On the fourth day, Raymed was already training inside the Simulation Room, fighting against robots engineered by Suiko. These robot dummies can't compare to how strong Morgwyn is, but they can serve as quite adequate training partners.
Inside the grassland of the simulation room, however.
In just 99 seconds,
Raymed had obliterated every one of those robots. He was now kneeling, Blastur thrusting the last remaining pieces of the robot. Fire was flaming around his area as he slowly rose, looking towards the control room.
"Next," He said to Suiko.
-> "It's almost 9:00 AM, you should focus on getting ready for her highness." Suiko said to Raymed.
"Ah, is it that time already?" He said before turning off Blastur's armor and sitting down. He took a deep breath and started meditating. One may ask what it is that Raymed thought about when he meditated.
The answer is simple.
He was imagining combat.
Reviewing his tactics, shortcomings, and advantages.
With the help of Psytelier's guidance and combat practice from Morgwyn, he has risen to levels that he can't achieve by training alone. But to surpass Morgwyn, one needs to rise even beyond that. His drive to grow stronger was so high that he couldn't even sleep soundly at night.
Therefore, at midnight of Day 3, Raymed secretly trained in using Blastur.
With the help of Ezel, Kourin's Artifact, Raymed had reached a new understanding of how to use Blastur.
Then, mana particles began to form as Morgwyn emerged from thin air.
Raymed readied himself as he raised Blastur with both of his hands. His armor wasn't manifested yet, so he was still wearing a typical black compressed undershirt. His eyes locked onto Morgwyn's eyes as his hair fluttered in the wind.
"Trying something different today, hope that's okay." He said, clarifying.
Morgwyn nods before her weapon changes color into a luminous spear.
Sun Style.
As her spears were launched rapidly, Raymed took a deep breath and invoked his magical energy force field. "Raging Wall." To halt the hundred spears' attack. As he had done before, he dematerialized the spears into light energy.
Morgwyn's eyes widened for a split second.
Blastur's red gem had absorbed the light energy.
Blastur requires magical energy to invoke its armor.
With this kind of trick, I can easily manifest its armor without expending my own.
Slowly, a transparent armor-like structure is forming around Raymed's body. Blastur's armor is manifesting using Morgwyn's spear as fuel.
Naturally, Morgwyn stopped her barrage as she switched her weapon to black, with blue-gold lining. She also cloned herself all around Raymed.
Blastur's armor hasn't fully manifested, still requiring more magical energy, but it seems Morgwyn isn't willing to just force-feed Raymed. She is currently waiting for the moment when the armor manifests before attacking.
Raymed stood his ground as he formed a hand sign. "Alterity: Cosmopolis"
A flash of light follows, blinding the entire area.
The clones of Morgwyn, one by one, fell fragments of Avalon, which were suddenly inside their bodies, puncturing them from the inside out.
Raymed was still missing, but it's only a matter of time before Morgwyn tracks the traces of mana.
SWUNG!
CLANG!!!
Raymed swung Blastur at Morgwyn from her backside as she caught it with her spear.
Their clashing weapons made a furious sound.
Morgwyn took one look and began charging her mana, forming an orb of magical energy. In retaliation, Raymed did the same, forming an orb of magical energy. Both launched it together, blown away by the blast's impact.
The queen took a few steps back before seeing weapons made of light energy flying in her direction. It was Raymed's technique, Countless Armament. With no hint of surprise, a clone of her appears in Moon Phase.
The Moon Phase clone charged her mana and, with a slap of her black spear with blue lining, each of the weapons' trajectories suddenly bent. What was supposed to fly onto Morgwyn was suddenly flying somewhere else as if it had been deflected.
"I see. So that's why it's absolute defense. Since light is bent, then how about this?" Raymed's voice sounded as if he were up in the air.
The red gem on Raymed's core was flashing into yellow.
Mana from the environment was absorbed towards him.
Closing both of his eyes, Raymed did something he never thought he would do.
-~
At the dawn of the fourth day, Raymed, with the help of Kourin, can make conversation with Ezel, the Golden Sword.
Ezel commented extensively on Raymed's inadequacy and questioned Blastur's judgment in prematurely releasing the second seal. But, upon hearing that Blastur himself suggested the idea for Raymed to level up into Grade 2.
Ezel began to take another viewpoint.
[Perhaps, Blastur really did see the potential that you harbor.]
[Much like before, at the time, where we fought as one against Focalors and Vepar]
[I did sense potential in you, but I mostly helped due to my owner's request]
"Ah, so the reason I was able to gain that Platinum Armor was also because of..." Raymed said, looking at Kourin, who was beside him.
Kourin, noticing his look, just smiled.
Which made Raymed skip a beat.
[Hey. Focus.]
"I am sorry," Raymed said within his mind.
[I do know something. The bottleneck with your current self is your heavy reliance on Split Flow.
Split Flow.
A theoretical technique devised by Killiar Il Lupache.
Using half of one's mana for the core of the spell—the base destructive energy. At the same time, the other half is used to regulate it. Suppose Raymed can cast spells up to 4x its original power due to his mana reserve. With Split Flow, he can only manage to cast spells up to 2x their original power, but the spell is guaranteed to be cast and not malfunction.
"But without Split Flow, my control over spells is useless. I can't use spells like the others can."
[Then has it ever occurred to you. That perhaps someone like you isn't made to use spells already made by others?]
"A spell made by others?"
[Certainly, you aren't Carmilla, who can make spells at will for herself and for anyone]
[But you definitely have something that you haven't noticed until now]
Raymed is reluctant.
He is reluctant to abandon the technique that had the greatest impact on him in order to evolve further.
This is the way he always knows how to fight.
Without control over mana, Raymed can't keep up with that of Carmilla or even Thalamik.
