Chapter 127- Let’s Get This Party Started (Patreon)

Cameron had climbed out of his pain-filled stupor when Jiran returned to the room. He was still lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling while taking deep, calming breaths. Olive and the maids had surrounded Mayalyn; they were happily chattering while poking and prodding her ears and tail. The pushcart, laden with breakfast, was forgotten amidst their excitement. Jiran grabbed a couple of covered plates and sat next to Cameron, setting one down beside him.

"How did it go?" Jiran’s question was met with a half-smile and a grunt.

"Well enough. Thanks for the warnings beforehand. I'm not sure I would have figured out what was going on if you didn't."

"You would have figured it out eventually, don’t sell yourself short. Happy to help though. Eat up, the training only gets harder from here. Still not sure the best way to push you guys through the second phase." Jiran munched on some crispy vegetables while Cameron slowly sat up.

"It's so hard to move! I thought things would get easier from here," Cameron frowned while reaching for his own breakfast.

"Yup, until you learn to move in alignment with your aura, it's going to be pretty tough. That step's a bit more instinctive than the rest. I’ll share a few tips once everyone is ready."

Olive sat next to them, a platter in her lap while Mayalyn struggled to break free from the gushing maids. "How long do you think before Niya wakes up?"

"She's awake already, if nobody has any objections, I’ll explain now." Niya cracked an eye open and gave him a nod while Cameron and Olive both turned serious. Seeing them all prepared, Jiran dove into his explanation for achieving a state of Oneness. He recited the Aahmra’s words and added clarification from his own experience. He finished with his understanding of moving without thought and how regular animals live in that state perpetually. "Because the aura is like an animal, alive but without complex thoughts, if you really want to connect with it, you need to do so instinctively," Their meals were done before he finished, each person in the group holding their own personal thoughts about his lecture.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to figure it out by thinking about it." Cameron chuckled and pulled himself to his feet. He extended a hand to Niya, who surprisingly accepted his help to stand.

"Likewise," She said while balancing precariously, "don't think I'm missing that evil little gleam in your eye. You've got some diabolical plan to help us, don't you?"

"No clue what you're talking about," Jiran lied with a malicious smile. "If I did have some nefarious plan, I would need about two hours to get it all ready. Hopefully, you're all able to move by then, if not…" He trailed off, leaving the implication hanging in the air as he hopped to his feet.

Jiran opened the door to the room, allowing in three butlers. Each pushed a cart heaped with buckets. He gladly relieved them of their bounty of precious minerals, then sent them on their way after one promised to return soon with more.

"I'm going to make some modifications to everyone's armor, when I'm done, we'll go enact my evil plan."

"Modifications? Can I help?! Can we make mine first? Are you going to use that new cloth you made?” Mayalyn bounced on her toes while picking up the piece of graphene off the floor.

“Yes,” Jiran replied to all four of her questions at once.

Niya narrowed her eyes at him, reminding him of how overprotective she was of her precious armor. He held out his hand to Mayalyn who puffed out her cheeks at both his lack of appropriate responses and the demand for her toy. When she relented and handed him the material, he threw it to Niya. "Here, if you can tear this with your bare hands, I won't mess with your armor."

Niya snorted, grabbing the seemingly flimsy cloth with both hands and giving it a powerful tug. "Huh? What the shrelkpiss?" She tried again, this time with bulging muscles and a serious expression that yielded similar results. "No way," her third attempt caused veins to sprout across her forehead and arms as she roared while reinforcing herself with mana.

Panting and defeated, Niya handed Mayalyn the cloth back, “Fine… and thank you,” She mumbled the last before joining Olive and Cameron in a familiar stretching routine.

"What is this stuff? How is it so strong while being light and thin? Wait! Great-grandfather wrote a story about armor made from something like this. I think it was called a swoop-pear swoot? Is that what this is?" Mayalyn clasped her hands together, leaning so close he could feel her excited breath on his skin. Her eyes shone with a fanatical hopefulness that Jiran didn't dare trample upon after the recent reveal of the man’s passing.

His heart was hammering from the sudden proximity and he nodded. “Y-yup, that’s exactly what it is. Swoop-pear swoot material.” He took a step back, his brain unable to function properly with her so close to him.

Knowing exactly what she was doing, Mayalyn shot him a grin before spinning toward the room's only desk. “That’s amazing! I have so many ideas from his book! Why don’t you make more of the material while I start on the designs.”

