The dozens of small blades pierced every monster around me, and I ended up being heavily injured as well. I control the pain and my emotions thanks to my mental ability, but the pain is far more intense than I expected.
Since it's my own mana, I can quickly dismantle the construct, but the wounds caused by my death mana take much longer than normal to heal. It's as if my mana has acquired that effect over the years.
I have to force my life mana, enhanced by my ability and Law, to heal myself as quickly as possible, not because I'm afraid of being attacked, but to take advantage of the opportunity. The monsters weren't so lucky. They were also injured and have no way to heal themselves or quickly break apart the small blades.
"Damn unstable mana." I begin by grumbling as I cut off the head of the nearest Escamus.
Because I'm stubborn, I keep trying to use that ability. I create small blades around the sword once again, the mana swirling like a vortex until it takes the desired shape.
The blades made of pure death mana are highly concentrated. I manage to place two of them very close to my swords. Both twin swords now look thicker, but their weight hasn't changed.
This time, I don't want to cause any problems. I'm using the amount of mana necessary for the construct that I can control without fear of it exploding. It's a bit boring not having the thrill of knowing that a small mistake could hurt you.
These blades made of pure death mana are both similar and completely opposite to the blade of the sword itself. They're concentrated into a single affinity, unlike my swords, which are infused with all my affinities. Another issue is their instability, but that's a price worth paying to gain more power and deal greater damage.
For now, all the energies accumulated within the twin swords remain more powerful, but once I master what I'm trying to do, their roles could change.
"I thought you'd make the black swords fly around you just like your other abilities and do something different with your normal swords." Glia speaks to me. She's already finished annihilating the other monsters.
"I had a similar idea. It would be a nightmare having to dodge swords filled with death mana while avoiding those electric serpents and feeling your body become heavy because of gravity and ice." Brendu is sitting on Glia, resting her arms on my little sister's head and her own head on top of them.
"There are better ways to use death mana in close combat. Maybe you should ask old Samo for some advice. He's a weird old man who uses life and death mana just like you." Brendu's words distract me for a moment.
"Why am I only hearing about this now?" I shout at the princess. I know who old Samo is—he's one of the guardians—but I never asked about his affinities or anything like that. I only knew he was strong.
"You never asked." She shrugs. "I've seen him use his ability several times, so I have a rough idea. He also explained it to me a little." She proceeds to explain what she remembers from that explanation and the sensations she felt when the old man used his mana.
I follow their suggestion and begin creating death mana swords around me. The instability of death mana continues causing problems. It's difficult to create more than six powerful enough to pierce the Escamus' defenses, but if I add more mana, they break apart into small blades again.
For now, I only keep three of them around me. My mind, now somewhat freer, doesn't have much trouble moving these new constructs that resemble my Joyeuse through the air. Knowing everything happening around me gives me that advantage.
Comparing these new constructs to my Joyeuse makes no sense. The Joyeuse are mostly made of compressed ice mana to give them sufficient strength, electric mana enhances their speed, and gravity gives them their final acceleration. I only use death mana to make them more destructive or cause greater devastation.
I can send the Joyeuse over long distances. I can target things more than 150 meters away without any problem, and I can easily control three dozen of them thanks to years of practice. These new toys are completely different. Their shape is the only thing they have in common.
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It's only a matter of practice... I know I'll soon be able to control more black swords, over greater distances, and with more power. I just have to keep improving day after day. Effort always pays off.
I deliver the finishing blow to the last monster by driving the three black swords into its head. Its body collapses to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Brendu takes care of storing all the monsters in the storage device. She stores the corpses intact.
"Any advice, Glia? You use death mana better than I do. Your mastery far surpasses mine." I ask my sister, who had only been observing me.
"My control is based on instinct. I can control life and death mana thanks to my family's bloodline and because I've had it since birth." She smiles slightly with her feline face. "Still, I can give you some advice."
"The instability of death mana comes from its nature. Since it wants to devour everything around it, under certain circumstances it also wants to devour itself, which makes it prone to collapsing. Before, you didn't have problems because you used it in moderate amounts, unconsciously using your Imra to keep it balanced." I understand Glia's point.
"Even the nature of your other affinities helps keep it 'stable,' but now you're trying to construct using only death mana and use it far more aggressively than before. You need to use more of your Imra or willpower to keep it stable and prevent it from breaking apart at the slightest mistake." Glia creates a sword of pure death mana very similar to mine.
"You must infuse your intentions into the mana with clear determination. You have to force it to follow the path you want. If you can 'force' it, it will become more stable. Your intentions must be clear and align with the nature of the affinity itself." Glia concludes.
"I understand... my body and mind are so accustomed to using my other affinities that I never noticed, but now it makes sense. Thanks." I've always followed the nature of my affinities to achieve what I wanted. I don't know why I didn't apply the same logic to death mana.
I construct a black sword in front of me and inject more death mana than I did during my previous attempts. The mana tries to overflow, and I use my Imra to keep it stable within the perfect sword I've created.
My willpower is quite strong. A construct like this is nothing to me, and I stabilize it in the blink of an eye. I feel a slight inconsistency within the construct. Glia was right. The mana tries to devour everything if I don't impose my intentions on it.
It's not difficult to give it a purpose. To annihilate anyone or anything I desire. Even if my thought is simple, it's what I want. There's no point in thinking of something complicated. I don't need to kill myself trying to come up with something more specific. Sometimes, simplicity works best.
Little by little, the construct becomes more stable. Once I feel confident, I inject more and more mana to strengthen it. Glia moves away, and Brendu follows her example. I can only sigh internally when I see how little trust they have in the greatest talent they've ever seen.
A moment later, even I almost move away from my own construct. It becomes far more unstable than expected after I inject more mana than planned. Could it become more stable if I used my other affinities? Perhaps if I changed the equation of the Joyeuse, it could work similarly.
I use ice mana for the outer edges, keeping the death mana compressed inside. The outer layers are woven perfectly like a fabric to make them stronger. The electric mana agitates the death mana slightly, but it's nothing I can't control, and finally I use gravity mana on the outside to make it rotate and give it the final boost of power.
This new construct consumes far more mana than a Joyeuse, almost twice as much. In exchange, I've gained much more power—more than double. The only problem is the amount of time it takes to create them in large quantities. Maybe I can make five or six in a second, an insignificant number compared to what I'm used to.
I really like this new version. It's still in the beta phase, and there are many things I need to refine before I feel comfortable using them in battles where my life is at risk. It doesn't matter. This is why I came to this dungeon: to train.
I create and destroy several new black swords while we search for more Escamus to test them on. The good thing is that I can reuse most of the mana if I destroy them myself.
I'm happy with my new toy. Even though it isn't what I originally had in mind, it's still a great advancement. I had realized that my long-range abilities had lost prominence and power. I'd focused too much on my defense and close-combat abilities over the past few months.
This new project will consume a lot of my time. Although it's unexpected, it's something I need to do sooner or later. If I can achieve better control over death mana by creating and experimenting with these new black swords, it'll also advance the other major project I have in mind.
"You look like a child playing with a new toy." Brendu laughs softly beside me.
"When I was a child, I used to play with my ice constructs... I'd spend hours and hours practicing until I fell asleep like a log." I remember my second childhood. It was fun.
"You've always been a weirdo, I know. Your grandmother told us many stories while you were away. She thought you'd hit your head because all you wanted to do was train all the time." Brendu's words hurt a little, but at the same time they make me relax.