Knife To Meet You! 3 A Dreadful Weekend - Part 1

Kyvas sat at the edge of his hospital bed and stretched his arms this way and that. It had been almost a month since his stay in this drab white room had started. But, it couldn't be helped. The hospital pulled no expenses for him though, so he hadn't gotten sick of his stay yet.

The food here was good, and he got to watch as much TV as he wanted without any care about his job. He got to spend as long as he wanted playing games, or reading novels, and no one objected.

His case had taken the medical community by storm, a certain portion of it at least. An unknown condition where the patient lost consiousness for no aparent reason? One which leaves the patient incapable of perform any tasks requiring any degree of motor functionality for hours at end after, and as of the last three times before the blackout too?

Needless to say he was constantly monitored, prohibited to leave the facility, and subject to a constant barrage of tests. But that took up too little of his day to make him care about it. He got to freeload for the rest of the day, and that was enough for him.

He had started to think of himself as the medical community's new darling.

He was not, in fact, the darling, but a big, throbbing headache. A darling would be a case like his where there was anything available to be learned. But everything about him was as normal as can be! No relief in sight for his condition either! It just kept on getting worse no matter what anyone did!

A knock came from the door.

"Kyvas, I'm coming in!", uttered the slightly morose voice of Seph, his sister, from beside the door, as she had already stepped in by the end of that sentence.

"No blackouts today right?", she asked worriedly.

Kyvas waved her in, even though she was already in, and patted beside him.

He could clearly see the dark circles around her eyes even before she approached him.

"They do notify you when those happen right? You don't have to ask me", he muttered. He pressed the back of his hand against her forehead when she sat down and continued, "No, I didn't. You worry too much, you and mother. You look like you belong in the hospital more than me."

She smiled softly at his words, before slapping his hand away. Only then did he realize it wasn't a relaxed smile, but an angry one.

"You've only been getting worse you -", she hissed back, before stopping herself and taking a deep breath. "You know what? I'm not repeating myself for the fourth time. Just grab your lunch and I'll leave."

She half chucked a lunchbox she'd been carrying with her onto the bed, then stood up and prepared to storm off.

"Nonono, please stay. Sorry!", Kyvas stood up and apologised. She was right. He'd been taking this affliction too lightly. He still thought his family worried too much but, he could justify that more than he could his own nonchalantness.

It took a few minuted of apologies and persuasion, but Kyvas was able to convince Seph to stay. They chatted, a bit awkwardly at first but much more freely not long thereafter, for most of the rest of the two hours that Seph had before she had to leave for her job.

===

Cainsworth-13 1232,

Woke up, had a great breakfast, stole the keys to my lab from the headmaster's office, and dragged Jach in as an accomplice. Best morning I've had yet.

Yesterday's experiment sucked out a lot from me, So I'll write a rundown of it today.

Confirmed: Overabundance of mana can allow even things like steel, which normally can only handle weaker version of enchantments like Telekinesis and Personal Barrier, to handle said enchantments at their strongest. h.e.l.l, even size turned out to not be an issue! I used the full scale Phantom Blade enchantment yesterday instead of it's smaller counterpart. The Self-Repair just compresses it till it can fit on the blade! Hah!

Downside? 32 minutes. Even these enchantments could only extend the time limit til the bladesplosion by only a couple of minutes.

Jach says he can probably get the spell done in that time though.

Finally! Just a bit more prep on his part and we can do our first summoning with that blade!

===

In a gigantic room inside an even more gigantic tower, a small blizzard was brewing. The winds spiraled outwards from the center of the room, slowing whenever they reached something. They probed the shape and weight of the objects and then split a small portion of themselves into a smaller blizzard. Each of these small blizzards would then gently lift the object and carry it behind their larger counterpart as it spiralled the room.

Soon one could see what was essentially a big train of various items - Tables, chairs, books, pails of water, various toolracks, a key with a note attached to it which read "Good luck with the experiment today! - J.T. Lyre, Headmaster.", and a Professor Krys Jafferi - floating slowly towards the edge of the room.

"You did this on purpose", accused Krys, his arms crossed as he floated almost parallel to the ground, spinning ever so slowly around an axis that pa.s.sed through his head down his body, almost like a kebab spins while being seared.

Jach did not deny the accusation, responding only with a smile. A shake of his hand activated a ring on his finger. It's crystal inlay glowed and responded to the movement of his hands. The air in front of him started to glow a pale red.

A flick of the wrist created a glowing line a meter across. Tiny flickers of his fingers adding various curves and flourishes to the line, almost growing like a tree grows from the ground. A move of the thumb changed the width of his additions.

Soon Jach had woven a masterful tapestry of light, all for the simple purpose of clearing the snow that the blizzard left behind it's trail.

"Yes, yes. Clear the room first. I can clearly wait.", harrumphed Krys.

"You'll be out of there when you reach the wall anyway.", Jach smiled, "Might as well warm up in that time."

"You just want to show off your ring.", Krys rolled his eyes.

"That you made.", Jach smiled again. "Besides, what of your quill collection? After all you've made me suffer through, I get to show off once don't I?"

