Trial by Fire (preview chapter)(Amazon/Kindle-DxD)
Trial by Fire
K’oll: First rule,
You will use your flame-
No other Element.
When we are done here,
You will feel the difference between the Cardinal Elements.
And why Fire sits at the top.
SPLOOOOOOOSH!!!
Newt was submerged in lava, it was more than hot enough to feel, but what made it such a challenge, was that this was not Water.
Barely even liquid, the plates of molten rock felt so heavy.
He couldn’t move well, the sludge like magma flowed with a tremendous amount of power.
Newt needed to think,
….Heat.
That’s how he would manage to move freely within the heavy molten rock and metal.
By increasing the heat of the magma around him, it would liquefy further, allowing him to move better within it.
Newt: "So hot! But I can do this.”
He could feel the flow of the lava and how it moved in a pattern.
Some spots hardened faster.
Some spots flowed slower.
It was like an obstacle course, moving so differently than any body of Water.
And after a few hours of this,
He finally managed to escape the pit of magma.
Thick layers of molten rock dripping from his skin,
It was awful.
He wanted to drink water so badly.
But his resolve pushed him further.
His Father watching from above,
Clearly unimpressed.
Newt: Heh.
With his first few steps on the heat of land, sizzling from the contact of his skin-
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
He was engulfed in a massive pyre of flame shooting from a crevasse below.
No rest.
No mercy.
His next trail began without warning.
He rolled from within the powerful pillar,
Breathing heavily.
The heat in the air grew, making it harder and harder to draw in clean oxygen.
FWOOOOSHHH!!!
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
More flaming pillars shot up from beneath the now exhausted Newt.
Dodging rapidly while trying to shorten his breath, he also needed to concentrate on the flame to keep it from burning him.
He didn’t need to touch it to tell that this Fire was different than most,
Highly pressurized and pure.
These lands belonged to his Father, and his influence here has changed them.
These flames were powerful.
He could feel them even before they shot out at him.
Newt: “Focus”
Placing a hand firmly on the ground, Newt feels for the Magic Energy below.
He is met with a terrifying image in his mind.
These lands,
We’re directly over a massive hot spot in the
Earth.
As if all the world’s heat originated from this place.
It had many intertwined connections to the planets core, as if it was feeding off the Earth’s natural Energy.
The land was sapping the planet, to increase it’s own heat!
All an effort to please the God of Flame.
Against his Father’s wishes, he uses the slightest trace of Earth Magic to feel the age
of the land beneath him.
His theory was correct.
This place has been like this since the planet's origin.
Always burning,
Since even before the age of Dragons.
These lands may very well be the birthplace of Fire itself.
Only now, it has no choice but to train as well-
Or else the Elder residing within its warmth, will consume everything it has.
His Father was unaware of Newts actions, having grown bored of his display.
But this information taught him a great deal.
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
We find our hero deep in meditation.
He is inside a mighty volcano, sweat dripping from his brow.
The area is covered in a thick wave of heat that only continues to grow.
There is a bellowing sound emanating from the massive amounts of heat and Energy directly beneath him.
Newt finds it oddly soothing.
As he focuses, he feels the heat like never before.
Embracing him deeply,
To his very soul.
Finding it surprisingly easy to focus here, Newt feels the heat of the Earth's embrace and cherishes this moment.
This volcano is placed firmly in the center of the hellish valley.
As if to be a direct link to the planet's core.
TSSSSSSSSSS!!!
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!
Highly pressurized steam shot up from the maw of the mighty volcano.
It was intense, but not nearly as bad as his first day here.
It has been weeks now.
The young man's progress is showing more each day.
K’oll: “Rest now son, you have earned this much”
“There’s an oasis at the very outskirts of these lands”
“I will meet you there shortly”
His Father has mastered the telepathic link Newt and Saigon developed together.
He needed only hear the explanation.
This meant he truly did care for Newt, otherwise doing so would be impossible.
He would find a way,
To make them both proud.
After the setting sun.
After a few more hours bathing in the Earth’s flame.
Newt decides to make his way to the Oasis.
K’oll had made it there first, his maw deep within the beautiful waters of this place.
It was almost surreal.
Newt: “Been in the pit so long I’d forgotten what plants looked like”
There were beautiful trees and grass surrounding a large waterfall, quite far from the valley,
but still impossible to believe.
The Water was crystal clear, shining with the reflection of the moon.
The stars.
All of it was unimaginable.
Just the sight almost moved him to tears.
So many days and nights of hellish training.
It nearly broke him.
Brought to the edge of failure, his Father applied so much pressure without saying a single word. His memories of the years he spent with Saigon were the only things pushing him further.
K’oll finishes his drink and looks to him.
K’oll: You have shown more heart than I thought your small body had.
But this will not do.
You are still not ready to wield the Ethereal Flame.
Newt: The who now?
K’oll flexes his shoulders, causing the flame on his neck and nape to grow larger.
But that was not all.
The color slowly changed, growing darker, deeper than before.
It was a gorgeous crimson flame.
It brightened the Oasis, but burned nothing at all.
It was so unlike the chaotic flame Newt produced so long ago.
K’oll: You must master the heat of your Soul, control it entirely.
Uncompromising,
That is what you have to be.
…..Get me?
Newt: Well, not really.
I mean…. How exactly is this all possible?
I get it, your you.
But it’s clearly more than that.
What exactly,
Are we?
K’oll:….
We are Fire.
Since the beginning, since the Celestial Dragon God.
Flame has stood above the rest.
Our blood is Ancient my son.
Unlike the Ancient one’s you know, we were not recognized.
We were feared.
They hoped to erase up from existence,
but our blood burns bright.
