Unfortunately, his goals were making his breakthrough undeniably harder. Yet, he remained determined. 

As a far more experienced Mystic, Ella was guiding him through the process, and she'd impressed upon him the importance of building a strong foundation. 

According to her, he was fortunate that the power which boosted him to the top of the Core Awakening stage had also solidified that foundation, because apparently, she'd found evidence his foundation was a little shaky before that. 

Since Kane trusted her, and his ambitions had risen significantly since his adventures on Alfheim, he was naturally very open to her suggestions. If he wanted to rise higher than anyone on Earth had before, he'd need solid bedrock to build his power upon. 

Unfortunately, that meant hard work. 

So far, he'd been concentrating on the orb in front of him calmly, but now things suddenly changed. His brows furrowed, and his body tensed. The orb began to tremble. 

Then, it shattered. Immediately, Kane opened his eyes, dropped his hands to his knees, and sighed with disappointment. Unwillingly, he looked at the dark, icy shards of his orb as they slowly began to disappear. In the middle of these shards, some dark red smoke was twirling upwards as it also disappeared. 

 Since the orb was made of aether, it now returned to its natural state. Kane's feelings on the matter had, unfortunately, no impact on this. 

On the opposite side of the room was Luna, in much the same posture as Kane. She was working hard to solidify her own foundation, according to Ella's instructions, because most of her advancement now came from sex with Kane. 

Despite her embarrassment at that latter part of their training, Ella had created a schedule for them that combined Kane's need to breakthrough, with their goal of boosting Luna. 

After all the remains of his orb had disappeared, Kane looked wryly at the small, doll-size Ella on his shoulder. "I've clearly spent far too little time on practicing with my energy in the past. If only I'd had you to teach me these things sooner…" 

"Hehehe," Ella chuckled with a slightly embarrassed blush. "Y— You're doing fine. It's just not easy… or so I've heard. I wish I had more experience to offer here, but I never had to break through using multiple incompatible energies myself, so I can only share my knowledge." 

Then, she cocked her head curiously, "Although, I don't think your previous teacher was so bad, to be honest. You understand the basics just fine, you just haven't practiced them enough." 

Kane’s thoughts went back to the jolly restaurant owner, Cedric, and his granddaughter, Nina, with a hint of melancholy. There wasn't much he missed about Riftshade, but those two were certainly part of it. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to spend that much time with them, for fear of Father's interference. 

Combined with the fact he barely had any time to practice what sparse teachings he could get from Cedric, he could only admit that Ella was right. 

Yet, he just smirked slightly. "So, basically what you're saying is to just keep trying?" 

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"That's right!" Ella chuckled, a little more playfully than he was used to from her. "You'll get it eventually!" 

He chuckled wryly at her. But he couldn't deny her words did make him feel a little better. Even if she had no experience with this particular operation, he trusted her general experience when she believed he had the necessary talent for this. 

Plus, her slight playfulness suggested a growing level of comfort, which he also enjoyed. 

Putting aside his thoughts for now, he shook his body to prepare for the next attempt. Once again, he closed his eyes and reformed the orb. First came a small sphere of maroon-red smoke, before icy darkness began to fold itself over the smoke, forming the same orb as before. 

It was time to try again. 

* * *

As soon as he closed his eyes and recreated the orb, Kane found himself floating in a dark, empty space. Yet, unlike with his soul world, there was no swirling black sea or dark drifting sky. This void would have been entirely empty, if not for Kane, and three lights, shining in the distance. 

Each light had a different colour, with the light to his left and slightly behind being icy blue, the one across from it being soft and dark, barely noticeable against the void, and the final one being a dangerous red, shining its sharp light from straight ahead. 

This place was usually referred to as the Mystic Nexus. This was where a Mystic could interact with their cores, and where they would eventually create a domain at the fourth, and a domain heart at the seventh stage. 

Physically, a Mystic's cores look like small crystals, and they each have a specific place where they exist in the body. The spirit core is placed just below the navel, the blood core exists inside the heart, and the soul core rests in a Mystic's forehead. 

But they also have metaphysical representations in the Mystic Nexus. These representations are spawned when a Mystic awakens his cores and steps into the Core Awakening stage, but they do so in random locations within this void. 

Now, the first three stages of a Mystic are essentially just used as preparations for creating the domain. Thus, the first step, and also the method by which one steps into the Core Formation stage, is by properly arranging the cores into a formation, which will eventually hold the domain. 

And, unsurprisingly, that was Kane's current objective. 

Floating in an upright position, he opened his eyes and stretched his arms to the sides. "Let's try this again…" he mumbled softly to himself. 

Suddenly, hundreds of tendrils exploded out of his body, and surged towards the three lights. These tendrils had the same composition as the orb, with glossy, dark, ice-like surfaces, and a smoky red thread in the middle. 

Although the lights appeared to be far away, distance wasn't actually a consistent concept in this Mystic Nexus, so it wasn't long before the tendrils reached the lights. When they did, Kane clenched his fists, and the tendrils quickly wrapped themselves around lights. 

Immediately, his brows furrowed into a focused frown. "Alright… Remember. Stay focused. Don't let them escape," he mumbled to himself. 

The tendrils began to tremble and shake, as if the lights were doing all they could to make their captors release them. This was where the hard part came in.  

Because he didn't have a technique capable of combining ice, shadow, and the dreadwolf essence, and instead chose to force the issue, these tendrils weren't as strong or sturdy as they could be. Thus, Kane had to be extra careful not to let the tendrils break, or lose control of their light. 

When he felt like he had the trembling under control, he began to reel in the tendrils. Slowly but steadily, the lights were pulled towards him, but it wasn't long before sweat appeared on his brow and the tendrils began to shake harder. 

Before long, one tendril broke, and another, and then a third. Within moments, a chain reaction was ripping through his tendrils, and everything snapped. 

In the meditation room, the orb once again broke, and Kane sighed. 

"Practice makes perfect, Master," the doll-sized Ella unhelpfully commented with a small grin, causing Kane to grumble a little. 

Unfortunately, there was no secret to learn or realization to have here. All he needed was practice and experience, so that he could keep those tendrils from breaking. He simply also needed to overcome eight years of lacking education. 

But if Kane had anything, it was determination.