Supreme Magus

Chapter 4376: Anchor Points (Part 2)

"Can we extend the lesson for five more minutes, please?" Friya asked. "Just the time for a single attempt to reach the prismatic vortex step. Pretty please!"

"Seconded!" Faluel joined the plea, hoping she would harness the sixth element and match her disciple before the bell’s ring made her defeat official.

"I’ll do you one better, Friya. I’ll give you two tries, but only if you start now." Tezka’s voice was warm, but there was a hint of mockery in his eyes that until that moment Friya had only seen when the Suneater faced his rivals or enemies.

"Thanks, Master Tezka." Friya put that impression aside and devoted her full focus to the crystal in her hands.

She took a deep breath of Invigoration to return to what her current peak strength was, and reinforced her telepathic walls one more time. Only then did she tighten the grip on the elements inside the crystal and enhance them.

’Luckily for me, I have six heads left and only six elements to handle.’ She thought. ’One head per element, and we perform as one. On my mark. Mark!’

Each head provided its respective element the same amount of energy, yet the precarious balance went haywire before a hint of the prismatic vortex could appear on the crystal’s surface.

Friya did everything she could to regain control, but failed miserably.

"I give up." She panted heavily. "I don’t have the strength for a second attempt. I’m beat."

"You don’t say." Tezka cackled. "Your time is up as well then, Faluel."

"Yes, Elder." Faluel whimpered.

Less than one minute had passed, and she had made no progress.

Her defeat was now written in stone, but she quickly brushed it off.

’Tomorrow I can reach Friya, and I doubt she’ll succeed easily. I can still catch up to her!’ Faluel thought, and she was right.

By the end of the fifth day, master and Harbinger were stuck at the enhancing step. They tried everything, from using only one head to boost the six elements to enhancing them one by one, yet nothing worked.

After the lunch break on the sixth day and having made no progress, Friya and Faluel decided to set their pride aside and ask for help.

"I’m sorry, Master Tezka. I’ve run out of ideas." Friya said after listing to the Suneater everything she had tried and every wrong theory she had come up with. "I must be missing something. Can you please give me a hint?"

"I’m faring no better." Faluel also listed her failures to prove to the Fylgja how much thought she had put into her work.

"I already gave you a hint, kid." Tezka replied. "On the day I fought against the young sparrow. Do you remember what I told you?"

"There’s a reason only dimensional mages can craft violet crystals. It’s the same reason I can still make them even without Spirit Magic." Friya quoted his words. "That reason is the very thing that sets us apart from normal mages.

"We don’t feel the elements. We are the elements."

"Good!" The Suneater nodded. "Do you still not understand? Even after everything I’ve shown and explained to you?"

Friya thought long and hard about those words, trying to find a connection with her six days of practice, no matter how flimsy. She found none.

"I don’t understand." She bowed to him in apology. "Maybe I would if I had months of practice, but I doubt we have that long. Please, enlighten me."

"Don’t take it too hard." Tezka smiled, and this time it reached his eyes. "Back then it took me a long while to overcome this wall on my own. I was a little younger than her when I succeeded."

He pointed at Faluel, stinging at her pride.

"Use your breathing technique on my crystal. Both of you." He said, and they complied. "This is what you do."

Faluel and Friya saw six small elemental strands appear inside the crystal. Then, the moment Tezka enhanced them, the lack of an insulating layer brought the elements to mix beyond recognition.

"I praise your ingenuity and perseverance. I’m certain that one day your failures will teach you many priceless lessons." He said, showing them that even with his level of control, none of the techniques they had shared with him worked.

"Yet I’m also disappointed that after training for so long and having so many brilliant ideas, you didn’t grasp the truth. You could have never succeeded because you’ve taken the wrong path."

"What?/How?" The barrier ensured Faluel and Friya thought on their own. "We followed your instructions. Were your teachings flawed?/Did you mislead us on purpose?"

"You are wrong on all accounts." Tezka raised his hand for silence, and his apprentices immediately obeyed. "My teachings were perfect, but I kept them vague on purpose. I didn’t mislead you. You did it.

"I never said you had to enhance the six elements like you would with an elemental crystal, didn’t I?"

Faluel opened her mouths to talk, but only hisses came out as her eyes widened in understanding.

"You only said we had to grasp all the elements without isolating them." Friya muttered. "You made no mention of how we were supposed to enhance them once we reached this point.

"We just assumed the process was identical to elemental crystals and stepped on the wrong path. Yet I still don’t see how those words are a hint."

"What about you, Faluel?" Tezka asked, receiving a shake of the head after a few seconds of deep thinking. "Then keep watching, kids. This is how it’s done."

He took a deep breath and amplified his mana flow until his golden black aura became visible to the naked eye. Then, Tezka split his mana into its six elemental components, releasing a prismatic light from his body.

"We dimensional mages don’t feel the elements." He said as six of his tails shone with the elemental light they collected from the surrounding world energy. "We are the elements!"

Tezka injected the six elemental flows into the white crystal, using the elemental strands he had created to establish a connection with the gemstone. The Suneater’s elemental energy flooded the crystal, forming tracks for the different components of the world energy to follow.

Six streams of light colored the crystal from within, forming the same stable prismatic whirlpool of energy Tezka had shown his apprentices on the first day.

"That’s what you meant!" Friya said in awe. "Only someone with all six affinities can split the world energy into its components while it’s inside their body. We don’t need to isolate the elements because we must use those that comprise our mana and answer our will."

"Exactly." Tezka ruffled her hair. "The first part of the exercise is only meant to establish anchor points for your elemental flow. They are the cornerstone your mana must follow to form channels that keep the different elements apart as they grow in strength.

"Without the anchor points, no matter how strong your willpower is, the final result would always be a muddled mess." He paused, giving them time to process what they had learned before asking: "Is this enough, or do you need one more hint?"

"It’s plenty enough." Faluel replied, and Friya nodded. "You have shown us the way. All that’s left for us to do is walk in your footsteps."