Chapter 21: A Realm Beyond
Mid Evening - Mid Spring : Year 10 : Over Nearby Forest | Home Peninsula
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Watching the glowing spark rip into the sky—punching holes through the clouds in its path—my wings clamped to my side and my eyes went wide.
It was practically the shell of a battleship, weighing in the range of tons, and flying at speeds tens of times the speed of sound. -Wherever fate decided to land that thing...-
It was going to be like the collision of a meteor.
All I could do was tell myself it would surely land in the middle of nowhere, and sit there watching it disappear over the horizon like a dog that knew it was guilty.
However, unlike I expected, Mother didn't seem upset or worried.
Looking up just in time to watch her move her eyes from the horizon, I found an unfamiliar gleam within her gaze.
An unfathomable, awe-fueled pride.
Finally folding her wings and diving, landing in front of me with an intense flutter and blast of wind, she stared into my eyes with a simply beaming smile. "How did you do that?" She didn't yell, or raise her voice—speaking calmly but with a deeply carved fascination.
For a moment, it made her look extremely young… "U-Uhhh…" Not that it helped bring any movement back to my tucked tail. "M..Magnetism?"
I spoke without thinking, but it just made her gleam grow brighter. "Hoh? You even have a name for it already?"
I gave a very reluctant, stuttered nod. "Y..Yeah… I-It's just using lightning mana to move metal."
I spoke fully expecting her to know what I was referring to, but instead of understanding, her fascination grew. "To discover and use such an odd quirk of lightning magic like that…" Her eyes reminded me of Krystallo's when I'd explain to her what I was doing with my mana. "And here I thought you somehow did that with your aura!"
-Huh..?- "Aura..?" It wasn't a completely unfamiliar term, but at that moment, it hardly registered. "What's that..?"
"Ah!" And as if realizing she forgot something, Mother's demeanor instantly shifted. "I didn't teach you about that, did I?!" Moving with some fluster, her movements were snappy and fast.
Even faster than my eyes.
"I'm sorry, sweetie, it must have glossed my mind." Frantically looking around, she coiled her head around, looking through the shadows of the surrounding forest before a cone of ice formed around the end of her tail, and with a swift whip, hurled it into the dark. *ZIP*
*Snip-CRACK* Accompanying the distant glass-like shatter, the sounds of fracturing bone echoed before the ground quaked and the few remaining birds in the canopy fled to the sky. *THUMP*
It was the sound of dinner.
Though, Mother wasn't in a rush to go get it. "This is a good opportunity to learn about it, I suppose..." Turning back to me, the gleam in her eyes finally settled. "Would you rather learn about it now or tomorrow?"
My shrunken posture straightened in a blink. "N..Now."
"Phew," Passing a relieved breath, she sat with her wings slightly lifted with attention, and her tail comfortably laid to the side. "I was meant to teach you when explaining how to move your mana, but since you already know how, this should be easy for you."
My head gently rocked with a curious tilt before she continued.
"Okay. So, to be brief, aura is something every living being has. To be literal, it's a creature's natural expulsion of their mana. Think of a pond that's full and overflowing from the rain."
I nodded with an immediate understanding.
"However, while that mana is unattributed exactly the same as the mana in the air, it's subconsciously tied to them, and under their 'influence', whether they have the ability to control it or not. This makes it behave differently from ambient mana, and gives every aura a 'signature' of sorts."
"Like.. a presence..?"
"Yes!" Going wide eyed, she gave an enthusiastic nod. "Precisely! Every aura has a different feel to it, and once you learn to read your aura effectively, you'll come to recognize people even if your auras only brush against one another in a crowd."
-Interesting…- I gave a nod, totally lost in a trance of thought.
"Anyway, there are two main ways to use your aura: control, and reading." Straightening herself, her prideful smile returned. "Reading it is something you've already done. That image in your head? That visualization of the inside of your body? That's you reading your aura!"
-Oh!- Focusing on the image in my head again, the visualization of my own anatomy sharpened.
"However, that's just scratching the surface. Aura reading can stretch outside your body too! So long as your aura is within the range you hold subconscious influence over it, you can read it! Older dragons can even use their mana to supplement their auras and do some crazy things. Though, it will take some practice."
Like a flame had been lit in my chest, all previous anxieties and worries were reduced to ash by a wave of curiosity. -So, aura is just my brain translating a map of the mana leaking from my reserve into an image…- It was how I was somehow able to see and manipulate things as small as atoms. -You're telling me I can do that outside my body too?!-
Suddenly wanting to try it, I looked inward, trying method after method to read the mana just outside my scales.
However, I was completely unprepared for the difficulty of that task.
Only managing to get any kind of visual 'reading' outside my body by visualizing it all as one single mass instead of innumerable tiny ones, the details I could visualize were sacrificed as the cost. -So, the farther my aura is from my body, the less detail I can 'see'...-
I instantaneously tensed with that thought.
In an abrupt jolt, a sudden wash of familiarity and realization flowed through me.. like a memory dug out of a vault. -Wait…- What I was doing was eerily similar to what I had experienced in my 'dream', though, devoid of strings, incomparably blurrier, and more mentally straining to look at.
But, losing myself in the thought of connecting them, slowly expanding the cloud of aura I was reading around my body, my spreading web of theories were cut by a familiar, skull splitting pain.
"Ugh…" This time I caught myself though. -Shit…- Feeling like my brain was burning up from trying to process too much information at once, I started shrinking the cloud of aura around me until reaching the comfort of my scales again.
My limit was five meters, on a scale that could barely detect particles of dust.
But… *Woom*
Feeling something 'touch' that invisible cloud, my head snapped to the side with a rush of adrenaline.
