"What are you doing!"
Henrietta was about to run toward her daughter, horror drawn on her face.
"Wait."
Placing his arm in front of her, Orion stopped her from moving forward.
"This is different."
Her looked at Amelia with a confused yet serious expression.
Without any other choices, she watched her daughter slowly remove the dagger from her chest.
"T-The blade! There''s no blade!"
Surprised, she couldn''t help but exclaim.
''I knew she was smart.''
With a smile on his face, Orion dropped his arm and smiled.
"Sorry, mom. I learned my lesson though, I won''t take shortcuts if they injure me. But I will do anything I can to get stronger, even it means doing things different than others before me."
When she opened her eyes, electricity coursed through them.
"But you''re not in any elemental form right now. What did you do?"
Orion and Henrietta approached. They could feel the heaviness in the air caused by the large amount of static emitted by Amelia''s body. She was similar to a lightning rod that had been hit by lightning.
"When I stabbed myself earlier, I wasn''t properly diffusing the energy. It remained in my leg, jumping in my other limbs randomly. That wasn''t very useful."
"It''s when I''ve seen you that I remembered that ability you''ve taught me."
"Magic Diffusion."
Both said at the same time.
"I see."
With a nod, he got the idea.
"Care to explain? I''m not a freak like you two with ideas on how to torture your body and mind."
"Excuse me?"
Amelia said, releasing a few sparks from her fingers at her mother''s insult that wasn''t far from the truth.
"I stand by what I said. Anyways, can you explain?"
She looked at Orion next. He didn''t care about what she said previously, so he spoke as if he heard nothing.
"The moment she stabbed the dagger, the blade took an incorporeal form. It is lightning after all. She absorbed the magic in her body, carefully directed in every parts of her body, and diffused the surplus out of her body."
"Or that should be the closest explanation I can give you. For more details, Amelia is the only one that can tell you in the end."
After crossing his arms, he turned around and walked to the portal he previously opened.
"Don''t go too far, Amelia."
He glanced at her over his shoulder. She gulped for a moment, noticing the very serious look on his face.
"Yes."
The moment she nodded, her eyes released two little purple lightning bolts horizontally that instantly dissipated into the air.
"Good. If something happen again, call me."
The portal closed when he walked through it, leaving Amelia and her mother together again.
"Stupid daughter, stop scaring me! The last thing I want to see is you dropping dead when you were supposed to be training!"
"Again, I''m sorry. But look."
Henrietta looked at her with an unimpressed face, feeling that she was about to show her a petty trick.
"Leima, ten percent."
The hilt of lightning that had no blade absorbed some of the magic flowing inside her muscles, and began to accumulate it where the blade was in a ball of lightning.
"Release."
At that point, Henrietta was standing there, her arms crossed. She looked at her daughter lifting the hilt above her head, and sending the ball high into the air at high speed.
When the ball arrived at the ''roof'' of Horizon, it exploded, releasing a rain of lightning that fell down on both of them.
"What are you doing?! Are you trying to kill me?!"
She wasn''t used to such intense emotions yet, and everything that happened scared her. But she remembered that indeed, Amelia was strange when it concerned training.
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Fighting against her fire clone was one of those strange moments. So she braced herself, watching the purple light fall on her.
*Crackle* *Crackle*
The lightning rain touched the ground, avoiding her and Amelia completely. Not even a single lightning bolt got close to them.
"See? Though, my muscles are aching now. I''ll return to normal."
She closed her eyes at the end of her attack, making Leima absorb the electricity back into it through her arm. A minute later, the blade of the dagger made of lightning had been recreated, and Amelia was back to normal.
"You''re just like him, you''ve been having monstrous thoughts. Is it because you''ve been with him for so long?"
Dusting her clothes as a way to forget what had happened, Henrietta said.
"I don''t know if that''s the case, but live with him long enough, and I suppose it will influence your thought process?"
"..."
Amelia remembered getting angry at Orion for firing a lightning arrow that burned a whole forest down in the fairy realm.
"No, I guess you''re right. I''ve became accustomed to his madness to the point of doing the same. Haha~"
''That''s no laughing matter!''
Even though she wanted to lecture her daughter, she knew it would be useless. Instead, she used another option.
"Yes, and the more you will break yourself doing it, the more Orion will get angry at you. Saw his reaction earlier?"
Orion had the right to be angry, he was the one who avoided injuries at all costs during training. Though, a few of his new ideas led to injured in some instances, these were accidents.
"I''ll be careful..."
What she really didn''t want was to anger him.
''That was close.''
She rubbed her thigh, where the dagger was stabbed in before.
"So, what are you planning to do with that new ''power'' you''ve found?"
"Nothing. It''s not really what I''m looking for."
"Then why show it to us?"
Henrietta couldn''t understand the point if it was not going to help her in her fights.
"We were looking for a way to strengthen my resistance to the lightning element, weren''t we? That''s what it''s for."
"Oh."
Surprised, Henrietta nodded.
"I''m going to get accustomed to the element, and then I''ll work on the mastery. Though, I don''t know how I''m going to do that yet."
