[center][h1][u]From the Ground Up[/u][/h1][/center]
[center][i]Adéla, Urthar[/i][/center]
[center][b]Day 1, Late Evening[/b][/center]

Urthar waited patiently in underground practice room. He’d given Adéla the directions to reach it. It shouldn’t be hard for her since the glamour wouldn’t affect her. Come to think of it that probably needed to change so that he didn’t have a problem other Aberrants. It was time to start teaching her how to use actual magic. The transformation were all well and good but the real magic would take time. She would absolutely have to learn how to mindfray, infact she would learn if it killed her. 

Adéla made her way as quietly as she could to the room Urthar had indicated. She knew she was going to be learning more advanced uses of Aberrant magic, but exactly what she didn’t have the slightest idea. 

Arriving in a small room, she realized that the area would’ve probably been protected by some illusion that’d keep prying minds away, but obviously had little effect on her - the reason being just as obvious. Opening the only door she could see, she emerged into another room, much bigger than the previous however, and with an occupant this time. 

“Hello.” She greeted him, “So what are we doing now?”

Urthar nodded towards a golem at the other end of the room. “Time to learn how to use some of your magic, transformations work really well but the problem is that even for us some of the creatures of Galendar are simply physically too powerful. That being said. Our magic is next to unstoppable against lesser wills.” Urthar made a sick chuckle through his tentacles. “And quite effective on those of equal or more powerful wills.” Urthar walked over to Adéla and used his will to jerk the Golem forward. “Let us start with mindfray. It is one of the best ways to damage an enemy. Because it targets their will.” Urthar turned on the golem, drew up his magic and slammed the Golem with the magic. Instead of targeting the body he sent the magic straight at its will. ”Aim for the Will, grab ahold of the magic and through it straight through the outer shell of the being that you wish to hurt.”

Adéla wasn’t quite sure what exactly the Master of Word meant when he said, “Aim for the Will”. Perhaps it was because of her complete and utter lack of knowledge regarding magic, albeit now increased a little due to exhaustive research into the nature of Aberrant magic, but nothing she’d read had mentioned aiming for someone’s Will…

“Eh… if you don’t mind,” she paused, looking somewhat apprehensive, “Could you explain what you mean by ‘aim for the Will’ perhaps? I’m not really sure what you mean.”

Urthar stepped up behind her and put his hands on either side of her head and dug around in her head for a moment before finding her senses. [i]Ah that was the problem[/i] With a twitch of magic Urthar pressed Adéla’s magical senses open more. “That should be enough of a kick start for your senses to start developing at a faster pace. Now look again, this time instead of using your mortal eyes do your best to ignore them and use your other senses” Urthar stepped back from her and gestured again. “A being’s Will is what defines its existence and how much of an effect they have on reality. Our magic can damage that, in Galendar we can even go as far as forcing this reality to erase its own inhabitants if enough magic and Will is brought against a target. For the most part Mindfray will only make it harder for your enemy to focus, use magic and fight but if you apply enough magic and force…’ Urthar stepped around her again for a moment and let loose at torrent of Void magic that erased the Golem’s Will from existence. For a moment the Golem hung limply before reality warped on itself. The Golem contorted in on itself before a tearing sound followed by a crunch and with that it was simply gone. “I doubt you can manage that much magic and you still lack an Aberrant will but you can still apply the basic principles of Mindfray. It is what makes our kind so dangerous. No magic in Galendar can target a Will like we can. Not even the Avatars or the God Weapons can do what Mindfray can do. The problem is that we are forced to play by Galendar’s rules, it would be simple to extinguish a Will from Galendar if they were in the Void. Here, it is less simple. Think of it like breaking the rules in a game. If you know how to not get caught it makes life simpler; but you always have to take extra pains not to get caught.” Settling in another Golem stepped from a wall alcove. “Alright now, use your senses and use the void magic you absorbed against the Golem’s Will directly.”

Adéla nodded, only half paying attention as she focused on the golem. She still absorbed what Urthar had said of course, she’d developed a keen skill at hearing what others were saying while simultaneously not listening to them with any real attentiveness. Everything he said about breaking the rules and how she didn’t have an ‘Aberrant’ Will -whatever that meant, she would have to ask- registered in her mind, but most of her attention was focused on the dazzling array of sensory information she was suddenly receiving. It wasn’t like she could hear better, or smell better, it was like allowing a colorblind person to see in red as well as yellow and blue, or even growing eyes when before there had been none. 

