Larek Holsten had his entire world turned upside-down when he was accused of trying to kill the Headman’s daughter, but that was only the start of his new life. After witnessing a Scission attack on a nearby town, the former Logger was discovered to have the potential to wield a magic he never wanted. As a result of this discovery, he was ordered to attend Crystalview Academy, upon the threat of death if he didn’t comply.
Along his journey to the Academy, the sheltered teenager learned more about the world than he ever knew existed – though not all of it was good. The prejudice that the common people held toward his height weighed upon him, even though he knew it wasn’t something he could do anything about. This prejudice continued after he arrived at Crystalview, though it wasn’t quite as intense as he feared. It helped that he learned a little about why everyone born in the Kingdom reacted to him the way they did – even if it wasn’t fair. Unfortunately, that was the least of his problems.
What he had to worry about instead was his own inability to cast a spell, thanks to his initial efforts that literally blew up in his face. On the other hand, he also discovered that the accidental permanence to his spell patterns was actually beneficial when it came to creating Fusions. Not only that, but some strange fluke gave Larek incredibly high starting stats that far outstripped anything a normal Fusionist – even a Grandmaster – could apply toward the formation of Fusions, and his instinctual understanding of their creation put him head-and-shoulders above everyone else.
But Larek also had a secret that he didn’t dare to share with anyone. In a world where those with magical potential only became Mages or Martials, the latter of which were those with the ability to manipulate Stama internally, the former Logger had the ability to become both. This came to a head when the Academy was attacked from inside the city and Larek was forced to unlock a Martial Battle Art in the heat of the fight, though he had no control over the process.
Unfortunately, after the battle against the Scissions, his Fusions Professor was found to have been killed, and Larek was jointly blamed, along with the now-deceased Professor, for the explosion of hundreds of Healing Surge Fusions on the roof of the Academy, as well as for the temporary comas that many of the Mages suffered as a result of using these healing Fusions that Larek created. As a punishment, the Dean of Crystalview decided to send him away to Copperleaf Academy far to the south, along with his friends and a group of first-years that were left without a place to stay as a result of the explosion.
Escorted south by a caravan run by Merchants, Larek and the other transfer students were attacked by Bog Goblins, which eventually led to the Fusionist revealing some of his abilities and even his Status to multiple people – his friends included. After finally hitching a ride on the SIC Transportation Network, which was comprised of giant carriages pulled by equally large Canniks, Larek was able to experiment a little more with his Fusions by creating some physical stat boosts for the Martial trainee graduates who were accompanying them on their journey.
Overall, traveling south was largely uneventful, besides allowing Larek to expand his capabilities as a Fusionist, but his introduction to Copperleaf Academy certainly was not. To his good fortune, his studies included an Advanced Fusions class with Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai, who agreed to teach Larek after learning about his obscenely high Pattern Cohesion and Mana regeneration rates, as well as his ability to make extremely strong and nearly permanent Fusions.
Unfortunately, the ecstatic student Fusionist had caught the eye of multiple parties, for to completely different reasons. First, his height was noticed by a particular Noble named Ricardo, who ended up capturing and torturing him in order to discover if something catastrophic called “The Culmination” was occurring. During that interrogation, Larek also learned that he was likely something called a half-breed, which was a half-human and half-Gergasi or half-“Great One” – the race of giants that used Dominion magic to enslave the people of the Kingdom, and that were still enslaving the Nobles to that day.
Healing and then freeing himself through the use of Fusions, Larek ensured Ricardo and his two Martial trainee helpers couldn’t spread the news about his origins, and also protected his family from harm, by eliminating all three of them and hiding the bodies. That wasn’t the only complication to his existence at Copperleaf Academy, however.
Through helping an injured Martial trainee one day, Larek accidentally revealed that he had a Fusion that could heal people – and those in charge of Fort Pinevalley wanted it. Unfortunately, sharing that kind of thing would also likely reveal his dual nature as both a Mage and a Martial, but the choice was taken out of his hands as he was essentially forced to compete in the upcoming Skirmish.
