I do not own the RWBY or Fate universes. Another (late) chapter for you guys.
Chapter Eleven: Semblance of Magic
I quietly observed in the sidelines as Weiss held up her sword in front of her. Then she pointed the blade downwards and firmly thrust it into the floor. Her eyes were currently closed in concentration. The floor then lit up with the appearance of a large white glyph, bearing imageries of four large swords slowly rotating around a snowflake.
The illumination of the glyph slowly increased in magnitude as time passed by. The glyph's rotations kept accelerating up to a certain point. And the energy emitted from the glyph seemed pretty stable and strong judging from my magic senses. It was slow yet steady progress so far, given what I have seen so far from her past attempts.
I personally found the Schnee glyphs to be relatively interesting semblance among many others for a couple of reasons. One, unlike other semblances, the Schnee semblance is hereditary, meaning that it is passed down by bloodline. Two, the glyphs have rather multi-dimensional abilities, where most semblances are usually tied to only one specific ability. So I wonder if there was anything special about the Schnee family background that would explain these reasons. Maybe reading some of the books in their private library could reveal something? I doubt it, or else Weiss would not have so much trouble with her summoning in the first place.
Speaking of which, the summoning glyph started to pulse unexpectedly when Weiss's breath hitched and the initially smooth flow of aura was interrupted. The glyph then became quite unstable, as its size grew and shrank at an erratic rate and its rotations became randomly varied in speed. Finally, the summoning glyph died out completely as Weiss slumped on the ground with her arms slack at her sides, apparently exhausted from the ordeal.
It was a failure.
I quietly sighed as I strolled over to where Weiss stood, her snow-white bangs hiding her eyes as her head remained bowed down. She slowly straightened up at my approach yet did not look at me in the eyes.
"I suppose this is where you tell me that I need to try again," Weiss said rather bitterly to me. Even if I wasn't a Grimm, the sheer emotions of frustration and depression from her were quite apparent. I guess it was not easy to fail numerous times without any inkling of success in them.
But if there was one thing about Weiss I admired most, it was her tendency to push through who she was before to become a better person. She can be irritating and arrogant to some degree, but I can see she is more of a stubborn and prideful woman inside. Most people would get discouraged in her situation and would have given up sooner. And seeing her like this felt…wrong to me for some reason. I suddenly felt my wise side itching to speak out.
And so I let it speak out.
"Nope. However, I am interested to know what you were thinking when you were summoning," I spoke out, causing her to look at me finally.
"I was thinking of trying to summon the foe that I once defeated, but I just lose control and…" Weiss started to say.
"Pause it right there for a moment. Weiss, are you interesting in hearing a story from me?" I interrupted her. This would be an interesting lesson.
"A story?" Weiss scoffed at me. "How would a story help me out with my summoning?"
"Trust me on this one. There is always something you can learn from stories. But are you willing to hear me out?" I asked her again.
"…Alright. I might as well, seeing that I have made no progress so far," Weiss said with a heavy sigh as she smoothed out the wrinkles on her skirt.
"Good. Now where should I start?" I said as Weiss took a seat across from me. "Well, long ago in a galaxy far, far away…There was once a young warrior who sought out magic training from a very old yet wise master in order to save the galaxy. The master was initially reluctant to teach the young warrior due to his various faults like his recklessness, anger, and lack of patience. But he did eventually train him with various exercises, where the young warrior completed them all. Then the master gave him one final test, which was to lift a trapped aircraft in a bog. The young warrior was convinced that he could not do it. He tried anyways and failed to do so. He then protested to the master it was impossible as the aircraft was too heavy and big for him to carry and that he tried," I narrated to Weiss.
"Of course, I would imagine that would be an impossible feat for many people. But I assume that was not the case here," Weiss interjected thoughtfully.
"Yes. So the old, yet wise master then said, 'Try not- Do or do not. There is no try.' Despite being smaller and physically weaker than the young warrior, the master lifted the aircraft from the bog with ease. The young warrior could not believe his eyes and said so to the master. The master simply replied that was the very reason why the young warrior failed," I said, finishing the story there. Yes, this was a very simplified story of Luke Skywalker's training with Yoda.
"I don't understand. How does this story have to do with my situation then? That I shouldn't try? Or that I should just give up? And what is up with that master's horrible grammar?" Weiss questioned me.
