Blade Over Magic

Free Training Day II

Hearing his words, Aubrey hesitated, then she said carefully.

”According to what you said, light isn’t just... light.” She gestured vaguely at the now off lanterns around the school, and Xander nodded, so she continued.

”I always thought that light was just... its own thing. Like water or fire. But instead it’s more like... a river with many different currents running through it at the same time?” There was a questioning lilt with each sentence, like she was hesitant to say she actually got it, but Xander nodded again.

”Yes, that’s an apt analogy. Go on.” Xander urged, the beginnings of a smile started to appear on his face.

Seeing this, Aubrey got a little bolder.

She took out the note and got to the part where there was a diagram. There, it depicted a prism, and on one side a ray of light went into it, and when it came out of the other side, it wasn’t the same ray of light, but was instead a myriad of colors.

”You explained that when light passes through prism, this crystal thing, it splits apart. Not because the prism is creating the colors. Rather, they were already there, mixed together. The prism just... splits them apart.

The white light we see is a mixture of these... ’colors’? Though, that’s not quite the right word for them. Each of them has a different... length. Or, according to what you wrote, ’wavelength’. Light, according to what you said, travels not as a straight line, but in waves. And some waves are short and lazy, like the red ones. Others are short and quick. Like the violet ones.” She looked up at him, her face a mix of confusion, frustration, fascination, and anticipation.

”And there’s more beyond what we can see. Beyond the red, there are waves too long for our eyes to catch. You called these ’inrrared’. And past the violet, waves to short, you called them ’ultraviolet’. Both are still light. Still real. We just can’t... perceive them naturally with our eyes.” She tucked the nite away.

”Then there was the stuff about ’gamma’ and ’radio’. But you wrote that those are extreme ends and intentionally did not elaborate on them. The point is, our eyes are limited, and everything we see is just a small percentage of what is really there.” When she finished, Xander grinned.

”Excellent, it seems like you understood it well.” Hearing this, Aubrey let out a relieved sigh, while Falael just stared with a blank expression, clearly not understanding a word that was said.

Anyway, Aubrey’s relief soon turned into excitement.

”How did you learn this? How did you figure it out? Did you experiment with it? What caused you to think in this direction? Can it be applied to my magic?” She bombarded Xander with questions, making him force a cough.

’It’s like having a kid ask you questions after finding out something new... wait that’s exactly what’s happening, she isn’t 18 yet.’ Xander shook his head of the miscellaneous thoughts.

”How I came about the method isn’t what’s important. What is, is this.” Xander regarded her.

”Yes, I think it can be applied to your magic, but you need to change the way you think.” Xander drew his sword and performs a clean cut to the side.

”Magic is influenced and determined by a lot of things, but one of the most important things is visualization.” He aimed his sword in a non-threatening manner at her.

”Your perception magic is ”tuned” to a specific range. Visible light. The thing is that you just never realized there was a range to begin with.” He called her out accurately, which made her blink, but he went on.

”Let me ask you, how exactly does your perception magic work in regards to augmenting your vision?” Hearing this, Aubrey lingered before explaining.

”Besides increasing how fast i process things, if it’s purely about augmenting my vision, I essentially create a thin ’film’ of mana over my eyes, and they sort of... ’pull in’ the light in the direction I’m looking, allowing me to perceive far more visually.” At that, Xander rubbed his chin before nodding.

”How exactly does that work?” Aubrey hesitated again.

”It’s a bit hard to explain, but... I know light travels in a straight line. So the ’film’ kinda acts like a... net? That captures it and feeds it into my eyes. And depending on how far I want to see, I increase the output to make the ’net’ more robust so it captures more.” Her explanation was a bit shaky, but Xander got it.

’In that case, the solution is simply for her to change the property of the ’net’. So that way, if she makes the film ’looser’ with wider gaps, it could theoretically catch longer and slower waves. Like infrared.

Alternatively, she could ’tighten’ it with a finer structure so it captures shorter and faster waves, like ultraviolet.’ Xander closed his eyes.

’The issue is that she can’t just visualize those two wavelengths. She has never seen them before, so she has no frame of reference. Still, adjusting the mechanics of the spell itself should make it possible...’ Xander opened his eyes.

”Alright, let’s try this.” He stepped back a bit before telling her.

”Here’s what I want you to do. That ’net’? I want you to change its properties.” Hearing this, Aubrey blinked.

”Huh, how?”

”Well, you said that you can make it more robust depending on the output, right? So that means it’s not a static structure over your eyes. Which also means its shape, and therefore, its properties can be changed.” That made Aubrey’s eyes go wide, but Xander continued.

”So here’s what I want you to do. That ’net’? I want you to loosen the ’mesh’. That way, it stops capturing visible light and instead captures slower, longer wavelengths. Aka, the infrared I told you about.” He began to do a series of sword moves, and a moment later, flames surged around the blade.

”If it works, there’s a chance everything will start to dim, and the only things that you will be able to ’see’ are things with heat. So that’s what I want you to do. Focus on my sword, and if it works, tell me what you see.” With that, Xander went quiet and continued to perform his swordsmanship, the blade and flames dancing around him in awe inspiring arcs.

