Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

"While passing your mana into Requiem try to imagine the area you want to capture within Eclipse. Normally you'd want to keep it big enough to get both yourself and your enemy inside it," Req explained, standing next to me while I held the sword with both my hands. 

Following her words I began to transmit my mana into the Requiem sword. I looked in front of me and in my imagination started to trace the area that I wanted to capture inside the pocket dimension. 

I continued that and maintained the process for about ten minutes but nothing happened. 

"It isn't working," I said. 

"Huh? That's weird," she mumbled to herself and then was lost in thought, trying to figure out what was the missing piece. 

"Oh!" she enlightened, clapping her hands. "After passing your mana through Requiem you have to visualize it going through the blade and coming out in the form of a black mist that covers your target area."

"Isn't this something you should have told me at the start?" I questioned. 

"Hehe, well, I'm not that good of a teacher I guess. I mean, this is my first time teaching someone how to fight," she said, laughing with an amusing expression on her face. 

"Ah well, I expected that much," I said to myself and then returned my focus to the practice. 

This time I ran through the entire process again. First, I passed my mana into the Requiem sword and then in my mind, I traced the area I wanted to cover. After that I visualized my mana coming out of the blade and clouding around the target area. 

For the first few minutes nothing happened therefore I increased the mana input to ten folds. Then finally a few moments later I noticed a black hue—similar to how it was with Req—started to leak out from the edges of the blade. 

The black hue grew in size and started to take the shape of a dome that I'd visualized beforehand. However, the speed at which it grew was much less compared to when Req did it—which was kinda obvious since this was my first time trying this attack. 

And since I was trying it for the first time it was no surprise that the black hue collapsed on itself only when it was halfway through completion and the attack broke apart. 

"Well, only to be expected I guess," I said to myself, lowering the sword. 

"So? How'd it feel? Think you can master it?" Req asked. 

"Yeah, I pretty much understand how this works. I just need to practice it again and again and once I get used to it there'll be no problem," I replied. 

"I thought you wanted to master it quickly though?" she questioned. 

"It won't be a problem. I know my capabilities well and mastering this attack is barely a day or two's work," I clarified. 

"I see. Is that all you want for now?" 

"No, there's one more thing I want you to do," I mentioned. 

"What is it?" 

"Remove the limiters on the Requiem sword."

"What? You'd die if I did that. I told you before, didn't I?" 

"I know, but I want to see how much I can handle before I die. So what I want you to do is release the limiters till I reach my limit and then put a stop."

"I see…wait a second, you said it like that intentionally, didn't you?!" 

"Hmmm. Well, I don't know. I wonder if I did," I said, looking the other way. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't

"Aggh! You!" she said, puffing her cheek and looking at me. "I never thought you would try to tease me."

"What are talking about? I didn't do that."

"No, you clearly did.'

"Maybe it's just your imagination."

"You're still doing it!" 

"I am not—"

Right as those words left my mouth Req closed in on me. Grabbing my shirt with both her hands she leaned in, bringing her face so close to mine that our lips were only a centimeter apart. 

"If I started teasing you'll be in trouble," she said as she looked directly into my eyes. 

"Come on, you know this doesn't work on me. If you are expecting me to get flustered you'll only be disappointed," I said. 

"Zero~" she whispered, bringing her lips close to my ears. 

"I can't hold back any longer. I'm going to release it," she said in a lascivious tone. 

"Going to release what? I'd be better if you clarified that," I said.

"Hmm?" she looked at me with an oblivion face. Then she released my shirt and took a step face. 

"The limiters, of course. Weren't you the one who told me to do so?" she said in a completely normal voice. 

"I see, the limiters."

"What did you think I was going to release?" 

"Hmmm, your grip on my shirt," I said. 

"Realllllly?"

"Yeah."

"Well, anyway," she said. "Give me your hand."

I raised my right hand toward her and she held it. "Be ready," she advised. "I am," I replied. 

Then as if a switch was turned on, as if a dam was opened. I suddenly felt an increase in my overall power. I didn't know how to describe that feeling well, but I was kind of feeling light. 

Like the force of gravity had suddenly been decreased for me. It was a strange sort of feeling. 

I looked at my right hand and saw it was beginning to get covered by the black shadow-type material that had covered Req's and my body back when we were fighting the demon beasts. 

The shadows started from my fingers and from there started to climb over my hand. As the shadows moved forward the power within me increased as well. 

By the time they got to my elbow, I had started feeling uncomfortable and when they were reaching near my shoulder it was getting hard to bear. 

Perhaps it was showing on my face since then Req put the limiters back again and the ever-increasing power stopped. 

"This is the max you can handle right now, and you can maintain this form for five minutes," she said.