“First off, let’s start with what you already know. Lilith is the goddess of demons, but she is also the goddess of fire and shadow. These two elements are the cornerstone of her very being and thus they are the cornerstones of her divine realm.”

  Milo nodded and like the good student he was asked the natural follow up question, one he feared he already knew the answer to.

  “And what is this realm called?”

  “Hell.”

  Milo groaned, he’d feared as much, and frankly he wasn’t surprised after what little he’d seen of this realm so far. Every building he had seen so far had been made out of some sort of black steel and what he thought might be onyx. He’d also caught a brief glimpse of the landscape surrounding Lilith’s castle and it had looked dark and desolate.

  Seti didn’t look pleased with his reaction.

  “Hell’s negative traits has been vastly exaggerated by a certain divine faction whom we share a mortal domain with. I assure you it is not a place where the damned go to suffer for eternity.”

  “Really? It looks pretty dark and desolate to me.”

  Seti’s eyes narrowed before closing. The man mumbled a few words and a few seconds later a mirror similar to the one Lilith had created earlier appeared at his side. Only this mirror was not reflective, instead it showed what looked like a panorama view from what Milo guessed was a mountain top. The surrounding landscape was indeed dark and desolate, but there was also some light, mainly coming from rivers of magma than ran through the landscape. Seti clearly expected Milo to be impressed by what he thought was the beauty of his birth realm. He decided to humour his new teacher, after all the man was going to teach him magic.

  “Very pretty.”

  Seti snorted and the mirror spell vanished. His teacher turned back to the board and continued his lecture.

  “As I was saying, fire and shadow are the elements which sustain this realm. By crossing humans with demon blood Lilith was able to grant her new children the hybrids access to these elements.”

  “Demons can’t do magic?”

  “Most can’t, in fact only one demon knows how to access the elements of Lilith’s realm and that creature is kept locked away under this very castle, only to be released if all else fails.”

  “That sounds ominous…”

  “Indeed, anyway as I was saying, Hybrids can access the elements of Lilith’s realm but even for us it usually takes years of practise to gain access to even the simplest of elemental spells.”

  “I don’t have years.”

  “Indeed, and were you a normal student and I a normal teacher that might be a problem. But unlike a regular hybrid your body is already attuned to the elements, in theory all we have to do is teach you the mental discipline needed to access the power your body already contains.”

  “That sounds good, but I have a request if I may?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “During my duel with Nero he used some sort of strength enhancement magic. That’s what I want, I don’t care about flaming swords, I want access to strength or speed enhancement magic.”

  Seti looked him up and down and then shook his head with annoyance.

  “I should have expected this, you know nothing and therefore make requests you do not truly understand.”

  It was starting to dawn on Milo that he might have said something stupid. He kept silent hoping that Seti would elaborate, fortunately his new teacher was more than happy to indulge the ignorance of his sole student.

  “First of all, the flaming sword as you call it is one of the first spells every warriors of Lilith learns. It might look like just a flaming sword to you but it is so much more than that. There are nearly a hundred elements and each have their own weaknesses and strength. Now as for fire that element is strong against ice, wood and in some cases death. Let’s assume that you are facing a minion of Leaondrius the god winter, his followers use ice magic to form their defensive spells, including shields. What do you think happens if you ram a regular unenchanted blade into a block of ice?”

  “Nothing?”

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  Seti smiled as if he had just said something profound.

  “Exactly, now what do you think happens if Nero does the same with his flaming sword?”

  Again, the answer was obvious, and Milo didn’t feel particularly clever voicing it.

  “It gets obliterated?”

  Judging by the smile on Seti’s face the man was clearly used to dealing with mediocre pupils.

  “Correct, as for your request and the reason it was stupid. Compared to lighting your sword on fire with the fire element, body enhancement magic requires the use of both fire and shadow simultaneously. The spell is very powerful in the hands of a warrior like Nero but it is also difficult and expensive to maintain. Nero is thousands of years old, he has had an ocean of time in which to learn elemental magic and practise it. And even with all that time he can barely maintain the body enhancement spell and the sword of fire spell at the same time.”

  Milo nodded, Seti’s words made sense, it looked like he would have to start at the bottom and work his way up to the good stuff.

  “Very well, please teach me the sword of fire spell…”

  Seti nodded and then went back to his blackboard and started drawing. Milo expected him to write instructions instead he was drawing images of a body and what was obviously the fire element. He studied the pictures and even without Seti saying a word he thought he got the gist of it.

  “You want me to focus my mind on the fire element and then will it to manifest around my sword?”

  This time Seti’s smile was genuine.

  “Correct, elemental magic is all about mental discipline and visualisation. This is why one of the main training exercises for elementalists is meditation.”

  Meditation was hardly a new concept to him, he would often be engaged in pre match meditation when Dave came to fetch him for the match. He also had habit of running scenarios in his mind while developing plans for a new opponent. He was certainly no master of the art, but neither was he starting from scratch. Milo pointed his sword into the air and then closed his eyes and did his best to follow Seti’s instructions.

  It didn’t take long to realise that something had changed drastically within him. He’d barely finished visualising the flame sword spell he’d seen Nero use when he felt something in his chest respond. He tried make a mental link between the feeling in his chest and the visualised spell and then opened his eyes.

