Spirit's Awakening: The Path of Lightning and Water-Chapter 291: Testing the New Mana
Lassim could barely contain the sense of power coursing through him as he channeled it. A force that seemed to draw from something far beyond himself as it went from his inner heart world down to his fingertips that now shone, illuminated in the night, with the new fused energy as he directed it to his hands, watching with fascination as it sparked to life.
What appeared was a torrent of flowing mana that combined the cool, rushing currents of water and the shocking volatility of lightning, underpinned by an eerie, swirling depth of something more and ethereal. It was as if he held a miniature storm, a swirling tempestuous wave somehow made stable by the convergence of the water and lighting and the strange, inherent sturdiness of the space element.
He focused on how the new fused energy moved through his mana pathways with care. It was almost effortless now, unlike his earlier attempts from external melding, which had felt forced, chaotic and unstable. The fusion had settled, harmonized in a way that felt as natural as breathing from within his inner heart world.
Luckily he kept the gaseous clouds within that helped maintain his flying ability as a Spirit Ascension cultivator, but he felt several stages stronger, even if he recognized his cultivation was still level 2 within the Ascension stage.
His mana within moved easily at his intention, responding seamlessly to his direction as it carried the essence of water, lightning and space in a form that felt less like raw power and more like a type of an embodiment of the elements themselves. It didn’t feel like they were just their elements combined. No. It was like they were on the precipice of becoming something of their own.
There was no signal in the heavens, no omen in the skies or seas, and there was no resounding further change in the laws of the universe. This new creation was yet to be finalized. Yet, the small amount of Defiant Lightning that he held on the pin of his martial robes that signaled Lassim’s status as the personal disciple of a Spirit Prince had a slight tremble of inferiority that no one in the world of Nexaria had noticed as it was in the presence of this new energy.
"Remarkable," he murmured, more to himself than to Eno, though he could sense the older man watching him with a stunned expression.
With each breath, Lassim adjusted his hold on the energy, attempting to make it larger and possibly begin attempting to shape it into a sharper, more refined form.
He first willed it into the shape of his blade along his halberd’s edge, concentrating on trying to condense the mana to create a hardened edge like he’d done so many times before.
The mana responded, but not quite in the way he expected. Rather than forming a typical, straightforward blade, it took on a swirling, vortex-like shape, as though the space element was instinctively weaving the water and lightning into a spiraled, almost serpentine edge.
The "blade" shimmered, its surface seemingly alive with the darting forms of what looked like lightning "fish," flickering within the vortex. The blade itself didn’t have the solid density he’d expected—instead, it felt almost alive, vibrating. Each lightning "fish" was now unmistakably darting in erratic paths within this blade, somehow enhancing the stability but also causing it to be more chaotic within the blade.
The effect was mesmerizing.
"Lassim…" Eno’s voice broke the silence, his tone incredulous. "I’ve never seen anything like that. You’ve…." He paused, to choose his words carefully.
"It doesn’t feel like simple mana anymore," he admitted. "It’s like… it’s a part of the world itself, an actual force of nature. I’m not sure I even fully understand what it is. My innate sense of the world comes from my metal element and I have spent a lot of time and energy into being able to be quite sensitive when it comes to an object’s innate makeup. But this…"
Lassim nodded his head in agreement. He definitely felt the difference and he knew a large part of the presence it was radiating and possibly a large reason for why it had produced these fish-like lightning sprites within the mana was due to the divine nature of his mana. Even as his progenitor marks were refilling and converting the surrounding mana back into divine mana fit for him and replenishing what was being spent to study it, he knew a larger portion of it was being directly converted into these tentacled lightning fish than seemed natural.
Eager to test the blade he’d formed, Lassim swung it gently through the air, noting how effortlessly it cut through without any resistance. Yet, the only difference from when he’d do a [Slash] with the old mana, the this time edge seemed to pull on the space around it, creating a slight vacuum that allowed it to move faster and more fluidly than previously.
Even that gentle swing with no real power behind it except to test his swing through the air created a whirling tempest of this new mana that eagerly went forward. It shot through the air, leaving shimmeringing trails its wake, before exploding against a nearby tree. The impact shattered the tree with ease, scattering splinters and bark
Surprisingly, he made another realization with that casual movement. Without his intention, none of the lightning fish followed, but that only made him curious.
Encouraged by the potential, Lassim decided to test his techniques properly. Summoning more fused mana, he tried to replicate [Hydroburst], his core lightning technique encased within a sheath of superheated water.
