As night fell, Aethon tried to go to sleep but couldn't. After having that talk with Mai, he realised alot. Then all of a sudden the Mirror appeared in his head. He couldn't stop thinking about it, so instead of trying to go back to sleep he got up, walked out his room, and started walking towards the main hall.
He then stood infront of a huge mirror that was set on the wall which was at the half mark of their long dinning table. Aethon then made a small cut on his thumb, smudged his blood on the mirror, and drew a sigil of a crescent moon. The Mirror began to dissappear and then emerged a secret passage way on the other side of the mirror.
Aethon walked towards the end of the long passage way which ended by an appearance of a door that was guarded by 3 shadow hounds, and 3 golems. Since Aethon was of house Lunaris the hounds and golem allowed him to pass. He stretched his hand out, turned the knob, and opened the door. He took 10 steps and was facing the mirror.
The mirror was a tall black slab of obsidian, and was held by a moonstone frame that was created by the fires of a dragon. It was said it was a gift of the leaders of the Dragons from the continent of Vyrthaal from over 2,000 years ago as an apology. Has to what that apology is, well it's been lost to the passage of time.
Aethon picked up a torch light and presented it infront of the mirror but as he looked at the mirror more closely, it didn't show his reflection. Instead the mirror revealed another room, one that was unfimiliar, a field of ash beneath a massive green tree made of glass and light, and it's branches spreaded out into the sky like stars.
His heart thudded once. Then again, slower.
The reflection began to ripple.
He could make out a figure standing beneath the tree, he was cloaked in black and had white flames while the figures face was hidden in shadow. But it was him. He could tell because of how those blue eyes pierced through the darkness.
"Not this time," said the figure.
The mirror went dark.
And Aethon, who stood there alone in the dark room with nothing but the torch to emit light, felt something moving in his head.
A memory that wasn't his.
A path that had already been walked... And broken.
After seeing all that Aethon decided to go to his room and get some rest.
Over the course of the next few days he didn't have that dream and thought that maybe it was all in his head and Mai had a point. So he decided to focus on learning to control and combine different types of magic for both offensive and defensive movements that could help him in a fight.
As he walked into the training chamber he felt the mana residue all over the place. He stood at the center that was scorched and noticed the blade marks. It was Luna, his eldest sister. As he looked around him, he saw burnt etching of sigils and faded runes lined the stone floor,:"Wow. She must've been doing some really intensive training. She's not called Pointbreaker for nothing."
He then closed his eyes and cleared his head of distractions and tried to remember the movements he did in his nightmares.
Aethon then thought to himself that just been able to control his magic and enforce it with his mana won't be enough to win a fight where his life is on the line. He would need to be crafty, and use his surroundings to his advantage.
He then focused on the fragments he remembered of his dream, a version of himself who moved like fire, but struck like lightning and was able to defend like an unmoveable mountain. That version of himself didn't rely on raw strength. He created hybrid skills, fused elements, and mended styles.
He began to inhale slowly and gathered his mana core, which drew from the base of his spine to his sternum,where Sanguinaether hummed in quiet protest. The blood bound power was volatile, heavy with lineage and loss. Aethon then remembered what his father had said long ago, :"You are never to use Sanguinaether, it must never be shown to anyone, it's to dangerous, and since no one has possessed that type of ability in our family for over 210 years, we don't know it's full potential,but from what the book says that was passed down in our family, it's dangerous and if people knew you have an ability that can do those things it will cause alot of problems."
Aethon let out a small grin and sighed has he had learnt how to ignore its hunger and use it's rhythm to help him compress and converge magic.
With a flick of his finger, a spiral of flame danced to life, but it was not yellow, red, or even blue, it was a dark purple color. He whispered the words, :"Vexura."
His other hand surged with heavy compressed wind that was thin, invisible pressure coiling like a sling. He woved the flame into the air current, making it coil like a serpent wrapping itself around it's victim.
