It is a marvelous thing that the elf, Anila Tufani, was slain by the Champion. Had she lived, she would have been a terrifying foe to deal with during the tumultuous years following the Great Fragmentation. She is the best proof of the danger the elves pose to mankind. We must be ready to defeat any foe like her that threatens humanity.

  -Classified Excerpt from “Man and Elves: History of the Perpetual Conflict”

  “You… what the hell are you?! How do you still have so much Ether after casting an Ultimate Art?!?!” Arawn yelled, trying and failing to keep the fear from his voice.

  Most of his wounds had mended, but his eye was still gone.

  Healing Arts on their own took a tremendous amount of energy. Far more so than offensive or even enchantment types. Mending wounds the body can normally heal on its own with time was the most efficient, as all it did was energize and accelerate the healing process. To restore that which the body was unable to on its own, such as regenerating a limb, took exponentially more energy to accomplish proportional to the severity of the injury.

  It is for this reason why his output with healing Arts wasn’t strong enough to restore something as complex as his eye.

  Anila smirked as she felt at her Capacity. Normally, casting an Ultimate Art would completely drain the Etherean of all their Ether.

  Anila Tufani, however, was far from normal. A result of the centuries of secret training she’d done working against a collar that worked around the clock to drain her Capacity. Her Efficiency with the power had long since reached the point where she wasted less with each empowerment and Art than she naturally gained. Even among Savants, she was on another level.

  This effectively meant, under normal circumstances, her Capacity was always, topped off. This made it so that she theoretically had limitless stamina and Ether.

  That was assuming she was using regular Arts and not using them in rapid succession like a madwoman. Healing Arts took far more Ether to use than other Arts, and Ultimate Arts were an entirely different matter altogether. Even with her level of Efficiency, her Ultimate Art had still drained her of almost half of her enormous Capacity. Though that didn’t last long, as it was rapidly refilling at the moment. For not only had her Efficiency reached unparalleled levels, so had her ability to take in the power.

  Her unrivaled mastery of Ether was also displayed in the way she had tweaked her Ultimate Art just now. That technique normally created a raging gale. A massive tornado that tore apart everything in its path. However, she’d compressed it into a massive orb, like she normally does with her Tornado Sphere Art.

  Arawn and the other Shadow stood on shaky feet. The formerly bearded Shadow, for his facial hair had long since been burned off by Anila’s flames, glared at her with a mix of fear and hatred.

  That fear lessened considerably, however, as the orange light coming from the jewel on Arawn’s chest grew brighter. He chuckled, which quickly turned into a full blown laugh, “You’re almost out of time, Anila Tufani! Soon, my armor will have adapted to both your affini-”

  He quickly moved his head to the side as Anila had nearly ran her flaming hand through his face. Only the side of his face got slightly burned, and the jewel on his armor glowed just a bit brighter.

  Arawn and the other Shadow once more tried to double team against Anila, only it wasn’t nearly as effective as before. The seasoned elf warrior seemed to have eyes in the back of her head, as she flawlessly dodged and parried each of their attacks as though she could see the future. This made Arawn feel more tense, as he realized Anila was in a state of Etheric Zenith.

  It was a state of elevated prowess that any Etherean could enter. One in which the Etherean reached 120% of their capability, and their skill in manipulating and sensing Ether reached a completely different level. The deeper into the Zenith an Etherean entered, the higher their capability rose and the easier it became to manipulate Ether. The state brought with it a sense of omnipotence, and even after the state ended, the person was left with a permanent boost in their prowess.

  It was possible to be knocked out of Etheric Zenith, but it was far easier said than done.

  Anila repeatedly landed powerful strikes against Arawn, notably avoiding using flames as to not accelerate his armor’s adaptation any further. He cursed the fact that he had lost his helm so early in the battle. Thankfully his Sentient Weapon and Armor could heal his injuries for him, enabling him to recover quickly from those physical blows.

  He quickly realized, however, that Anila was looking to end his last ally. Should she manage to kill him, Arawn would be left alone against this newly reawakened monster. And he doubted he’d last long enough. Not unless his armor could finish adapting.

  He felt an ounce of hope when his armor mentally notified him, “Adaptation to Anila Tufani’s Inverted Fire affinity: 75% complete.”

