Years ago he had trained with her, and he still carried the frustration of that experience, wishing at the very least to see her beaten once.
So Turan went over and introduced himself, and Mesa asked what the two of them were doing there.
Aziz Burke replied casually that they had seen her training and wanted to join in, reminding her that they had done so before.
Mesa confirmed it, recalling that on that previous occasion he had spent an entire week trying to do something she had accomplished in two attempts, and had left in tears.
He asked her not to bring that up, while even Turan ended up laughing at the situation.
Then Aziz Burke shifted the focus and said that Turan was easily one of the most talented mages he had ever seen, even calling him a monster, and suggested that the two of them fight.
Mesa analyzed him for a few moments, and shortly afterward she had already summoned a storm, and something pressed down against Turan's mind. He grew tense, and began to break into a cold sweat.
Noticing this, she apologized, and concluded that he did not yet seem to be at the level required to face her directly.
Aziz Burke explained that it was not about raw magical power, since in that regard she was clearly ahead — but he emphasized that Turan's advantage lay in his absurd ability to learn.
Intrigued by his insistence, Mesa asked what exactly he wanted to demonstrate, and Turan proposed a different kind of challenge. Each of them would show a spell the other probably did not know, and whoever could reproduce it faster would win.
The idea pleased both Aziz Burke and Mesa, though she raised a concern, asking whether it was true that he did not know his own bloodline, since it would be unfair for her to use her innate magic.
Even so, she decided to start.
She stepped forward, and suddenly vines and roots sprouted out of the ground, wrapping completely around Aziz Burke and lifting him into the air. Mesa explained that this was a magic of plant creation and manipulation, and asked whether Turan could do the same — while Aziz Burke, hanging there, asked to be let down, because he was starting to feel dizzy.
Ignoring his request for the moment, she said it was fun.
Turan focused, placing his hand on the ground and analyzing the phenomenon. To him, creating fire was simply manifesting combustion, and creating water was extracting moisture from the air. So those vines were not exactly creation. They were the accelerated growth of seeds already present in the soil.
With that understanding, he managed to reproduce the magic, though in a different color, because of his mana.
Mesa was surprised. She said he had immediately grasped the true nature of the magic, and asked whether he had done that before.
He replied that it was his first attempt.
Faced with that, she remarked that it was extremely rare.
Then it was Turan's turn to propose the challenge. He grew a bit tense, since using certain spells would be far too risky, so he decided to improvise.
He summoned a small animal, and Mesa initially thought it was nothing special — but he explained that the rat was only the ingredient. With a simple touch he completely decomposed it, demonstrating an unusual kind of magic, and asked whether she could do the same.
Mesa accepted the challenge and tried to replicate it, but failed, and became confused about the method he had used. Meanwhile Aziz Burke commented that it was somewhat disgusting.
Even so, Turan already suspected that this ability was rare, perhaps even unknown, even among the great lineages.
Aziz Burke suggested giving the victory to Turan, but Mesa refused to accept defeat and decided to persist. She explained that magic involves complex factors, such as the naturalness of the phenomenon, the understanding of its cause, and the amount of mana used — with perception of the cause being one of the most important factors for efficiency. When that understanding fails, it is possible to compensate by using more mana.
And that was exactly what she did. Consuming a large amount of energy, she managed to reproduce the decomposition, though far more slowly than Turan had.
In the end, however, the excessive effort left her completely exhausted, and she fainted.
Turan realized that she had used too much mana, but he also found it strange, since that would not normally cause a complete collapse — exhaustion at most.
Looking more closely, he noticed details in her clothing, such as her gloves, and began to suspect that she might be ill. He asked whether there was a healing mage nearby, and Aziz Burke said there was not. So Turan asked for water and salt to be brought to her room.
As he carried her, he noticed how light she was. Lighter even than a lamb. He also noticed that the mana she used to keep herself active had been completely depleted.
When Mesa woke, she saw Aziz Burke's mother at her side, clearly worried, asking whether she was conscious. Aziz Burke explained that she had suddenly fainted while training with a guest, which raised the suspicion that something might have been done to her, though he had decided to simply observe for now.
Mesa denied it. It had been her own mistake, she said, and she asked everyone to leave.
Aziz Burke's mother mentioned that she had prepared soup, even knowing that Mesa barely ate because of her magic, and left the dish there before going.
Mesa thanked her. But when she took a sip, she was overwhelmed by disturbing memories — people begging for mercy, people writhing in pain — and she dropped the bowl immediately, like someone who had been tormented by this for a very long time.