Cypher had spent the majority of his time after leaving the Academy training his body, mind, and Orrium, as well as raising Spark. The Ceraunus had grown quickly and just as his father had said, in sync with Cypher’s own growth.
The Zightbeast, Spark, had grown to be taller than Cypher and was heavily muscled. Its four paws were thick and each one held a set of wickedly sharp retractable claws. Its head alone was almost bigger than Cypher’s whole body had been as a child, and its pointed horns were as long as each of his legs were now and curved up towards its back.
It was extremely fast as well and could cover vast stretches of ground in no time. Cypher had estimated that it could run all the way from Seven City to the Academy in less than three hours and it was even faster than Cypher was when he used his full speed. It was also a lot smarter now that it had grown up, and could understand the common language Cypher spoke, as well as even communicate in broken sentences.
Both of them were at the peak of the first rank, and their power was quite impressive on its own, but when paired together they were unstoppable against anything at or below their level. Together they could even handle proper rank two Conductors and even pose a small threat to newly advanced Rank-Three Zightbeasts.
Cypher however had evened out a lot compared to his youth. Back when he was twelve, he could cast at the third rank in triplicate, and it went without saying that that kind of power was ridiculous for a child his age. But he had lacked the proper control and understanding that came with such power.
In these five years, he had solved that issue. He now knew the full capabilities of his powers and abilities. On top of that, he had increased the number of spells in his arsenal by quite a lot thanks to the many scrolls and techniques his parents had left behind. Various spells in all fields of Magick were now at his disposal and his knowledge of those fields had increased dramatically as well.
Alvin had been a crucial part of his self-taught education during these years spent alone. The man had often ferried study guides to him that gave him a balanced and well-rounded education. He had also shown him how to properly use the various training chambers located inside the house to their fullest potential.
He found that not only did the Illusory Zightbeast chamber spawn beasts of various ranks but also Conductors as well. They were of course hollow mindless shells, but their attack and defensive capabilities were very real. That room was more than capable of killing him if he grew complacent or careless and through it, he had managed to improve all across the board.
Enemies both within his ability to defeat, as well as tough opponents that posed a serious threat to his life, were all generated by the chamber thanks to Alvin’s advice. Through those struggles, he had come a long way and increased his battle potency by leaps and bounds.
Even Glenda had shown up whenever she had free time to instruct him further in the ways of combat and battle pressure, for a reasonable price of course. Glenda made sure to bleed him dry for every Lumen she could. Wealth was useless to Cypher though, at least in terms of hoarding it for no reason, so he didn’t mind paying her hefty ‘instruction’ fees. Her lessons were invaluable to him and he was grateful to have a private instructor even if she was being a bit greedy.
All things considered, he never would have come this far without their help and the fruits of his training had paid off.
When he had advanced his Orrium to the first rank, he found that he could cast up to the fourth rank in duplicate, another impressive feat to be sure, and on top of that, he had managed to skip the liquid stage and started off at the solid stage of the first rank.
This was the most impressive feat given his age. Right now his Orrium was well within the first rank and was at the peak of the solid stage and nearing a breakthrough into the plasma stage. The sheer amount and quality of his Zight allowed him to cast his original lightning bolt spell several hundred times at the first rank and ten times at the third rank. The fourth rank was a bit more tricky and required all of his Zight in order to even cast spells of that level more than once.
However, after his mind and body had also broken into the first rank, his power stopped improving so quickly. He found that he could still cast above his current level, but only in triplicate up to the fourth rank. That ability was still quite impressive, and given his new arsenal of spells and abilities, his power was more than sufficient for him to hold his own against even Rank-Three Conductors.
His body was in the upper tier of the first rank and could withstand amazing amounts of stress and damage before it would finally give out compared to before. He could withstand direct blows from everything below his rank and remain unharmed, and that was to say nothing of his new mastery of the Zight Stanza and his control over his energy reserves.
The only center of power that was lagging behind a bit was his mind. It was much harder to train and hovered around the middle tier of the first rank. His Athenaeum had expanded and become quite impressive in the process. It contained a few more rooms and he could think much clearer and faster than in the past. Mastering new concepts and memorizing more knowledge only came all the quicker as the mind had advanced, and he now knew over a dozen spells.
Along the way, he had chosen to switch from swords to sabers. This was for two reasons. The first was that while swords were quite good with their double-edged blades and stabbing power, they were firm, rigid, and lacked flexibility. Weight was no issue given his powerful body, but a sword just seemed not to suit him anymore.
It was true that the differences between a sword and a saber were hardly distinguishable, but there was more of a difference than in just aesthetics if one knew what they were doing.
The second reason was that his father had used a saber during his journey and Cypher wished to follow in his footsteps and continue that legacy. He also now exclusively used his father’s old saber, which was quite amazing in its own right.
It seemed to match the level of whoever used it and it also only allowed someone of the Ceraunus bloodline to use it. If anyone else tried to wield it the saber would unleash its full potential which sounded good on paper, however, at its full potential it weighed several thousand tons and Alvin had found it quite impossible to lift it, even using all of his might.
In any event, given his current abilities, Cypher was sure that he could hold his own against Glenda and even overpower her if she limited herself to the second rank like before, which always brought a smile to his face. He could imagine the stream of curses she would let out once he bested her in combat.
Although, those were only his thoughts when comparing himself to how Alvin and Glenda were when he was still a child. Alvin hadn’t improved much in those years. Cypher had met with him several times during his solitary training period and each time Cypher had grown stronger while Alvin remained the same.
Glenda was a battle maniac and was always seeking to improve her power. Because of that, Cypher knew that she had improved over the years as well and could quite possibly already be in the fourth rank. He wasn’t overly eager to test himself against her but it was still fun for him to think about. She had been awfully busy during the last two years and so he hadn’t had a chance to test himself against her in recent memory.
All of this meant that he wasn’t the same Conductor in training he had been when he left the Academy five years ago. As it was now, he could probably get hired on as a professor of some kind despite only being seventeen. His education on other matters besides Conduction hadn’t been neglected either in those years of solitude. The library his parents had left for him contained much knowledge about the world and the art of Conduction.
The library held extensive knowledge of each field of magick and even contained forbidden knowledge about Retvial magick. Cypher had been eager to learn all he could, but he figured it would be better to simply follow the curriculum Alvin had laid out for him and branch out from there.
As a result, his education was fairly complete according to Alvin and would have enabled him to graduate early if he was still attending classes. At this point, all he really needed to do was advance his centers of power. Of course, he had gained much knowledge about the world and its workings as well. History, Art, Sciences, Math, all of these things were crucial for a young Conductor and he soaked up as much knowledge as he could.
As he was now, Cypher had fully grown into himself and his abilities and was truly a force to be reckoned with. That being the case, Cypher still found the prospect of returning to the Academy after all these years somewhat of a difficult pill to swallow. He almost felt ashamed in returning to those halls after turning his back on that opportunity.
Alvin spent most of his time there, and if Cypher was to talk with him and take him up on his offer, he’d have to go there and meet Alvin in person. Of course, right now it was almost the end of summer and the students had all returned home while the next year’s curriculum was established. This made it a bit easier for Cypher, since he wouldn’t accidentally run into Alex or Melodi during his time there.
Dodging them around Seven City had been hard enough, and while the two didn’t even know he was there, Cypher remained cautious whenever he would leave his home for anything. He wasn’t looking forward to going back to the Academy, but he had no other choice.
After donning a light set of leather armor, a hooded cloak, and patting his saber fondly as he secured it to his belt, he headed out towards the Slingate and stepped through onto Academy grounds for the first time in five years.