  The two Shadows’ teamwork was what was keeping them alive, and Anila was beginning to grow annoyed at their persistence. Her orange eyes, enhanced by Ether, analyzed the flow around Arawn. She noted the most minute changes in the power, a feat made easy by the fact that she was in Etheric Zenith. As she sent both Shadows sliding back, she said aloud to Arawn, “About three quarters of the way done adapting to my Inverted affinity, are you?”

  The man’s eyes widened and he broke out in cold sweat at the accuracy at which Anila could read the Ether. He cried out to his ally, “Make sure you protect me! If she manages to kill me, she’ll escape! We can’t let someone as dangerous as her leave here alive! Got it?!”

  The other Shadow nodded silently, though Anila could see he was tense. Annoyingly, even MORE reinforcements arrived then. Two more Shadows appeared, jumping into the fray and stopping by Arawn’s side.

  The man visibly brightened at this development, and Anila could see hope return to his eyes.

  She growled. She needed to end this, NOW. Though, at this point, she doubted she’d be able to finish off Arawn in a single shot with her Inverted affinity, and any further attacks would only accelerate the adaptation. Even if she could end it in one shot, the other three Shadows definitely wouldn’t just sit around and allow her an opening. Add on to that the fact that Arawn was already immune to her winds.

  That meant she had to use a new element.

  But considering she only possessed the two affinities, that left only one option. It was purely a last resort, and was so incredibly dangerous that if she didn’t pull this off perfectly, she’d likely die along with her foes.

  The part that she hated most however, was that many were going to get caught up in the end result and die if she resorted to this. Though many of those would be humans, most were mere citizens. Some may be like Adele, who’d deserved the fate she’d suffered. But how many would be innocent bystanders?

  The part that hurt her the most however was that many of her fellow enslaved elves would no doubt get caught up in the blast radius and die.

  Because of her.

  She closed her eyes tightly, and tried to muster her resolve. For if she didn’t escape from here and find a way to Vindanna with Aria, then many more of her people would die in the future at the hands of the Dominion when they inevitably found a way to trek the Void Sea.

  She reached out far with her senses, enhanced by her elevated state, for the first time since the battle began. She searched for another way, anything besides the last resort she was considering. Instead, she was slammed with the mental image of the many elves around Ignis, all fighting and dying in droves against their oppressors. She could almost hear their screams of pain and agony as they died.

  The dark rage she’d been trying to keep suppressed for not just this battle, but for all 500 years of her enslavement, finally burst free, unable to be contained any longer.

  Anila felt complete and utter wrath overtake her. Her hatred, magnified several times by the use of her Inverted affinity, hardened her heart to the protests in her mind.

  She began her Invocation.

  “Embers of resentment. Smoldering flames of regret. Heed my call,” Anila began to chant, her eyes beginning to glow.

  Arawn’s eyes widened. He cried out an order desperately, “Kill her!”

  All four Shadows pounced on her, and had Anila not been in Etheric Zenith, she doubted she’d be able to keep up her Invocation, even if she focused purely on defense and evasion. In her current elevated state, however, she was capable.

  “Roar to life and burn away all that lies before me. Feed off both the bodies of my enemies and my wrath,” Anila continued as she ducked and weaved between her foes’ attacks.

  “Interrupt her Invocation!” Arawn bellowed with renewed desperation.

  “Became an all consuming inferno that leaves nothing in its wake!” Anila continued as her foes were unable to land a single hit on her, despite every attack and Art being coordinated.

  “Somebody kill her!” Arawn yelled with complete distress.

  “Let not even ashes remain in the aftermath! Compress the blaze I command into a sphere of annihilation!” Anila grinned as the Shadows closed in on her.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She raised an arm into the air, and finished her Invocation, “Ultimate Art: Solaric Vengeance!”

  Arawn and the other Shadows braced themselves, all trying to jump back and move away from Anila as quickly as they could. Only Arawn realized something was wrong when he saw the elf warrior grin widely.

  An utterly massive orb of black fire, appearing more like a miniature, dark sun than a fireball, appeared and grew above her outstretched hand. The heat exuding from the sphere was astonishing! Arawn could feel the blood that had been on his face drying and evaporating.

  They were all left astounded when Anila shot the Art up to the sky.

  The other Shadows all charged towards Anila, thinking her a complete fool. Arawn looked up at the rising ball of heat death with utter confusion.

  “What is she-” Arawn paled as he trailed off.

