Vivian was clearly struggling to find the right words. After some time, she said, "It took me a while to realize how significant my sight was."
"I realized that what I was seeing was part of a soul left behind, some of their lifeforce that didn't make it to the afterlife. And I realized that these pieces left behind could retain consciousness, which was strange."
"Which is why I said the connection isn't severed. But that left me thinking; 'why can I see this?' Obviously, I never got my answer, but I did realize that I was in fact seeing lifeforce."
Eldrian wanted to say she already mentioned this when it finally hit him. "Oh..." He mumbled as his eyes widened. "You don't mean."
"Exactly. Once I realized this, I tried to fine-tune my sight. I remembered what you told me about mana sense and Mana Examination. And I thought I might be able to somehow connect my sight to these skills."
She paused, clearly for dramatic effect. "It took a while, but I succeeded."
"Seriously?"
"Yes! I managed to further what I could see. Admittedly, it's still a work in progress, but... I did it."
Eldrian was left stunned. Even after all he trained and went through, he was incapable of seeing lifeforces. He could sense it, sure. But that took a lot of effort and was more often than not, not worth it.
Most auras, after all, were visible due to the effects they caused. Jade's charm power was one of the few Eldrian knew of that was invisible.
"How does this connect to seeing my spells?" Eldrian asked, trying to get back to that topic. After all, it had seemed that Vivian was reacting before his spells even completed forming. Which meant she wasn't reacting to the gathering of mana.
Heck, that would be incredible too. To see others' spells forming was rather difficult due to all the ambient mana getting in the way. It had taken Eldrian years to finetune mana sense to filter out ambient mana. Allowing him to see only what he wanted.
"As I said, it's still a work in progress. But in a one-on-one, I'm capable of highlighting a person's lifeforce."
"And what does that mean, exactly?" Eldrian asked.
"Simply put, I could see your mageia willing mana to move. Whenever you tried to cast a spell, I saw the thread that would start the process."
"That's..." Honestly left without words, Eldrian stared at Vivian in pure shock. The only time he could ever see lifeforce was within his own soul. So this was certainly a massive shock.
"What does it look like?" Eldrian asked, once he managed to regain his composure.
"Well... mana looks like a mist, colored to its element. Lifeforce is more like an aurora."
'That is what my auras look like in my soul.' Eldrian thought.
"But they aren't all that bright. And when you use Mageia to cast spells, it's mostly colorless, transparent. A tinge of the mana type's color gets infused. But I'm unsure if that is because mana is just so so much brighter, or if your lifeforce takes on the element of the spells you cast."
"Let's find out!" Eldrian was now super excited. This was massive. If Vivian could observe lifeforce, so many mysteries of magic could be discovered.
Sure, Ziraili was teaching him. But their teaching was currently on a hiatus due to the tournament prep. And most of their time was spent getting his scientific knowledge up to date.
Casting a few basic spells, Eldrian pulled out a notepad and asked Vivian to take notes on what she could see. He also used a few non-elemental spells of his own. Well, calling them spells was a misnomer. But he tried to figure out what ether manipulation looked like, as well as when he spread Mageia through an area.
"Right, so spells caused Mageia to take their color, just like you said. Ether manipulation is like a blue-ish white hue of light on top of an invisible force, and when I spread my Mageia it is transparent, but still visible?"
"Yeah. It's really hard to see when you don't activate mana. It's closer to being invisible than not. Almost like glass. Or heat waves..."
After that, they did a few more tests. When suddenly Eldrian thought of an insane idea. "Do you think you can interfere with my Mageia?"
This was the basics of magic barriers. The barrier caster interfered with the will of other casters. But only within the effect of their barriers. Basically, their barrier acted as a sensor for when spells formed. Though their effect only started once mana moved.
And, of course, it gave the barrier caster an advantage in the battle of wills. Like they had something to anchor them from the winds of battle.
If Vivian was able to interfere before mana even started to move... she would become one heck of a force to be reconned with. Eldrian didn't even know if he would be able to win if she could do it.
After a few tests, sadly, she wasn't quite there. However, this was a test against Eldrian. He knew that his Mageia was stable, his will and focus were strong, after all. He could contest spells of people higher tiered than himself.
Vivian was Tier 6 herself, the same as him. And her breakthrough was more recent, so she was still acclimating to Tier 6. She also wasn't a magic specialist, she was a swordmaster.
That she couldn't dispel his spells didn't mean she couldn't do it to the spells of others. After all, she had managed to focus her own will to disrupt his spellcasting.
Their experimentation had taken a few hours. "Right, I think I understand how this works," Eldrian announced, still full of energy. Vivian, on the other hand, was exhausted.
"Your sight takes effort same as mana sense, but far more. I guess that is because it is linked to your aura, and thus lifeforce. I think what your doing is similar to aura channeling."
"Other than that, we confirmed you are capable of actually following Mageia as it moves. Even if I alter the spell I was about to cast." Normal mages couldn't do that, only dynamic casters could.
"You can also launch your own Mageia to attempt to counter a mage's attempts to cast a spell. But when you do, you enter the classic battle of wills. Albeit a bit earlier, making it harder to form spells."
"Sadly, the battle is still influenced by Tier and level, which I've come to learn influences the size of one's soul. Which means if your opponent has more of either, and thus a larger soul capacity, their will over mana is stronger—since their Mageia is more cohesive and has more energy behind it."
"Which brings me to my next question, you managed to change your flame's abilities."
Looking towards Eldrian's missing arm, Vivian quickly understood what he was getting at. "You want to test if I might be able to use my Divine Flames on Mageia? Isn't that dangerous?"
"It sure is. Magic battles tend to cause mental damage. Interfere with a spell, and the caster has to use more focus on it. Interupt a spell, and their focus loses target and comes back to them as a type of whiplash."
"And if I simply destroy their Mageia..."
"They will lose that part of their conscious focus. I'm not sure what that will feel like, but I am betting most mages would lose consciousness right there from the backlash."
"And if they don't?"
"They'll get one heck of a headache at the least. Depending on the spell's Tier, and when you destroy their connection, the backlash might even kill them. Their spell would also end up going awry."
"Right, it's decided," Eldrian announced. "We'll train this for the next few weeks." He confidently declared.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l