“SET!” Akuoun’s voice began to strain as he searched for his disciple. Set had never skipped a lesson before and had begun to worry his disciple had gotten lost in the

Foeldhn.

“SE~ET” He called out again as a small pair of branching horns that curved back like a bridge popped up from over the hedges which lined the black slate that composes most of the Foeldhn.

Akuoun sighed in relief as he approached the distracted Set, “I’ve been looking for you, child. Where have you been?”

Set had no intention of being distracted from his project. He was testing the materials found within the Foeldhn to see if they contained kaos energy. He’d been obsessed with increasing his control over the energy ever since Akuoun taught him how to feel its presence.

“What are you doing over there, child? You’ve never been late before, didn’t you notice the Lozzai is in gewe?”

The Foeldhn was a strange place, aside from the terrain consisting of floating isles composed almost entirely of black slate. There are obelisks and structures strewn throughout it which, according to Akuoun, were already present when he first arrived. There are plants that grew out of cracks in the ground that no one has encountered on their voyage between worlds. The sky was covered in swirls of color, the center of which appeared to be star-like in nature and acted as sources of light causing different places to be submersed in different ambient hues.

The color of each ‘star’ changes back and forth between their original color and a darker, cooler color, to the aesoterii, this was equivalent to the day and night cycles they would encounter on their pursuit of power. It’s mostly ignored by the older residents of the Foeldhn, but used to get younger dureivan accustomed to the idea of day and night before leaving for the great expanse. The various nebula-like swirls also determined use of the land under its light. Akuoun and Set lived in the third section, an area coated in a light green tint that would occasionally shift to a darker cyan known as the Lozzai.

“I’m checking the ground! It’s always here and the Foeldhn is full of Kaos, so I wanted to know if it was in the ground as well!” Set continued to break off pieces of slate from the edge of the isle and attempt to channel its energy which he seemingly yielded no results.

“Child. I am your mentor, am I not?” Akuoun appeared behind the boy and reached for one of the pieces of slate he’d discarded.

“Everything in this place contains Kaos, being able to sense it, however, is a different story altogether.” Akuoun squeezed the rock in his hand slightly and drained the Kaos from the stone, Set watched in awe as the multicolored light abruptly shone within the stone and promptly dimmed until it had died out.

“Just ask next time.” He placed a hand on Set’s head and ruffled his mane. “But for now, we need to make up for the practice you’ve missed, you’ll be doing extra practical lessons today.”

Set groaned as he got up and followed Akuoun back to their home. He was more fond of theoretical magic. He didn’t want to know what was possible, but rather what was considered impossible and make it possible. To this end, he felt ‘the basics’ were beneath him, pointless to practice when he could be practicing using kaos.

Set was small, smaller than most hatchlings but this was typical of space aligned aesoterii, which often start small and grow far beyond what would be considered normal for their species. His sharp, textured horns rose from the sides of his head and curved backward, branching off in different directions but still following the same curve. His now-ruffled mane ran from slightly above his eyes, covered the entire backside of his head as well as slightly up his horns and down his back stopping only after running partially down his tail. Everywhere that wasn’t covered in long, curly white fur which had hints of iridescence that were more apparent near his hands and feet, was covered instead in white scales that shared similar iridescence. His relatively small size was almost comical next to Akuoun, one of the largest aesoterii. He only, even while stretching, came up to the old man’s greatly bent knees.

Rather than wait till they were home, Akuoun began the lesson on the way back.“Let’s start with what you know about the seven energies. Can you name them?”

Set raised his hands in front of him and counted off on his hands as they walked. “Aether, Kinodir, Setrum, Vael, Siyu, Strahl, and Flughia.”

“Good. Today we’ll be going over the advantages and drawbacks of each as well as their practical uses.”

Set closed his hands again as he looked off in the distance trying to gauge the distance to Akuoun’s den.

“Aether is the one of the most common energies as well as the least fickle energy, however, it’s weak when compared to the others. That combined with the fact that it needs to be infused with an element before it can be used lead to it also being the least useful once one becomes proficient in any of the others.”

