugging Mark. Mark hugs her back and reassures her that he is fine. "Does your head hurt?" Nyx asked. "Yeah…is that a side effect from the mind manipulation?" asked Mark. "No, you fell over 15 feet onto your head." Nyx says while she grabs Mark's head and checks for any wounds. "Yep, I'm fine. When are the guild tryouts again?" asked Mark. "In a few hours. We should probably head back home." Nyx said. Nyx holds Mark up and walks home with him. "How did you even beat Ra?" asked Mark as they finally made it home and she flopped him onto the bed. "Well, I can summon multiple summons at the same time. So I just jumped him with the other 6 I have control over." Nyx says as she walks over and lays on her bed. "Hm. from what I've seen, I didn't think all of your shadows working together would beat it. But to be fair, I haven't seen all of them." said Mark. "Hey, I can fight too! I may be a woman and a summoner but that doesn't mean I'm not stronger than you." Nyx said while looking a bit offended. "Sure buddy, anyways I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when it's time to go." Mark said as he closed his eyes and relaxed his body. Nyx rolled her eyes, pulled out her phone and scrolled through it for hours. Mark woke up to Nyx tugging on his shirt. "Have you recovered yet? It's time." Nyx said. "Yep yep, I'm fully recovered." Mark said as he got up and stretched. "Shall we?" Nyx asked as she walked out the door and Mark followed behind her. They walked outside to see everyone chatting and practicing. Mark and Nyx enter the crowd and see Jack observing everyone, then suddenly waving at them. Mark waves back as Mark feels a chill down his spine. Mark turns around and sees Akira still wearing his Mask. "My ability to sense MahÅ has gotten better…I can now sense him despite him attempting to console his power." Mark thought to himself. Suddenly, Jack clapped his hands together causing everyone to pay attention and look at Jack. "Today I will be doing many different tests to decide which of you shall join my guild. For the first test, it's endurance! You must run around the entire city 1 million times in less than an hour." Jack said. "How big is this city?" someone asked. "Around 1,999.50 billion ft². Why do you ask?" Jack asked. Everyone groaned loudly as Jack told them to get into position. "On your mark…get ready….GO!" Jack yells as everyone dashes off. Except for one who was only jogging. It was a kid that looked to be about 16, had black hair that covered one of his eyes, had a black shirt and blue jeans with red shoes, and was wearing a black and red scarf. "Hey, bud don't you wanna speed up?" Jack asked. "No, there is no need to rush things." the boy said as he jogged off into the distance. Jack waited for a while. Just to see over 90% of the people there gave up and came back. And Jack was told others just went home. Jack sat there and waited to see for a few minutes. Mark, Nyx, Akira, a man wearing bandages all around his face with red goggles and a trench coat with black pants and black shoes, Jack also saw a boy wearing blue jeans, a brown jacket, a blue shirt, blue shoes, brown hair, and brown eyes. "Well is that it?" Jack asked. "No, I saw another kid still jogging… it's only fair to wait for him," Mark said. Jack sighed as they waited for him. As time went on and 59 minutes passed, at the last minute They saw the boy make it back looking completely fine and not sweating even a little. "Took you long enough. Anyways…looks like there are six of you. And I'm only bringing in 5. So I have a few more tests for everyone." Jack said. Jack runs off, suddenly leaving everyone confused until he comes back holding 6 large boulders. "OK then,your job is to get these boulders off the ground." Jack said as he tossed them to the ground. Jack moved back and waited to see what they would do. Mark walked over and picked the boulder off the ground with little effort. Akira lifted the boulder with no effort. Nyx summoned her 5th summon to pick up the boulder for her. Suddenly, the man with the bandages pulled out two metal whips from under his jacket and rapidly cut up the boulder in the blink of an eye until it was in pieces and started spinning the whips so fast that the wind blew it upwards. "Hmm. i'll give you points for creativity and let that slide." Jack said. Jack looked over at the boy with the brown hair. The boy pulled out a book and bit a piece of skin off of his thumb and slammed it on the book. "Float," said the boy as the rock glowed in a red aura and started floating. "Hmm. I haven't seen anyone use MahÅ to complete a Ritual in a while. Good