"Are you sure about this Nickel?" Liz asked worriedly.
Will looked on as his little brother inched closer to the shield of light Liz was holding up. Nickel's hand was enveloped in silver-black energy, which he had explained to them came from his Aspect.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Nickel." He sighed.
Nickel gave them a confident grin. "It'll be fine. Hold it steady."
Currently, the three of them were in the estate's training ground. Nickel had enlisted his siblings' help to test his Aspect Ability.
He'd already tested it against both organic and inorganic matter, but the rate of consumption wasn't suitable for combat.
Nickel wondered why that was, at first, before remembering that [Devour] responded to emotion triggers. He might be able to use it in the heat of the moment, but it wasn't possible to test that in a controlled environment.
This made Nickel realize that, in the immediate future, using [Devour] to defend against attacks and eat through defenses was going to be it's only real combat use.
He would probably be able to more directly use it later on, after he got some experience with it.
For now, Nickel wanted to determine whether [Devour] was actually going to be effective against mana.
First, they were testing it against Liz's light mana constructs.
He brought his hand closer to the shield. Before it had even made contact, his energy lashed out, latching on to the shield.
The shield immediately began to crack and falter. As it did, mana began to be siphoned through [Devour]. Nickel felt the light mana enter his body, but it quickly disappeared, sucked away by an unknown force.
'I really need to check my Internal World.'
As Nickel had that thought, the light shield formed by Liz shattered.
"Well… I guess that's a success?" Will didn't sound too sure.
Nickel nodded, one more curiosity satisfied.
He turned to Will. "Now, I need you to attack me."
His brother's face hardened.
"I don't know about this, Nickel. Testing against a defensive move is one thing…" Will trailed off.
Nickel had already started to make space between them. Once he felt far enough away, he crouched into a defensive stance.
"I'll be fine," Nickel said casually, "I'm already near your speed anyway. Just send a ranged spell."
Will sighed, and grabbed a training spear.
Nickel was right to be confident, he was a hex, after all. But Will was worried it'd get him injured. Especially if he tried this where he and Liz wouldn't be there to step in.
"Alright," Will breathed out, "here it comes."
Will dropped into a combat stance, spear held diagonally across his body, spear tip near the ground.
His hands clenched tighter around the spear. A split second later, he ripped the blade up in a vertical slash.
[Gale Claw]
The howl of a wolf rang out, and an arc of fierce wind shot from the swing of Will's spear, speeding toward Nickel.
Nickel drew his right arm back, gathering [Devour]'s energy around his hand.
The second [Gale Claw] came close enough, he took a hard step forward with his right foot, cracking the ground. His hand pierced forward and wrapped around the blade of wind, stopping it from continuing towards him.
Nickel grinned wildly as the attack began to destabilize.
He sent a surge of energy into his hand, and crushed the [Gale Claw] in his grip. Once again, there was the same sense of mana filling him, before disappearing.
He took a deep breath to calm his rushing blood.
It seemed like just as [Devour] was empowered by emotions, it could also cause them. Adrenaline pounded through Nickel's veins, despite him only receiving a single attack.
He really needed to look at those control techniques.
Will and Liz walked up to him, happiness and a hint of concern on their faces.
"That was amazing Nickel." Liz congratulated him. "So… are we done now?'
Nickel laughed at the poorly disguised tone of hope in her voice.
"Yes, we're done. With [Devour], at least." Nickel responded. "I have a few more things to check. You two can go back inside if you want."
"Are you sure?" Liz asked. She worried he was going to do something stupid, and was just trying to get them to leave first.
Nickel recognized her tone though. She often used it against Selika.
"Yes, Liz, I'm sure. I need to check my Internal World." Nickel paused, not looking forward to what his next words implied. "I also need to… eat…something."
Liz frowned, but before she could pressure him for more, Will began steering her into the house. He waved over his shoulder at Nickel.
"Good luck, let us know once you're done."
Once they'd left the training ground, Nickel sat down cross legged in the center of it, and closed his eyes.
—
When he reopened them, he was inside his Internal World.
The plaza just before the tower looked better. The sand that was covering it last time he was here had been cleared away, and the stone was no longer cracked.
It had changed color, though. It was still weathered, but had now become a deep black.
The stone wasn't the only thing that changed color.
Instead of the dark-violet that once colored the skies, it now gave off a gentle silver light. It would probably reflect nicely off the stones of the plaza, were they not dull beyond belief.
It seemed awakening had changed more than he thought.
After Nickel finished observing the changes outside the tower, he turned to it's doors, and pushed them open.