"My goodness, you really are a terrifyingly fast learner~." Mother muttered with a smug pride as she hid her smile with her wing. "Don't get too ahead of yourself though. Reading your aura to the limits of your 'influence' will probably take you more than a century, if not millennia."
"Huk-" I choked, "A MILLENNIUM?!"
She gave a prompt nod. "Our reserves far outpace our minds when it comes to comparing how far out our mana holds influence, and how much information our minds can process." Suddenly turning serious, the air shifted, "You need to understand it's a biological limit, okay? People have died trying to push past that limit, don't even try. It will come with time."
A chill zipped down my spine as my head jolted back. "G..Got it…"
Holding her gaze in mine for a moment, I found it hard to breathe before she finally eased. "Good." *Woom* "Let's leave that there for now, then."
Quickly reigning herself back in upon realizing I got the message, she slowly eased, but spoke with the intent to wrap things up.
Meaning, with some haste, "Moving on, controlling aura is no different from controlling your mana, only how you use it changes. Whether changing how your aura is distributed, to lessen or amplify your presence, or using the unattributed mana itself to affect how weight or force is distributed or placed, the sky is the limit."
Seeing her start to get up, I quickly followed suit.
And she continued, "As time passes, you'll learn how to use it in your own ways, but having bodies as heavy as a stone spire, you start with learning how to spread your weight out properly."
-Oh…- It was something I hadn't really considered.
But exploring that topic deeper would inevitably be saved for another time.
Eventually moving toward the forest, Mother continued with a story to ease the tension before winding through the forest and coming up to a bison as big as me—the exact one the wyverns were previously hunting.
"Anyway, Vasilias, if there's only one takeaway from this, while you can progress theory as fast as you wish to, when it comes to your physical mana and aura, don't rush things." Standing over the bison, she looked at me with a deathly serious stare. "A few extra decades won't kill you. Ignorance will."
*WOOM* Suddenly seeing the massive bison lift on its own, I watched as Mother's paw sank into the soil with a shift.
"Have I made that clear?"
I nodded frantically.
"Good." Finally easing, the weight in the air seemed to almost physically lighten. "Then, let's go back and have a morning meal, shall we?"
Finding a warm glow reaching her face through the canopy, I looked up before nodding with reservation. -I've.. still got a lot to learn…-
Finally gripping digging her claws into the bison, gripping around its spine like the handle of a back, her wings spread, and after having me lift off ahead of her, we made our way back.
But my demeanor had been tempered for the night—only starting to return to normality after landing in the field outside the nest, and greeting Ilios as he sprinted at me.
"Hey, buddy." Lowering my snout, he started jumping up and licking my face even as static arced between us with his tail kicking up dust like a turbine. "Hahaha, I was only gone for a moment, did you think I'd never come back?"
"Welcome back, Vasilias!" Hearing Father, I quickly looked up to find him walking over with a jealous Krystallo in his wake. "How was your first hunt?"
*WO-WOOOSH* Finally landing behind me, smoothly laying the bison down with her aura, Mother's glow returned. "He really put on a show, I wish you could've seen it."
A bead of sweat instantly formed on Father's head as he forced a smile. "I had a front row seat earlier… I can't imagine I missed much."
But Mother's tone simply curled with a playful pride. "Hoh, you say that until you realize he already started reading his aura."
Father flinched as his eyes snapped to me. "Already?" Stepping forward with an unbelieving look, he stepped close, looking at me without actually looking into my eyes.
Before… *WOOM* Out of nowhere, it felt like an iron maiden was laid over top of me with loaded springs—a dome of sharpened, hardened steel ready to snap on me.
And with it, I felt death breathe on my neck. "AH! WHAT IN THE-?!" It made my hide crawl—my muscles tense—like feeling a razor run across my neck just light enough to not draw blood.
It wasn't a reaction he or Mother expected though. *Woom* Pulling his aura back with haste, the sensation lifted, but everyone was already staring at me, bug-eyed.
"H-Honey, what the hell did you do?" Mother's worry compounded in a blink.
And Father's fluster grew in an instant. "I-I just wrapped my aura around him! I didn't expect his to be that sensitive."
Succumbing to a sweat beneath heavy breaths, adrenaline soaked my muscle to the point of nearly shaking. "What the hell was that..?!" -Was that his aura's 'signature'?- It was so sharp it was almost sickening.
Like a sword coated with fresh blood. "I-I'm sorry! I just tried to get a feel for your aura! I didn't think you'd feel it until I got closer to your scales so I guess I was a bit too aggressive." Pausing, he looked back at Mother with a stressed gaze.
But she seemed more confused by that point. "Did you not feel his aura earlier, when his reserve was full..?"
Father instantly side-eyed me. "That's not full..?"
Mother's wings quickly settled into her side. "You.. didn't notice it?" She was simply baffled. "His aura was comparable to Mom's. There's no way you didn't notice it."
"Comparable to Asimi?! There's no way." Coiling his head around to sink his gaze into mine, his tone fell into a deadly seriousness. "How much mana do you have left in your reserve?"
Shrinking back, still trying to ease my nerves, I gently shrugged. "I don't know… A sixth..?"
But it just made him shake his head. "There's no way that's right."
And he was right.. just.. assuming the opposite end of the spectrum.
With every new discovery, it seemed like I fell farther and farther off the spectrum.
From my attribute nodes and their placement, to the volume of my reserve and the resilience of my hide.. I was a monster the likes of which none of us could even imagine…
It was just.. hard for any of us to wrap our heads around it at the time.
After all.. Mom and Dad were still far too young to be familiar with the realm I unknowingly belonged to…
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