Chapter 7: Struggle

In the forest, Ishida is currently engrossed on a different grimoire that focuses more on the fundamentals of mana.

'The soul is the source of a living beings mana and only a few number of races and creatures are fully capable of using the mana in there souls, like elves,demon, dragons, dwarves and a small number of humans'.

'The strength of a individuals soul is perpetual to how they long they lived and trained them, so that they can store and absorb more mana through there surroundings.'

Flipping through another page

'For some reason, the humans out of all the races have a tendency to have expetionally adept and strong souls even thought they can only live for only about a century at best'

"So the soul can be actually trained? That would make a lot of sense, the soul is like a muscle in the body the more you use magic, the more your soul develops so if a person stops being a mage then there souls would naturally deteriorate as well..."

Closing the large grimoire and putting it back in his bag, Ishida then thought of something

'Why don't I supress my mana like Fieren's and her teacher? It's not like I will be like those demons or mages who take pride in always showing there mana."

*Sigh*

"Let's see..."

Closing his eyes again, Ishida then tried to reach into his soul and control it, to stop leaking his mana to the surroundings.

*Breathe in*

*Breathe out*

Sitting in a lotus position, Ishida was quietly and slowly gaining individual control of the mana flow in his bloodstream and his soul is no longer pumping out mana 24/7.

After an two hours of meditation, Ishida was finally able to supress most of his mana

*Gasp*

'Holy shit, it feels like a billions upon billions of ants are crawling over and under my skin!'

Ishida thought while instinctively scratching his skin.

'This is what Fieren's been doing for past one thousand years?!'

'Agh! it feels so uncomfortable!'

Ishida then started scratching his body back, in an uncontrollably itch

'god, I wish it wasn't so goddamn itchy!'

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After a minute of suppressing his mana, Ishida felt that the itch around his body suddenly faded away slowly.

'Huh?'

Patting his body in confusion, Ishida couldn't help but wonder what happened just moments.

'Was the itch only temporary?'

'Did my demon body adapt to me suddenly suppressing my mana? Demons were once considered creatures made of mana, so in a sense I'm naturally controlling my mana?'

Ishida felt a little happy that the itch was only benign and went away, he couldn't even fathom having to live through his life with the feeling ants crawling under and over his skin everyday for the rest of his life and shivered in though of it.

Looking at his body in contemplation, Ishida answered a simple question to himself

'But why can't I see my mana just like in the show?'

Opening his eyes in surprise and face palming himself for not realizing it sooner.

'I forgot to focus mana of my eyes!'

Controlling his mana and focusing his mana unto his eyes, Ishida was finally able to see the whitish aura surrounding him in small layer on his skin and small trail going into the sky.

'Why haven't I'd thought of this sooner?!'

Feeling like a total idiot for not remembering one of first few practical things mana was used for, Ishida then covered his face in embarrassment.

After a long minute of lampooning himself, Ishida then used his magic enhanced eyes on his surroundings and was able to see three large whitish auras in the forest suddenly going towards his direction at a very fast speed.

"!!!"

Ishida's instincts when into superdrive

'The Mages found me?!'

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Two hours ago, somewhere in the southland forest a middle aged priest with greyish hair holding a book in hand, a green short haired woman with a large axe on her back and a caramel colored haired middle aged man holding a scepter with blue gem stone on it's tip who was currently exploring the area for any potential clues, suddenly felt the mana on there surroundings suddenly coagulate into a singular point, thirty kilometers north from there position.

"Throd did you feel that?" The Elias cautiously asked his colleague

"Yes" Throd nodded in agreement.

"Then we better get moving" Tuli spoke in calm and collected tone before taking her axe behind her axe and brandishing it.

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In the village of Elmsdorf, Siev, Drel and Ophila both instinctively turned to where the they felt the mana of there surroundings suddenly started getting sucked into.

"Siev, Drel we better go" Ophila ordered the the warrior and the mage casually.

"Right"

"Support Magic: Jilwer"

After buffing both of there mobility and speed the group started running towards north end of the great forest.

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'Fuck, I didn't think I would get discovered that fast!'

Ishida's heart started beat fast, he quickly ran towards a group of bushes and hid there.

*Swish*

In a blink of a eye three humans wearing robes covering there entire body landed on the spot Ishida suppressed his mana from.

"The mana converged here..." Throd said in a cautious tone and while holding his scepter.

"Throd are you sure that this the spot? All I see is just trees, trees and even more trees..." Tuli nonchalantly said while putting her axe on her shoulder.

Throd raised his index finger in his mouth and quickly eyed one of the bushes on there right.

Seeing Throd's action, Tuli immediately shut up and ignored looking at the bush where Throd pointed at.

"Eisen, can you cast a Goddess barrier? Throd quietly asked Eisen who was behind him.

"How big?" Eisen with his serious face asked back

"Just big enough to trap our friend." Throd said while tapping his scepter on the ground and he was finally able to see a silhouette of young boy with only a small aura of mana leaking out of his body.

Nodding in response, Eisen quickly took out a pocket sized grimoire on his hand and casted his magic.

"Goddess magic: Barrier of the Goddess!"

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Ishida who was currently observing the three humans suddenly felt that something was wrong and all of a sudden a faint greenish wave of mana flowed throughout his surroundings.

'!'

'Did they use mana sense? I should've just ran away!'

Ishida quickly regretted his decision for hiding, like he did with most mages he met in the forest, but it seems his strategy was no longer effective to an experienced mage.

'Wait, maybe there just looking for something else? Why would they suddenly send a first class mage to investigate a forest so large that it can be considered a small country.'

Ishida calmly took a deep breath and quietly observed the three humans.

"Kid, get out! We know where you are!" Throd shouted while looking at the bush where Ishida was currently hiding.

