The Elements are grouped into six categories according to their complexity. The first category, the six Single-Element Elements are called "primordial" Elements. Moving one step further we have the "concrete" Elements. These are ones that exist in reality or are very close to them. Cavern, Ash, Dew, Lightning, Mud are all things we can see and interact. The third category goes beyond the real world. Those are the "conceptual" Elements. They represent lofty locations or concepts that go beyond mere objects of phenomena. Sky, Underworld, and Mirage. A few of them are still in the realm of reality like Shadow, Weather, or Blood but they encompass ideas. Blood, for example, is not just the red fluid flowing in our veins. It represents lifeforce and the bonds of family and duty. One step further and we are in the realm of the legendary heroes. The "sublime" Elements are further removed from our reality and represent ideas. Holy, Death, Life, and Thought are prime examples. There are many others we don't know.
The other two steps are beyond our comprehension, as no mage in recorded history has ever wielded five affinities. Maybe the original God-Slayer if you believe him to be a mage as some claim. But theoretical research point as to what some of these "transcendental" Elements could be and in fact point at existing only six of them. Creation, Destruction, Law, Chaos, Time, and Space. These were only named after a lot of research and discussion regarding some effects we can measure but not reproduce. These seem to be the pinnacle of mortal magic if it were not for the fabled root of all magic. The "supreme" Element. Some scholars call this the "Rainbow Element" or the "Root of All Magic". This author disagrees about the name but given that the six primordial Elements all are assigned to one color of the rainbow that's the name that is most used.
Excerpt from Elemental Theory and Legends.
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Aidan kept coming back to look at the overlayed enchantments on the Regalia Signet Dawn was using and returning to his scribblings. Astromelicus was doing a series of Affinity-enhancement routines with Dawn in the meanwhile.
"You have the next two weeks to work hard, student Dawn. It is restricted knowledge for a good reason but the first month in the life of a newborn person is the month where affinities increase the most," The Archmage explained. He stopped to see the puzzled expression stamped in the girls' face before going further. "For some reason, the disparity between the regrown body and the soul inhabiting it triggered an effect not unlike what happens when a new baby is born. The only differences were that you were reborn in the body of a sixteen-year-old person and that you got all your memories and knowledge back from cadet Aidan."
"Say again?" The revelation interrupted her concentration.
Astromelicus just asked, "What part didn't you understand?"
"I can remember acting like a baby when I woke up after the procedure and I can feel I'm changed." She looked at her own arms and sighed, "This body feels mine unlike when I was in Lumina's. There was always this nagging feeling at the back of my head I couldn't pinpoint what was and it is gone now. What I want to know is about this first-month Affinity thing."
"That is easy. Babies are more pliable. Their brains go through a lot of changes during the first three months of their lives, but for the ability to manipulate magic, the first month is crucial. The results in the other two are still significant but of reduced efficiency. After that, it is the same for everyone. Remember, brains are organs that manipulate energy."
"They why don't people do that more often to get super magic babies?" She asked while she put away the fully charged core she was working on.
He scratched his chin and grinned, "Answer that yourself. I want to hear your thoughts on the matter. Remember our magic ethics lessons."
Trust teachers to never give you knowledge the easy way. Astromelicus 'tough love' style of teaching was unnerving at times, but the end results spoke for themselves. Dawn stopped to think but Astromelicus nudged another large bleached monster core in her hands. With a sigh, she resumed pushing Cosmos mana into the thing while she pondered.
"How can a baby even manipulate mana?" She asked instead of answering. If the Archmage was bothered by her question he didn't show but that wasn't the case. He smiled and answered.
"They can't. A baby doesn't have the necessary discernment or knowledge to do so."
"Oh." She exclaimed when the realization hit her. He did mention ethics. "The baby's mana is forced out. Some variant Mana Drain spell is used and the process is painful for the baby. Forcefully bleaching and filling cores is not forced even on captive mages."