Krys grumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?", Jach demanded.

"I SAID," Krys grumbled again, now loudly, "I cannot retort properly while facing the d.a.m.n WALL."

That prompted Jach to look towards Krys. He was still floating, though now he was nearing the stony, almost crystalline walls. The blizzard had spun him away from Jach and towards the wall. Krys was still spinning, but towards the floor now. And Krys, having no control over his movements, could do nothing but stare at it.

Jach let out a brief laugh.

"The blizzard's dying out. Not much longer now.", He rea.s.sured Krys, who could do nothing but grumble.

A few minutes later, a now grounded Krys Jafferi stood near the edge of the large open s.p.a.ce that was cleared not long ago. Jach stood in front of him, dagger in hand, both the dagger and his arm resting comfortably on a standing desk that stood between them. On the desk also lay a pail of water, two gla.s.s needles, half a dozen mana inhibition item, and a journal. The journal had sketches for both the enchantment and the spell that the two would be performing not long from now. Krys was busy studying his part for the final time before they performed the experiment.

"You've gotten used to the ring, right?", Krys asked, looking up at Jach and then at the ring. His other hand turning the journal pages until they showed the spell.

"That really was a warmup you know.", Jach nodded and took a deep breath. "The movement amplification is higher than anything else I've used. That was the first time I casted something without making any errors with the ring."

Krys nodded back, eyes on the dagger now. "Good enough. Be ready to cast, the enchantment won't take long."

A final breath, and Krys picked up the needles and dipped them in water.

He tapped one on the dagger and with the other, drew a pairing rune in the air. The rune dove into the pail of water, which then rose in front of Krys and took the shape of the dagger.

Krys then drew two more runes. The first increased the size of the water-dagger and the second split it into two, one each for the two different typed of steel present in it. Kris then started engraving onto the images paths. Both hands working in tandem, creating vein-like patterns on each images.

The enchantments -- They weren't to be applied individually. All of them had to be engraved simultaneously or the result was an unstable mess. They needed to all be near the same completion rate. To make things worse, this condition needed to be fulfilled for both the water-images simultaneuosly.

But Krys did the same effortlessly. Managing all of the enchantments until just a single line was left of each, the ones connecting the enchantments to the user. The ones that pa.s.sed through the hilt of the daggers.

He first finished Telekinesis on one of the blades and Phantom Blade on the other. The former as it was engraved close to the tip of the blade and the latter as it was physically larger than the blade, and hence engraved outside of it. Longest finis.h.i.+ng lines were always given priority.

Then came Barrier and Summoning Focus.

And finally, the two Self-Repairs.

He immediately put down the needles. And the moment he did so, the water and the enchantments shrunk till they were the size of a raindrop and merged with the dagger.

Jach suddenly felt a large amount of mana entering him through the dagger.

The enchantment had succeeded and now it was his turn.

He raised his hands and activated his ring again. This time, instead of a flick though, he moved the entirety of arm horizontally. The line produced this time was three dozen meters across. And he repeated the motion 6 more times, every time at a diferent angle and at a different point in s.p.a.ce, creating a huge seven point star in the s.p.a.ce in front of him. All of his previous attempts at this spell were much smaller, a meter across at most. But the mana cost was always too high. A smaller set of runes cannot channel as much mana as a larger one, so such a scale up was required.

He then continued to move his fingers, adding runes to each line and altering their thickness with his thumb when required. It was tedious work. But it didn't take long.

Fifteen minutes later, a large mesh of runes, much more complex than the one Jach had conjured earlier, was visible. But the casting wasn't over yet.

A spell like this distorts over the duration of it's casting. Jach now had to make sure that it did not destabilize during that. He would have to correct any distortion he saw, and aid the mana flow further if needed.

Another fifteen minutes pa.s.sed.

Suddenly the mana flow in the room starting surging exponentially. There were no issues with the summoning, Jach was sure enough of that. It could only mean one thing.

The experiment was a success. The ridiculous amount of mana was the last thing required for the summoning.

Question was, what kind of summoning required so much mana?

===

"I'll be leaving now then. See you.", Seph stood up as she waved her brother goodbye.

"See you!", Kyvas replied with a smile.

Seph mustered a gentle smile for a reply. She then headed for the door.

But just as she started pulling on the handle-

"Wait", Kyvas said in a quivering voice.

She turned towards him, seeing for the first time a look of absolute horror on her brother's face.

Her eyes widened. She immediately hit the bell to call for the doctor and rushed over to Kyvas.

"What's going on? Kyvas?" She knelt before the bed, pleading for him to reply.

Kyvas could barely muster a reply as he felt his entire body, everything start to shut down. It didn't feel like he was just losing control of his motor functions anymore. It was like every single muscle, every single bone, every single nerve was shutting down for the last time. Like he'd never be able to use any of them ever again. He didn't know how he knew, but he KNEW it.

"I-... I think this is the last one---", was all he was able to muster before pa.s.sing out. And pa.s.sing away.

On a quiet Sunday evening, Kyvas Troy was declared dead. Taken victim by a mysterious disease which was never seen before, and would never be seen again.