A soft breeze blew through the thick canopies, causing the fragile leaves to sway slightly as they sang a melancholic song, together with the dancing blades of grass and the critter who had yet to sleep. The moon hung high in the sky, its gentle rays illuminating the chilly ground, and millions of stars accompanied it on the dark canvas of the night. Below, at Evicario’s First Gate, somewhere deep inside the city, Aina’s mansion bustled with activity despite the late hours. Grunts echoed into the empty area, and scorching lights escaped the tree’s foliage every so often, giving the illusion of a burning bonfire from afar.
The sound of crumbling rocks echoed in the mansion’s backyard, accompanied by a small cloud of dust that quickly scattered, revealing the remains of a burnt stone pillar. It wasn’t one of the ones surrounding the training field, but a small one, about the same height as Kai’s. Cuts, scorch marks, and other signs of damage covered what remained standing. Kai panted a few meters away from it, holding his wand with an excited expression on his face. Euphridia sat down on the nearby bench, alongside Elizabeth who oversaw Kai’s magic performance.
“Not bad,” she commented with a slight smile. “It’s only been a few weeks but you can already destroy magic-enhanced structures, you’re advancing fast.”
“Thank you.” Kai smiled back and clutched the wand in his hand. “But I’ve still got a long way to go, I’ve yet to get close to where I was before.”
Hearing that, Elizabeth’s expression changed slightly, and she sighed as she stood up. “It’s not about the past-”
“I know, I know.” Kai interrupted her, waving his hand. “My core is way too different, I’m aware. Still, I can’t help but compare myself…”
“Well, could the past you have sliced stone dummies in half with a single slash?” Euphridia interjected. “I bet not. You’re not the same as before, so comparing yourself to your younger self is redundant.”
“I guess you’re ri-”
“No, I am right. If you keep sulking each time you see your magic being worse than a few years ago and not strive to improve you’ll never get better.”
Kai sighed, finding himself at a loss for words from Euphirida’s lecture. She’s right… I’ve been crying too much about the past lately…
“Enough about that,” Elizabeth said, waving her wand toward the destroyed stone pillar. The rocks shuddered and disappeared into dust, from which another pillar rose from the ground. It stood at about two meters tall and was considerably thicker when compared to the last one. “Try using something else besides a fireball now, you have access to all elements so show us some other spells.”
“Ah- alright.” Kai sat down and plucked out the fire crystals from his wand, storing them inside the ring and taking out six others. Their color reflected that of the ocean - a deep, dark, and mysterious blue. Waves seemed to form on its surface, seemingly copying the tides. He quickly placed them in their place and they lit up with a soft light as the wand accepted them as a catalyst.
“That’s one interesting tool, isn’t it?” Euphy commented as Kai got up. “I’ve never seen, what did he call it, a ‘modular’ wand?”
“Yeah, it’s… intriguing to say the least. But I guess when you can use all elements…”
“Yeah…”
Kai overheard the two talking but didn’t feel like explaining it right now. Well, they have the gist of it anyway… I’d rather not tell too much to anyone.
He inhaled deeply and aimed at the newly formed stone pillar, and a soft, quick murmur escaped his lips as he swayed his wand forward as if he were slashed with a sword. A thin blade of water manifested before him, which shot directly at the pillar. It scattered upon impact, leaving the target unscathed. Kai frowned upon seeing that and proceeded to shoot three more blades before he became slightly exhausted, however, the result didn’t change.
Elizabeth chuckled lightly as she walked next to Kai. “Your casting is good, but you lack in everything else.” She said, placing one hand over Kai’s back and the other on his chest. “Your posture is all wrong for example. You used the same stance for both Fire and Water when they are the exact opposites.”
“Fire is wild, unrestrained. It seeks destruction, it wants to devour all life in its path.” She explained, taking out a fire crystal and placing it on the ground before crushing it beneath her feet. It exploded in a thousand pieces, leaving behind a small flame, which she then fed a few pieces of wood. “It grows as it consumes life, and in turn, creates it. It is said that our ancestors survived this long because of fire in its most natural and most feral form.”
“As a result, mages who focus on fire are more aggressive, angrier, and more unpredictable.”
Kai nodded as he watched the small fire grow into a wild flame, the wood crackling as it broke apart under the increasingly high temperatures. However, before it could fully devour the Kindle, a large ball of water descended upon it, instantly putting it out.
“Water, on the other hand, is the essence of life.” Elizabeth put away her and explained. “Without water, life would not be possible, it flows through all of us in roughly the same quantity. It exists in plants and mountains, sky and earth, it is everywhere. However, water, unlike fire, is gentle. It is malleable, taking the shape of any container you place it in, but it is also diverse. Water doesn’t exist under a single form, but rather it changes depending on the environment.” As she said that, she waved her wand, creating another sphere of water which she levitated carefully.
“At a normal temperature, water is gentle, comfortable, and adaptive. That doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous, as even in its current state it can take a life just as easily as its counterparts.” She murmured under her breath, and the water instantly turned to ice, becoming a frozen, cold sphere. “It is most dangerous in this form. It’s rough, hard, and numbing, however, at its core, it is still water.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“However, Kai, tell me, which would it hurt more to get hit by?”
“Well, the ice sphere.” He said without hesitation.
