"Mana Zone: Archangel Haven"
As soon as Aetheris heard this, he found that not only Akeru had disappeared from his position, but also Rill had disappeared.
His mana zone clashed with the newcomer's mana zone as he looked at the place where the two of them appeared again.
"Damn, if I had been a few moments late, you would have been a goner. It would have looked bad on my mission record if I let a junior die on my watch, don't you think?" Akeru heard Langris's smug voice.
"Yeah," Akeru said while removing the lance from his body.
He regained control of his mana again.
"I didn't really expect you to learn mana zone," Akeru commented while he was internally freaked out at this unexpected change.
"Heh, I would have obviously learned to do it after I saw one in action. It wasn't that hard to do it." Langris appeared pleased by his response.
'Fuck, so you're telling me that this is my fault? Rill did mention that Langris was training like a maniac in the past two months for some reason. He must be working on this.
I wish luck to Finral-senpai in the future, 'cause I don't think even I would be able to handle a Langris with a mana zone,' Akeru prayed for future Finral in his heart as he focused on creating a mana zone around himself.
He was currently inside Langris's mana zone, so he obviously couldn't take the mana from his zone, as that would obviously give away the existence of the mana method to Langris.
So, he used his own mana to create his zone.
A small mana zone appeared in Langris's mana zone.
"Anyway, it seems I am late," Langris said while noticing the bloodied ground.
"It wouldn't be a problem if we eliminate this guy, right?" Langris's statements were meant to ask Rill; however, the latter didn't reply.
Akeru and Langris noticed that Rill was seemingly focused on a random direction altogether.
"Maybe he is getting some form of inspiration for his next art. I guess we need to stall till he's ready. Anyway, I think the answer is obvious." Akeru shrugged as he looked at Rill.
He could instinctively feel when another party is in flow.
"We don't really need to stall because it would be over before he is back," Langris said arrogantly as his mana zone tried to consume Aetheris's mana zone.
However, the distortion of space seemed to disappear in the area where both of the zones clashed.
"Be careful. That guy's magic causes the mana to get unstable. Don't let him touch you, as that would be very deadly. Even if you don't touch him, his magic creates a kind of feedback cycle on your spells.
It would cause mana in your spells to get unstable, which would lead to the spell taking more mana from you, which in turn will get unstable again and take much more mana from you, like a downward spiral.
This could lead to not only your mana reserves getting dry very quickly but also could create harm to yourself if that unstable spell backfires," Akeru quickly explained what he understood of Aetheris' magic.
"Indeed, it would be over before he is back to reality.
Now that all three of you are here, it would be convenient for me to eliminate all of you here." Aetheris didn't say anything about the fact that his magic had already been analyzed by Akeru.
"I wonder about that. I don't think you would last long with that much mana consumption of your mana zone, no?" Akeru said with a smirk; he had noticed the insane amount of mana it takes to sustain Aetheris' spells, clearly a big weakness.
'He would be ridiculous if he somehow learns the mana method of Heart Kingdom; if he was an ally, it would have been amusing to make him get even more ridiculously stronger. However, currently, my priority is to eliminate him.'
Akeru was currently standing in his mana zone without any of his external spells activated.
'My Ki sense is telling me that if I proceed to activate any of the spells related to affecting my body, at least externally, it would lead to catastrophic consequences.' Akeru furrowed his brows at that as he analyzed while 'Still Spectator' was being activated.
With the help of his internal mana control, he could still regulate his body to be able to breathe even with one of his lungs damaged while preventing any blood from flowing outward.
With mana, such things are easy.
"Yeah, I would run out of mana at this rate," Aetheris said with a calm smile, admitting his weakness.
'Wait, I have a bad feeling about this,' Akeru thought, and in the next instant, his eyes widened due to shock.
"Mana Zone: Ouroboros Circuit"
Suddenly, Aetheris's mana zone expanded in size rapidly such that it enclosed Langris's mana zone.
The reason for Akeru's surprise was the fact that he felt his mana being affected despite having a mana zone around him.
'Fuck, all of my mana is linked with Aetheris, Langris, and Rill. This is very similar to the spell Magna had created due to his research; however, the method by which it is done is way different.'
Akeru could feel that an instability was created at some point in the link, and it led to a feedback cycle, which led to the mana from people having a higher amount of mana to go to the people with a lower amount.
'The collective magic pool of the 4 of us would dry out at one point, but I could still function even with my mana reserves being dried out as I know the mana method. This is technically a blessing in disguise; I just need to stall.' Akeru internally made a note to use mana-intensive spells.
"Do you know why I created this spell? I really hated the fact that people with more mana are supposed to be stronger; with this spell, your mana amount doesn't really matter." Aetheris had a nostalgic expression on his face.
"It seems you are also an experiment. I pity you, though it seems you have received tremendous power in exchange for what you suffered. Do you think it's an equal exchange?" Akeru decided to stall the man while intentionally asking him things that could be traumatic for him.
'If he gives an opening, I am definitely going to capitalize on it.' Akeru felt no shame in doing this.
"Sometimes I wonder too, though it doesn't really matter, as I have decided to forsake the past to create a future." A determined expression appeared on Aetheris' face for a moment before disappearing, coming back to his usual calm expression.
"Well, I also want to create a future. It seems the only way for us to achieve our desires is by fighting," Akeru said with a similar expression.
"Indeed."
"If you guys are done with pep-talks, then let's fight," Langris rolled his eyes as a sphere indicating spatial distortion appeared on his hand.
This sphere would transport the distortion to a space nearby and create a similar sphere while the place it previously was in would return to a stable space.
This is how spatial attack spells move in space itself—by transferring the disturbance.
So, it might look like this sphere is moving; it actually is transferring the disturbance in space.
The spatial sphere exited Langris's mana zone and was now under the influence of Aetheris's zone.
"I was always curious about what would happen to spatial magic with the influence of this zone." Aetheris' words confused Akeru and Langris, only for them to be shocked at what happened next.
"Mana Zone: Schrodinger's Gambit"
***
A/N- Okay, let's talk about Aetheris. He is clearly an experiment as he was part of New Generation, and I might have made him a bit too OP. I always wanted to give somebody "Instability Magic," at least an aspect of it (Actually, Aetheris' magic is not exactly Instability magic per se; instability magic is just one of the aspects of it—you will see in the next few chapters) and it wouldn't have really mattered in the grand scheme of things if my pacing was not how it is currently.
I mean, giving it to anybody other than a Stage 0 won't really create many ripples, but things definitely change when I have given it to a Stage 0 individual.
Well, due to Akeru's current prowess, it was kind of a necessity. Anyway, Aetheris is strong, stronger than any of the captains of the Clover Kingdom. Bro could even deal with two middle-rank devil existences at once, as stated before.
I don't know how he would fare against the Wizard King (We all know the answer xD). I am pretty sure that when Zenon (the bone guy) attacks the Diamond Kingdom, he is not strong enough to defeat him, so the plot shouldn't change.
Anyway, another reason is that Aetheris' existence would have some kind of effect on Akeru. However, the change itself wouldn't be visible until much later.
What do you guys think?
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