— Year 1550 (Gaia calendar) 9:00 AM, Saturday, July 2

  Lios Town

  Aries looked at the feathers that he had swept into a pile.

  'Reminder to not do that in my room again.'

  Sigh.

  Aries let out a shallow sigh and turned away from the pile of feathers and exited his room, leaving for the park. He walked for a few minutes, eventually reaching the park where his birthday was kept.

  "You're already here."

  His gaze landed on the ocean eyed girl who seemed to be too excited for her own good. Aries however, held an emotionless gaze, not bothering to keep up the pretence of an emotive child.

  Alice, who was excitedly bobbing up and down, looked at Aries with stars in her eyes and asked:

  "Yes! Good morning."

  She drew closer to Aries, the stars in her eyes growing bigger.

  "You said you were going to train me right!?"

  Their faces were now mere inches away from each other. An imperceptible red hue tinted Aries' golden eyes as he grabbed Alice's face and pushed her away with his unchanging emotionless expression.

  "I only said I would help you awaken."

  As if cold water was poured on her, she quickly shrank down and her excitement dampened, It was quite the comedic sight. Regaining her composure, she turned to Aries with a calmer expression.

  "Why are you even helping me? What's in it for you?"

  "Your benefactor is Solaris, just having a connection to you will be a boon for me."

  He answered without hiding anything, having no change in expression. She understood his reasoning but she still found him quite suspicious. Despite this, she still went along with him as she believed he would not harm her due to the possibility of contracting Solaris' wrath.

  "So, where do we begin?"

  "First sit down."

  Following the instruction, Alice sat down and waited for what he would say next.

  "How much do you know about mystics?" Aries asked.

  "About mages? Not much. Though I was quite interested, I was never able to get involved in anything mystical."

  Sigh… Aries sighed a deep sigh, realising that this girl was a complete novice when it came to the supernatural.

  "Alright, listen up."

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Alice crossed her legs, placed her hands on them and leaned forward, attentively listening to Aries.

  "First and foremost, mystics are individuals who draw upon the powers of the supernatural. There are three types of mystics. The first and the only one you need to know about right now are maskers, which is the type most suitable for humans.

  Maskers advance the mystical stages of power and draw upon the power of their source element, a unique power within all beings, through special items called masks. These masks originate from items, whether mystical or mundane, that have fused with the masker's soul."

  Alice nodded along as she listened, soaking up the information like a sponge. Then, she held up her hand, stopping Aries from speaking and asked the question she wanted an answer to since she reincarnated.

  "How do I become a 'mystic'?"

  "Ah, I was just about to get to that. There are eight stages and one pseudo-stage in the ladder of ascension. The first stage, Null, is a kind of pre stage, before you choose the type of mystic you awaken as. This stage allows you to properly sense and utilize chi, the thing you would consider mana.

  After this, is the Awakened stage, where you become a true mystic, and as a masker, go through your first trial. This is where most first get the ability to use their source element, though there are individuals with special constitutions to do so from the Null stage.

  To become a Null, and thus a mystic, you must learn how to sense and move chi, then use that chi to form chi pathways in your body for the chi to circulate. Once this is complete, and your pathways stabilize, reconstruct the object made from chi that appeared in your senses when you completed your pathways."

  "That seems a bit complicated."

  "That is where I come in. With my help, this will be much faster and easier for you."

  Aries rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and prepared to go behind Alice to help her with the chi sensing process, but before he could, she stopped him, wanting to ask him a question.

  "What stage are you right now?"

  "I am a Null at the moment."

  "Do you have any abilities you can show me?"

  "Null stages do not have access to the abilities you think of."

  "So Is that a no?"

  Sigh… "While I am a Null, I have a special constitution like I mentioned before."

  "What is it? Can I see?"

  "Alright…"

  Aries paused for a moment, then he took a step back, stepping away from her. He closed his eyes and focused for a few moments, channeling his chi.

  Twitch. Twitch.

  His body began to twitch and shiver. Then, his body began to grow in size and length. After a few moments, a white scaleless serpent was formed. Scales began to form along the serpent's body, which then lifted up as if they were being pulled up by something and transformed into feathers. At the same time, two sets of angelic wings grew from its back.

  Alice's jaw hung open as she silently stared at the gigantic serpent, being too stunned to speak. The serpent lowered its head, revealing the golden star pattern on its forehead. It angled its head and locked its glistening, golden with hers.

  The serpent's mouth opened slightly, followed by a subtle rumbling sound that emanated from it. Then, it spoke. The voice that came from it did not match its appearance one bit. It was a boyish voice, Aries's voice.

  "This is it. This is what you wanted to see."

  Alice used her hands to fix her jaw which was still hanging open and tried to speak, but the words refused to leave her mouth, no, it was that she had no words to begin with.

  Aries felt a peculiar feeling stir in his chest as he looked at the stunned girl. After a few moments of this, Words unlike his usual self—at least what he thought was his usual self—came from his mouth.

  "Are you alright? If you're scared I can tur—"

  He abruptly stopped speaking as he felt two small hands embracing his large form, too short to wrap all the way around. Alice had stood up and hugged Aries in his serpent form. She did this not only because this was the first true magic she has seen, unlike the last two which were like moderately mystical experiences, but also, snakes were her favourite animal.

  With a mystical snake such as this before her she could not help but to hold on.

  Aries stood still like a statue for a moment at the unexpected development. Though he didn't have any special abilities aside from his transformation like mind reading, he didn't need it to tell what Alice wanted, he could tell from her face and actions.

  He wrapped his large serpentine body around her and lowered his head to the ground.

  "We will continue like this."