Chapter 7: Ball of Paragons

7.0

“Give me a second to wrap that around my head.”

John rubbed his hands together before he stretched them out to the open space where Evie hand indicated. He took a deep breath, held it in, then expelled them quickly to chanted a spell.

“[Fireball].”

Nothing came from his palm, not even the slightest indication of a spark was seen. John shook his head and forced a smile at his thirtieth try at casting [Fireball], the results have not changed since his first attempt under Evie’s guidance, not even with Evie lending him her mana supply.

“Let’s stop for now, I am a little tired,” he said, turning his heavy eyes from the space before him.

“I…” Evie wanted to protest but stopped and nodded at him.

Though night came after they shared a meal, John and Evie had not returned to the academy but stayed in that old monastery instead, she had suggested that she would help him overcome his inability to wield any magic other than [Heal]. Since they would not be interrupted by anyone else, John figured that spending alone time with the beautiful dragon girl to train was a good idea.

That is… If I kept my expectations low…

John sat on the nearby by stone, lifted his head to view the nightly sky, a long sigh escaped his lips as the stars sparkled above him.

Although learning newer magic to prolong his life was no longer his goal, it still stung when he had to witness his own incompetence. Just because Evie said it was possible for him to push past his limits does not mean that he would be able to expand his use of magic spells beyond casting only [Heal], she might have said it to comfort him or give him a sense of hope in himself.

“Perhaps we are approaching it wrong, John.”

“What do you mean?” he said, holding back his sense of defeat, words can only motivate him so much.

"Instead of visualizing the fireball itself like what I’ve suggested, try commanding your mana to take form according to your will.”

“Command...them?”

“Indeed. Order them like how an absolute leader orders his followers. Mother once told me that most things in the world want to know their place in the world is, whether living or non-living, this principle applies universally. Perhaps instead of thinking about the end result and by taking on a leadership role you would achieve the basic [Fireball] spell.”

L-like back then? Back when I…

The black aura… The shrill pleads from the men whose name he no longer remembered, rather, he no longer wanted to remember. The elf’s bawling, her helpless squeal, the men’s cruel actions, and that burst of magical dark magic where he used to kill them…

“Um…” John looked at his palm, they were participating before he exited from his daze. His eyes blinked rapidly, for a moment, his mind went back to the last night he spent with Raina, stirring back an unpleasant emotion that he thought he was already numb to. “How is that suppose to be any different than what we were doing? Isn’t that how you cast known magic spells?”

“Could you try please try it out? I am confident that you would be successful if you keep at this,” Evie gave him a soft, harmless plead. Her lustrous lips sparkled along with her silver hair as she looked at John, telling him that she was not going to let tonight end had he just discarded what she said.

“That’s… Fine, but if it doesn’t give me a fireball, I am done for tonight.”

John stood to his feet, raised his hand and aimed to the open space. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes then pushed his arm forward.

“I command you to appear before me, [Fireball].”

When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the same nightly scenery of lush greens and dusty gray bricks, the fiery blast that he ‘anticipated’ to manifest failed to appear. The result was the same as his previous thirty attempts.

No matter how hard I try, it’s the same. Failing is a universal constant for John Sarvod.

And just a little, he felt relieved that nothing came out of him when he ‘attempted’ to bend his mana to his will...

“Yup, let’s call it a night and go back,” he shrugged casually. “Evie, if you would… Evie?”

Evie’s cheeks were puffed and her brows were frowned in his direction.

“You did not try! All you did was placed your palm and just muttered the word ‘fireball’, redo it now!”

John leaned backwards, taking offense to her words “What? I did try, I commanded it as you said, but my mana did not form the fireball. I just can’t use any other magic than [Heal], believe me, if I could, I would not be asking you to help me.”

“Until that last attempt, you gave your all to summon a fireball. B-but you placed zero effort in that last attempt, let alone try, it’s like you failed purpose.” Evie said truthfully, her pained expression indicated she saw through John even without her telepathic powers. Eventually she composed herself and said quietly, “I am not mocking you, John, failure is the possible outcome even if one puts in their best efforts, it is only through repeated usage, activation, and the right mindset that one can learn new spells. You can say you don’t want to do it, I am not against it but please don’t lie to me…”

John’s eyes grew wide, his face almost hurt at Evie’s reaction. She hit the nail on the coffin when she called out his last attempt. But John could not bare the heart to tell her why he was avoidant of using her method of commanding magic to his will. Somewhere inside of him, there was this paranoia that he would hurt her if he can’t control himself.

