Hi guys! Here with a new chapter! This will answer some questions about Bahamut and his Magic.
Hope you all enjoy and constructive criticism is welcome! BETA NEEDED!
Chapter 4 - Magic
Bahamut shifted in his spot on the cave restlessly. He was looking at the cave entrance every few seconds in excitement before ducking his head back again. He couldn't help it though; his father was finally going to teach him about magic!
A few days ago, Acnologia had finally agreed to start teaching him magic after his first successful hunt. Since that day, the green-eyed child had made sure to perform all the exercises he was given with no complaints. He pushed his body to its (admittedly small) limits, only stopping when the Dragon King made him stop or when his body was on the verge of total exhaustion. He didn't want his father to go back on his promise because he was weak, after all.
So there he sat, tension building up in his little gut, wondering what would his father teach him.
"I see you are excited, whelp."
Bahamut's head snapped up and turned to see his father standing there with a small smirk on his face. How did he get here so fast!? He didn't even hear him come in!
The older man just snorted in amusement at his son's startled face. He walked up and sat down crossed-legged in front of him, hands on his knees and staring at him with a serious expression.
Bahamut didn't even so much as flinch at his father's gaze, having grown used to it over the past two months. What did bother him though was the fact that ever since that incident with the bear happened, Acnologia seemed to be watching him more closely than before. Usually, when he performed the body exercises (except sparring), Acnologia would just lie down on the ground, either in human or dragon form, and nap while telling him what to do. Even when the Dragon King did look like he was sleeping, Bahamut didn't take the chance and still did the exercises.
Now however, Acnologia kept a constant eye open and watched Bahamut's every single move outside the cave. While neither of them said anything, the constant staring (in contrast to the brief peeks) made Bahamut slightly uneasy and confused. His father had barely bothered to actually watch him during training, so what had happened? Was it because of the hunt?
Every time that thought came up though, the child immediately dismissed it from his mind. He may not have known Acnologia for long, but even he could tell that it was too out of character for him to jump from slight interest to full hidden concern. He would have dwelt on the matter more if not for his constant training.
Bahamut shook his head from those thoughts and focused completely on the man who sat before him. None of them so much as twitched for what seemed like a good while. As the minutes passed by, Bahamut started to grow restless. Did he do something wrong? Why was Father staring at him like that?
After what felt like an hour, finally Acnologia spoke again. "It would seem that you still know of patience. That is good."
Bahamut blinked in befuddlement. That was a test? Wait, why was he even surprised, given who was talking?
"Now then, what exactly do you want to learn?"
Bahamut gave the Dragon King an odd stare. "I want to learn magic. What else?"
Acnologia hmphed. "Very well, can you tell me what is magic?"
Bahamut opened his mouth to reply, but found out that he had no coherent answer for that question. "Uh…it's the thing that lets people do awesome stuff?"
Acnologia raised an eyebrow. "A rather childish and immature way to put it, but yes…and no.
Magic is, simply put, the primordial force that flows through the universe. It is the physical manifestation of the spirit. When the physical spirit of an organism connects with the primordial flow of universe, the spirit forms Magic as a product of the connection. Understand?"
Bahamut nodded.
"Good. Ever since the dawn of time, magic has manifested itself in various forms – either found in nature or through sentient beings. Because of the raw, untamed form that magic possessed back then, it was oppressed and feared by humans. However, the more that magic appeared – gradually becoming an everyday phenomenon – the less humans feared it and the more they accepted it. One of the extremely few things your species have ever done right, I say.
Back on topic – as a way of keeping balance in the universe, only a small portion of humans can fully wield magic, such as yourself. While magic CAN be learnt by anyone, it is mostly limited to a few triggers and hiccups – magic requires great mental ability and concentration."
Upon seeing Bahamut's confused expression, he elaborated. "Imagine that normal humans can ignite a twig at most, while magic users can ignite a branch with ease." His son 'ohh'ed in response.
