Hope

“Ready, steady, start,” Dervish spoke again, however, it was not him Irwyn would be facing this time around. Across from him, almost on the other end of the hall, Elizabeth stood, already murmuring under her breath so that Irwyn could not guess what she was actually attempting to cast.

Another day and a half of Dervish’s intense training had gone by in a flash and the man has decided his two students were ready to spar against each other. They began things off with ‘medium’ range, though it seemed closer to ‘long’ as far as Irwyn reconned things, considering that they stood at the opposite sides of the long training room.

Irwyn began by manifesting several Phalanxes’ worth of spears with the intention to explode. Or close enough to ‘spears’. Dervish had advised him that since Irwyn had basically no background in actually using weapons, he should not think too much about the exact shape of his constructs. For example, Dervish himself had trained extensively with all kinds of edged weapons before he attained his current accomplishment in magic and because of that, it made the man’s spells easier to control and more potent when they accurately resembled such blades; something along the similar lines as the boost incantations provided. That, in Irwyn’s example, meant that there was little point in trying to create more than the shape of a pointy stick, and even the point was probably pointless considering how hot his Starfire could burn.

He did not hesitate to send everything hurling toward Elizabeth. Dervish had straightforwardly told them he would block anything remotely dangerous about to hit, which Irwyn completely believed. The man was several levels of competence above them both.

The projectiles sped forward, though Irwyn had to stagger them into waves because of the sheer quantity, otherwise, they would hit each other. Just in case he also targeted around where Elizabeth stood to make dodging much harder. When his spell was halfway through the room, her answer came: A wall of thick black mist exploded from her at equal speed.

Because Irwyn’s projectiles were from Starfire, and were therefore elementally close to Light, they would still react violently with pure Void mana. Usually, that was a massive advantage when on the offensive, however, Elizabeth tried to abuse this, attempting to destroy them by sheer exposure and mutual destruction. And it would work if Irwyn did nothing, because just charging into the mist his magic would likely destabilize and be snuffed out. So instead, he guided the first few to explode in a blaze of Starfire.

That pushed Elizabeth’s spell well out of the way, or at least a significant portion of it. Since Irwyn had fired it as a salvo, he only lost one or two from the very front at a time in order to open the way for the rest. Still, this delayed his magic actually hitting Elizabeth’s position by a few precious seconds as he had to detonate the first row of his barrage four times in total before they reached their destination.

By then, Irwyn was already casting again. “Aegis of hidden flame” he whispered to give the purely defensive spell an extra bit of power as he infused it with invisibility. For that spell in particular the chant was more effective as it gave it some more defensive power, which he had no other way of accomplishing while making it invisible.

At the same time, he formed and scattered several handfuls of light-based ball bearings. The idea was to infuse them with an explosive amount of light and make them relatively unstable. That way, any unexpected Void magic coming from their direction would destabilize them. Not that good against Dervish who just danced around them with his incredible skill, however, Irwyn expected them to be far more effective against someone in his own weight class.

He also imbued them with the intention of brightness. Another thing that Dervish made him realize was that Irwyn was very hard to blind with Light. It was similar to how Flames simply did not burn him, Irwyn found that even the brightest Light would not leave any lasting damage to his sight the moment it was no longer actively preventing him from seeing other things. In hindsight, he probably should have noticed that long ago; he put that down to one of the things that had been that way for so long that he never considered them strange or different from other people.

The initial storm of ‘spears’ finished. As expected, they did not so much scratch their target. The mist was also already slowly dissipating, having served its purpose. Irwyn tried to look around but could not find any trace of Elizabeth at a glance, which meant she was probably casting while hidden.

Unfortunately, he could not feel where she actually stood. Another thing he had figured out with Dervish’s help was that Irwyn was particularly good at telling apart Void-based stealth spells, most likely something to do with being the anathema of Light, however, he found it especially difficult to feel things hiding in a larger scale Void magic, such as the mist.

Since he did not know where she was, he could either try to probe her with something very large area or go on the defensive. Since the former was prone to a devastating counterattack he instead prepared a particularly potent partial barrier. Completely obscuring his vision was not a good option, even the trick of many thin layers to allow him to somewhat see was actually pretty bad when it came to comparative defenses, so instead, he manifested four quarter-domes of solid flames with the intention to defend. More importantly, they were very movable and he could snap them or layer them in the direction of incoming attacks. With his fast-improving reflexes, he was reasonably confident to catch anything speeding for him in time.

Not a moment after he was done, the attack came. He did not even react to the attack itself as it flew out of the mist, rather, he reacted to his ball bearings coming apart in a bright cascade. Immediately he snapped the four barriers in the very fast projectile’s way. It was, much like his own, a ‘spear’ of Voidflame.

