“What, how? I need to—” Magda's erratic words trailed off as he scrambled to the desk, shoving papers all over it until he found a blank piece and something to write with. Tyler wanted to check his notifications but held off for now, instead wanting to see what the demon had to say.

  “How did you manage to project a soul shield so easily? What affinity is that mana? White, hmmm, maybe a form of lightning. What’s its resistance? Do you mind if we measure?” Magda blurted out question after question, hardly taking a breath. He was like an excited child, scribbling notes down as he tried to do everything at once.

  “I think you might want to slow down a bit. All I did was follow your instructions, and as for affinity, I’m not sure my mana has one.” Tyler didn’t mind sharing a few things with Magda; after all, he’d just helped him form a soul shield and level, but a few things he’d hold back, like Al’s existence and help.

  Magda stopped scribbling and stood up straight, towering over a semi-glowing Tyler. “What do you mean no affinity? It must have some.”

  The demon held out a large hand, flexed it so it looked like he was holding something, and stared attentively at it as a large ball of black and purple mana formed at the centre.

  “This is demonic mana. Unlike fire mana that naturally draws on the concept of heat, or wind magic that draws on the concept of wind, this is more emotional in concept. It has the predatory nature of fire but does not fully consume, more changes, corrupts. Do you mind? It is just a weak suggestion,” Magda said while swaying the mana ball around his palm.

  “What! You want to fling that thing at me?” Tyler asked, his voice going slightly higher in shock at what the demon was suggesting.

  “Indeed, your soul shield will stop any harm, but I assure you even if it wasn’t stopped, the amount of intent I have applied would ruffle your shirt at best. We need to test its limits, its interaction with other mana sources.”

  The demon was giddy with delight, and Tyler found it infectious. He was the same, excitable when on the verge of a new discovery, or when some new system started working. Plus, he did want to know how effective this soul shield was. It would be a lot safer testing here in a somewhat controlled environment and not in the heat of some battle.

  “Fine, but don’t aim for my face, and be gentle,” Tyler eventually said, tensing up, ready to be hit by a demon bolt.

  Magda just nodded, flexed his fingers, the mana in his hand elongating slightly before flying outwards directly towards Tyler. The mana bolt hit the shield a fraction of a second later. Tyler’s soul shield expanded where the bolt hit, black and purple mixing with his white as it circled around his shield and faded away. Tyler felt no pain, the blast never even budged him, but he did feel his mana shield change. It didn’t break or disperse, it didn’t even get weaker; in fact, it felt like it got stronger.

  “That’s not possible. Mana is destructive. There should have been an annihilation, but from what I can see, your soul shield absorbed my mana. It has grown stronger.”

  The demon instantly launched another bolt, this one quite a bit bigger. It slammed into Tyler’s shield and once again was absorbed, the black and purple dispersing all around it. Tyler was just trying to confirm what the demon had just said, but another bolt hit his soul shield.

  The demon started laughing, his laugh deep and throaty. He launched another bolt, then another, his laughter getting louder with every strike.

  With each strike, the shield drank the demon's mana. Black and purple swirled into white, and Tyler could feel it—a pressure building, like a balloon slowly overfilling.

  “I think that’s about it,” Tyler said, the demon seemingly not hearing as he continued to launch more bolts, caught up in his excitement. Tyler could feel the energy in his soul shield increase with every strike, it becoming more and more energetic.

  “Magda!” Tyler tried to grab the demon’s attention. The soul shield was absorbing too much; he felt like it was reaching a limit, but the demon never heard. Another bolt hit the shield, then another.

  For one frozen moment, the shield held everything—his mana, Magda's mana, the tension between them. Then it pushed. Tyler felt the release more than saw it, a pressure leaving his chest as the world went white.

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  Tyler’s soul shield erupted outwards in a flash of blinding light, no longer able to absorb any more of the demon’s mana. A dome of white expanded out in a flash. It smashed into the demon, sending him flying backwards. It then hit the tables and equipment, knocking everything into the air. It also hit the wall closest to Tyler, smashing a six-foot-wide hole in it, the whole room instantly lit up by the daylight outside.

  The noise was deafening, and Tyler was stunned slightly by the explosion and the fact the demon was now on his back, covered with bits of his lab. He looked about, then through the hole in the wall he’d just created, seeing a nervous-looking Calix peeking through as several people ran over to join her.