To prepare for the set of competitions that pitted teams of Mages and Martials against each other, Larek created some powerful defensive Fusions for his team to use. Penelope, the blue-haired Martial trainee who had caused the Fort to start looking into Larek more than he cared for, was their team leader. Other members were two other Martials named Bartholomew and Vivienne, as well as a fifth-year Mage student, Kimble. Larek’s dear friend, Nedira, joined the team, which was expected to fail spectacularly because they barely had any time to practice together, but they managed to pull off wins throughout the competition because of Larek’s powerful contributions.
After his team was accused of cheating with Larek’s Fusions, it was revealed by Dean Lorraine to the entirety of the Academy and the Fort that Larek was a Fusion prodigy, a person who was able to create Fusions better than anyone else in the world.
This revelation, along with their win at the Skirmish, led to Larek becoming quite famous at Copperleaf Academy. With that fame came new dangers, along with new responsibilities, and Larek was tasked with creating Fusion after Fusion for the SIC, as directed by Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai and by the Dean. Despite everything he was creating, he was never able to figure out how to improve his Skills to the point where he could make Advanced Fusions.
While experimenting with some new ideas, Larek figured out how to create a healing Fusion that would work for non-Martials, as well as a brand-new Skill that had never been seen before: Focused Division. Because learning this new Skill could help with spellcasting, he was tasked to help teach the faculty of the Academy. Unfortunately, his Dominion magic ended up being used to impart the information to the faculty, almost killing Larek in the process.
Shortly after the start of the new school year, the Academy and the Fort were visited by a Gergasi, who demanded that the Dean and the Vice General bring his child to him. Discovering that this Lord Vilnesh was his father, Larek and his companions were led by Shinpai to an escape tunnel after the Dean and the Vice General were killed. With a significant amount of money from his created Fusions and instructions to go to Silverledge Academy and Fort Ironwall, they fled as quickly as possible while staying out of sight, fighting monsters as they made their way through the countryside. After their first major battle, Larek unlocked the ability to absorb Aetheric Force, which could be used to increase his maximum Skill levels.
Saving a group of SIC members, Larek and his companions accompanied them to the overcrowded town of Whittleton, which had seen an influx of refugees fleeing the appearance of monsters all over the Kingdom. Having seen and heard about the powerful Fusions that Larek had created for his friends, the Major in charge of the local SIC force believed that those would be better utilized by her forces, and she arranged for them to be taken from Larek and his group, potentially even turning them in as deserters. In an attempt to appease them, Larek made Fusions for the entire SIC force, but that apparently wasn’t enough, as the group of companions was ambushed when leaving the town.
Having foreknowledge of the ambush, the Fusionist turned the tables on them and forced them to leave without anyone getting hurt. Just when they were departing, something appeared nearby that immediately put everyone on alert: an Aperture, which could almost be called a permanent Scission, and which was a great cause for concern.
Nearly killing himself and everyone else who went to destroy, and inevitably close, the Aperture, Larek and his companions were unprepared when another Gergasi appeared out of the sky. Chinli, the Gergasi, promised to spare his friends (who had their memory wiped of all knowledge of Larek), if the Fusionist agreed to come along without a fight; and with great reluctance, he agreed. Unfortunately, along their flight back to the Enclave, they were attacked by Warped Void Hunters, and during the battle, Larek was pulled into a void. When he could perceive the world again, he found he had been transported to an entirely different land.
During his struggle to free himself from the lake where he fell, Larek finally unlocked his Martial side, going so far as to have obtained the Stama Subjugation Skill – though he still didn’t have any idea how to properly use it. Finding his way to a nearby town, he quickly learned that he was not in the Kingdom of Androthe anymore, but was instead somewhere called the Sealance Empire, which was apparently a long way from home.
On his journey back to the Kingdom, Larek discovered that he wasn’t just transported by a void to another portion of the world, but was also inside of that void for over four years. That loss of time had another consequence, which was announced to everyone in the entire world: The Apertures had now spread to everywhere around the globe, not just within the Kingdom of Androthe.
