ONE MONTH OF PROGRESS

Even though Lynne was extremely dejected and fearful of the spacial fracture he felt, he couldn’t do anything about it. It appeared only for a moment, and he barely caught a whiff of it before it disappeared completely. He could, at best, speculate that it originated somewhere within the Palace, but as to where, he hadn’t a clue. All the signs around him pointed at a large calamity in the near future, but what can he do about it? At this point, the only thing he could do was to strengthen himself so, when those days arrive, he’d have a better chance of survival.

Shortly after he had completely filtered out the Mana to his soul, he decided not to dwell on it at the moment. Path of Spellweaver relied the least on the Mana reserves, and much more on the obscurity of their techniques and the sheer amount of them. After all, it was quite easy to figure out how to block an icy mountain hurdled at you, than it is to figure out how to defend against something you are completely unaware of. With that in mind, Lynne decided to immediately assail the Archmage portion of the Magus Path.

In theory, Magus Path is divided into four general categories: Foundational Realm, which encompassed the stages from Unranked to Master, and is just as its name suggests: a realm where Magus lays down theirs foundations for the future. Although Lynne had sped slightly through it, he was extremely careful not to leave any defects, lest they catch up to him later. After the Foundational Realm comes Magus Realm, and it ranges from Archmage to Celestial Magus. In truth, most believe that this is as far as one can go on the path of Magus, and that two Realms beyond are simple fantasies, as no people like to see an end to a grand journey. Even rumored monsters and legends from the past were confirmed to be at best Two Star Celestial Magus, and not a whiff beyond. The Realm encompasses the stage where a Magus builds up his strength from the laid foundation, following the selected path throughout.

However, there is a good base for the Four Realm division, as some ancient texts to detail out the further two realms: Grand Realm and Divine Realm. However, there’s not a single recorded instance of such phenomena in the entire history of Alloy, let alone a small place like Highlind Kingdom. Naturally, Lynne couldn’t care less about these two Realms, as he was preparing to barely assault the Magus Realm.

The Path of Magus was much more than accumulating grand Mana reserves or learning majestic spells. One had to have stern heart and mind, abundance of creativity and perseverance, and myriad of good encounters. An old proverb states that ‘Archmage with a heart of steel is better than a cowardly Celestial’. For Lynne, the prime reason for hurrying up his development was the unease in his heart. However, despite that unease, he was extremely stern when it comes to heart and mind. It didn’t matter what Path the Magus followed – whether it be of bloodshed or aloofness – what mattered the most was that they never stray from it.

In theory, the principle to assailing Magus Realm was extremely simple – one just had to create their own spell out of nothingness. However, it was far from easy; creating one’s own spell was akin to creating ‘Spell Art’, as that single spell would follow Magus for as long as they live, and would become their defining characteristic. This is where ordinary were separated from the extraordinary – in this single spell.

Usually, the spell formed during the attempt reflected heavily on the person’s character. If they were forthright and outgoing, it would usually be some form of offensive spell; if they were shrewd and secretive, it would usually have something to do with utility. Of course, this wasn’t set in stone, but exceptions were rare – and Lynne wasn’t one of them.

His true nature was that of an extremely careful and calculating person, whatever his front may be. He was terribly shrewd and cautious in his approach, and would rarely – if ever – reveal his true thoughts to anyone. With that, he had already perceived which spell to concoct – and had even named it already, Infinite Faces. As per its name, it would be a spell that would, at least at the beginning, change his facial features, and towards the grand mastery he would even be able to shape-shift into various beasts.

Due to his relatively high talents, Lynne had no doubt in his heart about his ability to become an Archmage. He immediately assailed the Realm without a shred of doubt, closing his eyes and sternly focusing on the mental image of his perceived spell – thousand faces, thousand bodies, thousand voices. The greatest of complexions are oftentimes extremely simple, while the simplest of actions are oftentimes complex beyond comprehension – therein lied the true nature of his ability. It wasn’t just mere masking of one’s face, but completely changing one’s person. Outward appearance can be seen through, but if one is changed inside out, even the greatest of Masters would have trouble seeing through it. His nature quickly swelled up from within him, causing low winds to stir around his body. His hair fluttered slightly and he felt a tingling sensation coming from the depths of his soul. This tingling sensation, Lynne realized, was the perceived spell – if he could grasp at least a whiff of it, he’d have successfully passed through the Realms. Grasping at it with invisible hands, Lynne sought profound truths within changing one’s self; naturally, he had a good amount of experience in it. He had rarely been himself with anyone outside his father, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that no one besides him knew who Lynne truly was.

As profound truths reeled his mind, a strange phenomena occurred on his persona: his face suddenly began deforming, as his cheeks grew prudent and his lips appeared swollen. His eyes narrowed and slanted, and his forehead grew larger while his colored turned completely purple. Although crude and something that wouldn’t fool anyone, it was all that he needed at the moment. As he opened his eyes, his lips curled up in a smile; with a thought, his deformed features disappeared and he was back to his normal self. Although becoming an Archmage was something to take quite a bit of pride in, Lynne had no time for that. At the moment, his spell was useless beyond belief, as he would be hard pressed to even deceive a child, let alone anyone else.

