“Listen well! To practice Thunder Rising, you need to fulfill two requirements; each of which is incredibly hard to do. First, you need natural compatibility with thunder and lightning. You get what I’m talking about, right?” 

“Yes! I can freely use lightning magic without any resistance. The cost of using it is so low that it’s almost as if it costs nothing at all, but then again, so do most of the spells I cast but-” Marcel answered, suddenly thinking about his mysterious magic realm constantly sending magic into his magic reserves. This means he never has to worry about magic exhaustion, unlike other people. Now that he thought about it, even before he discovered that he had an infinite supply of magic from his magic realm at any given time, he never experienced the usual drainage that came with practicing magic for long periods of time for no longer than a few minutes. That was probably the unknown cause of it. He sighed as once again, even his existence confirmed that heroes are just not meant to be normal people, no matter how similar their upbringings and circumstances as normal people. Whatever force was behind him loved him too much to make him a normal person. 

“Yes, but also, not quite. What you’re talking about is having compatibility to lightning magic, brought about by one of the magic lanes connected to your magic realm. As you probably know, we don’t actually create magic when we cast a spell. We’re simply bringing our ideas from a separate realm of existence than our own. Think of it as opening a door to a place where anything we can possibly dream of exists. All we do is create a link between this world with our magic power being the key needed to open a gate to this world, then controlling the thing we summoned from there. Basically, all magic is summoned from this imaginary realm but when you reach a certain stage, you can use your magic to summon the materials needed to make it on our plane.” Claude explained. 

“I figured as much! Sometimes magic does this thing where it feels tangible but also not at the same time. I don’t really get it but from watching the spirits, I noticed this weird blur where the things they do seem tangible but also not at the same time. Sometimes they touch me but sometimes, even if they touch me, I feel almost nothing at all. It’s weird!” Marcel told Claude about his understanding of magic. 

“Clever boy! I consider the spirit realm a part of the mysterious place where our ideas exist. I call this mysterious place, the Dreamscape; the bridge between ourselves and magic. Ha, I took a couple dozen years to figure it out, but you did it so early on in your life. Good for you!” Claude praised Marcel. He had this ‘proud teacher’ air around him that made Marcel feel very happy about being praised. 

After Marcel’s big head finally lost some volume, he asked, “So, what’s the difference between lightning magic compatibility and this ‘natural compatibility’?” 

“Easy! Magic compatibility, be it lightning or any other element, is related to how easily you can open the gate of a certain element from the Dreamscape into this world. It’s like the difference between having a new functioning key and an old rusting one with a few chips in it. One opens the gate easily without you exerting much strength while the other might even lead to you having to bust down the gate to open it. High magic compatibility is the former key while low magic compatibility is the latter. If someone with a lightning magic compatibility like yours tries to open a lightning gate in the dreamscape, it opens without any resistance, costing next to no magic power at all to open it whilst, for someone with low magic compatibility, opening the gate requires a lot more force and thus a lot of magic power is needed to successfully do the same. It’s the reason why you don’t see people without affinities for certain elements trying to use magic that doesn’t belong to the elemental affinities, well, except for people with a lot of magic power to spare like you and me. In some cases, trying to open a gate of a magic you have no affinity to, can cause some physiological responses such as feeling exhausted, fainting, or in some cases, even death.” 

“Yikes! Sounds brutal!” Marcel exclaimed. 

“Yes, not all people are blessed like you and my father. Except for you heroes, only an exceptionally few possess an affinity to all elements, meaning most have a limit to the types of magic they can use. Everyone has at least one affinity to the elements but whether or not they can use it is also an entirely different matter. This brings up the question of an alternative way to harness the power of the elements in a less dreamy and magical but very, very extreme way.” 

“Which way is this?” Marcel asked. 

“Well, why not try using the power of this world instead? 'If you’re incapable of summoning the elements residing in the dreamscape, then why not try doing so with the elements of this world,' is a thought I once had and when I tried it, it actually worked, although, the method is so dangerous that it might cost you your life if you aren’t careful. This isn’t some borrowed power you summon at the cost of magic power but a power of this world that might kill you if it doesn’t like you. You have already come into contact with a form of this physical power that I'm talking about.” Claude explained. Marcel thought about this for a bit and finally understood what Claude tried to say. He was talking about the elves’ sources. 

Claude affirmed his conclusion, “Correct! The elves’ sources are a mix of natural power and the power of the dreamscape. Its power is normally thought of as magic but, make no mistake, its power is far more than that. Among all the magical races, elves possess the most tangible magic out of all. Their magic is real from the moment it leaves their bodies until far after it has fulfilled its purpose. Elven plant magic is a prime example of this.” 

“Again, how is this related to why I need a natural compatibility with lightning?” Marcel thought they were going off-topic. 

