Chapter 20: Chapter 20

• 3^rd Person POV

Days have gone by; Astra and Viktor continued their own daily activities.

That is…. until the day of Light have arrived, Usually the day of Light and day of Dark is what people regarded as their day-off or weekends in Astra’s terms. But due to the prior arrangements, Astra is now going to study magic with Cecilia in her & Francis’ tent.

He’s grateful for the doctor to give her time teaching him about it and excitedly want to learn more about this world’s magic.

What he doesn’t know though is that Cecilia is actually quite happy to have a day off since she usually work during the day of Light. Instead Katie will be In the healer’s tent.

“Good morning, Astra I hope you had your breakfast?”

Cecilia ask while she’s writing something on a piece of vellum paper.

“Certainly, it was quite delicious to be honest. Elise’s cooking is something else.”

Astra reminiscences the breakfast today of creamy soup. He can still taste it on the tip of his tongue.

“Hahaha, indeed, it is. I cannot hope to defeat her in that aspect. Shall we begin?”

She chuckled.

“Of course!”

Astra excitedly shout.

“Now, magic as what you’ve described to me previously. Is about ‘Definition’. In short summary, Altering the world’s ‘Definition’ to suit the user’s imagination. Although they are many types of using magic, Etude’s Sages often utilise the term ‘Words’ as it is the most efficient & easiest to learn.”

Cecilia talked about it with Astra listening intently.

“Watch closely, from the start I use magic to the end.”

She inhales huge amount of air as Astra focuses on his senses helped by the blindfold.

He saw this previously at the healer’s tent days ago. The flow of mana is being gathered towards Cecilia, that’s the first step which he currently learning.

After that, the mana begun to enter her body and coalesce with her own mana which Astra ‘sees’ as an orb in her chest, round & stable. That’s how he identifies other living beings. This is the second step.

Then, he can ‘feel’ it from here. Her own mana vibrate and induce the mana surrounding her to follow suit. Creating a resonance, this is the third & final step.

Cecilia then opens her mouth and begin to speak the ‘Words’ in her Westanian language that’s influenced by Etudian dialect. Astra can decipher it clear as day in fact there are no tingling or numbness in his tongue nor ringing in his ear.

[Gentle breeze of spring!]

In doing so, Astra felt the effect of the magic. A flow of wind billow within the tent as he knows that there are no winds outside to come into the tent.

It feels like a gentle breeze in an open plains carrying flower petals & breath of fresh air. The sensation doesn’t last long though rather only for few minutes before it died down. Astra feels a bit disappointed from it as he wanted for it to last longer.

It makes Astra wonder about something as he asked to his teacher.

“Ms. Cecilia, if one is able to change the ‘Definition’ why does it return back? I felt the breeze & to be honest I wanted it to last longer so why doesn’t it continue indefinitely?”

Cecilia smirks, proud of Astra to notice that.

“Glad that you’ve noticed it. Although we say, we changed the world’s definition. We will never overcome The Creator’s own ‘Definition’ of the world as it is absolute. We use the mana inside of us to temporarily alter the Creator’s ‘Definition’.”

She heave out a sigh and let out a smile as if saying it cannot be helped.

“if it were that easy, mages could just ‘define’ a rock as gold, and it would be permanent breaking the economy and the likes. Although, an extremely powerful mage would be able to make it last for years if not eons, but it will fade someday.”

Understanding dawned on Astra upon hearing Cecilia’s explanation. As she continues to explain more.

“This means differently when magic is used for combat. Although the magic is temporary such as hurling a fireball or the likes. The damage is still permanent, you can still feel the blast & extreme heat of the spell.”

Cecilia nods to herself.

“Now, the ‘Words’ mages uttered is varied. Mine uses Westanian language influenced by my birthplace which is Etude or Etudian dialect. But different cultures, regions, and birthplace does affect how the ‘Words’ is pronounced for as long as they understand what they’re defining & saying to themselves.”

Cecilia halted her movement for a minute assessing Astra’s expression, she noticed that Astra is a bit confused not engaging in the conversation. Connecting information in her head, she pinpointed his source of confusion.

“Are you confused about why Etude the Academy of Sages have their own dialect?”

(“Yeah… I’m confused, Etude is just an academy a place of learning. Why would they have their own dialect? Do they teach them to the students on top of academic studies? That would be hard, isn’t it?”)

It seems that Cecilia hit a bullseye on that one, quite sharp of her even though Astra is wearing a blindfold.

“Haha… At first, the Academy of Sages is just a single towering building housing many mages and learning facilities. As time goes by, it becomes a city on its own with the Archmagi serve as the governing figure. Due to this, they have their own dialect, cultures, and many more. It’s a nice place to live honestly.”

She made a small smile with a forlorn look but still cherishing the moments she had in Etude. Before shaking her head & continues…

“Let’s get back to the topic at hand, today we’re going to learn about magic and how to use it.”

Cecilia looked at Astra from top to bottom.

“First of all, let me tell you something Astra.”

Astra quirked his eyebrows.

“Y-yes...?”

“You have unique characteristics. You’ve noticed the people around you including animals & plants have their own mana, yes?”

Astra nods before Cecilia asked a question that made him wonder.

You are reading story Aeterna at novel35.com

“Have you tried to see your own body?”

“No… no I haven’t… in fact, how do I-?”

