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Hopefully a little shorter than the setting history, here's all the important information about the actual character!
oh god it's not shorter at all is it
Basic Information - Who The Eff Is This:
Name: Nicholas "Reverie" Martel
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Background - How He Got Here:
Born the son of a gun-for-hire with a heart of gold and a military engineer in one of Zen Dynamics various private military divisions shortly after their takeover, his childhood was largely uneventful if perhaps somewhat lonely at times. His family was well enough off thanks to his parents respective careers to at least avoid living on the streets or in the worst of the slums they were far from wealthy with their jobs often leaving him alone for extended periods of time. There's quite a story behind how his parents met, but... that's a tale for another time.
Nonetheless when he entered the picture it forced his mother to go somewhat more legit than a hired mercenary and she joined one of Zen Dynamics' military contractor divisions alongside his father, becoming known as something of a Nightmare Hunter in her own right. And this did come with a few perks even if it meant his parents were somewhat on the absent side, along with having to move a few times when ghosts from his mothers past started knocking. Eventually though they settled down, although even into his teenage years his parents would still often leave him alone for days if not sometimes weeks at a time as various deployments and jobs both large and small took their time, it's never something he held against them although it did contribute to an inner desire to wander, to do more than sit in a quiet apartment when he wasn't at school. And despite the occasionally shady nature of his mothers job, part of him always admired her willingness to go out of her way to help others, even when it risked her everything, winding up in the hospital on more than one occasion due to having gotten involved in a battle with Nightmares.
The biggest turning point for him though was the day the First Mahou awoke, he was as wide-eyed as anybody else at the idea of these incredible heroes stepping forth to fight monsters and rescue people, a part of him wishing deep down he had power like that so he could also go and make a difference. Not long after, his wish was granted although the circumstances weren't what he'd pictured when he was grabbed off the street by a group of masked men, part of a criminal organization his mother had wronged in the past sought to ransom him off. It was only upon negotiations falling through and an ill-fated attempt to dispose of him that they found themselves dealing with a newly awakened Mahou, something they weren't even remotely prepared to handle.
This rattled him pretty badly, even though he still wanted to take his newly gained powers and go help other Mahou out against Nightmares having lived a near-death experience left him shaken, uncertain if a life of fighting was what he really wanted. Fortunately, the powers he'd been gifted with made him more than capable of aiding the frail and ill, the wounded and the dying and it was in that he found what would become his true calling. Over the next few years he realized a number of things, for one the idea of living in the spotlight was something he wanted little of, aware of how remarkably petty the drama and in-fighting could get between various Mahou all looking to be the glorious hero of the moment. For two, he had remarkably little patience for the way society seemed keen on treating so very many people, having always sort of known but never really seen so closely how people could be awful to each other at the drop of a hat. And third, the idea of going all fire-and-brimstone revolutionary didn't especially appeal to him either though he knew such groups certainly existed. To help people by burning it all down didn't seem like a terribly sensible idea, the people who would be hurt and killed in the chaos...
He just wasn't that interested in fighting. At least, not for the reasons most of the better known Mahou seemed to be, battles were certainly exciting affairs and he'd always idolized the brave heroes who took down Nightmares when he was younger! But the aftermath and the politics surrounding it all... he had little interest in. So he kept more to himself and in the shadows, focusing his efforts on aiding those he could rather than seeking out battles and glory. Not to say he never got into any fights, calling a Nightmare "not his problem" would have been incredibly self centered and his determination to help those regardless of if others felt they deserved it or not saw him confronting other Mahou on an occasion or two... but by and large he preferred the more support-oriented role he'd chosen for himself, rather than the one to lead the charge. And even if he didn't have the power to singlehandedly change the world, or magically remake the world into a less terrible place, this didn't strike him as a reasonable excuse to give up on helping people. Yes, people often sucked a great deal. They could do terrible things to each other for little or no reason with many of those in charge seemingly uncaring as to the plight of others, but to him that just made it all the more important to do what he did for whomever he could.
And besides, even if he can't save the world, if he saves someone's life or that of a loved one then hasn't he saved their world? And at the end of the day that's a good enough reason to drive him onwards.