"Indeed. However, you are not being forced to do it. Keep going if the rewards are to your liking."
The ring drained blood again and she winced. "Will this thing do that forever?"
"No. But think of the distraction it causes as an added exercise in combat concentration. I'm going to see what your counterpart is doing. Use the cores in this box and work hard."
Dawn closed her eyes and focused on the core in front of her. She pushed mana as fast as she could into the crystal and Astromelicus went to work on Elemental combinations with Aidan.
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They went through their previously discovered Elements and were finally trying Ether. Astromelicus tried a few effects with the ether blob Aidan was holding and then stopped to explain.
"I did some digging regarding the Ether Element. Funny enough, I've found the definition of the effect in a book brought by an otherworlder regarding the applied uses of the Lightning Element. The combination of Light and Darkness acts as the book calls a sort of 'grounding rod' for magic energy, dissipating the concentrated mana into harmless ambient mana. The magic diagrams in enchanted items and spells, in general, react poorly to have their mana drained and usually break. Summoned constructs like the otherworlder's equipment will dissipate into their constituent matter."
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That was the conclusion Aidan also reached but his explanation was not as elegant as the one given by the Headmaster.
"It could be used as a shield against magical effects or as a weapon to destroy said effects. But the cost is too high. The Ether keeps leaking into the environment as it also dissipates any localized mana potential and those spike around all the time. Maybe if we had some sort of containment."
"the containment idea is not bad. Wrap the Ether mana in some other secondary effect that works as a boundary to shield it from interacting with the potential. However, this would require the secondary effect to be inert regarding interactions with the Ether. I can only think of raising Ether to a conceptual level."
They were working on cutting edge magic theory here, and it excited Aidan to no small amount.
"Good. I still have a lot of mana, what should I do?"
"Mix Ether and Water first. Being a gentle Element, Water might be suitable for our containment."
Aidan focused and mixed the two mana types. At first, just like when he was creating Ether for the first time, the mana wanted to just neutralize each other. He had to goad them into being good friends like Skippy and himself and the image of a summer in his childhood playing with Lumina ending in a dragon's egg cracking burst into his mind, causing his mana to dissipate and Dawn to drop the core she was charging. Skippy dove and snatched the core from the ground. The dragon flew to an empty spot on a top shelf and started to gnaw on the almost-full Cosmos magic stone. Dawn was going to chide the dragon but Astromelicus raised a hand.
"Let him have it, just get another bleached core and start over. The purpose of the exercise is to stimulate your Affinities and Skippy deserves a reward for buying us time to train. Thank you, Skippy."
The student with four eyes took a good look at their teacher. They could glimpse concern in his face. Brody and Heath were not easy subjects in Yutis, even more so for people so deeply tangled in the web of deceit and failed diplomacy as they.
"Yes, Headmaster," Dawn took another bleached core from the crate and started fast-charge it. She knew he wanted to ask what happened but Aidan could answer for them.
"What happened, Aidan?"
The boy looked away and back at his mentor. His eyes were watery. "I just remembered how Lumina killed Skippy's sibling. I actually recalled all the memories of that summer I spent at the castle."
"Alina's death was one none of us can ever hope to get over. The Princess was angry that we failed in our mission even though we had a King, an Archmage and the God-Slayer in our group. The price for her actions was the loss of her boons. Can you imagine your life without Skippy? You are the only person that really knows what she threw away that day. She became bitter and irritable after Alina died."
He continued after a pause.
"Besides, hatching dragon eggs is a hard challenge. You were lucky."
"Maybe due to the effects of 'Rise to the Challenge', isn't it?" Aidan asked in a sardonic tone.
"Perhaps. However, you do take credit for the spell designs your mind creates and your hands write, don't you?" He answered in an accusatory tone that caught the pupil by surprise.
"Everyone has a hand and a mind," He defended his stance.