“I…told you, I c-can’t.”

Evie’s face softened, she pursed her lip and continued in a gentler voice, “John, I am able to predict what a person is thinking without my telepathic powers. Call it talent of mine or a skill that I have developed over the years of dealing with my people, but even if I am not an Elder Dragon who can see traces of mana when you attempt your spellcasting in a serious matter, I am able to see that you gave up on the last one.”

“…”

John’s eyes drifted to the ground, who was he trying to fool? He might as well told her that his favourite food was grass, even a preposterous statement such as that might have more credibility than lying about what he did.

“…Sorry.”

“I–I…” Evie became stunned at his small voice. “An apology is not what I am after. When I saw how excited you became at the prospect of learning yesterday, I thought to myself that I wanted to support you. Y-yet now, you are giving up over nothing, John...”

“…”

“Was I perhaps pushing you too hard? I did not mean to do that, I was presumed that you wanted to…”

“It’s fine, Evie. I am tired that’s all. I’ll leave that thing you told me for next time. Maybe we should head back now, I am getting a little bit worn out, physically and mentally.“

Evie bit her lip in frustration at his mention of returning to Moxnet. But her face lit up when she remembered something, “How about we postpone learning magic from me for the time being?”

“And do what?”

“I did say I would show you my magic did I not?”

“Oh yeah, you did say that, haha, I almost forgot,” John scratched his head awkwardly.

A smug grin found itself on the dragon’s girl precious face, “In that case, let me take up the more dragon-ish form that you sooooooo prefer.”

“What do you mean I prefer—” John stopped short when a white tail sprouted from her behind and the pair of beautiful horns appeared on her head.

Evie changed into the form that she had when she tried to prove to John she was someone who had dragon blood in her. Her tail extended until it was as long as her slim legs, pearl white horns appeared on the sides of her head and adorned on her silver hair slightly curving backwards in direction. John was rendered speechless that moment when her beautiful form basked under the glitter of the full moon, his breath stopped for that split second to gaze at her.

“Look at who is speechless now. Ufufu, you do have a fascination for this image of mine, I might just take up this form with certain dragon traits over the human one around you. What do you say?”

“Wait a second here, I clearly do not have a fascination for this. Personally I think both of them are good, one hand the human form is perfect for blending in, but this dragon girl form is different. This is more of the ideal form that showcases your dragon self, it’s nothing short of amazing.”

In response to his passionate reasoning, her tail curled and her dainty face flushed pink, “T-thank you for your generous compliment.” Evie then ignored her reddish cheeks and continued, “I’ll start by doing something simple to demonstrate. O-observe me closely.”

She then began to float above the ground, her body then stop elevating when she was ten full meters above the ground where John stood. She moved her hand at the large chasm that was beyond the abandoned monastery, her lips moved, and chanted the very spell that he had been trying for the last hour or so.

“[Fireball].”

A singular fireball that was the size of a fist flew from her palm and straight into the depth of the deep chasm.

FROOM!!!

The chasm burst in flames, a torrent of blazing fire swept itself across the trenches, burning the chasm with a vigor that would last for an eternity. Though it was barren and devoid of any life and anything that would perpetuate a blazing fire like this—aside from the patches of vines and moss that accumulated in the chasm—the fire that Evie had caused seems to be using the very dirt and rock of the chasm as fuel.

It was impossible, unfathomable, yet…

The very scenery before him was telling him it was reality.

A blast of scorching heat washed over him.

“Shit!” he cursed while he fought against the growing heat that threatened to toast him into a black crisp, thankfully, Evie was perceptive and had placed herself before him, casted a heat shield before his face cracked from the lack of moisture.

The impossible sight before him was beyond anything he could have imagined, even all with the elves and their ever growing mana pool combined together, he reckoned that the fire before him would be difficult for them to replicate.

“Oh, no, no, no…” Evie’s worried voice appeared in his head. “That was a little too much. John, sorry about that, I accidentally used too much of my power. It’s always the simpler spells that I mess up…”

“Evie, does anyone else besides me know that you are a dragon?” John who was shielding his face from the dissipating heatwave asked, his eyes looked behind them, cautious of any prying eyes. John then spoke with his mouth “I mean in terms of the people in the academy.”