Acnologia raised his hand opened his palm face-up. A sphere of blue light swirled into existence, hovering above the palm while emitting a faint whooshing sound. "There are two components required to be able to use magic: Magic Power and Ethernano.
What I have here in my hand is a sphere of magic, generated by my magic power. It is the source of power for every magic user, commonly known as Mages. A mage has a container inside his or her body that determines the limit of their magic power."
"Container? You mean an…organ?" Bahamut asked, recalling a similar item from a book he had read.
Acnologia shook his head. "Not quite, but we'll get to that later. Now, the magic container and Magic Power itself is composed of Ethernano, (Acnologia paused for a moment to try and define this term in a way Bahamut's mind could understand) invisible specks of magic that exist in nature. When needed, these specks enter the body from the air and fill up the container. A mage draws magic power from the container and manifests it in physical form, like this sphere."
Bahamut just looked on with interest. Although he didn't understand every word his father had just said (intelligent or not, he was still a child), he understood the general gist of the matter. "So…how do I use magic?"
Acnologia dispelled the sphere and made a cupping motion with his hands. "I have seen you use magic subconsciously when you first came here, so it's safe to assume that you have already 'unlocked' your magic, so to speak. I want you to cup your hands like this and make a sphere of magic – it doesn't have to be as big as mine."
Bahamut nodded and did as his father said. He cupped his hands in front of him and stared, only to realize one crucial detail: How was he supposed to even summon the sphere?
Acnologia however saw the confusion on his son's face and elaborated. "Focus. Try and draw the power from within you and bring it forth. You have already used magic; remember how you arrived here? It's just there waiting for you to use it again."
Bahamut took a deep breath and closed his eyes while maintaining the hand-gesture. He tried to focus on the sensation he had felt that day, but it was proving rather difficult due to the panic that had triggered his magic before. Nevertheless, he kept focusing, trying to draw the magic out.
Several minutes passed, and Bahamut still maintained that meditative position and Acnologia was staring at him intently. All the while, the space between the child's hands remained empty.
Bahamut scrunched his face in effort as he tried to sort out the sensation he felt whenever he had formerly used magic. Unfortunately, because all of his past uses of magic were involuntary, he had little to no memory of what said sensation was. As he focused though, his mind flashed back to said moments: Dudley chasing him around with his friends, Vernon beating him and ripping his precious book apart, the armored man with…the…axe…
He still remembered it so vividly: the hulking figure marching towards him amidst the hellish flames that consumed Greegham Town, the body of his first friend lying face-down on the ground behind it, the burning axe poised high ready to-
In that panic-induced moment, Bahamut suddenly felt something rush through his body and up his arms. His palms felt tingly and warm and he felt like he was holding something even though he couldn't feel anything solid. He opened his eyes and to his amazement, a small spark of blue light, roughly the size of his eye, hovered between his palms.
The green-eyed child let out a small smile as he stared at the small light. He had done it! He was using magic!
He was about to yell in excitement when the light suddenly fizzled out, leaving him empty-handed and dumbfounded. He looked up to ask his father what had happened, but he flinched at the sheer intensity of the stare he was given.
Bahamut was worried and confused. Did he do something wrong?
-OBW-
Acnologia felt like slamming his head against the wall and cursing the whole situation, which he might have done if it wasn't for the whelp's presence. To do that in front of him would be to show weakness. Instead he simply intensified his stare, although he was still frustrated.
The exercise had started out as predicted, with Bahamut struggling to get a hold on the feeling of using magic. Judging by the frown on his little face, he was having hard time even figuring out what it was, but that was to be expected for a beginner. Intelligent as he was, the Dragon King wouldn't call him a prodigy; not yet at least.
The minutes passed by in total silence, with nothing appearing between Bahamut's palms. It was only when the child started to sweat a little that things got…strange.
As a Chaos Dragon Slayer, Acnologia possessed the ability to detect magic within a very large radius. The closer he was to his target, the better he could analyze its magic. Normally he had little use for such a feature, since it was a defensive and supporting ability – he did not need to study his prey's magic for no magic could ever harm him, so he used it only when he wanted to track down his prey, with his enhanced smell covering what he couldn't sense. These past couple of months though he had been using that ability to keep track of Bahamut's magic and to monitor him, like the first time they went down to Kilika Town.