job" Jack says as he looks at the strange kid. The boy walks up to the rock and with a simple touch, the boulder becomes 2D and the boy picks it up. "I did it," The boy says as Jack and everyone look over in confusion. "Is he using some form of cosmic MahÅ?" Jack thought to himself. "OK, for the next test, it's reaction time. Think fast!" Zack said as he pulled out throwing knives and threw them at everyone so fast it caused a sonic boom. Akira deflected the knives, Nyx hugged Mark and summoned Ra to shield them with its wings, and Natsu turned himself into 2D and squished in between all the knives, The man with the whips whipped them away, and the boy with the book wrote something in blood in his book to create a shield bubble. Zach looked at Natsu in confusion then looked away like nothing happened. "Good job everyone, bonus points for Nyx for protecting Mark even though he could easily protect himself." Zach said. "Sorry, it was instinctual." Nyx said. "Yeah thanks…you can let go now." Mark said as his cheeks were bright red and Nyx saw she was still holding onto him. Nyx then lets go of him and turns to Zack. "Hm, that's your boyfriend or something?" Asked Natsu jokingly. Before Mark said anything, Nyx yelled " Ew, he's like a little brother if anything." said Nyx. "Ok ok, let's get back on topic! Time for the last test. You all will have a 1 on 1 with each other at least once. Whoever has the most wins will stay, very simple." Zack said with a smile. Zach runs behind a building and comes back with water bottles, one half having a dark red liquid and the other half having a Dark blue liquid. These are made to restore any damage you take and to recover the MahÅ you lose. There is only one rule. No killing each other" Zach says. "Why the hell would we kill each other?" asked the boy with the brown hair. "You never know," Zach said. "Oh yeah, what are your names? I'm talking to everyone but Mark and Nyx.". said Zach. "Wait how do you know m-" Nyx was then cut off. "I'm Natsu Iren," said the boy with his hair over his eye. "I'm Akira," Said the man with the oni mask as he took it off and put it to the side. "My name is not important," said the guy with the bandages, "Ok I'll just look you up later then," Zack said as he rolled his eyes. "I'm Evan," said the boy with brown hair. "Great! ALMOST everyone here knows each other. Now let's get ready!" Zach cheered. "The first battle will be Mark vs Natsu, everyone else please stand behind me in case a stray attack comes your way." Zach said as everyone else went behind him and Natsu and Mark walked up to each other and shook hands. "Good luck," Natsu said. "Same to you," Mark said as the two dashed back. Natsu pulled out his sword. "Wait, you don't have a weapon?" Asked Mark. "I don't know what weapon suits me, so for the time being I'll just use my hands." Natsu said confidently. "Welp, I hope I don't hurt you too badly. " Mark said confidently. Mark dashes over to slash Natsu with his sword, but Natsu falls back into the ground becoming 2D and laying on the grass. Mark was confused. Suddenly, Natsu popped back out of the ground and landed an uppercut to Mark's jaw, causing Mark to stagger backwards. "OK then….what the hell was that?" Mark asked. "Heh. I have the unique ability to use my MahÅ to change the dimensions of anything I touch. Like this!" Natsu says as he taps Mark, turning him 2D. Natsu throws Mark in the air and lands a devastating blow, knocking Mark back into 3D. Mark lands on the floor, but quickly gets up and recovers. "Alright, I get it." Mark says as his nose starts to bleed and he wipes it off with his thumb "Mark tightens his grip on his sword and looks at Natsu "Bring it." Mark said with a grin on his face. Mark ran at Natsu and went for a wide swing, only for Natsu to touch the sword and turn it flat. Mark immediately dropped to the floor, attempting to go for a leg sweep, Natsu was then tripped and fell to the ground. As Natsu fell, he turned himself 2D to hide in the ground. Mark sees this and places his hand on Natsu and uses a Thunder spell to shock Natsu, turning him back. Mark then wraps his arms around Natsu and suplexes him, ending the fight. "Ow. ok ok. You win." Natsu said as he rolled on the ground. "Congratulations Mark, that's a point for you. Next is Evan vs Akira!" Jack said. Evan and Akira glared at each other without exchanging any words. Both of them walk over and swap places with Mark and Natsu. Everyone went quiet. They all felt tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. As Akira pulled out his katana, Evan pulled out a book and a ritual knife. End of chapter 2