Powers And Abilities - What Makes A Mahou Tick:
Self Defense - Holy Shit The Healer's Got A Mean Right Hook:
Perhaps calling it "martial arts" would be implying something a little too fancy, but while hardly a highly trained martial artist Reverie does have a solid grasp of self defense both armed and unarmed, a side effect of having an ex-mercenary for a mother and a military man for a father. No way they were going to let him grow up in this world without some idea of how to protect himself, even if he'd prefer to not run around breaking faces for a career.
Though throwing a punch or fighting with a baton is what he has the most experience with, he's got an idea of how to handle a firearm (seriously his mother owns like twelve) though his skill would fall short of any sort of professional soldier. Nonetheless, he can at least handle one without shooting himself in the foot.
Magic - The Mana Drive:
At its most fundamental the power that drives every single Mahou is Hope. Some call it willpower, some call it just being driven, but at the end of the day it's the refusal to simply believe things can't be better than they are that. This fuels them, being converted into actual tangible magical energy which they are then capable of wielding as easily as most people simply move a limb or breathe. Although for most people magic is a difficult force to control, requiring complex rituals and intense focus for a Mahou it's almost like an extra set of muscles, something every bit as natural as any physical part of their body and something that is essentially a fundamental part of who and what they are. For the sake of having something to call the metaphysical engine that drives this a few of the early Mahou took to referring to it as the Mana Drive and the name simply stuck.
All Mahou naturally have a few advantages thanks to this, for one they're all just ever so slightly more robust than the average person thanks to the underlying power within them and they're additionally capable of using small amounts of magical energy even without being transformed. But the really interesting stuff comes from-
Transforming - Damn Straight I Look Good:
This would be a pretty crappy Magical Girl setting without transformations, so here they are. Activating their Mana Drive allows a Mahou to transform, fully awakening the power within themselves and flooding their body with magical power along with a unique, snazzy new wardrobe that seems for all the world like it was custom tailored for them. Nobody actually knows why this includes a magical costume change and this has been the source of sometimes intense debate, is it something that reflects the inner nature of the person? Is there some otherworldly entity assigning these to people? Is it all just a government conspiracy and they're engineered to be flashy and attention-grabbing to fit the general public perception of a bunch of magical heroes? Who knows!
But what's important is that in their transformed state Mahou boast dramatically increased physical abilities, becoming much more difficult to kill than the average human and capable of seemingly logic-defying feats of physical prowess, something that effectively allows them to close the gap between Human and Nightmare in addition to fully unlocking their ability to wield magic. That said, they aren't invincible, merely tough. Additionally most Mahou possess abilities unique to themselves or others that can otherwise be learned through experience and/or training.
Magical Weapons - Having Purples Built Into Your Class:
The signature skill of the First Mahou was actually Weapon Manifestation, but this had a striking enough impact on all who followed that it quickly became something most Mahou tried to learn how to do for themselves, making it one of the few abilities to be almost universally used albeit with varying degrees of success and effectiveness, and it's one Reverie happens to be fairly handy at. There's a few quirks to this though, it isn't quite as simple as having some magical weapon somewhere that can be summoned to his side, it's actually using his magical energy to manifest one out of sheer power which has a few advantages and disadvantages. For one, it does make it quite hard to actually disarm him, so long as he has access to his magic he is theoretically armed. For two, this allows a certain degree of customization with the desired weapon, or even summoning a different type altogether should the situation call for it. For three, these weapons can simply be made more powerful by funneling more magical power into them, allowing for a fair bit of control over their effectiveness.
But this comes with drawbacks. The biggest one is that manifesting a weapon out of sheer energy actually takes quite a bit of juice in addition to effectively having an "upkeep" to maintain its physical form, they're not free to create nor do they cost nothing to maintain once created. Secondly, they're still tied pretty specifically to the Mahou who manifested it. Using this power to arm other people is hypothetically possible, but could become excessively draining extremely quickly as it's not an ability meant to create a large scale of arms at all, and while in theory the magical drain could be shuffled off onto whomever the weapon is handed to, in all likelyhood the strain would prove fatal before long to somebody with no inherent magic of their own.