Right now, Acnologia was watching Bahamut's Ethernano container to see any signs of his magic activating. But what he was seeing would've made him scratch his head in confusion had he been a lesser human.
As the spark of light formed between Bahamut's hand, his magic power was pulled from the container, which drained it by a large amount – roughly a fifth. But as the child held the spark, the container started slowly filling up on its own. No ethernano absorbed into the body, no other spell cast – the container just…generated magic power all by itself.
That should not be possible; it was a container, a metaphysical jar meant to hold magic. It absorbed ethernano from the air and from other sources. It was not supposed to generate magic power!
"D-did I do something wrong?" Bahamut asked, snapping him out of his confusion. He refocused on his son to see the worried expression on his face.
"Keep holding it. Don't lose your focus" he commanded. As the child nodded and kept holding the spark, Acnologia observed his son's container and confirmed what he had seen: it was generating its own magic, while simultaneously absorbing some ethernano from the air.
His ancient mind reeled at the implications of this: With an additional source of magic, Bahamut could easily cast strong spells with greater ease and speed than most mages. In addition, his "recharge" time would be significantly shorter than others, thus enabling him to recover quickly and gain an extra edge in battle. He inwardly grinned with satisfaction; this whelp could truly challenge him when the time came!
But as he kept looking though, he noticed something about the container. Ignoring the fact that it did what it did, the magic teeming off it and its "shape" (to his eye at least) seemed different from his own container. Contrary to popular belief, he had a container like any other mage; because of his Dragon Slayer powers though, it was incredibly vast and he absorbed ethernano at an exponential rate, thus giving off the impression of near-limitless magic power.
Still, he had never seen a container act like this. 'Perhaps its time for a little experiment…'
"Brat, stop for a moment." Bahamut looked at him with an exasperated look, like he was saying 'I just learned how to do this thing!'
"Now." He had no time for petulant children. The child wordlessly nodded and dropped his hands, the spark fizzling out of existence. He motioned for him to come closer, which he did.
Acnologia then raised his arm and pointed his finger at his son. He reached out with the outstretched finger and touched the child's forehead, sending a small flicker of his magic into the boy's body. 'That should refill his container. If so then –'
Bahamut jumped back and yelled in pain as he held his forehead. All the while, Acnologia was staring at the container in growing confusion. Instead of refilling it, his magic seemed to be…clashing with the boy's magic, moving back and forth before finally filling it up.
The Dragon King let out a small grimace. It seemed that the boy's container...or rather, core…was struggling with adapting to his own magic. This presented a problem; it meant that it would be a while before the whelp could learn Chaos Dragon Slayer Magic. If a small flicker burnt him, a full-on bestowment could rip the boy from the inside out, at least at this stage where his body was still re-developing.
Acnologia put his hand to his chin and began thinking. 'This could put a dent in my plans. If just a flicker caused this much of a reaction, then maybe he isn't compatible with my magic at all.' However, he mentally shook his head.
'No, from what I've seen, his 'core' did accept my magic with a little bit of struggle. That means I will have to make him get used to the magic here. Feeding him my magic on occasion could work, but I want him to actually fight during this period beyond physical combat. Then that means...(sigh) he will have to learn another branch of magic. Which in of itself isn't a problem; many mages during my time knew how to use multiple magic types. However, it might make learning Dragon Slayer Magic a bit more difficult down the road.'
He tilted his head upwards to see that Bahamut had recovered, although he still rubbed his forehead. 'Oh well, baby steps then. I will start by making him practice drawing out his magic. I will have to get some tools to do it though, and I know just where to get them. Besides…' He saw his son giving him an angry pout. He just gave back a sadistic grin that said 'time for a spar' which made him freeze.
'I have been waiting 400 years for a worthy challenge. Compared to that, what's the difference in waiting for a few more?'
