Everything just felt more natural. Her mana moved at her will, and she felt even less reliant on her staff than even awakening her magics had left her. For smaller, simpler spells she didn’t feel she needed it at all, only leaving it in her hands for the bigger ones as she rushed over the untamed lands, drawing all of the demons she could capture along the way as she did.
She could hear them, practically an army that was being lured by her charm, stamping their feet behind her to catch up to the magic drawing them, all of them left nearly mindless from the raw power behind it and she couldn’t deny that it felt good. That even if she didn’t end up getting the awakening she hoped for, she’d still grown substantially strong enough to make a difference.
Even what Ben had been most worried about for her, the senses she didn’t hold yet her new mental structure thought she should have wasn’t a problem. It was basically ignorable, only occasionally popping up in her thoughts in a mildly confusing way and once she was aware of what was happening it became easy enough to ignore too. Well worth the trade, she felt like she could take on the world.
But I’d better start with this group first, before any manage to shake the effect, she told herself, quickly turning back to face the swarm and casting as she did.
Life was warped to act as death and non-affinitied was blended into it, pulling from its more destructive aspects to make the monsters tailing her rot as they ran, their bodies breaking down and decaying even as they gave chase until they could move no more, only to finish rotting away to nourish the woods they’d fallen in.
A sound that brought a smile to her lips for what it meant, more power to her name to be enjoyed, with hopefully more to come. Even if she couldn’t break through to the third tier in the end, she wanted her levels; the sooner, the better. There was plenty still she hoped she might grow and other skills she hoped she might awaken and with that thought, she let herself down to the forest floor below, putting up a simple barrier around her as she made herself traverse that dark woods.
With it holding its own natural beauty. Too often, when she went out to the untamed lands, she focused on training her magics and hunting what demons she could but out there as she was, there were skills she could work on while enjoying the environment for what it was, taking a stroll and enjoying what she found.
While that particular section of woods had clearly been marked by what remnants of the hundreds of worlds had made that one home, with trees and plants of such a mix that it was clear that they couldn’t have all spawned from the same source, there were standouts that she couldn’t help but enjoy. The bright blue bark of one tree that bore golden leaves, a flower whose petals glowed with a faint white light, a bush that almost looked like glass, see through in a way that she could only tell was alive thanks to a combination of the sense skills she held.
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For better or worse, nature was calmer near any settlement she’d go to, be it a city or town or village. In cases of lands composed of a single people, what grew around them would typically be some of the plants that their ancestors had escaped with. That was true enough of Anailia at least, with its towering red trees filling even the nation’s capital city, and while mixed communities would have a greater variety, it could still end up being so much of what the people who would make it up had brought with them. Stonewall may have been on the edge of a forest itself, but the plants she or anyone else would bring into town were all things that people would see fit to grow.
Out there though, it had nothing to do with what any people would want to try and grow themselves; it all came down to what could survive and what could thrive, being true of the animal life around as well.
Most times, she didn’t even know which creatures she could see had belonged to that world before any of the refugees had arrived and which ones had been brought along, either intentionally or as lucky stowaways. There were animals all around so long as one looked carefully enough, sporting any number of eyes or limbs, flesh or scales or feathers or shells. She knew Ben would occasionally mutter in wonder about what the long-term environmental impact would be for the planet and while she supposed he was right to worry about it, she also couldn’t deny that that very chaos was part of what made it home and what made it worth protecting.
No matter how that world would resolve itself in the future as all of the different bits of life were forced to figure out how to exist in a larger ecosystem, that world had become the legacy of hundreds more that were all long since lost but that same legacy made it unique and special in its own way.
A few more notifications as she took in the world through all of the senses she held, she let herself wander for just a little longer before heading home, feeling just a bit more relaxed for the experience.
“Welcome home!” Ben yelled out from the kitchen, making dinner while her aunt played with Mora in the living room.
“I’m back,” she said as she made her way to his side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders while he cooked. “How was getting those two set up?”
“I think it went well. Hentath was acting unusually nice to Kalley, I’m actually kind of jealous.”
“Ha, maybe you should stop coming off so suspicious any time you see her then.”
“Very hurtful, I’m always completely innocent. And how about you? Adjusting well, I see.”
“I got a few levels, yeah,” she grinned. “I think the change is making it easier. Everything I have that’s magic related just feels so much more… I don’t know, natural? My skills just feel a bit more right.”
“Hey, but that’s great.”
“Yeah, but I’m still not sure if it’s going to get me to the third tier in the next couple months,” she sighed in his ear. “Don’t get me wrong, I think I’m going to be closer than I would have been if I didn’t get you to mess with my head; this just still feels impossible.”
“Well, if you’re worried about that then what a coincidence,” Ben started, sounding the exact sort of suspicious she’d just told him not to be around Hentath. “I’ve got a small favour I want to ask that seems like it would be good training for you.”
“... What sort of favour?”
“Nothing crazy. If you could spare some time, just help me make some more demigods.”