Set cocked his head slightly. “If aether is useless, why do I need to learn how to use it?”

“Simple.” Akuoun began gathering aether while infusing it with fire and beginning to cast a spell before cancelling the whole process.

“Aether’s easy-to-manipulate properties allow you to perform all of the actions necessary to cast a spell at once with little effort. Once you’ve mastered it, you can try to do the same with any of the other energies.”

“Even kaos?” Set was suddenly interested in the basics.

“Even kaos.” Akuoun smiled, knowing he’d captured his disciple’s interest.

“There are other reasons as well.” Akuoun continued to motivate his disciple to study in basics.

“Because we still don’t know everything about kaos, it’s possible you’ll run into situations where you won’t be able to use it. In such a situation, you need to be able to use magic that’s at least a tenth of the power as your kaos magic.”

Akuoun could see disbelief in his pupil’s eyes and decided to demonstrate. “Let’s say I need a fireball.”

Akuoun extended his arm out in front of him and for a moment several small lavender symbols and shapes could be seen before they flashed red and were replaced with a fireball.

“If that had been kaos, I could have made hundreds of thousands of these fireballs, with each having nearly ten-fold the power, however, this will be more than enough to handle most threats.”

Set reached out and gathered Aether in front of him attempting to imitate Akuoun, who immediately grabbed his pupil’s hand, disrupting the spell.

“What do you think you’re doing?”His grip tightened and Set began to squirm.

“Magic is no toy, you could seriously hurt yourself or others with half-baked casting like that.”

Set nodded quickly to let Akuoun know he understood before whimpering, “It hurts, Akuoun…”

Akuoun’s eyes widened as he quickly let go and cleared his throat. He looked down at the child who was rubbing his wrist with his head down. Akuoun sighed, using his tail he picked up Set and placed him on his back. He reached over his horns which Set had latched onto and patted the top of his head.

“Let’s go home.” He took off through the Foeldhn, flying towards his den by weaving between the isles.

When they arrived Set refused to let go of Akuoun’s horns, so he just carried him around as he prepared the lesson.

“...Akuoun…” Set whimpered from behind him.

“Wha-!? Oh…”, Akuoun was caught off-guard, he’d forgotten he was carrying Set so the sudden voice startled him.

“Yes, child?”

“If I learn to use aether properly, will it help me handle kaos better?”

Akuoun reaches back and grabs Set and tells him, “It wouldn’t hurt to learn to handle the energies that kaos is made of if you wish to control it better.” As he puts him down at a table and sits down next to him.

“... Will I be as strong as you?” Set seemed obsessed with getting stronger, this wasn’t the first time he’d asked these questions.

“Set, why do you want to be strong?” Akuoun had been wondering for a while. More often than not, a dureivan his age wouldn’t be interested in magic. The hatchlings he saw constantly running around the Lozzai were proof enough.

Set looked up into Akuoun’s eyes and sits in silence for a moment before answering, “I want to protect everyone.”

Akuoun couldn’t stop himself from laughing as he picked the boy up, raising him into the air above him. “You’ve got a lot of work to do if you want to handle the things that I can’t, child.”

Akuoun hugged him tightly. Set squirmed a little bit, he disliked being picked up by Akuoun who was several times taller than him.

“And You’ll need to work hard to get that strong. Can you handle it?” He said as he ruffled Set’s mane once more, putting him back in his seat.

Set looked up into Akuoun’s eyes and nodded once with determination in his eyes. He took out his notebook and began writing down the information he retained about aether.

“Well then, let’s-” A loud sound outside the den interrupts Akuoun. Set has learned to associate it with Lakon’s arrival.

“It’s Lakon!” Set’s excitement upon knowing Lakon was coming irritated Akuoun a little bit.

“... Let’s work hard together… next time.” Akuoun smiled at him before emitting a puff of rainbow coloured flames from his nose as he stomped out of the house to ‘greet’ Lakon.

“Hey old man, I thought I’d com-” An even louder sound, something akin to the sound of rope snapping, interrupted Lakon. Set has learned to associate this sound with Akuoun’s magic.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?” Lakon yelled.

