'Teleportation, Metamorphosis and the Raising of the Dead. Those are the three impossibilities of modern magic. Archmages tried for centuries to develop these three effects but failed every single time. Their search was not in vain and we discovered several new spells as a side effect of that failed research. What puzzles scholars to this day is that these effects are rare but not unheard of. Some monsters and otherworlder abilities can do these three things. The question then becomes not one of how can we reproduce these effects but why can't we. Is there a flaw in our spellcraft that can't put into glyphs these effects? Is it a limitation on our magic circle theories? If it is not impossible and not a god's taboo, why can't we do it with our magic?

I present this to you, dear reader, not in the spirit of disheartening or as a cautionary tale. But as a challenge. Will you be the one to break through one of these barriers? I hope so.

Preface from A Practical Guide to Spellcraft, vol 1. Published by the Royal Academy of Yutis.

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Astromelicus returned a couple hours later with something under furs that resembled some framed painting. Maybe it was a painting, who knew. "How are these diagrams going?" He asked Aidan.

"I got the basic glyphs done, I think I can put them away now and pick up later."

"Good. We are trying some other Elements today. Let's pick up the pace or we won't reach our goal for the day. I want you to mix Death and Light first."

"A Penta-Element?"

"Yes. We already got Creation and Destruction by turning Life into a transcendental, now it is time to transcend Death. Weren't you the one gloating about how you'd become the master of Death?"

Aidan groaned and conjured the mana orbs in his hands. Light and Death. Weren't they opposites? No? Maybe? In his confusion, the required focus faltered and the mana sizzled.

"Do over!" Ushered the teacher.

He mixed them and a sense of order came into being. The mana was completely still, Aidan felt like even if he were to remove his hands and concentration the mana would just be there as if it were the most natural thing for a blob of mana to exist right there. Aidan actually did it and the mana reacted just like he thought it would.

"The Law Element. The ability to set rules and enforce them upon the world. Command it to dismiss and it shall do so."

"Is it this stable?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Did you think it should stay still?"

"Yes. Let me try it. Law mana, I command thee to dissipate." And it did so. "Does it means that Law rules over Death?"

"Don't you think that the fact that every living thing must die might be some sort of law the world is bound to?"

That gave Aidan an idea for something he always wanted to do but never had the means. He shelved that idea for later in his head.

"What is next on the menu?"

"Mix Holy and Darkness."

"Going for opposites, I see."

The two blobs of mana mixed on the first try. After experimenting with Force, Quintessence and now Law, he found the right mindset to make the Elements mix as he wanted them to. The sparkling yellow of Holy was devoured by Darkness and became a squirming blob of black matter where sometimes you could see something unnerving that would disappear before you couldn't even know what was.

"Is this Chaos?" Aidan asked.

"Indeed it is. Do you remember what are the six transcendental Elements?"

"Yes, let me dismiss this dude because it wants to break free." Chaos mana didn't obey. Aidan then conjured Ether around it and let the Ether neutralize and dissipate the Chaos.

"Good thinking. Chaos is the wild energy, it wants to break free from any bounds and regulations. You could bend, not break, rules in place or just invoke change."

Aidan remembered his spellcrafting lessons. On how there were effects unattainable by modern magic but used by monsters and otherworlders, "If Chaos invokes change, wouldn't it be able to cause metamorphosis?"

"Uncontrolled ones, I'm sure of it. But what I wrote in my book mentioned controlled, willful metamorphosis. It might be a Law effect or one derived from one of the Elements leading to Law. Either way, we don't know because we've never had any mage capable of creating these Elements. Now we should aim for Time and Space."

"How?"

"It is hard because they both have Light and Earth, and we know we can't combine both directly. Try to create Blaze mana in one hand and mix it with Sand mana in the other. It should become a Quad-Element."

Aidan mixed the two dual-Elements and it became a dull rusted metallic blob. It then started to pull in all the iron objects in the room. Aidan dismissed it but was too late to stop being hit by a sheathed knife.

