Icarus awoke to a feminine voice.
"You, why are you using basic magic so foolishly?"
Icarus shot up
"Lyra!"
However who faced him was a pale haired girl with pointed ears and a white dress who appeared young.
She also held a wooden staff that had a large red mana stone embedded in the end as well as a talisman hanging from the circle that held said stone.
She pointed the staff at him and tched "I don't know who you are talking about, but you are likely both fools."
She pointed her staff to Icarus' left and he looked to see what she was pointing at.
A massive crater sat like a hole in the land.
It's scale was ridiculous, appearing as wide a sea or large lake, just without the water.
"I-I"
"Yes, you did. What were you thinking?! Do you have no skill what so ever?!"
Icarus was taken aback by this and slightly angered "What?! I was trying to survive! I had no choice or I would have been killed!"
The elf grumbled again "I know that, however using basic magic like this seems Brutish! Like an untrained dummy mage, are you some type of country bumpkin?"
Icarus could barely understand her aside from the last part and just decided to ignore that all together.
"How did I survive- Oh and my drago-"
Lance peaked out from behind the girl and cooed, Icarus smiled in relief before lookong back to the woman.
"Yes, he's fine, your body took 100% of the brunt of that attack so-"
"WHAT!?"
the elf girl held her ears and looked annoyed at the sudden noise.
"As I was saying, your body took the entire brunt of the attack, however it seems you have brutally overexerted yourself casting the spell, so luckily for you, aside from the land, the only damage you took was to, well erm.. your soul."
"My soul? I'm sorry for asking all these questions but can you please explain? Also the other who person who was there, could they have survived?"
She sighed like he was some clueless child and continued.
"The other person who was there may have survived Yes, but it is doubtful unless they are highly efficient with the elements involved into he attack. As for when you casted the spell, you intook a massive amount of mana, this doesn't have no drawbacks however, so your body was completely exhausted to the point of death after releasing said energy, your body can't take things like this so it would cause a sort of 'curse' to be put on you, where your body and soul would be turned to dust, however-"
Icarus quickly patted himself down, to see no dust he looked relieved and sighed hoping that Lyra should have survived as long as her dark magic had been strong enough to be rebounded into her and act as a sort of shield he then looked back at the elf who looked annoyed once again.
She sighed and continued "anyways, your body sensed the enormous stress on your body and soul and kind of formed a very small gateway, your gate, and forced said gateway alllll the way open, so the energy entered your soul instead of your body."
Icarus raised an eyebrow "wait so doesn't that mean my gate is... Gone?"
He was extra confused as he had never actually found his gate to begin with.
The girl nodded "yep, I couldn't even find a single piece of it, so suffice it to say, you won't be able to cast any spells for a looong time."
Icarus materialized a fireball in his hand and looked at her dumbly.
She looked back in apparent disbelief before clicking her tongue again and walking around him in a circle to look him up and down.
"This doesn't make any sense, unless..."
Her hands glowed and she placed them on his chest, he had no time to react and just stiffened in surprise.
She nodded and pulled her hands free.
"Well, I have no idea how you can use magic, however I can confirm that if you try to absorb or cycle magic anytime soon, you will certainly die."
Icarus frowned "well, I guess that's to be expected, but can I ask why?"
She seemed confused herself and just sighed again "well, it has something to do with your internal mana, it's all jumbled up, tangled even. It's still functioning, but.. it's confusing, it's something like a mana core or mana circle, which I've personally practiced, but it's unstable and in my opinion it's not made up of enough energy, especially not enough quality energy."
Icarus nodded "thank you, thats very helpful, and uh.. thanks for saving me as well, can I please have your name."
The elf looked aloof for a moment before turning back to him.
"Yeah, names Ria, but I want you to have this before we go our seperate ways, a fool like you needs to learn some proper magic at least."
She handed him an old, well worn book, it was titled "Mana bullets, space magic, and Defensive magic, V1"
A strange title, almost like a notebook, he looked up from the cover and smiled.
"Thank you! I will be sure to read it!"
She nodded emotionlessly and waved goodbye moments later.
He was surprised by the elf, she reminded him of someone, he wasn't sure who however.
He then realized despite the elf's healing, and his miraculous state of being alive, he was still in near excruciating pain just from standing up.
Thankfully the elf had set up a sort of ten made of earth magic, and he settled down inside, where there a candle burning brightly.
He figured there was some time to kill, and without any other way to do so, he opened the book she had given him.
.
.
.