“Levin, are you ready?” Master Pilip asked.

The question sent a shiver down his spine. It had been another two weeks since he acquired his analysis rune, and Levin had done little except clean Pilip’s lab and practice various ink recipes in his room. He had made good progress on his own, but there had been no more runesmithing lessons from Master Pilip – surely, Pilip had been busy with this.

Chaos magic. Master Pilip had teased it, but Levin still knew next to nothing about what his new abilities would be, except that they would be unique. That only meant there was that much more to discover.

“I’m sure you’ve been anticipating this,” Pilip said.

Oh, that was certainly true. Levin gulped audibly. “What do you need me to do?”

“Oh, just wait there. This won’t take too long,” Pilip replied, pulling a vial of red liquid from his robes.

He took the usual steps – clearing a space of any leftover runes, filling his engraving tool with the ink, dripping some blood in, and then kneeling down onto the ground and beginning to carve away.

Except this time, the space he cleared for the room was nearly the entire empty space of the lab. Whatever Master Pilip was about to make, it was going to be very large. Levin decided to wait in silence, letting Master Pilip pour his full focus into the work.

The engraving process took nearly two hours as Pilip created the largest rune Levin had ever seen. Pilip was sweating from the exertion by the end, and Levin made a few trips to bring him water. But finally, Pilip finished his work, completing a massive red rune that filled up the lab.

“Now take off your shirt,” Pilip said as he carved the control rune into the back of his hand.

“Huh?” Levin said, but he followed Pilip’s instructions, removing his robe and undershirt and exposing his bare chest. He removed his toolbelt as well, hiding it amongst the folds of the robe.

“Now turn around. I’m going to engrave the next rune into your back,” Pilip said, pulling out a fresh engraving implement and a new vial of ink. This time, he did not mix in a drop of his blood.

The metal pen-like tip was cold to Levin’s back, but it left behind a warm sensation as Pilip dragged it over his skin. Just like when he engraved into his hand, there was no pain. In fact, Levin found the sensation somewhat pleasant, like he was being scraped at with a back scratcher.

It took Pilip only a minute or two to finish this rune, which was naturally much smaller than his previous work – it only took up the top third or so of Levin’s back. Then, he guided Levin over to the rune he had engraved into the ground, directing Levin to take a seat in the middle like he had twice before for the measurings of his aptitude and Source.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, Master Pilip.”

The control rune on Pilip’s hand lit up, and a moment later the rune beneath Levin followed suit. Levin immediately felt a sharp stabbing pain all throughout his body as the rune below him glowed a red-violet color. Levin clenched his teeth in a grimace, enduring the pain as best he could.

The rune was lit for only a few seconds before burning out, but to Levin, it felt like an eternity. As the room dimmed, Levin collapsed forward onto both hands, gasping for breath as sweat drenched him. The pain slowly subsided, becoming a dull throb before fading away altogether. As it did, Levin shakily rose to his feet.

“How do you feel?” asked Pilip, more than a hint of nervousness in his voice.

“It’s…getting better,” Levin gasped out.

“Good. Good! Here, some water,” he said, passing his porcelain cup over to Levin..

Levin rapidly gulped down the refreshing liquid. As he caught his breath and felt his strength returning, Levin pushed off the ground and rose unsteadily onto his feet.

“Now, let me explain how your Chaos magic works,” Pilip said. “You just had a Chaos Source inserted into you, and it’s now filling your body with Chaos Force. Chaos is inherently uncontrollably destructive, so you cannot actually use either of these – but it can be guided, and that’s what the rune on your body does.”

Levin nodded as he rose to his feet. The Chaos rune in the ground, the one that generated the new Source, had already disappeared, the ink all used up. Pilip triggered the central rune array to fill in the grooves left in the ground.

Levin focused on his sea of consciousness, finding the crimson rune that had been engraved on his back. He tried to interact with it mentally, but there was no response.

“How do I activate it?”

“There’s a chant for it. The common ways runes can be activated are chants or control runes, and chants are standard for runes engraved on the body. This one activates with the command ‘Wave.’ And since the rune on your back isn’t supplying any Force directly, the ink will last basically forever. Why don’t you give it a try? Hold your hand out and say ‘Wave.’”

“Yes, Master Pilip,” Levin replied.

Levin raised his arm, holding his palm out towards the wall opposite him. Levin took a deep breath, steadying himself as the last of the pain faded away.