I simply shook my head at her.
"Do or do not refer not to simple success or failure, but rather your own commitment to the action itself. You can either choose to act or not. There is no in-between, and there should not be any doubts in your mind from your previous failures. In your case, you were already discouraged by your previous failings and thus you weren't fully committed to the action," I said. "Am I right?"
"…Yes." Weiss admitted in a small voice. I simply nod at her reply and then continued with my explanation.
"Do not try means that you are taking conscious thought out of what should be unconscious action. Trying to think about an action can distract you from what you need to do when acting on instinct will serve you better. For example, do you think to breathe or do you breathe without thinking?" I asked Weiss.
"…You breathe without thinking." Weiss answered in realization.
"Exactly. In the end, it relies on your gut feeling. Trust in yourself and let your instincts guide you," I explained. "Do not try to think too hard on your semblance itself. It is a part of you and it should come naturally to you at some point," I concluded my lesson.
"And as for the grammar, it is just his strange way of speaking. I honestly believe that it makes you think more about what he has to say if you are so intrigued by such dialogue. I find it to be a wise quote that would serve you well anytime."
Weiss nodded at me. "He does sounds like a very wise, old master."
"Well, he had to be wise and old if he was over nine hundred years old and a leader of thousands of space wizards," I said humorously. "He was also an alien from another world."
Weiss gaped at me before sighing to herself. "I don't know why I even bother to ask…"
I chuckled at her response. "Oh, I will be giving you more words of wisdom from many others than you can ever fully comprehend. And stories. I can't forget about stories."
"But as much of an interesting story it was, I don't know if I could do the same thing…" Weiss said doubtfully as she looked downwards at her skirt.
"Well, I told you this story mainly to remove the negative thoughts in your mind rather than to take it literally into your semblance training. I believe it does take some time and direction to make a specific action into instinct. It would possible for you to do same with your semblance, but I can see that you are rather methodical in your actions. Maybe another approach would suit you better in the meanwhile. Perhaps you could create a mental trigger."
"A mental trigger?" Weiss asked me in keen interest. "Like a mnemonic device?"
"Yes, to a certain extent. If I remember correctly, you did say that summoning allows a Schnee to summon a foe that had caused them to push past of who they were and become who they are now. Is that correct?"
A nod from Weiss confirmed my statement.
"A mental trigger is the forming of a unique image in your mind that you can associate with the activation of something inside you, such as your summoning. With enough practice, you can activate your summoning just by thinking of that specific image. It could also help with your problem with control," I explained to her. "A mental trigger has to be a memorable and unique image to you that can be tied into your summoning. Preferably, it has to be something emotional like something traumatic or very close to your heart. I am guessing that your summoning should involve something that caused a great change in your life, but the specific image is really up to you."
"Would…this really work for me?" Weiss asked me doubtfully.
"I don't know. Only you can know for yourself." I paused before smirking at her. "You can either choose to do it or do not. Th…"
"… there is no try." Weiss finished my statement.
"There we go! Now let's do it, shall we?" I said cheerfully, slapping my palms together.
Weiss kept her breathing steady as she prepared trying, no, doing her summoning again.
She cannot afford to fail now. Not when she has his trust in her. Not when there is a bigger test down the line. Not when she has everything to lose.
Weiss then felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Calm yourself," Weiss heard Gray say. "You are a little too tense right now. Do not worry too much about failure. I believe in you."
Weiss relaxed herself, loosened up the tenseness in her shoulders. "Thank you, Gray. I think I am ready now."
She then felt his hand removed from her shoulder in response. She almost regretted the sudden lack of his comforting hand, but willed herself to move on and concentrate. She focused on finding her mental image as instructed by Gray. But what unique mental image would trigger her summoning?
Gray did say that it could be something that changed her very life forever, but what could that be for her? Then Gray's own words echoed through her mind.
'…It has to be emotional like something traumatic or very close to your heart…'
A forgotten yet vivid memory then rose in her mind.
Shouts of anger and crying echoed in the background. It was blurry, but Weiss could see two distinct white figures facing each other in the distance. It seemed they were arguing.
'How could you miss your daughter's birthday party?!' One white figure shouted in a female voice. 'Just because you held a company meeting today?'