Akuoun could be heard laughing loudly throughout the Lozzai. “As if that could kill you.” Akuoun began walking back to his den.

“If you’re here for the child. He’s right there.” Akuoun gestured towards his den, where Set was still sitting on the bench where he was looking through his notebook.

“What, can I not just come to visit?” He began walking, following Akuoun inside of his den.

“That hurts, you know. We are old friends, are we not?”

Akuoun rolled his eyes as they entered while Lakon went straight to Set. Lakon enjoyed talking with Set for multiple reasons, though the main reason is that his own pupil, Niviin, would be more co-operative in her lessons if he told her that Set had already completed it.

“What are you up to little one?”

“I’m going over the basics.” He didn’t look up from his notebook. Lakon peeked over him to read along with him. At the top of the page Set had written two lines. The top one read:

“Power: Aether < Siyu < Kinodir < Setrum < Flughai < Strahl < Vael < Kaos” Ordering the seven energies from weakest to strongest.

The second line read:

“Use: Kaos < Vael < Strahl < Flughai < Kinodir < Setrum < Siyu < Aether” This time in order of how difficult it is to control.

“Set, are you planning on mastering all of them?”

“If possible. I know some energies are hard to use if you don’t have the talent for it so I won’t be stubborn about it.”

Lakon continued to read through Set’s notes where he had written more in-depth descriptions for each type of energy. Lakon saw an opportunity to assist in Set’s education and looked over to Akuoun for approval.

“Akuoun, have you taught him about corruption?”

Akuoun was leaning back in his chair going over an old notebook of his to see what he can incorporate in future lessons when he stopped and slowly glanced over at Lakon. He closed his notebook and tilted his head backwards so that his horns and mane would hang completely over the back of the chair.

“No.”

A simple, concise answer. Spoken in a tone that made Set instinctively lower his head. To call Akuoun’s hatred of the topic ‘great’ would be an understatement.

“Do you mind if I take this one?”

Akuoun raised his head slightly, just enough to look down his snout at the athletic dureivan playfully hovering around his pupil.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Do as you wish.”

He slumped his head back over the back of his chair and stared at the ceiling, sighing as they left his den.

“Hear that, little one? Let’s go!”

Set saw Lakon and the others as secondary caretakers, though he liked Zan and Lakon the most because they were more likely to teach him new things. As such he was excited to learn about something that Akuoun, for some reason, wouldn’t teach him. As they left Akuoun’s den, Set looked back to check on his mentor, who peaked over at him and smiled slightly, shooing him away.

Outside of the den was a large, flat skidmark from where Lakon arrived, as well as an unaligned section of the ground when Akuoun had erased a part of the fabric of reality. Set stared at it for a moment, wondering what a real fight between his master and the other elders would look like as Lakon snuck up behind him.

“What are you thinking about, little one?”

Set nearly jumped in surprise.

“I just wonder how long it will take for me to be as strong as the Elders.”

Lakon looked at the traces of magic in front of him and understood where Set was coming from. He too once single-mindedly pursued power. For Lakon, however, the power he longed for was the peak of physical strength. Even after they discovered kaos, Lakon continued to use his body as his weapon.

“That is up to you, little one. Your hard work is yours alone, and no one can take it from you.” Lakon rubbed his chin for a moment as he recalled something from his adventures. “Not easily, anyways.”

He took Set to the Meszai, a red section of the Foeldhn that’s often used as testing or training grounds. The abuse it has been through has rendered it a shredded collection of small islands that are the result of several generations of mock battles and experimentation.

“Alright, little one, what do you know of energy corruption?” Lakon began removing bandages that covered his right arm revealing an unbelievable amount of glyphs carved into his skin and filled with an unknown golden material.

