B4 - Chapter 29 - When Stars Align

Professor Elius had no idea how to exactly describe what he was feeling and seeing. Shock was a top contender, but awe and amazement were in the running too. When Hana had said that Lily had made progress, he had humored the bold declaration since Lily herself wasn't the one making it, and now he was eating those thoughts.

The tiny bunny girl had been full of surprises, and after her first bloodline intuition revealed the pair of moon spells that somehow affected luck, he had expected something similar. This was not similar; it was something entirely new, as if her slumbering bloodline had finally woken up.

I guess all those nights sitting under the stars were worth it?

When Alice and Headmaster Fabrelis first told him about Lily's request and to let her proceed, he hadn't thought much of it. But as the days, no, weeks, passed by, it had seemed like the headmaster's gamble had failed. Yet Lily had continued night after night with seemingly nothing to show for it, until now.

When she first revealed her cloak in his class, it had seemed like an advanced magic item and caused quite a disturbance among the other students, yet with its recent change, that mistake could no longer be made. It, quite frankly, no longer looked real, as it was just too outlandish, as if she had stolen a piece of the night sky for her personal use. He even wondered if he was somehow under one of Fabrelis' illusions, but that was definitely not the case.

Is this a bloodline resurgence? Or did she upgrade her spell?

Wallace's first attack against her was met with her usual strategy to defend, and it looked like the boy had tried to capitalize on the fact that Lily usually left herself undefended to do so, but this time that didn't happen. While her cloak failed to display newfound defense against the speeding rock, dense objects still clearly being her weakness, it had shown a remarkable increase in quantity, and Elius wondered if it would ever end.

I guess she cut out a large portion of the sky, he joked to himself before pointing out Wallace's strategy to the class. He was supposed to be providing insightful commentary after all, but had been momentarily stunned by Lily's shocking change.

That was when Wallace revealed his solution: a bigger rock. It was crude, but in terms of magical ability it was a good display of raw power. He immediately wrote off Lily being able to block this, which meant her only option was to try to destroy it with her stars, and he mentioned that to the class. The question then was whether the massive stone fist was durable enough to withstand a counterattack; if so, Wallace would end her victory streak.

Wait… What is she doing?

Lily was not conjuring up her stars; in fact, she was doing something brand new. She was… drawing? The rest of the class watching her was very confused; they had seen her perform glyphs and other activities, but those always required enough setup time, which a dueling arena didn't allow.

Since Elius held the magic item controlling the arena, he got a better look at what Lily was doing. She had arranged several stars on her cloak to form a pattern and was now tracing it with her finger, connecting them into some form of glyph?

No, that's an enchantment! And I'd recognize that one anywhere; that came from Duncan!

The metal mage was well known in the school, and Elius, being in charge of both PMC and the boy's dorm, had spent a lot of time with him. He was a diamond in the rough that only showed his true prowess in the third year, and had cemented himself as one of the best and brightest Regarth had ever produced. Many might not recognize one of Duncan's very first simplified enchantments, but Elius did.

He almost blurted out an explanation to the students in excitement, but held his tongue at the last moment. While he was supposed to provide commentary, this bordered on a secret technique, and it was up to Duncan, or Lily, to share. The question was, could her cloak actually be enchanted? Elius wanted to say that was stupid; how could you enchant a spell? But the girl's bloodline seemed somehow connected to glyphs, or so the other professors and even the headmaster had suggested.

When Lily completed the final stroke, her cloak rippled with a pulse of magic, and Elius had never been happier to be proven wrong. He wasn't entirely sure how she had done it, as even Duncan, the innovator of this technique, required actual pieces of metal. Sure, his spells and magic manipulated the metal, but he couldn't manifest it like Lily had just done.

The kids don't know it, but they might have just witnessed history in the making. Ollie is going to be so jealous when he finds out I saw this before him.

This was unprecedented, and Elius couldn't wait to see the outcome. Would this enchantment make the difference and let Lily block Wallace's final gambit? Elius was genuinely unsure: would an enchantment be enough to change the weakness that plagued her?

If it were a normal magical item, it wouldn't make much of a difference. Enchantments usually maximize an existing strength, and a cloak wouldn't have much of that. That's why protection usually goes towards sets of armor, but I don't know if that applies to a cloak created from a spell, especially one made from stars. It might do nothing; it might boost the defense considerably, or it could even rearrange the spell's makeup, making it weak to magical projections to shore up its physical durability.

When Lily's cloak first moved after the enchantment took hold, Elius instantly thought that his final theory might have been right: it was a trade. If that was the case and she learned other enchantments, then that meant Lily's adaptability had improved tremendously, able to pick the best defense for each situation. He could barely contain his excitement, and hoped that Duncan had left all sorts of secrets for her to discover in that journal of his.

The enchanted cloak met the stone fist, and at first it looked like a draw. Elius, however, saw that Lily had spent a lot of Mana, thanks to the arena's enchantments measuring the two students' output. Yet it looked like the small bunny girl had more in the tank, and with the fractures now appearing in the stone fist, it seemed she had won this bout.

The spectating students were shocked, and Elius quickly threw out some commentary to meet his obligation. He wasn't sure how to comment on what Lily had done, so he instead pointed out that Wallace had made a risky gambit by throwing all his resources into one last-ditch effort. No more rocks were readily available, and unless his Familiar spat out more or he repurposed the stone fist, he was in a bit of a predicament.

