Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 121 - Showing the Truth

Renatta blinked, staring at the quarter. "What?" She looked at the quarter strangely, but she reached out and took it from his hand. She turned it over in her palm, examining it with confusion. "Okay... I’m holding a quarter... What exactly am I supposed to be seeing here?"

"Is it metal?" Renan asked.

"What? Yes, of course it’s metal, it’s a coin. Renan, what are you getting at?"

"Just trust me for a moment," Renan said. "I’m going somewhere with this. Can you try to bend it?"

Renatta stared at him. "Bend it? Renan, it’s a coin. A metal coin. I can’t bend metal with my bare hands."

"I know it seems strange, but just try. Please."

Renatta’s expression clearly said she thought her son had lost his mind, but she complied. She gripped the quarter with both hands, and applied pressure. As expected, nothing happened. The coin remained perfectly rigid, completely unbending.

"See?" she said, holding it up. "It’s impossible. It’s metal. Now can you please tell me what this is about?"

Renan took the coin back from her, and with just his thumb and index finger, he bent it. He noticed that it wasn’t as easy as the last time he’d done this.

That made sense, though. If his power came from the blessing Narinder had put on his soul, and he currently only had half his soul, obviously he would be weaker. But even at half strength, bending a quarter was a trivial matter for him.

The coin bent in the middle, forming a clear, pronounced V-shape.

Renatta stared at the bent quarter, then at Renan, then back at the quarter. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. "That’s... that’s an impressive trick, Renan, but how is this relevant to why you collapsed? Are you trying to distract me or-"

Renan bent it further until both sides of the coins were touching. "It’s not a trick, mom."

"Then what is it? Some kind of specially made coin that’s easier to bend? I don’t understand what you’re trying to show me."

Renan wished they were home. If he had his wand and could just cast a spell, he could explain things so much faster and clearer. The demonstration would be immediate and undeniable. But his wand was back in his room, and they were stuck in a hospital bathroom with nothing but-

His eyes landed on the toilet paper.

He then considered something. Perhaps he didn’t need his wand. Sure, even a small twig was immensely better than nothing, but that was the exact reason he might be able to cast a spell. A wand was just a magical conductor, after all. Anything that could channel mana could theoretically work, even if the efficiency was terrible.

He walked over to the toilet paper and began pulling it off the roll, unwinding it until he was left with just the cardboard tube in the center.

The entire time, Renatta was watching him, her expression growing more concerned by the second. Her son had just woken up from a mysterious collapse, and now he was bending coins and pulling apart toilet paper rolls.

Was Renan mentally alright? What was he doing?

Renan held up the empty cardboard tube, examining it. It was vaguely in the shape of a wand, if one ignored the blatant hollow interior and the fact that it was literally trash. But cardboard was made of wood pulp. Wood was inherently a magical conducting material. So despite being the literal worst wand any dimension had seen in ten thousand years, it might just barely work.

"Renan, honey." Renatta said slowly, her voice taking on a careful tone, as if Renan was having a breakdown. "Why are you holding a toilet paper roll?"

"Just watch." Renan said. He closed his eyes, reaching for his mana. It was hard. His wand wasn’t a wand, and spells were obscenely hard to cast in his current state with his soul damaged. He pressed onwards regardless, to cast the most basic spell in existence.

"Illumination."

The spell manifested slowly, requiring multiple seconds to manifest. White light began to seep out of the cardboard tube, swirling and coalescing in the air. It formed a small point of mist in a vaguely spherical shape. It was barely more than a soft glow, but it was unmistakably there. A ball of pure white light, floating in the air above the cardboard tube.

Renatta took a step back, her back hitting the bathroom wall. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the light. "What... what is that?"

"Magic." Renan responded seriously.

"No." Renatta shook her head. "No, that’s... fire. It’s fire, isn’t it? You’re burning something." Even as she spoke her own words, she didn’t believe them. Fire was red, or perhaps orange.

What she was looking at was white, pure white. What exactly was it?

"You used some special colored fire, or perhaps... it’s... it’s a reflection. The bathroom light reflecting off something. Some kind of trick with mirrors or-"

Renan took the cardboard tube away from the light. And yet, the light did not move with it. It stayed exactly where it was, floating in the air with no visible source, no fuel to burn, no surface to reflect off of. It obediently stayed in the air, a small sphere of white radiance definitely existing despite logic.

The light slowly began to fade as the spell ran out, dimming until it winked out of existence entirely.

Silence filled the bathroom. Renatta was staring at the space where the light had been, her face pale, her hands trembling slightly.

"How did you do that?" she whispered.

"I told you," Renan said. "Magic."

She was silent for a moment, then looked down at the ground, and she began to laugh. "Hehehe..." She looked back up at Renan, lightly giggling. "Okay, okay. Very funny, Renan. That’s a good trick. A real good one. You had me going there for a second. For a moment, I really believed it! But come on, what’s the real explanation? Some kind of chemical reaction? LED light? What?"

Renan shook his head. "It’s not a trick, Ma. It’s magic. How else did I bend a metal coin with just two fingers? How else did I just manifest a light that stayed in the air with no source?"

"No!" She caught herself yelling, and froze. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself down. "Renan. Renan listen to me. I need to make something clear."