“And you’d be right. Although it is easier to predict, in this form water is no different than earth, except…” She murmured once again and the ice melted back into the water, which she then shot toward the stone pillar, and with another murmur, it turned back into ice just as it made contact. The ice shattered into pieces, barely leaving a dent in the earth. “It is brittle, it cannot compare to the earth’s toughness. Now, look carefully…”
Elizabeth inhaled deeply and waved her hands in a swift, rapid but gentle motion. She imitated the movement of the waves crashing against the shore, and she cast a chantless spell as she shot a small blade of water toward the pillar. It disappeared upon contact, however not because it scattered, like Kai’s previous attacks. The upper half of the earth pillar slid down, crumbling to the ground due to a perfectly clean cut.
“You used the same principle for fire magic as you did for water, which is the wrong approach. You need to understand that the elements are fundamentally different in nature, and each of them has a technique to be used effectively.”
Kai stared at the cut, his mouth agape and a shiver ran down his spine as his teacher’s words echoed in his ears. He gulped and nodded after a brief moment before clutching his wand. “I… I will try again.”
Elizabeth nodded, and Euphridia sighed with a longing expression as she watched the two perform such amazing acts of magic so effortlessly.
…
A few days had passed since then, and the day Sverik needed to leave for the Magic Academy approached swiftly. According to Aina, Kai could leave at the same time, however, he has yet to make a decision. He sat cross-legged in his room, breathing slowly as he absorbed mana by using the two techniques at the same time. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and his expression trembled as it changed from the calmness of the ocean to the wrinkles of the forest. The mana around him, although turning scarcer with each moment he meditated, rushed toward his extremities and fed his core.
He let out a light sigh as his eyes opened and his lips stopped moving. Stretching, he took a look at his mana core, which has expanded by at least twenty percent since the first time he had created it. That meant it could roughly hold at least twenty percent more mana, and that it was getting closer and closer to the point of medium core. Still so long to go… A saddened expression manifested on his face, however after taking a sip from his water bottle, he went right back to training.
And the days kept passing like this. During the day he trained his mana core and read any book he could get his hands on, and during the night he trained the sword with Euphridia and magic with Elizabeth. The notebook his grandpa gave him was almost full as he wrote down any observations and details that he saw during these two periods. Although he clearly wasn’t happy with his progress, he continued as every little bit counted. Onyx was mostly absent from the daytime training, as there was only so much he could sleep while watching over a statue.
During the night, however, he decided to get more involved and began doing practice with Kai. Whether it be a sword or wand, Onyx was the first one to fight him or alongside him.
And just like that, weeks passed, time in which Kai had spent countless nights without sleep all to advance, even if just a tiny bit faster. His core had grown to about sixty percent, and so did his sword and magic skills, as well as his coordination with the young Obborik. Despite that, he still couldn’t hold a candle to Euphirida, even when they fought two versus one.
Kai panted heavily during one such training session, where Euphridia’s figure was nothing more than a blur which became increasingly faster in his eyes as his mana supplies dwindled. Even Onyx, with his animalistic instinct, could barely keep up with her, and it didn’t take long for both of them to fall to the ground, defeated and exhausted.
“I didn’t know your specialty is speed…” Kai quipped in a haggard voice.
“It’s not, I just want to train your eyesight and reactions better. If we were to compete in strength you’d stand no chance.” She bragged proudly, despite her opponent being barely older than eleven.
“Yeah, yeah, keep staying humble,” Kai replied, followed by Onyx who mockingly imitated her tone. A light chuckle escaped the boy’s lips, which turned into a hearty, albeit weak laughter. She stomped the ground, however, she joined in, laughing as well and taking a seat alongside them.
“You’re improving a lot every day, Kai. I’m proud of you, however, don’t neglect your health. I know you’re barely sleeping, and no, meditation doesn’t count as sleeping.”
Kai sighed and closed his eyes. “You may be right, but the less I sleep… the fewer nightmares I have and the more I can train.”
“You’re having nightmares?” She asked concerned, putting down the bottle she was about to drink from. “What kind?”
The boy sighed again, a few seconds passing before he replied. “They’re vague but… I feel like something is haunting me. Or rather, hunting me. I’m running, faster and faster in an endless, foggy void… and yet I never seem to reach my destination. At first, the fog is white, however, it turns redder and redder the more I run, until it becomes so black I’m afraid to continue… And the worst part is, there is no light. No hope.”
Euphy remained quiet, analyzing the boy’s words, however, she found it hard to conclude, let alone give advice. “But Kai, a nightmare is still but a nightmare.”
“I know, which is why it hurts even more. What could be haunting me so much… it’s just…” He sniffed as a tear ran down his cheeks, followed by another and then countless more. “It’s scary, Euphy. I’m scared…”
The woman scooted closer to him, and lifted Kai into her embrace, tightly hugging him and petting his disheveled hair. She didn’t say anything besides letting him take whatever warmth she could give as he sobbed wordlessly.
…
Euphridia got up, carrying the sleeping boy into his room, followed by Onyx who seemed to have gotten used to Kai getting escorted. Euphridia tucked him into bed, not bothering to change his clothes. His steady breathing indicated a peaceful sleep, however, the period where dreams began hadn’t yet arrived. She watched over him for a little more before taking her leave, failing to notice a soft, glowing light over his forehead. Not even Onyx saw it, and if Aina were present she would have been oblivious to it as well. Over time, Kai’s heart rate became faster and faster, and so did his breathing.
Sweat drenched his body, and Onyx did his best to calm him down, however, unlike before it seemed less effective. The Obborik wasn’t sure what bothered his companion so much during his sleep, and he yelped gently as he used a little bit of wind to cool the boy down.
“Awooo…” He howled gently, as if begging the heavens to leave Kai alone, however his prayers fell on deaf ears, as the only Goddess in this world stopped paying attention to them a long time ago.