Along with the appearance of the Apertures, millions of people had undergone the process of obtaining the potential to become a Mage or a Martial, which threw everything into chaos. Given rudimentary knowledge of how to use their new abilities, Larek was confronted by quite a few individuals who used their potential for the good of their fellow citizens… as well as those who abused that same power.
As he crossed the Sealance Empire, he developed new Fusions that allowed him to assist in closing Apertures along the way, which helped him to raise his maximum Skill Levels through the accumulation of Aetheric Force. In addition, he finally broke through the block that had been preventing him from creating Advanced Fusions, and his potential for powerful Fusions became nearly limitless.
After nearly dying when he was duped by the Underworld Society, Larek paid off a debt to the city of Swiftwater for the damage that was inadvertently caused by his escape. In the process of designing a river ferry for the city, he developed multiple Fusions that he would later adapt to create a flying Air Skimmer, which Larek used to begin his journey over the desert of Lowenthal, the last obstacle between him and the Kingdom.
Unfortunately, the desert was being influenced by the Apertures beneath the surface. As a result, Larek was sucked underneath the sands and discovered an entire world of tunnels where Drekkin had once lived, though their numbers and safe areas had diminished with the arrival of the Apertures. This was only exacerbated by the Umbral Demons, a shadowy monster race that could possess the lizard-like, bipedal forms of the Drekkin, as they somehow took over the local Apertures and remade the monsters that emerged into their likeness.
Teaming up with a group of Drekkin, Larek strove toward eliminating the threat that the Demons presented, if only because he needed his new friends’ help to escape the closed-off tunnels and get back to the Kingdom. Fortunately, with the help of his new Skill, Pattern Manipulation, he was able to fight back against the possessive attacks of the Demons – though not everyone was so lucky. Not only did his new companions succumb to possession, but he also discovered that an old friend had as well.
Nedira.
Incensed by the appearance of the Naturalist overcome by the influence of the Umbral Demons, Larek utterly annihilated the enemy through the use of his Fusions and his new Skill, and then had to use his hated Dominion magic to wake up the unconscious body of his friend, as well as the others who had been possessed. After providing the Drekkin who had helped him with some additional Fusions to assist in the fight against the now-freed Apertures, Larek and Nedira were finally able to depart the underground tunnels of Lowenthal, emerging close to the Kingdom’s borders. When it was time for him to find out how the Naturalist had ended up being possessed by a Demon, as well as what was going on in the Kingdom, the Fusionist discovered that many of Nedira’s memories had been damaged, or were missing entirely, due to her possession.
With only some vague information regarding some sort of Calamities infesting the Kingdom to go on, the two of them set out to find Larek’s family, as well as the whereabouts of their other friends, the knowledge of which Nedira had lost at some point. Shortly after their return to the Kingdom, in the midst of closing an Aperture that was Surging and getting ready to expand, Larek’s Air Skimmer was destroyed and Nedira was hurt, forcing the Fusionist to seek out somewhere safe where she could recover.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
With the closest place being a town called Tarvana, which was beset on all sides by Apertures and with half their people starving to death, Larek was forced to strong-arm his way past the Providers who had taken control. Learning that the majority of the SIC had been disbanded after the Apertures grew too strong, Larek spent some time developing Fusions for the people of Tarvana, to help with their food situation, and to eventually contain the nearby Apertures, all while Nedira got better after the forced healing she had endured.
With his Air Skimmer destroyed, the Fusionist also had to figure out a new means of transportation. Thankfully, his new Pattern Manipulation Skill helped to provide a solution. After creating a Void Pocket that worked as a means to carry supplies without worrying about space, Larek was able to design a Pattern-made box that he could mentally move around, meaning that he wouldn’t have to rely on air gusts to keep him aloft.
Traveling through the Kingdom, Larek experienced the feeling of the Calamities for the first time, as well as discovering that many of the bordering towns and cities were separated into two different Factions – the Strike Faction and the Defend Faction, to be more precise – which worked to either strike against the heart of the Calamities or simply defend the status quo. Along the way, they discovered that Kimble, one of Larek’s old bodyguards, had been put in charge of a large portion of the Defend Faction, though the Pyromancer didn’t remember Larek due to what Chinli did to erase Kimble’s memories. Through the use of a Fusion that was implanted right into the Faction commander’s skull, Larek was able to eliminate any trace of Dominion magic being used on Kimble, which would also prevent most attempts in the future.