'I don't have time for mere birthday parties. You couldn't possibly understand the lengths I've gone to in order to keep the Schnee Dust Company at where it is now.' The other white figure answered coldly in a male voice.
'But she is your daughter! Your family! Why would you simply disregard her for the company!?' The female figure questioned the second figure in disbelief. '
'It is none of your concern. Now, if you would excuse me, I have some important business to attend to.' The male figure said dismissively.
The male figure tried to exit through a door, but the female figure moved to block his path.
'No, you answer me. I demand to know why.' The female figure said in a quiet yet firm voice.
'Is this really that important to you?' The male figure said exasperatedly as though this conversation wasn't worth his time.
'It should be to you! You are a father, you should care for your family more than this.' The female figure said.
'Don't you dare lecture me….' The male figure said in a warning tone.
'Then tell me why. Why would you not care about your daughter's birthday? Why do care for the company more than your family?' The female figure kept questioning insistently.
'Because I only married you for the Schnee family name!' The male figure finally snapped at the female figure.
'…What?'
'You heard me right…I only married you because I needed the family name, to take the SDC company to new heights. The only reason that I had children with you is to create heirs for the company and for my company reputation purposes.' The male figure confessed in a cold and rational manner.
'…So you only married me because of business, not love.' The female figure said with a weakened tone.
'Of course, our marriage was just a business transaction between your father and I. Oh I'm sorry, did you really think that there was any love lost between us? Then I will gladly correct you on that.' The male figure coldly finished the conversation.
The male figure then bypassed the female figure and exited the room. Then the scene changed.
The female white figure was currently sitting alone in a chair beside a small table. Besides her was a trolley filled with various bottles.
'…Ha…Is this really what we are worth to him? Just a family name.' The female figure said in a dejected tone. She was holding a wine bottle in her hands.
The female figure then popped the bottle open, and poured into a glass on the table.
'Then here is to our family, nothing more than a mere name...' the first voice said dejectedly as she then swiftly downed the glass of wine.
A gray fog suddenly rolled in, covering the scene of the forgotten memory once more.
Weiss looked around. She then found herself starring at a scared, young girl. The said girl was starring right back at her.
No, she was just a reflection on a silver mirror. The scared, young girl was in fact her…
Then something crashed into the said mirror.
She shattered into thousands of shards.
Not shards of glass.
But shards of ice.
And something cold flared within her.
"…eiss?…Weiss!" A panicked voice cried out to her, waking her up from her conversation.
Weiss gasped for air as a huge surge of power burst from the glyph. She felt Gray caught her as she was forced back from the immense wind pressure. But the glyph still remained as it subsequently lifted itself off the ground and turned vertically in the air.
A singular arm materialized out of the summoning glyph where it held a single heavy broadsword. It stopped at the shoulder, where it floated in the air, as if it was awaiting her command.
"It… worked?" Weiss murmured as she stared at the summoned. It was still incomplete, but it was much more than what she had accomplished in years.
"Apparently, albeit a little incomplete. But it seems like you have little problem completing it if you keep at this rate. Good job," Gray commented, as he closely examined the summon with interest.
"T-thank you…" Weiss could only answer shyly. She couldn't really say anything else.
"Just remember not to push yourself too hard on this. I am sure that you have at least heard the phrase, 'patience is a virtue'. It is a trait that I would think would help you a lot in particular." Gray cautioned her.
"I will…" Weiss promised. It felt…wonderful that she was able to accomplish this much with his advice. But she wasn't prepared for Gray's next statement.
"By the way, what was your chosen mental image?" I curiously asked Weiss.
"It…it was a reflection of me shattering into pieces," Weiss managed to answer.
"Huh…I guess that would do the trick. I would suggest practicing creating that image till it becomes second nature for your summoning. But other than that, I think you can do just fine." I said in deep thought.
But something bothered me. On the outside, Weiss seemed fine but her eyes tell me a different story. Did she find her mental image to be that traumatizing? Or was she badly shaken from something else, like her past? In the end, I decided not to push her on the topic, not wanting to spoil her success. But I would have to talk to her later.
So I believe it wouldn't be too long till Weiss is able to summon normally now. But I still think there is still room for improvement even after the fact. I do have grand plans for her summoning abilities. It is too bad I already destroyed the Grimm Wyvern at Beacon Academy…I would just have to find another Kevin for her.