On top of that they don't exactly come with instruction manuals, just because Reverie can manifest a wide range of weapons doesn't actually make him good with them. Though quite capable with a blade, if asked to provide a demonstration of expert archery he would likely be found somewhat wanting in comparison. Just because you can do something with magic doesn't always mean you should. Additionally though the weapons might be magical in nature, heavy use against armored targets or otherwise putting the weapons through major physical abuse does put extra strain on them and therefore draws more energy from the wielder unless they allow the weapon to dissipate or shatter under the strain.
For the record, Reverie's weapon of choice is a collapsible baton! Because it's what he was familiar with for self defense prior to becoming a Mahou.and because they're really cool and seriously don't get enough love in fiction
Energy Projection - Not Actually A Very Good Idea:
More of a brief mention but something still worth clarifying, pretty much any Mahou is capable of simply mustering up the magic flowing through them and turning into a ball or focused ray of raw, unstable magic which can then be launched at someone or something they don't very much like. This is typically only seen by inexperienced or desperate Mahou though as in practice this consumes an awful lot of energy for a blast that ultimately isn't very efficient. But hey, if you need to punch somebody on the other side of the room with your soul right this very moment it can occasionally be worth it. Reverie rarely makes use of this one.
Biomancy - This Is Why You Don't Fuck With The Healer:
So let's get to what he does do, the power that allows him to heal in the first place and the inherent ability granted to him when his magic first awoke. The power of Biomancy, the ability to magically influence and control biological matter. There's many potential sub-uses for this ability, so let's get into them shall we?
Though the most obvious of course would be the ability to heal injuries both on his person and on others. Knitting flesh and mending bones, it isn't an instantaneous process but it is effective, able to dramatically shorten the recovery time of otherwise severe injuries that would cripple or even kill. More severe injuries may require multiple treatments, but with enough focus and time there isn't much he can't fix. This comes in two flavors, Healing and Regeneration. Simple Healing is a matter of augmenting a persons natural capacity for recovery and is simple and efficient, allowing for much shorter recovery periods and for a body to put itself back together in a mostly natural way, simply turbocharged by his magic. Full blown Regeneration is the ability to heal damage that otherwise a body would not have the ability to recover from in the first place and can turn back even gruesome injuries, but is intensely draining on Reverie's magic and must be done slowly and with focus lest the injury be repaired improperly, it isn't as simple as snapping his fingers and somebody is good as new.
Furthermore this very same power works in similar fashion against things such as infections, poisons or toxins as well as a pretty hefty range of illnesses. Due to everyone's body being slightly different this isn't always quick, much as with physical healing it takes time and focus to pull it off correctly.
Both of these can be used on himself consciously in an emergency, though as a side effect of this being his natural power his body is in a constant state of recovering more quickly than normal, an effect that intensifies when under duress such as when in combat. This does have the slight side effect of still consuming energy, albeit less than when he heals other people due to it being his own body. Additionally this effect is increased quite dramatically while transformed while being more efficient but much slower while not transformed.
That's all well and good and is generally about as much as he prefers to let most people know about his powers, but the thing about magic is it often rewards creativity. Many abilities can be used in unexpected ways if you put your mind to it, and he's figured out how to do precisely that. The flip side of Biomancy is that for all the things he can fix, he can also unfix.
This typically doesn't demand nearly as much precision as putting somebody back together, but there's nothing stopping him from commanding biological matter to just start dying or failing entirely, sloughing away or leaving surprisingly horrific wounds that are unlikely to recover naturally. Being able to infuse this very same necrotic power into his weapon is an especially mean technique, although one he's been hesitant to actually use on another person for reasons that should well be obvious. Push come to shove though, it's a surprisingly nasty card to have up his sleeve in a pitched battle.
Additionally both types of Biomancy can be projected at people through some form of energy projection but this does carry drawbacks, not the least of which being that it's much less efficient than doing it by hand via physical contact. Additionally given the way most Biomancy tends to work, a brief second of contact is unlikely to do a whole lot unless an excessive amount of energy is put into it to say nothing of the risk of missing. In a pinch however he is capable of focusing these abilities into a projectile form and attempting to send them long distance, creating rays of healing or necrotic energy. He's hoping he never actually has to hit somebody with the latter.
