The Regent's Lesson

[15:07] During a rare moment's reprieve from her daily duties, the Lady Regent had seen Airgenald out and about, and invited him along for a trip to the grassy fields outside the northern gates of Huangzhou. The sun shone bright above, illuminating Koume's golden mane of curls that bounced with every step, and all throughout the short trip, she had craned her head down to study a silvery tome. That emerald clasp opened, smooth paper with beautifully complicated runic imagery exposed to the sun.

Upon reaching a suitable spot, Koume came to a stop, scrunchy verdant green making satisfying sounds beneath her soft-soled flats. She turned to the little Ookami, and, without closing the tome before her, gestured toward him.

"Airgenald, I'm sure you've been eager to learn more, and this is the perfect time to do so. If you're ready and willing, I'd like for you to take up a stance."

After the request, the Noblewoman slid those rose-gold hues down to study the page before her once more. At the same time, she began to concentrate her breathing, and soon enough that familiar golden light began to seep from her pores. Glimmering, shimmering majesty that drifted out, and coalesced to form a solid mirror of the woman herself. A construct of solid, layered light, emitting warmth and strengthened by the desire to protect.

The feminine figure, with gentle depresses in the glassy structure forming a 'face', turned to Spud, and stepped forward. Whilst Koume began to hold a hand out, three fingers curled into her palm, pinky and thumb outstretched.

At the points of her thumb and pinky finger, sudden flickering flames of vibrant green formed, and with a quick twist of the Bavmor's wrist, a circle was drawn through the air. Accompanying constructs of light scrawled a second circle, concentric, as well as two dozen runic symbols employingArithmancy to calculate and search the world.

Mana thrummed from the center of the Regent's being, through her circuitry and along her outstretched arm, feeding into the runes to employ the first two circles, to search and see.

"Please engage the barrier construct."
(Koume Bavmor)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[15:32] The Protector of Angels would happily accept Regent Koume's invitation into the fields, a gentle breeze wafting the scent of cherry blossoms past the Ookami's keen nose. It was tranquil, especially with the soothing presence of the glowing noblewoman.

He'd look at the book curiously, he couldn't read runes, but he understood they held power. The silvery tome almost looked otherworldly, he suspected it was one of the books Elisheva had wrote, based on what he gathered from the lesson he eavesdropped on in the dojo.

Stoic and in thought, he would be asked to take his stance. A wide and low stance, anchoring himself to the ground like a characteristic fomorian fighter. His shields would be held out infront of him, his amber eyes peering through a narrow gap as only his ears would stand above the nyeshk's edge.

His body was prepared, but he had to ready his mind. The pressure of duty, his responsibilities to the angels and innocents of Huangzhao felt like the weight of the world baring down on his shoulders. Spudnicus stoops for a moment before the air around him grows lighter, the shields that weighed a hundred pounds respectively were suddenly light as a feather as he accepted the gravity of his oaths.

He'd close his eyes, thinking back to the most recent failure. He had ran into a necromancer in Huangzhao's cave, he escaped to report the incident to his mother and the two would rush back to slay the wicked man.

His name was Sors Ultrovex, and he tore a rift before the Ookami's very eyes in an attempt to escape. Airgenald had narrowly caught him, but it wasn't quite enough. Ashera would fight and lose alone, and Spud would be filled with anguish. Anguish that drove him, pushed him to strive to be better, faster, so that he could protect the people he cared about.

With the thought, came a divine light. Airgenald stood hunkered down and glowing, finally ready to follow Koume's command. "Yes, Regent Koume."
(Sir Airgenald Spudnicus Ixis)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[16:02] The shimmering feminine figure dashed forth the moment the shield-bearing Ookami took his stance, and uttered his assent. It moved with such startling speed, one was reminded it had no true weight. No mass. Simply a magical manifestation of Koume's desire to keep her people safe, and guard against corruption. Her overwhelming need to preserve the sanctity of her home and its mission. The woman of light shone a bright gold upon dashing forward, and making impact with Airgenald's shield, slamming a fist into the hyperdense Nyeshk he hefted, and sending him skidding back a few meters, heels plowing through the dirt and grass.

A moment's respite, before the feminine construct dashed forth once more, weightless feet miming travel across the undisturbed grass, swift and dangerous.

All the while, Koume split her focus between maintaining the construct, and weaving the runes necessary to create a small, localized path through the spirit realm. Six concentric circles of mana, dotted and pin-cushioned with glyphs that glowed brighter and brighter as more mana was funneled in. All at once, they collapsed in on themselves, forming a portal of bright white light. A dozen or so similar portals appeared around Airgenald, though they only followed at a safe distance for now, tracking his movements exactly.

"To form barriers, true barriers, and not light shields and flimsy coatings of protective magic, you have to return to the source of your exorcist magic. Understand that your own desire to protect must be doubled. Tripled. Expanded in such a way that you have so, so much to lose should you fail.

It is not self sacrifice. It is a refusal to fail in protecting your friends. Your ideals. Those who have earned your respect and trust. Those that depend on you. Your family. The very world itself if you possess the lofty desire."

Through theinitial portal made, Koume fired a thin, condensed version of that massive cannon of light she utilized so very often. It traveled through the gate, streamed through the spirit realm, and fired out form one of the portals surrounding the Ookami, striking him in the back of one leg.

