Chapter Seven

Their conversation stalled as a familiar ridge came into view. Elysia took one glance at the now enclosed harbor barely visible through the tree line. She couldn’t believe she escaped it way back then or now. Though Umbra was faster and healthier now so it probably wouldn’t have been as close as it was.

Unlike Elysia’s casual inspection, Sereia’s eyes were wide in wonder as they darted over the familiar but unfamiliar scenery.

Everything seemed the same as she left it. It felt like an eternity ago since she left, but it couldn’t have been more than a couple weeks. At least she thought so. With everything she went through, it was hard to keep track of time.

Deciding to leave her sister alone to take in their hometown, Elysia stood up. Sereia I didn’t even twitch as Elysia walked past, too engrossed in her investigations.

She better take control of Umbra before Eva cruised right past. Though Eva probably guessed this was their destination. It wasn’t like there were many settlements nearby. Actually, she probably didn’t notice it based on their current speed. The only reason why Sereia and her saw it was because they grew up here. Even with the changes, it was pretty obvious to them.

As she thought, Eva wasn’t even at the steering wheel, but instead cuddling with Joe on the couch. She left the love birds alone as she grabbed the steering wheel. A glance at the navigation screen caused her to frown, though. Why didn’t the navigation screen show their hometown? Sure, they were pretty isolated, but it wasn’t like they were that cut off from the rest of the world. Most decently detailed maps showed their town, though it could be hard to find on a map.

Elysia nudged the throttle forward, wanting to reach their hometown faster now that they were so close. Though as soon as she reached the flooded section, she throttled back and focused on the camera views. She wouldn’t hear the end of it from Sereia if she beached Umbra on their old school or really anything. Fortunately, unlike her arrival at Port Alberni, they should be able to unstick themselves. At least, she hoped. Not that she would test it.

As soon as she entered the now much larger bay created by the wave she now knew wasn’t natural, several obstacles appeared in the cameras, many of which she missed the last time she was there.

Her anger spiked at the thought some jealous elemental destroyed their hometown. Before, it didn’t affect her. She thought it was a part of the crazy new world and, in a way, it was, but that didn’t make it right. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter if their hometown disappeared even to them as she doubted they would visit again anytime soon but the principal of it caused her to ground her teeth.

What if her hometown still had a population? That jealous elemental could have killed hundreds, if not thousands, on a whim. How did the elemental even create a wave that massive from so far away, anyway? From what her sister said, the culprit was thousands of kilometers away at the time. The hows and whys didn’t matter in the end because no matter what, they would face the consequences. It was just a matter of time. Though it still would be nice to know how.

Suddenly, Elysia jerked Umbra to the right, just barely missing the remains of a tree just under the surface. How did she navigate this minefield without the cameras? Actually, if she remembered right, she might have anchored around here. At least this time, she wouldn’t lose Umbra because of a failed anchor. Still, she should at least make it near some boats to steal their fuel. To her left, several dozen meters away, she spotted a familiar fishing boat. She almost didn’t recognize it because last time it was only listing a little, but now it was practically sideways, though still somehow afloat. Unless Sereia could right it, no way would they try their luck stealing fuel from that boat.

Actually, they probably could. She kept forgetting she didn’t need to breathe oxygen. If she wanted to, she could live underwater though just because she could stay underwater pretty much indefinitely. That didn’t mean it would be enjoyable. Hopefully Sereia didn’t push the issue when they settled down, if they ever did. She had a feeling Sereia would rather live underwater.

It was a little unfair how she was the only one of her family who couldn’t swim super-fast. She wasn’t even the fastest on land, at least before her latest evolution. If she controlled her lightning, she might beat Ione.

At least she still had the highest damage output.

All the more reason to find somewhere safe to train. Before, she needed to worry about her charge, but now, as long as she found a way to avoid using divine lightning, she could probably mess with regular lightning for a long time. She needed to make big progress with her lightning. She couldn’t fall behind her family. Sure, she loved when her family grew stronger, but as the oldest, she wanted to be the strongest.

Yet again, she swerved at the last second to avoid a sailboat mast poking through the surface. No more distracting thoughts. If she wasn’t careful, she would hit something. It almost seemed like it was more treacherous now than back then. Maybe it would be a better idea to take the raft. Actually, what was the point in taking the raft? Ione was much faster. The only issue was carrying cargo.

Elysia’s eyes gravitated down toward the ring adorning her finger. Maybe she had a solution. All she had to do was figure out how to use regular lightning. If she didn’t use the raft, she could leave Eva and Joe in charge of finding fuel while they did a little exploring.

Her hands tightened on the steering wheel as she navigated the minefield, eyes locked on to a trio of ships she knew rested on their old school. Every second she glanced at the cameras on the screen, ensuring she dodged all obstacles on her journey. At some point, Eva and Joe joined her in watching their surroundings, though they remained silent.

A dozen meters away from her target, she pulled the throttle back, coasting to a stop just before impacting another building she thought might be the post office. Afraid Umbra might float herself into trouble, she pressed the drop anchor buttons for both the front and rear anchors. A few seconds later, Umbra jerked still as both anchors grab hold.

Only then did Elysia’s shoulders relax.