With more practice and time there's other ways Biomancy can theoretically be wielded, but thus far these have been the primary uses he's found for the ability.
Strain - Whoops, Guess I Should Have Stopped An Hour Ago:
A short section here, but one that's important all the same. Though a Mahou's reserve of energy is hypothetically limitless so long as they remain driven that doesn't mean they can fight forever. Excessive and prolonged use of magical energy builds up something Mahou have come to call Strain, sort of a wearing of the metaphysical systems through which magic flows through their body. It begins as merely fatigue and discomfort but if pushed, this quickly turns into a weakening of their ability to use magic until it recovers, a form of stress damage essentially. In Reverie's case this damage cannot be healed magically, so the nature of his power doesn't allow him to cheat the system.
And while these limits can be pushed in some cases, this almost always comes with a cost down the line. Mahou are tough, but not invincible and this goes for their Mana Drive as well.
Overdrive - Safety Warnings What Safety Warnings:
And lastly we come to this. Ordinarily the Mana Drive has what you could call a safety system of sorts, a system that regulates the flow of power through a Mahou's body and keeps it from spiraling out of control, but in moments of extreme emotional duress it is possible to disable this safety altogether, allowing a Mahou's power to completely overflow their system and pushing their strength far beyond its normal limitations. This even appears to be an intentional ability as for those who've used it, this often comes paired with an even fancier costume change to go with the major increase in overall power but it carries major risks. A Mahou's Mana Drive isn't meant to keep up with that level of abuse for very long and it's incredibly easy to overstrain oneself fighting like this for very long, to say nothing of how easy it is to do very real long term damage due to energy levels not falling off when the body becomes too strained.
In extreme cases it's even possible for a Mahou to permanently burn out their ability to use magic or even lose their life altogether. Limits can be bent, even broken in an emergency, but ultimately these limits exist for a reason and there's often a price to pay for ignoring them.
oh god it's not shorter at all is it
Basic Information - Who The Eff Is This:
Name: Nicholas "Reverie" Martel
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Background - How He Got Here:
Born the son of a gun-for-hire with a heart of gold and a military engineer in one of Zen Dynamics various private military divisions shortly after their takeover, his childhood was largely uneventful if perhaps somewhat lonely at times. His family was well enough off thanks to his parents respective careers to at least avoid living on the streets or in the worst of the slums they were far from wealthy with their jobs often leaving him alone for extended periods of time. There's quite a story behind how his parents met, but... that's a tale for another time.
Nonetheless when he entered the picture it forced his mother to go somewhat more legit than a hired mercenary and she joined one of Zen Dynamics' military contractor divisions alongside his father, becoming known as something of a Nightmare Hunter in her own right. And this did come with a few perks even if it meant his parents were somewhat on the absent side, along with having to move a few times when ghosts from his mothers past started knocking. Eventually though they settled down, although even into his teenage years his parents would still often leave him alone for days if not sometimes weeks at a time as various deployments and jobs both large and small took their time, it's never something he held against them although it did contribute to an inner desire to wander, to do more than sit in a quiet apartment when he wasn't at school. And despite the occasionally shady nature of his mothers job, part of him always admired her willingness to go out of her way to help others, even when it risked her everything, winding up in the hospital on more than one occasion due to having gotten involved in a battle with Nightmares.
The biggest turning point for him though was the day the First Mahou awoke, he was as wide-eyed as anybody else at the idea of these incredible heroes stepping forth to fight monsters and rescue people, a part of him wishing deep down he had power like that so he could also go and make a difference. Not long after, his wish was granted although the circumstances weren't what he'd pictured when he was grabbed off the street by a group of masked men, part of a criminal organization his mother had wronged in the past sought to ransom him off. It was only upon negotiations falling through and an ill-fated attempt to dispose of him that they found themselves dealing with a newly awakened Mahou, something they weren't even remotely prepared to handle.