Heading north from there, eager to see how his family was doing, Larek and Nedira discovered that his family was gone, taken by the Gergasi and betrayed by the Headman Toran. The Fusionist was understandably furious and killed the Headman, the same one who had originally participated in Larek’s removal from his peaceful Logging career in Rushwood and his family all those years ago. Determined to free his family from the Gergasi, Larek knew that he wasn’t strong enough – yet. To get to the point where he might be able to fight back, he went to Fort Hilltower, near Crystalview Academy in Peratin, to learn how to utilize his Stama once and for all.
Thankfully, he found an extremely talented Drekkin Instructor named Torge, who not only taught him how to access his Stama – through the use of a Stama-based Fusion – but to fight with an ability that was more than him simply chopping at things with his axe like he was felling trees. After the Dean of Crystalview, Professor Wilburt, learned of his presence, Larek and Nedira were forced to flee – but the Naturalist had learned the whereabouts of Verne, the Fusionist’s former roommate, who might be able to tell them where Nedira’s brother was located.
Unfortunately, Verne was part of a Strike Faction that decided to attempt to close the northwestern Calamity, so the two were forced to follow after Larek’s old roommate in an attempt to bring him back. Fighting through the Calamity, Larek designed a new staff Fusion to combat the stronger monsters, as well as one that helped to contain the reinforcements sent out by subservient Apertures within the Calamity.
When they finally located the Strike Faction, they discovered that Verne and the others were currently in a fight for their lives near the enormous Calamity Aperture. The only way to safely get his friend out of there was to help to take down the entire Calamity, which unfortunately meant killing the Emperor Slime, an enormous and virtually impervious Slime that was hell-bent on destroying everything in its path.
Fortunately, after learning that steel weapons actually injured the gigantic monster, Larek was able to slip inside it and destroy its core. Once it was dead, they proceeded to whittle down the Calamity Aperture while fighting off reinforcing Slimes. It took quite a long time to close it for good, but in the end, they succeeded.
Once that was taken care of, Larek was finally able to discover from Verne where Nedira’s brother, Norde, was located. Taking with him his old roommate, as well as a new friend of his named Teena, the Fusionist began flying toward the southeast, in search of Nedira’s brother. Along the way, the group discovered that the knowledge that they were responsible for closing the Aperture had been spread around – and those around the border were angry. They were so angry, in fact, that even Kimble was held responsible for simply aiding them, to the point that the Defend Faction planned to publicly execute him.
Thankfully, Larek and the others saved the Pyromancer from the city of Fairmeadow, escaping to the south afterwards. Unfortunately, throughout all of the activity in the Aperture and the escape with Kimble, Larek’s internal pattern was stressed and frayed to the point where it was in danger of tearing apart completely. Needing to rest while hiding out, the group arrived in the town of Twin Falls, where they discovered that the townspeople were being possessed by the monsters from an Aperture underground. Strangely enough, the possession was actually beneficial, as it was slowly granting the residents the potential to become a Mage and a Martial.
Deciding to leave the Aperture alone, but keeping the process he observed in mind, the group used Larek’s Fusion-making skills to create a large wooden transport called The Hopper, protecting the Fusionist from stressing his internal pattern by using Pattern constructs. Finally arriving at their destination near the border of the southeastern Calamity, they discovered a town that had been taken over by mind-controlling bugs – at least before Larek found a way to get rid of them permanently.
Using the grateful townsfolk as a launching pad, Larek began to arm and protect these volunteers before having them create even more Transports, spreading throughout the border areas of the Aperture and freeing thousands of others from the grip of the mind-control – all while searching for Nedira’s brother. After learning a few Illusion spells from one of the Mages saved from the mind-controlling bugs, Larek adapted those concepts to create monster pattern constructs that could act independently, while also unlocking a new Guardian Skill, Aetheric Authority.
