Author's Note:
This time at the beginning of the chapter to warn about potential spoilers concerning the Astrea familia logs. I did not play Danmachi Memoria Freeze personally but have taken an interest in some of its events, as Sly is already studying the Zeus and Hera familia, so be warned that snippets of own variation of Alfia's tale will be covered in this chapter.
On another note, I am determined to finish chapter 13 by Halloween, as it will be the end of Act 1 of my story. Act 2 will focus heavily on the Xenos, now that the Takemikazuchi familia has been introduced.
Ps. This chapter contains my favourite scene of from all of Act 1. I hope you enjoy and if you do please leave a review, so that I can improve even further.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori; all rights go to him. I only own my original character Sleipnir and Ikuchi.
Speech: "How can I be so stupid and forget something so obvious?"
Thoughts: 'Incredible, the White Lotus tea truly lives up to its fame.'
Magic: "Silentium Eden!"
Screaming/Demonic Voice: "Ouka watch out."
Chapter 12 Magical Confrontation
Hostess of Fertility - Sleipnir POV
After his hasty escape from spying on the Apollo familia with his invisibility Sly needed a break to regain his mana. Even though his control over small illusions increased tremendously due to all the control exercises Acatl-hakase had him go through, maintaining them for 3 hours was not only almost enough to empty his mana reserves, but also gave him a headache.
At least he was already in the western district of Orario, so visiting the Hostess of Fertility was right along the way. He would finally get to take the offer Ryuu made him during their first visit. A tea made from dungeon herbs would not only taste incredible but also help him regain some of his mana.
Once inside the Hostess, Sly noticed how it was still lively, even without most of the regulars of the Loki familia. They were most likely already in the deep levels fighting horrors unknown and traps untold. It would be fascinating to explore once he was strong enough.
But enough distractions. Sly went to a table and only moments later Syr the beautiful grey-haired waitress already stood beside him for his order. "Welcome back, Sleipnir-kun. Not even a week has passed and we meet again. Nothing bad happened I hope?"
Sly smiles easily almost forgetting his own tiredness. "It's nice seeing you again Syr-san. Unfortunately, our main group had a difficult encounter and we need to recover before venturing deeper into the dungeon, but it is nothing we can't handle"
Smiling jovially and keeping eye contact with her grey eyes Syr continues. "In that case, I hope you will recover well and take all the time you need, but you shouldn't wait too long. Otherwise, you might be in for a surprise. So, what would you like to order?"
"I'm finally following Ryuu-san's recommendation and will try one of the dungeon teas. Today I will try the White Lotus. I hope it lives up to the grandeur Ryuu-san spoke of."
"Thats one of the dungeon herbs from the Water City, quite the rare herb. But also expensive coming from the lower half of the middle floors. I hope you are ready to disburse the cost of 1'000 valis!"
Sly nods but thinks to himself. 'As expected, the white lotus is a very expensive ingredient. A simple tea almost costs as much as 5 meals. Well, today is an exception, but I have to help Asuka-san grow some in the future.'
She then brings Sly a finely decorated porcelain tea set with the pattern of a white lotus. With a small teacup accompanying it.
The tea itself was almost exactly at the 80-degree mark green teas are the finest. Syr-san then proceeded to add the fine leaves into the teapot, before chatting with Sly for another few minutes between serving other customers.
Sly enjoyed the scent of the tea already. It had a rich sweet scent reminiscent of fruits. Once it had brewn, Sly took a tiny sip. The floral aroma came to the forefront now, before the sweetness took precedence. Truly a magnificent tea, only made more potent by the rich mana flowing through the leaves and into his empty mana reserves.
Sly had already used a little of his own Vervain, but this dungeon herb was far more potent. It had to come from the much deeper floors, as he already felt that his mana was returning at a much faster rate.
Sly spent almost an hour chatting with other adventurers about their experiences and creating an empty trail that would lead possible pursuers nowhere, as the Hostess was completely neutral. In the end, Sly had to excuse himself and wished farewell to Syr and the group of Ganesha adventurers he had been conversing with. It was a nice way to relax while also taking attention away from their familia home, and Sly even got to enjoy the splendid White Lotus tea. However, the most surprising thing for Sly was that after finishing the tea, his mana reserve was already filled back to more than half!
With this much mana Sly would have mana to spare while getting home with an illusion and could even pick up Asuka and Welf along the way. While they all agreed to wear different clothes and change their colours to not be associated with Takemikazuchi, they could still attract attention to the Miach familia, which would better be avoided. It wouldn't do to drag their allies into their own mess.
7 AM Next Morning - Sleipnir POV
After breakfast Sly returned to his training. He promised to train with Welf today and hoped to learn how to access the ability he used against the Apollo familia. However, for them to even begin practicing, Sly first had to collect Welf as they agreed with Take to keep the location of their Dojo hidden from other adventurers. This was to prevent Apollo from planning anything around their home.
After a quick 10-minute detour, Sly and Welf came out of his mass invisibility. It still surprised Welf how easily Sly could manipulate his illusions. Even more so the ability to make himself and others invisible, although he couldn't see through it like Sly. Welf at least got an almost imperceptible fire insignia next to Sly's fox sigil, so he could follow him.