“No,” she answered then turned to the direction that he was looking at, “There is no one around us, John. Do not worry, I only revealed myself to you, like I said in the past, I do not have interest in other people.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine, in that case I don’t think anyone would suspect you for the fire… Wait, no! Evie, stop the fires now!”

“This is but a useless chasm, I am certain that no living things are–”

“No, that’s not what I meant! What if someone discovered this and traced it back to the academy, then you would be in trouble if they did a mass scale investigation!”

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From what he could infer from the reactions of everyone else in the lecture yesterday, it was certain that the empire would not take it kindly to Evie’s existence. Should they discover her origins, she might be captured and be used for various testing, at worse, she would be exterminated—not that he was worried about the outcome, rather the inconvenience it would cause to her life.

Evie was an Elder Dragon, according to John’s knowledge of history, dragons were mostly depicted as beings sought by other races to slay, to defeat, to hunt... It would have been different if said dragons were causing chaos and bloodshed, but the one before him was simply trying to tutor him, she did not deserve the backlash should people become hostile towards her.

“I-I did not think of that…” Evie quickly understood his thoughts.

“Do you know any spells to undo the fire? Or something to make it seem like it never happened?”

“I’ll do my best, [Dissipation of elements], [Minor revival], [Regrowth]!”

Evie’s hand glowed in a soft white light, the fires extinguished themselves in unison, the moss and small plants that were burnt into ashes renewed and replenished themselves from their remains as though he fire did not take place. It was though the dragon had turned back time for this little chasm that she had inflicted the torrent of blazes upon.

She then floated down from above to the very edge of the cliff and inspected the chasm below. John walked up to her and peered at the chasm that she ‘fixed’.

“Phew, that was close. Though, it looks a tad bit wider and deeper, haha.”

“You stopped me at the precise moment, should the fire stretch any longer than that, the rocks beneath us would have melted, if that had happened it would be a pain for me to restore them.”

“Yeah, you should really mind that output. We can’t be too sure that people will just ignore a chasm that suddenly bursts into flames and not suspect the students when it is not far from the academy. In the worse case, they might start and all year interrogation until the the truth is revealed.”

“Ufufu, ever the visionary. Perhaps such a future may come to be, perhaps not, but I am happy for your concern for my well-being. Do not worry, should that future come to be, I have my own ways to get rid of problematic people,” Evie boasted gracefully while trying to keep her pink cheeks from being discovered by John.

“Ahahaha, I rather you don’t cause major problems for yourself.” John placed a hand on her back while he watched the chasm cooled beneath them. “Still, that was some crazy magic when you lit the entire place on fire, I thought I was in hell, hahaha!”

“P-please don’t put it like that. Y-you make me sound like an uncontrolled beast.”

John rolled his eyes, “Oh please, you are an Elder Dragon, no one is able to tell you what to do or think. Don’t get too hung up on it.”

Evie who became bashful lowered her gaze into the chasm once again, she curled the tip of her tail like a fist and softly punched his back with it.

“…Idiot,” her murmur was so soft that it might as well been left unsaid.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing, at, all,” her tail struck his back softly once more. Evie began humming softly and turned away from him. “Nothing you would know…”

“If it was nothing, why would you hit me and look away? Miss Elder Dragon? Someone is definitely guilty here,” John comment, pushing a finger of his into her forearm, poking her to spill her secrets.

“Not, telling, you.”

Evie looked to the night sky, the night breeze brushed her long hair while she moved to lean her head on John who was beside her. But she had misjudged the distance between them and fell when she tilted her head to the right.

Thankfully John who saw it caught her by her shoulders just before she fell to the chasm “Whoa, watch it there. It is at least a few hundred meters deep down if you fall. Let’s move away from this cliff before something happens.”

Evie kept silent, her tail however, have gotten more feisty at tapping John’s back, bumping him softly, hoping that he would understand what she was thinking.

“I am not an uncontrolled beast. I am just the same as always…”

“What do you mean by that last sentence? I didn’t say you are a beast, I still think of you the same after that insane [Fireball] you casted, it’s just amazing, you know? Stop worrying about it too much.”