Finally taking over an abandoned City called Thanesh for the newly formed Volunteer Militia for Freedom, the ever-expanding force of Volunteers began to worry the SIC, who sent in a large team of Mages and Martials to make trouble. With their intent being to take control of the city, their plan backfired when Larek became involved, killing all 50 of them with impunity, safeguarding the Volunteers while setting the SIC back in the area.
Afterward, the Fusionist finally took all that he’d learned about Pure and Corrupted Aetheric Force and how the body reacts to both, before applying them to a Fusion. With the Gradual Aetheric Purification Array, the Fusion would grant anyone the ability to unlock the potential to become a Mage and a Martial, which he expected to have wide-reaching effects.
Eventually becoming a large-enough force to challenge the Calamity, Larek and the Volunteers entered its territory, looking for the many Mages and Martials that were missing due to the mind-controlling bugs. Fighting their way through securing all of the various subservient Apertures along the way, they arrived at the central Calamity Aperture, where they found hundreds of the missing Mages and Martials, though they had been slaughtered indiscriminately shortly before they arrived.
The culprit of the massacre appeared shortly afterwards, revealing it to be Chinli, the same Gergasi that had attempted to bring Larek back to the Enclave and who suppressed his friends’ memories of him. With her was Norde, who was being controlled by Chinli, and the Gergasi tried to use the threat of his death and the death of Larek’s family to coerce him into leaving with her, but Larek refused. After discovering that her Dominion magic no longer worked on the Volunteers, Chinli decided that the half-breed was too dangerous to let live, attacking him with the intent to kill.
Barely surviving the initial onslaught, Larek fought her with everything he had at his disposal, but it wasn’t enough. Eventually, he used clone constructs of himself to battle her, staying one step ahead of death the whole time, eventually culminating in a trap consisting of multiple Pattern constructs and a Healing Shelter, which weakened Chinli significantly, before the Gergasi inadvertently destroyed the powerful Fusion, causing an explosion that destroyed her and nearly killed Larek in the process.
Somehow surviving, but with his body and internal pattern worn out, Larek then had to pick up the pieces and figure out what to do next. With Norde safe, if not yet all there after the extreme mental stress he was under, his purpose behind coming to the southeastern Calamity had been fulfilled.
After a rather lengthy recovery, thanks to a newly unlocked Skill called Pattern Restoration, the Fusionist learned that the SIC was making even more of a nuisance of itself than before. While avoiding the fearful looks of the Volunteers as they learned about his half-Human and half-Gergasi nature, Larek decided that the Militia needed to take over the defense of the entire Kingdom, as they aren’t playing games with public opinion like the SIC. He figured out a couple of Fusions that might work to start tying up the local hostile Factions while he dealt with the Corps, but he needed some additional information before he could start on them.
Before he could implement these plans, however, the Fusionist was attacked by a powerful and mysterious group of assassins, which he quickly learned are from an organization named the “Unspoken Response”. He killed them before they could hurt anyone inside of Thanesh, but then Larek knew that he had an even larger target on his back – and that the SIC had hired the assassins to finish the job.
While studying an Aperture closely for research, Larek, Nedira, and the Volunteers he brought with him were suddenly tracked by a pair of Gergasi. Fleeing from Farmas and Syrlia was relatively easy inside of The Hopper, but eventually he ordered the Volunteers to flee while he and Nedira captured their pursuers’ attention, eventually fleeing into the southwestern Calamity to lose them. Just as they were about to leave the territory of the Calamity and take their chances that the Gergasi had abandoned their chase, they stumbled upon Penelope and Vivienne, with a large Faction group culling the monsters inside. After freeing his two former bodyguards from the Dominion magic that Chinli forced upon them, the Fusionist helped them escape the Calamity before they were overwhelmed by the danger inherent in the night.
Taking them back to Dreenwood, the town out of which Penelope and Vivienne had been working, they were attacked by assassins once again, but this time, the entire town was destroyed – along with all but a handful of its residents. Realizing that he needed to speed up his elimination of the SIC leadership after this tragedy, Larek doubled-down on his Fusions, adapting a technique of absorbing ambient energy from distant locations that he noticed the assassins using on a much smaller level, developing a number of Fusions that would help in the days ahead. The most important one, as far as he was concerned, was called Traveling Gate, which allowed for instant travel between two Gates.
