Chapter 222 - Internal Storm

Dear City Lord of Frostheim,

It is my honor to write to the one who aided us when no others would and I would like to send my sincere thanks. Without your help, I'm unsure if we would have been able to do what we did.

As I understand it, we owe you a debt. I owe you a debt. If you ever have need of me or my City in the future, you need only ask and we will be there.

Your Mayor has already reached out in regards to the treasure we unearthed. As much as I would like for it to remain secret, I can't put the cat back in the bag.

If you give us a few months we will be ready and waiting to receive those who you chose to send to experience it. If you wish to do so before then, I must ask for your understanding of our lacking accommodations.

As much as I'd like to go on with my thanks, I have other news I feel you should know. I'm not sure how much your friend or cousin was able to glean from his stay or if he was looking for it at all.

His abilities were far above where we predicted they were initially, which would've allowed him to reach things we intended to hide. Even if he managed to sleuth out all of it, I feel it's important to make sure you hear it from me.

We've been approached by multiple pylons who petitioned us to join their Factions. They all saw the position we were in and sought to leverage it against me. All offered partnership but required me to swear fealty.

While the offers are important, it isn't the part that I wish to inform you of.

With their messengers and diplomats coming and going, word has spread of the happenings to the South, and not all of it good.

War has already broken out and more are soon to follow with skirmishes already occurring. The City of Storms, or old Chicago, was recently conquered after a bloody battle and people are fleeing from the fighting. Other cities have similar stories with outside forces trying to expand their holdings.

In the heart of it all, a Faction has been gobbling up all pylons near it by methods we aren't sure about. They expand too quickly for it to be done through might, and there isn't word of any battles taking place.

They've grown quickly and now have most of the East Coast under their command.

I'm told you used to be American before it all went to shit, so I'm sure you understand when I tell you where their Capital is rumored to be.

Norfolk, Virginia.

Rumors say Washington was lost and survivors are trickling out of where it used to stand, but it's too far away for any information to be accurate.

I, myself, don't know what to do with this information, but I feel I should inform you of it. Attached are the locations of every pylon we've heard word of and their suspected locations.

It's the least I could do and I hope this serves you well.

My thanks,

Marcus Shieldwell

~~

The other letter was... informative. That was a bit of an understatement. Austin had been keeping us appraised of what he learned, and he informed us of a few pylons, but that was nothing compared to what was in the letter.

Austin wasn't there as a spy, as Marcus seemed to have assumed, and he didn't spend a lot of time trying to sneak around and uncover information.

All he did was send along the things he heard or saw.

Our war map had only seven pylons on it before and Marcus's letter had markings for over double that. All were spread out over distances we couldn't hope to reach. Our scouts ventured far, but what was depicted was thousands of miles away.

It would take months to get there in even the best conditions. Some were nearly a year's travel away.

While the warning of the growing Faction was welcome, it wasn't really something we had to worry about right now. Even if they stopped focusing on what was around them, it would take over a year to get any sort of fighting force to us as far away as we were.

Seeing how much more informed the other City was pointed out one of the rare downsides to settling where we did.

While we were isolated in the North without any threats nearby.

We were isolated in the North and any information had a long way to travel to get to us.

Still, I would take being up here rather than being down there.

Most of the letter was something we couldn't do anything about, at least not right now, but there was one thing I had to ask about.

"Abigail, what did you negotiate for?" I asked.

The letter said my Mayor already had a deal in place and now I was curious as to what she cooked up. She brought it up at one meeting a while ago but I hadn't been paying much attention. I usually let her do her thing as my input wasn't always needed.

I had been busy with something else and my mind forgot it.

"Well, Austin told us that there was a valuable Water affinity treasure down there and I made sure we would be able to use it. We weren't sure what it was, but I covered all the bases. If it was a one-time use, we would pay for it through trade, if it was a sustainable source of Water Mana, the same would happen but would allow the other City access to it if it was movable.

"And if it wasn't movable, they would allow access for us to go down and use it. From what we know, it'll be perfect for purifying Water Bloodlines and studying Water Laws." She said.

"Oh, that's perfect. I know you're close so you should go down there-" I was cut off.

"It's already planned. We'll go in two groups so we don't all leave at the same time." She said.

That's good. If every Water affinity left, half our family would be gone.

It wouldn't be that big of an issue, as we could easily handle the monthly waves, but it was better to be safe. I wouldn't be here after all. Austin was on his way back which put me at ease, and according to his letter, was much more powerful now.

This Winter was slated to have everyone working on themselves.

Then, after spending time catching up in areas we were behind on, we would go for the Baron upgrade. Maybe even higher depending on how much more powerful everyone grew.

