(One Week Later)
"No, no, no!" Wren exclaimed as the blood I was manipulating dropped to the ground. "First, form it into the figure you are picture, then push purified mana into it, and boom, just like that, you'll have a blood clone." He was holding his hands out, like he did something.
"You are acting like this is something I can just master in seconds; it's been two days since we started trying." I started to lift the blood up off the ground. "I'm telling you; we are missing something."
"Brat, listen to me, you aren't missing anything, it's your mind, you need to concentrate, and put your purified mana into it." He pointed at the blood in the air. "You made this possible, you can make blood cloning possible, now shut up, and try again, or I'm going to throw an army of golems at you."
"Jeez, fine." I closed my eyes, and started to form the blood I was controlling into a humanoid figure, and as I did, I started to push out my purified mana into the blood. I was picturing a clone of Wren, because it was easy to picture him with all the yelling he had been doing. I kept pushing and pushing, until I thought there was enough. "Did I, do it?"
I didn't get a response, only silence, I opened my eyes, and saw the blood still just floating there. Wren shook his head. "I don't understand, just create a clone."
"Wren, it's not easy doing something you've never done before, we are legit creating a new spell out of this air." I'm the only Blood Deviant in existence, so this is new territory for the both of us.
"It's common sense, kid, if you do what I say, you will figure it out." It didn't seem possible, I've been trying and trying, and yet nothing has happened. "Look." He waved his hand and two life like beings appeared. "I can create real life looking golems, made of stones, you can do the same with blood and purified mana."
"Wouldn't it be easier if I had earth magic then, I could combine the two." I was now mad, I wasn't a quadra elemental.
"Yeah, but you don't have earth magic, so forget about it." Wren destroyed the two golems and looked at me intently. "Blood cloning could be a serious weapon in a fight, think about it, you could create clones of your soldiers, and add numbers to your side."
I conjured an illusion of myself. "Why can't I just use illusions for that? It would basically be doing the same thing."
"Not at all." Wren pointed at my illusion and threw a small rock at it, and the rock passed right through it. "See, an illusion is just an illusion, but a clone, well, if a clone is hit by, let's say an arrow, there would be blood and the clone can act like it's hurt. You may even be able to give the clone abilities, I don't know exactly how your blood magic works, but it could be possible."
"I see what you mean, but it isn't working." I closed my eyes and started to form the blood into a humanoid of myself, then started to push purified mana into it. I kept shaping the clone into what I wanted it to look like in my mind.
"Keep going, you're almost there." Wren insisted, and I kept on picturing the blood clone forming in front of me, using my purified mana to do so. I imagined the clone having the same abilities as me, being able to control blood, and then I opened my eyes. "I lied." Wren chuckled as I saw the stream of blood still floating there.
"Dammit." I exclaimed. "If you say it's possible, why can't I do it?"
"You need to truly concentrate on what you create, remember, the clone will only be as good as you make it." Wren ran his hand through the blood, and then swung it off him. "Keep trying, we have nothing else to do anyways."
"What about training with the golems?" I asked, not really caring about that training.
"Like I said before, we don't have enough time to make you a master in fighting in battles, I want to focus on discovering new abilities you may have." He paused for a second, then went on. "Let me worry about your training, get this blood cloning spell down."
"Alright." I answered him, wondering if the spell was even possible.
I formed the blood into a humanoid figure, then started pumping purified mana into it. I pictured myself again, appearing before me, and just concentrated on forming a clone.
"This time, add in some water and wind mana." Wren told me, and I did as he said. I pushed water and wind mana into the blood and kept on picturing myself. "Hmm." I heard Wren make a noise, but I kept on going.
I wanted this to work, I wanted a new spell, and blood cloning could be a serious asset. I opened my eyes when I thought it was done, and I got excited for a second, but that quickly went away when I saw Wren's face. "What? This is the step in the right direction." The blood was shaped like a human, but it had streams of water running through it, and it had zero design to it.
"I guess you're right, that's some weird as clone." As Wren finished, I waved the spell away. "Only use wind magic this time, no water."
"Okay." I repeated the process again, but this time I didn't use water magic, and only pumped in wind mana.
After about five minutes of me concentrating on forming the perfect clone, I opened my eyes, and the result was the same, another blob of blood. Wren walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "How about you take a break, we've been at this for a while."
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." I told him, and Wren conjured a couch made out of stones for us to sit on.
