Luminescent

The Art of Magic

"I'm teaching you how to use magic." Mephisto informed Rin one day during lunch. It was lunch period for the students, so Mephisto took his lunch break with them to eat together.

"Why?" Rin wondered curiously. "Because you need some long-range fighting skills too. No more using your own body as a shield in battle. That'll be your very last resort." The Time Lord explained, narrowing his eyes at the boy. Rin sighed and nodded. "So does that mean I'll be able to snap myself wherever like you and Amaimon do?" He asked.

"Possibly. It depends on your magic. Demons, and especially Demon Kings, don't all have the same magic. I can do it because I'm the god of Time and Space. Amaimon can do it as long as he's touching anything touching the ground because he's the God of Earth and can travel through the ground as dirt itself. I don't know what your area of expertise is other than fire. You could have other kinds of magic due to the fact that Satan is a being that connects to nearly everything. Do you understand?" He answered, waving his hands about in gestures that conveyed his confusion on the matter. "Yeah, I get it. I could have literally any type of magic at my disposal, but we gotta test that theory out." He repeated, simplifying the concept. Bon snorted. "You make things sound much simpler than they are." He told his boyfriend. Rin shrugged, grinning. "It makes things feel less threatening." He admitted, taking another bite of egg from his bento.

"So we'll be starting with magic symbols and Shields on Saturdays." Mephisto decided, interrupting the start of banter between the two teen's. "That's fine." Rin agreed and they carried on their lunch. "I wanna watch, this'll be fun." Bon put in.

§~•~§~•~§

They made it to Saturday and Mephisto took Rin to the roof of the Academy with the audiences of Bon, Amaimon, and Shiemi. Shura wanted to see it too, but a mission had come up and she was needed for her taming abilities.

Rin had asked why they weren't doing the magic inside, Mephisto told him that it was better to practice something as sensitive as magic outside so there would be less property damage if things went awry. That was pretty sound logic, so Rin left it alone.

Mephisto wrote glowing magenta symbols into the air to show Rin an example. "These are the main symbols, the strongest. They are the hardest to cast, but high-levels have never struggled with using them. It's the weaker, more precise ones that took us a while to learn well enough to use in battle." He began. He was about to go on, but stopped when he saw Rin staring at the symbols intently. He raised a brow in question.

Rin knew exactly what they said.

Truth, Strength, Weakness, Vitality, Poison, Opening, Closing, Love, and Emptiness.

Come to think of it, every time he'd seen Mephisto or Amaimon absently trace/draw those symbols onto his skin while they relaxed and cuddled before, he'd known what they said. Was that natural? Was it just him?

"Ah, interesting. You can read them, can't you? I suspected as such. You can understand the ancient language you heard in your dream and in Section 13. I figured you'd understand these as well." Mephisto nodded at the symbols.

"Every Demon King has at least one that they specialize in casting when needed. Azazel can cast Strength like it's nothing and spread a boost of strength to a decently sized army. Lucifer can cast Weakness, though he's usually too weak to cast it, ironically. I can cast Vitality, which goes along with preserving my own host through my powers over Time." Amaimon cut in.

"I cast Truth the best. And I believe you'll also find it one of the easier symbols to cast, Rin." He said sincerely. "Yes, Amaimon casts Truth because he's a very blunt person, unwilling to sugarcoat things uneccesarily or lie when all he has to do is tell the truth and watch things either come together or fall apart. He's very neutral, much like you in regards to morals." Mephisto continued with a slight glare at the Earth King for interrupting. Amaimon didn't show any sign of remorse and Rin held back a snicker.