  He’d gone completely white, every ounce of color leaving his skin. His eyes went wider than they ever had in his entire life. For he noticed the massive, black sun was flying towards another massive sphere floating in the sky above.

  He bellowed louder than he ever had in his life, with more desperation than he’d ever felt, “STOP THAT ART!!!”

  The other Shadows froze, looking up to see what Arawn had.

  Finally noticed, have they? Anila thought.

  Her Solaric Vengeance was currently hurtling towards the still present and active Astridian Purgatory, which orbited harmlessly around one of the castle’s towers, it’s violent and powerful tornado-like winds perfectly self contained in its spherical shape.

  Her two Ultimate Arts were on course to collide with one another.

  Every single Shadow, Arawn included, all shot towards the sky with a Fire Art, flames shooting out of the bottoms of their feet, propelling them forward. Arawn was ahead of them all, having leapt into the air with his Lightning affinity, getting rather high before switching to his Fire affinity and propelling himself like the others.

  Anila had no time to give chase. She had to escape NOW.

  Switching to her Wind affinity, her eyes turned green as she hurtled towards where she sensed Aria was, mentally commanding her wind cage holding her daughter to come to her as quickly as she could manage.

  Maker, please let us make it in time! Anila prayed.

  ***

  Aria had done her best to feel out with her senses the battle her mother was going through, but she’d been completely unable to keep up.

  She’d noted two particularly powerful pulses of Ether that seemed to have come from her mother, the most recent one happening just a moment ago. Then she’d suddenly felt herself fly up out of the alley she’d been in and into the air as the wind cage surrounding her suddenly began to pull her towards the battle.

  What?! Why am I being dragged in that direction?! Aria thought with panic.

  She quickly felt relief when she saw Anila flying right towards her at astonishing speeds. Her mother had an intense look of concentration on her face.

  “Mom!” Aria cried out.

  Anila dispelled her wind cage and caught Aria in a tight embrace, though Aria noted her mother hadn’t stopped her own flight. Rather, she was still going top speed, flying up towards the walls.

  That made Aria nervous, as her mother had warned her of the Dominion’s anti-air defenses.

  “Mom, what are you doing?!” she cried out.

  “Hush, Aria!” Anila scolded, “I’m concentrating!”

  It was then that she noticed a distant, bright light. She saw what she could only describe as a miniature, black sun flying towards what looked to be an equally sized sphere of compressed winds that had been orbiting one of the castle towers. She saw that wind sphere begin to move upwards, though she could see the two orbs would soon meet due to the sun’s faster speed.

  She briefly tried to reach out her Ether senses, and felt like her head had been about to split open. The amount of Ether output those two spheres were giving off was completely insane. Aria knew right then and there those two Arts could only be Ultimate Arts.

  And the only one she could possibly think of to be able to pull two of those off in the same day was her mother.

  “Mom, what did you do?!” she cried out with rising panic.

  She’d never seen Anila this flustered before.

  Rather than answer her, Anila put a hand to the back of Aria’s head and pushed her head into her chest. Aria decided to keep quiet and trust her mother. She wrapped her arms tightly around her, and did her best to hang on.

  ***

  Galen noticed panic beginning to set in the people around him. He first noticed it with Milton, who’d put a finger to his ear like he had an earpiece or something. He saw the scribe go paler than he’d ever seen him, and he quickly began to bark out orders for everyone to surround Galen and take cover.

  Then, Redian screamed in his mind, “Boss!!! You gotta find cover! There’s something massively destructive about to go off in Ignis!”

  Redian?! What do you mean? What’s happening NOW?!

  “Two enormous Arts of different affinities but equal output are about to collide! From my calculations, Etheric Fusion is likely to occur! You should be far enough to survive the initial burst, but you should still find cover, NOW!” Redian screamed with more urgency than he’d ever heard from the sword.

  Galen had no clue what an Etheric Fusion was, but Redian’s panic was enough for him to listen.

  His guards rushed to him, and they all pushed him down to the ground, encouraging him to brace himself. They then surrounded him with their shields raised towards the gate, with Milton at the front with his arms raised outward.

  As Galen looked up from the ground, he saw the castle, which rose above even the walls of Ignis. He finally noticed two spheres, one that looked like a small sun, only it was black in color with an orange and yellow outline, and the other dark with what looked like swirling winds like a tornado in a spherical shape. The tornado orb was slowly rising to the sky, while the mini-sun hurtled towards it with even greater speed.

