Lightning to Light

The carriage ride stretched on for days. I knew my home was rural, but I hadn’t realized the academy was this far. The man explained it was in the capital, so the trip would take a while. All I could think was “Great, more time with this guy that almost killed me.” Being constantly cooped up in that carriage with him would’ve driven me crazy. Luckily, we would often make pit stops, sometimes setting up camp, sometimes resting in a small village. On those stops I would decide to train by myself. At first, the man would just watch but eventually he offered to spar with me. And of course, I hopped on this opportunity to train.

While sparring, I noticed that he would primarily use lightning attacks. What interested me about him was that all of his spells were just basic lightning blasts, nothing as complicated as Ryu. But where he was lacking as a mage, he made it up in being a powerful warrior.

He could even switch his elemental attribute on contact, something he claimed had taken decades to master. Maybe I was a prodigy after all. When we weren’t sparring, I trained alone by circulating mana and life force through my body the way Father had taught me. I wasn’t going to waste a single day, I wanted to get strong and do it as fast as possible. Even though I kept up with the training my parents taught me and could feel myself getting stronger, one thing kept me up; I didn’t know how to ascend my elements.

The concept seemed too foreign so I couldn’t imagine doing it. Still, I kept going at it. Night after night and failure after failure. I kept sneaking out until he eventually caught me.

“What are you doing up this late?”

“Nothing for you to be worried about.” I didn’t even turn to answer him. I just kept my hands up trying to release an ascended element.

C’mon, gimme something to work with.

As I stood there with my hands raised, I wasn’t able to conjure up anything. This was something I couldn’t imagine so it was out of my grasp.

“You’re trying to release an ascended element, aren’t you?” he asked.

“So what if I am?”

“You’re doing it completely wrong.”

“How can you tell?”

“Well, you’re just using regular mana and I doubt you can visualize how to do it since you know nothing of it.”

I dropped my hand and gritted my teeth. He was right, I knew nothing about this. “Are you just here to criticize me?”

“I’m just observing.” he crossed his arms.

“Then go away. If you’re not helping, I don’t need distractions.”

Raising my hand, I focused. Since trying to shoot out any of the six elements wasn't working, I needed to narrow my focus to one. Lightning was the most convenient out of the six, so it made sense to try ascending it first.

He said lightning ascended into radiance. So I just gotta focus on turning lightning into light. He also mentioned that I was using regular mana earlier—does that mean I have to use malif? I might as well give it a shot then.

With my hand still up, I pictured light in my mind. Just pure light. I didn’t need it to be powerful, I didn’t need it to take form, I just needed light. But nothing came out. I dropped my hands in disappointment. As I looked down in defeat, I noticed that the man was still watching me. I caught him in the corner of my eye; he had his arms crossed and he was leaning on a tree.

I’ll just ignore him. What can I do? Hmm… maybe I have to use lightning first.

I raised my hand once more and focused on lightning with malif pumped into it. Suddenly, a powerful bolt of lightning shot out of my hand.

Dammit, why didn’t it ascend into light. I used malif what's—

A flash streaked past my face, faster than any lightning I’d seen. He stood to my left, hand raised.

“That was a blast of radiance.” he said.

I shot him a look. “What, trying to show off?”

“I noticed you picked lightning. Good instincts, it’s usually the easiest to ascend.”

“Thanks, I guess. But if that’s all you can say then I’m not interested.”

“I can offer some help. Would that be of interest?”

“Really?” I immediately turned to him. I then turned back, “Ahem, I mean, yeah sure, if you want to or whatever.”

“Very well then.” He walked to my side again, “What you were doing earlier, you turned your malif into lightning. Is that correct?”

“Yeah. I just thought—”

“What you were thinking was incorrect. You don’t transform lightning into radiance by using malif, that only strengthens the attack. Instead you use malif to purify lightning.”

“That’s what I was trying to do.”