While they prepare themselves for the spar, they notice Ouka taking carefully measured steps over to their pond and kneeling in front of it, before slowly and deliberately speaking his chant. "Call upon the defender, the guardian, the leader, the mentor's imperceptible shield of war - Fortify"
They leave Ouka to his practice. He needs to focus while repeating his chant to improve his casting speed and control.
Now they start with their primary goal for this morning: Sparring with all their abilities to push Sly further in his magic control. "Are you ready Welf-san? My goal today is to hold back as little as possible and use both Illusio and Foxfire in tandem."
Welf confidently looks back while revealing his new twohander, which he had hidden under a cloth upon his shoulder. It was dark black and went almost to the floor with a length of around 1.8 meters. Easily 20 centimeters longer than Welf's previous sword. "I am more than ready. I need to get comfortable with my new weapon. I named her Suraisu. I used most of our enhanced dungeon lizard scales to make this baby as durable as possible to stand up against your Shadoudansā. It also has almost twice the weight of my previous twohander, so please watch out Sly you will need a very good stance to stop my Suraisu."
Sly observes the new weapon carefully. "Then it's good that I am already wearing all my armor. I am ready Welf-san." 'I should dodge, if at all possible. Any direct hit that connects with me might even be strong enough to break a bone.'
The first thing Sly did after bowing slightly in a warrior greeting was to generate some distance from Welf and start chanting. "Hiding trickster, oh cunning fox spirit, refracting prism, by the father of the eight-legged horse, I command thee to affect the judgement of reality - ILLUSIO
Sly had to dodge a few crude attacks from Welf, who had only just begun training with his far heavier weapon. Right after Sly dodged his fifth strike, he completed his chant and immediately two additional arms appeared on Sly's shoulders before his two right and two left arms overlapped while taking his naginata into his right hand, before only one arm each remained visible.
Welf takes notice of this and begins listening to his other senses besides sight to try and keep track of the real arms. As it is only a spar, Sly limits his speed and strength to the same level as Welf's, allowing Welf to anticipate Sly's attacks after the first few exchanges. He has sparred against Sly many times during the last two weeks and knows his patterns without illusions quite well.
After the first few exchanges, Welf goes on the offensive and begins maintaining and chaining his own attacks to increase the momentum of his new twohander. However, he is noticeably slower than with his previous weapon; the difference in mass reduces the overall velocity of his strikes in exchange for a higher maximum momentum.
Sly notices this and focuses on forcing Welf to stop as often as possible before his attacks grow too heavy for the limitations he set on his strength during the spar. To this end, he also begins chanting for Foxfire repeatedly. He uses as little mana as possible to keep himself from burning through his entire reserve and to practice creating foxfire with less heat, while also remembering Take's words about practising all his abilities at once. Throwing out foxfire from either one of his tails, offhand, or a combination of the three.
Welf is pushed back quickly against the sudden onslaught. However, with his fire resistance thanks to his Veritas Burn skill, he chooses to take grazing hits of the foxfire to counter Sly, whose naginata strikes and illusion have lost some of their finesse now that he must split his focus.
They continue exchanging hits and Ouka, who started observing them mid-fight, clearly saw that Sly struggled to use both his magic and fight in melee at the same time. That was because Sly took his first steps towards training concurrent chanting. The ability to chant while moving, and while Sly managed it during calm practice, applying that knowledge to battle was an entirely different beast to tackle. At least through his repeated practice, Sly chanted his quick chant spell foxfire even when fighting, which was another step harder than simply moving.
The largest disadvantage of Sly's foxfire as a result of concurrent chanting was his aim. Most of his foxfire only flew in Welf's general direction and lacked their usual control. Instead of homing in on Welf's unprotected spots, most of them flew right at him and were easy to block. But the advantage of using it this way was that Sly did not have to stand still for a second during the chanting process.
Sly's lack of control gave Welf the chance to jump back after Sly missed a slash with his naginata and counter the next foxfires with his own spell. "Burn, dark magics - Will-o-Wisp."
The small purple will-o-wisp connects with Sly and causes a chain reaction, destroying the two foxfire spells he was just casting with one of his tails and his hand. Upon their explosion, Sly has to focus on preventing the Ignis Fatuus from spreading to his illusion, which gives Welf the chance to rush him and connect a direct strike with the flat of his twohander.
The strong hit knocks Sly back several feet, and causes him to lose his illusion and gasp for breath from both the strike and his own imploding magic. While Sly is breathing deeply, Welf walks towards him and helps him back to his feet, while grinning.
"I think you overdid a little there Sly! I even managed to sense your mana before you even started chanting your foxfire! It gave me enough time to prepare a counter. Using illusions and foxfire at the same time throws ya off balance."
Sly still breathes deeply. "I know. I have a lot less fine control over these many spells. Usually, my control extends over two foxfires is almost perfect, even when moving around, but I lose my fine control over them at three and now with my illusio on top of all that, my focus was spread too thin. Though that's exactly why I did it.