Wallace had gone for maximum density, hoping to overpower Lily's known weakness, but now that was going to bite him. If he had kept his attack less refined, he could have reclaimed the stone, but now it would be a struggle. Rubble might have been happy to be broken apart and reused, but solid stone liked to stay together. Sure, there were cracks and fragments, but could he pull out chunks before Lily defeated him?

When Lily raised her hand with such unwavering confidence, Elius felt like the boy's fate was sealed. Lily's Starburst was notoriously hard to dodge, and without a shield, he was a sitting duck. Yet the spell that came out was another shocker, and it cemented the idea that she had had a bloodline resurgence in Elius' mind.

Instead of a variable number of stars trailing after each other, Lily shot out three at once, yet even that wouldn't have been so strange. One star was notably larger than the other two and a whitish blur, while the other two were smaller, deep red, and appeared to orbit the larger one.

Judging by the surprised look on Lily's face, she hadn't seen this change either, and Elius hoped it wasn't suddenly too over-the-top. He trusted the Wards; they'd proven themselves time and time again, and unless Lily's stars had suddenly become acidic like Lotte's spells, there was no need for concern.

But damn, that is a nasty change. Dodging trailing stars was hard enough, especially if she controlled them after the fact, but how are you supposed to dodge orbiting projectiles?

Elius' point was quickly proven: while Wallace gave an exemplary effort dodging the primary star, one of the orbiters struck him in the back on the return. A chain reaction took place with the smaller star marking him, before the remaining orbiter and primary star exploded and easily triggered his Ward. The blast was more than anyone expected, but the Ward screeched out and countered the magic with its own impressive blast.

Lily had won, but the professor wasn't sure what to say, as he struggled to think of a way around what he'd just seen. Lily had summoned only three stars, but he knew she could do more, and if even one triggered the group, this spell was more dastardly than he'd thought. The better option might even be to get hit by the primary star, but then you'd face numerous explosions from the orbiters from every direction, or so he assumed.

Rather than dodge or defend, it might be better to try attacking it, but who knows? One thing's for sure, I think our chances for the interschool tournament just got a lot better.

Wallace was understandably upset about his loss but took it in stride; it certainly helped that Lily never gloated when she won, because if she had, she might have earned plenty of ire. Elius tried his best to summarize the fight, but it really boiled down to a difference in strength and surprise at this point. He tried to transition it into advice of "expect the unexpected," but it seemed like that was falling on deaf ears, and everyone was more interested in why Lily had changed so much.

"She had a bloodline resurgence!" Clarissa declared to her peers. "Talk about dumb luck…"

"You can't call it dumb luck after she spent weeks every night working towards this!" Hana refuted.

Clarissa tried to dispute this, but Elius quickly interjected the moment her mouth opened. "Hana's right. Lily has been working on this for quite some time, so please don't spread unfounded rumors. If you don't believe my word, you're welcome to ask Headmaster Fabrelis or even Missus Beatrice."

Clarissa's teeth clicked as she shut her mouth, her displeasure evident. Elius could only sigh to himself, hoping the girl would eventually lose interest in her animosity toward Lily. He had thought things had calmed down between them recently, even hearing a rumor they'd planned a dinner together, but apparently this turn of events had rekindled it.

I hope her parents aren't putting too much pressure on her… Damn nobles, I'm genuinely glad I was born a commoner.

One of the students asked him what a "bloodline resurgence" was, and he gave a brief explanation to satisfy their curiosity. It wasn't exactly unheard of, but rare enough that it wasn't often discussed, although that was probably different for the noble-born.

"So have all your spells been upgraded?" Thomas asked Lily.

Lily paused before answering. "I think so. Although I haven't really tested them, since it only happened last night."

"Including those moons?" Arthur asked.

The class collectively gulped, and even Elius found his palms a little clammy. He really shouldn't say this about one of his students, but he hated that spell, and almost wished she had never discovered it. It flew in the face of logic and reason, which, sure, was the literal point of magic, but this was several steps too far. It was something on the verge of a curse, yet showed none of the same taint those spells usually had, despite its effects being arguably somehow worse.

"I assume so…" Lily replied, clearly having not cast the spell.

"Does anyone want to volunteer?" Lotte joked.

Silence held the class until Thomas sighed. "I'll do it."

"I'll join you," Arthur replied.

"Alright, we won't call this a duel then, just a demonstration for Lily's benefit," Elius offered.

Lily nodded, smiling at her two friends willing to volunteer.

Those poor fools…

Honestly, there wasn't much point in two of them going up, but Elius supposed it was for moral support. The onlookers watched curiously to see what would happen and how much worse that dreaded dark moon could be.

Lily, seemingly ignorant of people's opinions of her spell, cast it as if nothing had changed at all, her enunciation and gestures perfected and routine. That was when the dark crescent moon appeared and hung over Thomas' head, and that was when everyone noticed the difference, especially Arthur.

"Wait, why am I being targeted!?" he cried out, as he tried to distance himself from Thomas.

He took a step and stepped directly on a piece of rounded rubble, which rolled and sent him falling backward. He collided with Thomas, sending both boys tumbling over each other while Lily watched, appearing as innocent as always.

"It's an area now…" someone murmured in the class.

"Oh no… now nobody is safe," another whispered.

Elius tried to remain objective, but after seeing the dark ring that likely indicated the range of the dark moon's effect, he unfortunately agreed with the students. It was unreasonably large, and as Thomas and Arthur indicated, their combined misfortune seemed to resonate.

Well, safe to say that's staying banned. Thank goodness…