"Looks like you've felt the weight of that Threshold Name."
Ashida watched Tales gasp for breath, deep in thought:
"Especially when the one calling it is a Magic User, and they're so close."
Tales wiped the sweat from his forehead and clenched his teeth.
What was that feeling just now...?
Ashida gave a soft snort and returned to his usual elegance:
"Don't worry. He's sealed and unable to respond with dignity."
Otherwise, they wouldn't be sitting here safely.
Tales exhaled and stared fixedly out the window.
Moonlight was blocked by dark clouds. Outside the castle was pitch-black, broken only by the occasional cry of birds and beasts in the distance.
The atmosphere grew somewhat desolate, and the boy's mood sank with it.
"What did it feel like?"
There was a touch of an ethereal quality in Tales's voice, one he himself failed to notice:
"When you're a Magic User and get sealed by Legendary Anti-Magic Weaponry?"
Ashida fell silent.
Yet faint specks of Blue Light appeared in his eyes, like stars in the night sky.
"I'd better not tell you."
Tales frowned.
"Why?"
Ashida paused for several seconds before speaking:
"Seven years ago, when I was sealed by that short sword, what did you see?"
Tales froze. He had no choice but to recall his less-than-pleasant first meeting with the Air Elementalist.
When he had been sealed by Yordel.
What did I see...?
"You—you turned into countless beams of light whose colors I couldn't distinguish, scattering in all directions," Tales struggled to remember, his tone uncertain. "Energy, thunder, shockwaves, explosions... Then, then I don't remember."
"What about Giza?"
Giza?
Tales's nerves tightened as he recalled the final moments of the Blood Elementalist.
[Be careful of Ashida.]
"She withered, hardened, blackened, became brittle, then cracked apart and shattered into ashes filling