  Every ounce of self preservation, combined with the instincts given to him by Redian, screamed at him to brace himself, and to cover his eyes and ears as best he could.

  ***

  Once Anila and Aria made it close to the top of the wall, Ignis’s anti-air defenses were activated. Aria saw large metal… cylinders? Whatever they were, they rose from the walls and turned to point at her and her mother. They tracked their flight before they began to shoot lightning at them. Anila ducked and weaved as best she could, narrowly avoiding getting hit by the barrage.

  They soon flew high enough to be above the walls, and Anila hurtled towards the walls leading to the outside of Ignis, all while continuing to dodge and weave between the electric bolts being shot at them.

  Aria had no idea how her mother was able to perform such a feat. It was as though controlling the Ether had become as easy as breathing for her.

  Anila let out a cry as a bolt of lightning managed to clip her shoulder. She and Aria began to fall, but her mother had managed to renew the flight Art and keep going. Though her mother looked panicked now.

  As Aria peeked over her shoulder, she saw why.

  Aria realized the massive wind sphere now hovering a far distance above the castle had stopped moving. She then realized her mother had been mentally commanding the Art to ascend into the sky. Not to prevent the miniature sun from hitting it, but to delay it.

  But after being grazed by a lightning bolt, Anila had lost concentration, and the massive Wind Art stopped in place.

  A few seconds later, the miniature sun reached it, the two massive Arts finally colliding.

  Instinct made Aria close her eyes and bury her face into her mother’s chest.

  Initially, there was a single, massive, BOOM.

  Then, a roar was heard that continued to increase in volume and intensity.

  Finally, an extremely powerful force pushed outward, sending Anila and Aria hurtling to the distance.

  ***

  There are two ways to create a new element. One is when an Etherean manages to reach a certain level of mastery with two different affinities, but even then this is only the first step. The Etherean must then learn how to properly mix the two Elemental affinities, and should they prove successful, they will create a new Element and affinity that is more powerful than either used to make it combined. This is the most common and safest way to create a new element.

  Note that, for example, simply using a Wind Art to enhance the flames of a Fire Art by feeding it more oxygen to burn does not accomplish the same thing. One is simply using a Wind Art to strengthen a Fire Art, but it is still a Fire Art. The Fire Ether in this example merely devours the Wind Ether. It does not combine into a new element.

  Another method involves two individuals, each with a different affinity, working together to create a new Element. With this method, this is done by combining an Art from each individual. However, as previously stated, one cannot simply use an Art to strengthen another. Actually mixing and combining two Arts into a new element is something even two people who’ve worked together and known each other for their entire lives struggle to accomplish, as they need to synchronize their Ether signatures perfectly. For this reason, mixing two Elemental affinities is far easier for a single person with two affinities to pull off than it is for two people with different affinities. And even then, it is a skill only the most masterful and talented can accomplish.

  The final method to mix two elements is the least common and most taboo of all. And that is for good reason, because this final method is also the most destructive. Normally, when one is trying to combine two Elemental affinities, the process is a gentle mixing of the two. This method, however, involves an external, violent crashing of two affinities. To successfully pull this off, one must first have enough power and output, for without the necessary power, the forceful fusing of Elements will not occur. Should the power requirement be met, next, one must have enough control and mastery to have an Art continue functioning even after the user switches to another affinity. With these two requirements met, one is able to violently crash two Arts of different Elements and sufficient power to one another.

  This results in the two crashing against one another at an atomic level. The Etheric atoms fuse in such a violent fashion that the resulting newly fused elemental atom splits apart. This results in an explosive output of energy many magnitudes greater than the fused Art would normally possess. A process similar to nuclear fusion. The end result is something akin to a nuclear explosion, only powered further by Ether and the fused Element created.

  This terrifying phenomenon is called Etheric Fusion.

  And it was this phenomenon that Anila Tufani had successfully pulled off.

  The resulting explosion completely vaporized Ignis’s castle and the First Circle, most of the Second, and destroyed all the houses and property of the Third. The walls of the First and Second were annihilated. The walls of the Third were cracked and destroyed in some sections, but remained standing.

  Had Anila Tufani not directed her Ultimate Wind Art as high as she did before losing focus, all of Ignis would have been vaporized, leaving nothing behind but a spherical, smoldering crater.

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