Chapter 6:

There were now only two days until the attack. It would come tomorrow night. Clement let Subaru take off today and tomorrow after a little begging. Subaru went straight to Amai's tower early in the morning, he had talked with him yesterday and decided that he would practice all day today.. He stepped up to the tower's door. "You ready, Ceres?"

[Yep!]

He knocked on the wooden door.

Just as yesterday, Amai opened the door, and gave Subaru another soft smile. He led Subaru into the decently-sized upper room. Ceres manifested herself. "Alright…" The old man said, "We'll start off by having the two of you doing the same as yesterday."

For about an hour Subaru trained his gate. It was a pretty simple process, just taking some magic and carefully expelling it, then carefully taking some from the air nearby and carefully putting it back in. Meanwhile, Ceres floated around, once again practicing gathering magic from the atmosphere, storing it, and then expelling it.

However, after that hour, Amai had Ceres practice giving Subaru magic. It wasn't too hard, though she had a little trouble at first because of how fragile his gate was. They practiced this for a short while.

"Alright." Amai said, nodding, "Subaru, your gate is too weak to use in battle right now. Ceres will have to do all of the spell casting."

Subaru nodded.

"It'll be a little difficult, because she's a minor spirit without much experience, but you two should be able to cast a little magic by tomorrow."

"Alright. Sounds good."

Subaru walked over to Ceres, asking, "You ready?"

[Ready.]

Subaru gave her a small smile as Amai began to speak to her.

Subaru sat off to the side, training his gate again. Truth be told, he didn't have too much faith in Ceres to be of much help in a fight. She was innocent and seemed to be too easygoing to be able to make the split-second decisions needed in a fight.

He sighed.

He looked over towards Ceres and Amai, who was on the opposite side of the room. Currently, Amai was explaining how to cast a spell to her. She was having quite a bit of trouble understanding it. Subaru sighed and focused on his gate again. He could feel that it was a little stronger than it had been before, though it was already starting to ache again.

"I guess I'll have to start training my gate right away next loop."

If there was a next loop.

He held onto his hope and determination to live.

Across the room a small shard of ice formed in front of Ceres. She radiated happiness at her small success. Subaru smiled.

Subaru stood with Ceres in front of him. Amai was off to the side of the two. Subaru took a deep breath. [Ready, Ceres?]

[Ready.]

Subaru released the breath and went over the steps Amai had told him.

First, envision the spell. For the spell they were trying, Huma, he was to envision a shard of ice, like the one Ceres had formed a little bit ago. He closed his eyes and formed the shard in his mind.

Second, send the image to the spirit. He focused on Ceres and sent the mental image to her.

These first two steps could be skipped if the spirit and spiritualist became more in tune with one another.

Third, say the incantation out loud. He opened his mouth and said, "Huma."

Fourth, the spirit will expel its mana and form it into the spell. Ceres expelled some of her gathered mana and focused on shaping it correctly. The mana formed together in front of her, bunching into a number of blue glowing orbs. These condensed into a chunk of ice. It then shaped into a longer piece of ice, with small dull points on both ends.

Fifth, the spirit will fling it towards the target. Ceres pulled the shard back a little before it shot forwards. It flew at a decent speed and hit a wall of ice Amai had formed across the room. It hit the wall and shattered, leaving only a small chip in the wall.

Amai stepped forward. "Good job. For such a short amount of time you two have done well."

Subaru nodded, "Thanks."

Ceres glowed brightly for a moment to show her happiness.

Subaru stared at the wall of ice that Amai had made. He wondered about just how he made it so strong. Their spell had barely even chipped it.

Amai seemingly read his thoughts and said, "It just comes from experience, from both the spiritualist and the spirit."

Subaru nodded again, "That makes sense."

Amai closed his eyes, "Your gate is progressing fine. My guess is that you'll be able to use your own mana sometime next month."

Subaru looked down, So even if I start training right away I still won't be able to cast spells by myself safely by the twentieth.

"Mm, okay."

"Well, let's get back to business."

Subaru turned back towards the wall of ice, and Ceres got back into place before him.

He took a breath, formed the image of the shard, sent it to Ceres, and said, "Huma."

The spirit took a few moments to prepare her mana and to start forming it. Once again a number of glowing blue orbs formed as the mana condensed, before forming into a shard of ice a few seconds later. She pulled the ice back and shot it forwards a moment later.

The shard wobbled up and down a little as it flew, but it hit the wall of ice and broke a decent-sized chunk out of it before it shattered into pieces.

Ceres glowed brightly at the success. Subaru smiled.

Maybe they could win against the attacker.

Subaru opened the front door and stepped into their house. He stepped into the living room and sat down. His gate still ached from all the training he had done today. Ceres was also tired.

Clement wasn't home yet for whatever reason.

Subaru ended up thinking over everything he knew about what was going to happen. He ended up thinking of the blonde-haired woman who had told him to stay safe last loop. Wonder what that was about…?

He shook his head. He tried to organize his thoughts some more, but Subaru ended up falling asleep shortly after because of his exhaustion.

He woke up later to the door opening. Subaru sleepily glanced at the door from his place on the couch. Clement stood in front of the door, taking off his coat. Subaru shook off some of his tiredness and said, "Hello, Clement."

"Hey."

Clement hung his coat up on a nearby coat rack and walked over and into the living room. He sat down on a chair, rubbing his cold hands together. He asked, "How was it today?"

Subaru yawned, "It was hard, but rewarding. We cast our first few spells today."

"Mhm. I'm sure you two will become a strong pair soon."

"Yeah... hopefully."

Subaru sat up on the couch. "How was work?"

"Fine. We sold a lot of things. Afterwards I took a little walk around."

Subaru nodded. He stood up and stretched. "Well, I'm going to head to bed."

"Alright. Good night."

"Good night."

Subaru retreated to his room for the night. He tried not to think of the possibility of those dreams coming back as he laid down in bed.

He sighed and closed his eyes, saying, "Good night, Ceres."

[Night.]

Shortly after Subaru fell into his dreams again. He slept peacefully yet again.