“Wave,” he said, and the rune on his back responded with a surge of power.

Levin could feel the energy flowing within him, starting from his gut, rising to his shoulder, and tumbling through his arm. From his palm, a blast of deep red energy that contained countless specks of black shot forth, surging out like a pulse of colored smoke.

“Perfect! It works!” Pilip exclaimed. “Do you feel any different?”

“No,” Levin said, moving his arm up and down testingly. “I feel completely normal.”

“Wonderful! It looks like my hypothesis was correct!” Pilip exclaimed, his excitement only growing. “Let’s test it against my magic!”

“Okay, I’m ready,” Levin replied, squaring off against Master Pilip.

Pilip held his hand up, and a small ball of flame sprang to life, hovering a couple inches above his palm. Levin aimed his hand directly at it.

“Don’t aim at me,” Pilip said.

“Huh? I shouldn’t?” Levin asked, lowering his hand.

“Ah, that’s right. I haven’t actually explained what Chaos magic does, have I?” Pilip said.

“No, Master Pilip,” Levin said.

“It’s probably easier to see for yourself. I want you to hit this fireball out of the air, so I don’t become collateral damage. Don’t worry, I’m not putting any real power behind it.”

Levin took his stance again, this time aiming just to the side of Master Pilip. A moment later, he released the fireball towards Levin, quickly stepping to the side as he threw it forward.

“Wave!”

Levin’s Chaos energy completely engulfed Pilip’s fireball, causing it to rapidly break up before vanishing into thin air without even a puff of smoke. The energy pulse continued unabated as though the fireball hadn’t even been there, before collapsing of its own accord after flying a few more feet through the air.

“Very good! It’s a complete success!” Pilip exclaimed.

“I don’t fully understand, Master. What just happened?” Levin asked.

“Chaos energy is like a sort of anti-magic,” Pilip said. “It forcefully breaks down all magical energy, like my fireball just now. But that includes Source, which all people need to live, so don’t hit me with it. And since you don’t have a Source in the first place, you will be immune to the effects of Chaos Sickness!”

“It can break down any magic?” Levin asked.

“Any and all. But, there’s still the usual ranks to consider. According to the Book of Reeds, this first round will only give you enough Chaos Source to break down Wisp rank magic. A Smoke rank mage’s spells would be weakened, but not destroyed completely,” Pilip said.

“So this won’t be enough for me to fight Azaadi,” Levin thought. Then he shook his head. “What am I thinking? I should just leave that to Mei.”

“Now, let’s continue. I want to find out how many times you can use Wave in a row. Then, once you’ve run out of Chaos Force, we’ll see how long the new Source takes to regenerate it. Normally, mages restore their Force through food and meditation, so we’ll see if that works for you as well,” Pilip said.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Yes, Master Pilip,” Levin said.

***

Levin was in an incredibly good mood when Pilip finally released him for the day. And as usual, he headed straight to the library to meet with Kirima. This time, it was her turn to be late – and without her, there wasn’t anything for him to do. What he wouldn’t give to get full access to the books here.

As he waited, Levin fiddled with a small vial of blue liquid inside his robes. He had invested all the free time in his past two weeks into mastering this recipe, and it had finally borne fruit last night. His Y-Link’s simulations had grown more advanced in the process, but the only tangible thing Levin had to show for his weeks of effort was this single vial.

Levin could feel himself getting excited. How would Kirima react? Would she jump for joy, then throw her arms around him? She had such a warm hug, and her cheerful voice had become one of Levin’s only sources of comfort in this strange new world. Levin’s evenings with Kirima and his growing collection were the only things that kept Levin from constantly pining for home.

He hoped she wouldn’t question where all the money for his runesmithing came from. One day he would tell her everything, about his home and his ongoing fight with the Lightning Corp. But he couldn’t forget his own safety, and though he trusted Kirima completely, there was no telling who could be listening at any moment. This was still a hostile world of strange magic.

Levin pushed his worries from his mind. This was a happy day. He had finally received his own magic, and his thank-you gift to Kirima was ready to go. Not only that, but Mei’s language level had been progressing far more rapidly than Levin could have anticipated. And best of all, neither of them had even heard a peep from the Lighting Corp.

Everything was going well. If Levin could just find a lead on getting home, everything would be going perfectly.

