Fin sat cross-legged on the attunement array, staring at the glowing Fusion artifacts before him. The pale blue-silver relics pulsed with energy that seemed to beckon and retreat in equal measure, taunting him with their promise. The circular chamber around him was quiet save for his measured breathing and the occasional shifting of his mother, father, Marian, and Alaric. Runes etched into the stone floor glimmered with faint light, responding to his concentration.
A year ago, he’d shaped his first Lightning mana veins with effortless ease, his body responding as though it had been waiting for the energy all along. The crackling power had surged through him like a homecoming, fitting into pathways he hadn’t even know existed within him until that moment. He’d expected Fusion to be the same.
He had been wrong.
A year had passed, and he was still wrong.
Fifty-two weeks. Three hundred and sixty-five days of attempting the same process, only to fail in ways that varied slightly but led to the same frustrating conclusion. His notebooks were filled with diagrams and notes, theories and adjustments, all amounting to nothing but a comprehensive record of his failures.
Fin grit his teeth as he reached for the Fusion energy, trying once again to guide it into the network he’d carefully designed alongside his Lightning pathways. The sensation was unlike anything he could properly describe, like trying to catch smoke with bare hands, or perhaps more accurately, like trying to pour water into a vessel that constantly changed shape. He visualized the energy flowing into the precise points where the veins should take root, where it should seamlessly integrate into his existing structure.
Instead, the moment the mana made contact, it scattered. Again.
The backlash ripple through him, not with pain but with the peculiar emptiness of potential unfulfilled. The artifacts dimmed momentarily, as if sharing his disappointment, before brightening again in the same tantalizing rhythm. Fin’s shoulders slumped, the tension draining from his posture as he released a long, frustrated breath.
His control over Lightning had been instinctive, the element molding itself to his will as if it were always meant to be his. The first time he'd channeled it, lightning had danced across his skin for hours afterward, reluctant to be contained. Fusion, however, refused to obey. It resisted, eluded, and dispersed before it could take hold, leaving nothing behind but the fading warmth of yet another failed attempt.
A chuckle echoed from the edge of the chamber. “Ah, there it is,” his father said, arms crossed, an amused glint in his eye. Donovan’s face creased with a smile that held no malice, only the satisfaction of a long-held theory confirmed. “I was starting to wonder if you’d ever hit a wall.”
Fin shot him a glare. “This isn’t funny.” His voice came out sharper than intended, edged with the frustration of months of failure.
His mother arched an eyebrow, barely suppressing a smirk. Her small frame leaned against one of the chamber’s pillars. “Oh, but it is my sweet boy. You’re acting like forming a core in a year is slow. Most cultivators take years just to establish their mana veins, and they’re only using a single element.”
Marian nodded in agreement, his expression far too smug for Fin’s current mood. "What you're experiencing, young master, is what we in the cultivation community like to call ‘normal.’ A concept that seems to have eluded you thus far."
Alaric, ever the composed observer, allowed the ghost of a smile to touch his lips. "Perhaps patience is a virtue you have yet to fully cultivate, young Fin." His voice was gentle, but the underlying observation was sharp.
Fin exhaled sharply, forcing himself not to snap back. He knew they were right, but it didn't make his frustration any less real. The expectations he'd placed on himself weighed heavier than any they might have had. He wasn't trying to be arrogant, he just couldn't understand why Fusion refused to settle when it seemed so compatible with his existing plans.
"Lightning was easy because it was part of me," he muttered, running a hand through his hair, which had grown long during his months of focused cultivation. "But Fusion should work too. It fits. I designed my pathways to accommodate all three elements. The structure is there, the connections are ready, it just won't hold."
Donovan pushed himself away from the wall and crossed the room, his footsteps barely audible on the stone floor. He clapped a hand on Fin's shoulder, the weight warm and reassuring. "Son, cultivation isn't just about structure. It's about understanding the nature of the energy you're working with. Lightning is power and motion, it thrives in speed and direction. It's decisive, like you." His eyes held a wisdom earned through years of practice. "Fusion is different. You're trying to force it when you should be letting it blend."
Fin frowned. He'd heard the advice before, variations of it had been offered by everyone over the months, but it didn't help him understand what he was doing wrong. He wasn't trying to force the energy, he was guiding it into the spaces he had carefully constructed for it. But every time, it rejected him, slipping away like water through cupped hands.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
He wanted to punch something. Preferably something that would break satisfyingly under his fist.
Instead, he sighed and pushed himself to his feet, brushing off his training clothes. The chamber suddenly felt too small, too confining with its perfect geometric precision and the watchful eyes of his guardians. "I need air."
Alaric nodded. "Take your time. Maybe you'll find your answer outside of this chamber. Sometimes the mind needs freedom to discover what it cannot see in confinement."
The others exchanged looks but said nothing as Fin strode from the room, the heavy door closing behind him with a finality that matched his mood.