-OBW-
The next day…
Acnologia was watching his son doing laps around the mountain. He was in dragon form and was currently lying on the snow. Bahamut was improving little by little by the day in terms of physical status. That was very good; as a mage, his magic would improve the more fit he was – and the Dragon King expected no less than perfection, in the end. Speaking of magic…
"Whelp!" he called out as the boy finished another lap. He skidded on his short feet and paused to catch his breath before looking at Acnologia. "I have a small errand to run today. Continue doing your exercises and practice drawing out your magic. I will find out if you slack off, so don't test my patience."
The body nodded as he panted. Not letting him ask any questions, the Dragon King got up and took to the air. With a mighty flap from his wings, he headed northeast.
As the landscape passed below him, the black dragon thought about what he was about to do. 'I need a way to train the boy in actual fighting. While my spars with him do show progress, my skill level is just too high for him to adapt to – yet. As such, he needs a way to mark his progress efficiently. Since there is no way in heaven or hell I am taking in another human – my tolerance is worn out as is – I am going to have to find a way to do so, and I think I know just how.'
He kept flying high in the sky so that no one could see him, yet low enough for him to see everything passing below him. A while later, an immensely tall mountain range appeared in the distance. Unlike the white slopes of Mt. Zonia, these mountains were dark and ashen, but a few spots of green marked their slopes, showing small signs of life. He flew over the mountains until he paused to land on one of their peaks. He raised his snout as he gazed at a sight which he had thought he would never see again.
In front of him was a large bowl-like valley, with wide-open plains that were once green and lush, now ashen black and marked with a smoking red. In the distance, a tall temple-like castle stood, worn and charred, surrounded by crumbling walls. A few towers stood, each bearing a broken statue of a dragon.
This was his old home. His old sanctuary before he ascended. The place where Dragon Slayer Magic was born from the pact between dragons and humans – the old kingdom of Dragnof, now nothing more than battered ruins and a reminder of a once peaceful time, hidden away from the world.
'Has it really been 400 years?' Acnologia thought as he stared on. 'Even now, the ruins look nearly the same as I left them, on that thrilling day.' Despite having no attachment to the kingdom, a sense of nostalgia rose in the dragon's chest. It was not necessarily a weakness, so he allowed it to spread.
He took off from the peak and flew towards the walls. A few seconds later, he landed in front of the main gates, which were broken and smashed. He turned back into his human form and looked up at the tall walls, memories flooding him from a time he had thought forgotten as his cloak and hair billowed in the winter wind. With a sigh, he walked to the gate and gave the tall wooden doors a powerful push, which obliterated them into dust and woodchips.
He walked through the main street as he gazed at the scenery. Houses where people once lived in, filled with warmth and laughter, were now abandoned and lifeless. Vines covered every structure and street. Bones of humans and the occasional dragon were scattered all around. Fountains, parks and markets were barren and desolate. The whole scenery resonated well with the gray and cloudy sky, shrouding the kingdom in an aura of death and despair.
'Why do I still remember this?' Acnologia thought as he approached the temple-like structure, images from a past so distant it might as well be a long-forgotten dream. 'No, not even a dream. More like a dream in a dream.'
He arrived at the castle and entered it. Walking down the main hallway, he noticed that despite being the tallest structure in the valley, it was remarkably well-preserved, with the exception of a few of the roofs. In fact, the whole city seemed better off than he thought it would be. 'How can that be? I don't smell anything alive in this valley. Maybe I was focused more on destroying the dragons than the city itself?' He shook his head to clear his mind of such quandaries. 'Bah, no matter. As a matter of fact, this will make things easier in the long run.'
He soon arrived at a large intersection, where the hallway split left and right. A tall statue of a dragon draping its wings over a human family and a large spiraling staircase that went up and down stood in front of a pair of large windows, with the faint sunlight streaming in, giving the structures a pale aura. Acnologia walked to the staircase and descended it, dust rising from the stone steps with every step he took. He arrived at a lower floor where a wider hallway lay, flanked with arches and doors. The whole hallway was pitch-black of course, since there was no source of natural light to illuminate it, but the Dragon King's enhanced eyesight allowed him to see as though he was on a clear and sunny field.
