RE:volt! Chapter 31: Lesson

  As Thirty-Three walked off to give the newcomers her special greeting in the form of punches to assert her dominance, Ark turned away, closing his eyes to center on his SPELLBOOK and activate the Reality Sphere.

  Instantly Ark was transferred from the body of his current self to his former form, brought back to the sandy oasis that was his training ground.

  “How nice of you to pop on by.” Irelix said, the dragon surprising Ark by being in her full bestial form, scales, wings, and all.

  Ark flinched, instinctively reaching for a sword on his waist that wasn't there.

  “Oh come now Six-two-six, aren't we past that stage by now?” Irelix said, her voice rumbling as her massive body rolled on its side to display large chunks of sand caked to her white scaled wings and black underbelly.

  Ark said nothing as he dropped his hand.

  “Are you going to stand there all day monkey or are you ready for today's lecture.” Irelix asked, flicking her tail with her golden slit pupils staring at Ark.

  Begrudgingly, Ark moved, positioning himself to stand before the massive dragon as she rolled and sat upright.

  “Now, where were we last?” Irelix asked.

  “We were discussing fundamental properties of negative flow versus positive flow and how mages cast magic using negative flow and something called a spell equation.” Ark replied, taking a seat in the sand in front of the dragon.

  “It's always assuring to know that you aren't a complete dullard,” Irelix said before her wide maw opened up, yawning with her forked tongue licking the air. “As per our last discussion, the building blocks of invocation revolve around gathering mana and structuring it in such a way that a desired effect can be achieved.”

  As she spoke the air shifted, conjuring six glyphs of different colors and shapes that arranged themselves into a sexagram with a core in its center.

  “What are the six elements?” Irelix questioned.

  “Igni, ventus, terra, aqua, lux, and tenebris.” Ark replied, information he already knew but Irelix was adamant that they start at the fundamentals.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Correct.” Irelix said, listing out each colored glyph. “These are the six elements of magic. In order to inject your will to use these building blocks, it is pivotal you peel back the underpinnings of existence and understand what it is you're doing. And what you're asking for mana to do.”

  “Asking? Its sentient?” Ark asked, his brow raised.

  “No, but when a spellcaster forms a spell, they use negative mana to weave together a glyph that contains a set of instructions and guidelines for mana to flow through. In a sense, you're giving it instructions with the more intricate the spell the more intricate the instructions and detailed the formula.”

  “Spell equations.”

  “Correct. Monkeys have a single core that balances negative and positive flows. Usually you apes pick a path and specialize in either negative mana or positive mana flows.”

  “Knights or mages.” Ark said. Knights like Ark used positive energy to strengthen their bodies in a form of martial techniques while Mages used negative energy to invocate spells. For knights, each one possessed their own type of strengthening technique, for Ark, his was the Liberation series. A self taught body strengthening technique that gave strong bursts of power in exchange for a lethal backlash that often resulted in Ark injured.

  Fortunately, Liana had always been there, the priestess using her healing to repair the damage he'd done to his body after every battle.

  But now she wasn't here… and Ark was alone. Meaning he'd have to come up with a new technique that didn’t revolve around a handler.

  “As a superior species, we have dual cores so we aren't limited by your feeble constraints. We can do both. Even use positive energy to strengthen our negative energy invocations and vice versa. Your M’rakcana understood this and possessed the skill to emulate us and form equations that could rival those above his status.”

  Ark narrowed his eyes, focusing on the word Irelix had used for Jasper.

  “M’rakcana… why do you keep calling him that?” Ark asked. “What does that mean?”

  “In our tongue it means Great Explorer, a term given to the great academics of my kind.” Irelix said, releasing a rumble from her body with steam rising off her black and white scales. “A fitting title considering our current fiasco. Despite being a member of your dung flinging species he is perhaps the apex of your kind. If he were a dragon I'd have made him into one of my fertilizers.”

  “...”

  Ark said nothing, observing the dragon who’s scales began to release steam as the dragon's wings flapped gently and she shifted her rear with her tail twitching lightly.

  “Are… are you horny right now?” Ark asked, frowning.

  “Who wouldn't be? An intellectual of his kind is millennial. Shame I was paired with you rather than him.” Irelix complained, snorting with heat coming out of her nostrils.

  “Trust me, I'm not thrilled either.” Ark hissed as the reality sphere began to rumble. Meaning their time in the sphere was coming to a close.

  Standing up, Ark activated heated hands, making sure to fulfill his daily for the SPELLBOOK before the sky above began to crack and he was sent back to his world.