Elemental Cats

Toz gathered a mix of metal, fire, and void magic in the air above his hand. The mix created a lump of liquid grey metal that seemed like it was about to drip down to the ground. He tried poking the slimy lump with his finger. Toz's finger easily disappeared into the lump of magic. When it came out again, the magic had covered it in a thin layer of the molten dull grey metal.

Toz felt the metal harden around his finger, but he could still move and bend it as if the metal was part of his body. He temporarily wondered if he should make another version of Scrael's leg, but he discarded the thought when he realized that Scrael wouldn't be able to control it. It was too much of a variable to replace the fully functional prosthetic she was using.

Toz tried reinforcing his body with the molten metal mana, but just like with the grey flames, it ended up on the outside of his body, creating a skintight suit of soft armor. He wondered if maybe that was going to happen to every combination he made, but that didn't stop him from continuing with his experiments.

Next up was the black flame that appeared when Toz combined darkness with fire and void. The black flames looked like a darker version of the grey flames, but Toz could at least tell they reduced his presence when they covered his body. However, the flame was so similar to when he combined darkness and fire with the help of void magic without adding void directly to the mix that Toz couldn't tell if there was any difference between the two black flames.

Toz was about to continue with the next element, but he was interrupted. Toz was about to follow Joan back to the hut Nil had built her so she could hide her progress from Toz, but Stitches interrupted Joan's interruption. And there was only one reason that would make Stitches run to find Joan with a smile on his face.

Joshua was awake or about to wake up.

Joan and Toz ran after Stitches back to the house and picked up the others along the way. The house got a little crowded after everyone on the island crammed into it.

However, being a little snug with the others was a small price to pay in order to welcome Joshua back to the waking world.

Joshua coughed a little and sat up as he opened his eyes. He looked around the room dazedly before saying in a raspy voice,

"Is it my birthday?"

'"Joshua!"'

Lucy and Joan answered Joshua's question with a shout of joy before lunging at him. Lucy pounced on Joshua while Joan threw herself around him.

The others also congratulated Joshua on his recovery, but in a slightly calmer way than Lucy and Joan since they were worried he would be disoriented and get uncomfortable by all the ruckus.

After being awake for a little while and eating, Joshua fell asleep, but this time he wasn't comatose, just sleepy. Though, before falling asleep, Joshua bragged about reaching the third level. Joan playfully smacked him since he almost died, and it wasn't something to be so proud of, even if he became stronger. However, she couldn't hide her smile, no matter how hard she tried.

Joan stayed behind with Joshua for a few minutes after he fell asleep, but she eventually stood up and brought Toz to her workshop. It was finally time to reveal Toz's completed cloak.

In order to fully utilize the element of surprise, Joan asked Toz to close his eyes so he would see the entire cloak at once when he opened them. Toz accepted Joan's request and stepped into her workshop with closed eyes.

Toz opened his eyes again after receiving Joan's okay.

The coat hung from a hanger attached to a rod running parallel with the ceiling from wall to wall.

Since Toz's previous coat had been mostly black and blue, he had expected something similar. He knew that Joan was using the remains of his old coat to make the new one, but there was apparently less usable material on it than he had expected since the coat was mostly white.

The coat was long enough to reach the middle of Toz's thighs, and Joan had made it from mostly white fabrics. However, Toz could see the remnants of his old coat in the coat's seams, where stripes of black cloth framed the coat around the shoulders and up and down the front and back. Two stripes ran along his legs up to his shoulders, meeting two similar stripes coming from the back of the coat.

A line of several black patches, slightly larger than a coin each, decorated the middle of the front of the coat, imitating a row of buttons. When Toz looked closer, he realized that the black patches of cloth contained several enchantments that would hold the coat together.

Joan anxiously waited by the side until Toz finished inspecting the coat. She wanted to explain every little detail, but she didn't want to disturb Toz while he checked out the coat. She was also worried about what Toz thought of it.

Toz continued inspecting the coat, and his hand reached out to feel the two pockets on either side of the coat's front. The pockets had the stripes of black fabric run straight through their openings, so the black seam of the coat and the pockets intersected, creating a couple of black crosses in the otherwise white fabric.

The coat was overall very simple in appearance, even with the black crosses on the front. Toz rather appreciated the design, and he opened up the coat to reveal its insides.

The inside of the coat carried an almost opposite design, but with mostly blue fabric with white stripes of cloth covering the seams. There was also one other difference from the coat's outsides. There were a lot more pockets. The white seams of the inner pockets intersected with the white stripes of the seams, creating two lines of stars on the coat's insides.