It was two months since the school year began. Leo was now sitting in Doctor Paul’s office to recount the results of his rehabilitation.

“It would seem that your circuits are healed now.” Doctor Paul looked at him while performing an examination, moving a scanner along Leo’ body as it shone in different colors of light. “Yes, you should be able to use magic now, but you shouldn’t overwork yourself again like this. Overusing your magic like that costs you more than just a lot of pain, it will also shorten your lifespan too, since you dip for energy from the center of your very being.”

He moved then to next device that they always used to check Leo’ soul fluctuation. “Yes, from this side it looks better now too. But you need to be careful or something worse may happen. You should avoid any kind of stressful situations.”

“Yes, we will make sure that happens.” said Jake. Today it was his father that accompanied him. “So he can use magic again?”

“Yes, but it will probably be harder at first because the damage to his circuits was so severe it has changed the paths that mana flows through. It will take some time getting used to it. Leo, try waving small ball of light magic I will watch how mana flows inside you as you do it.”

Leo concentrated but since a long time has passed he was not able to get it right away. First, he moved his mana to make his hand shine, that was easy and he didn’t feel any difference compared to the past. Then he tried to move it outside of his body and place it between his hands but instead of it, the mana flew in all different directions and soon it was outside of his control.

“Stop!” Leo cut off his mana and looked at the doctor. The air around them seemed to shine a little “That is weird.”

Paul looked at logs on his device. “The output was really high. Are you alright?”

Leo nodded his head. “So what happened?”

“We will soon find out. Okay, one more time but this time only make your hands shine.” He said looking back at the device.

Leo did this again and his hands were shining in white light. “Seem okay, now try to wave a spell again.”

As he tried to mana again went out of his control. “Hmm, I think I understand, let’s go and we will perform one quick examination.”

They all went out of doctor Paul personal office and followed behind him.

They moved to a room with a lot of holographic screens inside of it and something that seemed like a control device. Inside the room was a single nurse sitting in front of the device and drinking coffee.

“Can we use the rings?” asked Paul.

The nurse nodded. “Yes, I will get it ready.” She looked at Leo. “You can go to the room next door and get ready.”

“I will take you there.” said the doctor.

“I will go too.” Said Jake.

“No one other than the patient can stay in the room when the examination takes place.” said the nurse stopping him.

Moving to where the nurse said to Leo found himself in a room with an elevation in the middle of it. It was made out of metal and there seemed to be a crevice in shape of a circle at the edges of it.

“Just stand in the middle of the circle and relax, you will float in the air a little while you are scanned. It’s more complete scan then what we were doing till now, it takes a while though so just relax while it goes on.” Explained Paul.

Leo nodded and moved to the middle.

“I will go and the process will start shortly, just remember to relax and don’t fight against it.” He said and left the room.

Leo stood there for a while with nothing happening. Then the light shone from the crevice and five rings appeared from it. Then the device shone in all spectrum of light. Leo felt his body being lifted into the air, he did his best to relax and not move his body but it still felt weird for him. Then it got even weirder, as he felt mana entering him from every direction into his body.

He tried his best to relax and closed his eyes. He watched the mana moving in him and leaving a second later.

It took few minutes before his feet touched the ground again. His head felt dizzy and he nearly fell to the floor.

His father entered the room and got closer to him, supporting him by his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I just got little dizzy from all that floating.”

“Let’s return to my office, you can sit down there.” Said doctor Paul from behind Jake.

-*-

“Now we know what happened. The external paths that guide magic outside of your body have tangled with each other. I’m sorry to say this but you will never be able to effectively use magic outside of you again.” Explained Paul.

“Is there no cure for it?” asked Jake.

“The only thing I can think of is a path surgery and a chance of that succeeding is less than ten percent, so as it’s not an immediate danger to his life we can’t even perform the operation according to law and failure would probably rob Leo from being able to use magic ever again.”

Leo could just hang his head down. It was all because he acted rashly back then during the fight with a wolf.

“But other than that you are alright, and you should still be able to fuel magic devices if there is ever need to and magic in everyday life is quite useless nowadays so you don’t need to worry about it.” Paul tried to cheer up the boy. Despite it, he didn’t feel relieved at all.

-*-

Leo was angrily swinging his axe next day after class in the underground training hall. He stopped only after he was out of breath and stood there not knowing what to do.