  “Is everything ok?” Calix shouted through the gaping hole. She sounded a lot more timid than her usual bubbly self. She wasn’t making any attempt to move towards the building, neither was the crowd now joining her, all just huddling together, wanting to know what happened but obviously not wanting to get involved.

  Tyler tried to talk but just coughed as the dust from the wreckage swirled around and caught the back of his throat. It was Magda who responded, getting up from the floor, clearly not injured from the blast.

  “My fault, my fault. Sorry Calix, I might have got carried away with a little research,” Magda said as he made his way to the hole in the wall and poked his head out. His horns catching some of the loose wood and knocking it to the floor. He looked at the fallen wood and made a sheepish face.

  “Yeah sorry, might need a little clean up and a little help from Hipson if you have the free time.”

  Hipson, who had joined the group now crowding around Calix, rolled her eyes, her wood-like skin seeming to lighten. Tyler got the impression she was slightly embarrassed at Magda calling her out. His suspicion only rose when he noticed Magda smiling. Was something going on between them?

  Magda stopped staring at Hipson, his large smile slipping from his face.

  “Maybe if Jason is about too, a little help with his strength would speed repairs up no end.”

  Calix looked shocked by Magda's blasé attitude. Her mouth dropped for a moment until she got herself under control.

  “I am afraid Jason is otherwise occupied. Hipson, if you could help that would be great, and I am sure… Tyler, is that him there?” Calix said, crouching down and looking through the hole past Magda and directly at Tyler. “Yeah, he looks like he's already there. Shouldn't take you all that long. And Magda, any more research projects like this, if we can do them on the other side of the fence.”

  Calix seemed to be over the shock of the destruction as her bubbly personality returned, even smiling at Magda as she suggested his future experiments be conducted outside the city.

  The group around Calix quickly dispersed, Calix following them, leaving Tyler to suspect this wasn't the first time Magda had blown a hole in the wall or even knocked some other building down. He stared at Magda as he withdrew back into the room, shaking his head to free a little debris from between his horns.

  “Sorry about that,” Magda said, biting his lip. “I think I got a little carried away, but mana does not behave like that. Your soul shield shouldn't act like it did, never mind the fact you were able to create one on your first attempt. We need to test this, catalogue the effects against—”

  “Whoa, slow down a second, and keep those bolts under control for a second. What do you mean mana shouldn't act like that?” Tyler said, interrupting Magda. He liked the demon, but he had only really just met him and honestly didn't want to end up being a test subject for some demonic force. He wanted to know more. Why is this so exciting to Magda?

  Magda paused for a second, nodded slowly and picked the fallen chair up, putting it back in its place under a desk. He then bent down and started picking up the scattered papers that had blown all over the place. As he did, he started to explain mana to Tyler.

  “I have been in Pilton Hays for several years now, in fact this is the only place I have seen on the intertwining path event. In that time I have focused my attention primarily on mana research and the one underlying principle that has stayed true through every experiment is that any two mana sources are destructive.

  This is evident in the multiverse, but my findings point to a more nuanced instability. Take water mana and fire mana, they annihilate each other almost instantly at the point of contact, but water versus earth is slightly less reactive than fire versus earth. This I believe is because earth mana might hold concepts of both water and fire, and if it does slightly more water affinity, hence a less destructive force, as water mana and any other mana is able to mix with itself without incident.

  This is true across multiple affinities, yet when my own mana came into contact with your soul shield, well they should have annihilated one another. Your shield should have weakened and with continued assault eventually lose stability. Yet your shield, for some reason absorbed my mana, demonic mana, and well… well converted it, or at least used it to increase its potency. There must be a limiting factor of how much energy your shield can hold, maybe it is due to geometry or with the level—”

  “Ok, ok,” Tyler said, interrupting Magda again as he seemed to be losing focus in his explanation and jumping straight back into obsessed researcher mode. “So what you are saying is my mana is working in the opposite direction, able to interact with at least your mana and possibly others constructively. This is unusual, not seen before even in the wider multiverse as far as you know.”

  Magda stopped tidying and looked at Tyler, a little shock on his face.

  “That is exactly what I am saying. I don't know what I am more excited about now, the fact of this discovery or the fact I can discuss this with someone that can clearly understand what is going on.”

  A large smile appeared on Magda's face. Tyler thought this was more from embarrassment than kindness, as the demon’s cheeks seemed to go a darker shade of red.