NOVEL NEXT Chapter 48 - Ouch
Fin stood frozen on Mount Veyra's peak, the silence heavier than the mana soaked air he'd fought to reach it. The plateau stretched before him, stone smoothed by eons, frost tracing delicate veins that caught the dawn's pale light. Unlike the chaotic final ascent, where wind had lashed his face and mana storms had threatened to tear him from the mountainside, this summit existed in perfect stillness. No storms raged, no students vied for Imprints, just the black kitten, wings folded, amber eyes locked on his with an intensity that pinned him in place.
Six days of climbing. Six days of pain and desperate struggles. All for this moment.
The kitten's gaze held no trace of the playful creature that had led him to the glowing pool or watched him through visions of ruin. It sat motionless, tail curled neatly around its paws, a living shadow against the frost-covered stone. It was waiting, had always been waiting, and Fin felt it resonate in his bones.
His pack hung heavy against his spine, straps digging into shoulders already aching from exhaustion. Blood crusted his left sleeve where the golem's fist had grazed him, his shoulder throbbing with each heartbeat. The wound wasn't deep, but it nagged like a persistent memory.
None of it mattered. Not the pain, not the exhaustion, not even the weight of the Imprint. Fin's focus narrowed to the kitten, its presence vast despite its size, like a storm contained in physical form.
His Electromagnetic Perception strained against the peak's overwhelming mana density. It was overloaded by the mountain's energy, a blinding glare that threatened to white out his perception entirely, yet the kitten's signature was a void, calm, infinite, like staring into the heart of a tempest.
Questions burned from days past, the pool that had changed his mana flow, the visions of destroyed cities, the recurring image of mages with eerie blue eyes, but answers felt close, teetering on this silent edge between student and creature.
Fin pushed mana into his Convergent Equilibrium skill, forcing his racing pulse to slow and his breathing to steady.
The kitten tilted its head, a gesture so mundane it seemed wrong. The air shifted, mana rippling outward in a pulse that made Fin's skin prickle with static electricity. Each hair on his arms rose, responding to the sudden charge.
A voice spoke, not aloud, but in his mind, clear as struck crystal, ancient and electric. "You've climbed far, Fin Aodh. Far higher than someone your age should have been able to." Its amber eyes glowed, blue sparks flickering within their depths, and Fin's breath caught in his chest.
"What are you?" Fin asked, voice rough from disuse, barely above a whisper. His hand twitched toward the hilt's weight, instinct seeking comfort, but he stilled it.
The kitten's wings twitched, a faint crackle of static dancing along their edges, blue sparks jumping between the featherlike structures that seemed made of pure energy rather than matter. "I am the Lightning Prime. One Elemental for each element, born when the world was young." Its voice hummed in Fin's mind, layered with power, like lightning held in check by only the thinnest barrier. "Few see us. Fewer still bear our mark."
"A Prime Elemental," Fin whispered, awe threading through his voice as realization struck. "Like in Instructor Mara's lectures. She said you were myths, that no one had seen a Prime, let alone received its Imprint, in recorded history."
The kitten's whiskers twitched slightly, something almost like amusement crossing its features. "Your Instructor Mara knows only what her books tell her. I have existed long before your academies and will remain long after they crumble. Humans see what they expect to see, record what fits their understanding."
Fin recalled the countless hours spent in Mara's classroom, where she'd dismissed Prime Elementals as "tales for children."
"If you're real," Fin said, caution threading his words, "then everything we've been taught is wrong." He maintained the flow of mana to Convergent Equilibrium, trying to keep his thoughts orderly despite the shock.
"Not wrong," the Prime responded, its mental voice carrying an echo of amusement. "Incomplete. Even your Academy masters, for all their knowledge, are blind to forces they cannot quantify."
"Why me?" Fin asked, daring to step closer, his boots scraping frost from stone. The peak's silence pressed in around them, amplifying his pulse. "I'm a first-year. Tier One. Why show yourself now?"
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The kitten rose from its sitting position, padding forward with feline grace, each step sparking faintly against the stone. "I woke when you were born, Fin Aodh. I felt it, a lightning affinity embodied, woven into your soul, a rarity impossible before your human Tier Six. You are no ordinary mage." Its eyes bored into his, blue sparks flaring like miniature lightning strikes within amber depths. "Only three have carried my mark before you. I am selective, and you... you will be the fourth."
Fin's chest tightened, the words landing like physical blows. Embodied affinity? Tier Six? It was a shock to hear someone other than his family speak of his Lightning affinity. His most guarded secret.
"That's why the visions," he said, voice low, piecing it together. "The mages. The destruction."