But I have my own special training to attend to.
I had been thinking about this for some time now, and I decided it would best if I learned how to use some magecraft after weighting my training options here. I had a few reasons why I decided to do so.
In my opinion, Saber's skillset is a bit inadequate for me.
Don't get me wrong, Saber is an excellent and well-balanced servant in terms of physical capabilities, combat power, and magic reserves. Her physical capabilities and magic reserves are what make her one of the top Servants choices. Her skills and combat experience certainly are useful in many situations that I found myself in. There is no doubt why she is one of the best Saber-Class Servants. But I wasn't quite satisfied with how I am quite limited in the options I have in terms of different situations I could find myself in.
Grimm were probably the main enemies that I would be dealing with here and their strengths come from their overwhelming numbers rather than their individual strengths. I would find myself hard press to deal with numerous enemies at once or those who fly can out of my attack range without resorting to overkill methods like Excalibur. I prefer more surgical methods in taking down my enemies quickly than brute force things if possible. Magecraft can be one of the ways that I can discover how to take down multiple enemies easily (and avoid causing collateral damage).
Saber is obviously more geared toward direct combat judging from her skills and abilities, but I know that not all battles have to be fought and there are some situations that require… a more delicate touch. Fortunately, I could probably modify a few of Saber's skills or abilities for non-combat purposes, but magecraft could probably further my options in that area as well.
And magecraft is something that I wanted to do for a long time and I actually have the chance to do it now. I had some knowledge of what magecraft can do and Saber has some teachings from Merlin as well. Saber had potential as a magus with her immense magic power, but she didn't bother to learn magecraft in the first place. The reason she gave was that magecraft was not the way of the king, but she probably didn't have much patience to learn it in the first place. Not really surprising, since magecraft takes a considerable amount time to learn and use. But unlike Saber, I had some time to get a few spells down and I was patient enough to do so.
So I find myself sitting alone in the underground training room in a meditating position. I had gathered a few random objects scattered around me for training purposes. I start to calm myself down by breathing in and out slowly with my eyes closed.
So let's review my current knowledge.
Well, I already have my dragon core activated, which is a package of numerous magic circuits. It gives me an advantage over any average magus in terms of capacity and as I suspect, quality because of my inherited dragon blood. Dragons are essentially magic power given form. At the very least, I was better off than Shirou. He had initially created his own magic circuits out his nerves, which were temporary and weak in capacity. In other words, nerve circuits are very risky and painful to create; thus the wrong way to become a magus. I involuntarily shudder at the thought of using my nerves as pseudo magic circuits.
Now, I got the problem of magic power out of the way, let's review my knowledge. Magecraft, or Thaumaturgy, is essentially to convert the Magical Energy inside one's body to transform the external world. The power source is my magic power and the command do so is controlled by my magic circuits (or in this case, my dragon core). Equivalent exchange is one of the primary rules of magecraft. Basically, in order to create something, you must give up something in return. It makes sense so far. Magecraft is doing something possible by modern means (science) with a magical process.
Magic energy comes in two forms called mana (magical energy in the outside environment) and od (magical energy inside a living being). These are converted into a useable form called prana with magic circuits, which can be used to conduct magecraft. I obviously had a lot of od inside of me, but the mana concentration in the air is rather… thin. It is still quite a bit more than what you might find in present-day Fuyuki, but much less that what Saber would have felt during her days in Camelot. It probably has to do with the fact that the Brother Gods were gone and very few individuals had magic anymore. I took note of that, as external mana sources would be rare for me to tap in if I find a way to do so.
I don't know anything about my element or origin, or the method I can use to find out. This would be helpful in deciding how I can proceed in magecraft, but it is not completely necessary to perform magecraft itself. I just have to be careful as magecraft can be dangerous if done improperly.
Spellcasting is the way of speaking to oneself, instead of the world. It is using incantations or arias to activate the magical energy to create magecraft. I think it is a bit much to talk to activate magecraft, then again activating Noble Phantasms' True Names are kind of the same thing. So spellcasting is like self-hypnosis; placing oneself in a state to control one's Magic Circuits. So it requires a deeper state of mind to create magecraft.
