Yuma looked around, his body refreshed in his soul's region. At least feeling better from the concussion helped with morale a bit. The house being gone, however... that's concerning. Yuma walked around his region, wondering what was going on. He finally took notice of where he actually was, beneath his feet were piles of ashes of something that had been fully burnt down. He figured it must've been the house he was accustomed to, after all, despite the house being covered in ice, he saw the soft glow of burning underneath the ice. Looking around, he tried searching for Serapheria. For twenty minutes, he couldn't find her. He searched every possible spot he was aware of, but there was no sign of her. Just as he was going to give up, he felt arms hug him from behind. The comfort was familiar; it warranted no reaction but relaxing into the grip.
"I'm sorry, Yuma..." Serapheria softly whispered into his neck.
"Nothing to be sorry about... I wasn't training hard enough. You're only able to do what I could provide," Yuma responded just as softly.
The two hadn't said anything for a long while, just absorbing the little comfort they could keep for now. It was no secret to Serapheria how dangerous the coming days would be now; she held on tighter to Yuma far more than she realized. After a bit longer, Yuma turned and hugged her back.
"Sera, I need to get stronger. I'm going to lose everyone... more than what I lost..." He muttered, nearly in tears, to her.
It took all his pride to be swallowed to admit he was scared and alone, but he knew one way or another she already knew. Serapheria pulled away from him and cupped her face in her hands, staring deeply into his eyes. Tears were forming in her eyes. It shocked Yuma a little bit. Let alone Serapheria crying, he didn't think Ikons could feel such emotions so deeply. He reasoned it's his own grief reflected back to him.
"I'm so sorry, Yuma... I... had I not brought you here, none of this would've happened" She choked out in tears.
Yuma was surprised; he thought it was her feeling his grief, but now she's admitting her guilt. She was crying for him, not with him. Yuma couldn't do anything but stare. She was right; it was her fault for dragging him into all this. She could've just ignored him and picked someone better suited for this, but a part of his heart was grateful anyway. Cupping her face, he began to stop holding back his tears; all he could do was laugh rather than sob.
"Don't be guilty, I'm grateful for you... I was alone, dealing with guilt over my father and brother, and you came in and comforted me, and through god's permission allowed me to gain strength to make justice a possibility for me. Serapheria, please don't cry for me... I want you here." Yuma softly told her through his tears.
She stood there quietly for a moment before more tears flowed freely down her face. Instantly, she pulled him into a tight hug. Yuma didn't need to focus on her feelings to know how touched she was by that. Yuma returned the hug just as tight, neither one of them wanting to let go. In that moment, he felt it. A surge of power washed over him; his nerves felt cool but on fire. His skin was warming in a cool temperature. He felt his mind getting sharper, feeling like he could grasp any concept, like understanding a formula he had never been able to get. Pulling apart from Serapheria, Yuma slowly checked his arm. His mark, which was just a vivid snowflake wrapped in a glittering flame that had a line growing from it, transformed into a blooming rose with thorny vines stemming from the snowflake and flame. It still wasn't anything substantial, and a subject was vivid and visible in the greater portrait. Serapheria wiped her tears and looked at his mark.
"A rose?" she asked more to herself.
Yuma looked at her, worried it was a bad sign, but just before he could ask, she had already answered.
"It's not bad. No design is bad; every conduit's marks manifest differently even if they share the same element." She explained, her voice still unsteady.
"For yours to manifest as a rose, however... truly it is unique to you. "It must have formed from your experiences or something along those lines," she continued, finally gathering herself together with a few minor hiccups.
Yuma returned his gaze to the rose, pondering on his mark. In a way, understanding why it formed a rose. Still, he understood he had no real time to continue to think about it. Moving his gaze back to Serapheria, he wondered if she knew what their resonance was now.
"I'm curious, do you know what our exact resonance is?" Yuma asked softly
"15.684 percent." She shot back immediately.
Yuma was thrown off by how robotic that felt, like he was inputting a calculation to a robot and got his answer. Shaking it off, he nodded at her and felt a growing sense of resolve to grow stronger burn in his chest.
"So what can we do now?" Yuma asked.
Serapheria looked at him with nothing less than the same level of resolve he had. She was intent on making him stronger as well. In the same instance of him asking she had already burnt her clothes into the armor she wore the first time she taught him swordplay and basic combat.
"For starters, you can push your enhancement to further limits, and your weapon should be at an equal percentage of completion. What's new now is you can conjure weakened one-time use weapons." she explained.
She summoned a mace that was formed of blue flames. Yuma stared in amazement at the sight, while he observed it, she slammed it into the ground. It created a small crater in the ash, causing it to scatter in the air. The moment it had made its impact, the blue flames burnt out in smokeless fashion. Yuma couldn't believe he could do this now, and how Akira never had this explained to him. Before he could attempt it himself, Serapheria appeared in front of him. Her hands had remnants of blue flames flicker away. Yuma backed up in surprise, wondering what she had done and how she had closed the gap. It wasn't as fast as she usually would be just by walking, but it was like she was gliding across the ground.
"This is a new capability of yours now... You can use your flames as propulsion, an effective form of transport." She explained while holding her palm out.
Her palm had a flame burning; it wasn't steady, however, it had been blowing up in pulses, stacking its explosive force. It explained to Yuma how she propelled herself with the flame.
"Of course, for now you're using a weaker form of it, but just like any ability you had before and will have, it will grow as you do." She continued.
Yuma nodded at her demonstrations and explanation and decided he'd give them a shot.
"Could you give me the training gear?" Yuma asked politely.
Serapheria snapped her fingers, and blue flames engulfed Yuma. Once the flames burnt out, he was wearing the light armor he had trained with before. Prepared, Yuma held out his hand and tried to conjure a weapon. For a while, he just stood there with his palm out. Serapheria looked at him, confused about what he was attempting to do. She was unsure if he wanted to use his flames or make a weapon.
"Need help?" She offered.
"Actually... yeah... How do I make a weapon?" Yuma asked, a tad confused.
"Imagine any weapon you want, and that's about it..." Serapheria chuckled out, shocked that he didn't manage to figure that much out.
Taking in her advice, Yuma tried again. His palm held out again, he imagined a gun. Once again, nothing formed in his hand. Turning to Serapheria, his face scrunched up in frustration.
"Why didn't it work?" Yuma asked, an edge of annoyance at himself lacing his tone.
"What did you try conjuring?" She asked, tilting her head.
"A gun," Yuma instantly said.
Serapheria sighed and shook her head.
"Won't work, projectile-like weapons can't be summoned. It has to be something melee, like" She explained.
Yuma looked put off by that information, but decided it just had to be something he couldn't make. Closing his eyes once more, he held out his palm again. He imagined a simple knife, focusing completely on its form, its handle, its edge, the spine of the blade. Just as he felt the flames cold burn...
He woke up.