"Ouch. Why did it attract metal?"

"Not any metal, just Iron. The mana acted like a lodestone. Let me check on a book." Astromelicus moved a hand and the book flew to his hand, opening and flipping pages on its own. The man's expertise over the Sylph's Hand spell was astonishing. "Here. This is the Magnetism Element. Now all that is left is to mix it with Darkness. Don't worry, I'll keep the iron objects from hitting you."

Aidan mixed Magnetism with Darkness. It became very similar to the Cosmos Element, but it didn't have the sparkling stars. Instead, it felt like a suspension effect like when your mind flies and you lose track of...

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"Time. This is the Time Element. I can feel it trying to either accelerate or slow us down. What about Space?"

"This one is easy. Just mix Thought and Earth."

The blob of Space mana tried to expand. Aidan was using almost all his concentration to keep it still when it suddenly stopped trying to grow outwards. Instead, it started to grow inside, the space the blob was occupying in the room was bigger than the inside.

"Space can reproduce the Otherworlder's dimensional storage. Or make distances shorter or longer."

"That covers all the six transcendental Elements. Rest for a while, I got some prepping to do."

Astromelicus left for his workbench and Aidan pondered about what he just did.

"Headmaster, I have one doubt."

"Yes, what is it, cadet Aidan?"

"I find it extremely hard to believe that nobody ever mixed these Elements. We have five thousand years of recorded history."

"And what makes you think nobody ever mixed these Elements before?"

"Why there are no records? No information? The few tidbits we got were crazy ramblings by some disfranchised mage."

He glanced back at Aidan's desk with a smile. "Exactly. The only facts we have are those ramblings. There are no accurate, trustworthy records. Which means that..."

"Whoever discovered these Elements kept the information to themselves and took it to their graves."

"Good, good. Most mages are jealous of their work and never share. Why do you think I have problems with the Conclave? Anyway, are you rested enough? Should we continue?" Astromelicus brought three clay pots, two with saplings and one with only fertilized black dirt. He infused the three with Life mana, making the saplings healthy and vibrant. "As you can see, Life mana does not change the maturity of the plant, just its vitality. Plant magic can only reshape plants, animate, or command them but not affect their health. We are going to try three types of sublime Elements. First, you should mix Plant and Light mana."

Aidan did as he told and mixed the mana. With each try, it became easier to do it and make the mana mix without conflicting with one another. Vibrant green energy wobbled on his hands. He guessed and directed the energy to the first sapling. It absorbed the mana and burst into action, growing a whole hand in the span of minutes.

"Growth," Aidan declared and earned a nod from his teacher. "It can accelerate the growth of plants and creatures, right?"

"Yes. The theory has it that Growth mana would never make a living being go past its prime. However, it is stressful. You can see with Lifesight that the vitality of the plant was greatly diminished."

Indeed. The sapling grew but was weakened. It might've wilted entirely if Astromelicus hadn't vitalized it beforehand.

"Next is Plant and Darkness, is it so?"

"Indeed. Proceed when ready and use the second sapling."

Aidan mixed the mana and a sickly purple-green sloshed around. He had to focus to not let any of the mana touch him. He tossed it at the second sapling with a mental apology. The sapling wilted and decayed, even the soil dried and crumbled.

"That's Decay. The opposite of Growth."

"Indeed. Very often the same element promotes opposites or correlated concepts. For example, Blood can mix into either Life or Death. It is a common misconception to think that Life and Death are opposites. You can find the true opposite to Death if you put a leaf from the grown sapling into the third pot and mix Blood and Light."

Once more he mixed the mana. The red blood mixed with Light and it became a healthy pastel with tones of pink like the skin of some babies. Astromelicus placed a leaf from the decayed sapling into the third pot and Aidan injected the mana into the dead leaf. It sunk into the pot and a brand new sapling sprouted. The Archmage explained this one too.

