For the next few days before school started, Lily spent almost all her time experimenting with different metals.
Her first stop had been the library. After flipping through several thick, dusty books, she finally identified the strange liquid-like metal she had created earlier—it was called mercury, a metal known for being able to flow like water and melt easily. That alone fascinated her.
But she didn't stop there.
Curious, she began gathering other minerals and refining them through her magic. Over time, she managed to produce three more metals: gold, copper, and iridium. Each one behaved differently under her control.
Gold was stable but heavy, not very useful for shaping quickly.
Iridium was incredibly dense and stubborn, almost resisting her magic.
Copper, however…
Copper was perfect.
It responded smoothly to her manipulation and, more importantly, reflected light extremely well. That gave Lily an idea—and soon enough, she was crafting thin copper blades designed to amplify and reflect her light magic.
That was how she ended up in her room, endlessly swinging around a glowing sword made of condensed light, its brilliance bouncing off the copper edges she had shaped around it.
The entire room was flooded with blinding radiance.
The door suddenly opened.
Gina stepped in—
—and immediately slammed it shut again.
"My eyes—!"
A second later, the door creaked open just a little, and Gina spoke while squinting painfully.
"Lily, please put that away. You've been swinging that thing around since yesterday. School starts tomorrow, and I haven't been able to sleep properly because I can't even tell if it's night or day in here!"
Lily took of her golden sunglasses and blinked, realizing just how bright the room had become.
"Ah… sorry."
She quickly dispelled the sword. The light vanished instantly, leaving the room dim and quiet again.
Gina let out a long sigh of relief.
Although Lily was excited about school starting, there was something she was even more excited about—
Dark magic.
After learning light magic so quickly, she had assumed darkness would be similar. Over the past few days, she had been reading every theory she could find—books discussing the nature of darkness, different interpretations, and methods of visualization.
Even so, most of it felt… vague.
Still, she believed she had a rough idea.
That was enough for her.
The next day, Lily headed to the training grounds.
Unlike before, the area was now crowded. Students filled nearly every space, practicing spells, showing off techniques, and competing with one another. Flashes of fire, bursts of wind, and shimmering barriers lit up the field in constant motion.
Lily scanned the area, looking for an empty spot.
There wasn't one.
She considered approaching someone to join them, but most people were already training in pairs or groups. Interrupting them didn't feel right.
So instead, she looked for someone alone.
Her gaze wandered across the field—
—and stopped.
A girl with light brown hair stood in front of a target.
Completely still.
Her eyes were unfocused, her posture slack, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Lily tilted her head.
…Isn't that Olivia?
She walked closer.
No reaction.
Closer.
Still nothing.
"Olivia!"
Olivia flinched as if shocked back to life. She turned halfway, her expression slowly shifting from blank confusion to recognition.
"Lily! You're here!"
Lily smiled and jogged over.
"What did you even do this past month?"
Olivia shuddered.
"M-my family locked me in my room… They said my written test was terrible, so I had to study the entire time…"
Lily winced slightly.
That reminded her—
That morning, the class rankings had been posted on the large board at the center of the school. Lily had been placed in the top class, along with Kane.
She hadn't seen Olivia's name there.
Since the classes were divided by written scores…
"…Which class are you in?" Lily asked carefully.
Olivia hesitated.
Then, quietly—
"The last one."
Lily paused.
She had always known Olivia was a bit absent-minded, but… she hadn't expected it to be this bad.
Olivia quickly added, stuttering, "Th-the teacher said if my practical skills weren't good, I wouldn't have even been accepted…"
Lily nodded slowly, deciding not to dwell on it.
"Well… how about we practice together?"
Olivia's face lit up slightly.
"O-okay!"
Lily stepped beside her and raised her staff.
She closed her eyes.
Darkness…
She tried to recall everything she had seen—Darius, Michael, even Hugo Erikson's overwhelming presence. Their magic wasn't just dark in color… it felt different.
Heavy. Deep. Consuming.
Nearby, Olivia began throwing punches at the target, releasing her stress in loud bursts of effort.
Lily, however, stood completely still.
She focused.
Just like with light magic—
She imagined a sphere.
But instead of brightness, she tried to make it as dark as possible.
At first, she imagined pure black.
It failed.
The image felt… empty. Hollow. Too abstract.
So she adjusted.
Deep purple.
Like Darius.
This time, something formed.
A faint, unstable sphere flickered into existence.
Lily held her breath, trying to stabilize it—
But just as she prepared to release it—
It vanished.
Her concentration broke.
She opened her eyes, frowning.
"…What went wrong?"
She tried again.
And again.
Each attempt lasted slightly longer than the last, but none of them became real. None of them gained the same physical presence her light magic had.
After several tries, she lowered her staff.
So it's not just imagination…
Her eyes shifted toward Olivia.
"Hey… how do you use healing magic?"
Olivia blinked.
"Huh? Um… it's hard to explain… I just imagine a light that restores injuries. For me, it's green. That's what healing light looks like in my head."
Lily froze.
"…I see."
She waved it off casually, but her mind was racing.
That's different.
Healing wasn't just "light."
It had meaning.
So darkness… isn't just the absence of light either.
She looked at her hand.
What am I actually trying to create?
She raised her staff again.
If the problem isn't my imagination… then it's what I'm imagining.
A sphere… doesn't make sense.
Darkness wasn't a shape.
It wasn't something you held.
It was—
An absence.
A void.
An emptiness.
Lily's breathing slowed.
She let go of the idea of form.
Instead, she imagined something endless.
A hole.
A space where nothing existed.
At first, it felt unstable.
Too vague.
Too distant.
I need something real…
Something she understood.
Something she could feel.
And then—
It clicked.
Mana.
She couldn't see it, but she could always feel it flowing around her.
So she replicated that sensation—
But inverted it.
Instead of presence—
Absence.
Instead of flow—
Stillness.
The air around her changed.
It grew heavy.
Tense.
At first, Lily thought she was just gathering mana—
But when she opened her eyes—
Everything was gone.
No light.
No color.
No shapes.
Only darkness.
Endless, suffocating darkness stretched in every direction.
For a brief moment—
Even Lily felt a chill.
Then she moved.
She swung her staff.
The darkness reacted instantly.
It folded inward, compressing, bending as if it were a physical substance—
Until—
It collapsed into a perfect cube, floating just above her palm.
In the distance, Olivia stared in shock.
The entire training ground around her had been cleared out—students had long since fled while olivia was rampaging around the field.
"…Woah… what was that?"
Lily turned toward her.
A small, mischievous smile formed.
"My inner darkness."
She raised the cube slightly.
Olivia stiffened—
Then realizing the absurdity of her statement
blinked.
"…Wait, what?"
But Lily had already turned away, completely absorbed in examining her new magic.
A few minutes later—
The cube flickered.
Then disappeared.
Lily staggered slightly.
"…I'm out of mana."
Her stomach growled almost immediately.
"…And hungry."
Olivia laughed nervously.
"Let's… go eat?"
"Yeah."
That night, after dinner, Lily returned to her room.
For once, she didn't experiment.
Didn't read.
Didn't practice.
She simply lay down.
Tomorrow, school would officially begin.