We sat there in silence; it gave me time to think about everything. I was handed a god weapon basically last week; I couldn't believe it. I had the potential of having my own bond, like Regis, who is a badass. It's also going to be awhile until it manifests, since Regis was born after Arthur merged with Sylvie.
I wonder how my team is doing, I wasn't told where they were being moved to without me for the next two months. I wanted to be with them, but this training was important, especially if Wren can help me figure shit out.
"What are you thinking about?" Wren asked me suspiciously.
"Why do you care what this Lesser is thinking about?" I responded sarcastically.
"Haha." He laughed and the stones under my but disappeared. "Because you, you are different, and from what I am told, your brother is as well." I sat up and brushed the dirt off of me as the seat reformed for me to sit on. "Virion, can I ask your opinion on something?" Wren shot me a curious glare, and I nodded my head. "What are your thoughts on this war you will be fighting in? What do you know about Agrona? I don't know if anyone has talked to you about him, I'm not suppose too, so I want to make sure I don't say anything you don't know."
"You want to hear my thoughts on the war and Agrona Vritra, well, I don't really have any that I would like to share with you, but I'll say this. If from what I am told is true, and the war for control over Dicathen is so that Agrona can build up his army to conquer Epheotus, why aren't you fighting in it?" I asked him, and Wren started to think about his answer. I already knew everything, I just wanted to hear Wren's opinion on why they aren't helping us.
"That does bring up a good point, but at the moment, we have a treaty with the Vritra." Wren answered me, but before I could speak my mind he went on. "I know what you are going to say, this war is because of us, we should be helping, but we most respect the treaty."
"Haha." I laughed in the face of the god before me, he didn't get angry from it though. "Respect the treaty, you hear that right?" I know in due time, Kezess was going to send in a force to assassinate Agrona, and because that plan fails, we lose the guidance of the Asuras during the war. "I understand, I do, but knowing what they're planning, why even make a treaty with them, it doesn't make that much sense to me."
"I agree with you one hundred percent." Wren squinted his eyes at me. "You're nine?" I just stared at him because he already knew that. "It's hard to believe, but I guess your brother is only a couple years older than you, and look at him, you both are supposedly monsters in battle when it comes to Lessers."
"Thank you, I think fighting in the war has made me a little more mature already, that may be why." I really wasn't mature because of this being my second life, in my old life I didn't even make it to high school, I barely made it to my tenth birthday. I've never had to act like a grown up, so I think fighting in the dungeons more than anything is what made me more mature.
"Ehh, I don't know." Wren pointed at me. "You've spent maybe six months in the dungeon, it wouldn't change you that much, but I mean you are a killer, so maybe." He waved his finger. "From what you have heard, what are your thoughts on Agrona then?"
"I don't know much about him." I couldn't tell Wren that I knew a lot about him. "However, from everything that has gone on, I feel like he's a normal power hungry monarch."
"I see." I could tell him that Kezess is the same way, but I didn't know if he would agree with me, so I let it go. "Do you know what the basilisks look like?" I shook my head no, knowing what they look like but never seeing them in person. "Here." Wren conjured a demon looking like figure, standing around seven feet, with two black horns on its head, a creepy ass smile, it was covered in this black armor, and the way it just stared down at me, creeped me out.
"Jeez." I mumbled, trying to figure out how the hell I was going to compete with something like this, but I felt excited as I looked up at it.
"Yeah, you are going to have to man up if you want to face one of them." Wren said, and the basilisk crumbled to stone.
"Na." I shot him a grin. "I can't wait to face one."
I could see Wren questioning my sanity. "There is definitely something wrong with you kid, you can control blood, so I can see how your screws can be a little loose."
I couldn't wait to get back out there and kill Alacryans in a real battle. I didn't know for sure if I could defeat a Retainer or Scythe, however, that wasn't going to stop me from going toe to toe with one. If I could face Retainer Uto and look him dead in the eyes while ripping his blood out. I think that would make my day. It was nice to talk to Wren about things like this, he was a god sort of.
"Why are you making that face, you creep?" I rubbed my eyes and turned back to Wren. "Let's get back to work, if you truly want to face off against their strongest fighters, you're going to need all the tricks you can get."
"I know." I stood up. "Let's figure this shit out then." I started moving the blood on the ground, and had it float in the air.
"You work on it; I'll watch from here." Wren told me. "I'm getting tired of standing in this god forsaken cave."
"Can't you change the appearance of this place if you wanted?" I asked him, knowing his capabilities.
"I could, if I wanted to." Wren waved to me to begin. "Now start."