However, along with Portable Lifter, Heavy Load, Blinding Heat, Blinding Freeze, Vacuum Blast, and Protection of the Void, some powerful offensive and defensive Fusions for the days ahead, Larek also developed Transfer Potential, which essentially removes the potential to be a Mage and/or a Martial from inside someone – a result that may have some unforeseen side effects in the future. While teaching a class about to Fusions to Volunteers, Larek learns that Humans have a much greater capacity for Fusion creation than even he does, especially after they’ve unlocked their full potential. They didn’t have the Levels or resources to create things like he could, at least not yet, but he saw it as a promising development for the future.
With these Fusions on hand, Larek and the majority of his friends decided that it was time to deal with the SIC. After another assassin ambush at Kilvering – the city containing the SIC headquarters – which they easily survived, while he also learned about the spell, Mana Siphon, they discovered that General Maxwell and the rest of the SIC had committed to closing the northeastern Calamity. Going after them, Larek then discovered that a massive Treehemoth had grown around the central Aperture, which had also captured the entirety of the SIC force that had attempted to take it down. After Larek freed the SIC, General Maxwell was killed by the enormous monster, before the Fusionist took it on and killed it while the others fled.
Kimble and the Volunteers then absorbed the SIC as the “military” branch of the Militia, led by the surviving General Auran. Matters began to stabilize throughout the Kingdom, as there was no longer any conflict between the two organizations, as well as having the support of the different Factions. Before they could accomplish too much, though, the southwestern Calamity began to surge, its territory promising to overtake and swallow up many of the border towns and cities surrounding it.
But Larek knew that this surge wasn’t natural. Instead, he had a notion that it was some sort of trap, likely to lure him inside to close the central Aperture – but he knew that there wasn’t any real choice but to go. He came prepared, with thousands of other Volunteers and over a hundred Transports, subjugating the subservient Apertures inside the Calamity before they could approach the central Aperture – where they triggered an ambush that was orchestrated not only by the leaders of the Unspoken Response, but also by the two Gergasi that had been chasing him previously, as well.
As Larek left his friends and the Volunteers to battle against the powerful members of the assassin group, he also took on the two Gergasi – but he quickly learned that he was outmatched, if not quite as thoroughly as he had been against Chinli. Saved by a last-second intervention by Nedira and the Hopper, Larek eventually got a hold of Syrlia and forced an Illuminated Free Will Fusion into her head, which he hoped would simply incapacitate her momentarily. Instead, it seemed to free her from a piece of Dominion magic that had been worked upon her by someone else, allowing her to finally experience a bit of clarity – before she exploded from a surge of energy. Shortly afterwards, Farmas received his own Illuminated Free Will – against his wishes – and also exploded, seeming to also have experienced a revelation beforehand.
The battle against the assassin leadership wasn’t going quite as well, unfortunately, but that was mainly due to the fact that they were facing the Tier 4 monster guarding the central Aperture – which had evolved after consuming a ton of crystalized Necrotic energy formed by Reactive Necrotic Siphons. It was so powerful that Larek didn’t think that even the two Gergasi could kill it, so he was forced to drop a bunch of Fusions down onto the battlefield before causing one to rupture and explode, catalyzing a cascade of powerful explosions that reached a mile in diameter, obliterating everything caught inside its radius.
But even with the threat of the Unspoken Response and the two Gergasi hunting him taken care of, as well as now closing 4 of the 5 Calamities found within the Kingdom, Larek had no time to rest. He had to prepare for any reprisals by the Gergasi after killing two more of their own, along with planning a strategy to assault the giants on their home turf, freeing his family in the process. It likely will be difficult, but this would be the time to free the Kingdom of its long-time oppressors, once and for all.
Unfortunately, his plans might encounter more than a few roadblocks along the way, including a new threat that was emerging into the world, unknowingly caused by one of his own Fusions….
