Magic

"By the way. How's your training going? Did you reach the next level yet?" I ask Emily after a while as we continue watching Nat and my clone spar.

"Not really. It's still a bit hard. I have got the moves down, but integrating those techniques that you taught me is really hard. I don't feel that connection you showed me at the start of my training." Emily complained lightly, slight disappointment on her face as she looked down.

"Hey, don't be sad. It's alright. Sometimes things are hard. Come, I'll help you. Let's see what the issue is." Saying so, I wrap my arms around the 14-year-old girl and teleport to an underground arena, devoid of any living thing.

"Since there's nothing and no one here, there won't be any distractions for you.

Now show me what you practiced." I say as I conjure up a soft grand chair and sit comfortably, as Emily walks a bit away and stands with her arms by her sides.

"Here I go. Hufffffff." Following a deep breath, Emily slowly exhaled, before suddenly thrusting her arms out.

Her left arm flowed upwards, her right arm flowing downwards, before they created a wonderful arc, and met back in the center.

One by one, Emily went through graceful movements, her arms and legs drawing invisible patterns in the air, as her body stirred up the stale air in the underground cave.

Going through all the movements took all of Emily's energy, as, after 10 minutes, she stopped, panting for air, as beads of sweat dripped down her forehead.

"Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. That was really good. It seems you have the movements down perfectly. Its as you said, you just don't have a powerful affinity for any particular realms, which is strange, to be honest. But it doesn't matter."

After seeing Emily's performance, I was stunned.

Her movements were one of the best I have ever seen. The graceful martial arts movements that the people from Kamar Taj have developed over the centuries, further improved by me and the great sage, were done perfectly by my little girl.

What Emily had been practicing for the past few months was magic. Especially magical combat.

One day, almost a year ago, when Lily asked my 'sister' to visit, Emily was mesmerized by the style with which my clone appeared.

Walking through a mystical portal, with a badass drip, a long and deadly katana on her back, and a dark hood covering her fair face, Emily almost jumped on her 'aunt' like a crackhead, begging her to teach her to be cool like her.

Over time, with enough persuasion, Emily was satisfied with just learning some magic for now.

And me being me, my Emily got only the best this world had to offer.

So, this is where we are. Even with the best training, if Emily didn't have the ability to forge a connection with a realm to borrow its energy, she would not be able to wield magic.

"Lucifer let's test out those realms again. I really think this time would be a success." Emily pouted as she approached me, wishing to trial the realms as we did at the start of her training.

"Alright. Sit down. Let me set it up." Once she was sitting on the ground, I waved my hands around, golden blue sparks jumping off my palms, and a set of runes were drawn in the air.

"Hah." With a grunt, all the runes condensed, enveloping me and Emily tightly, as the scene around us changed rapidly.

Waves of colour, some light, some dark, some intense, some mellow, all assaulted our senses, making the inexperienced Emily to almost throw up from the overstimulation.

"Hold it in honey. It will pass soon." Hearing my soothing voice, Emily slowly calmed down, her bile going back down her gullet, as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

"Em, remember. All these different colours are the different energies that can be drawn out from their realms. To use magic, we draw these energies into our bodies, let them flow through us, and then guide them to get the desired effect.

But you can only guide that energy when you have the permission of the ruler of the realm. If you try to forcefully take that energy, it will just cause you harm and will create new problems that I'm bored to take care of.

Now, try to spread your senses out and feel for these energies, and ask them to flow through you." I explain to Emily, who calmly listened, absorbing all the information like a sponge before a determined look appeared on her face.

"Yes, Lucifer. I'll do it. Thanks for giving me another shot." With a nod from Emily, I stepped back to give her enough space, as she floated in the dense hodgepodge of energies, spreading out her mind, and trying to attract any energy toward her.

Time passed.

1 Minute. 5 Minutes. 20 Minutes. 1 Hour.

Slowly, Emily's patience began to crack, as the mental fatigue of trying to spread her senses for the past 2 hours overloaded her brain.

"Gahhhhhhh. You bunch of sewer rats, stewing in the sun. How is it that not even a single one of you realm lords won't share even a single drop of energy with me? Am I that scary???" Finally snapping, Emily ran her mouth off, carefully avoiding any actual curse words, as she mouthed off to the colourful void.

"Hey Em. Settle down. Let me see what the issue is." I say as I pull back Emily with a frown as I reach out for the different energies in front of me.

As if a multicolored cloud of gas was sucked by a vacuum cleaner, the different energies gathered in front of me, before running through my human form, trying to change my form to handle them better.

"ENOUGH." That was all that I said before the energies settled down in my body, as a few new connections appeared in my soul.

"Speak. Why is my daughter not worthy of using your energies." With heavy authority in my voice, I transmit it through the connections in my soul.

"We don't dare."

"Me afraid."

"Fear"

"Apologies. We are not worthy."

…

In the next second, heaps of different voices rang out in my head, some weak, some feeble, some soft, and some loud. But they all shared the same underlying tone.

FEAR.

"Enough. You can stop talking. I have heard enough." With a wave of my hands, I dismiss the connections as the energies flow away as if scrambling from me.

"So… It seems I know the problem."

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