Mild overstatement, but she breathed in and focused, seeing the golem in front of her, and then… not. In front of her she could discern some sort of… something, there weren’t exactly words to describe it for regular human sight, but it was something else certainly. A smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth and she raised her hand, feeling what little of the arcane power of the void she currently held flow through it. With unrefined and inexperienced motions she cast the power coursing through her hand at the Will in front of her, attacking it as viciously as she could with her limited skill at magic of any sort. She did make a conscious effort to restrain herself somewhat, not wanting to bleed herself dry already.

The impact battered the form of the golem’s Will, or at least how she perceived it. It seemed faded and much… less. While in the real world it didn’t seem to have suffered any serious damage, it was easy to tell that it was not all there anymore. Turning to Urthar, she raised an eyebrow, “So… how was that?”

Urthar tilted his head as he studied the Will. “That was actually rather good considering that you are about as magical as a rock. Or were I should say. No offense.” Urthar placed his hand on her shoulder and replaced her magic that she had expended with the Mindfray. “Give it a few more tries and get a feel for targeting the Will, then I will teach you how to degrade substance. Once you know how to do both of those things then it is simply a matter of teaching you how to combine: creating, destroying, and transforming to achieve the desired effect.” Urthar settled back again to let Adéla work.

All things considered the woman was taking quite well to the training. Urthar had a sneaking suspicion it was largely due to the fact that he didn’t have to undo any prior magical training that she had. Galendar and Void magic didn’t mix, they were simply incompatible. Although it was certainly odd that Adéla had such an aptitude for Void magics. As soon as she had that down it would be time to teach her anti-magic but all in good time. The next step was learning how to actually channel void magic into the material plane and for that she would have to master the Void blast spell. Not difficult but it was the basis for most other destructive void magics. 

“Let me know when you are finished and we can move on to teaching you how to use a Void blast”

-----

Adéla grinned as the golem in front of her vanished into the void of nothingness. It had taken several attacks, and she herself felt a little winded, but she had actually managed to kill it without ever touching it once. 

She’d used magic!

Containing her inner desire to hop and skip around like someone an eighth of her age, she turned to Urthar. “So, think I’ve managed the ‘targeting the Will’ bit, yet?” She allowed herself the ghost of a grin, eager to continue this learning, “I think you mentioned degrading substances next? Could you elaborate on that, perhaps?”

Urthar jerked another Golem out of its alcove and set it slightly farther away. “Yes, you have to manifest the void energy and use it to destroy things. So a Void blast is where you convert raw void magic into a destructive magic which tears apart substances in Galendar.” Urthar converted his magic and flung a blast of magic the length of the room. It slammed into the Golem and tore it to pieces. “This one is going to be a little more difficult, since you actually have to make the magic manifest itself in order to use it.” Urthar stepped back and let her give it a shot.

“So instead of attacking the metaphysical, we’re simply attacking the physical?” Adéla raised an eyebrow. It seemed relatively simple, not all that different from changing her physical form, in that she was affecting the physical world, it was just a little more long distance this time.

Letting the magic within her well up once more, she breathed deeply, letting herself see the target before pushing the energy coursing through her body out, forcing it into a hostile form and hurling the manifested bolt of Void energy at the golem with all her metaphysical might. The shot impacted it and, while not tearing it to pieces such as Urthar’s had done, blasted sizeable chunks off of it and sent it reeling back. The hint of a grin tugged at the corners of her mouth again, but she still managed to keep it in check, “And?” she asked, “How was that?”

Urthar nodded. “Well done. Next time when you use it, don’t think of it as hitting the Golem with the magic think of the magic as a solvent. Our magic deteriorates Galendar’s physical world, so instead of using it as a bludgeoning tool use it as a means of getting the world to crumble. Its a matter of breaking apart things on a lower level of matter. Our magic is a universal solvent. All of Galendar’s material can be bathed in it and reduced by it.”

Urthar stepped back to let Adela try again. The woman’s knack for Void magic was startling to say the least. Then again Urthar had the sneaking suspicion that her lineage was probably from one of the Outer Gods and not one of the Firstborns that they had spawned and who typically sired such half breeds.

The fact that she was so effortlessly good at this befuddled Adéla as well. She wasn’t exactly an expert when it came to magical theory, but one idea surfaced as she prepared another bolt of energy.