“No you weren’t. If you were attempting it then you wouldn’t have shot that bolt out by accident.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t pump malif into lightning, instead you use it to transform the lightning. Then you add mana into it. All of the ascended forms use up mana to release but it takes malif to transform.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Most people aren’t able to grasp this idea, so most people are stuck being weak.” He fired another blast of radiance into the trees. “Don’t let that be you.”

I kept at it all night, growing angrier with each failure. Not at him, but at myself. After everything I’d been through, I was still weak. My knees buckled under the weight of exhaustion; I had accidentally released so much malif it finally took its toll. I knelt there, gripping the dirt until it sifted through my fingers… and then everything went black.

The next morning, the man found me sleeping on the ground. I felt a sharp pain in my side when I woke up—the bastard kicked me. He woke me up to help pack the camp site so we could continue on the trip. It was only a couple of tents so packing up didn’t take long.

Once we got back onto the carriage our journey continued. The ride was awkward, like usual. The man just sat across from me with his arms crossed and eyes closed. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to pass time by sleeping or if he was just trying to act cool by posing like that. Either way, it didn’t matter. The only thing that was on my mind was finding out how to release radiance.

“You didn’t make any progress last night, did you?” he asked.

“No. I didn’t.”

“If you’re trying to picture it as mana into an element then that won’t work.”

“How do you always know what I’m doing?”

"Because, all of your attempts are ones I’ve done when I tried.”

“So what should I do instead?”

“When I began to learn how to do it, I pictured the lightning element in my head. Then I pictured malif, but instead in its state of pure power—I pictured it as a tool.”

“A tool?”

“Yes. Think of it as a tool to shape lightning into radiance. That is how I would approach it.”

“Huh?”

“Think of lightning as marble, a material that you need to create a masterpiece. Then malif as your hammer and chisel. And once you can picture that, imagine creating radiance as your final product. That will be your masterpiece.”

It was hard to think of malif as anything but raw power—but I tried. I pictured lightning as marble, and malif as tools. Suddenly, a blast of lightning ripped through the roof.

“Point that somewhere else!”

“It wasn’t even supposed to be a blast!”

“Then you’re failing miserably.”

“I can tell!”

I tried again, but this time I pointed my hand out the window. I wasn’t able to produce anything else.

Maybe I just needed better control of my malif. Mother had taught me mana control through suppression, maybe the same would work here.

I tapped into my life force then released a significant amount of malif. The sudden burst of energy sent out a shock wave, completely blowing off what was left of the roof of the carriage.

“What are you doing?” the man shouted.

“Let me concentrate.” I mumbled.

The power was overwhelming, holding it in like this was painful. But my body was conditioned to withstand heavy amounts of malif. I just needed to focus. Still, suddenly releasing this much malif made me lightheaded so it was hard. Slowly, painfully, I condensed it, forcing it back into my body until my aura looked calm. It took awhile but I was able to do it. I had fully suppressed my malif into looking like I hadn’t used it at all.

“Amazing, suppressing that much malif requires a significant amount of control.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re unable to picture malif as anything but pure power, but by gaining perfect control of it, you can picture it as a tool. Your way’s unorthodox, but it could work.”

Even though I was able to suppress it this much; it was difficult to maintain. I have to give my full attention in suppressing it. I could barely move while suppressing it. Hell, I could barely hold up a conversation without my aura fluctuating. This just means I needed more practice.

I kept doing this until my malif ran out. Then I would use what little malif I had left and healed myself with it. At first it was risky, but the more I did it the more natural it felt. Eventually it became as easy as healing myself with mana.

A week later, I could suppress my malif decently well, most of it at least, though some fluctuations remained. More practice would smooth them out, but for now it was time to move on to ascending lightning.

I pointed my hand out the window again and pictured the same thing as before. Lightning as a big block of marble, malif being my hammer and chisel, and now I just have to imagine shaping it into radiance. Everything was going well so far since I hadn’t released any bolts of lightning out.

There, I can see it. The radiance. Okay, now I just need to add mana.

Then, my hand gleamed with a bright light. I did it.