“Simple! Unlike magic which can be used without many problems, to use the physical power of this world, you need a body strong enough to withstand the effects of that power. This is where something related to magic comes into play again: Elemental Resistance. You need your body to be strong enough to withstand the effects of that element’s power, in this case, thunder and lightning, and not just that. Think about what would happen if that element didn't like you at all. You’d end up so fried up that even if you survived, you'd turn into a vegetable. You need the skills necessary to strengthen your body to the level where it entering your body causes zero damage. You need to acquire the highest thunder and lightning resistance your body can give you, the higher rank, the better, for practicing 'Thunder Rising'. Whether wielding this skill becomes painful or not depends entirely on you.” 

“I think I understand. I’ve already got [Lightning Resistance - Low]. This is going to be easy!” Marcel felt sure of himself when he said that. He didn’t know that a few hours later, he would regret spouting those words out for the world to hear. 

“I wouldn’t push my luck if I were you. From what I know, a certain ‘someone’ watches every move you make. If they felt like it, they could make your life hell. Never test the world’s patience, even if it loves you.” Claude warned Marcel. He looked so serious that Marcel gulped nervously. 

“Ok.” He answered. “No. Now that I think about it, you’ll be fine if you shout out loud about how miserable you’re feeling when the time comes. Make sure to shout as loud as you possibly can.” Claude patted Marcel on the shoulder. He had a slight smirk that left Marcel feeling nervous for minutes that followed. 

“Ok, now I’ll show you the skill I created. Watch carefully!” Claude told Marcel who began focusing entirely on him and nothing else. He watched closely as Claude did something completely absurd. 

Claude called lightning from within his body; the lightning slowly gathering in front of him until it accumulated enough power to come together and take the shape of a wyrm, a wingless dragon similar to the form of the wind dragon messenger who brought him to Alverona’s palace in the clouds. It looked a bit smaller than him but its presence felt so powerful and dominating. It felt like wyrm sought to destroy everything. 

The lightning wyrm soared high up in the sky at the behest of Claude, creating dark clouds that quickly covered up the bright sun's rays which sought to brighten up the city of Sizburn. The thick curtain of dark clouds cast a looming shadow that no one who looked up could ignore and at Claude's next command, it unleashed powerful lightning strikes followed by powerful sounds of thunderclaps all around Sizburn. Its attack demolished the courtyard and Marcel fell to the ground. Claude, however, summoned the lightning wyrm back to his side. Marcel, terrified by Claude’s display of power, saw another scene that completely blew his mind. Claude reached for the lightning, touched it, and called it by its name. 

“Saine! I only asked you to fire a few strikes of lightning. Why did you obliterate the entire courtyard?” Claude seemed to have a conversation with the lightning wyrm, a bit angry. As he talked to it, it suddenly shrank to the size of about two meters and began to snuggle with him. It seemed to not want Claude to be mad at it anymore. 

“Easy! Easy! I’m not going anywhere! I haven’t summoned you in a while, but you know the reason why, Saine. We have to do one more thing before we send Marcel off to go find his own lightning.” 

“It-it’s alive?!!” Marcel exclaimed, still terrified and shocked as he sat on the demolished ground. He didn’t know that the skill Claude wanted to teach him was alive, nor had the power to cause such damage if Claude willed it so. As expected of the Demon Lord's secretary. 

“Of course! Because of the special nature of the place that I got him and where you’ll be going, he lives as more than just a piece of lightning. He’s more akin to an elemental spirit than a lightning bolt. Now, let me show you one last thing I can do with him before I send him back to rest.” Claude said to Marcel who paid close attention to him. What happened next was Claude’s hair electrifying, standing up, his as well, as lightning coursed through the very earth after Saine entering his body. With his hand pointing to a vase of flowers sitting in a corner of the courtyard meters away from them, he watched fascinated as Claude, all charged up, shot bullet-like lightning bolts from his fingertips at the vase. The vase shattered upon impact and afterward, burned intensely until there was nothing left of it. This was ‘Thunder Rising’, the skill he invented with a mind of its own. The lightning protects its master as if it were a beast, functions like armor for its user, and acts as a weapon against their enemy. 

Now Marcel knew what he needed to do to gain the incredible power that is 'Thunder Rising', and he was ecstatic to fulfill the requirements needed to gain it.  

‘Hey, if it doesn't work, I at least get a super-powerful lightning resistance, so I don't really lose anything,’ He optimistically thought. One would think that by now, Marcel would know, as Alverona and the Elven Kings had taught him, that good things didn't come free of charge. 

He looked fired up, his eyes full of sparkles and glitter like he'd seen the mythical beast that humans called the unicorn. It was a look only the pure, optimistic, and happy-go-lucky people had; all of which described Marcel perfectly. Dreams exist to be crushed and as Marcel would soon learn; the Thunder and Lightning Domain, the world of Boltz, that Claude dropped him at, was the perfect place to do that.  

Spoiler alert: Marcel isn't going to have a happy time on Boltz.