However, as he began channeling the energy in the same pattern as usual, he found it impossible to recreate the lightning core with the surrounding water sheath. The energy flowed as one, refusing to break into the structured layers he’d relied on before.
"That’s not good… I can’t use [Hydroburst] anymore…" Lassim uttered, slightly shaken. He continued talking to himself, "but what about the basics? Will those still work?"
Focusing on his other techniques. He concentrated on [Slash], his standard water-based strike that sent a wide arc of mana in the shape of his swing.
Inhaling deeply, he channeled the fused energy into the technique, feeling the unnamed water-lightning-void mana combination surge through him. With a powerful swing, he released it.
The result was breathtaking.
Where his original [Slash] would have sent a single cutting arc, the new form unleashed a vortex-like arc, creating a spiraling and high intensity, albeit small, cloud of 10 meters in diameter that tore through the air and ravaged the line of trees before him.
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The vortex spun wildly, a chaotic tempest that cut through bark and wood like a whirling sawblade. The lightning "fish" darted within the vortex, each one carrying a charge that chewed and ate through, leaped from point to point, the trees and intensifying the storm’s destructive power.
Each tree the attack and its fish touched disintegrated, chunks of wood sent flying, and the spiraling energy dispersed in shimmering, electric tendrils in the shape of tentacles that danced through the air.
Lassim felt a thrill run through him, a surge of exhilaration that was almost overwhelming. This was more than he had ever imagined possible after the failure to activate [Hydroburst]. This was a clear upgrade to his basic skills!
Steadying himself, he prepared to test [Slam], one of his other go-to basic attacks. Channeling the fused energy, he visualized the attack in his mind: a powerful downward strike meant to shatter and crush with the weight of a tidal wave behind the back of the blade to push it forward. He could feel the mana condensing around the haft of his halberd in a familiar manner, but this time with the weight of the water combined with the fierce charge of the lightning and depth of the void. But as he brought the weapon down, something extraordinary happened.
Rather than merely slamming with brute force, the attack created a concentrated pool of energy at the point behind the blade and then engulfed the entire weapon’s top. The lightning "fish" swarmed within the pool, gathering and condensing in a way that seemed almost deliberate to become one giant fish with space-shard sharp teeth..
Just before the halberd connected with the ground, the energy didn’t even release in a shockwave, as a massive bite that seemed to tear a chunk out of the earth itself. Lassim, if he’d had [Spatial Vision] enabled, he’d be able to watch the threads of space get pulled and yanked for a brief moment as the ground ruptured, rock and soil splintering in every direction. The power was immense, controlled yet devastating, as if the attack had a mind of its own.
A grin broke across Lassim’s face. "It’s incredible. The control and ease of it all feels so natural—almost like it’s doing half the work for me."
"Lassim…" Eno’s voice was hushed, a mixture of awe and fear. "You’re wielding something that feels almost blasphemous to be managed at the Spirit Ascension stage. If I hadn’t witnessed you creating it with my simple, basic breathing technique in front of my eyes—I’d think you were some new Demi-God. This is something else...."
Lassim grinned, though he was equally awestruck. "I never expected anything like this… It sucks that I lost my self-created skill but I’ll take the upgrade."
There was only one technique left to test—[Thrust].
He took a deep breath, feeling the energy transition as he shaped it and built it into the familiar, gathered form at his halberd’s tip, ready for a [Thrust]. He prepared to launch it forward in a controlled burst, as he had always done before. But the result was different—so vastly different that it took him by surprise.
Rather than a single bolt, the new energy splintered into hundreds of smaller, yet equally powerful strikes. Each one was taken from this swirling stream as the "fish" seemed to separate, darting forward like living projectiles, each one targeting a specific point he’d casually intended on hitting on the tree in front of him with uncanny accuracy that his spirit sense was only able to catch briefly before they struck.
Yet, that was only true of a few of the lightning fish that hit his target. What happened in accompaniment to those could only be described as bizarre.
The bolts gathered and then scattered, like a giant school of lightning fish suddenly moving as one before dispersing and finding every logical "tree" target in his surroundings, each one striking with lethal precision.
The scattered bolts left trails of shimmering mana as they streaked directly to and through the trees, obliterating them in mere moments. There was no need to aim or will it; the energy seemed to do it for him, each strike homing in on a target without any direction from Lassim.
The devastation was immense, a sight that left him and Eno speechless.
They both stood there for the next few moments in silence before they felt a stirring from the residence nearby and heard the door swing open with a loud slam.