"I''ll help you however I can."
With that, Amelia rested a for a moment, before returning to that training.
~
"Seven times eight?"
"Fifty six!"
"Good."
Orion was sitting in front of Stella at the dining table. He was teaching her a few things, and mathematics was one of those things.
"Let''s take a break there, you''ve been working very hard today, so I''ll make you some cocoa as a reward."
"Oh! Cocoa!"
A bright smile on her face, she watched as Orion walked past her and entered the kitchen. He rummaged through the cabinets and took what he needed, before making the cocoa.
"Here. Be careful, it''s hot."
"Yes!"
The little girl grabbed the cup carefully, still haunted by her previous incident, and blew on the steaming beverage.
"Papa, you''re not going to train?"
As she went for a sip, she asked that question.
"Hmm~"
He seemed to think for a moment, as he looked through the window.
"I can''t really do much at the moment. I''m still recovering, so I''m avoiding putting more burden on myself."
"And it wouldn''t be good if I worried you and the others, right?"
Turning his face toward her, he smiled.
"Y-Yes. I don''t want to see you hurt."
"That''s why."
He stood up from his chair and went into the living room. There, he picked up one of the books arranged in the bookshelf, and returned to the dining room.
Since he was done teaching Stella, and that she was enjoying her hot drink, he relaxed with a book in hand.
Time passed until Stella was done drinking. He closed the book, placed it on the table and stood up.
"Alright, let''s go somewhere."
"Where?"
As she asked, she held her arms in his direction. Orion crouched, picked her up in his arms, and exited the house.
"Not far. I want to talk with the tree lady."
"The tree lady. She''s nice."
"She is, but she can also be very scary. Especially if you ignore her warnings."
With a small smile on his face, he walked with her toward Horizon''s Tree of Life.
''Seems like she''s in the fairy realm right now. The tree''s not moving at all.''
It was easy to notice her presence, as the branches and leaves constantly moved as if she was breathing. It was different to the wind blowing through them.
*Woof*
"Hey, Sirius. Want to come along?"
The white dog wagged his tail when Orion noticed him. With Sirius next to him now, he continued forward.
...
"I was right, she absent."
"The tree lady is sleeping?"
Stella pointed at the Avatar, who was inactive.
"She''s somewhere else. Do you remember that place with all the fairies? She''s over there."
"Oh."
Slowly, the tree began to come alive.
*crack*
A long continuation of cracking sounds echoed, coming from the tree. A green aura enveloped it, only to disappear a moment later.
"That presence I have felt, I knew it was you."
"Hi, Tiohr-nam. It''s been a while."
"The fact that you are still alive is what shock me the most."
"That''s..."
He felt as if she was stabbing him with her eyes.
"H-Hello."
Little Stella waved shyly at Tiohr-nam, not forgetting to be polite.
"Hi there. How are you feeli- Oh, way better than before it seems, that is good. Your soul has began to heal."
"Soul?"
Tilting her head slightly, she looked at the Avatar.
"Do not worry, I was talking to myself. Anyways, I suppose you are here to tell me what had happened, what you plan on doing, and question me about your true forms?"
"Well, that was something I wanted to talk about, but I mainly wanted to know if Stella was doing better, which you instantly answered before I could ask. Thanks."
"Anything for you."
A smile on her face, Tiohr-nam created seats with her roots for him to sit on.
"Before we start, can I check on you? I have worked very hard to keep you from dying, the least I am asking is to see if it needs more time to heal."
"Go for it. I don''t feel any problems with it though."
"..."
She closed her eyes, and felt Orion''s soul through the connection she had with him.
''Nothing in particular is showing up. No shattered, broken or missing parts... there is only that swelling from the magic detonation. It should take a month to completely heal.''
''It should not trouble him whatsoever, but I will keep an eye on it for... now?''
Feeling another source of magic around her, she traced it back rapidly.
''That is... That stupid dragon, I had no idea he tried to save him too.''
She noticed Velridar''s own magic on the place Elliott ripped open with Vanitas. It had not completely heal, but it had been patched up.
''He is not even remotely knowledgeable enough to heal souls, yet, he tried. I suppose I was a bit too harsh on him.''
Once everything was in order, she opened her eyes.
"No problems. Avoid overusing your magic for a month, just to be sure."
"What if I don''t?"
"It will take even longer to heal, and could make you sick. Soul sickness is awful, and it is what those humans with multiple elements eventually went through."
Orion nodded.
''I was already planning to rest. That is, until we hear Miasma''s next move.''
"Alright, tell me everything that you went through, and that you have heard."
With Stella on his lap, and Sirius laying next to his foot, he told everything to Tiohr-nam. She already knew most of it from her old friends, but was glad to know he didn''t try to hide things from her.
Before he knew it, he was gladly sharing ideas with her on the next approach. He talked about his worries about finding his mother''s in Eogis, and how he needed to know more about his own legacy, the demons and angel forms.
''Really, Tiohr-nam is a great ally.''
That was his honest though.