With that in mind, he immediately reached out to his Pocket Ring and took out one of the two spell arts he had taken from the royal treasury: Fiery Sweeps. The reason he had chosen Fiery Sweeps over Elemental Blade is because he needed ways to escape more so than to fight at the moment. He also felt that the profound truths behind Fiery Sweeps were much simpler than those behind Elemental Blade, and thus decided to immediately began training in it.

Due to the scroll, he immediately grasped the basic principle behind it: his feet would be engulfed in blue flames, and upon his next movement, the blue flames would erupt in massive, explosive force, increasing his speed at least tenfold. He began practicing this basic principle, over and over again, bolting from one side of the courtyard to the other within a blink, leaving behind charred earth beneath. The sounds of explosions were muffled and nigh invisible, but Lynne felt them. Although it wouldn’t be able to hurt him, he still couldn’t help but sweat profusely each time he felt that explosion beneath his feet.

He continued practicing until his Mana was completely depleted, and then he’d replenish it, and then began practicing again, over and over again. This went on for almost five days until he finally completely grasped the basic principle behind the Fiery Sweeps. He had gained immense control of both force of push and the Mana required. He then immediately sat and began meditating on the more profound truths behind it, trying to understand the visage of this spell.

“The entirety of truths here lie within the preparation,” Lynne slowly murmured as he immersed himself in the thoughts. “Not within the spell itself – the act is nothing but a catalyst. There must be a reason that the flames are of Blue Origin rather than any other; what defines them, so? Blue Flames are much calmer than any other kind, and aren’t predisposed to immense explosiveness, yet it appears to be the nature of this spell. Is it taking two contradictory natures and pinning them together for increased effects? No, that can’t be it. That would only result in a backlash… so, it has to do with the calming nature of the Blue Flames? Is it not about the explosive increase in speed, but more about calmly weaving through the peril, rather than escaping it completely?”

As he silently pondered, he had began gaining some insights into the spell, causing him to smile joyfully. Lynne didn’t lack in comprehensive abilities; one might say that amongst the younger generation, he was perhaps at the very top. However, despite this, understanding truths behind ‘Spell Arts’ was far from being that simple; even if he could scratch the surface, it was still that – a mere surface. ‘Spell Arts’ are cumulative efforts of years, decades and centuries of excruciating effort; how can someone simply understand all the underlying truths within a day? If it were that easy, ‘Spell Arts’ wouldn’t be coveted more than piles of gold.

Even though Lynne had gained some insight into the true nature of spell, he hadn’t managed to improve its effectiveness by a large margin. He had understood, though, that particularities lie in control rather than the speed itself; that is to say, that the spell was best used in short bursts and distances, to weave in-between the attacks, rather than to evade them completely. Naturally, though, he could just use the explosiveness to immediately gain some distance, but that was just a crude surface and usage of the spell.

In such manner, a month quickly whiffed by; Lynne, outside of accompanying the King a few times on the meetings, spent his utmost efforts in training. He had managed to increase his Mana reserves somewhat, and had even managed to grasp basic understanding behind the Elemental Blade spell. He hadn’t made much progress with the Fiery Sweeps, but he was far from discouraged; rather, he felt ashamed for underestimating the ‘Spell Art’ as much as he did. The more he dove into its depths, the more unfathomable the spell seemed.

In addition, he had finally made some progress with his Infinite Faces spell. He was able to completely shift his facial structure and replicate someone’s else to the most of details. He had tested the spell once by transforming into the Captain Edgar and ordering some Guards around, and no one was ever wiser to his schemes. This progress had entailed him to the title of Two Star Archmage, and had propelled them into the true world of Mages. While still at the bottom, he didn’t lack confidence – what he lacked was time.

During the past month, he’d often sense the same spacial fractures, which worried him tremendously. He had managed to conclude that they were coming from beneath the Palace, but was there even the ‘beneath’? Lynne never expressed his concerns to anyone, as that would raise too many questions. In truth, the only reason he had managed to feel these spacial fractures was not because of his innate talent or disposition towards the Spacial element, but rather because of the Celestial Void Dagger. As he had imprinted his sense onto the dagger, he had gained some understanding of the spacial features, and had grown more sensitive to any changes within space. The reason why he was so dejected by these findings was that no one had showed any signs of change in the past month. After the death of the Viscount Mayson, no further clues were ever unearthed. The King grew exceedingly reckless, and even Princess Ella had confined herself. Despite her request to look out for the Prince, she had never actually come again to force Lynne’s hand. The atmosphere within the Palace had sunk to all time low; first, there was the usurping of the throne, and now there was this external threat that no one could pinpoint. Lynne distanced himself from this as much as he could, lest he became the part of the grand scheme.

He had reported to the Headmaster and others once, relaying the ground surface of the things in the Palace – the thing with Viscount Mayson, the massacre at the entrance to the Kingly Ring, and the unusual atmosphere. He had said nothing about the spacial fractures and had kept that knowledge close to his heart, for he felt it was something he wasn’t supposed to learn.

In addition, he had felt a few pairs of eyes hawking him occasionally, and had never found himself at true peace. He felt as if his every move was studied, but he had managed to maintain his foolish disposition to the best of his abilities.

“I need to find an excuse,” Lynne murmured silently to himself. “I can’t stay in this place any longer. It is becoming too dangerous and worrisome.”