The kitten stopped just feet away, tail curling in what might have been satisfaction. The peak shimmered around them, images flickered at its edges, conjured from memory or magic, becoming solid enough that Fin could almost smell the ash, feel the heat.
A city burned under black-robed mages hurling bolts like spears, spires crumbling to ash. A vast plain lay scorched and smoking, majestic beasts erased by webs of lightning that had left only charred outlines. The mages' blue eyes glared from every vision, cold, serene, wielding power that broke worlds with casual precision.
"They were mine," the Prime said, sorrow threading its voice, a sound that made the air heavy with grief. "My chosen, gifted beyond measure. But Tier Two is a crucible, where mages merge closer to their element, where cores bind to Elementals. They lost control, their affinity consuming them until nothing remained but power and its expression." The images faded, leaving only the mountain's stark reality. "I showed you their failures to warn you, Fin. Power is choice, and you must choose better."
Fin swallowed, the visions' weight settling heavy in his gut. Those mages, city-killers, beast-slayers, had been like him, lightning embodied, yet they'd fallen to ruin.
He'd climbed Mount Veyra to escape Tier One's chains, to carve a path beyond his stifled progression, not to lose himself to power's corruption.
"You've been testing me," he said, meeting the kitten's gaze. "The whole climb. You sent them. The wyrm that nearly threw me from the cliff, the golem that shattered my tantō, none of it was chance."
"The mountain is my crucible," the Prime replied, circling him now, sparks trailing its paws like luminous footprints that faded seconds after appearing. "I wove trials to temper you, ambush to test resolve, beast to draw strength, stone to break reliance on steel." It paused, eyes flicking to his pocket where the hilt rested. "Your brother's gift served you well, but power lies in you, not relics. The glowing pool was no accident either, a mana nexus, ancient and mine, to forge your body and core for what I offer."
Fin's breath hitched. The pool, its searing surge through his veins. "You strengthened me," he said, pieces clicking together in his mind. "For an Imprint. For your Imprint." His mana swirled in his core like an eager storm, as if it knew what came next.
The mountain beneath them seemed to pulse in response, the stone warming beneath Fin's feet despite the frost, as if Mount Veyra itself approved of this convergence.
"There's more," Fin realized, watching the Prime's movements. "The Academy teaches that Imprints bond mages to lesser Elementals, partnerships that boost power but maintain separation. But you're suggesting something different."
The kitten's eyes gleamed, blue overtaking amber in slow pulses. "The Academy teaches what it knows. I offer what it has forgotten." Its voice deepened, resonating through Fin's bones. "Lesser Elementals bind to cores externally, lending their essence while remaining distinct. A Prime's Imprint weaves through your very being, reshaping, evolving. You are ready, or you would not stand here."
Without warning, the kitten vanished in a crackle of static, reappearing inches from Fin's face, wings half-spread, mana flooding the air in a pressurized wave that made breathing difficult. Fin stumbled back, heart racing, but the Prime moved faster, its paw shot forward, phasing through his chest as if his flesh were mist, intangible yet searing, touching his core directly.
"Wait…" Fin gasped, but it was too late.
Pain erupted, white-hot, like lightning splitting his soul along fault lines he hadn't known existed. Fin screamed, collapsing to his knees, vision blurring as mana tore through him, wild, vast, ancient. His core burned, reshaping, threads of the Prime's essence weaving into his own, electric blue flooding his senses until the world existed only in shades of azure and white.
The mountain beneath him groaned, responding to the surge of power as tiny lightning bolts raced across the plateau's surface. The frost melted in perfect circles radiating outward from his kneeling form, stone humming in resonance with frequencies that had no place in the physical world. Through tear-blurred vision, Fin saw the kitten standing unmoved, paw still phased within his chest, eyes unyielding as they watched his transformation.
"Every power demands sacrifice," the Prime's voice cut through the agony, somehow clearer now as their essences merged. "Every evolution breaks before rebuilding. The question isn't if you survive, but what remains when pain ends."
Memories rushed through Fin's mind, his life back on Earth, Kailos, sparring with Kilian, eating dinner with Donovan and Cahira. Faces blurred, time compressed, and beneath it all ran blue lighting, reshaping his understanding of who he was who he could become.
A chime rang in his mind, sharp, mechanical, cutting through the maelstrom of pain and memory. Ding. The System's text followed, cold and final:
[Imprint successful. Commencing Tier Two Evolution.]
Fin's world exploded into blue fire, and the mountain peak disappeared beneath waves of transformative agony. His last coherent thought was not of power or ambition, but "I hope I'm still me."