I need to practice using both my magic and naginata at their maximum potential at once if I want to improve my combat potential, and, as we saw, it's quite hard to use all my abilities together."
Sly once again stands straight. "You on the other hand were great Welf-san. Even though you are using a new twohander, you managed to chain the momentum of your attacks just as Takemikazuchi-sama showed you a few days ago. It even forced me to compensate and use all my magic at once."
Sly then looks over at Welf and notices his singed clothes beneath his armor. Welf notices this and shrugs it off. "It's nothing serious. Even though your fire got a bit hotter when you used it with your illusion, it's nothing I haven't felt in my smithy."
Welf then takes Sly's naginata from him. "What I want to ask you would be why you haven't shown me the damage your naginata took during our venture into the tenth floor!" Welf chides, "just look at all the nicks and the tension the staff is under! Sly! You need a better staff if we continue progressing like this!"
Sly accepts Welf's words quickly. "My naginata didn't come up in a while and I forgot to show it to you two days ago Welf-san with everything that happened. However, if you deem it prudent to improve my naginata, who am I to contend with your expert eye?"
Welf just shakes his head. "Forgetting to tell me your main weapon is damaged…. You magic-focused dunderhead! You must maintain your weapon! It will always be your strongest ally in battle! And please cut it with the honorifics." Welf then smirks, "Lucky for you Sly I have a great idea to improve not only your naginata but also your magic power!"
Listening to Welf's words, Sly expands upon them. "However, avoiding a fight entirely is even better than being prepared for it." A short glance at the naginata full of small nicks in the blade currently in Welf's hands lets him continue with a small smile. "But perhaps having a functional weapon would also help Welf-san."
Welf grimaces at the honorific before he spins his naginata to get a feeling for it before brandishing it in one hand similarly to a staff. "My plan is to create a naginata that can be used like a staff and what better element to focus on than your one offensive affinity, fire? What do you think Sly? Do you want to have the first fire-enhanced naginata Orario has ever seen?"
Eyes glinting and tails swaying in curiosity. "How would that work Welf-san? Doesn't a staff need a powerful focus? Aren't they usually something brittle like elemental gems?"
Welf stops spinning before answering. "That is true, but there are quite a few monster drops that can fulfil the same purpose. And they are durable enough to be used in a weapon. It will still be difficult to find a good enough drop, but I am certain we will find something. At worst, we will have to fight a few wyverns in the middle floors to get their fire gland."
"That's true. What will we do till then? Create a naginata that is magic conductive and has a component for a magic focus?"
"Yes, that's exactly my plan. I saw your determination to improve, and I think getting you a focus to increase the potency of your foxfire is the simplest way to increase your strength. Although it will be difficult to collect the ore, we need them to conduct magic. Mythril would come to mind, but that's far too expensive for us, so we might have to go with a monster alloy.
On the middle floor, there are a few rare silver and even high silver veins and if I'm not mistaken, a monster drop can be purified into Blood Onyx. Both of them are magic conductive if treated right."
"In that case, I will help you however I can Welf-s-." Welf pushes his Naginata back into his hands before he can finish the honorific.
"Wonderful Sly, in that case, let's continue training."
The next three days passed with a lot of training for all familia members. Sly continued visiting Acatl-hakase daily to practise his magic control and further their research on Alfia, before discussing possible strategies against the Apollo familia. He spent his afternoons disguising himself as the same adventurer he did during his first day of information gathering goind by the name of Genno.
Welf spent his days either smithing new gear for Chigusa, Sly, and himself, or training with one of the members of the Takemikazuchi familia. He even had a secret project he kept working on but wouldn't tell Sly what it was. Most often he sparred with Chigusa, who also needed practice at fighting in close range and using her magic more frequently.
During the third day Ouka joined their training as well, but with his remaining injuries, his focus was almost solely on practicing and improving Fortify.
Asuka spent the time brewing as many potions as she could in between helping in the Blue Pharmacy and practicing using her crossbow one-handed. This allows her the freedom to use potions or other items to help in battles while armed, or even apply potions to her arrows. She was also slowly getting closer to unlocking the Invigorate spell, but it would need a lot more practice before that happened.
1 day later - Mikoto POV
Then there was Mikoto. She had to stay in the Blue Pharmacy and recover. The first day Asuka remained by her side almost the entire time and Mikoto took interest in what she was doing to distract her from the boredom that came with being sick and unable to walk around. She even envied Sleipnir during that time, because at least he would have tomes to read.
Nonetheless, with Asuka explaining the potions she brewed, her boredom kept itself in check. Although she would never admit it, she was happy to have company, otherwise she might start thinking about their situation.
The second day, Asuka had to train with the rest of their familia, Mikoto was left alone. Still unable to move!
At first, she tried distracting herself by thinking about her sword techniques, but that quickly soured her mood, when she remembered her wonderful katana. The gift Take had given to her after reaching level two, had been lost and broken. At this thought Mikoto's eyes widened, and her face twisted with shame and guilt.
'No no no! It can't be! With all the action after the dragon hit me, I didn't even remember to check for my sword… I really am a terrible samurai! I haven't called myself that officially yet, but I always thought of myself as one.