"Nobody else has your hand and your mind. One could make an argument that Dawn has Lumina's hands but even that argument is fake. The fine lines in your hands and fingertips, they are unique. And Dawn's are no longer equal to Lumina's."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that your talents, your Affinities, and your abilities are your own and you can and should take credit for what they enable you to do. Do not loathe your bloodline for its boons. Or for the challenges, it will put in front of you. You will see in the end that even if the entire world envies you, you would say that the boons do not compensate for the challenges. Make use of them and get stronger, young God-Slayer. Times are changing and you had already a harsh start. I fear it will only get worse."
Was that a compliment? To Aidan it sounded like it, especially coming from Astromelicus. The old mage bonked his pupil in the head.
"Stop gawking and mix Ether and Water. Go."
With renewed effort, Aidan focused two blobs of mana in each hand and forced them together. He commanded them to mix, going for the rough approach. The grey blob and the blue one mixed and disappeared.
"Another failure?" Astromelicus carefully asked because Aidan did not release his concentration.
"No. The mana is here. Can't you see it?" Aidan asked with a smile. He couldn't see it too but he could both feel and glimpse at it with magic sight. A completely transparent orb of mana was between his hands.
He used some spell and looked at it. "What is this? Why is it transparent?"
"Feels solid. Try to touch it."
Astromelicus snapped his finger and a twig flew into his hand from a shelf. He poked at it with the twig at first, "Hard. It indeed feels solid." And then with his own hand. It felt like glass but a very faint tingling sensation like the remnants of Lightning.
"I feel I can manipulate it. I'll make it into a disk."
"Put it against the wall." Aidan went as he asked and Astromelicus used a spell, Earth Darts. The fragments of stone materialized in front of him and shot toward the disk. Some of them hit the disk made of unknown mana and others just pierced the wall as they missed. "Amazing."
"How should we call it?" Aidan asked.
"That is the Force Element. Some records of Otherworlder abilities show something exactly like that. Step back, I'm going to try something."
"Blaze Blast!"
A beam of flames shot from his hand into the disk, melting the stone around it and finally shattering the Force effect. Aidan felt the heat but the indirect irradiation was something he could shrug off. A doughnut of partially molten rock was oozing from the wall, the center where the disk stood only singed from after the disk broke.
"And your disk was unstructured mana... You should draft a spell around it. One primed for fast-casting over staying power, to make a shield against attacks."
Aidan just jotted down some pointers to design the spell later. "what is next?"
"Create another sphere but this time with a blob of Ether mana inside. The leak should be contained."
Aidan did as told and it indeed stopped the leak, the Force mana working as a barrier between the Ether and the ambient mana. "Maybe if the Force effect can be made malleable or self-repairing or even just weakened to the point of just stopping mana from flowing through, we could make something that can block and neutralize spells."
"Good, good. For the next two, we will need to use a containment barrier. If Ether with Water becomes the defensive Force, I think the volatile Elements like Fire and Air will become offensive ones."
They experimented and created Quintessence and Thunder. The former was a highly reactive form of Ether, that actively sought and discharged energy on the surrounding mana according to how charged it was in a very explosive way.
"Quintessence can be found at the root of wild magic. These surges of energy are dangerous. I think Quintessence can become a powerful anti-magic attack if it can be controlled."
"I agree. That mana blinded my magic sight when I looked at it."
"Thunder is the combination of Lightning and Dust. The flashy side of the former smothered by the latter, with only the sound and impact left," Mused the Archmage.
"I can envision an attack spell that causes concussive damage in a radius and cannot be traced back to the caster."
"Good, good. We are making good progress. How about you go back and start to draft the diagrams while the image is hot in your mind. I'm going away for a while to get a special item."
"Sounds like a plan, Headmaster."
Aidan merrily went back to his desk and started to inscribe the circles with glyphs while Dawn kept charging cores and shooing Skippy away from those tasty dragon morsels. He wanted to pen today the basic functional glyphs on all the new spells he'd make.