Cardinal: God Spell

Now how does all this information on Mana-arteries link to Sora's two theories on fire magic? Simple. Sora's striking theory states that Elemental energy can be condensed at the entrance to the artery mana path and forced through a larger surface to generate power in one's fireball. In essence, after 'Igniting' your mana, instead of letting it naturally flow through your artery mana path like a waterfall or wellspring, you can simply condense it from inside your elemental core and shoot it through your mana path to your medium in one go.

This ties well with martial arts as regardless of mana path the motion to cast magic when applying this magic theory is a Punch, be it a jab, a hook, a straight, or whatever. To apply this theory you need to throw a punch. Hence that's why for this theory, if he is right, Sora would call it his 'Fire Magic Striking series: Fire Fist". It would be one of two potential replacements of the fireball basic spell.

He believes that he can break the fire fist down into the 5 stages of basic magic: the jab, the cross, the hook, the straight and the overarm punch. He would find proper names for the spells if he is right but this is the basis of his striking series of basic spells. 

Next is his Flow theory, soon to be called his flow series. Unlike his Striking series which is founded in a singular burst of energy, the Flow series focuses more on the process of shifting that elemental energy between multiple Mediums; so where the Striking series would throw a standard jab or hook, the Flow series will have coiling twin fists or even be able to change the form of the spell after it's been cast. Rather than shooting your spell out as a projectile, you would shift and flow with it like a swimmer, you be letting your spell become an extension of yourself.

Unlike the striking series, the flow series would be broken up into 2 spell stages, the first would be the Fire claw, and the second would be the Coiling fire fist. The fire claw would essentially be the Fire fist except made for severing and extended burns; the Coiling fire fist would be two fire fists that spiral one another as they approach their target then they would collide and hit the target at the last moment before releasing a precise and channeled explosion.

Sora spent the next week within the trial's first round doing nothing but cultivating, he was feeling starved but magicians could keep themselves alive with mana alone. His daily schedule consisted of sleeping for 6 hours to let his mind recover, cultivating and spending 2 hours a day doing exercises. In this week alone he had gotten 80 hours of cultivation, meaning he had formed 10 stars in 5 days, if it was the same old he would barely have half that if he was lucky.

After a week of this though Sora decided it was about time he used the stars he had spent so long building up, he wouldn't be able to level any of his spells up but simply having them fused significantly reduced the amount of mana it would take him to cast his full powered spells, he would be able to essentially do more with less. 

Since Sora was only ready to apply his two magic theories of Fire magic he would test the Series of spells of that element first, meaning he would be placing his stars in his Fire elemental core. He still needed 5 whole stars to level it up fully but he would settle for this while he tested his magic theory. 

Sora first started by casting the fireball spell normally, not to shoot it out, but to familiarise himself with the mana arteries that ran from his waistline to both of his palms, he wasted about 50 casts simply getting used to them despite not feeling like it was a waste; he then took it a step further by focusing on the arteries within his arms from his shoulder blades to his fingertips. He used 20 casts for this and spent the next 2 hours after that refilling his mana pool to the brim.

In the 10 hours he had spent studying his magic physiology, he had learned that he was right about magicians being able to fully control the nature of their spells, even more so than he initially thought. See, before he had to call in favours and pay resources to get a guinea pig mage to roughly describe how these phenomena felt as a whole.

Experiencing it himself now made him realise that his pride was all that limited him back then; if he had swallowed his ego and become a mage he would have been able to conduct his experiments himself, he would have been able to confirm his theory and build his research around the criteria he needed. If he wasn't stubborn back then maybe... Just maybe he wouldn't have had such a tragic end to his past.

In any case, that wasn't important anymore, he had his chance now and could fully realise his magic theory and fulfil his dream of raising the greater world's magic standard. Sora realised that he could channel raw mana through his mana arteries before having to cast magic, knowing this now fundamentally changed the nature of both of his series, the spells themselves would remain the same but the overall process of casting and results expected would be different.

Before in the strike series where the spell would rely on the martial art for one to notice the difference, Sora could now make spells similar to the martial arts techniques themselves. Before, he would have to throw an actual Jab when he could instead transfer raw mana to his wrists and then release the fire fist in a sharp flash. For his striking theory, the only thing that changed was where he would be building the mana up and how much power the spells were expected to have after the changes.

