Chapter 119 - Layla, New Teacher

Layla was about to speak when she suddenly heard a sultry voice that instructed her on how to break it.

"Dominate and reverse the magic power flowing through the chains, then use that to break the magic circles they are connected to. 

Or you can use your aura to overload the magic circles and make them collapse on their own."

The voice spoke in a commanding tone that made Layla reflexively comply with the speaker's words.

She poured her aura into the magic circles, causing then to shatter almost instantly.

Landing back on the ground, she rubbed her wrists and looked around for the source of the voice.

She was met with the figures of 3 women standing at the door of the training area.

One was a black haired woman who had her hair tied in a bun, her obsidian eyes fit perfectly on her face, however the stern look she had made her seem as if she was annoyed.

On her both sides her were two women who had braided hair in tied up in side ponytails.

The one on her left had her dark hair tied up in a left side ponytail. She was a beautiful woman, slim and tall with fair smooth skin and a duchess shaped nose that complimented her oval face.

She had a warm smile that could melt the hearts of many as she waved towards Layla.

Naturally, Layla recognized her. 

She was the Grand Duchess of the Leviathan Grand duchy and a consort of the Devil King Diablo, Arthur's grandmother, Inglis.

The woman on the right had her literally flaming hair tied up in a right side ponytail. She had a slightly darker skin tone and a stoic look on her face. Her height and body structure were similar to that of Inglis.

Layla also recognized her. 

She was the mother of the crown prince Creusery and the Queen of the devildom. Although she was not officially one of the main entities or the devilian pantheon, she possessed power comparable to them.

This was none other than the Phoenix, Aurora.

Number 1 dropped on one knee and greeted the three with his head down.

"Greetings to her majesty."

"Greetings to her grace."

"Greetings to the madam."

Layla also snapped out of her surprise and curtsied, greeting the three women appropriately.

"Number 1, where is he?"

The black haired woman in the middle, Layla's mother, Iberis, asked Number 1. Naturally, the 'he' she referred to was none other than her husband.

"He went over to deal with the impudent fools who dared to attempt to poison the young lady."

Iberis nodded with a satisfied look on her face upon hearing this reply.

Inglis on the other hand, chuckled lightly before speaking.

"Conrad's brothers are still at it? I thought they would have given up after all these years of failure."

She then looked towards Aurora who wordlessly walked over to Layla and circled around her a few times.

Aurora then stopped and stared at Layla for a moment before asking.

"Why don't you use it?"

Hearing her voice, Layla figured she was the one who instructed her on how to break the magic circle just now, but she was confused as to what she was asking about.

Inglis who noticed Layla's confusion, came over and elaborated on Aurora's question for her.

"She means your ether."

"Oh… No reason."

"You are wasting a perfectly good resource for no reason?"

Aurora raised an eyebrow and asked after hearing Layla's reply.

Iberis was about to speak up but Inglis held her back.

[It seems that Rory has taken liking to your daughter.]

She sent that message to Iberis via thought transmission.

Meanwhile, Layla was currently having an impromptu ether manipulation lesson.

"Most of your bullets are consumables, as such in a drawn out fight, they would run out eventually.

Using magic generated bullets is fine but ether is more suitable for this.

It's faster and more efficient.

Lesser energy used, more destructive power. This would help you conserve your magic for casting actual magic alone."

Aurora tapped her foot on the ground twice. A humanoid earth golem nearly 5 meters tall, rose up from the ground.

"Generally, I consider ether as a faster and more superior energy type than magic.

Of course, the skill of the one using it is taken into consideration, however if you are proficient enough in ether manipulation, it can prove to be far faster and more cost efficient than magic.

I'm gonna give an example. 

Count how many seconds it takes for me to deploy this spell with magic."

Layla nodded reflexively and watched Aurora's next actions very closely. Seeing that Layla was watching properly, Aurora nodded in approval and tapped her foot on the ground.

