Rei stared at the ink bottle placed before him. The translucent Magica ink shimmered with an unnatural hue, as though tiny motes of elemental power drifted inside it. Beside it lay a clean sheet of parchment, stiff and heavy with enchantment.
"I still haven't learned how to draw magic formations," Rei admitted, tilting his head toward the others.
Arizona looked up from his half-finished formation, a grin tugging at his lips. "You can't back out now."
"I'm not backing out," Rei said quickly, lifting his hands in mock surrender. "Just letting you know—if my attack turns out weak, don't blame me."
Alya chuckled from across the table. "Don't worry. We won't judge."
Emilia rolled her eyes. "There was no need to say that in the first place."
Arizona smirked. "Actually, it helps. Magic formations usually require at least a few symbols from the Standard 1001—the universal script for structured mana flow. If he doesn't know any of them, I'd rather be informed. That way, we at least understand the context of what he's attempting."
Ben leaned back, arms crossed. "That's not context—that's just giving us all misinformation."
As the group settled around the table at the edge of a quiet plaza, Arizona continued drawing. He crafted three overlapping circles like a Venn diagram and started inscribing symbols within the intersections—runes that glowed faintly with residual energy as he infused the paper.
Rei, however, did something entirely different.
He picked up the quill and, without referencing any symbols, drew a wide octagram—an eight-pointed star, its lines sharp and confident. He didn't even connect the edges of the star properly. Instead, he left deliberate gaps between each vertex. Once the outer octagram was completed, he calmly drew another one within it, slightly smaller. Then another inside that—three concentric octagrams in total, none of their points touching, none of their lines intersecting.
He sat there for a moment, chin resting on his hand, staring at the design as if waiting for something to click.
Arizona, focused on refining his precision-based formation, didn't pay much attention. Alya, however, glanced between the two and let out a quiet laugh.
"I've never seen anyone approach a formation like that before."
Then, almost as if responding to her words, Rei resumed. He began to draw miniature octagrams between the existing ones, slotting them like secret layers inside the geometric space, and inside the innermost octagram, he added yet another trio of concentric octagrams, nested within one another like puzzle boxes. That made six concentric octagrams in total, all floating independently yet forming a unified structure. None of the vertices were joined, and none of the expected anchor symbols were present.
He paused again, his expression thoughtful. Everyone else had stopped pretending not to stare.
Then, without a word, Rei began another stage. He filled in the spaces of the innermost octagon, as well as the rings between the second and third, and the fifth and sixth octagrams, then he connected the filled spaces of the sides with a line to one another, keeping one space open. Afterward, he drew three straight lines that only touched one of the three filled spaces and did not touch the octagrams themselves but extended from their internal gaps to the very edges of the parchment. Lastly, he added two curving lines that connected the filled areas like arteries feeding a beating heart.
At last, he set down his quill.
"Finished."
Alya leaned forward. "I've never seen such a magic formation in my life."
Rei glanced over at Arizona. "Is he done yet?"
Alya shook her head. "Combined formations take more time than standard ones. He's close."
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Arizona finally put his quill down and exhaled. His formation gleamed with power—three-ringed, inscribed with intricate runes for fire control, force direction, and compression.
"Alright," Arizona said. "Let's test them both—outside the city walls."
They made their way past the outer gates of Levenna and into the wilderness where rocky terrain and scattered boulders offered perfect targets.
Two large stones stood ahead, each easily the size of a small cart.
"That one's mine," Arizona said, pointing to the left. He held his paper from behind and poured a surge of mana into it. The formation lit up, a brilliant red glow flaring from the intersections of the circles.
A moment later, a blast of fire erupted from the paper—a tightly controlled, compressed flame that roared across the field and slammed into the boulder. The explosion reduced it to cracked rubble, smoke rising from the scorched earth.
"Flame Cannon," Arizona said with pride. "It's already been documented in the updated magic teaching scriptures."
Rei observed the paper and then Arizona's hand. "Aren't your hands burned?"
Arizona flexed his fingers and glanced at his skin, reddened but intact. "It's part of the craft. Every formation caster deals with some feedback. My hand's been conditioned—it barely stings now."
Rei nodded. "As you say. Emilia, your turn."
"Me?" she blinked. "You want me to activate your formation?"
"Yep. Put one finger on each of the three long lines," Rei instructed. "Channel fire through the first, lightning through the second, and wind through the third."
She hesitated. "Wait, wind and lightning and fire?"
"Just do it."
With a deep breath, Emilia placed her fingertips on the strange lines Rei had drawn. Closing her eyes, she focused—fire through the first, lightning through the second, wind through the third.
The parchment trembled.
Then, without warning, a swirling tempest of fire burst out, coated in arcs of lightning, carried by a violent wind. The attack roared across the open field like a wrathful storm god, engulfing the second boulder.
The rock didn't just break—it disintegrated.
Bits of molten stone flew outward, seared and shredded by elemental power. The flame danced with lightning's brilliance, the wind feeding its hunger. The sheer power of it was terrifying.
Everyone stood still.
Arizona's mouth opened, but no words came out. Alya stared at the blackened ground, her eyes wide. Even Emilia, who had cast the spell, stood frozen, blinking at the ashes where the boulder had once stood.
"W-What was that?" Ben finally asked.
"Combination of fire, lightning, and wind," Rei said, exhaling. "I haven't named it yet… but if I had to, maybe—Lightning-Powered Firestorm?"
Emilia echoed, stunned, "I just cast… a Lightning-Powered Firestorm…"
Ben rubbed his forehead. "Do you realize how expensive that kind of magic formation would be? People would pay tens of white coins for just one of these."
Arizona slumped. "Did we just waste a miracle-level spell… on a friendly contest?"
Alya sniffled. "I was so proud of Flame Cannon…"
Rei shrugged. "You two are being overly dramatic. I can make it again."
Alya stared at him. "Oh yeah, it was easy for you… Just what the hell is going on here?"
Emilia smirked. "That's what I meant earlier—any information he gives is a form of misinformation."
Rei raised a brow. "Alright, alright, can we not make a big deal of it right here?"
Later that evening, they sat outside a quiet bar in the lower city. The stars glittered overhead as steak sizzled on metal plates. Arizona and Alya sat beside one another, solemnly eating while occasionally wiping at their eyes.
"We spent years developing that Flame Cannon," Arizona said between bites. "Our whole youth… gone."
"I was so happy when we finished it," Alya added, sniffing into her napkin.
Rei glanced at Ben and Emilia. "Are they always like this?"
Ben smirked. "Geniuses like you wouldn't understand."
Emilia nodded. "Yeah, you'll never get the pain of trying to achieve something for decades, only for a kid to beat you in a single sitting."
Rei stabbed a piece of meat and muttered, "Well, I'm not sure I want to understand it either."