My eyes open to a familiar sight. The same two faces are looking down at me, smirking. I’m lying on the cold stone floor of the temple once again.

  “Aww… poor Valk. How many times is that? 6?” The blond woman giggles as she asks a question she damn well knows the answer to.

  “Hey, Selene come on… don’t make fun of him. He can’t help it.” A handsome brown-haired man scolds her but a playful smile appears on his face as he continues, “What he’s trying to do is both stupid and difficult. Mostly stupid, though.”

  These two scoundrels are called Selene and John. Seemingly, they have nothing better to do today but wait around at the Temple of Light to make fun of me.

  I spring up from the ground, making sure to headbutt John on the way up. I have a much harder head than he does. Diamond-head Valk is one of my nicknames. I’m not very proud of this nickname, but I have worse titles attached to me.

  Holding his bleeding forehead, he screams, “Ow! You bastard!”

  “Haha! You never learn you idiot Paladin! That’s the third time today.”

  Cackling, I sprint out of the temple before John can exact his revenge. I throw a bag of coins at the priestess before leaving, paying for the healing I just received for the sixth time today.

  Behind me I hear Selene laugh and say, “Hey, idiot Paladin, pay up. You bet he could do it in the first six tries.”

  Once I’m outside the temple, I pull out a teleportation scroll and use it. The destination? The Barren Northlands.

  Why there? Well, I need a lot of space to perfect the spell I just invented. It doesn’t even have a finalized name yet. I’m trying to become the first person in history to mix two elements in a God-class spell. The fact that no one’s done it before doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

  A lot of people did think it was stupid when I started my research on it… but I’ve theorized about the topic for a long time, and it should work out.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  As it stands, I can only attempt the new spell 7 times today. That’s because my life-saving magic can only be used 7 times a month. Yup, I only have one use left for this month. But it’s worth it, I promise. This God-class spell is pretty cool if I do say so myself. I mean… I haven’t actually seen it work yet, but it should be cool. If it would just stop backfiring right before activation, everything would be great.

  I learned a lot from my last six attempts, so this time should work for sure.

  With a flash of light, I find myself in the empty wilderness. An enormous mountain range can be seen in the distance stretching out as far as the eye can see. Six gigantic craters are spread out on the otherwise vacant landscape.

  Those were there before I started. (No, he made those.)

  A strong breeze whips my silver hair around and forces me to squint as it kicks up dust.

  Repeatedly using a short-range teleport, Blink, I move away from those nature-made craters. I find some nice, flat ground a good distance away.

  I take a deep breath and replenish my mana. Once it's full again, I focus, and begin the incantation.

  “Hell’s fire brings darkness,

  Heaven’s thunder brings light…”

  The clear blue sky quickly becomes filled with black clouds. Lightning dances in the heavens as I continue to chant a newly modified version of the incantation.

  One complaint I have about this spell is that the incantation is too long. 64 lines total! That’s how long it is! What kind of enemy is going to wait for me to finish casting this thing? The first thing on my to-do list after mastering this spell is to figure out how to do a Cast Shortening on it.

  As I finish the chant, I yell out the placeholder name, “Hell-thunder Annihilation: Cleansing Flame”

  9 huge, pure-black bolts of lightning descend with unbelievable speed. They decimate a wide area of the ground when they crash into the earth. The lightning falls 7 times, with 9 enormous bolts of black lightning raining down each time. At the same time, 18 pillars of white flame erupt from the ground. As they sweep through the wasteland, they leave devastation in their wake.

  As soon as the last round of lightning crashes to the ground, the pillars of white flame dissipate into nothingness. The black clouds disappear, and the world regains its calm.

  The ground in front of me for at least a mile is completely destroyed.

  I crouch down weakly, having expended all of my mana. I fall to my back and raise my hand to the sky. I start grinning as I clench my fist in excitement at seeing my hard work finally bear fruit. Just in time too. War is on the horizon.

  “Haha, that was pretty cool.”