Its edge struck his shroud of the Void a moment later, and immediately, his reserves began to deplete. He focused on his elemental manipulation, and started to do something that he had never tried before. Elemental Manipulation was on the cusp of Expert, and he would need that here to survive.
The outer edge of his Void shield turned conceptually sharp, eating away at the sea of elemental Death around it, while the inner half became obdurate, infused with his willpower and mana. Even then, it was barely enough. Although his Void reserves were technically without end, using too much of them would kill him. Looking at the massive amount of concentrated elemental power around him, he would need quite a bit to survive.
His powers came to bear, and he gritted his teeth, keeping the shield running. Spikes of power started to strike from all around him, as if the storm was incensed at his resistance. He drove his own spikes out in response, weaving Maw of the Void into his elemental construct. Then he drew his main cloaking ability, Mantle of the Void, into the mix. While that ability only served to shield him from photons, he wanted his new skill to shield him from rival elementalism. Either he would succeed here, and gain a powerful new skill, or he would fail, and be forced to retreat, his tail between his legs.
He closed his eyes, treading the fine line between the two concepts he was trying to blend. That of protection, and of destruction. While the shield possessed no real dimensions, merely a construct of pure energy, he was able to conceptualize it as being of two distinct halves in his mind. One of purple Consumption, and the other of a far more ineffable energy, more entrenched into the real world than not. All around him, his shield started to spin, each half going in opposite directions, rotating inside one another in a loop of opposition. In between them, light started to blossom, representing the true power of his technique.
He withheld from using any runes, as he had no conceptual pairs that would lend themselves well to this. If he tried to empower the nascent skill with a rune, it would merely unbalance it. He could always add some later.
As the winds of the grave picked up, howling like a thousand banshees, he opened his eyes, everything clicking into place. The Void was not a hegemonic concept, with only one true direction. Just like any element was made out of parts, like Water encompassed the life-giving nature of the substance, and its ability to destroy in the form of tidal waves and whirlpools, the Void could be split into smaller parts. There was the concept of Consumption, the one he was pursuing over all else, and then there was the concept of Negation, of bleeding the force away from something without actually trying to destroy it. It was like two waves canceling each other out, rather than a tsunami swamping a tiny ripple. At a glance, the concepts seemed similar, but they were worlds apart.
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Jonathan’s mastery of the Void ticked up a point at the insight, and suddenly, the shield stabilized. A skill notification appeared as the gale dissipated, leaving him standing in a bubble of calm.
You have upgraded a skill!
Mantle of the Void:Legendary->Aegis of the Void’s Dichotomy:Ancient
All elements are vast entities, comprised of an entire universe’s worth of concepts and contradictions. The Void is no different. Your path follows the ideals of Consumption, the all consuming, all destroying nature of the Void. Through introspection, you have discovered a new path, one of Negation. In blending these, you can create a shield capable of complete protection against all elemental effects, at least at your level.
Jonathan relaxed, and sat down, peering into his elemental core to see where his new insight fit in. The meagre point of the mastery he had gained from creating his new skill was only the beginning of what he could achieve.
For the first time in months, Jonathan allowed himself to breathe deeply and engage in some proper elemental cultivation. Though, breathing deeply really had nothing to do with it, as his greatest Void cultivation came when he was not breathing at all.
The insights stored from his latest breakthrough came into focus as he closed his eyes and his mouth, orbiting his elemental core on a semi ephemeral level. The font of purple light was the same as before in most regards, but now, if he looked closely enough, he could see layers to it. While the orb of energy was completely without size, as small as an atom, or as large as a universe depending on how he looked at it, there were now subdivisions. In the center was a speck of pure nothingness, orbited by a ring of purple fire, and then a ring of some material that was without any physical counterpart.
While Consumption, the base conceptual component of the Void, manifested as purple flames, or nothingness if he condensed it, Negation looked like what it was, for lack of a better word. Every time Jonathan looked at it, he saw something different, but always with a connecting theme. The image ranged from a featureless shield, crafted from the dullest of metal to a palm, raised against the heavens, somehow contained within a single plane of energy. It made Jonathan’s head spin, but he managed to keep his mortal mind from interfering with his higher level conceptualizing. Only now was he starting to appreciate the nuances of elemental cultivation. He had feared staring at the same sphere of light for the rest of his life, but now, there was something else to look forward to.