“That’s not what I—” she stomped her feet on the ground and the next thing she knew, it crumbled and she her body was falling into the deep chasm. “Ah…”

Into the chasm the dragon girl fell, thinking that it was something she could have handled easily, John waited for her to float back up with her magic or flapping of her wings.

A second passed, then two, three, four.

“Evie?”

She didn’t waste all her mana earlier didn’t she?

He watched her small body fall deeper into the chasm, her tail fluttering in the wind as her expression remains to be in a dreamy state that all magic casters experienced whenever they used a mana consuming spell. He did not want to jump to conclusions, but it seems that she is suffering from minor mana fatigue.

“Evie, stop fooling around and fly back here,” he called to her in his mind, hoping that her telepathic connection to his mind was intact.

“…”

“Hey! Ephinelyth!!! Wake up!!!” he shouted, but there was still no response from her.

John became frozen in place, unsure what to do next.

She can’t hear me if I shouted, doesn’t respond to telepathic message…

He bit his lip the longer he waited for the dragon to awaken to her senses, what was a fraction of a second became an eternity of anxiety, the longer he waited, the more the unease ate away in his mind.

Something is not right...

Evie, from her conduct and the way she spoke was someone competent, the way she had no worries about what would happen to her should the Empire pursued her, even her magical abilities were beyond what John expected despite the limited knowledge he had on Elder Dragons. Surely, a small fall like this would barely injure her, let alone worry her.

But his eye caught something that deeply disturbed him. In the direction where Evie was falling into, at the very depths of the chasm, the ground was filled with spikey stalagmites, all of it, which could be fatal should Evie fell directly onto.

His heart throbbed. Elder Dragon or not, he was not going to stand and watch.

There was only one action for John Sarvod to take.

I am going to regret this…

He leaped.

Ephinelyth had used too much force on her feet while she was trying to tell John about it, about something she had been keeping to herself for all this time. But when she remembered just how sad he looked yesterday, and earlier she could not help but to feel conflicted about it.

Would it have been better if she told him when they first met yesterday? Would he had accepted such a childish reasoning from her?

No, it would be selfish for her to drop something like that to John who in his mind barely knew anything about her. Not when he was so mentally preoccupied on something else.

She could sense his lonesomeness, that feeling of being abandoned by someone he held dear, it would be selfish for Ephinelyth to just enter his life and demanded him to behave in a certain way just because she wanted to, even if it was a promise they made together.

How cruel you are, fate. Just when I found him after all these years… I take this as punishment for my cowardness that day.

The further back Evie thought about it, the more she became lost in thought, unable to make a choice against the dilemma she had, her mind and body became limp. It was until she saw the sharp protruding rocks below that her eyes widen in realization that she had forgotten to fly upwards.

“Ephinelyth!!!”

Then, she was tackled from above, familiar strong arms wrapped themselves arounf her small frame as she melted into his embrace as they plummeted as one.

“John?”

“Ahhhhh!!!!” he yelled as his muscles tensed around her, doing his best to shield her from the oncoming impact. “[Protection]!!!”

Boom!

A loud crash erupted from Evie’s ears, the dust and dirt fogged her vision as she laid unharmed on top of John, his ragged breathing, his twitching body, she could feel him right beneath her, acting as the cushion to break her fall.

“No, no, no!” Evie quickly got off of him, she placed her hand on top of his chest, casted a healing spell on him as her eyes trembled. “Please be alright, please be alright!” she called to him repeatedly while the healing magic from her hands continued to go on.

Then the dust around them settled, she could now clearly see his face, his tensed expression, the red splotches and bruising around his body that already healed.

John, John, John… she moved her hands gently to his cheeks, caressing him indicating how precious he was to her.

As though he reacted to her touch, John’s eyes opened ever so slightly, “W-what were you thinking back there!? I was…” when he tried to speak any more, his energy left him and he became unconscious.

Tears dripped from Ephinelyth as blamed herself for seeing him hurt for her. With great care and her hand still casting the healing magic on John, she elevated him to the air and attempted to transport him away from the chasm, bringing him to safety.

Before she could, she stopped in her tracks.

Amidst the dusty air and broken ground, a spherical film surrounded them. The stalagmites that were supposed to be part of their fall had all been dispelled by this barrier that was conjured out of nowhere, even Evie who mastered many different magic was certain that she did not cast it.

Then, the sphere around them dissipated, it reduced itself into wisps of mana. Mana that shared the very color of his hair.

Black.

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