But what is a samurai without his weapon? Nothing! Who can I defend if I can't even protect my own katana? What will Take think when he finds out? And Ouka! he is my captain. He saw me without my weapon! Is that why he banned me from entering the dungeon?'
Her thoughts continued spiraling further and further down. Mikoto could not hide the turmoil as her eyes became dull, losing her focus. Naaza entered moments later, and looked to Mikoto with a slight frown noticing the change. "Mikoto-san? Is the pain too much or is something else bothering you?"
Mikoto looked at Naaza for a few seconds in a complete daze before getting her mind back on track and pondering her answer. 'I can't tell her that I lost my sword. Without it I am barely even a samurai; how could I repay my debt to Naaza-sama without it? But I also can't lie to her, it would break my code of honor…I need to distract her.'
Naaza waits a few seconds for Mikoto's answer and is already preparing another question when Mikoto bluntly states. "Ah, it is nothing. I only need a vial of water… Yes a vial of water."
Noticing Mikoto glancing anywhere but her, Naaza quickly deduced that Mikoto tried deflecting the problem. With an amused smirk and an energetic tail wag Naaza asks, "a vial of water is it. Are you certain it is nothing else, perhaps your injuries have worsened? As my patient, it is alright to tell me anything affecting your health. Please tell me what is really bothering you Mikoto-san."
Mikoto began sweating from anxiety at Naaza further inquiry. She cannot continue deflecting with Naaza asking her this directly after she owed her a life debt. It would be against the values of honesty, loyalty, rectitude and even courage and she could not compound her failure, after already losing her katana. "Naaza-sama… My katana. It… It has been lost."
Raising an eyebrow, Naaza asks, "And? That's a problem why?"
Mikoto bites her tongue, before forcing herself to tell her savior about her problem. "I broke my katana, lost a battle, and took on injuries and difficulties that tax my familia because of my foolhardy attempt at defeating an infant dragon."
How can I still think of myself as a samurai? I have lost my honor and most likely the respect of my familia! Without my sword I can't even protect them! I lost all that makes a samurai what they are… ?"
Naaza continues studying Mikoto with an intent focus for the first time since she had to cast her spell on her. "Mikoto. Stop now. I have spoken with Asuka about what it means for you to owe me a life debt. She told me about your values as an aspiring samurai. And what I am seeing right now isn't a samurai, but a young warrior who faced their first major defeat.
From what I can gather, you still value everything a samurai stands for even without your blade. You are still truthful, and courageous and respect me enough to tell me your problem. I would advise you against thinking yourself unfit to be a warrior or even owing me the debt you now do. I willingly choose to heal you with a spell most alchemists would kill for, even if it could cause us a lot of trouble if they found out, because, as a friend and trustworthy companion of Asuka, I trust that you will grow from this. You might not see how you can overcome such an enormous mistake, but in due time you will see the gift I gave you by fully healing your arm.
In contrast to me, you are still an active adventurer and can continue growing and show your familia that instead of letting this challenge break you, it made you stronger and strive even harder to act as a true samurai would. So please Mikoto, do not give in to despair and waste the chance I gave you."
Mikoto lets a few tears flow down her face. "Thank you, Naaza-sama. Your words mean more than you might think. Please continue with your work, I will need some time on my own to think."
A few hours pass when Mikoto thinks about her situation when she remembers something Naaza said. "Naaza-sama, what did Asuka-san tell you about the Bushido Code?"
Naaza who had been focusing on a potion stirs it to completion, before reducing the heat below the cauldron and answering. "Oh, nothing much. She mostly told me to look out in case you took your defeat badly, even warned me to be prepared for dramatics and to remove any ingredient knives from your immediate vicinity."
Looking on in confusion, Mikoto inquires. "Why remove the ingredient knives?"
Naaza hides a smile by still looking at her potion. "Oh, I don't know. Perhaps in case you tried to commit Seppuku to regain your honour."
Waiting a few seconds for Mikoto to retort in anger, Naaza laughs loudly. "I'm only pulling your leg with the last one, Mikoto-san. She told me that your code revolved around 8 principles. Rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honor, loyalty and wisdom."
9 AM Martial Dojo - Chigusa POV
Since Take had given Sly the order to learn more about the Apollo familia, Chigusa had not gotten the chance to train with him. For the last few days, she has been training and talking with Welf. He even improved her shortbow with two war shadow claws and dungeon iron.
It wasn't much, not even deserving of one of Welf's silly names, but at least her shortbow now had two spikes at both ends and was reinforced to withstand blows without breaking as easily.
After spotting a disguised Sly heading for the gate, Chigusa stopped painting and used a small acrobatic leap to drop from her window and block his way. "Sly-kun, I finally managed to catch you! Please let us train together before you vanish on your mission!"
Sly, who only just returned from his visit to Acatl-hakase and was still in disguise, looked at Chigusa in surprise. "Chigusa-chan! Of course we can train, but why do all my friends keep seeing through my disguises?"
Chigusa can't help but giggle at Sly's miffed look, even more so as he was still using his elven form, he called Genno. "Because you are tying too hard to be secretive Sly-kun. If you wanted to vanish, you would use a different disguise every time instead of taking the same day after day."
