Chapter Thirty-Eight

Umbra transformed as the two women put their system enhanced bodies to the test. Elysia wasn’t sure why they needed to move so fast, yet they did. Even with the speed, they never got in each other’s way.

It became apparent quick the style the two wanted and Elysia agreed. Since both women grew up surrounded by forests, though in Eva’s case in a small city environment, they let their experiences bleed into the design.

They used wood flooring throughout. Elysia didn’t recognize the name, which she found odd, but it might be some dungeon sourced lumber. In fact, most of the materials they chose didn’t have names she recognized. One thing she noticed was all materials used were the real thing, not some imitation laminate maybe because the builders used magic to manipulate the materials.

Though who knew maybe there was a plastic Changed out there. Was that possible? She supposed if the person turned into a changed based on how they died maybe, but plastic wasn’t an element.

She shook her head. Why did her mind go to plastic Changed? Instead of stupid thoughts, she refocused on what the duo were doing. They completed the floors below deck with textured steel floors in the storage and engine rooms, as rubber wasn’t an option, apparently.

The walls were next, but because of the reinforcements and extra thick walls, they didn’t have enough room to make much of an interior wall. They added insulation between the frame pieces, then added a thin meter sheet followed by textured paint, making it seem like it was dry walled.

Elysia soon became bored as they fine-tuned the details, even trying their best to hide the withdrawn rail guns. At least until curiosity sparked. Why did they give so much control of design? Shouldn’t their experts take care of all the structural details while they added the personal touches?

She glanced at the representatives, noticing they were tapping away on their tablets just as fast as the girls, as if they were trying to keep up. Maybe Sereia and Eva weren’t the ones who did the structural changes.

Her theory proved true soon after as the hologram continued to change in several places, such as the hull while the girls worked elsewhere. The representatives were adapting the hologram to match the girl’s choices. Apparently, it wasn’t as automated as she thought.

With her curiosity sated, boredom returned. She stood, no one noticing her moving aside from Ione, who chirped in disappointment as her pampering session ended.

Elysia itched to play with her new lightning, but she didn’t want to accidentally hurt someone in the meeting room. Her attention turned toward the door leading to the penthouse. There should be plenty of space in there to play with her lightning. Though she doubted it would be safe for the furnishings.

As she walked toward the door, followed by Ione, a portal opened. On the other side, she saw the training room. She froze mid-step as she eyed the portal suspiciously.

How did he know she wanted to test her lightning? Maybe he didn’t but figured she should. Either option didn’t sit well with her. Was this Urus all over again with big brother watching everything she did? Now she didn’t feel comfortable having them fix up Umbra.

What if they added something to control them? What choice did they have, though? It wasn’t like they could limp Umbra out of the port. Even if they could, it sounded like every city nearby didn’t survive. All she could do was improve herself to ensure she wasn’t dependent on others in the future. That meant she needed to train.

Elysia glanced back at her sister and the human crew. The only one who noticed her look was Joe, who leaned against the wall, arms crossed as he eyed the representatives with suspicion. He nodded at her as if to convey he had things under control.

She liked his attitude. Even if he wasn’t the strongest in pure power, he was plenty deadly with his illusions. He could probably take out all the guild representatives before they knew what happened. Then there was Sereia. She would crush anyone in the room.

There was no worry about their safety, and with Sereia in the room, Elysia could use their bond as a guide to return. Still, she was a little worried about what the duo would do to Umbra when she wasn’t watching.

What would be a better use of her time? Watching them design Umbra or train to improve herself? Based on their current progress, she shouldn’t have issues with their design choices. Besides, what about that personal dimension the space elemental dangled in front of them?

Before she could dwell on anything, she stepped through the portal joined by Ione, finding herself in the training room. The only trainer present was the head trainer from before. It made sense since he was the strongest lightning elemental she had seen so far besides herself. One look at him told her she surpassed him with pure strength, but she wasn’t confident she could beat him in a fight.

That fight came much sooner than she expected. Instead of greeting her, he charged forward with a trail of blue sparks.

On instinct, Elysia grasped a strand of lightning. Mentally stumbling at how easy it was, like bracing to lift a heavy-looking box, only for it to be empty.

This stumble cost her valuable time, forcing her to scramble back, finding the portal gone. Ione moved to guard her, but Elysia shook her head as she shot her right arm forward and released a lightning bolt. Her arm recoiled as a blinding bright violet lightning bolt exploded outward.

The trainer’s eye widened before he turned into blue lightning and shot to the side. Even with his lightning-fast reaction, he was too slow to completely dodge. Elysia’s lightning bolt clipped a section of his lightning form. When he rematerialized, everything below his left elbow was missing.