Without a word, she strode out of the control room and plopped on the front deck, then closed her eyes while focusing inward. First step done, now she needed to figure out how to use regular lightning.

Just as she cut off her outside senses, she heard a splash followed by another one.

Motivated to figure out her lightning with her family out exploring, Elysia focused on her core. Like she usually did, she siphoned off a strand, but like in the evolution room, the strand felt way too powerful. Maybe her lightning wasn’t as strong as she thought it was after the evolution. Maybe she sensed the divine lightning. It didn’t make sense that a single strand costed over 5000 charge when her core seemed almost full.

Elysia released control of the strand, letting it shoot back to her core as if it was magnetized to do so. This time she focused deeper on her core, trying to find any differences to before she ate the pill, but her core appeared uniform in its brightness.

Next, she siphoned off a strand while watching closely. The moment she reached for a strand, a slightly brighter strand pushed to the front. She retracted her mental hands and watched the strand she would have grabbed closely. Almost too fast to catch, the strand retreated to the center of her core.

She focused in on the center of her core, but the moment she did, her mind jerked back, unable to handle the power resting in the supercharged ball she somehow missed on her last inspection.

That must be her divine spark. Now the question was, how did she stop the divine spark from interfering?

As an experiment, she tried to grab a strand from several sections of her core, but each time her divine spark interfered.

If it was her divine spark, shouldn’t she have control over it? Sure, she couldn’t look directly at it and it seemed to hide from even her sight unless she knew where to look, but it still was her spark.

With that idea in mind, she tried to grab yet another strand, but this time, she watched for activity from her divine spark. The moment she spotted the divine strand, she reached out to grab it, but she was far too slow. Before she could latch onto the strand, it had already replaced the normal lightning.

Undeterred, Elysia tried again, this time ready to grab the strand, yet it slipped right through her mental fingers. Still, she didn’t give up. She knew progress didn’t come easy. If she wanted easy progress, she would have picked the path of power. At least she had an idea what was going on. She just had to figure out how to block the divine lightning.

Oddly, the supercharged lightning seemed easy to control. If it weren’t so costly, she’d probably ignore her regular lightning. She doubted much near her level could survive a blast of divine lightning. If a single strand of divine lightning had so much power, how powerful was the path of power? Would her entire core consist of divine lightning? Something told her she would explode if that were true. The power probably laid in boosts from the system.

After a few second break, she took a different approach. Instead of going for a single strand, she grabbed at half a dozen strands from all over her core. The moment she latched onto each strand, a wave of dizziness hit her, followed by stabbing pain as six divine strands rushed out from the center of her core, dimming her entire core significantly.

She let go of all strands and retreated from her core for a breather. The divine strands were persistent. She might have found their limit, though. Not that she could take advantage of it. If she were to grab a seventh strand, she doubted a divine strand could interfere, but she also doubted she had the energy left to use it.

Another thing she found was the link between her divine spark and the rest of her lightning. The divine spark could siphon off lightning from the rest of her core if it needed more power. That explained why she lost 5000 charge when she used a single divine strand. It also meant if she stopped the divine strand from interfering, she potentially had a ton of lightning at her disposal. That was a big if going by how persistent her divine spark was. Not that it would force her to give up.

She could take another option to power that wouldn’t cut off her future prospects, but she doubted her ring would survive long. If she gained charge after every level, she would eventually have enough charge to use her divine lightning freely. When she learned smite, she could only use it a few times, but by the end she had enough charge to use it twenty times. If the same applied to her divine spark, that could be terrifying, but she didn’t like the idea of having a max of three attacks. She couldn’t even electrify herself or objects to save on charge like last time she delved into the zombie dungeon. Even if she could, she doubted anything she had would survive long electrified by divine lightning.

A wild but simple idea came to her, prompting her to return her focused on her core. Instead of being reactive, she went on the offensive. Before she grabbed a regular strand, she wrapped her mental hand around the divine spark. A burning headache hit her, but she held on.

She split her focus, only magnifying her headache. As best as she could, she grabbed a single regular lightning strand and siphoned it off her core. The hand encircling her divine spark shuttered as her headache crossed over into migraine territory, but she persevered.

The moment the strand left her core, her divine spark stilled as if it lost track of the strand. Tentatively, Elysia withdrew her encirclement of her divine spark to her brain’s relief. She held her breath, expecting something to happen, but nothing did, causing her core to flutter in excitement.

With one mental eye watching her core Elysia turned her focus back to the single regular lightning strand floating just outside her core. She moved it back and forth, finding it effortless like it weighed nothing.

Unable to resist, she shot it through her veins out to her right hand. Her ring glowed like it normally did as she raised her right arm to the sky. Without hesitation, she launched the lightning. A beautiful violet streak of lightning exploded from her hand with a crack. It speared through the mast of the beached sailboat before veering downward to ground itself on the antenna of the same sailboat.

Elysia shot to her feet excited giggle bubbling in her throat. After several seconds, she calmed down and checked how much the lightning costed. Her excitement reignited upon finding it only costed 100 charge to use lightning nearly as strong as smite.

However, a moment later, cold water crushed her mood as she remembered what she had to do to use the lightning, but she didn’t let it get her down. She now knew it was possible. She just had to get better at pulling it off.

Her own lightning wouldn’t best her.