Dropping on her knees, Emilia huffed in exhaustion after her impressive feat against the shadow-faced warrior.
'What's happening? I know I used a massive spell, but it's not normal how drained I am,' she thought, her breaths deep and ragged as she tried to steady the rhythm.
"No wonder you're exhausted," Ryu descended in front of her, sitting in a cross-legged position with his arms also crossed. "Interference Power in here is much more draining than in the physical world, after all. Pretty sure I don't need to explain to you what it is, right? That Whitey must have given you a basic run down about the real rules of the world."
Hearing his words that were delivered with a happy gremlin smile on his face, Emilia realized the answer to her question immediately.
'Interference Power. Or what Realizers call Mana. And then Energy Transmutation, what we call magic,' she thought, her mind replaying the moment where the ethereal white being she had met in Akasha explained the intricacies of the power she wielded.
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"What you humans call Magic, we Concepts call it Energy Transmutation," the white-haired being had started explaining to her, his piercing blue gaze gazing into his cup of tea.
As he sipped on his cup, he then raised his left index finger in the air forming a snowflake crystal.
"The ability to manipulate and turn any form of power within and/or outside the body into a desired phenomenon. That is what Energy Transmutation is," the snowflake crystal that floated above his finger dissipated into an oblivion of sparkling glitters.
"But it goes further than that. The definition I gave you is the limit of what humans are physically capable of," he added, Emilia staying silent as she listened to every word. "Within Akasha, it's a much more potent ability. And that is what Interference Power represents."
"Using the essence of the world, or what you call mana, you interfere with the structure of the world to bring about a specific phenomenon. That is what we Concepts consider as Interference Power. And within Akasha, this ability becomes more pronounced as the only thing it requires is will and mental power. In other words, visualize the desired phenomena, encode its structure and form into your interference formula, decode the creation process into a desired shape, materialize it into existence, execute the transmutation, and then activate said-interference phenomenon."
The lengthy explanation of the blue-eyed being made Emilia unconsciously compare what she had just learned with the magical theory she was taught back at the academy, finding common ground in what she knew and what she had just discovered.
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"Seems you figured it out," Ryu brought Emilia back from the depths of her memories. "And before you ask, yes. That's what's going on."
Ryu rested his head on his right hand, his cheek leaning into his palm as he continued to look at Emilia with that usual unbothered smile of his.
"Akasha is basically the collective subconscious of humanity, and a person's psyche or inner world if you want, is in essence a sealed vault where they are king," Ryu started explaining, his posture changing as his floating body seemed to be sleeping mid-air.
"Unlike what you humans call magic, you're not trying to create, control or alter matter. Instead, in here, you are basically trying to mold a person's world into a form that you desire. Of course, the toll on your mind is gonna be a big one," Ryu added, his face plastered with a smile as if the situation wasn't that dangerous.
Emilia could only hold a blank expression as she rethought her strategy moving forward.
'I guess that means I should avoid casting big spells unless I have no choice.'
"By the way," Ryu began, his voice drawing Emilia's attention at what she going to be told. "He ran away. Hahaha."
Ryu pointed at the spot where the child-like version of Ace stood when Emilia launched her spell.
"What?! Where did he go?" Emilia looked at the empty spot before her gaze went back to Ryu.
"Whoa, there. Chill out, okay?" Ryu gestured at her to calm down and take things slowly. "Finding him without any idea where he was the first time would have been hard. But now that we found him once, we'll be able to track him down."
"How though?" Emilia rose up from the ground, now noticing that the rain had stopped even though the skies had still not cleared.
"Well, through you of course," Ryu grinned widely, standing before her with his finger was pointed at her forehead. "Hehe."
"M-me?" Emilia had a hard time understanding what Ryu meant as the latter simply nodded enthusiastically.
"Mm! Mm!"
Ryu then put some distance between him and Emilia with a back flip, twirling his right index finger around before snapping his fingers with an "Abracadabra!"
As those words left his mouth, a holographic screen popped up before Emilia with a certain message:
[You have received the item Ring of the Oath.]
And just as the window appeared, digitalized light condensed in front of her, forming a silver ring with ruby-colored stone embedded on it that gently fell into her hand.
'Even if it was not finalized, a Blood Oath is still a Blood Oath,' Ryu thought while Emilia inspected the ring that had appeared out of thin air. 'I doubt that Whitey even explained to her what it was. Meh. I'm pretty sure he just couldn't be bothered with it. He probably just left it sitting there.'
He put his hands in his pockets as silent "Heh" escaped his mouth.
'Since it was just there, he probably won't mind me taking it and giving it to her, right? Plus…' he admired the ring, a sense of playful pride washing over him. 'Yep. A ring was definitely the best way to go. Hopes it leads to something interesting.'
"Uuh… Ryu?" Emilia called out, pulling the spectral boy out of his thoughts which could make anyone imagine seeing a fox tail twirling behind him.
"Yeah?" Ryu approached Emilia, floating down towards her. "What is it?"
"What is this?" Emilia gestured to the ring, but another question came to mind. "And also, I've been meaning to ask this for a while, but what are those screens?"
"Oh, yeah. I didn't explain that part yet, have I?" Ryu smiled nonchalantly, scratching his head as if he was embarrassed. "Hahahaha."
While he laughed, Emilia only continued to stare intently at him, the suspicion in her eyes more evident which didn't go unnoticed to Ryu.
"Okay, fine. I'll get serious," Ryu said in a resigned tone, though one could still feel a bit of playful mischief in his voice. "Here's what's really going on here…"