Author's Note:
if you've already read chapter 9 then I've gone back to make a few edits to fully showcase how much mana Singularity actually takes.
Mc had around 75-80% mana and it went down to 40% in the span of her attack.
At most, he can only use it once efficiently pure match.
He's pretty strong rivaling Henry, but not that strong.
***
[Space Magic: Sever]
Cale dodged to the side, and simply just stood there blankly looking at me.
His brows furrowed and his expression filled with anger mixed with confusion.
"What are you doing?"
"My spell would've landed if I wanted it to."
Now how did this happen?
***
Well after the match, I completely passed out from mana exhaustion.
Only to be met with a flood of messages, most were just Lucas sending memes and videos to me.
Yet, my eyes lingered on a certain message he sent.
[Lucas: Tonight?]
[Lucas: I'll support you.]
[Lucas: So being single must suck, I can try and hook you up if you need me to.]
'Damn bastard.'
That conversation went on for a couple of hours, most of it being Lucas teasing me about my horrible love life.
***
No words passed between me and Cale as we stood late at night in the capital city.
It was dark and there was nobody in sight anywhere near us. I had specifically chosen a more secluded spot.
"You think I wouldn't notice? Your gift."
"What are you talking about?"
Cale didn't stutter or even pause before replying as if he truly didn't know what I was referring to.
A metallic sound rang throughout the city street,
the sound of a sword hitting the hard concrete.
"Strike me down with your fire magic or even your light magic."
I asked, but Cale didn't move.
He simply stood there looking at the sword and looking at me.
"[The Sun's Brilliance], a gift obtained from a secret location found later in the novel by who would become the Sword Saint, Shin Kalin."
I expected a reaction out of him, but no. He just stared blankly at me, not uttering a word as I spoke.
"I would've been fine with that sword of yours, but the gift. Shin Kalin is irreplaceable, and you stole what set him on his very path."
I continued not paying attention to Cale's lackluster expression anymore.
"Snowy white hair like a rabbit, he was this aura of bright energy, and Lily's closest friend, her brother. Henry thought as he looked at the grave of the boy he once knew."
I recited a line from the novel, even I didn't know this information until Lucas told me about it.
'Damn monster.'
"Stop."
"The way you have to use incantations to boost your poor abilities with the sword. You've only learned one dance in the entire Sunsworn Swordsmanship. How when you lit the fire even when you had almost no mana when the sun was about to set."
"Stop it."
I recounted every single piece of evidence that led me to this claim, and he had finally begun to react.
His calm demeanor slowly collapsed until he gave out.
"What was I supposed to do!?"
He screamed as if he was a damsel seeking a hero.
"I'm not a genius mage or an expert tactician. How was I supposed to catch up?"
"Hard work?"
"Do you think I didn't try? I tried over and over as Lily watched over her poor excuse of a brother turning from this figure of light to a loser who can't even face her properly."
Cale Feliehn was supposed to die three months before the academy from an assassination, most likely the exact moment he took over his body.
"What do YOU mean hard work?! You talented bastard. How many hours, how many sleepless nights did it take you to fucking master magic."
[The Sun's Brilliance], it's a gift that took root in the brain, it mentioned how Shin's brown hair turned pitch black when he received it. It allowed the user access to fire and light magic or amplify it as long as the sun was up.
Shin already had access to light magic, and he barely used fire anyway. He only used it to light fires mainly or do supportive damage.
Cale's voice only grew louder to the point,
he dashed across the street.
His fist fused with mana aimed directly at my abdomen.
It never hit me of course.
I'm a space mage, what do you expect?
"It took me day after day just to use my first fire spell! What right do you have!? Telling me! Me! About hard work."
He said each yell, a reminder of his own weakness as fist after fist met portals rendering them useless.
"Do you know what it's like? What it's like! To live every day feeling as if you were an empty shell... Cast away like garbage? It's HELL! Living every day knowing NOBODY, nobody at all gives a damn!"
"You're pathetic."
'He isn't talking about this life. Did I overstep my boundaries?'
"I know... I know more than anyone I am. That's why I have to do this, I have to for Belle, for Lily, for all of you..."
His former agitation calmed down, and the mana surrounding his fist began to fade back into the air.
"Cale, I'll help you. I'll help you get stronger the right way without relying on that gift."
"What do you know?"
"My gift, [The One Who Befriended Mana], it can help your frozen mana veins."
Even in the past, Cale always had this trait. His mana veins froze rock solid, because when Lily came out,
A storm brewed in the Feliehn Duchy, a small storm, but a storm that was purely unique. Every small element of nature condensed into it with Ice at it's very base.
Lily loved wind magic at this point, she simply couldn't let it go, even if she was more talented in ice magic.
She only realized–No, fully accepted her ice magic after her wind magic was practically useless for months on end.
When that much ice psions swirled and celebrated Lily's arrival, her brother who was born just a few seconds earlier.
His mana paid the price for what should've been his life.
'Cale must've thought that the gift would cure him, but it simply doesn't work like that.'
If you didn't have fire or light magic when receiving the blessing, then it would take more mana to even use it, and the gift didn't magically make your mana have fire affinity.
The gift simply allowed for an easier transition for your mana to fire or light magic.
I chucked an orb at him, one that would rid him of his inherited gift.
An Inheritance Ball.
"Make your choice, Cale."
A bullet rang through the streets blurring as it flashed before us.
"Or we'll put it on ourselves."
'I didn't even think Lucas would get the ball in time. He had to convince his father for days.'