This rattled him pretty badly, even though he still wanted to take his newly gained powers and go help other Mahou out against Nightmares having lived a near-death experience left him shaken, uncertain if a life of fighting was what he really wanted. Fortunately, the powers he'd been gifted with made him more than capable of aiding the frail and ill, the wounded and the dying and it was in that he found what would become his true calling. Over the next few years he realized a number of things, for one the idea of living in the spotlight was something he wanted little of, aware of how remarkably petty the drama and in-fighting could get between various Mahou all looking to be the glorious hero of the moment. For two, he had remarkably little patience for the way society seemed keen on treating so very many people, having always sort of known but never really seen so closely how people could be awful to each other at the drop of a hat. And third, the idea of going all fire-and-brimstone revolutionary didn't especially appeal to him either though he knew such groups certainly existed. To help people by burning it all down didn't seem like a terribly sensible idea, the people who would be hurt and killed in the chaos...
He just wasn't that interested in fighting. At least, not for the reasons most of the better known Mahou seemed to be, battles were certainly exciting affairs and he'd always idolized the brave heroes who took down Nightmares when he was younger! But the aftermath and the politics surrounding it all... he had little interest in. So he kept more to himself and in the shadows, focusing his efforts on aiding those he could rather than seeking out battles and glory. Not to say he never got into any fights, calling a Nightmare "not his problem" would have been incredibly self centered and his determination to help those regardless of if others felt they deserved it or not saw him confronting other Mahou on an occasion or two... but by and large he preferred the more support-oriented role he'd chosen for himself, rather than the one to lead the charge. And even if he didn't have the power to singlehandedly change the world, or magically remake the world into a less terrible place, this didn't strike him as a reasonable excuse to give up on helping people. Yes, people often sucked a great deal. They could do terrible things to each other for little or no reason with many of those in charge seemingly uncaring as to the plight of others, but to him that just made it all the more important to do what he did for whomever he could.
And besides, even if he can't save the world, if he saves someone's life or that of a loved one then hasn't he saved their world? And at the end of the day that's a good enough reason to drive him onwards.
Powers And Abilities - What Makes A Mahou Tick:
Self Defense - Holy Shit The Healer's Got A Mean Right Hook:
Perhaps calling it "martial arts" would be implying something a little too fancy, but while hardly a highly trained martial artist Reverie does have a solid grasp of self defense both armed and unarmed, a side effect of having an ex-mercenary for a mother and a military man for a father. No way they were going to let him grow up in this world without some idea of how to protect himself, even if he'd prefer to not run around breaking faces for a career.
Though throwing a punch or fighting with a baton is what he has the most experience with, he's got an idea of how to handle a firearm (seriously his mother owns like twelve) though his skill would fall short of any sort of professional soldier. Nonetheless, he can at least handle one without shooting himself in the foot.
Magic - The Mana Drive:
At its most fundamental the power that drives every single Mahou is Hope. Some call it willpower, some call it just being driven, but at the end of the day it's the refusal to simply believe things can't be better than they are that. This fuels them, being converted into actual tangible magical energy which they are then capable of wielding as easily as most people simply move a limb or breathe. Although for most people magic is a difficult force to control, requiring complex rituals and intense focus for a Mahou it's almost like an extra set of muscles, something every bit as natural as any physical part of their body and something that is essentially a fundamental part of who and what they are. For the sake of having something to call the metaphysical engine that drives this a few of the early Mahou took to referring to it as the Mana Drive and the name simply stuck.
All Mahou naturally have a few advantages thanks to this, for one they're all just ever so slightly more robust than the average person thanks to the underlying power within them and they're additionally capable of using small amounts of magical energy even without being transformed. But the really interesting stuff comes from-
Transforming - Damn Straight I Look Good:
This would be a pretty crappy Magical Girl setting without transformations, so here they are. Activating their Mana Drive allows a Mahou to transform, fully awakening the power within themselves and flooding their body with magical power along with a unique, snazzy new wardrobe that seems for all the world like it was custom tailored for them. Nobody actually knows why this includes a magical costume change and this has been the source of sometimes intense debate, is it something that reflects the inner nature of the person? Is there some otherworldly entity assigning these to people? Is it all just a government conspiracy and they're engineered to be flashy and attention-grabbing to fit the general public perception of a bunch of magical heroes? Who knows!