My Father told me of the Inferno that is our blood and showed me who we truly are.
And now it is time for me to show you.
The mighty Elder lowers his head to the ground, something Newt never thought he’d see in all his days.
Nothing needed to be said, for Newt could clearly tell what the gesture meant.
As he placed his hand upon his Father’s snout.
The image he was shown was something that still escaped explanation.
Something that no matter how he searched, he could never find the answer to.
Newt opens his eyes to a star filled sky.
And the gentle waves of an ocean.
Only the Water felt,
strange.
He turned his head to the side and was met with a peculiar sight.
Blood?
No,
it just appeared that way.
Newt immediately understood what was happening.
“The flame he showed me”
“The color”
“Its the same”
That was why these Waters felt so strange,
It was never Water at all.
He wasn’t in an ocean,
He was surrounded by the same Fire his Father had shown him moments ago.
A flame so pure, so refined, it felt like Water.
Quickly snapping out of his trance-like state.
Newt leaps out of the crimson flame and bursts into the sky above.
Only there was no sky.
What was this madness?
He looks around and sees nothing but the blood red flame before him.
Flying higher and higher,
Faster.
As hard as he could.
He could not escape the endless sea of flame.
He comes to a halt and looks to the stars again. The realization hitting him like a bolt of electricity.
He remembers the day he lost control,
the day Za’gon nearly drove him mad.
He saw something unexplainable.
A massive ball of Fire, consumed by the infinite void.
A Sun.
Was this….. his Father’s?
The scale was impossible.
There was no end to it.
The flame was alive, it was at peace with itself and the void around it.
This was his Father’s Dragon Energy.
His Soul.
His Flame.
Newt could move freely here. There was nothing pulling him in, nothing calling to him.
His mind was his own.
Newt: How is this possible?
His Father’s voice echoes within his mind.
K’oll: “Our Flame is never satisfied.”
“Always growing and consuming.”
“Like a plague.”
“It eats until it is full, only to become hungry again.”
“At least, that Is what I was led to believe.”
“For so long I was a fool.”
“I never understood what my Soul was trying to teach me.”
“That with power comes great danger.”
“This is what my Father failed to understand.”
“I always believed I was in control.”
“The most powerful.”
“But it was the flame that controlled me.”
“I was but a vessel for it to drown in it’s own greed.”
“That is, until I met your Mother.”
“She showed me my own hubris.”
“Hell, I even blew up the moon.”
“Not my best work.”
“Understand son, that we love you.”
“And to your flame you must show the same love.”
“Do not feed it.”
“Nurture it.”
“And it will grow more than you could ever imagine.”
Newt's eyes open to see his Father staring up at the moon, he lets out a heavy sigh and looks back down at Newt with a searing gaze.
K’oll: Enjoy your rest.
You will experience the truth when the sun rises.
Next….. you will face me.
That night Newt was unable to rest, he found that he no longer felt the need for sleep.
As he hasn’t had a single night’s rest in days.
He has been with his Father for a month now, and is only just now receiving Water and food.
Was it his blood?
His Dragon lineage?
The training?
His mind was scrambled and unclear.
How would he challenge his Father’s flame.
The vision he was shown was,
Terrifying.
He remembers his Master’s words when describing his Father all those years ago.
Newt: “Overwhelming.”
Would he ever reach such heights?
The Moon shines down upon him, glistening off the Waters of the Oasis.
The Great Scar.
As if the moon was struck with a massive and powerful blade.
A wound to show its strength of survival.
Newt: If you can do it,
….Then so can I.
Newt contemplates strategic ways to deal with the coming challenge.
He had only a few more hours before the sun rose,
What would he do?
Fire would not work here.
But he could use no other-
Newt: “That’s it!”
The same way he used Earth Magic under his Father's nose ever so slightly, could be the key to solving this problem as well.
He would use the slightest influence of the other Elements to bridge the gap.
To make his Fire stronger.
But how?
Newt produces a small flame before him.
He infuses Air Magic to increase the purity of the flame.
Making it hotter, while decreasing the air pressure around it. Concentrating the heat within the flame.
The Fire had grown much hotter, but this would mean nothing
Newt: “What else?”
He thinks back to what his Father told him.
The point to all the training he has done in the last month.
Newt: Temperature? But that won’t matter.
….unless.
He extends his hand before the flame and tries something unheard of in this world of Magic and Dragons.
The natural state of the Cardinal Elements are rarely changed, never to be disrupted.
All to preserve the balance of power between the creatures of Earth.
But was this done out of wisdom, or fear?
Newt was not afraid.
Of failure,
Or success.
He would stop at nothing to reach his goal.
To defeat the villain Za’gon,
Avenge his Master,
And teach his Father,
That his efforts were not in vain.
They shared the same blood.
And with this technique,
With this flame,
Newt would prove it.
He continues to steadily decrease the temperature of the flame,
No man has ever thought to do something so unnatural.
While stripping the flame of its heat, Newt uses the oxygen in the Air to maintain its structure.
Ensuring it would not fade.
If the point of his training was to control temperature, to increase the heat of his flame.
What would happen if…?
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
The flame reaches a point of absolute cold.
Unlike the primordial heat of it’s nature.
This was something else entirely.
It did not look or sound like Fire, creating a mist of fog around itself,
Freezing the ground below.
Producing a sound like chiming crystals, like shattering glass.
It was beautiful.
Newt: This is it!
He reaches out to touch the bright blue flame,
But his fingertips began to sting in a very peculiar way.
It was not hot, but so cold it burned.
Something made only possible by a boy's curiosity,
But the bravery of a man.
Newt: I hope you're seeing this… Master.
The sun begins to rise,
On a new era of Fire Magic.
