Chapter 78. Strongest Fifth resonance
He blurred across the sky, black streaking across blue, breaking the sound barrier.
KRAAAAA-BOOOOM!!
His body fell like a warhead hitting the ground.
The ground beneath him caved, a three-metre crater instantly forming, violently excavating the surrounding fauna and forest.
His body jerked upward from the momentum.
"Arrgh!" Blood spurted from his mouth, the black flame armour exploding with the momentum of the force.
Boom!!
A black mushroom cloud rose, the shockwave destroying the virgin forest.
Trees exploded on impact, beasts incinerated by the immense heat.
Hundreds of metres were engulfed in black flames, the black flames consuming the orange flames that lay several hundred metres away.
"He is dangerous!" Sigmund narrowed his eyes, scanning the black sea of flames below.
"One might think this was caused by a sixth Resonance," he commented, his reddish-brown eyes reflecting the dancing black flames, his pupils dilating in surprise.
"Valentin is right, he is dangerous..."
He turned toward the mushroom cloud of black flames and dust, his gaze easily passing through it, trying to find Aiden’s heat signature.
But he frowned.
"Where is he..."
He couldn’t see Aiden.
His vision filled with white-blue, the heat from the flames being the only thing he could see.
He was sure Aiden wasn’t dead. This wasn’t enough to take down the strongest fifth Resonance mage on the continent, the King of the young Vulcan Kingdom.
"Where is he?"
He flew into the flames, not in the least worried about the black flames.
As he descended into them, the flames latched onto his body, engulfing him in an instant. His yellow gambeson was immediately turned into ashes, his hairy body exposed within the hellish flames.
Orange flames conjured around him, the flames finely tuned, morphing into the gambeson he wore moments ago. If not for its flickering nature, one might not know it was made of flames.
The black flames latched onto the newly created attire, attempting to consume it.
"What is this?"
Sigmund, who tried to repel them, found it frustrating.
The flames consumed every flame he conjured, absorbing it to grow stronger.
He grabbed at it. He hadn’t noticed earlier, but the flames seemed alive, trying to devour his arm.
"Is this the black flames of Amaterasu?" he wondered.
"Yes. Do you like it?"
Aiden’s voice echoed through the black flames, double and simultaneous, as if two had spoken as one.
Before Sigmund could reply, the black flames thickened around him, becoming as dense as lava, a black lava dome encasing his form.
Tendrils of black lava shot at him. He stood still, his body impaled by the numerous black liquid flames. His fiery garment turned a blackish hue, even his skin taking on that colour, as the black flames threatened to corrupt his form.
Sigmund’s face distorted into disgust as he scrutinized the black lava, not in the least bothered by his corrupted form.
"Lava!"
His brows furrowed in rage.
Lava magic was a specialty of the Agni clan, only those of their blood capable of using it.
"YOU DISGUSTING COPYCAT!"
He roared, a torrent of lava bursting from his form. Like the wave of a raging sea, it slammed into the black dome, the dome shaking on impact, trying to resist the surging lava waves.
It could only try.
The surging waves consumed it in an instant.
Glooosh!
The lava fell like a heavy waterfall, enveloping the raging black flames below. Like surging waves extinguishing flames, a small lake formed beneath him.
"You Vulcans sicken me."
He disappeared, appearing right above Aiden, who lay in the pool of lava, caught within the lake of molten rock.
"You copy what you don’t have."
He pulled him out of the flames. Aiden’s body bruised, his skin red with burns, black flames licking parts of his body like broken armour. Dried, evaporated blood stained his mouth. His breaths haggard, seemingly on his last breath.
The fall had broken a bone or two, not to mention using his magic was straining, as it felt like he didn’t have control over the surrounding heat.
A true assumption, as the heat in the vicinity was completely under Sigmund’s control.
It felt like forcing air from his lungs against an ocean of wind, each breath an attempt to oppose the crushing currents surging toward him.
But he had managed despite that.
A sixth Resonance mage was a monster that only another monster on that level could handle, yet he still faced him.
"Pathetic. A fire clan without a specialty."
He held Aiden’s neck, squeezing the life out of him.
"We..."
Aiden choked out.
"What is that?"
Sigmund wondered, not about his words, but why they came out as double.
"Have you made a contract with the devil?"
He wondered why Aiden’s voice came out that way.
As if two beings inhabited one body.
"...have a specialty."
Aiden continued, ignoring his inquiry, answering the earlier statement.
"You dare mock me."
A spear of spikes shot out from the lava lake below, impaling Aiden’s left shoulder. Sigmund released his choke.
Aiden winced, his body weight balanced by the lava spike.
"You are as hot-headed as your father."
He looked up at Aiden, expecting a pained expression, yet he only saw a smile amidst his pain.
"Checkmate."
"Huh?"
As his words fell, the entire lake of lava froze over, his body turning into a sculpture.
Frozen solid, his posture fixed in place.
The little moisture in the atmosphere solidified into snow.
The once-burning lake of flames turned into an arctic landscape. The lava lost its colour, changing from bright red to sparkling black.
"This is not the end."
Aiden pulled himself from the now-frozen spike, wound already closed by the sheering heat.
Blue flames shot from his feet as he flew out of the vicinity toward the Vulcan Kingdom.
"This was temporary.
Sigmund would break free in a few seconds."
And true to his thoughts, Sigmund’s frozen body began to redden, regaining its heat.
His eyes were the first to regain motion, his darkened vision opening to a black solid lake, snow falling, sparks of snow littering the cooled lava.
Crack!! Crack!!
Steam rose from his form as his body regained mobility. His eyes widened in shock.
"What kind of power is this?"
~~~~~
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A/N
When I listened to it myself, I heard more ’flames’ than narration. (ᗒᗨᗕ)