Sly dropped the illusion at her words and looked away from her towards her archery range with ears twitching in embarrassment. "Fine! If all the vixens around me think my illusions are too easy to see through, I will change it up more. However! I want to keep the name Genno, I've taken a liking to it."
Chigusa smiles, then glances at her archery range seeing many wooden training arrows and a few of her metal dungeon arrows stuck in the targets. Not many in the bullseye, though not because she lacked the ability to hit the bullseye, even from almost a hundred meters if need be.
No, it was because she practised trick shots and difficult angles to improve her abilities while also maintaining her Jian arrow for as long as her mana capacity allowed her to manipulate it. She even practiced her Ribaundo Isshi again. She had neglected it in favor of her magic as the Jian arrows could move freely instead of bouncing from a wall, but for trick shots that technique was priceless.
Her magic power wasn't as robust as Sly's, but with her sizable magic stat she could shoot at least a dozen Jian arrows, unless she maintained them for too long.
Sly who regained his usual focus. "So how should we begin? Spar like usual, or perhaps begin with a discussion battle strategies and technique? I might have an idea on how to improve your arrows."
Thinking for a moment Chigusa decided to first tell Sly about her own training during the last three days. She also mentioned visiting Mikoto this morning for the second time and Mikoto's heated reaction after learning of what the Apollo familia did.
Sly followed her lead and shared that he still did not discover which ability of his changed the trajectory of the fireball but was certain it had something to do with the fire. However, he did not manage to manipulate Welf's Will-o-Wisp which was also of the fire attribute.
He then went on to explain all he had learned about the Apollo familia, especially their captain Lydia. To say Chigusa was interested was an understatement. Bone arrows that could harm level two monsters? She would need to look into these.
The discussion then slowly changed into possible teamwork tactics for them and after a while Sly had the idea to strengthen Chigusa's arrows by lighting them on fire. His first plan was using his foxfire to take control of every arrow Chigusa released, but they quickly found out that while foxfire could be transported that way, it was terribly inefficient, as it cost him a lot of mana to keep the fire from extinguishing. Even worse, the arrows slowed down as soon as he tried controlling their flight path, as his foxfire manipulation, while still quick for any level one, could not keep up with the pure speed of Chigusa's arrows at full draw.
So, they set out to use normal fire to give Chigusa another type of arrows. That didn't work at first either, as they extinguished at high speeds almost immediately. This forced them to search for alternatives, like for example oil or tar.
Tar was something Sly really wanted to avoid, as the smell was simply too terrible to be around and would attract monsters. Leaving them with oil as the best solution. But even that didn't help as its viscosity was too low to stick to the arrows.
After theorycrafting a little more, they asked Asuka for help and she told them to simply soak the wooden arrows in palm oil and then fire them. They would need to be soaked for a while, then they could be carried in an additional quiver and lit manually.
It worked, although a little too well. Chigusa had to release the arrows after at most a second after alighting them, otherwise the fire would cover the entire surface of her arrow and spear to her bow. Certainly possible for her, but far from efficient in combat, another job for Welf it seems.
The training also brought another unexpected gain. They finally discovered which ability Sly used against Hyakinthos. It happened during an accident while they sparred with Chigusa's new fire arrows.
After training for the last three days, Sly managed, while not quite proficient, to be decent when using all his abilities. Sending out individual foxfires while also using his illusion was doable, even while controlling the temperature of his fire. However, the moment a second fireball was added, his control would dwindle to throwing them in straight lines.
Chigusa now felt and observed this during their spar. Since Sly overtook her stat wise, he always held back when fighting her but even when using similar strength, it was beyond difficult to fight him while using both his magics.
She had to constantly dodge not only invisible daggers but homing fireballs and also watch out in case Sly used one of his fireballs like she would her Jian Yajirushi. At least she managed to avoid most of his attacks, as he still had trouble coordinating his abilities, but the number of mistakes Sly made had reduced significantly.
At least Chigusa had a new tool to test. Fire arrows, while certainly useful, weren't too dangerous for adventurers. A fire burning at 100 degrees might be dangerous to a civilian, but high level one adventurers could withstand the heat for a few seconds without serious injuries
The arrows themselves still needed a fire to light, but they had made a small fire just for her use. After lighting the arrows with the fire, she could proceed to shoot them in less than half a second. 'I'd rather be slightly off target then let the fire touch my bow.'
Sly had to dodge them every time they came, giving Chigusa openings to strike with either her Jian arrow, recast it, or even push him in melee after blocking her arrows with his real arms.
She had trained to be accustomed to her new shortbow and use it like a spiked shield, diverting attacks and then countering them with the spike on either end.
Their spar continued for well over 30 minutes before Chigusa shot another fire arrow. Sly dodged it like most others and did not look after it. She on the other hand saw that it was headed for their pond and Ouka, who was not looking towards them while focusing on a large stone shield.
She quickly called to him. "Ouka watch out!" While not lethal, the training arrow would still hurt a lot and might even injure Ouka, as he did not wear his armor.