Focusing the, in her mind corrosive, energies into a bolt of what she understood to be essentially anti-energy, she let fly at the golem again,  this time taking into account Urthar’s advice about dissolving the target, rather than blasting it apart. She wasn’t destroying it with raw power, rather… violently disassembling a machine without bothering to keep the parts intact for rebuilding it. The bolt flew true and slammed into the golem, finishing off what she hadn’t been able to do before and she watched with glee as it crumbled. 

Practically beaming, she turned to Urthar, “And, how was that?” And then her question came back to her, “And also, do you think the reason I couldn’t use Galendar’s magic whatsoever could explain how I’m able to do all this easily? You haven’t said anything, but I can tell this shouldn’t be going so quickly or smoothly. Perhaps I’m hardwired for the Void?”

Urthar pondered for a moment. “That is a serious consideration, it would make sense given your total lack of magic up to this point.” Studying the rubble Urthar continued to ponder. “I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, it’s just unfortunate that you have such a small pool of magic and a normal will.” Urthar absently summoned another golem for further practice.

It was amazing that Adéla had ended up at the Tower, it was at least relatively common in the rather rare instances of the Aberrant bloods appearing for their initial transformation to get them killed. Adéla was probably one of the only Aberrant bloods not only in existence but she was unique in that she was receiving any training at all. Urthar’s thoughts turned to the Lieutenants that had escaped after the first war. If he had felt the Outer door open no doubt they had as well. And if they had found other Aberrant bloods… That train of thought did not bode well. 

Turning back to Adéla, Urthar pushed the Golem back to its alcove. “You still need more training, as good as you are, you will need to be able to defend yourself and other Aberrants will resist your magic. Lucky that you are quite versed in martial combat, that will help as many of the other Aberrants rely on their magic and brute strength.”

This time Urthar took up the Golem’s place on the other side of Adéla. “Anti-magic. The only form of Galendar magic that our kind can use as it is actually a derivative of void magic. Megelis is one of the most powerful Anti-mages that I have ever met. I doubt if you will be able to achieve that level of proficiency as quickly but it is important for you to learn how to use it.” Urthar conjured up a void blast. It was significantly more concentrated than Adéla’s. “As long as you are in your human form, if you fail to turn it aside then it will simply tear off your human form. Keep in mind that our outer skin is protective in nature, but if you get hit with something incredibly powerful it will still hurt your Aberrant form. Now, when you draw on your magic filter it through Galendar. The idea is to degrade the spell, think of it as dissolving the incoming magic much the same way you did the golem. You don’t have to meet it with exactly the same amount of force that is being used, just enough to get the spell to fall apart.” Pausing for a moment Urthar continued ‘You have two other options: meet it with exactly the same amount of force or more and this will cancel the aggressive spell. While it's a highly intensive way to do it, it is a sure fire way to keep you from getting hit. The last option is to hit the spell with less force but instead of trying to dissolve it, add a direction to it, it will adjust the trajectory of the incoming spell. Dangerous but an option when you are desperate.”

With that Urthar held up his hand and fired the Void blast at Adéla. 

“All I’ve had to work with for the past eighty six years has been martial prowess, tech, and smarts.” Adéla commented, looking over at him, “I like to think I’m half decent at all three.”

She wasn’t fully prepared for the blast as Urthar sent it, and reacted instinctively, similarly to how she might’ve had it been a physical attack. It’d been an old and painful lesson that simply meeting raw power with raw power wasn’t the smart way to do things - the simplest way perhaps, and certainly an option, but not really one for her. Before she’d recieved her cybernetics and subsequently achieved far greater strength than  most anyone could unaided, she’d been fairly low on the totem pole of physical prowess. 

As such, she’d ingrained in herself an instinct to simply redirect whatever came at her. Why bother meeting force with force, when you could redirect the attack [i]and[/i] throw the attacker off balance?

So she did so. Channeling the magic in her body again, she sent out a pulse of her own energy to intercept the blast. Hitting it away from her, a thought came to mind and, with a second pulse of energy against the now redirected blast, sent it hurtling back towards its caster. She hadn’t been expecting that to work, and it hadn’t been entirely intentional, but now she was curious to see how the Master of Word would react to something she didn’t even know was possible, let alone could do. 

Urthar smiled and brushed his hand through the air. The bolt of magic disappeared into a warped version of Urthar hand. “very good, you’re learning.” It was certainly an interesting response to the magic being hurled at her. That being said she still had much to learn. “You’ll excuse me if I neglected to include simply absorbing the magic, it is much more difficult than it seems. I think that is enough for now. If you wish to practice anything else you are welcome to use these rooms and you may call on me at your leisure”