Magic Discovered

Chapter 20

After waiting for several days, Chancellor Phanes' heirloom was delivered to James' room. After receiving the notification from his amulet, he immediately jumped up and raced over from the stadium, leaving his observation of the current match. He was very excited; before, he had just viewed this as a way to increase his combat potential, but now it held much more weight.

After arriving in his room and closing the door, he investigated the package it was in. It was wrapped very neatly in a hard metal covering with several protective seals located on the top. These he deactivated before careful taking out the sword and assessing it.

The blade was quite impressive. It was very large for a single sword, with a shining steel-like blade and a dark hilt. The crossguard was red and decorated with small gems and, when James looked closely, he could see magical sigils inscribed up and down the flat of the blade. There was even a sigil on the handle, although he didn't know any of their purposes yet. Hefting the sword, James tested its weight, finding that it was much heavier than he had imagined. It was well balanced, but he couldn't give it any real swings in his current location.

Putting the sword on his bed, James also discovered a small piece of paper in the wrappings. It read:

"James, I had this heirloom analyzed before I sent it to you. My historians have informed me that there is an incredibly high probability that this is the sword Ruin, one of the two swords that Lord Alcyrion used, based on the sigils inscribed on the blade. Ruin had the power to slice anything, regardless of size, distance, or material. As a Pure Elementalist, you may be able to reawaken this power if you pour your energy into the blade. I wish you the best of luck."

James fell over from shock. "THIS IS RUIN?!!!! Holy hells, this blade is legendary!" He went back over to the bed and sat beside the sword. "I don't even know what to think. I mean, it's like asking Santa for a plastic toy boat and getting a cruise liner instead. Holy cow!"

James has been determined from the beginning to give the Chancellor a good showing, and now that he knew that the sword was Ruin, that feeling only increased. With such a powerful weapon, however, he knew that he would need a lot of practice first, and his current situation wasn't exactly usable. So, he went to Rioyda's training hall. Although it was small, it was serviceable.

After getting inside, James looked around briefly to confirm his suspicions formed when he had last visited. Unfortunately, he was correct in his assumption that there was no system like the Darkessia's that allowed the user to create any object or enemy they wished.

James leaned Ruin against the wall and walked to the center of the room, tapping the floor as he went. "Hm, it looks like the metal ground isn't too thick. I think I can use this."

Bending down to the ground and concentrating, James made a small flame on the tip of his finger and pushed it into the floor. By increasing the intensity of the fire, he was able to drill a small hole straight through the metal, which exposed the soil of Dorian-5.

"Perfect! Now, let's see..."

He drew the earth up through the hole and piled it in a small heap on the side of the room. Because there were not enough elements in the air, he had to make use of the ones found in the ground, being extra careful to keep the foundation of the building intact as he did so.

"Phew, this is much harder than I originally thought. The ground here isn't exactly perfectly stable."

James left the hole, so he knew where to return the earth once he was finished. Moving to a different spot, he compacted the elements he had gathered into a target dummy shaped vaguely like a human. He nodded in satisfaction after it was fully formed. "That should do it."