The clearing no longer looked like a place of disaster.
It looked like a training ground.
Crater edges had been smoothed by earth magic. Fallen trees had been cleared. Marks had been carved into stone and wood targets, ranges, distance indicators. What had once been a scar on the land was now something closer to a laboratory.
Sirius stood at its center, motionless.
Mira and Aria watched him closely, both alert, both tense—but no longer afraid in the way they had been days ago. Not because Sirius was any less dangerous.
But because he was finally deliberate.
"Alright," Aria said, cracking her knuckles. "Today we do what I should not be doing with someone like you."
Mira sighed. "Spell combinations."
"Spell combinations," Aria confirmed grimly. "Synergy testing. Layering. Timing alignment."
Sirius inclined his skull slightly. "I am ready."
Aria squinted at him. "You always say that. It never means what I want it to mean."
The first ombination she concluded was... Water Shot combined with Air Control.
Aria drew two simple circles in the dirt.
"Water Shot," she said, pointing to the first. "And Air Flow. Not Air Cutter, not compression—just directional airflow. This combination is basic. Hunters use it to extend range or adjust trajectory."
Mira added, "The key is timing. You don't merge the spells. You escort one with the other."
Sirius nodded. "Understood."
He raised his hand and forged raw mana, a tiny fraction but stable nonetheless.
He shaped the mana as he wanted and willed into it until water formed. Then he compressed it into a ping-pong sized ball.
Air gathered around it, not pushing, not squeezing—simply guiding.
Aria's eyes widened. "That's… good. That's actually very good."
"Release," Mira said carefully.
Sirius fired.
The Water Shot flew forward—then curved smoothly mid-air, arcing around a rock before striking the target stump from the side.
Mira let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "That… was precision only found in books."
Aria stared at the stump. "No. That was better than book precision. You didn't just guide it, you predicted the airflow."
Sirius lowered his hand. "The air density was uneven."
Aria blinked. "You accounted for humidity?"
"…Yes?"
Mira rubbed her temples. "I'm beginning to understand why you terrified entire kingdoms before your last death."
He had an inhuman comprehension skill and it seemed so for Sirius too.
"Next," Aria said, more cautiously now. "Flame Thread and Earth Spike. This is usually used to weaken armor. Heat, then pierce."
She paused. "You will not add extra mana."
"I will not," Sirius said calmly.
Mira folded her arms. "We're watching."
Sirius placed one hand on the ground, the other raised.
Earth Spike formed first. He made it small, blunt, knee-high.
Then Flame Thread was forged to be thin and precise, wrapped around the spike like glowing wire.
The earth darkened.
Cracks formed—not from force, but heat.
Sirius flicked his wrist.
The spike launched forward gently.
It struck the target stone and slid through it, leaving a perfectly smooth, melted tunnel.
There was no shattering. Just clean penetration.
Aria slowly sat down on the ground.
"That… that's not how that's supposed to work."
Mira stared at the hole. "He reduced resistance instead of increasing force…"
Sirius turned. "Is that inefficient?"
"No," Aria said weakly. "It's brilliant."
"Alright," Aria said after a long pause. "Let's try something a little more complex. Water Shot… and Flame Thread."
Mira stiffened. "That's unstable."
"It can be," Aria admitted. "But if done correctly, the water absorbs excess heat and converts it into kinetic pressure."
Sirius tilted his head. "A pressure-based hybrid spell?"
"Yes," Aria said. "But keep it weak. This is just a test."
Sirius raised his hand and like before, he pulled raw mana and converted it to water. Then he began to compress the water.
Flame Thread wrapped around it, not igniting, not evaporating, but contained. It kept the water ball compressed.
The water began to vibrate.
Aria's eyes widened. "Wait—Sirius—don't compress it that much—"
Too late.
Sirius released the spell.
The projectile did not explode.
It did not burn.
It detonated silently on impact with the target—releasing a concussive force that flattened the stump, compressed the air, and left behind a perfectly circular depression in the ground. It was as if someone had silently dropped a bomb there.
A shockwave rippled outward but it was controlled. Only a small amount.
The ground cracked only within a precise radius.
Silence followed.
Mira stared at the impact site. "…That was an advanced compression detonation spell."
Aria whispered, "That's comparable to a spell used by high ranked mages."
Sirius looked at them. "I combined the properties logically."
Aria laughed—a sharp, breathless sound. "You didn't combine them. You optimized them."
Mira swallowed. "Sirius… that spell doesn't even have a name yet."
He considered this. "Then it is incomplete."
Aria shook her head. "No. It's new."
They both stared at him differently now.
Not as a dangerous learner.
But as something else entirely.
~~~~~
Training slowed after that.
They shifted to theory, diagrams, corrections. Aria scribbled furiously, trying to reverse-engineer what Sirius had done. Mira focused on keeping his mana output stable while his spell complexity increased.
It was during one of these pauses that Sirius spoke again.
"Aria," he said calmly.
"Yes?" she replied without looking up.
"I wish to learn a sealing spell."
Both girls froze.
Mira turned slowly. "A… sealing spell?"
Aria looked up sharply. "That's not beginner magic. That's restrictive, structural, and dangerous if done wrong."
"I am aware," Sirius replied.
Aria studied him. "Why?"
He paused.
"I believe it would be useful."
Mira frowned. "Useful… how?"
Sirius met their gazes evenly. "For sealing things of course."
Aria hesitated.
She searched his expressionless skull for deception and found none.
After a moment, she sighed. "Alright. A basic one. Very basic."
Mira looked uneasy but said nothing.
Aria drew a complex rune in the dirt. It was a combination of circles within squares, lines crossing at precise angles.
"This is Arcane Lock," she explained. "It's not meant to restrain living beings. It seals objects, doors, containers—things like that."
Sirius nodded. "Structure-based?"
"Yes. Mana must be constant but minimal. If you overload it, the seal breaks—or explodes."
Mira muttered, "Of course it does."
Aria continued, "You anchor the spell to a physical medium, then create a closed loop. No output. No aggression."
Sirius raised his hand.
He studied the rune, understood it, and recreated it.
The mana flowed—quiet, restrained.
The seal formed in the air, glowing faintly.
Aria blinked. "That was… immediate."
Sirius placed the seal onto a stone.
The stone vibrated once an then went completely inert.
Aria tapped it with her staff.
Nothing.
She tried to pour mana into it and to her surprise, it didn't respond.
Her breath caught. "That's… sealed."
Mira stared. "That's… really sealed."
Sirius tilted his skull. "Is this correct?"
Aria nodded slowly. "Yes. Perfectly."
She smiled. "You picked this up faster than anything else."
Sirius said nothing.
But inside his mind, something clicked into place.
The spell that contained as it had a structure that was based on restriction. It also had a loop that prevented escape.
Aria had no idea why he truly wanted it.
Because Sirius was not thinking about doors.
Or containers.
Or objects.
He was thinking about himself.
About what would happen if one day, his control failed completely.
About what would happen if his mana surged beyond even Mira's guidance.
About what would happen if he became exactly what the kingdom feared.
A monster that could not be stopped.
He would not allow that.
Not again.
Not ever.
If necessary, he would seal his own power.
Or his own body. Or his own existence.
Whatever it took to protect Ainz.
Sirius lowered his hand. "Maybe the larger portion."
"Thank you, Aria," he said calmly. "This spell will be… very useful."
She smiled back, unaware. "Anytime. Tomorrow, we can work on layered seals."
Mira glanced at Sirius, uneasy.
She didn't know why.
But she felt it. He had ulterior motives.
Whatever Sirius was preparing for, it wasn't just battle.