He walked down the hall until he arrived at one of the doors on the far-right end. He gently opened the door to the sight of an enormous library, lined with towering bookcases filled with shelves of books and scrolls. Pieces of papers and parchment lay scattered across the floor. In the corner, he could see a small stairwell that led downstairs, presumably to another level. A strong musky smell hit his nose, which made him grin. 'One thing that stood the test of time' he thought as he looked around 'is a dragon's love for hoarding treasure, and these books are no exception. A dragon will do anything to safeguard his hoard, even after death. I know that those so-called 'Magic Council' members would murder each other to get their hands on the knowledge here.
Unfortunately, I cannot take all of the books here. Fortunately, this valley is protected by a mountain range that can only be accessed by dragons or by select paths that are probably long gone. That, and I don't believe that this place is on any map in any country.' He wordlessly raised his hand a conjured a floating ball of light that illuminated the vicinity around him. He needed extra care for this. 'Time to get to work.'
And so Acnologia began wandering through the bookcases, searching book upon book and scroll upon scroll. He used a ladder he had found propped up on one of them, careful not to harm the aged scriptures. He skipped some of the obvious titles, while sometimes he had to rifle through some books individually. Again, he had to do so with great care, as most of the pages were yellowed with age. While he did find the search a bit tedious, he mentally filed titles and shelves that could be of some use in the future, so it wasn't a total waste.
Eventually, he had gone through half the bookcases on that floor when he arrived at a bookcase that was filled with various spellbooks. He propped the ladder against it and climbed up a few steps, his keen eyes scanning the titles. He had reached the tenth shelf (every bookcase had fifteen) when his eyes landed on a book with a promising title on its spine: Master's Training Grimoire.
He pulled the book out of its shelf and blew on the cover, the dust flying off it to reveal the same title with blue letters. He carefully opened the book and saw that the pages were better preserved than the rest of the books here, probably due to the magic emanating from it. He flipped over the first page to see that a nice index was written out for him. 'Humans' he scoffed. 'They need to organize everything. Saves work for me, though.'
He scrolled through the index until he reached a line that read:
Phantom Adversary – Page 14.
He flipped over to the aforementioned page and smirked at what he saw, as this was what he had been hoping to find:
"Phantom Adversary is a spell commonly used by adept to master-level conjurers, although magic casters with enough power and focus have been known to commonly use this spell for practice sessions or distractions. When cast, this spell will create a solid phantom in the caster's image. It is important to note though that the phantom will always be humanoid and featureless – meaning no face or other distinguishing bodily features. The caster can decide how strong, fast or durable the phantom will be by the amount of magic power that he/she uses to cast it. Like all conjured entities, the phantom will obey the caster's every command and will dispel when the caster commands it to or when it has sustained enough damage. The phantom can also attack by mimicking its caster's physical attacks (via magical imprint).
To cast this spell the following magic circle must be cast and…"
Acnologia took a look at the circle as he descended the ladder. Magic circles were somewhat of an oddity in the magical arts. They were sometimes used when casting complicated spells for the first time or when a very high-level magic needed to be cast, but after the first few tries they were no longer needed. Fortunately, he still knew how to use magic circles from his early dragon slaying days, as some of his attacks required frequent use of them before he could do them instinctually. He looked around until he spotted an empty corner of the library. 'Time to test it out.'
He went to the corner and held the book in one hand with the page open and raised the other hand with the palm pointing to a spot on the floor. He took a look at the circle and said "Phantom Adversary".
A pale-blue magic circle appeared on the spot his palm pointed to and a pale-blue figure arose from it. The magic circle disappeared and Acnologia looked at the apparition he had summoned. It looked humanoid and had no face, just like the book said. Pale-blue wisps of magic emanated from its body.