“Yes! Yes! Finally!”

“Took you long enough, but was that all you can muster out?”

“Hey, I did it. That’s what matters.”

“That is true.”

“Besides, I was following the process you told me about. I focused so much on creating the radiance it was difficult to produce an abundant amount.”

He nodded. “It’s a slow process, but once you learn one ascension, the others come more easily.”

“Just watch, I’ll master it in no time. Hell, I’ll even master all of them before our fight.”

“I like the optimism, but mastering them all is impossible.”

“What?”

“It’s not like the basic elements, where you can master all of them with practice. Everyone is restricted by birth to what they can master.”

“What does that mean?”

“Normally, people are drawn to two of the basic elements, where performing them is as easy as breathing. And if those people are able to ascend elements, they can only gain mastery of those two.”

“You’re saying people can master only two ascended elements.”

“Exactly. No matter how hard you picture, how hard you imagine, the body isn’t able to handle that much power.”

“Even ones of the celebrated generation?”

“Correct, this is the law placed by the Gods. No man shall rival their power.”

Damn, maybe there is a limit to me. But which two should I master? He said the two that I’m drawn to but I don’t know which ones they are.

“By the way,” I asked. “How can you tell that you have mastery over one.”

“When you can perform an arcane requiem.”

“Uh… I don’t have a blessing to remember.”

“Oh yeah.” He suddenly bursts out into laughter, “Then I guess we’ll never know.”

I stared at him. “You’ve mastered yours, then?”

“Yes. My blessing is made up of radiance and aegis. Through the mastery of those two, I was able to use my arcane requiem.”

Wait, when we fought he only shot out at me with basic spells. If he had mastery over those then why didn’t he use complex spells. I just assumed that he was a weak mage but mastery of an element should guarantee that you’re powerful. That could only mean, he was holding back during our fight.

As I looked at him a rage built up inside of me. I had realized that the fight we had wasn’t close at all, he was probably only using ten percent of his arsenal.

“That expression you’re making, you’ve realized it—haven’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah. I have.”

“So then, there’s only one thing to do from now on.”

“I’ll get stronger, just watch.”

“I hope you do, so that our battle may be a grand one.”

This realization drove me to keep practicing, even harder than before, even harder than when I was with my parents. I will get strong. But one thought still lingered throughout my mind.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Once we battle, I want it to be fun. I don’t want to fight some ant beneath my foot.”

“Of course that’s your answer.”

“And! Most people of the celebrated generation are born with a blessing.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Can’t you see that you don’t have one.”

“Yeah, but—”

“It’s pitiful.” He started laughing at me, “You’ll need some assistance to match up to me.”

“You don’t have to laugh at me like that.”

He kept on laughing, “Y-you aren’t even able to use arcane requiem.” He could barely spit out his words because of his laughter.

This ticked me off so I raised my hand at him.

I don’t need a blessing.

Without even realizing it, I shot a blast of radiance at him. This time, it wasn’t a flicker of light. Instead, it was a fast and powerful blast. It was so fast that he was forced to split step out of the way.

“Holy shit! I did it!”

As he reappeared beside me he said, “And you had to aim it at me?”

“Yeah, you were laughing a little too hard.”

“Since you’re making so much progress, I’ll forgive you.”

“I don’t need it.” I shot back.

From then on, I kept firing radiance out the window, sometimes into someone’s house, forcing him to pay damages. All that mattered was that I was improving, not only that but quickly too.

The carriage stopped in front of a castle.

“This is your stop.” the driver said.

“Thank you,” the man replied. “And sorry about the damages to your carriage.” He slipped the driver a bag of gold coins.

When we finally arrived, the carriage stopped before an enormous castle with an elegant fountain. Only a grand gate stood in the way. He raised his hand, a magic circle flared, and the gate opened.

“This is where you’ll be for the next few years. Remember,” he lifted his finger, “one month, that’s all you get.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, looking up at him. “I’ll beat you.”