'Fuck they knew all along...'

'What should I do? fight back? run away?'

Ishida thought of different scenarios he could choose from, but ultimately he chose to reveal himself.

*Rustling*

Leaving the bush, Throd, Eisen and Tuli was able to see a 10 year old kid with a half burnt cloak covering his head and burn scars around his exposed body.

'This kid is the same age as my daughter...' Tuli thought of her daughter she left at the south capital prior to when she started adventuring.

"Throd..." Eisen looked at the boy's wounds in pity before looking at Throd in front of him.

'Such phenomenal mana control! If I didn't casted mana sense,then I wouldn't had discovered him!'

Throd looked at the boy wearing a half burnt hooded cloak in awe and caution.

"Wait, Eisen..."

Throd stopped Eisen from going to the boy by blocking him with scepter before shouting at suspicious kid

"Kid remove your cloak!"

The boy quickly shook his head in response.

Seeing the kid proactively reject his request,

Throd immediately casted a spell to forcefully remove his cloak.

Feeling his cloak suddenly start float away from his body, Ishida quickly grabbed hard unto it with his hands but after a while, all of his efforts to cover his face was in vain.

*Swish*

With his hooded cloak now removed from his body, the two humans faces suddenly turned serious and Tuli on the other hand had a look of rage.

Throd quickly pointed his scepter at the black haired child with two curved horns protruding at sky and emotionally dead eys before coldly asking him a question.

"Demon, were you the one who caused the mana wave?"

'Mana wave? Whats that? Frieren never spoke about any mana waves in the anime before.'

Ishida made a confused expression but quickly truthfully answered the caramel haired man.

"I don't know any magic waves!"

Throd felt confused, because his answer felt true and genuine compared to the last time he asked a prideful demon mage a question.

'This kid must be lying...'

Throd asked another question

"Where did you learn magic!"

Without hesitation, Ishida quickly took out four grimoires of differing sizes and covers from his hide bag before finally throwing it close to them.

Still with his scepter in hand, Throd quietly walked towards the grimoires, Ishida threw at the ground towards them, before carefully inspecting them.

'Beginners Guide to Magic'

'The Fundamentals of Mana'

'Tome of Id'

'Grimoire of The Great Sage Flamme...'

After seeing the titles of each of the grimoires, Throd immediately told another question at Ishida

"How many humans have you killed?

As Ishida was about to open his mouth, he went to a deep thought 'Should I tell them the truth or lie? I'm already lucky that they didn't hesitate to kill me...'

Steeling his resolve, Ishida with regret written on his face and answered Throd's question

"Twelve human bandits and one old man..."

"But I did it in self-defense!"

"They were going to kill me, I would never hurt a human without any reason!"

Tuli and Eisen, were able to feel the demon child's emotions from his words alone and almost empathized with it before suddenly they heard Throd shouting at them.

"Don't empathize with it! Demon can't feel human emotions! They don't even understand what the words that they are spewing out of there mouths!"

Feeling his life was about to be put on a guillotine, Ishida pleaded with the three.

"Please! Just listen to me! I really didn't have a choice!"

Ishida made a painful expression while holding his burned shoulder.

"Tuli, Eisen..."

Hearing Throd, both of them nodded in understanding and prepared to fight the demon child.

Seeing the three humans not sparing any semblance of empathy for him, Ishida's face turned cold.

'I really can't reason with them... As much as I wanted to make them understand me, they won't listen to a monster who can't even understand the meaning of the words family, love, and kindness...'

"Offensive magic: Zoltraak!"

Throd immediately casted Zoltraak at the demon child

*Boom*

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Ishida casted a hexagon barrier to deflect the concentrated ray of mana.

After a waiting for the dust to settle,Ishida then summoned an array of white arcane circles around him and coldly looked at the humans.

"If you won't listen to me, then I will make you listen!"

Ishida then fired a barrage of Zoltraaks at the group of humans.

Looking at the thousands of rays of mana going towards them, Tuli, Throd and Eisen's heart skipped a beat.

Throd quickly summoned a spherical barrier for both him and his group.

*Boom*

*Crack*

*Boom*

*Crack*

Over the course of barrage of Zoltraaks Throd started to sweat profusely from trying to maintain the defensive magic for so long.

'How much mana does this kid have?!'

*Boom*

*Crack*

*Boom*

*Crack*

"Tuli can you distract him?"

Throd who was currently tightly holding his scepter looked at Tuli for confirmation.

"Right"

Holding her axe in hand quickly ran out of the opening Throd has made for her and ran towards Ishida's position whileswiftly dodging, blocking and hitting some of the Zoltraaks who came her way.

'A warrior?'

Ishida then conjured another set of white arcane circles and continued firing at both Throd who was currently using defensing magic and Tuli was currently running at him inch by inch.

*Boom*

*Boom*

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Outside of the goddess barrier, Siev, Drel and Ophila was currently feeling the vibrations and explosions happening inside the Barrier and worriedly thought to themselves.

'Master must be fighting a skilled mage...'

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Inside the Barrier, Eisen was able to that notice that Throd was getting even more tried after casting maintaining the defensive spell for so long. "Throd are you okay?'

Throd then looked behind him and at Eisen with his sweating face.

"I'm fine, as long Tuli can give me an opening, we can make a counter attack"

Tuli who was currently running at him with her large axe started suddenly slowed down after getting hit by some of the demon child's Zoltraaks, but was suddenly suddenly surprised that a zoltraak struck the ground to her right causing her to lose footing.

"Oh crap!"

The impact on her feet caused her to fall and land hard on the ground.

*Thud*

"Shit!" Seeing the barrage of Zoltraaks coming her way, Tuli couldn't help but curse her bad luck.

*BOOM*