Lakon had gone so far as to mutilate his scales to be able to continuously cast complex magic that bolstered nearly every aspect of his physical body at will. Such magic is rare due to the possibility of allowing your body to surpass its own durability resulting in self-destruction. Lakon, however, has spent his entire life going beyond what many would consider sain to perfect his magic. His right arm is his life’s work, a prosthetic of his own design. Lakon’s prosthesis is usually tightly wrapped in glyph-ridden bandages. It was a marvel amongst the worlds inhabited by those who seek power through magic that was made using his own arm, which he’d severed himself, as its base. The glyphs present on it are carved into the bone, both the inside and outside of his scales and in his claws.

“Corruption?” Set was puzzled, “Akuoun’s never brought it up.”

Lakon stopped unwinding the bandages covering his arm and looked up at Set in surprise, “Really?! Interesting!”

He quickly finished removing his bandages and stood up. “Then it is time to learn!”

Set nodded, as he readied the notebook and pen he had in hand. Lakon walked out to the center of the open field and began to expel aether from his right arm. The Aether was so dense that even Set, who had only recently learned to sense kaos, could vividly feel that something was wrong.

“L-Lakon? Are you sure this is okay?”

Lakon laughed heartily, keeping his hand steady as a lavender swirl appeared centered on his right hand.

“It is fine, little one!” He announced. Where the swirl of color had originally formed, it now began to bleed into the air, as if staining reality itself. Like spilled dye He did this five more times, each location imbued with a different color as a result of a different energy.

“These are 6 of the seven original corruptions. We can go over the others once we’re done with these.”

He walked back over to the lavender corruption. “This is Aether corruption, come, feel the difference.”

Set walked up to the lavender stain and reached into it. Almost immediately, he lost consciousness. When he came to, he found himself on the ground with Lakon crouching next to him.

“So? How did it feel?”

“It was… a lot.” Set sat up and stared blankly at the anomaly while he attempted to gather his thoughts.

“It felt… like hearing, feeling and seeing too many things at once. Like I gained a lot of eyes and ears.”

“That is right.” Lakon hopped to his feet and walked back over next to the aether corruption.

“Aether corruption weakens the barrier between worlds. Zan says it is due to aether being attracted to large enough gatherings of itself, and since it is common between worlds, if enough gathers it can breach the barrier that separates them.”

“What do you think the reason is?”

“Me?” Lakon reached out towards the corruption phenomenon.

“I believe Zan is right. Aether is known to many as the energy that rewrites.” His arm began to glow as he absorbed the dense energy into his body.

“It has long been known that aether is one of the two energies that is attracted to itself, I believe the idea that it is a result of allowing enough aether to gather in one spot that it can pierce the veil between worlds is not so far fetched.”

Lakon allowed Set to finish what he was writing in his book before moving on. As he approached the amber corruption he reached his hand inside and sighed in relief before quickly removing himself from the corruption. He turned to Set with an indecipherable look on his face before regaining his senses.

“Which energy is this?” He was asking Set to identify it based on color alone.

Set was vaguely aware of the color that each energy should be, but without the proper training or affinity, the only way to see them is if enough gathers that it becomes visible to everyone. As such, this was his first time properly seeing the energies on their own.

“That color should be Siyu.” Set was fairly certain, but it wouldn’t be the first time Lakon played tricks on him.

“That is right.” He looked back at it, his eyes slightly glazed over like he was looking at a cask of Zan’s *Tuweti. His eyes closed slowly and when he opened them again he was back to normal.

“I do not think I should have you experience this first hand yet.” He glanced back at it, this time, he held contempt in his gaze. Without hesitation, he reached out his right arm and absorbed the energy maintaining the phenomenon into his body, causing the amber stain to dissipate and his sudden serious expression along with it.

“But Lakon-”

“No.” Lakon was first in his decision, however after seeing Set deflate over being unable to experience it firsthand, he decided he should at least explain the reason behind his decision.

“If you must know, Siyu’s corruption is similar to mind control. Being submerged in the energy of life is… intoxicating. It takes only a moment to lose your sanity to the cravings and begin taking it from wherever you can.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“Little one, It has created many and killed more monsters than anything I have ever seen. Be very careful when working with the energy of life.”