Jiran found himself completely swept up in her momentum, responding with a mumbled, “Yeah, okay, sure.”

Well, I’m just glad she’s having fun and starting to act like her old self again.

Jiran busied himself with dumping the buckets of charcoal into his aura and grinding them into powdery dust. His mana then swept through the huge pile, turning all of its impurities into more carbon. By the time he was done prepping all of the material, Mayalyn had finished her first design and handed it to him with barely repressed excitement.

No. Absolutely not, no way. I am not making that. Father’s above: How am I going to tell her no when she’s looking at me like that?! I can’t believe I’m doing this. What the hell, Maker?! Why did you have to fill her head with this crap?

With a defeated sigh, Jiran plucked the page from her hand and turned back toward his precious material that was about to be used for the most sinister of purposes. Over the next two hours, he shaped the material into nearly the exact dimensions laid out for him, focusing intently on each detail so it was close enough while not being as much of an eyesore.

Each piece of the groups armor was torn apart and remolded into shape before being laced with several layers of graphene. With mana’s ability to turn into anything he had a good mental image of, the process was fairly straightforward, if expensive. By the time he finished the last suit—Cameron’s—he had used ninety percent of his significantly increased manapool.

After each one was completed, Jiran carefully left them out of sight in an adjoining room, and not just because he had a hard time looking at the embarrassing things. Before he let anyone wear one, he needed to ensure that Madra wouldn’t consider them restricted technology and vanish them. The thought of one of his friends being taken to an arena was enough to send shivers down his spine.

“I saved the best one for last! I know you’ll be so handsome in it, I can’t wait to see.” Mayalyn’s beaming smile was blinding as she handed him the final design.

“Luck-ahem. Unfortunately, I used the last of the material to finish Cameron’s. I’ll go ahead and hold onto this until they bring us some more.”

“That’s odd, I thought they said they would be right back with more. That was hours ago. And why are you feeling so nervous all of a sudden?”

Crap! Think fast, Jiran. If she finds all of it stashed across the hall, you’ll be forced to wear one too!

Jiran stepped in close, grabbed both of her hands in his, and stared directly into her eyes. “I think the others need a little more time before they’re ready for the next phase of their training,” He glanced at the profusely sweating tier fives still struggling to hold simple stretches before nodding suggestively at an empty room and meeting her eyes once more.

“They do? Oh, oh! Yes, yes I do believe they will take at least another… twenty minutes?” Mayalyn asked hopefully, biting her lower lip.

“I think they’re going to need at least another hour,” Jiran couldn’t wipe the grin from his face as he pulled Mayalyn along behind him, her pupils already dilated into slits.

. . .

An hour and a half later, Jiran pulled the new suits of armor out of the storage room and presented them to the exhausted members of his group. As the girls started to change, he pulled Cameron into the sitting room and shut the door behind them.

“These are so cool! And they’re made from that stuff Niya couldn’t tear? Awesome!” Cameron happily stripped to his underpants and climbed into the white bodysuit before pulling the lightweight chest piece over his head.

“Strong too, the math is hard since it’s untested, but I’m pretty sure that should stop a tier seven’s, maybe even a tier eight’s, direct attack,” Cameron froze, his fingers vibrating so hard that he missed threading a reinforced leather strap into its matching clasp.

“T-t-tier eight? This can? You’re joking, right?”

“Nope. Pretty sure it can. Maybe you shouldn’t test that today though, yeah?”

Cameron’s hollow laughter bounced through the small room as he nodded. “Definitely a test we should save for another day. And maybe not while I’m wearing it!”

“Kind of you to be so considerate, but you don’t need to worry about damaging it, Cameron. I can always make another one,” Jiran chuckled at Cameron’s deadpan expression.

The girls came out a minute later, each wearing their own completely over-the-top ‘supersuits.’

Olive's armor consisted of dozens of rectangular, gold-colored strips with larger spiked shoulder pads- that covered her upper arms. A skintight bodysuit hugged her curves under the armor; every centimeter laced with thin layers of graphene, making it far stronger than mana-hardened steel. Niya and Mayalyn’s armor was more classical with breast and back plates though the bodysuites underneath were just as form-fitting. Niya’s was gold and green while Mayalyn’s was gold and blue. When all four of them stood together, they looked like a team straight out of a fantasy story.

Thankfully, Jiran had thought to hide the rest of the charcoal shipments before he was forced to make all the helmets Mayalyn designed, or he might have died from embarrassment.