The forge was alive with heat and movement, the rhythmic clang of metal striking metal filling the air as the blacksmith worked. Fin had wandered into the smithy by habit, drawn to the raw energy of the place as he often was when his thoughts became too tangled to unravel. The familiar smells of coal, hot metal, and sweat grounded him, pulling him back from the edge of his frustration.
Grenwith, the head blacksmith, acknowledged Fin with a brief nod before returning his attention to his craft. The massive man's focus was absolute as he worked a piece of glowing steel, his movements precise despite his size. Fin leaned against a workbench, content to watch in silence, letting the rhythmic sounds wash over him.
He watched as the smith carefully folded layers of glowing steel together, hammering, reheating, and refining the metal over and over again. Each strike was measured, each fold deliberate. The steel glowed orange-white in the forge's heat, malleable but not liquid, changing under the smith's guidance rather than by his demand.
Fin found himself entranced by the process. The metal wasn't being forced, it was being shaped. Each layer bonded with the next, not through sheer power, but through careful application of heat and pressure. Too much force, and the metal would crack. Too little, and it wouldn't bond at all. The temperature had to be just right, the timing precise, the pressure consistent.
Something clicked in his mind, a connection forming as surely as the layers of steel before him.
Fusion wasn't about forcing two things to merge, it was about creating the right conditions for them to become one.
He'd been applying the principles of Lightning to Fusion, expecting immediate results, demanding that the energy conform to his will. But Fusion, by its very nature, was about the joining of separate elements into something new. It required patience, preparation, and the right environment.
Fin turned on his heel and sprinted back to the cultivation chamber, leaving a startled Grenwith staring after him. The corridors of the estate blurred as he ran, his mind racing faster than his feet. The answer had been in front of him all along, embedded in the very name of the element he sought to master.

Everyone looked up in surprise as Fin burst back into the chamber, slightly out of breath but with a clarity in his eyes that hadn't been there before.
"Back so soon?" Marian asked, looking up from the scroll he'd been studying.
Fin didn't answer. He lowered himself onto the attunement array, this time with a different approach. The artifacts responded to his renewed presence, their glow intensifying as if sensing the change in him.
He wouldn't force the energy into his pathways. He would invite it.
Closing his eyes, he reached for the Fusion mana again, but differently now. Instead of grasping for it, he opened himself to it, creating a space where it might wish to dwell. He felt it hover at the edge of his awareness, hesitant, elusive. Instead of pushing it into place, he let it settle on its own, offering a space for it rather than demanding it conform.
For the first time, it responded.
Slowly, the energy seeped into the channels he'd prepared, not in the aggressive surge he had expected from his experience with Lightning, but in a steady flow like water finding its level. He could feel it warming his dantian, threading itself carefully alongside his Lightning veins. It wasn't instantaneous, it took time, patience, but it was happening.
Minutes passed in silence. The mentors watched, sensing the shift in the atmosphere of the chamber, the subtle change in the energy patterns that swirled around their student. Fin remained motionless, focused completely on the delicate process occurring within him.
When at last he exhaled, opening his eyes, wisps of silver-blue energy curled around his fingers, flickering but stable. The light caught in them, creating prismatic patterns that danced across his skin.
Marian leaned forward, intrigued. “You finally let it flow, didn’t you?”
Fin nodded, a slow smile spreading across his face as he examined the manifestation of his success. "I was trying to shape it like Lightning. But Fusion doesn't work that way. It doesn't respond to control, it responds to invitation." He looked up at his parents, seeing their approval. "It needed the right conditions to bond, like layers in folded steel."
Donovan chuckled, the sound warm with pride. "Took you long enough. But that's often how the most important lessons are learned, not through instruction, but through discovery."
Cahira smiled. “Congratulations,” pulling him to his feet into a tight hug.
in flexed his fingers, feeling the new energy settle within him. The sensation was unlike Lightning's crackling potency; Fusion brought a sustained warmth, a steady presence that complemented rather than mirrored his first element. It had taken him a year, but he had done it. His core was forming, not as a single element, but as something entirely new, a harmonious blend that was already more than the sum of its parts.
"It feels..." he searched for the right words, "...whole. Like a missing piece I didn't know was absent."
He felt different, not just in terms of power, but in perspective. The frustration that had driven him for months had transformed into something more valuable: understanding.
But he wasn't done yet.
He had mastered Lightning, embracing its direct and forceful nature.
He had finally grasped Fusion, learning the patience required for true integration.
Now, he had to understand Transfer, the most elusive of the three elements he had chosen for his cultivation path.
And something told him that would be an entirely new challenge.
As he looked at his everyone, their expressions told him they knew it too. Each element would teach him something different, not just about mana manipulation, but about himself. The path of cultivation was as much about inner growth as it was about external power.
"Tomorrow," he said, a new determination settling in him alongside the Fusion energy, "we begin work on Transfer."
Donovan laughed. "One night to celebrate your achievement, and then back to the struggle? You never change, do you?"
Fin smiled, the silver-blue energy dancing between his fingers. "On the contrary. I think I'm finally starting to."