Quinlan raised his hand, examining his dark gauntlet.
He already knew.
He'd known since the moment he opened his eyes after the trial.
The memory surfaced on its own. The dome. The rose-colored mist. Nyxara pinned beneath him, her body arching, her pride shattering, and the moment his elements had fused under pressure so immense that something new was born from the collision.
Electricity - better known as Elemental Lightning.
He hadn't cast a spell. There was no predetermined shape. No preset cost. No system-defined output. The lightning had materialized from the raw friction of Wind spinning through Water-fluidity and grounding through Earth-density. It had arced between their bodies like it belonged there, like it had always been waiting for the right conditions to exist.
Ever since Black Fang donated him an Electromancer, Quinlan had access to the lightning element. But it lived inside his Elemental Sovereign class as a deviant element, locked into predetermined spell shapes. Fixed mana cost. Fixed output. Fixed form. The same restrictions applied to all his elemental spells at the time.
But when he'd unlocked Avatar of the Elements and his four basic elements evolved into Manipulation types, the deviants stayed behind. Wind, water, fire, and earth became limitless. Lightning, ice, and magma remained caged.
He'd stopped using them entirely. Casting a preset lightning bolt when he could sculpt a hurricane with his bare hands felt like picking up a slingshot after learning to throw mountains.
He'd even asked the Soul Records about it.
"I have access to magma, ice, and lightning, but they're still stuck at the elemental stage. I was hoping for another trial. Something to force mastery over the deviant elements as well."
The response had been instant.
[Gain mastery independently.]
Dismissed outright.
'When I tried to call on them, they didn't respond. That's why I was operating under the impression that I needed those strange elemental elixirs for the deviant elements as well.'
'But I'm not the same as I was back then.'
A giggle echoed through the back of his mind.
Proud and sly.
Then Nyxara returned in full.
Her presence meshed against his like a second skin. The tattoos along his back flared crimson, and he felt her again. The phantom weight of her body pressed against his back. Her chin resting on his shoulder. Her breath on his neck. Her fingers tracing slow circles over his heart.
Her voice was soft. Quiet in a way Quinlan had rarely heard from her.
A pause came before she sighed.
The softness in her voice ached.
The tattoos pulsed.
Her voice rose.
The crimson veins blazed brighter.
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