[Completed] Legend of the Five Knights III: Song of Divine Wrath

Episode 21: Aventine's Secret Arts

As soon as we were outside, uncle Takeshi opened a portal. "Let's go," he said with a smug grin.

I followed him inside. I gasped. It was... my angelic dome room.

"Why are we here?"

"I trust you know that this was my room before. This is the personal room of the wielder of Aventine. So, what better place for an old master to train his successor than this?"

I leered at him. "You aren't someone I would describe as 'old' in any sense of the word."

He chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment. It's good to be in good cheer, even when things are tough."

I thought back to Tetsu. Usually, that's the way he was. At least... until the accusation. I shouldn't have dismissed his denial the way I did... I should've given him the chance to prove his innocence.

Takeshi unsheathed a black katana and pointed it at my neck. "Ready, successor?"

I jumped back and grabbed a hold of my earring. A bright violet-blue-light lit the night sky all around us.

"Woah," Uncle said, shielding his eyes with his left arm.

When did Aventine's light get that strong? I had last transformed it while in Makkuroyama, but I was too distracted by what was going on to notice the intensity of the light. At Tetsu's place, I used a wooden sword to review the basics, plus trained some of my other powers.

"Try to focus the light next time."

"Focus it? How?" I asked. "What does that do?"

He snickered. "You really have lot of learning to do." He glanced around. "Would be helpful if Kohri were around so that he could help me explain things."

"So, you aren't any better, huh?"

"No. I'm just not sure I can word it well." He took a deep breath. "But here goes... Basically, a strong light during an angel tool transformation can be both good and bad."

"Both?"

"Good in that it means the wielder has a strong mana. Bad in that a lot of that mana is leaking out."

I thought back to Reno's angel tool. The guy's weapon gave off a strong light when transformed, but would rapidly burn through his energy.

My eyes lowered to the blade in my hands. "Then I should work harder on my mana control." Teleporting also drained a lot out of me.

"Indeed," he said, patting my shoulder. His slap nearly knocked me over. He snickered. "You also got to work on becoming sturdier, kid."

I glared. Tetsu said the same thing once... minus the kid part.

Uncle tilted his head at me. "Perhaps, I should have you warm up first. You must be feeling groggy after that nap."

"I'm fine. I took a shower to get rid of the grogginess."