Aubrey was silent for a moment, then she took a deep breath.

’Focus.’ She opened her eyes wide, and soon, a thin film of mana, practically invisible to the naked eye, appeared over her eyes.

Once they did, the visual information she picked up suddenly spiked.

She was able to see more. From Xander’s minutes movements to the individual embers that sparked off his sword when he swung it.

But she didn’t focus on that.

First, Aubrey increased her output.

As soon as she did, the visual information increased again, but she didn’t focus on that, instead, she focused on the structure of the film itself.

She’d never thought to do so before as she simply accepted it as a part of the magic. But now that she had...

’I can sense it.’

The ’structure’ of the film.

It wasn’t a flat plane over her eyes. Instead, it was made up of a series of numerous interconnecting points with even smaller spaces between them. The structure sort of reminded her of how clothes were made up of intersecting material.

’... That’s it.’ A smile found itself on her face, but she didn’t lose concentration. Instead, she focused even harder.

She sped up the processing speed of her brain as she focused intently on the structure.

First, she experimented with output alone.

She increased the output and watched as the intersecting points turned more firm. They didn’t get larger or smaller, but they became more sturdy. Then she reduced the output, and again, while they didn’t grow or shrink, they became more ’brittle’.

’Huu... Okay.’ She took a breath, then she made an attempt.

Slowly, controlling the film, she started to ’loosen’ it.

Almost immediately, the whole thing nearly collapsed, but she barely managed to keep it stable.

’It’s like trying to pull out a stabilizing pillar from a structure while keeping it from collapsing.’ Sweat beaded on her brow as she kept her attention firmly on the task.

Slowly

Arduously

The net loosened, bit by bit.

She split her attention in two, one side focusing on loosening it and the other focusing on keeping it stable. And even with her brain getting sped up, it was hard.

But she was making progress.

And at some point, it started to happen.

The colors she was used to started to fade away, and instead, in her vision, a series of warm colors started to fill everything.

The ground was a dim blue, almost like water. Some objects like rocks scattered around the floor were also this blue, but some were also green, and she noticed these ones had already been under the sun for a little bit.

However, as she focused on Xander, her brows rose.

Xander’s body was a fairly bright red. She couldn’t see his face, only the outline of his body as he performed his swordplay. As for his sword itself...

’It’s so bright.’ A shade of red so bright it was almost white, and she almost struggled to focus on it.

Then she looked around, slowly.

She saw the outline of Falael. Like Xander, she couldn’t discern his features, and he was also a warm red all over.

Then she looked towards where Curtis should have been.

His outline wasn’t as red as the others, and the ice he’d been creating appeared black in her vision, with the ground around it purple or deep blue.

Then she looked around the rest of the field, and it was covered in these warm outlines that were people.

The birds that were created by Alya were a dim blue.

The vegetation ranged from blue to green.

And so on.

’... It’s weird...’ Aubrey thought vaguely, then, she decided to increase the output.

Suddenly, these colors appeared clearer. She was still unable to make out the specific features of people, but she now noticed something else.

’Those people... are flying?’ She noticed the outlines of some people above ground, making her frown, but then realization struck her.

’No, not flying. They are inside buildings on higher floors. This is...’ Her eyes widened. ’I’m... seeing them through the walls?’

”How is it?” A voice snapped her out of her stupor, and she looked towards Xander, his outline no longer swinging his sword, and the white around it began to dim into a red.

”... It’s so strange... I never imagined the world could look so different from what I’m used to.” Her voice was full of awe.

”What about the mana cost? Or the strain? Is it too much?” Xander enquired, and Aubrey felt for a bit before shaking her head.

”Surprisingly, it’s not bad. In fact, it’s more manageable than the ’normal’ state. With the structure looser, it costs less mana to maintain. And there are far less... ’colors’ compared to my normal vision, so there isn’t much visual overload. Still, I can’t really see what anyone looks like...” Xander smiled at this, but Aubrey naturally couldn’t see it.

”Great. You can turn it off.” With that, Aubrey dispelled the mana, and she blinked a few times as her vision went back to normal. Colorful. And yet, she felt like she was now missing an extra layer.

She exhaled shakily.

”... Incredible.” She muttered.

”Isn’t it?” Xander chuckled.

”It’s like seeing a whole new world. And everything was divided into red, blue, green, purple, white, and black. What does that mean?”

”Red signifies warmth, blue signifies a cooler temperature. Green is somewhere in the middle white is very hot, purple is cold, and black is very cold.” Xander explained.

”Incredible. This is...” Aubrey was at a loss for words, and Xander just laughed.

”Well, it’s not over. This time, you should try and do the opposite. Make the ’net’ tighter to capture faster and shorter waves.”

”Alright!” Aubrey, who was clearly excited by her experience, immediately went straight to it.

With that, Xander turned to Falael who was staring at him with a complicated expression.

”Which leaves you.”