“Did something happen young boy?” asked him a small man barely 4 inches higher than him. It was the principal, Mr. Alexander joined them whenever he was not busy with his work. He was wearing a tracksuit that every student wore.

“I will probably have to quit this class…” said Leo.

“And why would that be?” asked the principal kindly.

“I can’t use magic outside of my body, my paths are tangled or whatever.” explained Leo with resignation in his voice.

“So it’s only that? There is no need to worry then.” smiled Mr. Alexander.

“What do you mean?” asked Leo some hope returning to his eyes.

“Let’s sit and talk what do you say?” the principal moved to one of the corners of the room and took two pillows placing them on the ground close to each other.

Leo sat down facing the principal. “But if I can’t release magic how can I fight?” he asked.

“Let me tell you something, I once had a student just like you. He too was not able to use magic outside of his body. But he was also the type to never give up and he wanted to join the expedition fighters that battle monsters on the far edges of our world. So he thought up his own way to use magic, his affinity was lighting and can you guess what he did?” Leo shook his head. “He used it to control his body and with practice and a lot of injuries along the way he was able to use it to move his body at speeds that very few can follow with their eyes not speaking about matching it.”

“Then can I do something like that too?!” asked Leo excited.

“Didn’t you already did something like that once?” asked the principal with a smile.

“But I hurt myself with that and I promised my mother to never use it again.” Said Leo.

“Yes, and I will ask you to promise me that you won’t use such rough spell, again too.”

“Then what should I do?”

“We will perfect that spell, to make sure you don’t hurt yourself with it.” Said Mr. Alexander.

“Really?!” Leo was happy. “Can I ask something?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Who was that student you spoke about?” asked Leo curious.

“Oh, you want to know? Well, it was…”

“I’m sorry principal I need your signature on this.” interrupted Mr. Etan.

“Oh yes we were just talking about you.” said Mr. Alexander. The vice-principal brought up his eyebrow not knowing what they were talking about. Leo looked at the vice-principal with admiration. Mr. Etan shrugged and said. “If you need me I will be here.” Before moving to his desk.

The principal filled something on the holographic screen that he was brought and turned his attention back to Leo.

“Let’s get started then.” he said.

“Eh, already?!” asked Leo. Happy but also wondering why would the principal give him so much attention.

“Yes, give me your hands and try to use the spell you used that day but lower the amount of mana you use. I will stop you if it starts getting out of control.”

With the principal holding Leo’ hands, Leo focus on his body. Slowly feeling mana inside of him he tried to take as little as possible and mixing small amounts of light and fire energies inside of him he slowly fuelled his muscles with that energy. His body slowly felt little warmer but it seemed to be alright.

Suddenly the amount of light mana grew and the balance he created collapsed, his body started feeling hotter and he panicked. A moment later he felt a wave of energy passing through him and he no longer felt the mana he was using. It was as if it was gone.

Leo gasped and looked at the principal.

“It was good first try.” He said. “Let’s try again.”

“What was that?” asked Leo.

“I expelled your mana outside of you. It’s a trick with mana if you release a mana of opposite energy on correct wavelength it will cancel other people spells. You won’t be able to use it without delicate control on mana though.” said principal.

‘So it’s unusable for me’ thought Leo but he didn’t really mind he now had different spell to worry about. He closed his eyes and tried again.

Finally, after more than twenty tries he seemed to get it right and the way he was using it now felt correct. It was much weaker compared to what he was using during that incident but it also didn’t damage him, he felt some warmth inside his muscles.

He got up and put himself in sprint position. Jumping into a sprint, he beat his record for 60 meters run finishing in 6.70 seconds, and he felt that with more practice he could go even faster. After that, he went to the gym equipment he chose a weight that weighed 70 pounds, ensured his grip and with some effort, he brought it above his head.

He let his mana leave him and fell to the ground gasping tired but with a happy smile on his face. The principal who was watching till then watching came closer to him.

“That was good, but be more calm about such things, first learn some more control.” He said smiling at the boy. Leo nodded to him.

“Leo that was amazing!” Mary ran up to him.

“I used, a spell to power myself up, I will be able to spar soon.” Leo answered and brought himself up with her help to sitting position.

“That’s great! I knew you felt left out.” she hugged him and shortly moved away. “But you smell, go take a shower!” she said little embarrassed with her sudden action but she couldn’t help it. Smiling Leo put her in good mood too and he looked sad all day and wouldn’t say anything to her.

Leo just laughed a little and moved to the shower area.