And at that moment, everything got even better – Kirima walked in the door.

Levin immediately could tell something was wrong. Her usual smile was a weak grin as she waved at Levin, which was quickly replaced by a face flushed with exhaustion. She sat down next to Levin and immediately flopped forward, sprawling out over the library’s table with a sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Levin asked.

“Master Amaq canceled my training session today,” Kirima said, punctuating her sentence with another sigh.

“I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to it,” Levin said.

“We’ve only had two!” Kirima exclaimed, springing up from the table and throwing her arms up. “Two lessons in a month! And the third gets canceled!”

“Is he that busy?” Levin asked. He remembered from his first day on campus that Magus Amaq was the chief of security at Inuvik Academy, in addition to being the only water-element Wisp rank mage on staff. Levin could easily picture him being one of the busiest mages on campus.

“Master Amaq’s other acolytes all get regular lessons… And he doesn’t cancel theirs, either! Just mine!”

Levin felt sorry for her, doubly so because of all he had gotten from Master Pilip in this same time. Levin had no complaints about the attention he had been getting.

Kirima slumped back down. “It’s because of my talent…”

“I’m sure that’s not it! It’s probably just because you’re new. And with all his other duties…” Levin said.

“It’s okay, Levin! You don’t have to comfort me,” Kirima said with a smile. “If you don’t have the aptitude, mages don’t want to waste time teaching you. That’s just how it is. I won’t give up! I just wish I had a better place to do my meditation…”

“What do you mean?” Levin asked.

“Master Amaq has a water-element meditation chamber that he and my senior acolytes use. But I’m only allotted a few hours per week. And outside that chamber, the residual energy from all of the Academy’s fire mages really slows down my improvement.”

“She did tell me that Inuvik Academy specializes in fire magic,” Levin thought to himself. “Then this ink I got for her is the perfect gift!”

“I’ve tried going outside the Academy, but I can’t find any good places…” Kirima said.

A lightbulb went off in Levin’s head. For now, his gift could wait.

“Basically, you need a place with a lot of water, right?” Levin asked. The principle was simple – if you want to improve at water-element magic, meditate near water. For the fire-element, make a bonfire. Wind-element and earth-element users had it easy. A magical element could be anything at all, but practicing an element found all around you made for an easy advantage.

“Right. I tried the waterfall that we visited, but the energy there is too turbulent. I’m not strong enough to make use of it,” Kirima said.

“So, a place on the mountain with a lot of calm water…”

This was perfect. Levin had been living on this mountain a month – Cho had plenty of geographical data.

“The quantity of the water isn’t that important. It’s more about purity, or something. I’m not sure how to explain it,” Kirima said. “But the best place to meditate back home was actually our smallest hot spring.”

“I’ve got just the place,” Levin said after a brief scan with his Y-Link. “I don’t know about the purity, but if there’s one spot on this mountain that’s good for a water mage, it’ll be there.”

“Okay!”

Levin and Kirima headed out of the library without pulling a single book from the shelves. Together, they went to the stables just outside the walls of the Academy, where the stable hands brought out Kirima’s horse Nini for her. Just as before, Kirima sat in the saddle while Levin clung on behind.

Kirima handled the reins while Levin gave her directions, and the two slowly circled around the walls of the Academy, eventually coming to the backside of the mountain. Levin guided Kirima carefully as they descended part ways down the mountain through a mess of wild forest. Fortunately, it wasn’t too dense for a horse – none of the forest he had seen in Trurok had been particularly crowded. But it did slow them down.

Levin had never personally been to the place he was leading them. But with Cho flying high above them, Levin could easily keep track of where they were. Secretly watching himself from high in the sky gave Levin the odd sense of being his own stalker.

The trek took a little over half an hour, taking them well into the wild backwoods of Mount Inuvik. Out here, they could reasonably expect not to be found by anyone. And with Cho above them, Levin knew for a fact they were alone.

As they pushed through the trees, the sight of a small mountain spring unfolded before them, with crystal-clear water pouring steadily out of a small hole in the cliff face to their side. As the water descended, it coalesced into several small pools along the slope of the mountain, forming a chain of miniature waterfalls that released a pleasant, rhythmic splashing sound before pooling into a large pond before Levin and Kirima’s feet.

The two descended from Nini, standing atop the smooth rock that lined the edge of the pond.