The next energy was a pink, ethereal swirl that Set felt a tug at something beyond his physical body. Lakon walked up to the corrupted area and turned away from it. The closer he got to it, the more clearly one could see something within him stretching slightly out of his body, being pulled towards the pink swirl that formed the corruption phenomenon behind him.

“Strahl is the energy most well known for being what the soul is made of. If too much of it is allowed to gather, it will begin to draw in more, usually by dragging in the souls of nearby living creatures. In the past, this has led to the creation of terrifying creatures. If you find Strahl corruption out on your journey, you should either get rid of it immediately, or leave that world as soon as possible.”

“So it’s a soul?”

“Sort of.”

“Who’s?”

“Well, it is not a soul, but what souls are made of. If left alone and allowed to gather mode Strahl, it becomes a fearsome being known as an esznorha.”

“Ezzinnorrha?”

“Immortal warriors of the mortal races. We of the dureivan call them Rakhvokh, or death knights.”

The pattern continued as he absorbed the Strahl and moved on to Setrum. This time the phenomenon was rigid, block-like even. Surges of energy traced through the phenomenon, pulsing as if it was breathing.

“This is the only form of corruption that can be said to have no downsides. Setrum is unique, an energy that promotes protection and reinforcement.”

Lakon pulled a stick almost as long as his arm out of thin air and stuck it in.

“Anything exposed to it becomes impossible to destroy under normal circumstances.”

When he removed the stick, the only change was glowing traces of blue energy running along its length, the pattern of which reminded Set of the circuit boards that he would see Rondo tinkering with when at his forge. Lakon turned towards an unobstructed side of the isle and raised it high up into the air before swinging down. When it came into contact with the ground, the swift swing had enough force to split the isle in front of him leading all the way to the edge and when the dust cleared, the stick simply glowed brightly as the energy within it gathered at the point of impact and then dispersed along the length of the stick once again, as a whole, it was unharmed. He tossed it over to Set where it stuck into the ground next to him.

“Let us pay Rondo a visit once we are done here, he might make you something special.”

When Lakon gathered the Setrum to disperse its corruption, rather than containing it, he transformed it into its raw form. Naturally, setrum forms a solid cube with circuit-like patterns in it. On the planets that often use it, setrum deposits vary in sizes that can range from that of a pebble to something similar in size to a mountain. He placed the large block on the ground beside him and moved on to the next energy.

“Kinodir is an energy that exists naturally in even more worlds than aether, but because of the naming conventions of other worlds, is often mistaken for it. Know that in most worlds, both aether and kinodir are called names such as chakra, ki, mana, prana, some worlds even refer to them as magic itself.”

“Why do something so confusing?” To Set, the concept of having multiple named for the same thing served only to cause confusion.

“Culture, Little one. Many worlds are isolated, separate from the great expanse. They have no understanding of the basic systems that govern the boundary. The translation magic we use is specialized for the purpose of not causing chaos across the expanse by alerting those whose worlds are still isolated of the existence of other worlds by relaying feeling, understanding and intention, rather than true meaning.”

Set was fervently scribbling in his notebook, Lakon was the first to tell him so much about the outside and his curiosity only grew with each story.

“Kinodir prefers to inhabit creatures, doing so allows it to gather it faster by moving within their vessel in specific ways. It’s phenomenon occurs when enough of it gathers without a vessel.”

Lakon motioned for Set to come closer and gestured to have him interact with the inky, black, painting-like stain. When Set touched the anomaly that seemed to paint a natural scene in front of him, he was immediately lost in illusions. A monochromatic plane covered in maze-like formations of tall, skinny, notched trees that appeared to grow back immediately no matter how many times he cut, burned or broke them. He wandered within the corruption for what felt like an eternity before he felt a hand on his shoulder and was abruptly yanked backwards. He was unable to turn around, but whatever was pulling him was moving quickly. It rounded tens of corners on a dime, wherever it was going, it knew how to get there.