Having heard her, Sly also spun around to face the arrow. He could see the arrow would connect with Ouka's head, as he was reacting far too slowly.
'Stop!'
Sly almost instinctively reached in the direction of the arrow with his free hand and pushed some of his mana into the fire to control it like the foxfire arrows from before. To all their surprise, the arrow halted barely an inch in front of Ouka's cheek.
Chigusa, who had been sprinting towards Ouka, who himself braced himself against the attack, stumbled. She could only look at the innocently floating arrow next to Ouka who watched it with confusion.
Sly stared at the arrow in a daze until his mind caught up with his actions before calling out in glee. "Finally! So that's the ability I used. How could I forget? My status said it all along! I can control fire with pyrokinesis!"
Sly used his sudden control over the floating fire arrow to return it to him. From the mana cost, Sly could tell that normal fire required more mana to manipulate in comparison to his own foxfire. Probably around twice as much.
This would require further testing.
Chigusa and Sly then apologized to Ouka, whose muscles were still sore from fighting through the upper floors almost on his own. The dwarf laughed their apology off as he wasn't injured and Sly discovered another ability he could master.
To himself, Ouka thought, 'It's incredible how many spells Sly has. Does this already count as a third or even forth? Or is it another variation of his foxfire? I hope I will find a way to do the same with my Fortify one day!'
2 days later 10 AM- Sleipnir POV
On the same evening Sly discovered his pyrokinesis, he also brought Mikoto-san and Asuka-san back to the Martial Dojo. While Mikoto was still stiff and out of shape with her regrown muscles, Naaza-san gave her the all free to begin training.
Sly only broadly broached the subject of the Apollo familia and their strength. Even mentioning how they have been asking about them. At least Mikoto seemed highly motivated to train and kept her patronizing views of his obvious spying to a minimum. She even congratulated him on discovering his pyrokinesis, which confused him significantly. 'Why would Mikoto praise me for my magic? Isn't it usually her intention to curb my excitement and preach about more honorable forms of combat like my naginata?'
Concerning his pyrokinesis, Acatl-hakase finally deemed it time to explain the origin of the ability. It's not an ability related to his foxfire but rather one of his tails. This reminded Sly that he had not read all the kitsune legends yet and didn't know which abilities he could gain from his tails.
At least he practiced taking control of opposing fire spells with Acatl-hakase, besides his normal magic control training. Although controlling opposing fires grew exponentially more draining on his mana the more magic pressure his opponent was using, meaning that he could only control fire spells of a similar level to his own efficiently, as higher levelled spells took exponentially more mana and focus.
Another limitation seems to be that he could only focus on two different fires at once. As soon as he tried a third, that wasn't his own foxfire, Sly would have to give up on a previous fire or lose control over all the fires.
This was a lesson he only learnt a few minutes ago, as he was just returning from I am Ganesha. Acatl-hakase had him control a giant fireball she created with minimal magical pressure, which measured at least a meter in diameter to test the limits of the size he could control. So far, besides not having enough mana for larger volumes, they did not find any indication of a size limit.
On his walk to Welf's workshop Sly, for once, did not hide behind an illusion, mostly because he only had half his mana. He still used quite a few shortcuts and jumped between a few buildings thorough Daedalus Street.
As he was just jumping to the next building, Sly noticed someone else jumping along the rooftops doing his best to follow his path but with very deft and hard motions. From his form, Sly flagged him as a novice at best. A novice trying to follow the path he just used. 'Interesting, I have done this since I was a child, let's see how a city adventurer holds up if I take a slightly more difficult path.'
Sly then changed his pace to be more challenging by taking larger jumps and climbing more often. Nothing appearing out of the ordinary but slightly more difficult.
The novice following wore a large cloak to hide his face and with the longer jumps Sly managed to see his shiny armor below his robe. 'Hmm. Now who do we have here? Let's increase the difficulty some more and make him reveal his face.'
Sly then changed his path slightly towards the center of the Daedalus Streets where the building differed from up to four story high stone buildings to underground passages, but all while, from an outside perspective, continuing towards his original goal.
From there, Sly increased his speed slightly and dropped down into a back alley, went through a crowd of civilians, scaled the highest building across the street, and continued with jumping 3 stories across another street and gracefully landed with nothing more than a light thumb as he landed. While looking back towards his pursuer he almost through there was a second stomp, but it must have been his imagination. Shaking his head Sly continued crisscrossing from street to street.
All throughout his actions the novice tried to follow him but stumbled into a few civilians and even almost lost his balance after the 3-story jump across the street.
Finally, after another 10 minutes, the pursuer completely missed a difficult step and slid down the roof they were running over before plummeting down two stories. They barely managed to land on their hands and feet, but at the angle he fell he broke one his wrists to stop his momentum.
Sly continued observing from above and after their landing, his pursuer finally lost the cloak hiding his face. Sly still could not recognise anything in particular as his pursuer was facing the ground and his brown hair hid his face. However, that quickly became moot when he started cursing in a voice Sly wouldn't soon forget. The arrogance and self-righteousness exuded in his voice was almost palpable, although it was interwoven with heavy breathing.