"You two have outdone yourselves. These are fantastic. I wonder if Father will consider adjusting the royal guards’ uniforms when he sees these. Oh, Jiran, what about yours?" Olive frowned after noticing him in a simple shirt and jacket.

"There, uhm, wasn't enough material. I'll be fine. Besides, I'm not the one who's going to need it," Jiran quickly scooped them up in his aura and flew them down the hallway toward the nearest balcony.

When Niya changed the subject, he sent a silent blessing her way. "Why do I very much dislike the sound of that?"

"Instinct good, Jiran cruel. Vile trickster," Mayalyn responded in imperial with a sickly sweet grin.

"Hey! Who taught you that? You should stick to learning important words!" Jiran's grumbling got a laugh from everyone as he flew them out of the estate and toward the western wall.

Once they arrived, he dropped the group to the ground. With their auras pulled in, he had to support them enough so they wouldn’t sink. The massive stone barricade yielded like putty to his intent as he opened a tunnel that allowed them to see outside the city. On the far side, beyond the wards, Graymin threw themselves forward with wild abandon, only redoubling their efforts as they spotted the tasty humans.

“Why are we here, Cousin?” Niya asked nervously as his aura began pushing her through the egress.

Jiran ignored her question as he addressed everyone, “Remember, thoughts are like a wedge between you and your aura. Whenever you feel a random thought invading your mind, ignore it. Forget it instantly and keep moving. Move with your aura. It is a part of you more surely than any limb. When you make the connection, you’ll know it. Lean into that feeling, accept it.”

When the wards were the only thing separating them from the horde, Jiran gave them all a gentle nudge from behind, "Go ahead and have fun, the Graymin will be the perfect dance partners while you learn to move with your aura."

"I knew it! This is the most idiotic—" Niya was cut off by Cameron's scream. He smashed his gauntleted fists together before boldly stumbling through the wards.

"For the love of—" once more Niya was cut off as Olive screamed as well before she charged in right behind her cousin.

“Help me keep an eye on them while you test your new skill?” Mayalyn nodded at his request then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before vanishing in a blur of blue and gold. She passed through the wards before Cameron or Olive made it four steps. A thunderous blast of lightning from her clawed hands preceded a dozen pawns being blown to pieces. Chunks of charred flesh and bone scattered through the air before splattering across the Graymin unlucky enough to not die instantly.

“Don’t worry so much, Niya. With Mayalyn out there, you’ll be fine.”

“It's not about that! It’s what I learned about myself from my aura. Can you… Nevermind. I’ll tell you later,” Niya grumbled under her breath before chasing after them.

Whatever she had to go through, it must have been painful. Out of all of us, she’s probably had it the hardest. Nothing more I can do to help her for now. Soon though.

Well, guess this means I’m on rook patrol. After I recharge my mana, of course. It wouldn't be very polite of me to ignore all these thoughtful offerings.

Jiran stepped through the wards. A blast of fetid air and ozone hit his nostrils and he breathed deeply, savoring the moment before choosing his first victim. The unfortunate Graymin didn't even understand it was a target. Jiran's Mana Omnis peered through skin, bones, and muscles to the thrumming manapool within its chest. The immaterial flame of energy drained instantly, every drop of the magic liquid tearing through its chest to zip along a synapse before connecting with Jiran’s outstretched palm.

Enthralling Touch: + 4

A pleasure more to do with fulfilling an instinctual urge than physical debauchery filled him right alongside that pilfered mana. Jiran released his held breath, his toes curling with delight as he licked his lips.

Interesting, I wonder if…

"Mine!" His shout, infused with Mana Confluence and Elemental Castigation, echoed out in a visible ring of wavering air. Each beast within his aura that heard it turned to look directly at him before collapsing to the ground. Their brains turned to mush, oozing from their ears and noses as the audible assault killed them while simultaneously draining their mana. Globs of energy coursed along the nearby framework before slamming into him one after another. He never once looked at the low-tier beasts, his focus directed outward into the distance, scanning for the real threats.

Enthralling Touch: + 5

Sure enough, I don't need to perceive their mana first. Any kind of connection will do. A physical touch, my mana reaching them, sight, an element. Something tells me I still couldn't drain that tier seven Enforcer. Maybe once my attributes are capped for this tier. I need to eat more or find another way to acquire density. My skin is helping a little. I'll stop actively converting what it absorbs into mana so my growth increases faster.

Now, I think it’s long past time to stretch out my new skills and see what a Remalon can really do.