Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Two: Beneath the Hawthorn Tree: Verse Seventy-Four

After he had chosen his body enhancement method, he trained in using it for a few days. Emptying his Orrium was easy enough. All he had to do was cast a few high-power lightning bolts and his reserves would fall to almost nothing. Using the Zight Vortex, on the other hand, was grueling and painful all around. His lungs burned and his muscles were crying out for a break. However, after several uses, the pain became more bearable and soon he was able to mostly ignore it.

Letting his body naturally absorb Zight was simple enough, but as he gained more and more he needed to flood it through his Zight Stanza. That required a lot of mental energy at first since it was best to get a small stream of Zight going before upping the current. As the amount of Zight in his system increased though, the pressure built up and threatened to tear those pathways apart.

The pathways that made up the Zight Stanza were made of a mix of flesh and Zight, so they were somewhat more durable than his actual circulatory system was. Still, the pressure building up inside him was excruciating once it reached optimal levels. Keeping them that way was key and it was part of why this method was so dangerous. Still, he took to it with all the gusto Alvin had come to expect from his young pupil.

Absorbing the Zight was easy, and running it through the Zight Stanza was harder but still manageable, however, when it came to creating a swirling vortex inside his Orrium, that was far more difficult and painful than either of the other two combined. It helped that the Zight he was absorbing was devoid of the elemental taint of the other affinities but it was still quite grueling.

His Orrium was under a lot of stress and it nearly ruptured once or twice while he was getting the hang of things. Still, within three days he had finally learned how to create the vortex inside the organ. After that, it was simply a matter of flooding his actual circulatory system with the newly converted energy.

To his surprise that process was far smoother than absorbing and refining it had been. The sensation reminded him of cool water flowing under his skin and he could feel his blood chill inside him as the power coursed through him enriching all the tissues it touched. He felt more powerful after every use of the technique and whenever he reached this stage it seemed to ‘heal’ the damage it had done during the earlier steps.

He still had a long way to go before he could be considered a master of this technique, but he had an incredible head start.

Several more days passed and soon, he and Alvin shifted their focus onto his maximum power output. If they were to work on replaceing ways for Cypher to better control his power, they would first need to know what he was capable of without holding back.

To that end Cypher found himself standing on an empty training field with Alvin. At the end of the field a few hundred feet away stood several clusters of hay targets. There were single targets, groups of two, groups of three, and groups of four.

Further to the right of the hay targets, were several more groups made of wood, and another group made of stone. Each of the different types of targets stood in similar clusters as the hay ones.

Alvin stood next to Cypher, a clipboard, and quill in his hands. It was clear that he would be taking notes and that made him a little nervous about what Alvin might jot down. Still, he was prepared to do his best and hoped that Alvin would take notice.

“Alright Cypher, now I want to begin by having you launch a few attacks at that single hay target. We’ll start with your weakest bolt and work our way up until you can’t continue. I trust you brought your ark with you today, you’re going to need it,” Alvin had said after the two had moved into place.

“Of course I did, I haven’t taken it off since you gave it to me. I’ll do my best just watch me!” Cypher responded, almost too eager to push himself to the brink of what he could do. He took a deep breath and began at Alvin’s prompting.

Within his Athenaeum he opened the book containing his lightning bolt spell and studied it carefully. Reaching into his Orrium for the power he’d need, he began to chant.

Each word that fell from his lips rang with the familiar sounds of cymbals crashing against each other in a rhythmic pattern unique to his spell. He had first noticed this sound during the event with Alex, but it had been overshadowed by the disaster that had occurred then.

“Solo, Verse one, Crackle of Lightning bolt!” The power of the rank-one spell drained from his Orrium, an almost undetectable amount, and fueled his spell. It shot down the field and crashed against one of the targets.

Lightning enveloped the target and encircled it for a moment before it fizzled out and dissipated. The target was unharmed as far as Cypher could tell save for a few black streaks of soot.

Alvin explained that the targets had been specially made and would be able to endure large amounts of damage before they were finally destroyed. He could go all out and not worry about a thing.

Alvin jotted down a few notes and motioned for him to repeat the same spell a few more times on the same target, adding that he should continue until the target was completely destroyed.

Again Cypher reached for the power and once more, lightning shot forth from his hand and crashed against the target. He repeated this several more times before the target finally caught fire and burned away to ash.

Alvin seemed pleased with this result and asked him to up the voltage and move to the ones in groups of two. Cypher did as he was asked, reaching for the power within him once again. He noticed that after seven consecutive shots of the Rank-One spell, barely any of his Zight had been expended and he felt confident.

“Solo, Verse two, Crackle of Lightning bolt!” The words once again rang with the crashing of cymbals and the spell shot forth hitting the target on the left. It circled around it for a moment before it leaped to the second target on the right.

