A few weeks have passed, and the training is finally starting to show results. The awkwardness from the sudden growth in my body has started to fade little by little. One thing I have learned is that the public knowledge of magic used and taught is very… Archaic to the rest of the world. Humans are a newer race when it comes to utilizing magic, and that was part of the problem.

The other races use magic as a part of themselves, and live and breathe the magic. Faes are partly made from magic, Elves work in accordance with nature’s ambient mana to accomplish this, and Dwarves speak with the Earth and Fire ambient in all walks of life, and the Mana beasts would cease to exist without the ambient mana. Humans use magic as a tool to better their lives, and don’t seek to incorporate it in their lives, but hoard it for power instead.

This was a superficial, and wrong way of using magic in this world. Like Selene called it, Human’s system of using chants, or even the more advanced beginner chantless system of manually forming the sigils for spells, is like a child trying to learn to speak in the eyes of the other races.

Part of the reason I learned the true name from my Sin of Wrath was because the Sin is a part of my being, thus requiring a sufficient understanding of it to even use it. Elemental magic is different than that, being an external magic from ourselves and not even originating from inside of us. We use our mana as a document requesting a certain spell to be granted by the ambient, and pay mana as a currency to do so.

The past few weeks with Selene, I have focused on understanding the fire ball, and that alone. My theory was correct, and meditating while focusing on absorbing the fire elemental ambient mana did give me a feeling of understanding of fire, but in a random way. It was helpful but… In a way that would pay off down the line, than now.

“Are you still attempting to absorb the mana from a spell, regardless of how slow it is, Lucian?” Selene asked as I was sitting in my meditation stance while holding my hand out to the fireball, attempting to call the ambient mana of the spell to enter my core.

“I know it can be considered inefficient, Selene. This is something that I can tell will benefit me greatly if I figure out the technique of doing so. There is already some form of attunement with the ambient mana and myself forming, almost an emotional understanding?” and Selene seemed to have a sad look in her eyes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“This lesson might be too soon for you to learn, Lucian…” she said quietly, and I was unsure why it seemed to bother her so much. She did not prevent me from doing so, and I continued to spend time testing out new ways of enticing the ambient mana in the spell to connect with me.

----------------------------------------

A few hours into training, Lord Wrath sent a servant to quickly bring him to him. Selene was annoyed at first, but realized the situation was dire when the servant said a group of Forsaken had appeared outside of the city walls. Selene and I followed the servant, leading us to Lord Wrath leading his guards against the Forsaken.

“Luce! This is an unfortunate, but rare opportunity for you to experience what happens should you go the wrong path when using the Sins. You become one of those Forsaken” and he pointed to the humanoids that looked like a charred husk of the Fae they were once. They seemed to retain at least some of their intelligence, but in a crazed manner.

“Is that?” I ask the wind as I look to the far back of the Forsaken assault. A tall Fae that was clearly stronger than the others, and whose appearance was constantly changing features, and missing a hand.

I looked to Lord Wrath, and judging by the somber look in his eyes, it had to be true.

That was the Fae once known as the Fae Lord of Greed before the High Oracle enacted the harshest punishment in the Fae Realm.

“But… How? I thought the High Oracle stripped Lord Greed of his Sin, so how has he become a Forsaken, when he shouldn’t have a Sin anymore?” I asked Lord Wrath.

Without taking his eyes off of the battlefield, he said, “Stripped his ability to use the Sin, and would have not turned him into a Forsaken if he did not attempt to use the Sin. But asking a Fae to not use their Sin is like asking you to not breathe the air… That punishment is the harshest because there has yet to be a case where the Fae did not turn into a Forsaken”.

“Because the Sins are part of a Fae’s nature. Using them is second nature to you, and it would be impossible to not try, even if the ability is taken away?” and Lord Wrath nodded, not saying another word.

The Forsaken Lord Greed had not made a move yet, the same as Lord Wrath. This was a common situation in a fight between power houses, where their fight only started when the other made a move, effectively keeping the other in check, besides the occasional support from afar.

Watching the Forsaken and the Fae guards fight, I noticed the ambient was different from the Forsaken. I attempted to sense it like I was in training, trying to feel for what it was saying. The emotional connection was tugging at me, but I was unable to understand what it was saying to me yet.

Lord Wrath and Selene looked at each other when I started doing this, and Lord Wrath left to fight with the Forsaken Lord Greed. Powerful fluctuations in the ambient spread out from their fight in shockwaves. It was witnessing the power houses of the Fae race fighting that I realized what was happening as the Forsaken Lord Greed was squeezing more power out of his magic.

The ambient mana was screaming in pain.