His flow theory though could be changed altogether; Instead of channelling elemental energy around his body and losing power in exchange for diversity; he would now channel raw mana and store it along the mana arteries he needed to complete his spell and then follow the 'path' he had created to cast his respective spells. Instead of using the two theories separately, he could now fuse them, which he did.

Sora reckoned that If he created the 'Path of mana' in the mana arteries around his hand before casting the magic he could then not only dictate the type of fire fist he would be using but he would then be able to decide the added effect he would like said fire fist to have; He could focus on speed and precision for his 'Jabs', he could focus on size and driving force for his ' straights' and he could think about the path of the spell and the added burn effect for his 'hooks' and uppercuts', removing the overarm altogether due to inefficiency.

To apply this Theory Sora tried creating his new Fire element 1st stage basic spell, 'Fire fist: Flash'. Fashioned after the Jab this spell will utilise the mana path from the toes of his right foot to his right hand and vice versa for when he uses his left hand. According to his flow theory, he could manipulate his mana arteries like his muscles where he could identify 'Pivots' along the 'Path' he was creating to generate the snapping speed of the jab when he Casts his Fire fist. 

The 'Pivots' for this spell in particular were located in his toes, his shins, his hips, his respective rib cage side, his shoulder, his elbow and then his wrists. By focusing his mana 'Path' around these 'Pivots' he could take advantage of his flow theory to keep the full power of the spell as well as the full utility of extra speed and precision; He could then apply his striking theory where he casts the spell while making the martial arts motion the spell was fashioned after to Make the casting process faster and allow for a more seamless transition of Elemental energy through the 'Path' he had laid out in his mana arteries.

Sora tried it as what he imagined was the 'normal' way his theory was applied only focusing on creating the mana path around the listed 'Pivots'. When he tried casting the spell it cast properly but didn't have that 'Fist' shape of the fiery fist and seemed more like a precision fireball gone wrong if anything. Sora switched it up by adding the fingertips of his cast hand as an extra 'Pivot' to have a more seamless flow from toe to fingertip to help shape the spell more. Progress was shown but the spell lacked the finer detail required to have that effect of both speed and precision, it was certainly fast and strong enough, but the surface area it hit with was simply too wide and still didn't have enough definition to have the forceful effect he needed for his spell to be complete.

Thinking about it, Sora decided to reconsider the amount of attention he paid to how the elemental energy flowed through the mana path to see if the problem was there; there wasn't a 'problem' per se, but the way the elemental energy flowed through the path after being converted from mana was inefficient, it didn't follow the path fully because of his over application of the striking theory, it was still shooting out straight like a jet instead of flowing through the path to forming the 'fist' part of his fire-fist spell.

Sora slowed the channelling speed of the spell down first to get used to guiding the elemental energy through the path so the spell coiled into his palm and flowed out from there to form the fist. It took him over 30 tries but he got to the point where he felt he was following the path with 100% efficiency. He then spent the rest of the day slowly increasing the speed of the cast to match the jabbing motion. By the time Sora got his desired result he tried it one last time before he would call it a day.

He stood on his tip toes and bounced on the balls of his feet for a little bit, he suddenly stopped bouncing and snapped into a jabbing motion, Mana flowed through his 'Path' seamlessly and coiled his palm perfectly and at just the moment he balled up his fist. Now that he had gotten that timing perfectly he 'ignited' his mana and formed a fist of fire around his own that shot out when he threw the jab.

Unlike before when it was fast but ineffective or effective but slow, now not only was the spell shaped like an actual fist but it shot out faster than his previous precision fireball, and hit the target perfectly with the 'Knuckle' of the 'Fire-fist'. The actual look and effect of the spell were perfect and when the spell landed it burrowed a hole through the side of the tree that he aimed to knick.

The spell retained its full power, the full speed desired, the perfect shape/ definition & solid form, the right amount of precision and even added a penetrative effect to the jab when you land the hit with the 'Knuckle' of the Fire fist. He knew this because he tried casting it again but hit the target with the flat part of the Fire-fist and while it ruptured the tree severely it only burnt the surface of the tree.

There was still plenty of work to be done but being a mage himself he had opened the gate to achieve his dream and now he had taken the first successful step in the right direction. He had Invented a new way of casting magic and created his spell; 'Fire-Fist: Flash'; The first stage of his now-called Sage series; Basic Fire magic.