He then snapped both wrists forward.
The flame thread sliced through the air, curved, and struck the practice dummy from behind.
The move had left a charred crater where the dummy's neck had once been. Aethon fell to the ground, exhaled and said to himself:"Wow.. Ahh.. It was just once but that took quite abit of mana and energy, not to mention to focus and control that amount of magic even if it was a small amount." After saying that he let out a sigh and looked at the headless dummy. He felt satisfied but felt it left him too open.
He then looked at his hands, the purple flames that were still burning around the now dummy's headless body and thought maybe he should name it SERPENT COIL.
He then turned to a wall of obsidian and placed his palms against the stone
He looked at the back of his hand as it was pressed against the wall and thought to himself, : "Maybe father has a point,but what's the point of having an ability like this and not use it. Even if I am the first to have this ability after 200 years."He stopped monolouguing, took his hand off the wall and clenched his hand. Took a deep breath in and said in a soft, low voice, :" As long as no one is here, there will be no record of me ever using it." He then placed his hand back on the obsidian wall. Sanguinaether seeped into it, feeding the rock a piece of his will. He then pulled his hand away from the center of the wall and out fell a translucent crimson shield that had been forged of blood tinted earth and hardened mana. He then told himself in a low voice while staring at the shield, :"CRIMSON PLATE." Yeah that sounds like a decent name... I guess."
It shimmered faintly. Aethon then placed it against the wall, turned and walked 15 steps away, and blasted it with SERPENTS COIL. He then grabbed it and examined it. "Too slow to summon. It's effective but not reactive. I need something that can counter and strike simultaneously."
He then crouched down and drew a sigil in the soot covered floor. It was a crescent moon fused with three flame dots that emitted a purple color and a vertical arc of lightning.
His body began to pain from overuse, but his mind moved like a forge that was refining, shaping, and building. He wanted to be prepared because if his dreams were showing him a future where he looses everyone and everything he cares about, he wanted to create spells and freely use mana to protect them.
He hesitated and then said in a low pitched voice while crouching, :"One more."
He then straightened out his back, and summoned a shard of lightning in his left hand, which was called elemental conjuration, not pure magic. In his right hand flared a purple flame. He pressed the both of them together.
The collision sparked violently and the mana surged across his skin. His core began to shriek in protest as his body started to shake rapidly.
He disappeared in a blink of an eye, and then reappeared ten feet across the chamber while a trail of black smoke and burnt hair filled the air.
Aethon fell to the ground breathing heavily as his lungs felt like they were going to explode. As he lifted his head up slowly he saw the hairs on his arm where standing.
He then left out a soft chuckled and said, :"Well that was fun. Stupid... but fun."
He then walked to his bag and took out a book and on a new page wrote the words 'HYBRID SKILLS' in big.
He then wrote brief descriptions of all 3 moves.
1)SERPENT COIL- WIND FUSED WITH FLAME.
2)CRIMSON PLATE-SANGUINAETHER MIXED WITH NATURAL ELEMENTAL COMPONENTS TO CREATE TOOLS.
3) FLASHSTEP- THE COMBINATION OF FIRE AND LIGHTNING. THE FIRE WRAPS ITSELF AROUND THE LIGHTNING TO HELP GIVE IT FORM AND INTURN THE LIGHTNING SUPER ACCELERATES MY BODY AND MAKES MY CORE ABOSRB HIGH AMOUNTS OF MANA GIVING ME ENOUGH POWER TO MOVE FROM ONE PLACE TO THE NEXT IN AN INSTANT.
After writing that Aethon got up and walked out of the training chamber, not pleased but satisfied that he made some progress today.
He stopped and looked up at the sky and remembered about the dream and thought to himself that power alone won't be able to save the people he cares about.
"Ahhhh....enough training for today." he said has he started walking towards home. After going home and freshening up, he decided to go to RIVIRIA for some medicinal tablets that might come in handy incase of an emergency.