"You must weave each and every one of these goals into mail. Like armor, each desire layering over itself. It works just the same with the magic itself. The construct forcing you back is not a single shaped barrier. It is hundreds of thousands layered to form an impenetrable shield."

The feminine construct dashed forth once again, in conjunction with more and more shots of light through different portals. They weighed down on the small Ookami, until he could take no more, and suddenly, it all dissipated. Leaving him battered but uninjured in truth.

"Just the same, the dangers that will come upon you and that which you wish to protect will be many. Perhaps even a thousand fold what you are able to truly shield them from."
(Koume Bavmor)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[16:41] The construct collided with the shieldbearer, being thrown back many meters as the ground itself rooted up to support him before using the mound behind him to spring himself at the light given physical form.

In spite of his heavy equipment, the Ookami moved as if he wasn't even inecumbered, the force of his strikes causing gusts of wind with each cleave of a shield. The two would trade blows, Spudnicus would block as many as he could, thinking the task was to hone his ability to defend.

However, the construct would halt for a moment as portals were raised around him. Airgenald would be wary, eyes darting between each portal, unsure of what was next to come.

Caramel furred ears would turn to Koume's direction as she spoke. Return to the source of your exorcist magic. His desire to save innocents, to stand opposed to those wicked and sought to destroy the beauty in their world. The Regent's words would strike him harder than any blow that could be delivered.

It is not self sacrifice. Rang out louder than anything to him, echoing opposite of what Sors had said, Ya jus' want ta go out an' feel important. The two phrases shouting at one another in his head.

Airgenald would snap back to reality as he felt a searing pain in his ankle, Koume's words continuing. Layers, armor, it was hard for him to make sense of it all in the moment, he couldn't quite keep his thoughts straight as the Regent and Necromancer's words rang in the ookami's head.

Suddenly the fight was back on, Spudnicus would quickly be overwhelmed, feeling the might of the feminine figure that could not tire accompanied by rays of holy light that assaulted him from virtually every angle. It was too much, he had no way to defend against this.

How could he be expected to defend others when the scales were stacked so against him? Hecould howl, fight fang and claw until he was a bloody pulp but what good would that do? He'd think of his family, Ashera, Ume, Anise, Aaliyah, Nasu, and Nina, the people who adopted him and accepted him as their own. His friends, the angels, the black rose members he had come to meet, and Layla.. Oh what would she do if she heard of how he fell? How he went out in a blaze of glory just because his will wasn't strong enough.

The ookami was exhausted, his mana depleted and his body taking the assault, but his glowing aura would shift. It'd take a solid mass for a moment, enough to grant him reprieve. It was a crude mass of light that enveloped him, but it appeared to have four legs and tail, a wolf perhaps?

He wouldn't let his fiancée ever have to receive those news, to cause her grief over him falling in battle. He would not fail, his soul couldn't handle that burden to make her sad. He'd strike one last time with everything he had at the construct before finally falling to his knees, having used the last of his energy.
(Sir Airgenald Spudnicus Ixis)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[17:07] A quiet thump marked the closing of that silver-leathered tome, and a subtle snap-- the emerald clasp clicking into place. Koume looked on with that porcelain, stolid expression, watching the silent Ookami's struggle. It didn't please her to hurt him, even superficially, but her reasoning was, he should experience something only the magic he sought out would be able to relieve. A perfect defense, to protect all that he wished to.

Weaving runes into one another mirrored the Barrier magic in a way. While they were near opposites in their sources of fuel: One stemming from the emotional aspect, the other from the logical, they both employed the meshing of hundreds upon hundreds of components to create the desired effect. A common thread amongst the more advanced magics she's looked into, it seemed.

Slipping Elisheva's tome under one arm, the Lady Regent pushed off to approach. She traveled along the length of soil and grass kicked up by her construct's initial blow to the boy. She reflected on the flare of shaped barrier, but only shook her head. A single light shield was something any Exorcist could manifest. She's seen him do it during the short conflict. To shape it, was a start...

"Do you understand? The weight you must put upon yourself to fuel the magic? I'll repeat myself: It is not self sacrifice. That is a thin line some cross over into, and it results in something much less potent. You are to be a protector, not a martyr."

A flick of the wrist, and she willed Arigenald to stand. A simple, momentary reversal of the gravity surrounding him. To bring him to his feet.

"Now stand. Brush yourself off."
(Koume Bavmor)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[17:23] After she released her assault on him as he fell to his knees, he felt like just completely collapsing face first into the ground, but he wouldn't. Catching himself on his shields he would manage to nod as he floated to his feet.

You are to be a protector, not a martyr.

"I do. I can not fail, I can not afford to." His amber hues would drift off to see Noctis, and then Izabell, Layla's image appearing clear as the sunny, cloudless sky above.

He would nod again as he looked back to Koume. "I will bolster my resolve, knit shut the holes in my defenses and.. Self.. I will turn my light into an impenetrable wall because.. I have too much to lose." Drifting to put his feet back on the ground, he would offer a deep bow.

"Thank you, Regent Koume, this has been exceptionallyenlightening." He was sincere in his gratitude as he went back to standing up right. "I will meditate on this lesson now."
(Sir Airgenald Spudnicus Ixis)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[17:25] Koume patted the Ookami on the shoulder, before shifting in place and pacing back toward town to tend to her duties.
(Koume Bavmor)