Spectral Regalia

Ch 7: Two Pronged Attack

Avrin had spent a few hours practicing his so called magic. Over the course of time, he found little need to waste mana to manifest food, so he just devoured chunks of the nearby rock that he experimented on to quench his hunger and thirst. He didn't know how it also quenched his thirst, but he theorized that objects alive and inanimate were made of particles that held them together and these particles were made up of a unique sort of mana that he could deconstruct and absorb into his body and somehow from there it would reconstruct into sustenance. It would just mean that he would never have to go hungry or thirsty again.

His progress had gone fairly well. He was practicing outside the shelter as proof of his training, though it had been short, he felt courageous enough to protect himself to some degree. He could now form void bolts in both his hands and fire them at will in quick succession or rapid fire. These bolts, though, were aimed towards the sky, as he did not want to leave Dark Waste, as he had dubbed it, around the area or on trees. He also managed to summon another void blade, although, when brought near each other they would meld together, as if trying to devour each other to become larger.

He figured that it would be possible to create a great sword and just pushed the thought of the combining weapons as something similar. His most significant progress that he focused towards was augmenting himself in his dark aura. He managed to engulf his entire hand in it and the difference was impressive. He was able to crush rocks with as much resistance as clasping his hand in water. The resistance was nearly non-existent. But engulfing his hand proved to show an interesting change.

The longer he let the aura cover his hand, the more it began to change into something non-humanoid. It didn't hurt him at all, but he was cautious regarding the change. It seemed like it melded well with him and even enhanced him further the more it stayed on his hand, the stronger the augmentation became. But this wasn't without negatives. He found his hand was subconsciously absorbing anything he touched, excluding himself. He figured that for it to hold its form it needed a great amount of dark matter.

He was currently allowing the two void blades to merge with each other, as he was now curious towards the result. unlike his first thoughts of it forming a two handed blade, they had formed a single long sword with two blades in a sort of two pronged fork that emitted black and purple electricity from between the two laser like blades. He figured it was a sort of enhancement in cutting power but was proven wrong.

When slashing to practice his new sword it released a wave of black lightning that scorched the ground while cutting across it. It seemed to continue on for a good 100 meters across the forest before stopping. This also left him panting and dizzy. It seemed he experienced his first case of backfire. He wasn't used to the amount of dark matter the weapon consumed to use such an attack and it stung his body as if distorting it slightly. But he quickly began converting the ground for sustenance, which seemed to work like medicine.

"I'll have to be careful. Although it will be good if I'm in a tight situation. It seems one shot is all I'm able to use. I wonder what else I'm capable of..."

Avrin finished speaking to himself and gazed around. Prior to his training, he had laid a new total of nine mines, all also marked. He was interested in the icicle rabbit that was still there, so he decided to try something different. He engulfed the ice spike in his aura and the blue ice began to turn purple, while the rabbit inside of it turned black. Before it began to disintegrate, the ash like energy was attracted towards Avrin's augmented hand like a sort of vacuum.

Avrin thought to himself, as he saw the difference in colour regarding the inanimate and organic object, but it was a thought that would be considered quite lucky to have come up with it. He headed over towards a large rose-like flower coming out of a bush and began to absorb it as well. It turned black too. He figured that the difference in colour for absorbing things was organic material would turn black and inorganic would be purple.