"I could recreate the same method that Lady Tirriris used or…"
Syon stepped away from the window and beckoned Rotsard to come up to him, and said, while hesitantly reaching out his hands halfway towards the youth.
"That is the standard method, I don't mind it at all. Although my hands will be rather chilly, so sorry for that."
Rotsard reached out his own hands and allowed Syon to grab them. The standard method he mentioned was how the new spells would normally be taught by someone already knowledgeable in the subject, using their own mana to guide the inner mana of the other person to complete the pattern. Upon repetition, the pattern would engrave itself within the magic circuits of the one being taught and then would activate upon them using the chant as a key-phrase.
"Oh, whoa…! Your hands ARE cold!"
"Warned you. Also, it will get colder, so brace yourself."
Upon contact, Syon flinched, and his eyes widened as he exclaimed, causing Rotsard to chuckle as the circle of light grew from beneath him and disconnected ephemeral wings spread out above his back.
"You really are something else… even the mana I'm attuning to ice is having a hard time not freezing up when interacting with your pure ice mana..."
Syon said, furrowing his brows as a single bead of sweat showed up on his forehead, only to freeze up the next moment. In truth, he wanted to add that it was exactly how Grand Faes govern the mana of an attribute instead of merely converting to it, but he already knew that Rotsard wouldn't take it as a compliment, so he made sure to shut his mouth at the right moment.
In the end, the guidance took up much longer than what the participants of the presentation used, but, nonetheless, it was done.
"Whew…! What's left is for you to circulate your mana in that pattern. I'm not going to hold my breath or the result, but the process itself will be rewarding enough with how your mana will…"
*whoom*
Syon breathed out, wiping, or rather scraping off, the frozen sweat off his forehead. Leaning down and speaking towards the floor before raising his head with a smile and being faced with an apple-sized orb of bluish-white light hovering between Rotsard's palms.
"..."
"..."
They both stayed silent for a bit, Rotsard looking innocently at Syon while Syon's eyes were switching between him and the orb between his palms every few seconds.
"...you're messing with me…!"
After about a minute or so, Syon's cheeks puffed up as he pouted and muttered, turning away and crossing his arms.
"What? No! This is what showed up after I completed the pattern on my own!"
"..."
Rotsard gasped and assured, but Syon only spared him a single sullen glance.
"And you swear that this isn't just Snowball…?"
"Yes! Look, I'll do it again, so watch it with that mana sight of yours."
Syon muttered under his breath, staring daggers at the bleached-blond-haired youth who assured him while releasing the spell.
After making sure that Syon's watching properly, he put up his hands again and…
*whoom*
"?!?!"
An apple-sized orb of bluish white light appeared between his palms, causing Syon's eyes to go wide.
"You… you activated it so fast without the chant…!"
"Oh, I didn't know it had a chant, so I just manually circulated my mana in the pattern."
Syon gasped in shock, but Rotsard only shrugged his shoulders dismissively.
"No, but… it was instantaneous! Way too fast for manual activation!"
"When I'm in this state, it's always like that, though?"
He responded to more of Syon's mumbling, but the vice headmaster wasn't listening to him anymore.
With his face so close to the orb that his nose was getting frosted, Syon was examining the spell with an expression awestruck and shocked in equal measure.
"It… it was processed but kept its element…! I never even heard of the base processed mana having an element on its own!"
"Oh, interesting. What are we going to do with that discovery?"
Syon gasped in awe, making Rotsard raise his brows and ask, although sounding a bit as if he was just going along to humor the vice headmaster and wasn't all that interested himself.
…mainly because he had no idea how insane his achievement was in the first place…
"We're going to experiment, of course…! Since this proves that you can process mana, the next step is to attempt using an actual spell! How about a fire one? A 1st tier Ember."
"...oh…?"
Alas, the grin blooming on Syon's face, coupled with a rather bold statement that followed, caused even the seemingly indifferent youth to let out an intrigued voice.
"No, wait. Won't it just not work? Ice mana suppresses fire."
"Well, then it just won't activate. Still, don't you want to at least try it…?"
After a moment of consideration, Rotsard shook his head and pointed out reasonably, but Syon only shrugged his shoulders, acting coy, and already reached out his hands.
"Please? Ember's pattern is barely more complicated than this one was~"
"Ugh… fine…"
Syon tilted his head and asked all fidgety, to which Rotsard groaned but ended up agreeing and offering his own hands.
Syon wasn't lying about Ember's mana circulation pattern being barely more complicated, and since he already gained a bit of experience with guiding Rotsard's mana, he actually helped him complete the right pattern faster than the first one.
"Hey, just don't be too discouraged if nothing happens or at most a lick of smoke will show up."
"I won't, I promise~!"
Rotsard ended up taking a few glances at the vice headmaster, all shaking from excitement, so he breathed out and pointed out, but nothing seemed to bring down Syon's mood.
"Alright. Ember."
*whooo*
The bleached-blond-haired youth chanted and, against all common sense of their world, a pale bluish white flame ignited between Rotsard's palms.
The color wasn't the only differentiating factor for it, though. Although the pale bluish flame was crackling happily, alright, it wasn't giving off any warmth.
At all.
Opposite even.
Despite definitely presenting itself as a proper flame.
"..."
*thump*
"Syon?!"
The vice headmaster, who stared blankly at the spell, ended up suddenly plopping down on the floor like a puppet that had its strings cut off, causing the youth to call out, alarmed, both unaware of the commotion outside.
"...impale…!"
Someone's androgynous voice called out from outside, but neither of the two bothered about it, too preoccupied with the shocking development on hand.
"I… I'm fine. It's just… It's just that… Everything we know about mana and classic magic system will have to be rewritten…"
As Rotsard was about to release the spell and kneel by the downed Syon, the man himself ended up slowly shaking his head as he spoke up while stuttering.
"Whoa there, don't you think that's a bit much? I'm sure there are spells that create cold flames."
"There are, but none of them make use of a standard pattern used for Ember. Listen, the pattern of circulation is what processes mana and adds an attribute to it. Your mana ignored the latter part but still actuated the spell! That shouldn't have happened. That has never happened, and believe me, the greatest magicians have experimented with the formula for centuries and keep doing it today, yet no one produced ANYTHING resembling what you achieved."
Rotsard tried to play it off, but Syon shook his head more vigorously and exclaimed.
"Calling it achievement feels a bit much, though, wouldn't you say? I just used the spell you taught me, and this popped up. Even I'm not shameless enough to brag about something like that."
Rotsard rolled his eyes and pointed out while taking a closer look at the bluish white flame.
"You're not…?"
"..."
Rotsard was moving one hand closer to his spell when Syon decided to ask back in a baffled voice, making him frown and glare at him with…
"OUCH! What the, it's co…!"
Rotsard ended up actually putting his index finger directly into the flame and actually flinched and hissed, wildly shaking his hand and calling out in shock…
"..."
Only to realize that he flung the bluish white ember right through the open window!
"...ld…?"
"..."
Rotsard and Syon looked at each other for a second before…
"GIHYAAAAAAAAAA!?"
"!!!"
A bloodcurdling screech of pain caused both of them to rush over to the window and lean out to see what happened with the spell…!