"This is Genesis. The power to start Life, just as Death is the power to end Life. Be warned that Life cannot sprout out of nowhere. A template, some sort of guide must exist for Life to happen. This is the reason the dead leaf was placed in the pot. Otherwise, something else might've been born out of the soil. Some insect or worm or even some monster. Who knows."

Astromelicus was extremely pleased with Aidan's creation of these Elements. Aidan stretched and glanced around the windowless room. "Good. Anything else? What time is it?"

"Are you tired?"

Aidan shook his head. Dawn felt bored at becoming a human charging station for all-purpose mana crystals, but the enjoyment the male half felt was enough for both of them. It felt like doing the repetitive support on the piano with the left hand while the right hand went wild with the melody. A very strange metaphor for Aidan that never played the piano. He focused on the strange knowledge and recalled. One of the 'useless' memories they pilfered from Lumina. Well, that was something. Time to go back to work.

"No. What is the next element?"

"Why don't you suggest one now?"

"I'm mixing Cavern and Lightning then."

Astromelicus raised an eyebrow but waved him to go ahead. Aidan focused and the two types of mana appeared easily. His own Underworld affinity made Cavern an afterthought and Lightning was famous enough that even mages without any affinity had an idea on how to make it. Fusing them proved a challenge but he was only making a sublime Element, not a transcendental one.

A purple mass of writing dark energy weighted down on his hands and Aidan felt as if the entire world would crumble down into it. He held the mana and ordered it to stop pulling and he felt like levitating.

"What is this?"

"Is it under control?"

"Yes, it can make me lighter or heavier but I'm stabilizing it."

"Funny thing. If you add Fire, it can become Time. If you add Water, it turns into Space. An Element that can control weight." Astromelicus checked his reference book before opening a smile. "That's Gravity! According to the book, it took even the otherworlders a lot of time to discover and elaborate on this concept."

"Let me try." Aidan split the mana blob in two on each hand and slowly seeped the elements as Astromelicus said. The Time and Space mana formed and they suddenly rushed together to form Cosmos. Aidan laughed, "It worked. Hey, Skippy, want to eat this?"

The dragon greedily descended from his perch and sucked on the Cosmos mana. Skippy chirped at Aidan and returned to his almost entirely eaten core.

"If we are skipping Unholy, then there are only two more sublime Elements for today. Void and Balance. For Balance you can go with Blaze and Cavern, to even out your Affinities. As for Void, Blaze, and Dust. But the Void mana should be encased in a Force Sphere."

Balance was a sphere of perfectly stable gray mana. it could be tipped into either Law with Earth or Chaos with Air.

"Balance feels like it could even odds or restore things to a neutral state. I think I could make a spell to dispel abnormal status," Aidan realized and sighed. "But Cythrel's loss of hands is not abnormal so far as the laws of the world are concerned."

"Should we resume our research Golems in the afternoon then?" Astromelicus suggested, quelling his worries.

"No. I want to work on the Regalia Ring after lunch. Now I'm making Void mana and we will be off. Dawn is almost exhausted."

"Agreed. Go for broke."

Aidan created a sphere of Force and then with great difficulty poured Blaze and Dust mana inside. The mana reacted, forming Shadow, Star, Quintessence, and Thunder mana and threatening to burst the Force sphere. He redoubled his focus and the four conceptual mana types condensed into a pitch black mana that quickly devoured everything inside. Even through the Force sphere, the Void threatened to suck their attention inside, promising true oblivion.

Aidan dismissed the Void but it lingered, hungry. His only choice was to pour a lot of Ether mana inside the Force sphere to slowly both sate the Void and neutralize it.

"Whoa! The Void is dangerous."

"Yes. Void can breed either Time or Chaos and both transcendental forms are very dangerous. There is even a storybook brought from the Otherworld, about a Void sorceress and her struggles to tame her Element."

"Whoa, that sounds like a very interesting story. I thought the Otherworld didn't have magic. How does it end?"

"I don't know. I don't think that story series is over yet."

"Wish I could read it. Well, no crying over spilled milk. Dawn is done, we are off to lunch."