Paragon of Destruction

Arran spent an entire month going through the thousands of Forms contained within the amulets, committing them to memory as best he could.

With the amulets safely in his possession, there wasn't any real need to do so — not when he could look up the information whenever he wanted. Yet after losing his supply of dragon meat, he had come to realize that he'd put too much faith in the void ring's protection.

Whether he carried it with him or hid it, there was always a risk that it could be damaged, lost, or stolen, its contents lost to him forever.

That was an unavoidable risk with material items, but for the Forms, he had one truly safe place to store them — his own mind. And if that meant spending an entire month memorizing the amulets' contents, the time it took was well worth it.

But unfortunately, memorizing the instructions was a very different thing from truly learning the Forms.

Arran could only guess how long it would take to master them, but he was certain that it would be a matter of decades rather than years. And that was if he devoted all his time to his studies.

If he'd had the time, that was exactly what he would have done — go into secluded training for several decades, and emerge with enough power to match even the strongest Archmages.

Yet with the Ninth Valley and the Hunters slowly moving toward war, that wasn't an option. Some years might still remain before the two groups truly went to war, but Arran would spend those years infiltrating the Darian Imperium.

That meant he would have little time to study the Forms. He'd have to perform his studies in secret, using Shadow Essence to practice whenever there was no one around with the power to detect it.

Dangerous though it would be, Arran was confident that it was possible. With his skill in wards and his sword's Sense to protect him from unwanted observers, he should be able to practice unseen even amid the ranks of his enemies.

But what wasn't possible was to study all the Forms. Not with the limited time he would have available to devote to the task.

Instead, he would have to make a selection.

He could not study thousands of Forms, but a hundred or so should be doable. With that, he would be able to cover all the elements of two or three spells.

It was nowhere near enough to make him a truly powerful mage, but it would suffice to make him a far more dangerous fighter than he already was, while also preparing him for studying the remaining Forms.

Deciding which spells to choose wasn't difficult. Even as Arran asked himself the question, he knew the first spell to pick — Shadowcloak.

Already, it was a tool that made him all but invincible to those who could not see through it. And imbued with insights, it would become stronger still, allowing him to strike even powerful enemies at will.

Just the thought was enough to fill him with excitement.

He got to work at once, trying to deconstruct the complex spell into its many components. This was no simple task, but with the stripped-down versions of Anthea's Forms he'd learned from the memory amulet, he knew it was possible.

Arran now understood that these weren't real Forms. Rather, they served as a step between spells and the — much smaller — true Forms, making it easier to break down spells or construct new ones.

He spent well over a week analyzing and breaking down the Shadowcloak spell, and although his efforts were successful, the excitement he'd felt soon died down, making way for disappointment.

Shadowcloak was the most complex spell he knew, but as he discovered, this complexity meant that it required nearly a thousand Forms — far too much to learn in a reasonable amount of time.

With a sigh, he abandoned Shadowcloak and moved to his other spells, hoping he'd have more luck there.

It wasn't long before he discovered that both Shadowflame and Flamestrike were out of reach, as well. While simpler than Shadowcloak, they would still require him to learn hundreds of Forms.

Windblade was another matter, however. It was one of the simplest spells he knew, and as he broke it down into Forms, he made a discovery that brought a wide smile to his face.

The Windblade spell only required a few dozen Forms, and the very last of these was the one that contained an insight into severing — one of Arran's two true insights.

While he could not be certain, he strongly suspected that once he learned the other Forms needed, his true insight would make the spell far more powerful than it had any right to be.

Just the suspicion was enough for him to choose the spell, and he carefully noted all the Forms he'd need to practice.

Once he finished, the choice for a second spell was a simple matter. With his first pick an offensive spell, the second would have to be a defensive one. And while he'd learned more spells in the Ninth Valley, the defensive spell he knew best was Force Shield.

When he broke it down into Forms, he was relieved to see it didn't involve too many elements — just under a hundred, a handful of them already among the Forms he'd need to learn for Windblade.

In all, that meant he would need to learn slightly over a hundred Forms. That was still a daunting task, but he thought it was something he could manage.

Yet when he finished noting the collection of Forms he'd have to learn, another thought came to him.

Long ago, Master Zhao had taught him a technique to draw Essence from Realms. It wasn't a spell exactly, but it was close enough to one that Arran found himself wondering whether it could be broken down into Forms.

If it could, the benefits would be immeasurable. The technique allowed him to recover his Essence just slightly faster than it would by itself, but imbued with insights, it would be far stronger.

That would not only help Arran in combat, but also give him a path toward becoming a Master in all his Realms, rather than just Shadow. And perhaps, it would allow him to progress even further.

Again, he set to work, and in just a few hours he'd broken down the technique into Forms. It was far simpler than the spells he'd analyzed, and he was pleased to see that it required only a dozen Forms.

He carefully noted these Forms as well, then finally returned the memory amulets to his void rings. After that, he breathed a deep sigh of relief.

He was ready.

The Forms he'd selected would take years of practice before yielding any real results, but he now had a path forward.

As he infiltrated the Hunters, he would study the Forms whenever he could. He would grow his strength in secret, and when the time came to leave, there would be few who could stand in his way.

His body had mostly recovered, too. The time he'd spent in the forest had been enough to regain all but a sliver of his past strength, and although it would take more time to reach his previous peak, the difference was negligible.

Of course, he would have preferred to spend another few months — or years — in the forest, to focus all his efforts on studying the Forms. But there wasn't time for that. Not with war between the Hunters and the Ninth Valley on the horizon.

As it was, he'd done all he could.

He had learned the Shadowflame spell, studied Brightblade's wards, and found the Forms. And in the process, he'd accidentally become a Master and discovered a weapon that should shock even Archmages.

It was everything he'd set out to do, and a great deal more besides. But now, it was time to face his final task — to travel into the Hunters' lands and infiltrate their ranks.

He did not leave immediately, however. Instead, he spent several days doing little but rest and eat, preparing himself for the journey to come.

He also took the time to absorb a number of the large Essence Crystals he'd found in the underground city, sharing half of them with his sword. There would be little chance for that once he reached the Hunters' lands, and absorbing the purified Essence might give him some slight help in practicing the Forms.

Then, finally, he retrieved Brightblade's map from his void ring.

A brief search was enough to find what he needed — a large town named Esran, barely two weeks from the forest and right on the edge of the border.

If his guess was correct, there would be other travelers bound for the Hunters' lands in such a town, which should help him in avoiding unwanted attention. Mixed in with the commoners, a rough-looking mercenary would barely stand out.

He gave the map a final brief inspection, then put it away. His destination clear, the only thing that remained now was to go there.