It was well past noon by the time we made it to the makeshift training grounds. Kokoro had said that there was an area a little ways from the village that they were planning to do construction at.

As such, the area had been cleared of all trees, plants, and animals. When I stepped onto the wide clearing, I had to restrain myself from smiling. It was so nostalgic of how Vanessa and I used to make areas like this one when we were on the road with nothing better to do.

“Rexir wants to know what kind of training we’re going to do now.” Leresa said, making it a point to avoid my eyes when speaking to me. Rexir grinned behind her back, and I couldn’t help but to think that he said something about when I woke them up this morning.

“Well, I figured I’d explain the phenomenon you all experienced last night, ‘photon overdoses.’” Vanessa sighed, but Leresa, Hazeel, and Rexir all stood around me, at attention.

“As you can probably tell, whenever your body intakes too many photon particles, the accumulated buildup can result in unpredictable results. Well… I guess it’s only unpredictable the first time. All subsequent events of photon overdosing cause the same reaction as your first.”

“So… what exactly are our symptoms?” Hazeel asked, leaning in closer to me. I gently put a hand on her shoulder to make some personal space before answering.

“Well, you, Hazeel, have the same thing as me, muscle soreness. Or, more specifically, a buildup of lactic acid in your muscles.”

The wood elf gave me a confused look and said, “What’s lactic acid?”

“You know, it’s not really important right now.” I brushed past the subject, and turned to Rexir and Leresa.

“As for you two on the other hand… I would say something like Vanessa’s condition, but it seems pretty statistically low for you both to share the same symptom. To be truthful, I’d need to be present for your overdosing and see the flow of the photons with my own eyes.”

Rexir smirked, and Leresa tried to become part of her betrothed as she hid behind his back. “Don’t worry,” I tried to sound as reassuring as possible, the odds of you both actually having that are quite low. So, the plan for today is to put you all into states of overdose and figure out what those conditions actually are.”

“‘Ah, so that’s why you brought us out here,’ is what Rexir said.” Leresa peeked out from behind her lord to speak on his behalf.

“Exactly!” I stepped off to one side of the clearing and shouted, “Everyone but Vanessa, line up to my right!”

Hazeel, Rexir, and Leresa did as ordered, and stood across from Vanessa, with Hazeel being closest to me, and Rexir being the farthest in the line.

Vanessa rolled her eyes at me before walking up and putting her hands on her hips. “What is the plan? What are you trying to have them train in?”

I looked at her for a moment, dumbfounded. I had to remind myself that she didn’t have any of the training experience that we had done together in her memories. Well… that was going to complicate things a bit.

“All I want is for you to help them all work on their photon manipulation. Just something as simple as that.” Vanessa looked at the three, and then back at me.

She leaned in and whispered into my ear, “How am I supposed to do that?”

I smiled and spoke aloud so that Hazeel, Rexir, and Leresa could hear as well, “Today’s goal is going to be the manipulation of photons. You all have a feel for it now that you’ve undergone the ritual and have learned to change your form and communicate with your partners.”

Rexir nodded, and Hazeel grinned eagerly in anticipation. Leresa held Rexir’s hand and squeezed it, an action which the former prince reciprocated.

“So, today’s exercise will be a team exercise. The three of you will be trying to break a construct of Vanessa’s.”

The three of them stared at me in confusion, as did my assistant to my left. “What do you mean, ‘break a construct of mine?’”

This time I was the one who sighed. I didn’t realize that she would forget how to operate the shape of the particles like she wanted to. “Look here.” I said, opening a large portal in front of me.

It was a circle, with nothing extra about it. I pointed to the edges of the circle, and made sure Vanessa was watching where I was signaling to. “I want you to make three smaller portals, one here, one there, and one there.”

She did as instructed, and the reacting energies, along with the conflicting pull of the photons, cancelled out all portals, dispersing the photons in the immediate area. Vanessa’s eyes widened and she stared slack-jawed at where the portal had been earlier.

“Nasty trick, right? This was used against us not too long ago… I figure now would be as good a time as any to have them try and learn the technique.”

“Sounds good. I’d like to feel like I’m actually doing something worthwhile.” Leresa smiled and stepped forward. Rexir stepped up next to her, and Hazeel followed shortly after.

Vanessa grit her teeth and said, “What about my training!? I’m clearly incompetent as I am now, and just teaching these three while I’m like this will just hurt their talent, not make it thrive!”

I had to smile at the very Vanessa-like display, and rested a hand on her head. “Don’t worry, your training comes after.”

She looked at me skeptically, until I followed up with, “It’s a one-on-one with yours truly. Try and use as little energy as possible with the three of them, because you’re going to need it for me.”

---

By the time Vanessa had finished depleting the trainees of energy, it was late into the evening. She had to hand it to the three of them: they were all far more talented prospects than she had been when her training had begun. However… talent wasn’t all there was when it came to skill.