  Wisps of fire had already coiled around half the blade and it was only when he opened his eyes and broke his concentration that they vanished. He looked over at Seti and saw that the hybrid was openly gaping at him. He sounded shaken when he next spoke.

  “H-How?”

  Milo thought back to feeling in his chest and quickly came up with a theory.

  “I think I’m cheating, you said that you are drawing upon the elements of Lilith’s realm to cast spells, I assume that means you are drawing fire and shadow into your body before using it?”

  “Yes…”

  “Well, I’m clearly skipping that step since both elements are already present inside my body, actually it felt really responsive, almost as if the elements are eager to obey me.”

  Seti looked deep in thought and nearly half a minute went by before he spoke again.

  “My mother would not let anyone but Lily inside the throne room while she was working on your body. Did she tell you what she did?”

  Milo thought back to the minutes after his rebirth.

  “She almost collapsed, and she said something about using spirit essence, so much of it that it would’ve left her realm open to attack if not for the peace.”

  A look of realisation dawned on Seti’s face.

  “She must have dumped the war reserves into your creation, and with that much spirit essence at her hands…”

  “What do you think she did?”

  Seti hesitated for a moment before shrugging.

  “Only my mother truly knows, but I suspect that you will discover more than a few hidden talents before the contest is over.”

  “Any hints?”

  “Right now, your body is brand new and so therefore it’s ability to channel the elements is still weak. After all it takes years of repeated usage for the body to adapt. My suspicion is that once your body adapts you will be able to channel more power more often than any other elementalist beside Lilith herself.”

  “Even you?”

  Seti shrugged.

  “Quantity is not the same as quality when it comes to channelling elements, but yes you will probably be able to channel more powerful spells more often than even me. Of course that will likely take years, but my expectations for this training week have now increased greatly. Let’s continue with the flame sword spell, and once you have mastered it, we will move onto something far more important.”

  Judging by the cunning look in Seti’s eye the man was clearly planning something big.

  With a shrug Milo closed his eyes and once again channelled the power within him into the sword. This time he waited until the power was flowing in a steady stream out of him before opening his eyes again. When he opened them again, he was looking at a flaming sword.

  Seti merely shook his head with a bemused look on his face and walked back to the blackboard. His teacher waved his hand across the board erasing all the old images and then began to draw again. This time the process took far longer, and Seti eventually had to fetch a second blackboard to finish up all the drawings. In the end Milo found himself looking at a series of drawing starting with what looked like a copy of him right now and ending in some sort of giant stone demon. Compared to the flaming sword this looked a hundred times more complex, which also probably meant it was much more useful.

  He pointed at the final image.

  “What is that?”

  “That my pupil is the final spell variation of the metamorphosis spell.”

  The explanation only served to confuse him.

  “Wait, I thought all the hybrids directly born or created by Lilith have the ability to undergo metamorphosis as some sort of ability, but it’s a spell?”

  Seti shook his head and then took a few steps forward before suddenly disrobing. Milo was about to ask the hybrid why he was stripping when Seti’s entire body began to change. Scales crept down his arms and legs and a long-spiked tail grew from his back. A pair of uneven small horns grew from his forehead. When Seti spoke, his voice was deeper.

  “This is how I look in my demon form, it is not as pure as Lilith’s and I can only hold it for about 30 minutes, but it is still incredibly powerful.”

  Just as he finished speaking the scales, tail and horns all vanished into wisps of black smoke. Seti then closed his eyes and a few seconds later tendrils of shadow and flame coiled around every part of his body. The elemental magic slowly began to solidify into some sort of exoskeleton. By the time Seti was finished his entire body including his head was covered by a layer of what looked like a mix of onyx and volcanic stone. He had no tail, wings or horns, but he did have clawed hands with fingers as long as daggers. This time when he spoke his voice sounded muffled as if coming from behind a helmet.

  “This is the metamorphosis spell, it was designed long ago and was intended to give regular hybrids a taste of the power those of us with access to real metamorphosis have.”

  Milo rose from his seat and walked over to Seti, he began studying every part and angle of the exoskeleton. Next, he grabbed his sword and made a few weak slashes into Seti’s arm. The hybrid didn’t react at all upon being attacked so Milo kept going, increasing the power behind his blows. In the end he had to put nearly all the power of his new form behind his attack to hack off a piece of the exoskeleton. He lowered his sword and spoke in a voice of wonder.

  “This is incredible, that exoskeleton covering you is stronger than steel.”

  Seti reached out and put his left hand beneath one of the heavy wooden desks Milo had been using to study on. He easily lifted the desk off the ground with only one hand.

  “Tougher than steel and nearly as strong as Nero with a body enhancement spell. Also look at the joints of this exoskeleton.”

  Milo did as asked and immediately noticed that the material in the joints seemed to transition between liquid and solid every time Seti moved.

  “Amazing… the vulnerable parts of your exoskeleton are only vulnerable when they are in motion. A warrior who knew how to incorporate that advantage into his fighting style would be nearly unstoppable.”

  Seti let the spell dissolve into wisps of fire and shadow. The horned helmet vanished to reveal Seti wearing a feral smile.

  “Good thing we’ve got one of those right here in this room then.”