“It’s so pretty, Levin…” Kirima slowly said as she gazed as if in a trance at the mountain spring.

“More importantly, do you think it will be good for your meditation?” Levin asked.

“Oh! Right, I came here to train,” Kirima said, taking a moment to snap out of her daze.

Then she walked up to the edge of the spring, taking a seat directly on the soft dirt. She folded her legs up underneath her and held her arms loosely out in front of her body, taking slow breaths as she settled into place. Thanks to their trips to the library, Levin recognized the posture as an acolyte-level meditation technique for absorbing water-element energy.

He did feel a twinge of jealousy. Levin wouldn’t be able to experience the sensation of growing stronger as a mage like that. But with Master Pilip’s help, perhaps he could come close.

“Oh!” Kirima suddenly exclaimed, spinning around to look at Levin. “The difference is incredible!”

“I’m glad, Kirima,” Levin said with a smile. It was a relief to know his hunch had been correct. “Shall we stay here a while, then?”

“Actually, I’d rather head back now,” Kirima said. “I did a round of meditation today already, so I’m pretty tired…”

“Sure. It’s starting to get a bit late, too.” There was still enough daylight to spend an hour or two out here and make it back before sundown, but Levin was beginning to get a little hungry anyways. And now that Kirima knew of this place, she could come on her own anytime.

The two hopped back on Nini, who had been idly grazing nearby. The path back was fairly easy, with a gentle slope between the mountain spring and the Academy. It seemed the back of Mount Inuvik was far larger and flatter than the switchback-powered climb of the front.

Levin and Kirima mostly rode in silence, enjoying the tranquil weather. It was still warm, but the hottest days of the summer were already behind them. Within another couple months, the cool evening breeze would likely turn into a chilling wind. But for now, Levin had no complaints.

They returned Nini to the stablehands upon reaching the Academy. In exchange for allowing the Academy to temporarily requisition the horses when needed, there was no price to leaving one’s personal steed there. And the Inuvik Academy horses seemed to be treated quite well. All in all, it was a good deal for acolytes or mages with their own horses.

Once back within the perpetually-open gates, Levin turned to head back to the library. However, as they headed past the statue of Panai, Kirima did not follow.

“I think I’ll turn in a little early today, Levin,” Kirima said with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I won’t be able to pull books for you.”

“Oh, that’s okay. If you’re tired, you should rest,” Levin said.

“Thank you! I’ll see you tomo–”

“Actually, there is one more thing,” Levin said.

Kirima stopped mid-sentence, her head cocked. Levin reached into the folds of his robe, pulling out a small glass vial. Inside, a bright blue liquid sloshed back and forth, held safely inside by the corked top.

“This is for you,” Levin said, handing the ink over.

“For me…?” Kirima said, examining the blue liquid closely.

“It’s Five Crescent River ink.”

“What!?” Kirima suddenly clutched it tight, as if afraid of dropping it. “You… You didn’t buy this for me, did you?”

“I brewed it myself. I told you I would when we went to the store,” he said, smiling wide.

“I don’t know what to say,” Kirima said. She looked up, and he could see tears in her eyes. “Is it really okay for me to have it?”

“Of course it’s okay. You’ve done so much for me, this is the least I can do. And there’s nothing stopping me from making you more!”

The tears in Kirima’s eyes began to leak out, and she rushed forward and threw her arms around Levin in a big bear hug.

“Levin, thank you so much! This could save me months of meditation! I can’t thank you enough!” she exclaimed, pulling out of the hug and looking up at Levin with big, wet eyes.

“Do you need any help engraving the rune?” Levin asked.

“N-no,” Kirima said, her voice choking up.

He figured as much. Energy runes, as mages typically referred to runes used for meditation, were quite easy to engrave. Their function was very simple – exposing the energy in the ink’s Force so it can be absorbed – and the simpler the rune, the fewer lines it took to make.

Levin smiled, making up his mind. He was definitely going to get Kirima more of these inks. Helping elevate her to the Wisp rank was the least he could do to pay her back. And right now, that seemed like a much more attainable goal than destroying the Lightning Corp or getting back to Earth’s dimension.

But for today, it was goodbye. Kirima stepped away, saying her farewells and heading off to her dorm. Levin watched her go, feeling satisfied. The thought that he was trapped in this dimension forever didn’t seem quite so suffocating anymore.