The perspective was dizzyingly fast, gliding low over the ndscape before shooting skyward in the blink of ahe ground receded, repced by a horizon filled with ing clouds. Ahead loomed a massive storm cloud, dark and foreboding. It stretched across the sky like an iron curtain, its weight pressing ominously on the earth below. Winds howled like tormented spirits, and lightning sshed through the heavens like jagged cws tearing the fabric of reality.

  Alex realized he was experieng the memory of the rune’s creator—the vision of a dying Thunderbird. It was chasing the storm. The Thunderbird dove headfirst into the heart of the tempest. Torrential rain and brutal winds shed against it, but it pressed on, uerred. With every beat of its wings, it climbed higher into the storm’s wrathful embrace, seeking something in the chaos.

  As it flew closer to the storm’s core, Alex could almost feel the electric charge crag in the air. Lightning fshed dangerously close, the booming thunder rattling through the se. The air smelled dry and sharp, charged with ozone. But rather than fear, the Thunderbird radiated exhiration. Alex felt its joy and purpose as it pushed toward the stro bolt of lightning. This was more than instinct; it ursuit of evolution, a desperate race against time.

  Then came the climax. The Thunderbird twisted sharply, hurtling toward a colossal lightning strike. The bolt hit it with explosive force, turning it into a living lightning rod. Electricity coursed through its body as the storm responded, drawing bolt after bolt toward the bird. With each strike, the Thunderbird’s prew. Magic surged within it, climbing to a cresdo. It was close—so close— to asding to something greater. But in the end, it wasn’t enough.

  Alex felt the Thunderbird’s sorrow as it expehe st of its strength. Its body, crag with accumuted lightning, faltered. Uo sustain its efforts, it plummeted from the sky, the storm’s fury fading as the majestic creature fell. The vision ended abruptly, leaving Alex breathless and dazed. “A dying memory of a Thunderbird?” he whispered, still reeling. “It was chasing a thuorm, trying to break through… but it fell short. And this ru must have formed from the remnants of its magid life force.”

  Alex let out a deep breath, his mind swirling with thoughts. The memory was a vivid reminder of nature’s raw beauty and the Thunderbird’s indomitable spirit. “No wohe rune resonates with the Drawing,” he said quietly. “They’re ected… retives, in a way. And this inal rune tains a fragment of the Thunderbird’s life force. It’s incredible.”

  He couldn’t help but wonder: if the Thunderbird had absorbed enough lightning, could it have truly been reborn? The idea fasated him, but he had never entered any record of such a phenomenon in magical creature studies. “This might be a new discovery,” Alex mused. “A Thunderbird chasih through lightning… it’s almost like the legend of a vulture plug its feathers ao start anew.”

  Alex shook his head, dismissing the thought. He wasn’t a magical biologist, nor did he want to dive into suplexities right now. The immediate priority was to analyze the rune in front of him. After entering the memory lio the rune, Alex had uionally formed a deep e with it. It was as if he’d re-experiehe entire process of the rune’s creation, giving him an intuitive uanding. So, when he poured his magito the rune again, the process of analysis wasn’t just easy—it was effortless.

  In just a few minutes, Alex had a plete grasp of the rune’s structure and intricate details. He was certain that even if this rune were given to someone else, they wouldn’t reach his level of insight or prehension. With the analysis plete, Alex removed the protective pstic suit he’d been wearing. As he raised his left hand, a glowing lightning rune, carefully structed from his magic, shimmered ien his palm. “Even without testing it further, I already feel how powerful this is,” Alex remarked, a pleased smile f as he examihe rune. “Sihis was created in the wild, I’ll call it ‘Thundris Tempest.’ It pairs nicely with the fire rune I worked on earlier, which I named ‘Ignis Ferox.’ Pretty fitting names, don’t you think?” He admired the glowing ruh satisfa.

  Turning his attention to the magic book in front of him, Alex’s gaze nded on the inal lightning ruill lying quietly on the page. “Sihis came from the Thunderbird, it should sync well with Dark Drawing,” he mused.

  With a new idea brewing, Alex picked up the dark drawing and alig with the inal rune. He poured his magito the drawing, initiating the absorption process. A faint, zipping sound filled the room as the rune was absorbed into the drawing. Almost immediately, Alex could sense a surge of energy. The wand embedded within the drawing seemed to e alive, buzzing with renewed vitality. At the same time, the ebony wood wand lying nearby, previously dull, began to glow faintly.

  Silver halos rippled across the wand’s matte finish before fading away, leaving behind delicate silver filigree etched into its surface. The subtle transformation added a charm. “Well, it looks like Dark Drawing is happy with the Thundris Tempest Rune,” Alex observed with a nod of approval. “Now to test what this rune is truly capable of.”

  Wasting no time, Alex tidied up his workspace. He carefully stored the protective suit and unused potions, then begaing up his equipment. From his space bag, he retrieved various instruments ahodically arrahem oable. “The first step is to measure the voltage and pare Thundris Tempest to a basic lightning rune. I’ll start with a magic output of five lum,” Alex muttered to himself as he prepared.

  He activated a rge multimeter he’d bought from a Muggle store—an invaluable tool for precise measurements. , he set up a simple circuit using a thin, one-millimeter copper wire mounted on a small stand, carefully eg the multimeter’s probes to the wire. Avoiding the use of his wand, Alex opted to cast the runes directly from his hand. Using the wand would enhahe spell’s poossibly skew the data. Instead, he jured a basic lightning rune in his palm, eling a trolled stream of electricity through the copper wire at five Lum of magic output.

  He repeated this process ten times, carefully rec the voltage readings each time. Once finished, he dispersed the rune and jured the Thundris Tempest Rune, repeating the same process under identical ditions. “The magic output aional trol were steady throughout,” Alex noted, reviewing his data. “With the basic lightning ruhe average voltage was around 200 volts. But with Thundris Tempest, the average jumped to 1,000 volts—five times as powerful!” He leaned back, surprised by the results. “That’s impressive. At this rate, with practid stric output, Thundris Tempest could potentially reach high-voltage or even ultra-high-voltage levels.”