Shades of the New World

Chapter 184: Future plans

'Well, some things never change' Evin sighed, listening to Nasst's meaningful stare. He wasn't unfamiliar with how these things worked and he also knew how painfully pointless it was to try and change anything. 

Winners stood atop society and they absolutely hated losing. The ones on the bottom were forever doomed to struggle and suffer.

One could probably achieve their ideals if they were someone like the Empress Almighty, forcing everyone to agree to their beliefs.

'But something tells me that even if you were that powerful of an existence, you wouldn't be able to do anything you wished to' Evin thought, reminded of the Empress' past.

After giving some time to Evin to digest the contents of the talk, Nasst resumed.

"But getting back to topic, don't think that willpower-based mages are useless. Since they follow a single World to its utmost limits, they can become extremely powerful in the end. Their growth could be called explosive and abrupt compared to us who grow linearly by constantly trying out new things and then slowly perfecting them."

Evin supposed it was true. A master of one would always beat a jack of all trades well, most of the time. 

The biggest example was Arza. Evin knew that the red-haired boy was going to become extremely hard to deal with his World of Life. 

"[One method to conquer all problems]. That's probably the most famous saying among willpower-based mages. After a certain point, they learn how to use their one World to deal with all other Worlds. Obviously depending on their growth, they would be able to deal with some things better than others but eventually, they'll have a proper response to any situation. And all these methods will use their most talented World in one way or another."

"The biggest example would be your little friend Arza. After some proper training, his strengthened body would simply become too strong and too tough to deal with normal measures. At some point, his body would become so magical, so infused with Life energy, that even the portal blades of the Cosmics wouldn't be able to cut through his skin. You'd have to use something like a World Domain to negate his World of Life buffs, or use a piercing or debilitating specialty to bypass his defenses," Nasst stated.

"Isn't that the same with us? We may know a lot of different things, but in the end, we only have one most powerful World," Evin asked.

"That is true. For you it's your Darkness, while for me it's the Winds. And it's not like knowing more things will be detrimental to us in any way. We don't have to worry about tainting our 'True Path' with unnecessary information," Nasst smiled.

"The True Path?"

"It's what the willpower-based mages call their method of pursuing one World Though they will try to sell it as something more than that. Something more mystical and wonderful Saying things like knowing too many things would affect their main World negatively, or that one should be more faithful to their true path, etc. etc. In my eyes, they're just deluding themselves with some kind of placebo or nocebo thing," Nasst scoffed.

"I'm guessing Deminte is someone like that?" Evin asked, almost a hundred percent sure that Arza will start pursuing this True Path or whatever.

"That she is And although I hate to admit it, because of that fact, she is probably the stronger of the two of us" Nasst said wistfully, a clear contrast to how he was just scoffing at the pursuers of the True Path.

Evin wanted to ask him what his deal with Deminte was, but couldn't quite get himself to. Something told him that 'Psycho Nasst' would come out if he did that. 

"But I am the more versatile one heh," Nasst smile wryly, before exaggeratedly speaking: "Wow, we've gone on a very long tangent. What were we talking about before all this willpower vs logic thing?"

"We were talking about how strong I was" Evin replied, a bit uncomfortable.

"Ah yes. From this conversation, you should understand how strong you are, compared to other mages. Well, it's quite inevitable since on top of being a logical-mage due to being a Child of the Empress, you're also being personally trained by a super-imposer. The Authority Style, the gestures you can use, these resources you're getting, the ability to use Time energy. All these things combined made you something almost untouchable amongst half-cores. Not only that, you're also going to learn the World of Space from Rith and then the Somaturgy expert will come and hopefully turn your World Sprites into a small army of some sorts," Nasst concluded excitedly.

Evin felt a bit weird being praised like this, but logic said that everything Nasst said was correct, so

'Hail Logic'

"Oh, now I remember what I was trying to talk about originally: I have one more thing to teach you. This should also answer your question about how peak half-cores and above use all that excess mana they have. And after you've finished learning these things, I'm going to have you work for four months or so, before next year's Horn Ceremony begins." Nasst explained his plans for Evin.

"Actually, can I get a 10-day break so I can visit my family? With Arza if that's possible? I'll try to talk with Deminte myself to make it happen," Evin asked after hesitating a bit.

"That should be possible But could you tell me why?"

"Just a little visit, to see how they're doing. And as you know, I became two years older due to the Time Bomb after I left, so I kinda want to let them know as soon as possible. And I'm also thinking of leaving them a proper communication device so we can keep contact even when I'm staying here," Evin explained. 

"And why take Arza with you?"

"Well, he has a family too, you know? And probably, he's the one who needs it more than me anyway," Evin said jokingly.

"I guess you're right. I'll talk to Deminte about it and arrange it," Nasst said. 

"Thank you," Evin said, but wondered if such a thing was possible. He felt that the two's relationship wasn't something so simple, so was it alright if Nasst just walked up to her and told her to give Arza a break? 

'Didn't Deminte sent an assassin or something to give me a warning or something? And when Nasst learned that Arza fell under Deminte's care he went absolutely psycho too... What the fuck?' 

Unconsciously, Evin began to lose himself in his thoughts. 

'Nasst also probably knows that I sent Arza to Deminte...' Evin concluded suddenly. It wasn't something hard to confirm. One would realize it if they just thought about it a bit. But why the man had to grill him so hard for it, Evin didn't know.

'But it's not like he can really hurt me in any way, so I guess it's alright?' Evin thought and realized that he wasn't really getting anywhere with this string of thoughts. He then threw the matter away from his head.

In any case, since his break is almost confirmed, he could finally give Sasha the Velvet Contract and then let his family catch up on things. Also, he could bring Arza to the Serpent to see if the boy's compatible with the Beast Lord.

'Hmm, maybe I'll visit Bella as well, to see how she's doing' Evin thought idly, a little excited to see what happened to the drama in the Earl's house.

"But enough of that. Let's talk some magic. Come to the Test room," Nasst said and beckoned Evin over.