But what's important is that in their transformed state Mahou boast dramatically increased physical abilities, becoming much more difficult to kill than the average human and capable of seemingly logic-defying feats of physical prowess, something that effectively allows them to close the gap between Human and Nightmare in addition to fully unlocking their ability to wield magic. That said, they aren't invincible, merely tough. Additionally most Mahou possess abilities unique to themselves or others that can otherwise be learned through experience and/or training.
Magical Weapons - Having Purples Built Into Your Class:
The signature skill of the First Mahou was actually Weapon Manifestation, but this had a striking enough impact on all who followed that it quickly became something most Mahou tried to learn how to do for themselves, making it one of the few abilities to be almost universally used albeit with varying degrees of success and effectiveness, and it's one Reverie happens to be fairly handy at. There's a few quirks to this though, it isn't quite as simple as having some magical weapon somewhere that can be summoned to his side, it's actually using his magical energy to manifest one out of sheer power which has a few advantages and disadvantages. For one, it does make it quite hard to actually disarm him, so long as he has access to his magic he is theoretically armed. For two, this allows a certain degree of customization with the desired weapon, or even summoning a different type altogether should the situation call for it. For three, these weapons can simply be made more powerful by funneling more magical power into them, allowing for a fair bit of control over their effectiveness.
But this comes with drawbacks. The biggest one is that manifesting a weapon out of sheer energy actually takes quite a bit of juice in addition to effectively having an "upkeep" to maintain its physical form, they're not free to create nor do they cost nothing to maintain once created. Secondly, they're still tied pretty specifically to the Mahou who manifested it. Using this power to arm other people is hypothetically possible, but could become excessively draining extremely quickly as it's not an ability meant to create a large scale of arms at all, and while in theory the magical drain could be shuffled off onto whomever the weapon is handed to, in all likelyhood the strain would prove fatal before long to somebody with no inherent magic of their own.
On top of that they don't exactly come with instruction manuals, just because Reverie can manifest a wide range of weapons doesn't actually make him good with them. Though quite capable with a blade, if asked to provide a demonstration of expert archery he would likely be found somewhat wanting in comparison. Just because you can do something with magic doesn't always mean you should. Additionally though the weapons might be magical in nature, heavy use against armored targets or otherwise putting the weapons through major physical abuse does put extra strain on them and therefore draws more energy from the wielder unless they allow the weapon to dissipate or shatter under the strain.
For the record, Reverie's weapon of choice is a collapsible baton! Because it's what he was familiar with for self defense prior to becoming a Mahou.
Energy Projection - Not Actually A Very Good Idea:
More of a brief mention but something still worth clarifying, pretty much any Mahou is capable of simply mustering up the magic flowing through them and turning into a ball or focused ray of raw, unstable magic which can then be launched at someone or something they don't very much like. This is typically only seen by inexperienced or desperate Mahou though as in practice this consumes an awful lot of energy for a blast that ultimately isn't very efficient. But hey, if you need to punch somebody on the other side of the room with your soul right this very moment it can occasionally be worth it. Reverie rarely makes use of this one.
Biomancy - This Is Why You Don't Fuck With The Healer:
So let's get to what he does do, the power that allows him to heal in the first place and the inherent ability granted to him when his magic first awoke. The power of Biomancy, the ability to magically influence and control biological matter. There's many potential sub-uses for this ability, so let's get into them shall we?
Though the most obvious of course would be the ability to heal injuries both on his person and on others. Knitting flesh and mending bones, it isn't an instantaneous process but it is effective, able to dramatically shorten the recovery time of otherwise severe injuries that would cripple or even kill. More severe injuries may require multiple treatments, but with enough focus and time there isn't much he can't fix. This comes in two flavors, Healing and Regeneration. Simple Healing is a matter of augmenting a persons natural capacity for recovery and is simple and efficient, allowing for much shorter recovery periods and for a body to put itself back together in a mostly natural way, simply turbocharged by his magic. Full blown Regeneration is the ability to heal damage that otherwise a body would not have the ability to recover from in the first place and can turn back even gruesome injuries, but is intensely draining on Reverie's magic and must be done slowly and with focus lest the injury be repaired improperly, it isn't as simple as snapping his fingers and somebody is good as new.