We needed Bloodline parts sooner rather than later.

~~

Nick

Lightning struck with a resounding boom and another wave of its mana raged through his body. He was barely finished dealing with the last one when another bolt started the searing pain back up again.

He was nearly immune to Lightning and had used that resistance when fighting the other City Lord. All the Lightning he had been able to throw at Nick was shunted into the ground or used as power with Nick being fine.

But this was different. Even if he was just using his body as a conduit and shunting the lightning into the ground, he would be left singed and smoking in pain.

What fell from the sky was that powerful.

It had taken months just to be able to build up a tolerance and reach the edge of the pool of buzzing water at the center, let alone let the mana rushing into his body. The technique book had the steps laid out for him to follow, but he hadn't anticipated it being this hard.

In months since the battle, he was only on the Fourth step.

Step 1: Attune yourself to the Lightning, saturating your entire body, channels, and mana pool in pure Lightning Mana.

Step 2: After that is achieved, move on and add Wind to the growing Lightning. It should mix and swirl as a thundercloud instead of rage and fight. Coexistence is key.

Step 3: Then, when both Lightning and Wind are in harmony, add Water. Water gives the clouds weight. It gives the lightning power and Wind substance. It binds all three together into what will eventually become Storm.

Whatever 'attuning' meant nearly killed him. Nick opened himself up to the Lightning and nearly died when a bolt struck him. He learned quickly that being near the center was much too powerful for his body to handle.

What followed was weeks spent starting at the edge of the blackened sand inching closer day by day.

Eventually, while he wasn't able to sit in the pool at the center, he reached a point where the errant strikes wouldn't burn his flesh and send him to the nearest Healer.

After that, he added Wind while trying to keep the Lightning from going haywire. He wanted them to mix, not to fight for dominance as the book said but it was easier said than done.

Wind was easy enough to gather, but hard to capture. It howled through the ruined skyscrapers endlessly, taking the previous city's moniker to heart but refused to be still as he wanted it to stay in his body.

Nick spent weeks mixing the two and then even longer adding Water into the mix.

The work was endless, painful, and occasionally resulted in all the hair on his body being burnt off from losing control, but he did it.

The Fourth step was simple to read, but he was finding it endlessly frustrating to implement. It had seemed so easy at first as it was barely a line in the technique book.

Step Four: Once Lightning, Wind, and Water are all equally attuned, combine them and form the Internal Storm.

It was what his technique book was named after and its claim to fame. The Raging Internal Storm Mana Cultivation.

Mana cultivation was nothing like Nick expected it to be. While he hadn't gone through any of the barbaric Body Refining Techniques himself, he'd seen others who did and read his fair portion of the books before.

They reforged the flesh through terrible pain granting the person unique abilities. Reforged in Fire would grant Fire resistance, Poison would grant poison resistance. When leaving the tutorial he saw the ones available to him and what they would do for his body but dismissed them.

He was a mage. He didn't need to have a strong body and didn't want to waste his limited Reward points on it.

Instead, he had turned to the other side of the Body Path.

Mana Cultivation.

They were told that it existed and little other than that. Frustratingly little. Nick assumed that if Body Refining was meant for Warriors, Mana Cultivation was meant for Mages which was why he forwent buying a Body Refining technique.

And he was right.

Partially, but that part didn't apply to him.

Body Refining strengthened the body. Mana Cultivation strengthened the mana pool. Both aspects of the Body Path of Power, but separated.

Instead of painfully ripping apart his flesh for it to grow back stronger, Nick was in the process of forging his Mana pool into a Mana Core.

It would give his mana pool shape and structure. It would grow larger and increase the amount of mana he could hold. What used to be only possible through Wisdom, was possible through Mana Cultivation and it wasn't only that.

It would improve all his magical stats. Similar to how the body got stronger and more robust improving upon the physical stats, the same happened to the magical.

Turning his pool into a Core would make his pool bigger, more concentrated, and his mana would regenerate faster.

It was perfect for him.

Nick could only snicker at the fools going down the other route. They were afraid of the unknown and went with what was more understood. Biology was easy. It was studied even before the Change and led to Body Refining being widely popular, even among Mages who didn't need it wasting their time when it could be better spent making them stronger.

This would cement his power. With this and his Law, he would be able to stand over everyone and his coming evolution would only make him stronger.

All he was waiting for was the mana to do it. Every lightning bolt, gust of wind, or drop of water pushed his oversaturated mana pool that much further and gave him the fuel he needed.

Even if it took days filled with pain, he would forge a flawless core even if it killed him. Why settle for lower grades of Core when he could go for the best?