Except, a moment before it impacted him, Irwyn felt another attack coming from behind; from the exact opposite direction, breaking through his ball bearings. The first attack had been a feint, Irwyn processed as he realized it did not actually possess much punching power. He had no idea how Elizabeth got behind him or projected the real attack from such an angle, however, he left only one of his barriers to block the first attack while he snapped the other 3 towards the main attack, manifesting lesser defenses to slow it down for a split second. And he was going to just barely make it, Irwyn calculated with his accelerated thoughts. By a hair’s breadth, it would be blocked.

That was when the third spear pierced directly through his invisible barrier from above without so much as slowing, angling down into him. Irwyn did not have the time to so much as blink before suddenly, Dervish was standing right beside him, holding the projectile mere centimeters away from Irwyn’s throat.

“The flaw with early warning magics is, we easily come to subconsciously rely on them over looking for ourselves,” Dervish lectured in his flat tone as the mists dispersed, revealing a very happy Elizabeth. “Then it is no longer a matter of surpassing the opponent’s capacity to sense magic but merely of finding the loophole in their spell.”

“I had hoped it would not be quite so one-sided,” Irwyn sighed, taking the lesson to heart. He had expected to lose, however, it had happened far too quickly and decidedly. It was a bitter experience of getting completely outsmarted.

“You can match her ladyship in sheer magical potency,” Dervish shook his head. “You merely lack the years of experience she had gathered against a variety of opponents and in projecting that power efficiently. It is the very point of these lessons to internalize all and any tricks an opponent could surprise you with and how you can surprise others in turn. Intelligent combatants can become far deadlier with the element of surprise.”

“It was not an inherently bad plan but I once lost a duel in essentially the exact same way,” Elizabeth approached, smiling though trying hard not to show how good she felt about winning. “Better to learn a lesson here than against someone trying to kill you.”

“Good point,” Irwyn sighed again and stoop up. “Rematch?”

“I might need to rest a bit,” Elizabeth shook her head. “Trying to maintain the mist through your spells took a lot out of my reserves. Another round like that and I probably risk an empty Vessel.”

“Fair enough,” Irwyn nodded. Elizabeth struggled to estimate how much mana her body still held. She could at most guess with a rounding error of ten percent. Irwyn on the other hand could tell his own a bit better and, as it became apparent the day prior, had a lot more mana in his Vessel than Elizabeth.

“How are you doing on your reserves?” Dervish asked with the vaguest hint of curiosity. It was at the end of the previous day that the topic had come up so it had been left alone at the time. However, it appeared that would not remain the case for any longer.

“About 90 percent,” Irwyn gave the lowest estimate he could justify without lying. It frankly felt closer to 95 and replenishing quickly. Apparently, he was not just abnormal when it came to the raw magic available to him. He was downright unheard of.

“Truly incredible,” Dervish nodded, his visage not even twitching. “We first should figure out what ratio there is between your Vessel and the Reservoir. Often people with unusually potent Vessel deplete their inner reserves far quicker than normal, in which case we will figure out how to best pace yourself. In the opposite case, we can focus on utilizing the absurd quantity of available power for someone at your level of skill.”

“How do we test that then?” Irwyn frowned. “Do I just… always keep my Vessel slightly drained?”

“Yes, in essence,” Dervish nodded. “Attempt to go to sleep as hollow as you can manage, if you cannot figure out maintaining magic in your sleep, and never let yourself recover to full capacity while awake. I would say… for about a week. If by then you have no signs of reservoir depletion, we can conclude that it is either equally massive or your Funnel cannot currently channel mana faster than your soul replenishes.”

“It might be a bit of a struggle to maintain that,” Irwyn admitted. “I cannot quite shoot a hundred spears every half hour while walking down the street or in my room and anything small scale simply does not take that much out of me.”

“Then maybe it’s the right time to teach you how to imbue multiple intentions,” Elizabeth said, thoughtfully. “It can be rather dangerous before you get a proper grasp on it, however, you seem more than ready.”

“What do I do then,” Irwyn turned to her expectantly.

“Perhaps it might be better to start with just hints,” Dervish interrupted. “Your two are that firstly, it is a matter of perspective; and secondly, that more than one magical effect can exist in one physical location. Discovering the answer for yourself will benefit you the most long-term. If you make no progress in a few hours I will provide a bit more insight. Before you begin, however, you should exhaust your Vessel a bit further for our other purpose.”

So, 15 minutes and one exercise in futility later - trying to even leave a scratch on Dervish while the man was barely even defending himself was still an impossible task - Irwyn sat down as ideas whirled like a hurricane inside his head. He did just have a quarter-hour to think without being able to properly focus on them, after all.

His first idea was relatively simple: Create two overlapping spells with different intentions in the same physical space. That did not go… too well. The spells manifested completely separately, at most getting displaced slightly. Casting the exact same spell twice at the same time instead resulted in that spell being empowered slightly while a bunch of mana was wasted, turning ambient. When he really tried to make that impossible by making them both large and full boxes of individually Light and Flame the one with less power simply failed to manifest. Then when he carefully made sure they both had the exact same power channeled into them, neither of them appeared.