He stuffed a lightning blue pill into his mouth, causing his arm to heal within a moment, but even after it healed, he continued to tremble.

No further attacks came as they stood a dozen meters apart. The temptation to press her advantage fought to the front, but she squashed it. She wasn’t going for the kill. She already proved her lightning was superior with a single lightning bolt. Why kill someone she could squeeze for knowledge like that fancy lightning form? Besides, she doubted it would go over well with this city’s rulers if she killed him.

As she made her decision, the trainer also relaxed. That clued her in on why he looked so terrified. She unconsciously released her aura.

Unlike the passive aura, she radiated all the time, this aura felt primal. As if one wrong move would release a devastating storm barely contained by her will.

She supposed it wasn’t far from the truth. That single strand lightning bolt felt amazing. Not as powerful as the pure divine lightning that drained her, but it was far more controllable.

Curious, she checked her remaining charge to find she used around 1000 charge. Costly, but definitely manageable. With her lower max charge, she needed to level to make it up. Attribute points mattered little to her with the power of her lightning. Though it couldn’t hurt to increase them, too. Any bit helped.

First, she needed to learn what she could from this lightning elemental.

She gave the elemental a friendly smile, which seemed to make things worse as he tensed. Was she that terrifying? A glance down showed she still wore the sundress, sprouting the urge to facepalm.

Why did she enter the portal before wearing her armor? It turned out she didn’t need it, but it was still a stupid mistake. She had a feeling this elemental couldn’t hurt her, even if he tried. His lightning was far inferior to hers. No way could it hurt her.

Now she understood how the high elementals stayed in power. It wasn’t hard to reign supreme when no one of the same race could hurt them.

Did that mean she could crush the high lightning elemental? Something told her it wouldn’t be that easy. It would be stupid to put herself in danger like that, only to fail. No, she needed to improve herself to the point no one could touch her.

With as polite of a voice as she could manage, which wasn’t very polite at all, still high on her power trip, she spoke to the elemental. “Could you please teach me that lightning form move you used?”

Wanting to distance himself from her as soon as possible, he answered instantly. “Spread your lightning through your body until you feel it can’t take any more. The first time it will be difficult, but each time you transform, it will become easier.”

Elysia nodded her head, then sat on the floor and closed her eyes. Her senses delved inward, focusing on her core. As he told her, she grasped onto lightning, but she earned herself a headache by the time she latched onto the tenth strand. Far from enough to achieve the form. At least she didn’t think it would be enough. It was odd how her charge worked. One stand took up 1000 charge, yet she had hundreds of strands worth of lightning.

At the thought of strands, she had an idea. What if she didn’t grab them as strands? Her lightning didn’t pump through her body as strands.

She grabbed one strand then when she pulled it from her core she focused on it, trying to disperse it into lightning essence instead of a ready-to-use strand. Instead of ripping it appear like she did before, she willed it into a different form.

Her idea worked a moment later as the lightning exploded outward, filling her veins to the brim a core pulse later. Even though she felt like she would burst, nothing happened. Instead, after a few seconds, the essence cycling back into her core and reformed into a strand as if nothing happened.

Was her lightning not enough? How could it be? It was far superior to his, yet he could use his lightning form. What was she missing?

Fortunately, the lightning elemental noticed the issue. Despite his trembling, His scholarly side won out. “Higher tier elementals can struggle with their elemental forms. It’s actually easier for lesser elementals to form enter elemental form. In fact, I’ve even seen elementally infused being perform the feat. I think your issue isn’t the amount of lightning but the quality. A divine elemental like yourself needs to have extremely pure lightning. I don’t know what you did to improve your lightning, but whatever it was, do it again.”

Elysia frowned at his suggestion. How would her lightning not be enough? It was already so potent it terrified people just from the aura she radiated.

Despite her doubts, she turned her attention to her core. She grabbed two strands and forced them together. They followed her wishes without effort, merging into an even brighter and somehow stronger violet lightning.

She was starting to see the issue with the divine core she had before. It wasn’t her lightning. It was simply divine lightning. She needed to bring her lightning closer to divine by merging her strands. If it reached the potency of the divine core, it would be her lightning and, as such under her control.

With that realization, she pushed every stand together to purify her lightning. It didn’t take long, as there were far fewer strands than the first time.

When she completed the merging, she tried again, but the lightning strands repelled each other, forcing her to stop. They weren’t perfect, but this was as far as she could go.

Upon opening her eyes, a wave of weakness hit her, but unlike before, she didn’t pass out. When it persisted, worry built.

A notification appeared a moment later, confirming her thoughts.

User’s split core has been consolidated. +50 Divine lightning, Lightning affinities, -30% Max Charge.

She purified her core, gaining power and control at the cost of her max charge. To purify further, she needed to level and rebuild her max charge.