Chapter 196: Unexplained Phenomenon

(That night, Riven’s POV, House Argent Dormitories)

*KABOOM*

*RAIN DROPS HITTING ROOFTOP*

Unexpected rainfall suddenly settled over the Imperial Academy, as despite having clear skies during the evening, a violent thunderstorm suddenly settled in during the night.

Despite having a tiring day, somehow, sleep eluded Riven still as he twisted beneath his blanket for what felt like the hundredth time.

’This is useless....’

He thought before opening his eyes again, as he stared irritably towards the ceiling as another distant rumble of thunder rolled across the Academy.

Every inch of his body ached in pain, while his eyes felt heavier than usual.

By every reasonable measure, he should have been asleep.

Yet nearly an hour after climbing into bed, Riven remained completely awake.

’Yep, I’m not going to be able to sleep anytime soon.’

He concluded, as he threw the blanket aside.

’If sleep isn’t finding me anyway, I might as well train.’

Missing one night of sleep was hardly going to kill him, and considering how slowly his [Lightning Step] was progressing, Riven knew that he could certainly make better use of the hours than lying inside his bed staring at the ceiling.

So, he quickly changed into his training clothes, retrieved his spell tome and quietly left his room.

.

.

The training grounds were completely deserted by the time Riven reached them, as even the occasional late-night trainers had been driven indoors by the worsening storm.

Rain poured across the open training field in thick sheets, soaking through Riven’s clothes within moments as he stepped beyond the covered entrance and walked towards the center of the grounds.

*KABOOM*

Thunder rumbled somewhere overhead, although Riven ignored it as he stretched his muscles and shook away whatever lingering drowsiness remained before beginning his practice of [Lightning Step].

He knew exactly what he was supposed to do, from steadying his breathing and coiling the muscles within his legs to circulating Storm Aether through the prescribed pathways before releasing it alongside his first movement.

Once that initial step was complete, he needed to maintain the circulation while connecting each subsequent movement, allowing the gathered Storm Aether to propel him forward without permitting the flow to collapse.

The instructions themselves were simple enough to remember and considerably harder to perform, as despite knowing exactly what he needed to do, Riven had repeatedly failed to achieve the desired result.

’Patience...’

He reminded himself as he inhaled slowly, drawing Storm Aether from his Soul Vessel and directing it through the prescribed pathways while the muscles throughout his legs gradually tightened beneath him.

Then he moved, shooting forward nearly two meters with an explosive first step before his circulation immediately collapsed, forcing him to complete the next two movements at ordinary speed.

"Again."

Riven returned to his starting position, steadied his breathing and repeated the process, only for another explosive first step to end with the same failed connection.

He tried again, adjusting his breathing before the next attempt, although the circulation collapsed before he could properly connect the second step.

Another attempt followed as he changed the timing of his release, yet the result remained the same, while concentrating more carefully upon maintaining the flow after the initial burst accomplished little beyond delaying the inevitable collapse.

Rain continued pouring across the training grounds as Riven persisted, while lightning occasionally tore through the clouds overhead and illuminated the field for brief moments before darkness swallowed everything once more.

Again and again he repeated the technique, experimenting with small adjustments while refusing to abandon the circulation pattern described within the spell tome.

Minutes gradually became an hour, although Riven barely noticed the passage of time beneath the increasingly violent storm, as every attempt continued producing the same frustrating result.

His first step was becoming considerably faster, yet the moment he tried connecting it into the second, the circulation broke apart and reduced the remainder of the technique to ordinary movement.

No matter how carefully he followed the instructions, he simply could not maintain the flow long enough to complete [Lightning Step] properly.

Eventually, however, the exhaustion accumulated throughout the day began catching up with him, as his breathing grew heavier and the strength within his already aching legs gradually disappeared.

Riven forced himself through one final attempt before his legs finally gave beneath him, leaving him kneeling upon the soaked training ground with both hands pressed against the wet stone.

His chest rose and fell heavily.

Water streamed from his hair and ran across his face, while the rain striking his back had grown so heavy that he could barely distinguish individual droplets anymore.

For several moments, Riven simply remained there alone, knowing that nobody from House Argent was watching him, there was no Duke Drew Dawnriver to impress and no Circuit nearby to bear witness to his struggle.

And yet, despite knowing that there was nobody around to see him, Riven still felt as though a million invisible eyes were watching him.

’It’s so difficult...’

His fingers tightened against the wet stone as the thought finally surfaced without anyone around to hear it.

’I don’t want to work this hard.’

The admission felt almost shameful, although with nobody around to judge him for it, Riven finally allowed himself to acknowledge what he truly felt.

Truth was, he did not want to be out here training in the storm.

If given a choice, he wanted to stand up, return to his room and sleep, so that he could wake up tomorrow without his muscles already aching before Mike’s class.

For once, he wanted to tell himself that becoming stronger could wait until tomorrow.

’But I can’t...’

Riven slowly raised his head as rain continued streaming down his face.

’If I don’t improve soon, the walls will close in around me.

There are many who want nothing more than to see me fail.’

He reminded himself of the dozens of crabs inside the Imperial Academy waiting for the slightest opportunity to drag him down and tear the reputation he had carefully built so far.

’Riven Dawnriver is not a weakling, and if I’m ever made out to be one, that’s the end of my life as a Ducal heir.’