That was interesting but not very useful. He supposed just flooding an entire area with a massive spell could be a valid way to stop someone’s magic from ever manifesting, though he wondered how much more power than the opponent he would need to use for such an expensive anti-magic zone.

That reminded him of Rage. Of that amulet that seemed to completely prevent Irwyn from casting magic while not affecting the man in the slightest, however, it was not the time to get distracted by that.

Irwyn had to rethink the hints then. He had focused on the second and it had lead him nowhere. The first was ‘a matter of perspective’. What could that mean? Most likely he was either looking at the problem from a wrong angle or was seeing the magic the wrong way somehow. Perspective implied more than just perception though. It was about thinking about something in a completely different way. So he had to analyze: How was he thinking of magic? Of a spell.

He considered it a singular construct. One whole. And if that was the case the radical shift would be trying the opposite. A change in perspective, two spells existing in the same place. Or maybe not quite two spells.

One spell that was simultaneously two.

If that was the case Irwyn would have to figure out how to do that. He formed a simple disk of Starfire and stared at it. He tried to imagine it: That the single spell was actually two, layered into each other. Not casting them separately, no – Just convincing himself that the spell existed twice once it already existed. And then it clicked. Irwyn could vaguely feel it. The same way he would feel two different spells, yet also the impression of oneness.

Experimentally he tried to move one of the two intertwined constructs and the entire magic immediately fell apart, dissipating. Not dissuaded, Irwyn proceeded to recreate the disk and moved both parts simultaneously. Then it moved just like any other spell, albeit requiring additional mental gymnastics. Casting this way made things more than just twice as difficult, Irwyn realized. It required additional focus to keep the two parts perfectly aligned at all times.

Then, carefully, Irwyn imbued into one of them the intention to burn. When both stayed stable, he carefully moved the disk and found no issue as long as he controlled them both to remain in perfect unity. Then, with bated breath, he imbued the second overlaid construct with the intention to block, mostly because he was very familiar with it. Immediately, Irwyn felt like that action drained a fair bit more magic than it usually would and required much more focus than just casting two separate spells.

But he still had done it. One spell, Two intentions. He stared at it and tried to manipulate it. Indeed, the requirement on focus rose relatively steeply again, however, Irwyn could already manifest nearly two hundred constructs imbued with intent thanks to the cognition technique he had been maintaining every waking moment and was still quickly improving. He would have no problem keeping up something north of 70 spells like this without being overwhelmed by the strain. A good number more if he was willing to completely give up on any perception or control over his physical body.

Of course, a thought immediately struck him: If two was possible, why not 3? Why not even more?

With the zest of anticipation, Irwyn summoned a new disk, similar to the last one. With complete focus he split his perspective of it into two and then into three. Once again, the concentration needed to maintain the spell and control it multiplied. However, that was a worthwhile trade-off. Because next, one by one, he imbued three intentions into the disk.

The drain on his magic was almost noticeable now even for such a simple spell. Irwyn estimated it was over 6 times as costly and difficult to maintain than using magic with just a single intention. However, it was an incredibly worthwhile trade-off. The first thing he could now do was create and maintain a constant barrier that would be both invisible and protect him. Or in combat a shield that could protect, defend and endure. It opened him to so many possibilities a degree of magnitude more powerful than anything else he had available before now.

So, of course, Irwyn tried to push it further.

The first thing he realized when he split his perspective of the spell into four parts was that the multiplication was growing worse. Maybe that was an issue with his inexperience or an inherent bottleneck for all mages doing something like him. This proved to be even more of a case when he started imbuing intentions into them.

He could do something around 70 of double intention constructs based on his estimation. With 3 he was pretty sure no more than 16 or 17 was the limit. With 4, Irwyn was not confident he could maintain more than 2 at his full capacity without really testing his limits. Even the drain had grown greatly: Quadrupled, if not more, over his attempt with 3 intentions. Irwyn was not sure why the cost grew so dramatically, however, it was undeniably the case. He considered trying 5 but for now it appeared he had reached his limit. Dervish had mentioned this could get dangerous and Irwyn was not keen on finding out what happened if he pushed above his capability.

He then went back to experimenting with all the variations. He tried to figure out good combinations of intents that multiplied each other.

One positive thing about multiplying the cost of the spell was that the actual construct carried noticeably more power. A lot more than the limit he had reached long ago by saturating his flames until they would take no more mana. Speed and pierce together seemed particularly potent for example, though he would need to test that against actual barriers. There was also the option of overlaying several intentions that made his spells faster. Some were also disappointments, such as explode and spread which worked to expand how big of an area was covered; however, the amplification was actually much smaller than he would have expected.

He was only disturbed from his inventive fugue when Dervish lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

“It will be dusk soon,” the man reminded Irwyn. Has that long actually passed? Irwyn almost gasped. Time had passed far too quickly in his inventive excitement. Then he followed the usual routine of the last few days: Eating an exceptional dish and walking home; though he had been barely even paying attention to all that.

His mind swirled with the myriad of possibilities that had just been opened to him.