A red magic circle spread out around the golem, it was the exact same spell that Layla just used against number 1, however hers was casted with the darkness element, while Aurora's was with fire.

The rings on the magic circle spread out at a faster speed than Layla's, flaming chains burst from the ground and wrapped round the body of the earth golem.

The heat was enough to melt the golem within a few seconds.

After the golem melted, Aurora looked at Layla and asked.

"How many seconds did it take for the spell to be deployed?"

Layla, who was stunned seeing the earth golem turn to molten rock in seconds, recovered from her shock upon hearing Aurora's voice and replied.

"Barely 5."

"5? Considering this is my first time using this spell then it's quite fast. 

Still, in some situations, 5 seconds are more than enough to decide your life or death.

It took you more than twice that time to form that magic circle.

That's enough for some foes to kill you ten times over."

Aurora's words dampened Layla's mood greatly, noticing this, she coughed lightly before continuing.

"You just advanced to the grandmaster realm so being able to cast such a complex restraining spell so easily is already splendid."

Inglis chuckled at her attempt to cheer up Layla which earned her a glare from Aurora, even so, she kept on laughing to herself.

Aurora ignored Inglis and turned back to Layla. She tapped her foot on the floor, creating another humanoid earth golem.

"Watch closely."

The moment she said that, she tapped her foot on the floor once again.

A red ether circle spread out around the golem, its element, the same as before, fire.

Flaming chains burst from the ground and wrapped round the body of the earth golem. The chains were thinner than the previous ones yet they contained more compressed energy than before.

Before they could even wrap around the golem fully, half of the golem had already melted from the heat.

"How long did it take?"

"…I didn't see it."

It was just that fast, despite the fact that Layla strained her eyes, she could barely see the circles form on the ground and the chains bursting out.

"Approximately 1.5 seconds."

Number 1, who had been silent, spoke up. In his palm was a stopwatch, one that read 1.45 seconds.

Aurora nodded and turned to Layla before speaking.

"You're a talented kid so you can be able to achieve even a faster speed than this in the future. 

Your ether capacity is also comparable to your magic, it would be better for you if you trained them both.

I can help you of you want though?"

"Huh?!"

After being told to keep quiet by Inglis, Iberis complied, however Aurora's words made her unable to withhold her exclamation of shock.

Aurora was the Queen of the devildom, she had more important duties than to be teaching a 13 year old how to use their ether, it didn't matter of the 13 year old was the daughter of a grand Duke.

Even Inglis was slightly shocked at this, however she recomposed herself immediately and spoke up.

"Calm down Iberis, it's a good thing for your daughter."

"But-."

"No buts, Rory isn't gonna make the offer twice."

She turned to Layla and asked.

"So? What say you little Layla?"

Layla was stunned once again for the nth time today, first the Queen came over and gave her tips on how to break a spell, then she instructed her on how ether was more convenient to use.

Then she was being asked if she wanted the queen as her teacher, it was a bit too much for her to take in at once.

Nevertheless, Layla knew a good opportunity when she saw one.

It didn't take her long to make her choice, she nodded and bowed towards Aurora before speaking.

"Thank you for the offer your majesty, I would be honored to have you as my teacher"

Aurora nodded in approval and showed a rare smile, the next moment, her face was back to its usual stoic look.

Seeing this, Inglis couldn't help but make a remark. She turned to Iberis and whispered in her ear.

"Oh my, it seems she favors your daughter a lot. She only smiles like that when Diablo is around you know?"

However, Aurora's superior hearing allowed her to hear this remark, which earned Inglis a fireball to the face, courtesy of a slightly pissed Aurora.

Naturally, Inglis dodged it at such a speed that Layla could barely see her head move.

The next moment, there was a small explosion and part of the wall melted faster than the earth golem that Aurora tested the ether spell on.

'Well, I should make it a point to never piss her off.'

With such thoughts on her mind, Layla picked up her fallen weapons and decided to call it a day.