His breathing gradually steadied as he forced himself to accept the simple reality that had followed him ever since he assumed the Dawnriver name.

’If I want to continue living as Riven Dawnriver, then I have to work for it.’

Planting one foot firmly against the ground, Riven forced his exhausted body upright while rain continued hammering against him and another enormous flash of lightning spread between the clouds overhead.

For several seconds, he simply stared towards the storm before making himself a quiet promise.

’I will master Storm someday.’

Lowering his gaze, Riven returned to his stance.

’One more attempt...’

He steadied his breathing and coiled the muscles within his legs as Storm Aether flowed from his Soul Vessel once again, travelling downward while he attempted to reproduce the exact circulation described within [Lightning Step].

Except this time, something felt different.

The Storm Aether circulating through his body suddenly stirred as an unfamiliar tingling sensation spread throughout his muscles, causing Riven’s concentration to falter for a fraction of a second.

’Huh?’

He wondered, feeling something amiss, and yet, before he could understand what was happening, the energy coursing through him seemed to react to something far beyond his body.

*KABOOM!*

His world turned white, as for one impossible instant, he felt as though something had passed directly through his entire body, bringing no pain whatsoever, but rather an overwhelming tingling sensation that spread from the top of his head to the ends of his toes as every muscle within him seemed to contract simultaneously.

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the sensation disappeared.

Riven remained completely still as his vision gradually returned, with his heart hammering violently against his chest while the deafening crack of thunder continued ringing inside his ears.

’What...’

Steam surrounded him.

Riven stared down at his hands and immediately noticed that the water covering his skin moments earlier had disappeared, while thin streams of vapor rose continuously from his arms and shoulders.

His clothes remained damp from the rain, although the water directly against his body appeared to have evaporated, while even his hair, which had been plastered against his forehead moments earlier, was suddenly almost completely dry.

’What the hell just happened?’

Riven immediately examined his arms before running his hands across his chest and shoulders, searching for burns or any other injury that might explain what he had just experienced.

Yet despite the faint tingling sensation lingering beneath his skin, there were no burns, wounds or traces of pain anywhere across his body, while even his legs felt completely normal.

’Did lightning actually hit me?’

The thought sounded absurd, as if a bolt of lightning had genuinely struck him, Riven had no idea how he was still standing without so much as a burn upon his body.

Yet the steam rising from his skin suggested that something had certainly happened.

’Maybe it struck nearby.’

That explanation made far more sense.

The flash had blinded him, the thunder had disoriented him, and in the confusion his exhausted mind had somehow convinced him that the lightning had passed directly through his body.

Riven checked himself once more, turning his hands over and examining his arms before touching his face and neck, although everything appeared completely normal.

Gradually, his racing heartbeat began to slow.

’Nothing happened.’

Riven exhaled heavily before finally lifting his head, only for his expression to immediately stiffen as he realized that something about his surroundings was terribly wrong.

The covered entrance to the training grounds was nowhere near him.

For several seconds, Riven simply stared towards it in confusion, as the shelter from where he had entered should have been only a few meters behind him.

Instead, it was nearly hundered meters away.

’Wait a second...’

Riven slowly looked over his shoulder and found the far wall of the Argent training grounds directly behind him, before turning back towards the distant shelter and finally glancing at the ground beneath his feet.

’How the hell did I get to this end of the training ground?’

Whatever exhaustion he had been feeling disappeared beneath a sudden rush of confusion, as before the flash, Riven had unquestionably been standing near the entrance.

He remembered positioning his feet, beginning the circulation and looking towards the training ground ahead of him with absolute clarity, before lightning suddenly filled his vision and erased everything that followed.

And now, somehow, he was standing nearly hundered meters away.

’Did I finally use [Lightning Step]?’

For a brief moment, excitement overwhelmed his confusion, although the possibility stopped making sense almost as soon as it entered his mind.

[Lightning Step] was not supposed to carry him anywhere close to hundred meters, and even if he had somehow executed the technique perfectly for the first time, there should have been several connecting steps between his starting position and where he currently stood.

Yet Riven remembered none of them.

There was simply a missing instant between the moment his vision turned white and the moment his senses returned, with absolutely nothing inside his memory explaining how he had crossed the enormous distance between those two points.

Looking down at his legs, Riven found nothing unusual there either, while the Storm Aether remaining within his Soul Vessel offered little explanation, as he had already spent so much throughout the night’s training that he could no longer tell exactly how much the final attempt had consumed.

Another flash of lightning spread across the clouds, causing Riven to instinctively look upward as the storm suddenly felt far more significant than the meaningless weather he had been ignoring throughout his training.

Something had happened.

Whether the lightning had struck him, whether he had somehow completed [Lightning Step] at the exact same moment, or whether his Storm Aether had reacted to the thunderstorm itself, Riven could not tell.

All he knew for certain was that moments earlier he had been standing near the entrance of the training grounds, while now nearly one hundred meters separated him from the place where he remembered beginning his final attempt.

Rain gradually began soaking through his hair once again as Riven continued staring towards the distant shelter, searching his memory for an explanation that simply did not exist.

For once, his photographic memory offered him absolutely nothing.

He could perfectly remember everything before the flash and everything that followed it, yet between those two moments, there was only an empty field of white.

’What the hell did I just do?’