Footsteps To Home (3)

  The prospect of being able to wield magic was one of the few perks that genuinely made having this body an overall net positive. While I had no intention of completely discarding my old style of combat, being able to use magic would undoubtedly give me a larger repertoire and that was something I couldn’t pass up on, especially since I was now in a world where ordinary humans could crush boulders with their bare hands.

  Oliver took a few casual steps towards the large pond nestling across from the house. Even though he was tired, a sense of profound confidence still oozed from every pore on his body.

  “This should be far enough.” Stopping just in front of the tranquil body of water, he glanced at me from over his shoulder, morphing his bearded face to form a smile.

  “You’ve been asking about my magic a lot since recently; do you want to be a mage?” he asked wittingly

  “Of course, you and mother can do so many cool things with that ‘mana’ stuff. Maybe if I copy your moves my magic will awaken too?”

  “Liam that’s not how magic works." He laughed at the silly statement. "At least you’re motivated so that's good enough for now.”

  I was well aware of how ludicrous my statement sounded, but I had to act in accordance with how this vessel was expected to behave. There were very few human children who I’d needed to guide in the past, it was mostly because of their soul's innate purity and innocence that inevitably caused them to immediately find their way to Akasha as soon as they died.

  Being exposed to the wonders of life for an even shorter period of time than what most humans had been granted hardly left any of them with desires strong enough to bind them to the mortal world. The personality I forged was nothing more than the culmination of my brief experiences with the souls of human children. I didn’t think something like that was ever going to come in handy, but this world really is just full of surprises.

  “Alright Liam, watch closely.” Oliver announced boldly, commanding my focus. His voice just now made it seem as if I was about to watch a seasoned maestro perform his age-old craft, given the traces of magical energy that were subtly leaking from him, that might not have been too far from the truth.

  “Tempest”

  That word quietly escaped Oliver’s mouth.

  In its wake came a devastating gust of wind that began to encircle his body in a violent swirl. Leaves began dancing, dust began swirling and the once docile body of water now at his back roared to life, the ripples now emanating from it rising like tidal guardians responding to his command.

  The intimidating display now being put on right before my very eyes was a captivating spectacle to behold, however, something seemed off about this. Oliver was standing at the center of what now appeared to be a miniature tornado, but no matter how the miniature vortex surrounding him assaulted the environment, none of those adverse effects ever seemed to make their way to me. I couldn’t be sure of it, but if he’d deliberately done this then his control over magical elements was nothing short of being remarkable.

  The most I could feel from here was the slight rustling of my clothes and hair that came along with the chilling sensation of the humid air behind me being summoned into the vortex he conjured. And what was even more confusing than all of this was the fact that he hadn’t uttered a single chant, just one word was all it took for him to manifest this turbulent vortex.

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  The faint hint of a smile could now be seen on his murky silhouette standing at the center of his own miniature cyclone.

  SNAP

  With that simple gesture from his fingers, the towering swirl immediately subsided, forming a small ring of rippling air that swirled around his feet.

  “Liam you look confused. Didn’t I show this one to you yet?”

  “Father, I thought you could only use fire. Just how did you-”

  Before I could even finish speaking, the man beckoned me over with a subtle gesture from his hand. Obliged to follow his directive, I stepped into the cyclone of swirling air no taller than a wisp of smoke.

  “You’re still young, but since you’ve got druid blood in you, I’m sure you’ll awaken to magic sooner or later. There are people known as dualists, they are born with the ability to control more than one magical attribute and in my case, fire is the primary element I control but I also have access to wind as a backup.”

  “So does that mean I’ll have fire and Wind magic when I grow up!?”

  His expression contorted with confusion as he silently mulled over the question. If it took him that long to respond then it was blatantly clear that even he didn’t know the answer to that question.

  “Hmm. I’m not sure to be honest, there are a lot of things that could influence that process so nobody can really predict the outcome, but...”

  Adjusting his glasses, the man formed a devious smirk on his face.

  “The one thing I can say for sure is that you’re definitely going to be powerful no matter what kind of magic you awaken to. With the two of us as your parents then that’s basically guaranteed, so you don’t even need to worry about the kind of magic you’ll get. Although you might end up as a radical.”

  “Radical? What’s-”

  Once again taking the initiative, Oliver placed his hand on my head like a sage about to impart his ancient wisdom. “Radicals are people with special magic like tamers, not the usual elemental kind that most people develop.”

  Yet another concise but succinct explanation. If nothing else Oliver was a master at filling in the gaps of my limited knowledge about this world.

  “Alright Liam let’s move on to the main event. Let me show you what a dualist can really do.”

  With a casual gesture from his hand Oliver proceeded to do something I could only see as being downright impossible for normal humans.

  “Ignition Gust”

  A small sphere of smoldering flames appeared in his right hand.

  It was about the size of a twinkling star, yet the heat being radiated by the miniature furnace felt like that of a blazing forge. I could tell that much just from the shimmering orange glow now being cast on the surrounding atmosphere. That in itself was quite an impressive feat, but the theatrics apparently weren’t done yet....

  The swirling cyclone that had been encircling our feet this entire time began rising into the air, drawing closer to the orange sphere by the second. In no time at all, it enveloped the shimmering construct in a thick veil of pressurized air like a second coating of protective armor.

  Upon its completion, Oliver glanced down at me with a beaming childlike grin on his face. Extending his palm out towards the small pond, he released the small sphere, allowing it to float freely in the air.

  “Watch this”

  You could pick up on the excitement in his voice even if you were completely oblivious to what was going on right now.

  “Hmph!”

  With that dull sound, the dangling orb of light erupted into a fiery pillar of flames that cut through the air with the precision of a shooting star. Flying over the listless body of water and causing it to evaporate with nothing more than its radiance, the pond had seemingly been split in two from the sheer force of the blistering attack.