So normally a magus would activate their magic circuits with a mental trigger, but my magic core is always generating magical energy independently like it is breathing. So I don't necessarily need a mental trigger to use my magic power (though I may create one later just in case).
So it looks like I have pretty much met the requirements for starting out as a novice magus.
My next step is to experiment with a few spells. Being cautious here, I decided to go with Material Transmutation as my first magecraft field of choice, due to my apparent inexperience about magecraft and my familiarity of what it can do from the show. Material Transmutation is the manipulation of material matter with magic power. The skillset includes structural grasping or analysis, reinforcement, alteration, and projection.
So for today, I am starting out with the basics. Structural Analysis. It is basically a glorified magic scanner that allows one to get information about the components of an object. It is a pretty useful and easy-to-learn skill for any amateur magus, and that is why I am learning this first. So I picked up an iron rod for practice.
I first created a mental image of scanning it and I started to divert a very small amount of prana to scan it. My trickle of magic power enveloped the object and the object itself started to weakly resist the prana flow. This phenomenon is not surprising that it follows the law of resistance. Resistance is the measure of how resistant the object in mind is to magical energy, and living beings are the most resistant of all. This resistance is what allows structural analysis to work as magical energy is bounced back by the object in question. So theoretically, the deflected magic gathers information about the object in question and returns back to me as a 'scanned blueprint'. It took me quite a few times to do this right properly.
Speaking of which, a complete mental blueprint finally popped into my mind. The iron rod was unsurprisingly was mostly made of iron with a few elemental impurities, likely from the air and the process of making it. I had a general idea of its shape and size, as well roughly the length of time that it was an iron rod. That is all I got really. I couldn't get much more information than that. But then again, I haven't gotten enough practice yet and I was not Shirou.
Then I decided on impulse to add a little energy to reinforce the iron rod. Just out of curiosity. I tentatively tried to fill in one of the metaphysical 'cracks' that I found in the iron rod. Reinforcement was the next step of material transmutation, where you would fill in 'cracks' of the object itself with magic energy and 'reinforce' its attributes and existence. But this added magical energy can be considered to be poison if added incorrectly, as the object in question is deemed already 'complete' by the world. And I just found out what happens firsthand.
Crack!
The iron rod unceremoniously split itself into two pieces almost immediately. I sighed as I shook my hand from the tingling feeling from the shock. It seems that I either put too much energy into it or I did incorrectly somehow. It would require a bit more practice and experimenting as I go. I just hope it doesn't take too long though. I only had less than ten months, not ten years for practice.
But this failure is kind of interesting in its own way. Could I use this to break certain stuff intentionally? It would probably be a little dangerous as I would have to touch the object in question, but I don't see why not. I am not quite sure if it would be practical in combat situations though.
But I probably won't be a Caster anytime soon from my progress. But that is fine. I generally view magecraft as more to supplement my combat capabilities rather than as a substitute. There are other things that I could learn to help Weiss and myself in the long run with magecraft. And a sword is still more familiar to me than magic powers any day.
I sighed to myself as I grabbed another nearby object and started the process again. Well, practice makes perfect, right? And I am certainly not going to improve myself if I sit around doing nothing.
But I do wonder how the rest of world is doing so far in my absence…
Gray and Weiss have finally made some progress in their training so far. There will a mini timeskip and a change of gears for the next few chapters, but we will primarily stay in the SDC mansion till the end of Volume 4. I know that this chapter is late for various, unsaid reasons and I apologize to those readers who have looking forward for this update. But as a side effect, this chapter is much longer than the previous ones. And I will do my best to keep this story going as long as possible.
On Gray's use of magecraft, I would say that he would be able to use it due to his knowledge of what it can do and Merlin must have at least taught some basics about magecraft knowledge to Artoria. It would be obvious that he would never be a good magus without a formal teacher, but it would play a small role in Gray's abilities. I was thinking of releasing another interlude soon, so look forward for a change of pace.
A side note: If you could have any heroic spirit as your teacher/mentor/guide, who would that be and why? This assumes that you have the potential of using magecraft/skills/other cool stuff. (Ex: I would like to learn from Shirou Emiya (Archer)…but not for his tracing magecraft or archery skills. I would rather inherit his legendary cooking skills instead.)
Thank you for staying with me through the story and I would appreciate polite and constructive reviews from you guys.