Furthermore this very same power works in similar fashion against things such as infections, poisons or toxins as well as a pretty hefty range of illnesses. Due to everyone's body being slightly different this isn't always quick, much as with physical healing it takes time and focus to pull it off correctly.
Both of these can be used on himself consciously in an emergency, though as a side effect of this being his natural power his body is in a constant state of recovering more quickly than normal, an effect that intensifies when under duress such as when in combat. This does have the slight side effect of still consuming energy, albeit less than when he heals other people due to it being his own body. Additionally this effect is increased quite dramatically while transformed while being more efficient but much slower while not transformed.
That's all well and good and is generally about as much as he prefers to let most people know about his powers, but the thing about magic is it often rewards creativity. Many abilities can be used in unexpected ways if you put your mind to it, and he's figured out how to do precisely that. The flip side of Biomancy is that for all the things he can fix, he can also unfix.
This typically doesn't demand nearly as much precision as putting somebody back together, but there's nothing stopping him from commanding biological matter to just start dying or failing entirely, sloughing away or leaving surprisingly horrific wounds that are unlikely to recover naturally. Being able to infuse this very same necrotic power into his weapon is an especially mean technique, although one he's been hesitant to actually use on another person for reasons that should well be obvious. Push come to shove though, it's a surprisingly nasty card to have up his sleeve in a pitched battle.
Additionally both types of Biomancy can be projected at people through some form of energy projection but this does carry drawbacks, not the least of which being that it's much less efficient than doing it by hand via physical contact. Additionally given the way most Biomancy tends to work, a brief second of contact is unlikely to do a whole lot unless an excessive amount of energy is put into it to say nothing of the risk of missing. In a pinch however he is capable of focusing these abilities into a projectile form and attempting to send them long distance, creating rays of healing or necrotic energy. He's hoping he never actually has to hit somebody with the latter.
With more practice and time there's other ways Biomancy can theoretically be wielded, but thus far these have been the primary uses he's found for the ability.
Strain - Whoops, Guess I Should Have Stopped An Hour Ago:
A short section here, but one that's important all the same. Though a Mahou's reserve of energy is hypothetically limitless so long as they remain driven that doesn't mean they can fight forever. Excessive and prolonged use of magical energy builds up something Mahou have come to call Strain, sort of a wearing of the metaphysical systems through which magic flows through their body. It begins as merely fatigue and discomfort but if pushed, this quickly turns into a weakening of their ability to use magic until it recovers, a form of stress damage essentially. In Reverie's case this damage cannot be healed magically, so the nature of his power doesn't allow him to cheat the system.
And while these limits can be pushed in some cases, this almost always comes with a cost down the line. Mahou are tough, but not invincible and this goes for their Mana Drive as well.
Overdrive - Safety Warnings What Safety Warnings:
And lastly we come to this. Ordinarily the Mana Drive has what you could call a safety system of sorts, a system that regulates the flow of power through a Mahou's body and keeps it from spiraling out of control, but in moments of extreme emotional duress it is possible to disable this safety altogether, allowing a Mahou's power to completely overflow their system and pushing their strength far beyond its normal limitations. This even appears to be an intentional ability as for those who've used it, this often comes paired with an even fancier costume change to go with the major increase in overall power but it carries major risks. A Mahou's Mana Drive isn't meant to keep up with that level of abuse for very long and it's incredibly easy to overstrain oneself fighting like this for very long, to say nothing of how easy it is to do very real long term damage due to energy levels not falling off when the body becomes too strained.
In extreme cases it's even possible for a Mahou to permanently burn out their ability to use magic or even lose their life altogether. Limits can be bent, even broken in an emergency, but ultimately these limits exist for a reason and there's often a price to pay for ignoring them.
