The Villain's Story

Chapter 631: 631: Great General(2)

The reason Alan had wanted Edward to stay back was simple. He wanted to try out the various methods listed in the manuals that had been given to him. He had studied these damn manuals for two weeks.

And although he was still a bit confused at some parts, he understood the majority of them.

The avian tribes, those that descended from the mighty Phoenix, didnʼt necessarily all use fire. That was the first surprise to Alan. He expected every one of them to use fire. This was helpful in some regards.

Alan was, before everything else, a frost dragon. One that did not go well with fire at all. Even with the increase in affinities, he had experienced due to absorbing the drop of ichor of Ariel. He didnʼt have a single one that was similar to, or even had some compatibility with, fire. Hell, one could even say that with all these attributes he had, his major weakness was fire.

Frost was the direct opposite to Fire, Shadow and Darkness didnʼt blend well with it too, Space was still ambiguous, Chaos may have some affinity to the element of fire as well, but that was out of the question.

His major weakness was a user of fire, one could say. Vice versa, he was also the nightmare of every user of fire as well.

His aura, as well, didnʼt have the fire attribute despite having the blood of the Phoenix. It had his space element as well.

A unique thing to note was that, even if they didnʼt possess fire, all the tribes related to the Phoenix worshiped something known as the Eternal Flame, and their techniques for aura breathing were also derived from these forms of worship. Most of them, anyway.

Most of the time, they described the Eternal Flame as an entity of sorts. With all the descriptions provided, Alan concluded it was another title for the Phoenix. However, what bugged him next was that the Eternal Flame was something else as well.

It was a fire, that was well, inherently inside every living being. At first, he thought that was referring to Aura, the power of life, but he was wrong. The eternal flame was separate from the aura, but still within every living being.

The descriptions of this part varied. Most of the tribes described it as the essence of existence, something that was akin to a god that watched over them as part of their very bodies. An omniscient, omnipotent presence.

That was bullshit, to Alan.

Moving on towards the techniques, however, understanding what exactly the Eternal flame was important. Because...it was the basis of it all.

The tribes noted how one must feel their entire bodies with the power of life, and must sense what the Eternal Flame wanted from them.

What this ʼwantʼ could be, was different many times. Sometimes, it could want them to be happy, other times, it could want them to be angry.

Knowing what it wanted all the time, however, was the fundamental key. And how to use the blessing of the Eternal Flame was the result.

Something important Alan found was, that to truly cultivate the Eternal Flame, one had to have awakened aura. The manuals stated that it would make the process much, much easier and also yield better results. This was the part that made Alan think that Eternal Flame and Aura were different.

Both were defined as the power of life... so it was a bit confusing at first.

But, it wasnʼt really necessary. Aura could also come with the Eternal flame, some cases had been noted down. Everything else was simply how to use it, according to their own body types and what the tribe specialized in.

At first, Alan had pursued those methods, using his aura as the manuals dictated and trying to feel whatever they meant by the Eternal flame, even doing that was difficult.

He had to restrict all the mana in his body, and store it in his heart. Then, he had to make absolutely sure that no residual mana was left, before finally allowing his aura to come out and find the Eternal Flame.

But to his dismay, this yielded no results. He did everything as described, but there was nothing.

He feared that this eternal flame was located towards his heart, his dragon heart... If it was, then Alan could dismiss finding it at all. If he moved his aura towards his dragon heart...even if by accident, he would explode.

Boom, literally.

Mana and aura did not go well, especially in his own body. He tried this before, using both of the energies together during battle, but the result was his arms being blown to oblivion. Despite that, he still tried desperately to find the Eternal flame, but all efforts were useless. He spent another week trying to discern the meanings more accurately, but it was still the same. So he had to opt for another method. Thankfully, the manuals had that too.

They stated that if the Eternal Flame could not be found with oneʼs own strength, then they could borrow the strength of others. One method of this was using the elders of the tribe to help the young, allowing them to locate the Eternal flame.

But such an option wasnʼt viable for Alan... The only other method was to use fire.

Yes, using fire. Using special types of fire, each that had their own properties, in order to invoke the power of the Eternal Flame dormant within the individual.

And that was exactly what he was doing right not. ”Quiet.”

He shut Edward up, and focused on his hands that were inside the fire. After watching the spar, Alan had a wild idea come to his mind. Seeing how special Edwardʼs fire was, in that it could both heal him, and attack the opponent as well. He wanted to try...

His hands didnʼt really feel anything. Edwardʼs fire was still too weak to do anything to Alan, this worried him, but he still proceeded with the method.

He began by taking a deep breath, and opened his hands within the fire, by using his aura, he guided the fire towards his hands, the openings in the skin, especially from the fingernails.

The manuals had said this would bring about a lot of pain, but Alan wasnʼt really a stranger to it.

Who knew fighting whilst having your literal heart and eyeball hanging from your body, in a terrible state, would increase his pain tolerance? Who knew?!

Still, he could feel pain. And although he was used to it, it was still unpleasant. But this pain wasnʼt all that special.

Alan followed all the directions listed in the manual, and finally noticed some result. To his and Edwardʼs surprise, the tendrils of flames moved and went into his body through his fingernails, in great quantity.

The pain increased, but he could bear with it. But to his dismay, he felt something wrong. Something besides the golden flame was entering too, and his body, his aura and even his mana moved to block it. He hurriedly cut that process off before his mana met his aura.

He retracted his hands, and kept thinking for a while. Not only that, but he ordered Edward to increase the intensity of the flames and pulled out more wood, in order to keep it going.

He used his nails to cut his palms, to Edwardʼs shock. And put them inside the flames once more, following the last and final method in the manuals.

It hurt his pride to resort to this, but since the previous method showed some progress, he was willing to do it.

He stopped his regeneration consciously, since it would heal wounds of that magnitude instantly, and allowed the fire to flow into his body through the wounds.

It worked, brilliantly. The fire started to flow into his body at a greater speed. One could visibly see large swathes of it being absorbed into his body. Alan didnʼt feel anything strange for a while.

He enjoyed the process, as painful as it was. Because it was progress. Alan could feel something in his body foreign to both his aura and mana, but it was so, so, so little. ”Damn it...”

And with every second, it was diminishing. Before it could fully diminish. Alan felt the strange thing enter his body once more, and his aura and mana had the same reaction, this time more violently and more quickly. ʼShit!ʼ

He was preoccupied with feeling the Eternal Flame and was a late to respond to the change. His mana and aura collided, and all Alan could do was limit the damage to his palms.

They were in a sorry state, and he didnʼt even want to look at them.

Edward was horrified, and hurriedly took out a healing potion out of his spatial ring, but Alan stopped him.

He healed his own wounds with the bloodline of the Phoenix, and looked at the pile of burnt wood with a sigh as he moved them back to his inventory.

But he wasnʼt that sad though, although his reserves of wood were running low, he was happy that there was some progress, and believed that with time, he could make sure something like this wouldnʼt happen.

Alan took out the remaining wood from his inventory, and worried Edward more by excitedly telling him to start another fire.

But before it could be done, both Edward and Alan froze.

Time froze.