“Its okay, calm down… I’ll teach you how. First, take a deep breath and try to let the mana in you. Let it spread and flow before exhaling it out. Repeat this several times.”

Copying on what Cecilia just said, Astra inhale large amount of breath as his chest expand. The mana flows inside him as he can feel everything it touches, as soon as he felt it. An image begin to form inside his mind. Then he exhales. The process repeats once, twice, thrice.

Its similar process to how he sees using ‘pulses’ but he used it internally at the moment. Until finally he has the perfect image of his internal body.

He can feel cold shivering down his back upon realizing what’s going on to his body. With the calming sensations began to creep in. Frantically although not seen outside he tries to look around to maybe think if there’s something wrong on what he’s seeing.

After a while, he decided what he saw is indeed the current situation in his body.

Almost like an X-ray but more detailed, he can see his brain, his strange heart, and his blood vessels. But… he couldn’t… couldn’t find his other organs.

The calming sensations have crept to him & spread like vines making him able to think clearer than his panicking state.

There’s no stomach, no lungs, and other important ones as well. He also didn’t see any internal mana that he usually sees to a living being since most of the time it is almost like a beacon easily noticed.

One more thing is that the strange looking heart, Instead of the normal shape it is jagged with sharper edges akin to a crystal. He can only ‘see’ the outline rather than producing its own mana so it isn’t internal mana like others have.

(“But… I am alive…?”)

He’s in a conundrum, if he has no organs why & how he’s alive at this moment? He’s breathing as normal and he’s eating like others do. But before he could digest & process this, Cecilia words cut his momentary stupor.

“Did you ‘sense’ it, Astra? Your uniqueness is that you do not have any internal mana at all unlike all living beings in this world. Is all people from Earth kingdom like that? Or It is just you?”

Astra dazedly look at Cecilia before finally understand that she’s talking to him. In a hurry, he replies.

“Ah… uhm… its probably everyone in Earth yeah…”

Cecilia widened her eyes and quirked her eyebrows.

“I see… interesting…”

(“I don’t think… mentioning that I don’t have organs would be a great idea.”)

Astra thought as he straightened his posture, hiding his initial shock.

“Well, since you don’t have any internal mana. I have started thinking on what’s best for you to utilise magic. You have used magic before so-“

Cecilia voice drowned out as Astra focusing on her words regarding ‘used magic before’.

(“When…? I have never use magic like them before. The only thing I remember is waking up in the middle of the desert, strange tower, and teleported here.”)

“That’s the gist! By channelling mana from opposite sides of your body & through it, and vibrating them, creating a resonance between each other. You’re able to cast magic. That is my current hypothesis of course! Wouldn’t be possible if not by your unique characteristics.”

He heard Cecilia last sentence as he abruptly nods masking that he just completely misses what she told him.

“Let’s try it! Use simple magic such as creating light, you have felt & ‘sense’ light coming from a Brightfly gland. So, gather the mana surrounding you and make it vibrate like the strums of a lute when being picked. Before you say the ‘words’, you must imagine it in your mind, the shape of the light, how it feels, how its seen, its size, and more. The more detail you can imagine it, the better your ability to ‘define’ them to be. That’s why Etudian Sages prefer the use of ‘Words’ they make their imagination more real and defined when uttered.”

“O-o-okay!”

Astra a bit flustered being put on the spot like that as he tries to quickly gathers the mana. And heed to her word, Astra gathers mana from his left side and his right side then using his body to receive them like a channel to meet the flow together at the centre.

The flow merges and coalesce in him as he think about the vibrations he felt. Then mana begin to follow suit as well. It creates a thrum, that’s… calming to him as he can vividly imagine the light when he was at the tower rather than when he’s exposed to the Brightfly lanterns.

It is a bright open night-sky, filled with glittering stars amidst the darkness of that tower. He imagine it to be a ball like a night-lamp as the thrum continues. He’s now ready to speak.

[̴̦͝L̶̥̎i̶͉̚g̸͔̈́ḩ̴̎t̴͓͠]̵͇̆

The way his words are uttered are so similar to what Cecilia have experienced when Astra used that powerful magic. Its… familiar to her as if she can understand what he’s speaking including the Etudian dialect but simultaneously it is something incredibly foreign unable to be deciphered.

True to its meaning though, right in front of Astra. Something materializes… a singular small orb no bigger than a tennis ball. Its remarkable, as if he had captured the night-sky filled with stars into a ball and it emits silver light.

Astra cannot see it directly since he’s seeing through the under gaps of his blindfold. He can feel its… warmth akin to what he felt when he saw that beautiful night-sky after climbing the tower.

“It’s beautiful.”

Cecilia sees in amazement seeing the orb of light lightening the entire tent with its silver light. It rotates showing many different twinkling stars, myriad of colourful galaxies.

The moment last for some time that is until….

*GONNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!*

An incredibly loud ringing noise coming from outside echoing through the tent. Certainly that kind of sound would be heard to other places as well.

The light orb flickered emitting bright flash of light that could made eyes twitch before fizzled out disappearing into nothing as Astra’s attention is changed to that sound. With him whipped his head towards the tent’s entrance.

“What was that?!!”

He shouted.

“That’s the emergency bell!”

She exclaimed and in a dash running towards the tent’s exit.

You can find story with these keywords: Aeterna, Read Aeterna, Aeterna novel, Aeterna book, Aeterna story, Aeterna full, Aeterna Latest Chapter