'Not my original goal, but I will take it, so who are you. Straight brown hair, expensive silver armor, probably even made from real silver and lastly overly stuck-up voice. Indeed, it seems Hyakinthos has been searching for me. That would certainly explain why Ryuu told me to watch him as he was at the Hostess two days ago.
Now how should I handle this? If I play my cards right, I should be able to gather information while feeding Apollo many lies to distract him from our real abilities, and the best is that I finally get to use the technique Acatl-hakase has been trying to teach me since becoming her student. I'm gonna enjoy this!'
Having decided on a tactic, Sly continues in a different direction at a far more moderate pace on his way. It was only the second time Sly would visit Orario's graveyard.
Hyakinthos managed to stand back up quickly and noticed that Sly walked on at a slower pace, angering him greatly, which gave him the needed adrenaline boost to follow him even with his exhaustion and a broken wrist.
Sly took the slight space he got between them to drink two of his mana, potions he would need almost his complete mana capacity for the trick he was going to pull.
Then he continued onwards to the graveyard. As it was still morning, most people were hard at work and almost nobody was at the graveyard. Sly took his chance and he started chanting in a strong but sinister tone.
"Hiding trickster, oh cunning fox spirit, refracting prism." With his intense mana pressure surpassing the normal limit of a level 1 mage, Sly went all out to create the largest illusion domain he could handle. He spent enough mana with a high enough control that even the contours of a white circle appeared around Sly.
Before going one step further. "Super aligning sounds, by the father of the eight-legged horse, I command thee to affect the judgement of reality." With the second effect added to his illusion his spell was almost at the level of a rank two spell. The incomplete magic circle below his feet even began to show uneven black lines within it.
"ILLUSIO!"
With an almost imperceptible crack, the incomplete magic circle stabilized before expanding into a large dome around Sly which then quickly turned invisible. Sly now had control of not only sight but even sound in his illusion domain. That is, if he could control it.
The drain of creating such a large illusion with an incomplete magic circle took almost three fourths of his entire mana capacity, but it was worth it. Once created like any of his illusions, Sly had to spend far less mana to maintain it and since he was on the surface and not in the dungeon, the mana cost was lowered even further. With such a large illusion, Sly seamlessly changed the light refracted from himself to create a clone while turning invisible. This was when Hyakinthos finally left Daedalus Street and jumped past the last building.
Sly marveled at his own illusion while his clone guided Hyakinthos towards Orario's graveyard, intending to make a lasting impression. 'Amazing. My illusion is even more stable than usual. It should be impossible for Hyakinthos to spot the real me. As for my control over sound, I can't wait to see how effectively I can manipulate it in this illusion, with my training at least blocking sound waves should be possible.'
Hyakinthos continued catching up, passing through some of the most finely decorated graves in the entire graveyard. Shortly thereafter, the clone stopped in front of two 4-year-old desolate stone graves that had not received proper care. 'Since Acatl-hakase brought me here, I still find it difficult to accept that this is the reward two of the strongest adventurers got, even after reading about their actions at the end. This is simply unfair.'
With a serene voice, Sly began speaking, using his control over noise to make his voice reach Hyakinthos from the front where his illusion stood with his back to him. "Hyakinthos. Why have you followed me?"
Hyakinthos was still fuming when he came close to this Sly but recognized the heavy feeling all around him as magic, strong magic. He fumbled for words while gripping his perfectly polished sword with his left unbroken hand. "I wanted to ask you the same. Why were you at our manor this week? It took me a few days to discover that it was you who hid in that tree you mangy fox."
Sly slowly turned his emerald, green eyes at him with intense focus while slowly turning their surroundings darker and amplifying his voice. "So, you figured that out. Of course, I would look at a potential enemy before facing him again. Hyakinthos, you left a strong impression on me on our first meeting, but how did you find me? My tracks were hidden impeccably."
'Let's see how much I can get out of you. You are in my domain and all you see and hear is under my control. How long will you resist until you tell me what I need to prepare my familia for. To guarantee we are uninterrupted, how about I turn both of us invisible to anyone on the outside of my domain? And as a bonus, I will also try and prevent any sound from leaving my domain.'
Hyakinthos speaks with fake assurance. "It was anything but hard you wannabe adventurer. All it took was a visit to that filthy tavern full of ex-adventurers and I knew where you studied magic. Following you from there was only a matter of time. Now how dare y…"
'So my visit to the Hostess of Fertility paid off, Hyakinthos focus is on me and me alone and he did not discover our familia home nor that Mikoto, stayed at the Blue Pharmacy. Let's rile him up a little more.'
With a devious grin, Sly stops Hyakinthos immediately as he prepares to launch another question. "Be quiet snobbish noble. I do not have time for your stupid presumptions." Sly subtly begins to change the colors around them into grays and withes. While Hyakinthos sputters in disbelief at the condescending tone Sly took with him.
"How about telling me what your barrels are for? I saw how you bought countless of them. Preparing for another feast for dear Apollo-sama? Or perhaps you are even planning on challenging my familia?"