When he finally reached the exit it left him. He found himself directly in front of a vast misty field beyond an archway covered in unknown texts. When he approached it, he did so cautiously. In the opening of the archway a silhouette reminiscent of Lakon’s figure appeared in the misty field that he presumed to be the exit. The figure reached out and when Set reached to grab it’s hand it in turn grabbed his and pulled him towards the mist immediately. Before Set fully crossed the threshold, however, another presence abruptly appeared and grabbed Set by his other arm. When he looked back, he saw Lakon holding onto him but looking past him with a grim expression. Set turned slowly, the being that had attempted to pull him into the field of mist was still holding his arm. A figure, eerily similar to Lakon’s profile, was standing there without moving.

“We need to leave.” Lakon’s voice lacked it’s usual upbeat tone. Set nodded, attempting to pull his arm away from the shadow. Lakon placed his right arm on Set’s chest and cast his causality interference veil on Set, allowing him to escape the being’s grasp. The being stayed still for a moment before an eye opened, staring at it’s now empty hand, followed by several other eyes from within the mist.

“Set. We need to leave. Now!” Lakon grabbed the boy and took off, running at speeds that allowed him to slam straight through the seemingly impassable barriers of trees as the being let out a bone-chilling shriek behind them. As Lakon kept running, Set noticed more and more eyes opening as they ran, followed by an ever growing chorus of shrieking. Rather than try to find the exit quickly, Lakon opted for the sure-fire method he’d found out from a friend of he made on his pursuit of power. Once all of the creatures passed the threshold and were out of its mist field, He turned on a dime and covered the entire maze in an instant, with his straightened hand he swung down on the gate he found Set in front of, cutting it in half and in doing so, the creatures that had left the gate were cut with it.The Illusion shattered, leaving Set in Lakon’s arms back in the Meszai.

“Let’s not do that again. If I lose you to corruption, Akuoun would turn me into a piece of furniture.”

Lakon quickly siphoned the energy out of the remaining fragments of the illusion and moved on to the final practical example that he’d prepared. The final phenomenon was manifesting itself as a simple shining ray of light, the origin of which was obscured. Set couldn’t even bring himself to ask about it, every time he tried to think of its source, his thoughts immediately derailed as if he was being intentionally distracted from it by a third party. Lakon walked up to it and said, “This, you need to remember. If you see anything similar to it one day, it could become your greatest boon, or it could become the last thing you see.”

He turned and absorbed the energy maintaining the phenomenon before explaining further.

“The anomalies Flughai creates are similar to a small child, what it’s exposed to determines how it turns out. Under normal circumstances, the power of prayer simply depends on the amount of it present in the world or the amount gathered by the being that is being prayed to. With enough of it, even the rules that govern the great expanse can be rewritten. When it gathers without purpose like you just saw, however, it becomes a sentient being that develops its own will if left alone long enough. Its abilities and authorities are dependent almost entirely on what prayers and wishes are asked of it. It can become a benevolent god of death, a mysterious god of fate or a mischievous god of trickery, there is no telling what will become of the anomaly until it is too late.”

With all of the anomalies dealt with, Lakon walked up to the cube of setrum and sat down on it as he motioned for Set to come sit next to him. He began to explain the remaining forms of corruption.

“Vael, Kaos and Arch. The last three forms of corruption are too dangerous to replicate for extended periods, even here.”

He gathered a black and red energy that seemed… viscous, goo-like even. “This abomination is Vael. It corrupts all things, living or otherwise.”

With his face twisted in disgust, he pulled another stick out of thin air and slid it through the gathered energy which stuck to it like tar painting the stick with a black and red bubbling substance. When Lakon pulled the stick back out of the Vael, the bubbles popped leaving red spikes in their place in red spikes and the ends sharpened to a point, extending the stick and turning it into a barbed spear.

“Its corruption is much worse than this. Any creatures exposed to it become horrific beings that feed off of negative emotions. Fear, anger, sorrow, hatred, greed and jealousy all bolster these creatures making them stronger.”

He dispersed the vael energy and shook his hand as he pulled a jug of water out of thin air and tipped it over, leaving it hanging in the air without holding it himself as he washed his hands off.

“I can never get used to handling that filthy energy.”

