Supreme Magus

Chapter 3838: Just Stupid (Part 1)

"Just make sure you don’t make the world energy pass through your mana core again, big brother." Garrik said. "Try out Mom’s trick after you learn how to send the world energy to your head."

"Solid advice, little brother." Morok sat down on the floor and resumed absorbing the world energy from his wings while keeping all of his eyes open.

The rest of the class decided to take a short break to stare at the Tyrant in envy. Over two hours had passed since the beginning of Ryla’s lesson, and Morok was this close to mastering the first step to tap into the power of the evolved human bloodlines.

"Any advice for us?" Tista asked. "We are still at square one."

"I’m sorry, but everything I learned as a Fomor requires the ability to emit the elemental energy as you absorb it." Ryla gave Tista a small bow in apology. "Can either of you do something similar? Any form of energy might help."

Tista and Lith filled their eyes with mana, frowned, and squinted, but nothing happened.

"If you need to use the bathroom, just go." Ryla said after a while. "There’s no point in training while you are constipated."

"I’m not... Never mind." Lith sighed, unclenching his jaw and relaxing the muscles of his face.

As for Morok, he took advantage of his breathing technique to follow the world energy as it entered his body and stopped channeling it when it neared his mana core.

It took him several attempts to perfect his technique, moving on to the second step of the training only after succeeding ten times out of ten. Then, he closed his eyes while keeping only the red one open and released a massive pillar of pure fire element.

The energy flow waned as he ran out of mana, but he kept going until his core was almost dry and his head pulsed from the exhaustion. At that point, he used Invigoration to regain his strength and tried again.

After a few attempts, the Tyrant’s red scales lit up. They absorbed enough fire element to keep his red eye shining even after Morok’s core was almost empty, but the elemental pillar died out just like before.

The Tyrant was about to take another deep breath of Invigoration when the energy sparks produced by his scales spread to his wings, forming a thin red streak. Morok’s red eye flared up again, and the fire element collected by his wings and scales erupted in a small burst of flames.

Yet as the Tyrant kept drawing in more power, the red streak became prismatic. The rest of the scales on his body blackened, consuming the energy they stored in an attempt to absorb and neutralize the other five elements before they tore Morok apart.

"This is harder than I thought." He closed his red eye the moment the pain became unbearable. "I-"

"I told you you’re a genius!" Garrik cut his brother short, his face brimming with pride. "You can already absorb world energy at will and split it."

"Thanks, but it’s not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Tista echoed. "While you made progress after progress, the only thing I got so far is a warm chair. Lith has tried his best to teach me with a mind link not to disturb you, but I still can’t even feel the world energy with my wings.

"To make matters worse, I can’t follow Ryla’s and Garrik’s tips since we belong to different species."

"I’m sorry, but I call bullshot." Morok shook his head.

"What do you mean?" The Hekate wanted to stomp her foot, but that would have made her seem even more childish than she already felt.

"The reason we are training together is that we are all evolved humans." The Tyrant replied. "You are a rank 3, while I’m just a rank 2. Of course, you can follow Garrik’s tips. You just have to do it your own way."

"And what is my way, exactly?" Tista asked.

"How should I know? I’m not a Hekate." Morok shrugged. "Yet I remember that back when you were still a hybrid, you could already activate your Ethereal Aegis bloodline ability. You should work on that."

"Work on what?"

"Girl, your bloodline ability turns you into a ball of fire." He replied. "You don’t have lungs in that form, yet even before reaching the violet, you kept burning until someone stopped you or you fainted. How did you draw in the world energy to fuel your flames?"

"I..." Tista had always assumed she sustained her Ethereal Aegis form just like the Phoenixes did with their Molting Essence bloodline ability, yet she had never asked them how they did that. "Gods, maybe Garrik is right and you really are a genius."

"Maybe. Or maybe you are just stupid." He replied.

"Just take the compliment, you jerk!" Tista burst into a mass of living Origin Flames and tried to fuel them like she usually did, by drawing in world energy from her nose. "You’re right. I can’t absorb world energy by breathing in this form. What do I do next?"

"Keep going until you run out of power." Garrik said. "No matter what, try not to let the flames die down."

"But don’t consume life force either, or you’ll just produce Immortal Flames and learn nothing." Lith said. "Trust your body and instincts. Always remember what Valtak taught us."

"Thanks." With no enemy to fight and no distraction, Tista focused on the feeling of Aethereal Aegis burning through her world energy reserves until the Origin Flames dimmed.

Her first instinct was to revert to her physical form, but she didn’t. Her second instinct was to emit more life force to compensate for the lack of world energy, but she didn’t do that either.

Tista forced herself to ignore the burning sensation in her chest while focusing on her two sets of wings.

’I hate to admit it, but Morok might be right and I am just stupid.’ She thought. ’The Origin Flames are fading all over my body, but they are still thicker on my wings.’

Her fingers and toes reverted into flesh and blood first, quickly followed by the scales on her chest. The flames went out all across her body until only Tista’s wings were left aflame.

She could now breathe again, but she drew in only air. Tista focused on keeping the Aethereal Aegis without absorbing world energy from her nose or mouth. Somehow, her chest burned and her body trembled as though she were holding her breath for too long.

Yet no matter how much air filled her lungs, the pain didn’t stop.

The flames lost strength until her lower set of wings returned to normal, and it was then that she felt it. Without the Origin Flames hindering her senses, Tista felt the world energy seeping into her physical feathers.

She focused on that feeling, listening and learning from her own body. The flames started to burn out more slowly on her upper set of wings, but instead of fighting it, she used the now-solid feathers to expand her perception.

One after another, tufts of flaming feathers reverted to their original form until only one feather on each of Tista’s upper wings remained alight with Ethereal Aegis.