<h4>Chapter 571: An Affinity for Cuteness</h4>


    After Lily dropped that revtion on Kat nobody was really sure how to reply. Kat wanted to argue she wasn''t so easily misled, and while she believed that was somewhat true, she also knew that Lily could tell her the sky was green and she''d be trying to figure out why she thought it was blue for a few hours before realising the lie. Mistrusting Lily wasn''t something she could do before yesterday. Now that they were together in a more romantic manner, whatever Kat''s own worries about her feelings might tell her, she was unwilling to consider Lily misleading her unless it was for a good reason. If that was the case she didn''t want to know.


    Still, it was Callisto who broke the silence. "What about you Sylvie? Now that we know how easily Kat can be talked into overlooking things, I would like to return to the affinity selection. What would you choose if you had the choice? For my own curiosity to be sated, I would also like you to say which affinity you would pick if you could only have one"


    "Ice" Sylvie said with no hesitation. "I don''t even need to think about it long. I think I would always pick ice and if I had just the one I would pick it as well. While you focused onbat, Lily focused on utility, I find myself interested in the joy of magic itself I think. Imagine building ice sculpture after ice sculpture and creating an entire ice city.


    "You could make something so beautiful, and even if it was temporary, it would be great to look over for as long as it remained. I imagine once I got strong enough in power I could make them permanent. It just seems so… cool" Sylvie grinned at the others as she made another move on the chessboard. "Oh and check by the way"


    Lily frowned at the chessboard looking for a good move while Callisto spoke up, "I can understand that. How easy is it to manipte affinities in such a free form way though?"


    "Eeehh…" Lily drew the sound out as she continued to look over the chess board. "Both easy and hard actually. You can do it as a first circle mage and it doesn''t technically take much power… but it''s horribly inefficient mana wise and not easy without a lot of willpower and control even if you have mana to spare. I suspect that at maybe four circles you could get to the point where you have a much more efficient version, but likely not before. So… yeah easy and hard. Easy to start in theory and hard to master in practice"


    "That''s fine" said Sylvie happily as she watched Lily agonise over the chess move. "I''ve considered taking up painting or something a few times to calm my mind but ice sculpting just sounds so much more fun. Especially with magic. That way I could walk back mistakes I make unlike in normal human ice sculpting. I can also keep it around if I have mana and happen to like whatever it is. Though maybe Kat keeping things cold would be more efficient?"


    *I''m not really sure how that would work. I can create ice yes, and I can move the fire as well… but I can''t control the ice at all. I can hardly control the fire once it''s left my sphere of influence, heck I can''t do much with it once it leaves my hand. The best I can do is let it burn slightly above my hands. Still, that''s not the question. The question is. How would my mes react to magic ice?


    I suspect it would probably corrupt it in some way. Maybe not in a problematic way… but I feel like once the ice was saturated with my magic Sylvie, or whoever it actually is in this example, would no long be able to interact with it. Then again… does that mean I could no sell any high level ice mage with that ability? A question to be asked perhaps. System you got anything for me?*


    Kat was somewhat surprised to see no answer appear but decided it wasn''t really the D.E.M.O.N.S purview to keep track of detailed power interactions. Even if it did seem like it was amon potential interaction in Kat''s mind. "I''m not sure if the ice would be useable after I put my fire into it. Not sure if we''d even want to test it actually," exined Kat.


    "Aw well" Sylvie said with a shrug. "I still think it''d be pretty." Sylvie tapped her king a few times, "though I''m not really sure what else I''d want to go with it. Maybe I''d take light? You can do a few fun things with light and I could use it with my ice to set up mirrors and shine the light attacks around. That would probably be interesting, or at the very least I could use it to make pretty lights and enhance my ice sculptures.


    "I wonder how two magical affinities from the same person interact? Would my ice be melted at all by my light? Or would they synergy because I want them to? If I supplied the ice with enough mana would it matter? Would it be better just to beam people in the eyes with light? I''m not really sure. I do think however it works out now that I have said it out loud light would be cool to take as my next affinity.


    "But I really don''t know what I''d do for a third. There are quite a lot of good options. Smoke could be fun just so I can say I use ''smoke and mirrors'' for my magic. I dunno if it would be any good in practice though. Hmmm. What do you all think? Any other affinity that would be great for me?"


    Vivian put her hand up, the one she wasn''t leaning on, like an excited school child. Sylvie grinned at the disy and pointed at her before the others could really get any good ideas. Sylvie gives Vivian the go ahead and she says, "I think you should pick up time affinity. Then you can freeze objects in time as well as actually freezing them. It would allow for a bunch of cool artwork opportunities as well as making it a powerful final affinity"


    Callist jumped in next with, "Vivian actually has a good idea for once. In fact, while I will still exin my idea, I think her suggestion surpasses mine in quality. I was going to suggest sound magic as you can create walls of ice to focus the sound, or use it alongside your light magic to make your illusions more realistic. Sure you could use illusions instead of things frozen in time and it would likely be cheaper mana wise, but it would be much less satisfying because people like Kat have true sight."


    Seeing that they were now going around in a circle, Lily made her move, the ''better'' one of the two she could see. Really it just dyed the end for now. Still, she saw it was her turn toment and said, "I also like Vivian''s suggestion and maybe that''s better but I was thinking space magic. You could use it to create non-Euclidian shapes in your sculptures. You can use it for art and entertainment purposes or to trap people in an endless maze of warped space and frozen walls. Both potentially terrifying."


    Finally, it came to Kat who gave Sylvie a squeeze and said, "You should go with charm magic. Not the standard type that focuses on seducing people, but a new branch that weaponises cuteness. You''re already adorable enough to use it without mana. Enhancing that with magical abilities might be considered a crime across the multiverse. I could see you just smiling sweetly at the universe and asking it for stuff and receiving them"


    Nobody really had a good counter argument for Kat''s suggestion. They still thought Vivian had started off with the best idea, but Kat''s was a close second. They could all see Sylvie using her adorable pout to con the universe into helping her out every once and awhile. It was also an interesting take on Qi. Callisto and Lily at least, were left wondering if cuteness could be an alternative to punching the universe into submission. Something they were actually a little sad they''d never be able to properly test.


    So when Sylvie smiled sweetly at Kat with a big smile, Kat knew that she''d lost the contest of who had the best affinity because she was about to pick someone else… but also that she''d won in her own heart because that smile was POWERFUL. It made her reconsider who was the actual Subus once again. "I do really like yours Kat… but Vivian is right. Using time magic to freeze things in ce to enhance my sculpture is SO COOL. Plus I can use Time magic in so many ways. The other ideas were cool as well, but if Lily picks up space I don''t need to. She can do all the cool stuff and work with me on my ice mazes"