Mana poured out of Ike just as fast as the King could draw it in. The Prince’s skill required an absolutely lavish amount of mana to activate, far beyond what Ike would ever consider reasonable, but when he considered the Prince’s history and upbringing, it did fall in line with the story the Prince had told him. If the Prince really had been raised in the lap of luxury, with everything provided for him, why would he bother to scrimp and save on the amount of mana he used on skills? Unlike Ike, he hadn’t wandered through the wild, clawing his future out of the bare earth with nothing at all to help. He’d been surrounded by spirit stones full of mana, the richest of gems and skills, and every resource a mage could dream of. Why use a pitiful skill that required small amounts of mana, when he could use an impressive skill that used tons of mana?

  Unfortunately for Ike, he was not currently in the lap of luxury. Without the King’s scepter, he would have never been able to finance the Prince’s skill. Even with the King’s scepter, it would take prohibitively long to activate it in anywhere but locations with high energy density. But right now, he had the King’s scepter, and he was in a fog full of dense magic of some description. It was exactly what he needed to cast the Prince’s skill, and so, he pushed all that excess mana into the Prince’s skill.

  His hand began to grow warm. He lifted it high, sensing that he would cast the skill through his hand. It felt like when Mag activated his projection skills; a magic, of some kind. A ranged spell that he could throw at someone.

  Good thing it’s ranged. If this was melee, then I don’t even know how the Prince would have used it. For a moment, he wondered why the Prince hadn’t used it in their battle, but rolled his eyes a beat later. The Prince hadn’t been surrounded by dense energy, and he’d been a hollow puppet up until the moment he synchronized with his mount. Where was he going to get the mana to cast this skill, in that barren wasteland where Ike struggled to recharge his mana?

  The mana flowing into the skill drew down. Ike threw his hand out, tossing the skill in the same moment in the direction of the highest-pitched tone. A whirling tornado of crackling purple energy shot from his hand and swirled forth, blasting over the land. It lashed out, tearing through the fog, clearing a gap through the dense cloud even without Ike absorbing all the energy. The path it carved tore across barren land, and finally, for a split second before it struck, revealed the source of the highest-pitch tone: a strange rock, shaped specifically so that it would make that tone when the wind blew.

  As the tornado closed in, the rock jumped up and fled, but it was too late. The tornado crashed into it. Purple lighting lanced through it and vicious winds tore it apart, and it only survived a few seconds before the tornado reduced it to rubble.

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  “Huh. So there’s an enemy at the source of each tone,” Wisp said, surprised.

  Ike nodded. The fog closed in again, and, with a deep breath, he lifted the King’s scepter again. “Luckily, I’ve got lots of ammo to launch that again.”

  “I could shoot some birds at it,” Mag offered.

  Ike waved his hand. “This costs nothing for me right now, so let me get used to using these new skills.” Especially the Prince’s skill would be difficult to use in normal situations. Usually, it would be cost-prohibitive to test and practice. However, in this particular situation, where he was surrounded by problematic dense energy, he could clear out the energy and demolish the sources of the tone at the same time, all while practicing a skill he’d usually have to scrimp and save up to use after days of aether absorption. It was the ideal scenario to test out his expensive skill in.

  Mag nodded. He hopped back, nodding in understanding.

  “That skill is pretty awesome,” Wisp said.

  “It costs a billion mana, though,” Ike pointed out.

  She twisted her lips. “No such thing as a free lunch, I guess.”

  “Yeah. It is awesome, though. Just hard to use.”

  Once more, Ike’s mana filled up. Once more, when it got to the dangerous level, Ike activated the Prince’s skill. Even with all the mana pouring into him constantly, it took some time to fill up. Ike pointed the scepter at the next tone and fired the tornado through the scepter rather than through his hand.

  The skill trembled, struggling to emerge from his hand, not his staff, but he narrowed his eyes and refused it. The scepter enhanced skills as well as absorbing mana. If he didn’t fire it through the scepter, he’d be losing out on power.

  The hand that held the scepter ached. The scepter trembled. It was a mana construct itself, and it struggled to maintain its shape as he forced a huge skill through it. He narrowed his eyes, refusing to go the easy route and simply fire it through his hand. He’d push it through the scepter, or not fire it at all!

  The scepter grew fuzzy as it trembled, its shape blurring as Ike lost control of the shape of the construct. At the same time, the tornado erupted out of it. It was twice as wide as the previous tornado Ike had fired, even though he used the same mana. It had the same absolute power, but it was spread over a wider area, and blew more of the fog away. Two of the tones’ source was revealed, and two stone people jumped up and tried to flee the oncoming twister. Too slow. The twister slammed into them and tore them apart all the same.

  Ike laughed. “Ooh, I like that.”

  The other tones quieted, suddenly hesitant about continuing to sing out with three of their fellows silenced. Before he lost track of where he’d heard them, Ike turned to face them and charged the Prince’s skill one last time. “Come on, don’t be afraid. It’s just a bit of wind,” he taunted them.

  “And lightning, and aether, and overwhelming force,” Wisp added.

  “But mostly just a bit of wind,” Ike said.

  “Yeah, yeah. Mostly just some harmless wind.”

  The tones quieted, but the Prince’s whirlwind was ready to release. Ike pointed the scepter and fired it at where he’d last heard them, a grin on his face. If they wanted to play puzzles, that was fine. They just had to be prepared for someone to get frustrated and flip the table instead.

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