He can't abandon Split Flow.
Then, a voice rang in his head.
A conversation that happened with Killiar Il Lupache not so long ago.
++
"Miss Kiliar...I should try to become like you." Raymed said.
"No. Don't become like me."
"You're not me. I spent decades just learning to wield magic because my mana reserve is limited. I trained relentlessly to catch up, and eventually I became one of the best—but that's no reason anyone else with different paths couldn't surpass me."
"I want you to surpass me, Raymed."
++
Raymed smiled, remembering the words his teacher had uttered.
He remembered the words he uttered at Morgwyn yesterday.
--"BECAUSE I KNOW I AM ME!"--
Gripping his fist tightly, Raymed took a deep breath and said.
[Have you finally understood?]
"Yes. I do. What I have is..."
***
Split Flow Deactivate.
The red gem on Raymed's core was flashing into yellow.
Mana from the environment was absorbed towards him.
Instead of the usual Light element, Raymed draws in mana from the environment and himself, placing it in his energy core on Blastur's armor. The overflowing mana inside the armor is then directed into the mana channels inside his armor. The blue, vein-like structure on his armor began to turn yellow.
Raymed can never use a spell that was created by others in normal circumstances.
Using spells that require mana control is basically like forcing a fish to fly.
But that 'fish' did fly once using Split Flow.
But now it is what slows him down when swimming.
A fish that is adept at swimming should focus on swimming.
Morgwyn took one look and instantly understood what was going on.
"You use Blastur's Armor Energy Core to harbor mana from the environment and yourself. But I know what your goal is."
Raymed raised his fist to the sky, unleashing a pillar of raw mana.
Then, a thunder sparked at the pillar of mana as it went down towards Raymed.
Absorbing the whole lightning element, both of his hands extended forward, "Ray's Thunderbolt", as thunderous energy began to spark onto Morgwynevere.
The Moon Phase clone slaps the attack once again, using her black spear.
BAM!
Despite the effort to deflect the attack, the Moon Phase Clone was still hit by the electric attack. Despite the light particles (photon) that was deflected, the electrons inside the attack wasn't deflected. Hitting the clone with the full force of Raymed's raw attack.
Slowly, the Moon Phase Clone began swaying before finally falling, dissipating like glass into thin air.
Morgwynevere held an unexplainable face. "That wasn't a spell, but it was a raw lightning attack. Of course, it was enhanced by your own mana. You probably didn't know how to do it, so you must have done it on instinct."
"I have decided that this will be our last day of training. I see the progress for you in training is slow, as I expected." Morgwynevere simply speaks in a matter-of-fact tone. "People get strong in different ways. For me, it was discipline and training. But for you, perhaps going into battle is the best way for you to get stronger."
"I beg to differ." Raymed spoke out. "I haven't got enough to learn. I am still a blue fruit." Raymed drops down as he looks at Morgwyn with a solemn smile. "I have so many things I want to protect from the past. Yet, time and time again, what helped me was luck."
"I want to be stronger," Raymed said to Morgwynevere with conviction.
Her cold face slowly turns into a smile. "How shameless of you to ask for more training. Did thou think you are my only business I have?" She said, mocking Raymed's request.
"You have reached 80% High Human. You have perfected the use of your Alterity. You have gained considerable skills using Blastur. What you lack is only one thing. Unability to control Chronic Eater." She explained.
"As far as I am concerned, without mastering it, you will never be able to stand even beside me." Morgwynevere's eyes flash before unleashing a torrent of mana. The sky of the grassland in this simulated room began to darken. The sheer pressure of Morgwynevere's mana was shown in its entirety.
Raymed's body began to shake as he kneeled, somehow feeling nauseous.
"I have given up on training that part of you. So you can scram and find out for yourself." Morgwynevere said, turning her back onto him.
"GRRRRAAA"
Burst of energy tried to fight back.
As Morgwynevere looked back, her eyes widened.
Raymed was standing on his feet.
Walking slowly towards Morgwyenevere, with each step, the ground turns into a crater.
"That's... where you are wrong...." Raymed said, as he kept walking, step by step, closer.
Morgwyn lifts her hand, sending more bursts of raw mana into Raymed's body. She is sure Raymed's body is absorbing it all, but how come Raymed is still standing? How can he still walk towards her with this amount of raw mana force fed into his body?
A smirk formed on Morgwynevere's face. Now, she also wished to see how far Raymed can reach. Will he become at least a portion of what Morgwyn expected him to be? Or will he fail again miserably?
Raymed was one meter away from Morgwyn's lifted hand as the mana became much denser. Through it all, Raymed screams and walks with all his might. But at this distance, Morgwyn finally realized.
"A brilliant move."
Raymed was using the excess mana he received to destroy his own armor. Then, using more mana to regenerate it. Because he receives mana so quickly, his armor always seems to be present, but upon closer inspection, it is slowly deteriorating and regenerating. Creating an equilibrium cycle that guarantees Raymed won't be knocked out by Mana overloading his body.
"HYAAAHH!!" Raymed directed a fist upon Morgwynevere's face.
BAM!
A swing of a fist so slow that Morgwynevere doesn't even bother to put much effort into catching it. Before long, however, Raymed fell once more.
Remarkable.
Truly remarkable.
Raymed managed to keep his body from overloading thanks to Mana, but mentallyt he may still be unable to do what he just did without overloading his brain. He had put too much strain on his brain, which resulted in his collapse.
Before hitting the ground, Morgwyn caught his head and slowly descended to the ground.
I can proudly state
That you are now fit.
Fit to be called A Hero.
Raymed's eyes open and close as he sees the High Human Queen, with a genuine smile on her face.
"I won." He declared.
"I suppose you did."