Last but not least Elemental Manifestation of the Chaos element.
I kept that for last because to explain it correctly, I need to explain magic in general.
Generally a mage invocates an elemental spell with the help of chants or rune arrays.
Chanting a magic spell in the old language of magic is common practice for minor spells. The old language of magic is also called tongue of the gods or spirit language. Depending who you ask, it is a controversial topic that can end in a serious death match.
By chanting you use a lot of mana to activate the meaning behind the magic words you speak. It is the worst possible way to cast spells because you need to stick 100% to the invocation. The slightest nuance in spelling or tone frequency can disrupt the spell making it weaker and even more mana heavy.
Aside from the priests, paladins and the single word spells like "Frigiga" which means Fireball, or "Unsamosi" which means Icelance, the method of chanting is rarely used.
The main reason is that there are so few people that have enough knowledge about the language to understand new spells. That wasn't always the case, but legends have it that in ancient times a war among the dragon riders, who were the guardians of Magic, fought ginormous battles whileding the name of Magic blasphemous as a weapon against their own kin. The War lasted until the last Commander of the dragon rider sealed away the true name of magic, never to be used as a weapon ever again.
After the sacrificial sealing ritual of the last commander the dragon rider broke apart resulting in a massive decline in magical knowledge and practice. It became nearly irrelevant because so few were able to learn the language.
This changed after the great Avakus Hensen discovered the runes. He was an important person as he had paved the street we are walking on. Sadly until today no one has managed to enter his Inheritance side. Only corpses flow down the mountain, where his legacy is rumored to be. There is even a cult that has sworn to serve the one that manages to claim his legacy.
Don't think there aren't enough trial takers. The mountain kills them in the thousands every day, only their corpses are sent down to be buried. For those that want to try their luck the Maintain is on the continent Bucco inside the neutral territory controlled by the Temple of Runes.
If you are not brave or courageous enough to challenge the mountain you can always enter the temple and dedicate your life to the study of runes. Rumors say that runes are just the letters of the lost magical language. Unfortunately no one has been able to prove that yet. The Temple of Runes made it their prime objective to do so.
I don't know if it is a pro or a con argument that they aren't able to do so, even after 1500 Years. One might think that there's more to it.
The general belief is that runes are used to disrupt the laws of nature to your whim, producing the desired spell effect, and that Avakus Hensen was the one who created them. That on the other hand begs the question of how old Avakus Hensen had been or if he maybe is even still alive and that is the reason no one can claim his legacy. I know that strong mages can become old, after all Freddy is over 300 Years old. He is the oldest mage I know.
Rune spells are categorized in Ranks and levels. The basic fireball spell is a Rank 1 level 1 spell while the spell Firestorm is a Rank 4 Level 10 spell. The rank is determined by the number of Circles you need. and the level is the difficulty among this Rank.
It is also possible to strengthen a normal fireball spell with multiple circles, but that isn't common practice because instead of casting a Rank 2 or Rank 3 you could choose another more versatile and stronger spell from the higher ranks.
The strongest spell that was ever unleashed using Rune Magic was officially a Rank 9 spell. It was called Amagedoon and destroyed half an empire. It not only killed the caster, but it also erased every last bit of the mages research forever, robbing the world of the breakthroughs and knowledge this man had achieved throughout his life. It also transformed the Empire's Capital, together with the Army that was besieging it, into history. A perfect example of going off with a boom.
As you may have guessed The strongest official Spell is Rank 8 Level 6 It is called Stormbreaker and is a spell that is using lightning, Ice, Water, Wind, and Gravity magic runes. You might wonder why level 6 and not level 10 because making something more difficult isn't going to make it stronger. There are Rank 8 Level 10 spells that are impossible to cast and yet don't even scratch the power of Stormbreaker.
I should probably mention that Spells above Rank 6 are rarely used in normal fights and even on large scale battlefields Rank 6 Spells are only cast by groups of mages. Not only because they require massive amounts of mana and focus. They also have stringing elemental requirements. One mage would need too long to cast one alone even if they have all the aforementioned requirements.
Rune spells and rune magic is the most common casting method. It is also used in creating magical weapons and of course magical formations which are just permanent or semi-permanent magic spells.
Elemental Manifestation is the as the name suggests the direct manifestation of the element through your mana. Directly manifesting an elemental spell costs only a fraction of the mana, time and concentration then the corresponding array would need. The spells are also stronger generally speaking.
The array for a Rank 1 Level 1 Fireball will always create the same fireball, no matter if you cast it once or a hundred times. If you cast the spell per chant by using "Frigiga" the power will vary depending on your chanting. But with elemental Manifestation you can create a fireball of any strength you desire as long as you feed it mana.
In the Necron Empire is a famous saying. "Not every Elemental Manifestator is an S-Class Mage, but every S-Class Mage is an Elemental Manifestator."
The first magic lessons with the Headmaster, whose name is Archibald Stormheir, were not so funny for any of us. I think I don't need to say that our relationship was a burned corpse after the situation in Jasmine's tea room.
I nonetheless tried to learn as much as I could from him. After I listened to his words And the words he spoke in the old magic language I looked at him as if he wanted to trick me.
I don't want to speak ill of him but he was a bad teacher at least in my opinion. The way he explained chanting to me was very very crude. Even more crude than the explanation I gave you before. Before he skipped the topic in its entirety and started teaching us runes.
I learned more of the necessary runes from the books Hilda bought me then from his lessons. I only used him to confirm or negate suspicions about the findings in the books while he focused on teaching Esy everything about Lightning magic he could beat into her.
By the time he was teaching Esy the runes of light and darkness I had already finished 'Sun and Moon Cycle' from Gerond Fanatic, and 'The Might of Twilight'.
I was searching for a way to ask the headmaster about Chaos runes but I found no lead that I could use as excuse until the Headmaster Challenged me to a mock battle to see how far I have come.
I began to fight the way he was teaching us. I summoned array after array to invoke my spells. Fireballs and Icespears rained down on the Headmaster. Obviously he had no trouble defending against something on this level.
After I got tired of that I summoned the power of Chaos from inside my mana just like Jeremy did inside my dreams. A thin mist of gray matter appeared around me and the harmless Fireballs and weak Icespears evolved into another level.
The Headmaster who had been leisurely studying my progress was stupefied and only survived because even if my spells are manifested from the Chaos element they are still cast by a 14 year old magical novice. I wasn't even capable of harming the Headmasters Mana Ward. A semi circle like shield that he had erected before him to effectively study my spells.
"HOW?" was the next word that left his mouth.
"How what?" I decided to play dum, "Am I not doing what you are telling me to do? you told me to attack me with simple spells. After I started to cast the arrays I thought about how slow and inefficient that is, so I started to conjure the spells with my mana directly. It is faster and easier. Additionally I have total control over them even after I send them your way. Why should I continue to attack you with inferior spells?"
The headmaster was staring at me with an open mouth.
"Wait, that is an option?" Esy asked astonished, before she focused and a reddish white mist appeared around her. Fireballs and Icespears formed together with sparks of lightning and arrows of darkness.
Yes, Esy learned Elemental Manifestation after seeing me use it just once. My wife is a genius after all. It was also the day that the Headmaster insisted that I transcribe my life. If he hadn't told me that day. I would never have started.