"Attack me with a charging rush attack" he commanded. The apparition responded by charging at him and rapidly striking at him with a flurry of punches at different points. He didn't feel anything of course, but after a few seconds he got annoyed and flicked his finger at the phantom's chest, which made it promptly dissipate.
'Well, at least it seemed to fulfill its purpose' he thought as he flipped through the books pages. 'There are a lot of useful training spells here too.' He tilted his head up and looked around the library. 'Now that I think about it, it will save me time if I pick up a few more books that could be used for training.'
He let out his signature sadistic grin. 'Looks like the whelp will have to fight harder if he wants to keep up from now on…'
-OBW-
Bahamut was walking back from the forest after a small trek/practice round with a satisfied smile on his face. His father had instructed him to practice drawing out his magic after his physical exercises, but it was harder than last time. The memories that arose from drawing out his magic made him uncomfortable, and for some reason the mountain looming in the background didn't help things. So, after deciding he needed a change of scenery, Bahamut jogged to the forest where he sat down next to a tall tree (where he could see the way out – he didn't want a repeat of last time) and began calling forth that spark again. Much to his relief, the calm atmosphere of the forest did wonders to calm his mind whenever the memories arose, thus enabling him to summon the spark with more ease and speed than last time, a trend which continued the more he did it.
An hour of spark-summoning, meditating and physical activities later (followed by a small fruit snack) he headed back to the mountain. He was about to jog the last kilometer when he saw a familiar shadow high in the sky. He paused to look at it and jumped back in surprise when Acnologia's scaled form landed next to him, sending snow flying in all directions. A flash of blue light later, his father's blue-haired human form stood before him with…were those books under his arm?
His father turned to face him and stared at him. Just as Bahamut was about to ask what was wrong, the older man raised his arm and a blue circle appeared on the ground in front of him. Out of that circle rose a ghost-like man, around his father's height, with no face. He looked at it in awe. Was that magic?
He was broken from his stupor when he heard Acnologia say "Attack." The phantom suddenly rushed at him and punched him in the gut, sending him tumbling backwards.
Bahamut got up and faced the phantom, which had now adopted a guarding stance. "Show me that all of this training wasn't a waste" he heard his father say before the phantom rushed at him once again. This time though, he was prepared.
He dodged a few of the punches that were thrown at him before he was forced to guard a side-kick with his arm. The phantom then punched him with an uppercut, sending him flying backwards into the snow. He got up just in time to see the phantom rush at him with a fist cocked back, which he promptly dodged.
The next few minutes were a bit of a blur, with Bahamut utilizing his small frame to dodge the ghost's punches and landing in a few good hits of his own. Unlike the spars with his father, he could properly react to the ghost's attacks, since it seemed like it was slower – which it probably was.
After those few minutes though, Bahamut had leaped up as the ghost bent down a little to punch him and smashed his fist on the ghost's cheek, which made it stumble backwards. He rushed at the ghost, taking advantage of his moment of confusion, and rapidly punched it in its face and chest. He moved backwards, his fists burning from his onslaught and settled into a defensive stance. But the ghost fell down and vanished like the wind.
He heard a grunt from behind him and turned around to see his father standing there cross-armed with an unreadable expression his face. He then said "As you can see, this will be our new method of exercise. You will fight these apparitions daily, each time with different power and speed. I have also" he lifted up a book with blue letters "have a few exercises here for your magic. So you better keep up whelp, because training's going to get a lot harder from here on out."
Bahamut just panted in exhaustion, but inwardly he was grinning. This looked like a whole lot of fun!
Acnologia then put the books on the ground and let out his sadistic grin. "Hope you can still fight whelp..." he cackled as he leaped towards Bahamut, who cursed himself as he tried to dodge.
'I should really keep my mouth shut; it'll save me a lot of pain...'
What do you all think? We have here our first glimpse at the ruins of Dragnof, which will appear in the future at some point. How is the visualization?
Also, go check out "Eye of the Storm" by Lord of Daemons. It's a great quality Naruto fic with tons of detail.
Go check out my other stories and see the challenges on my profile! (They're rather original plotlines)
Read and Review!