It then bounced back and forth between the two targets for a moment before it too dissipated. Alvin nodded approvingly and jotted down more notes before he smiled and spoke, “Nicely done, but that was casting in duplicate not increasing the power of the spell.”

He stepped back and cast a spell of his own at one of the individual stone targets. He pointed at it and said, “Solo, Verse one, Serenade of Water bullet!” As he chanted, Cypher could just barely make out the faint sound of a harp.

The notes flowed out in slow waves and engulfed him. It reminded him of the ripples in a pond. From the middle of Alvin’s palm, a small droplet of water appeared and grew until it covered his entire hand. It then suddenly condensed until it was the size of a small pebble.

After that, it shot off towards the stone target and sunk into the stone right in the middle. Cracks stretched out from the impact and the target shuddered. Alvin smiled and spoke again, “That was a rank-one spell cast only once. It’s more powerful than what you might be able to do because I’m a rank-three Conductor and thus my base power matches my rank.”

“As you grow more powerful so do your spells. As for the specifics of that I’ll be providing you a few books on the matter for you to study on your own, for now, the point is that I only cast the spell once. Did you hear the chant? Well, if we break it down, ‘Solo’ indicates a spell’s base power or rank, ‘Verse’ indicates how many times the spell will be cast consecutively, and of course, then there’s the name of the spell itself.” Cypher knew this but let Alvin continue.

“If I wanted to cast a spell in quadruplicate, or four times, I would say, ‘Verse four’. Do keep in mind that casting in multiples increases not only the spell’s power and the number of uses but the Zight cost as well. Go too high and you’ll expend all your power in a single shot.”

He raised his hand again and chanted, “Solo, Verse three, Serenade of Water Bullet!” Again a droplet formed at his palm and expanded, only this time it broke into three orbs of rippling water that swirled around each other before each one condensed.

The three bullets shot out one after another and impacted the stone target, destroying it with loud splattering noises as each one made contact. Alvin smiled again and gestured toward the remains of the stone target.

“Casting in multiples increases the power of a spell as well, though not nearly as much as casting it at a higher rank. A spells power can be boosted though! Of course, the problem with the way we cast spells is that you can increase the cast count or boost the power of a spell with the ‘Verse’ part of an invocation. It is a matter of your own will influencing the laws you’re manipulating that allows for this. That’s why focus and intent are extremely important when casting. As I understand it, your failure to adhere to this is why poor Alex was injured correct?”

Cypher nodded and Alvin patted his shoulder and sighed, “I don’t mean to keep harping on this issue but it is important that you recognize the problem and work to avoid it moving forward. Another thing to remember is that all spells have different Zight costs. Where one Conductor might use the explosion spell which consumes a large amount of Zight, another Conductor might instead choose to use a simple fireball spell cast in triplicate.

“The two spells will at that point have the same explosive force, but the one cast in triplicate will have cost a fraction of the amount of energy as the original explosion spell. Furthermore, with the fireball spell, there will be lingering flames. It’s important to remember the secondary effects of each spell as well. But enough of that for now. Go ahead and try again, only this time, instead of casting in multiples, cast at a higher rank. Try, ‘Duet’ instead of ‘Solo’,” Alvin stepped back and readied his quill once again.

Cypher nodded and took his place. He focused once more and cast his spell, aiming at the two hay targets. “Duet, Verse 1, Crackle of Lightning bolt!” The spell shot out much faster than before and the light blue bolt was thicker.

With a thundering crash, the spell collided with the target, and the ring of electricity that encircled it expanded into two rings that swirled around the target in a cross-shaped pattern. He noticed at that moment, that the drain on his Zight was much greater than before but it was still not a whole lot of energy compared to his reserves. It seemed as though even casting at the second rank hadn’t drained much Zight.

This time the hay target quickly burst into flames and was destroyed almost instantly. Cypher was a bit shocked since earlier, his rank-one spell had taken several tries before it had destroyed the target.

He looked to Alvin and saw the man quickly taking notes and nodding with a peculiar smile on his face. After a moment he nodded and Cypher launched his Rank-Two spell again. Once more the target burst into flames and after casting it for the third time, he found that his reserves of Zight were only now half empty.

Alvin looked impressed but a hint of confusion and concern still lingered in his expression. With that, Cypher continued until his Orrium was almost completely empty. At that point, Alvin nodded in approval and motioned for Cypher to take a break.

He took that time to catch his breath and use his Ark for the first time since he had received it. Alvin simply waited as Cypher focused on the amulet. After a second or two, a jitter in his Orrium indicated that it was working properly. With the help of the Ark, his Orrium quickly refilled itself of Zight, but it still took over an hour to reach full capacity.

At that time they took a break for a simple lunch Alvin had prepared. Once he was back at full strength, Cypher hopped up from his spot on the ground and nodded. He was ready to continue.

At this point, Alvin motioned for him to up the voltage again if he could and this time he was to aim at the stone targets. Cypher readied himself and extended his hand once more.