Fay's emotions exploded, spilling out of her soul... and attracting the world's mana to fall in line and then infuse itself into her flesh, providing her with ample fuel to support the newly established domain.
*Slau... ghter...*
Fay's voice echoed for a moment before disappearing into the silence of the morning.
"I see..." Loraz sighed heavily before shaking his shoulders and then his head. And by the time he raised his eyes and looked at Fay again...
All the hints of familiar love, respect, and desire to protect were gone without a trace, replaced by nothing but the look of a perfect resolve.
Whatever this man settled on in his mind before, he has now reaffirmed his goals, after facing the opposition from an angle he hoped to avoid.
'What a father he is,' I thought when the man made his first step.
Yet, rather than focusing on his advance or getting amazed over how finely Fay controlled the mana that surged towards her...
I put all the processing power of my brain towards this one problem, one equation that I was so desperate to figure out.
There was no skill I could use to fight Loraz off. And even if I managed to replicate the same state we were in with Fay just before...
I still wasn't sold on the idea of actively and seriously harming Fay's father. And unless Fay's life would be on the line, I couldn't really see myself changing my mind on that point.
Still, there had to be something I could do.
And as my mind rushed to figure out some sort of a new deal, a new approach that would change the odds in our favor...
Three things happened at the same time.
Done with his doubts and hesitations, Loraz leaped forth, ready to finish the entire conflict with just one more strike of his fist. As he did so, the aura swirled around him, infusing itself into a fist to the point the man's hand started to glow, as if taking on its bestial form with just the condensed projection of the man's aura.
[Morphing Skill: Elemental Aura Tribute]
[New tribute: Dark Aura Tribute
+4 Darkness affinity]
[New skill!
-Elemental Aura tribute
- By sacrificing one's elemental aura, the wielder of this skill can morph temporal forms]
- Can morph time and space at an increasing cost to the wielder's aura
- The cost of the skill gradually restores upon the collapse of the morph]
In a sense, this was one hell of a discovery. For me to be able to change the nature of my skills to alter them and gain new abilities... Was one hell of an important information and promise of rapid growth.
But from a calmer perspective... this discovery was actually much greater.
My current understanding of aura was extremely low, based on feelings and instincts and only a few logical assumptions. But what obtaining this new skill brought for me, save for the skill itself, was a slightly better understanding of the underlying laws that controlled how aura behaved.
And with this, my vision appeared to change.
The glow of Loraz's fists turned from just a condensed aura to an entire ocean of swirling flows that one had to look extremely closely to notice. The movement of his aura around his body also gained a new meaning, now allowing me to understand how it actively reinforced the man's physical ability.
But most importantly of all, I've just gained a new skill. And with Fay and Loraz about to strike each other down...
There was no time for me to figure things out. Right now, was my last opportunity to intervene in this fight!