CHAPTER 95: WATER SPELL

"Surprised?" Sage Maximus asked. "Well, you shouldn’t be. This is simply the reality of things," he said, turning and walking further into the room.

"I don’t support this faction though. At least not fully." His voice echoed through the massive room. "When you’re as strong and as old as I am, nothing really moves you anymore... Things that do come very rarely." He said. "You intrigue me Zephyr. So I’m acting on it." He chuckled.

Zephyr processed everything Sage Maximus had said, thinking about his plight. Ever since he had come to this world, it had been run, run, run. Always looking behind his back. Wary of his partner, Smiling Devil, and wary of the natives who might spot that he was different. And yet even while being that careful, there was still the threat of the Exalted that he never knew about. Everything in this world was out to get him. He didn’t belong here. A foreign entity that needed to be exterminated. Now, again he was reminded of that fact. He didn’t belong here.

Regardless of the little joys he might have here and there, the few good people he had met... On the Grand scale of things it didn’t matter. The reality was that he was still never free. Death was always at his doorstep, waiting for him to make the mistake of stepping out. The people who got to call the shots in this world would kill him at the slightest sign of a threat to their authority... or their goal.

He breathed out deeply, nodding to himself and reorienting his psyche. He needed to do things differently from now on. He had his own personal goals and objectives. He would focus on them solely, doing everything in his power to achieve them with every single opportunity that was given to him.

There was no room for wishy-washy comfort anymore.

He raised his head and looked at Sage Maximus with a resolute gaze. "I accept your offer."

"What?" The man smiled lightly.

"You’re leading up to saying you’ll take me in, right?" He asked. "I accept."

Sage Maximus rolled his eyes. "You make it sound like you’re making a very tough decision. But it’s good that you’ve realized your situation. And you seem to have come to a realization of a very bitter truth about life..." he said. "In this world the only thing that would always be by your side is your strength. Not your family. Not your lover. Not your friends. Not your comrades... but you and your strength alone. Know this truth and you can never be moved or disappointed by anyone or anything." Sage Maximus said with a distant gaze.

Zephyr kept silent, taking in the man’s words, further solidifying his conviction. He immediately started up the same spell he had just tried back at the arena. Within a second, fire materialized right above his hand. This time he had started with a plain fire rather than giving it an arrow form.

He had just started to compress the fire when Sage Maximus called him to attention. "While I admire your zeal, we’re not finished yet," he said, causing Zephyr to release the spell into the air. It shot upwards for a small distance before dissipating due to weak power.

Zephyr turned his gaze to Sage Maximus, "I already said I accept. I don’t care for your terms. I just want to get started."

"Focus is good. But blind focus is not. You’re basically giving me a blank card by saying that." Sage Maximus said.

"What does it matter either way?" Zephyr shrugged. "It’s not like I have a choice."

"I don’t want much from you. Only a single request - In the near future, if you’re able to come out of the convergence trial as a victor... hold for a few days before releasing the origin privilege you gain to anyone. Me included," Sage Maximus said with a playful smile.

Zephyr frowned, but kept silent. There seemed to be more to the request than Sage Maximus let on.

"In return, I’ll shield you till the convergence. You can roam around my estate as you see fit. But know that you can’t leave here for the time being." The sage explained.

"...I accept." Zephyr said firmly. He had made a decision, and he was going to see it through. The four years Grandmaster Oswald had said the convergence would take to arrive was more than enough for him to have gained great strength.

"Good." Sage Maximus nodded. "Just see it as a period of focused seclusion. It’s just two years anyway."

"Two?!" Zephyr exclaimed. "I thought it was four?!"

"Well, we did too. But the latest estimates place it at two years at the very least."

’Damn! That’s half the time!’ Zephyr felt a bit of urgency. What tier could he reach before then?

"Pascal would be coming in once in a while to give you specialized pointers only Exalted would know. Don’t worry," the sage held a hand up, "he’s on my side. Aside from him, no one would be allowed to enter this estate." He said.

"But for now, I’d say you should get started on the tests you wanted to try out." He stood with his hands crossed behind his back, right in the middle of the massive training room.

Zephyr looked at the sage’s stance. Was he intending to receive his attacks?

"You want me to try them out on you?" Zephyr asked with hesitation.

"Why not? What? You thought I was going to watch from the sides?" He chortled. "That would be boring, I’d rather go head on and see what you’ve got."

"Come on. Have a go. Shoot your best shot." He beckoned.

Zephyr didn’t even need to be told twice. He also wanted to see what made this short, red haired man a ’Sage’.

This time, he visualized a large ball of fire, feeling as the spell began to coalesce slowly between both his hands. But as he watched the flames burn brighter and grow larger, a thought crossed his mind. Why had he always defaulted to using the fire spell? It just required visualization, so why was he limiting himself to flames alone?

Going by the Boolean logic of: if mana type x is present AND mana type y is present AND a third mana type z is NOT, execute, Zephyr could simply decide that the mana type to NOT to be present should be fire, or flames, or just heat in general.

He immediately changed his intention, instead visualizing the opposite of fire... water. The fifteen million transistors in his mana node went into action, receiving the inverted spell logic that his origin clutch provided like a compiler, and executing it.

Zephyr on the outside, because of his unique ability to access his mana core, was still able to feel some of this process happen like no Exalted could even dream of feeling. He already knew his attempt was a success even before the fire floating between his hands dispersed and a rapidly growing orb of water began to float in its place.

Zephyr stared at it with slight excitement. A water spell. He had just conjured a water spell on the fly. Without any prior teachings.

He concentrated again, his main goal was to try compressing the floating orb of water just like he had done with the fire.

He focused on visualizing compression... Compression...! Compression! He scrunched up his face, straining as he the floating orb vibrated without changing size at all.

Why wasn’t it compressing?