Rippling afterimages of a sword slashing through the air multiple times flickered through the dawn sky, and Dia sheathed her blade. The clink of her blade’s pommel as it touched the sheath seemed to trigger something, and blue gashes erupted from thin air once more.

She let out a breath of air, and the gashes that hung in mid-air exploded outwards with a horrifying shriek. Schwarz cursed a moment later, his eyes flashing with fear, and the others weren’t faring any better either.

“What the heck?” Schwarz asked. “How did you do that?”

“Lingering mana,” Dia explained. “When I slashed out earlier, the mana shrouding the blade was left behind. There’s two levels to that strike; an automated outburst from the outer layers of the mana slashes, and then an inner layer another few seconds later.”

“This is something you just came up with?” Risti asked.

“Yeah.” Dia didn’t mention the inspiration, though. Of everyone here — her, Risti, Schwarz, Farah and Nero, Schwarz and Farah were unaware of Limbo and the concept of a negative mana reaction. What Dia had basically done in the third step was an attempt to emulate a negative mana reaction, but on a physical level.

The core of her residue strikes would collapse upon themselves three seconds later, creating a deadly shockwave that could rupture flesh and bone.

“Cool, so how do we do it?” Schwarz asked, swinging his sword around.

“For you guys, y’all can start by trying to leave behind mana residue when attacking,” Dia replied. “Coat your swords with mana, and then, while preserving their structure, release them from your blade at the appropriate times. Incidentally, you can use them as traps as you’re running too; create a few of them, and when the enemy comes across them, they’ll just happen to detonate.”

A shockwave rang out as Nero lowered his own sword. Another, secondary explosion followed a few seconds later, and Dia nodded. “That’s correct.”

The Holy Son of the Black God, as expected, was really gifted.

“Well, it was a bit easy.” He glanced at Risti. “See? She also got it!”

Farah and Schwarz frowned, exchanging perplexed looks at the same time. Dia could already practically hear them exchange expressions of doubt and disbelief in their minds, but…

The concept of an implosion was mindblowing to Dia, when she understood what a negative mana reaction was. She had merely adapted it for battles, allowing for that third blow, but for Farah and Schwarz, who hadn’t taken part in that battle against the First Bearer of Destiny, this was something they couldn’t’ wrap their heads around.

Whoops.

After making sure that Nero and Risti did it correctly, Dia turned to Farah and Schwarz, who were still trying to figure out what a collapse actually was. For Risti and Dia herself, the concept was easier to grasp because they had felt the odd movement of the First’s mana, but for these two, they could only hope to interpret that from Dia’s own attacks, which were on a far finer, smaller scale.

After that showcase, Dia got down to the duels. Nero had to sit this one out, because even without using his mana, the passive physical enhancement his mana circuits gave him were overpowering. The Second Tutorial was apparently a watershed moment; there was some incredible, qualitative change that came with being a tetra-folder.

The one-sided beatdown Dia doled out to Risti lasted for around thirty minutes, before she called it a day. Everyone had their own things to do, but now, Dia had an extra agenda on the table.

Limbo.

This was the reason why Dia wasn’t going hard on Risti, because she and Nero would become their teachers in the art of drawing power from another plane of existence. Three days had passed since the First committed suicide, and in that time, Dia had learned about the finer ways of controlling what essentially was an unlimited store of power.

Of course, there were various limits and huge dangers to it, but Dia knew that she couldn’t be squeamish at this juncture. Other than that, however, the three of them had anti-Limbo duties; now that Dia (and Count Nightfall) had been roped into this odd group, she now was obligated to take out any incursions of Limbo into their world.

Returning her training blade to its rack, Dia paced around the small training ground and helped the other exhausted Seekers of Life in keeping their things. Now that everyone had caught up in terms of mana circuits, the standard issue training blade was now two hundred kilograms, so they were rather heavy.

As for Nero, he simply used his own sword.

“Still, it’s a pity that you suck at actual combat,” Dia glanced at Nero, who was eagerly repeating that triple-layered slash over and over again. “You’re good at figuring out mana movements and everything, but you have not much in the way of common sense.”

“Really? I think I did pretty well when we were dealing with the First Bearer of Destiny back then, though.”

Dia tried to recall his performance, but for some reason, it felt like Count Nightfall did it better. Furthermore, in the original encounter, the First had been drastically weakened by the backlash of a ritual spell failing on him, and his body had degenerated from taking in so much power from Limbo.

“…Your face tells me that you don’t quite believe me.”

Dia chuckled nervously. “Let’s not dwell on that matter for too long. Right, I’ve been meaning to ask you, but what’s your Mana Control Proficiency?”

“Expert,” Nero replied, a hint of pride in his face. Dia could even see his mind shouting for praise, so she indulged for a moment by complimenting his talents and everything, before moving on to the main topic.

“How does it feel like to have Expert-rank control?” Dia asked.

“How does it feel like?” Nero pondered for a moment. “Ah. I know. You have moments when you are in top form, right? Your limbs move exceptionally smooth, and you can take on everything that comes at you. That’s pretty much it. Your mana becomes more than an extension of your limb; it is another organ on its own.”

Dia furrowed her brows. “Another organ on its own…”

“A third arm that’s like your dominant one. In fact, I would liken Intermediate to your non-dominant arm, and Expert to your dominant one. Does that make sense?” Nero asked.

Nodding slowly, Dia thought about the sensation when she used her arms separately, and then frowned. Clearly, the differences only mattered in the finest movements, but again, that was always the case for mana to begin with.

“As I recall, Expert Mana Control Proficiency allows you to use half of your full strength without any wastage, right?” Dia asked.

“Precisely so. And this is very important for the likes of you and me, as well as people who carry mana batteries. But the latter is very rare, so there’s no need to think too hard about it,” Nero replied. “More importantly, the purification process is a lot faster. What would have taken an absolute scrub ten days would now only take five.”

Dia nodded. The purification limit referred to the amount of energy a person could take in from Limbo. While everyone could only take in a quarter of their mana circuit capacity before going past the point of no return, one’s Mana Control Proficiency could increase the rate of purification.

The higher it was, the faster the impurities were filtered out…and the faster the user could return to action. And for mana-users whose battles could last days from very efficient use of mana and physical strength, this rapid recovery was incredibly useful.

Unfortunately, Nero never got to demonstrate its use, since the enemy he was supposed to be facing had been affected by his machinations.

After chatting for a few more minutes, Nero returned to the mansion, intending on washing up and cleaning himself. Dia, who had finished the clean-up, simply sat around the training grounds for a few moments.

The First Bearer of Destiny had died. She had come to terms with this, but somehow, she had the sinking feeling that the Red God or His familiar spirits would not be happy with that person’s death. Fortunately, everyone was already preparing for ways to address whatever threat was approaching; this demonstration of a new move was one of them.

While it was unlikely she could best a familiar spirit with an attack like this, its true value lay in running. These things were essentially timed explosives that could be planted in mid-air to detonate, and it wasn’t like familiar spirits were made of metal anyway.

As long as they were made of blood, flesh and bone, Dia was confident that they could still be killed.

Right?

She dusted herself off and made her way into the mansion, where today’s intelligence briefing was going to begin soon… and the first agenda was dealing with the news that a familiar spirit of the Red God was attempting to make its way into Istrel.