Hazeel was the last to deplete her reserves, and the elven warrior finally dropped to her knees out of exhaustion. All in all, they had managed to dispel only one of the portals she had opened up, and that in and of itself had taken the majority of their time on the field.

It wasn’t just that their strengths were too low, they also didn’t have any clue where a photon construct was weaker or stronger. In truth, the first instance where they dispelled the portal had been pure luck, just a blind fire with a slim chance at success.

“Good job everyone. I don’t see anyone’s photons flowing irregularly, so it might take us a few more days of training before everyone experiences their photon overdoses again. Rexir and Leresa, please come over here and out of the way.”

The couple did as asked, and sat in a heap at Leo’s feet. The man himself walked over to take their place next to Hazeel. “Do you still have the energy to transform?” He asked the wood elf, and she nodded.

“Of course. The first thing you learn on the battlefield is to never overexert yourself.” She grinned, and Leo rolled his eyes.

“Great, can I ask you to be Vanessa’s weapon for the duration of her training then?” Hazeel’s eyes widened, as did Vanessa’s.

“Wait, is it even possible for a weapon to be wielded by an uncontracted user?” Vanessa asked, and Leo gave her that same look he’d been giving her for the past few days. A look of pain, and sorrowful acceptance.

It made her heart clench every time he did it, but she wasn’t about to tell him to do otherwise. How could she, when she was clearly the source of his problem, and he was going so far as to push aside his own feelings to work with her again.

It wasn’t that she doubted his claims that they were lovers. How could she, after he consecutively found a way to appease sides of her that she hadn’t discovered yet, but even refused to take her virginity last night.

The thought made Vanessa blush, and she was seriously considering just ending her emotional existence. She didn’t even know she was capable of acting so… lustful, although Leo seemed to have known about it prior.

“Did you get that, Vanessa?” Vanessa turned her head with a start to look at Leo, and then went over to Hazeel. Leo held a hand up to his mouth to suppress a smile and said, “I guess you didn’t, then.”

“We’ll be sparring for the two over there to watch, and for Hazeel to experience what stimulated battle is like as a weapon. There will be no oaths used, since I’ll be using an unenhanced weapon. Do you understand?”

Vanessa nodded, and soon she was holding hands with the tall wood elf. They both looked over as Leo pulled a long, pitch-black scythe out of his void storage.

“That sucks.” Hazeel frowned and turned to face Vanessa. “He’s cheating on us with another weapon.” Vanessa covered her face with one hand to hide the smile that formed due to the wood elf’s terrible joke.

Hazeel squeezed Vanessa’s hand and smiled, before becoming a large, yet strangely lightweight buster sword in her grasp. ‘Let’s teach Leo a lesson, then drag him back to bed later tonight!’

Vanessa smiled at Hazeel’s enthusiasm, but quickly dropped that expression upon the next message to enter her mind. ‘You two know that I can hear you, right? That’ll be another point to this exercise, to try and see if you can perfect private communications.

“I’ll be taking this seriously, Leo. Please do the same.” Vanessa got into a stance with her blade, the familiar moves from her childhood coming back to her.

Leo looked unsure of himself, but took a deep breath and assessed Vanessa with his sharp gaze. “Ok. I was planning to go soft on you in order to ease you back into the training schedule you haven’t done in months, but if you really wish, I can try my best.”

Vanessa couldn’t help but to smile in anticipation. She was curious about the power level of Leo, and seeing him bring in an army from one continent to another in just a matter of minutes severely impressed her.

She was still lost in her thoughts when Leo’s first strike, a frontal kick, caught her in her chest, and she was sent flying backwards. Thankfully he held back on the actual blow, but Vanessa was shaken nonetheless.

She staggered to her feet, and looked at the now emotionless face of Leo. Vanessa shivered, and Hazeel sent her some warm feelings through their mental link.

Vanessa took a deep breath and assessed Leo once again. She hadn’t even felt him manipulate the photons in the area… how much had he tightened the control of his absorption radius?

Leo vanished, and this time Hazeel felt a ripple through their connection. She turned in time to catch his scythe with Hazeel’s blade, and a shockwave between the two weapons forced her hair to blow back behind her.

She was knocked back a few inches, and when she looked up, Leo was no longer in front of her. When she tried to trace their connection again, a kick from behind sent her onto her stomach, and Hazeel went flying from her hands.

“Son of a bitch!” Vanessa cried out, and she picked up Hazeel once more. She turned to look at Leo once more. He was staring at her, and his eyes widened. Soon, he was smiling, and Vanessa was shocked to find the same expression on her face.

Her heart began to beat faster, and she looked forward to facing and improving herself against the overwhelming odds stacked against her.