Set was more interested in the trick that Lakon had done three times now in front of him.

“Lakon, where are you getting these things?”

“What thi-” He saw Set staring at the jug floating in front of him and chuckled his scowl softened as it often does when he interacts with the hatchlings.

“Ah, this little trick?” He pulled another item out of thin air and handed it to Set. When Lakon moved his hands away Set recognized it to be a snack that Lakon often brings him.

“It is simple, but if I teach you magic before Akuoun I do not know what he will do.” His serious expression returned, though notably less tense, as he began to channel energies into his right arm causing a corona of colors to be ejected from his shoulder as he breathed, something he seemed aware of, and unbothered by.

“Um…” Set stared directly at Lakon’s shoulder as it emitted light, he’d spent a lot of time with Lakon so far but this was the first time he’d seen him… glowing?

Lakon looked down at Set and then followed the direction his big eyes were staring at and realized it was his first time seeing him vent.

“What’s wrong little one?”

“Are you okay?” Set thought that Lakon was emitting colors because he was using too much magic for his sake, which was partially true. Lakon’s arm is still experimental, he’d managed to get close to the solution for kaos to arch conversion but it was far from perfect. As a result, he needs to purge the excess energy when it finishes converting what it can.

“Ha, never better.” He rotated his shoulder a few times before continuing.

“I was just getting ready to show you something special.”

Lakon gathered a notably small amount of both kaos and arch energy, kaos in his left hand and arch in his right.

“Kaos and Arch are basically the same energy. If kaos is a knot of colored strings, arch is all of the same strings lined up neatly next to each other. With the exception of vael, the two are infinitely more powerful than the others energies. Even this is enough to destroy the Eadhn several times over.”

He raised the droplet of kaos energy into the air. “Kaos corruption erodes the rules that govern the boundary. Timelines begin to leak into each other and past events can become current or even future events.”

Set was in awe “Will I be able to gather it like this?”

Lakon frowned slightly, “I’m sure you will be able to, little one. However…”

Lakon shook his head slightly and a hollow smile crept across his face, “I look forward to how much you’ve grown after your pursuit of power.”

He absorbed the energy again. “It’s a power that cannot be controlled by sheer willpower. No matter how many times others try, they fail and everyone else suffers for it.”

Whether it was intentional or not, he glanced in the direction of Akuoun’s den and sighed. He shook his head slightly before continuing, lifting the energy in the opposite hand upwards.

“Arch energy is… perfection incarnate.” He stared at it for a moment before continuing.

“It is the most powerful and most potent energy we know of, and we are still trying to find ways to create it.”

Lakon rubbed his right arm.

Set looked perplexed, “But didn’t you just gather it?”

Lakon chuckled and shifted to face Set, looking down at the curious hatchling, “Gather, you say? You could say that.” He returned the energy to his body,

“The only arch energy we’ve been able to find exists naturally within the aesoterii, It is to us, what blood is to the mortal races. The arch energy you just saw was some of the energy that sustains me, we of the Foeldhn have a limited amount of it, once it’s used, it can not be replenished.”

Set looked worried, “You used something like that for a lesson?!”

Lakon placed his hand on Set’s head, ruffling his mane again. “Your concern is endearing little one, but it is not so simple. Theoretically, kaos can be turned into arch energy, though we have not managed to properly recreate the process. I am able to convert kaos to arch through this masterpiece of mine.”

Lakon proudly patted his right arm, “I am working with the others to perfect it, but if it is only this much, I can replenish it.”

The rainbow corona emitting from Lakon’s shoulder began to die down as he stood up, absorbed the setrum back into him and started wrapping his arm back up.

“Arch corruption is the only form of corruption we have yet to see. We do not know what it looks like, and we do not know what it does. And though we have our ideas of what it might do-”

Lakon took one last look over the now partially destroyed isle of the Meszai where he’d been teaching Set before deciding that it was fine to leave as is. “Most would rather it remain a mystery.”

He picked up the sticks that he’d corrupted with vael and setrum.

“Come, little one, let us see what Rondo can do with these.”