The pressure on Hyakinthos increases the longer Sly speaks, bringing his attention to the raw amount of magic surrounding him. It is an insane amount of magic even for him, who commonly uses magic items. Furthermore, the magic surrounding him is far more potent than what their strongest spellcaster can conjure; this makes him nervous.
"Who would need to challenge a small familia like yours, you are nothing more than a footnote in Apollo's conquests. As for the celebration, we are preparing a party of Apollo-sama's familia growing stronger with the Alias I will receive in 5 days after the Donatus. Something you probably never saw in your village on the outskirts of the eastern slums. Or wait, maybe you did! When one of the strongest adventurers in the east conquered your village and threw your familia out?" The illusion begins swishing his tail in agitation mirroring the emotions of the original Sly. "Oh? Did I hit a nerve?"
Illusion Sly just shakes his head in disappointment. "You could accomplish so much, but your familia is just another familia of minor nobles set on trampling any you see beneath you and undermining those above you. Do you even know where we are?"
Hyakinthos bristles. "The graveyard of Orario obviously at the graves of some no-name adventurers you look up to."
Sly begins smirking with a dangerous glint in his eyes, and to increase the effect his next words will have begins changing his illusion slowly to create loose semi-translucent shapes that resemble spirits of the dead and those he heard about from Take.
"Oh, my Hyakinthos, you are sadly mistaken. You see for we are before the graves of two of the greatest adventurers, who met a very tragic end 4 years ago. They are the reason Loki and Freya are at the top now."
Hyakinthos's face loses much of its colour as it dawn upon him whom Sly is referring to. "It can't be. Why did they even get a grave? Are these…"
"The graves of Alfia and Zald? Why yes. You see, I have researched Alfia considerably. Her magic fascinates me. She had a dangerous disease that gave her incredible magical power, but at a great cost to her health.
To prevent her magic from flowing out of her body and harming her she even created a spell, specifically designed to seal her own magic. Most remember her most notorious spell, Silentium Eden as an incredibly dangerous power. They believe that she could effectively cancel all their magic just as she did her own, but Hyakinthos, what do you think would happen if somebody who did not suffer from her disease were to use it?"
Slowly looking scared, Hyakinthos tries to deny it while looking at Sly whose fur has turned pure white just like Alfia's hair. Surrounded by the shape of many illusory spirits including three real fox spirits with multiple tails as well as a stomping Beto Beto. "You couldn't have, it shouldn't be …"
"Quiet noisy World - Silentium Eden."
From one moment the chaotic orchestra of sounds made by all the spirits and Sly's own recreation of wind and stomping feet to the next everything is quiet. Every single sound is canceled out, and in the center of it all stands Sly's illusion, surrounded by the illusion of a silvery white magic armor, like the seal Alfia always had on her.
Hyakinthos tries to speak, but to his shock, he hears nothing, not even a single peep. Sly observes how Hyakinthos hastily takes a few steps back from him and even takes out a small blue dagger filled to the brim with magic at his illusion.
'That went better than planned, I managed to nullify all the sound waves with my illusions, I needed to distract him while I figured out how to cover my entire illusion by practising at the outer edge, but Hyakinthos and my illusory spirits have bought me enough time. Now I only need to put the fear of a war god into him, which should discourage Apollo familia from acting against Chigusa-chan and me for a while.'
Sly breathes deeply, which resonates within the surrounding silence. Before his calm, almost serene voice continues. "You see Hyakinthos, Alfia, the last member of the Hera familia, did not die in vain. She gave her life, after her disease brought her to the brink of death, to push the remaining familia of Orario into working harder and giving them the resolve they needed to grow. Ottar would not be the King that guards Orario from the dungeon and the rest of the world if it were not for them."
The illusory Sly begins to take slow deliberate steps towards Hyakinthos. Thump, Thump, Thump. Until he stands directly in front of him and whispers his last words.
"I loathe you Hyakinthos, you and your noble familia. All of you are complacent at the best of times and outright detrimental to Orario during the remainder. All the minor familia are suffering and Orario is staying weak because of the likes of you and your actions. You think you have the right to squash smaller familia as you will. However, I will give this one warning, do not look down upon my familia, because our god is a god of war."
Sly's illusion smiles at Hyakinthos with a pleasant smile and a calm tone. "We have known war. Will face enmity with cunning." His tone takes a far sharper edge. "And I will crush anyone that threatens my familia members."
Hyakinthos is so surprised at the change of tone during the last words that he screams and almost instinctually swings his magic dagger at Sly. Unfortunately, with a simple wave of illusion Sly's hand, sound resumes, and the illusion disappears before his magic dagger even begins releasing a ferocious ice attack. Leaving Hyakinthos all alone frantically glancing all over the frozen graveyard. Breathing heavily and his body dripping with cold sweat, before returning his gaze to the two dilapidated graves.
Sly observes from afar. 'At the very least, Hyakinthos is shaken. If he speaks about this to his familia they will most likely not believe him, and those that do will prepare for the wrong magic. Unless Apollo himself confirms the story, by confirming it as the truth with his divine sense for it. But even if that happens and they decide to make me their primary target, this should buy us a lot of time. We might even use his attempted attack as a way to cripple their reputation.'
