Wild Era 3, Ch 37: Laws of Fire

Kelin had poured in all the wisps of power that were left from his first strike. They were part of the spell, ready to burn again.

A flash of concern went through the seer’s eyes as he looked down and realized the flame on Kelin’s hand was something more than he’d thought. Until now, it hadn’t looked that different from the flames that were part of Kelin’s aura.

“Stop him!” the seer ordered the ranks of undead. “Bury that flame!”

The wraiths stabbed into Kelin’s body and poured necrotic energy into his meridians, and the skeletons yanked at the weapons embedded in his body, trying to control his limbs like they were holding onto ropes. 

The energy spread like dark ice as it tried to freeze him in place, but their efforts were too late.

The spell drifted up from his hand and floated in front of him. He exhaled softly, blowing it away over the seer’s shoulder. 

The seer tried to reach out and drown it in a wave of dark energy, but he thought the flame was heading in one direction. Instead, it curved and flew in another.

Kelin had thought about targeting the ritual circle, but he’d decided against it. It wouldn’t set off the type of chain reaction he wanted.

Instead, the spell was flying toward the bowl of Wraithfire on the altar. That fire was designed to destroy bones, so he was going to make the most of it.  

The mausoleum was full of Bone essence and necrotic energy, and targeting them directly required a massive amount of power.

“What are you doing?” the seer snapped. He reached out and tried to grab the flame again, but it was too quick and avoided the energy he sent after it. 

It was a small flame, only about ten percent of the size of the flame in the bowl, and it glowed with a golden and rainbow light that was very different from the blue-tinted white of the one that was already there.

The spell flew straight into the bowl and its colors faded as it merged into the Wraithfire. A strange pulse of hot and cold mana echoed through the area. 

Then the entire bowl of Wraithfire began to ripple. 

Flames surged from the edges, spilling out of the bowl as they ran down the sides of the altar. They were glowing white-blue, but tinted with rainbow and golden hues.

A wild and chaotic force began to build, sending the streams of fire soaring high as they covered the entire altar and the area nearby. It looked like the altar had suddenly ignited in some primeval ritual.

The bowl at the top was barely visible as flames rose up like a fountain, surging toward the ceiling, and the fire pouring down the sides intensified like it was a volcano erupting.

Then flickers of rainbow and golden light inside the flames began to mingle with the cold white and blue, like the two were fighting, creating a chaotic storm like an aurora above the altar. Curtains of each individual color mixed and separated, and runes began to appear among them, shining brightly. 

There were runes for Wildfire and Soulfire, with Ignite, Blaze, Flare, Illuminate, Incineration, and Nimbus in key positions, as well as hundreds of others that Kelin had woven on the spot with vast experience, all to complement the others.

He didn’t have much strength at this level, but he did have knowledge, and he’d balanced his understanding of enchantments and Laws with the energies in the room, all of it dedicated toward a single purpose. 

He only had fragments of Laws to call on, but the Wraithfire in the bowl was part of a complete Law, refined from the domain of Undeath and the Law of Bones. 

His spell was designed to tap into that power and control it.

He’d planned for those Laws to appear, and when they did, raging as they tried to reject the echoes of the Laws he’d inserted, they merged into free areas in the spell patterns, created connections to other runes, and poured their energy into the spell.

Waves of powerful Law resonances spread through the room, suppressing the ritual energy and everything else. They seemed thin, but as they echoed out, nothing was able to fight against them.

The seer was locked into place, completely unable to move, as were his undead. The ritual energy around him froze into place, looking almost solid, as the Laws hummed.

Spell patterns formed and a glowing enchantment appeared above the altar, one that reached outward and dragged in the energy of the multicolored flames, condensing them down into a single star.

Energy from the mausoleum and the ritual flowed into that point as well, feeding it like streams of matter falling into a black hole. Necrotic energy, Bone essence, it didn’t matter.  

The star consumed them all. The energy was incinerated in an instant turned into pure soul power and fire. 

The flame hummed with the Law of Bones and it felt like the slightest brush of its energy could destroy anything solid, tearing it apart for all eternity. 

The star burned more brightly, all of its energy drawing inward. 

Then it exploded outward, turning into a glowing blue-white and prismatic sphere that expanded through the room.

Some of the skeletons were between the altar and the seer, since they’d leapt forward to chase Kelin’s spell. When the flame reached them, they were eroded away into white dust that was swept away by the wind. 

Their bones couldn’t resist the power in those flames.

The Wraithfire would have stopped there, turning them into wraiths, but because it was merged with Kelin’s Laws and power, the skeletons’ necrotic energy and what remained of their souls were also incinerated.

That power swelled as the flame passed, making the rainbow part of the sphere glow more brightly as Wildfire blazed.

The ritual nearby was purged in an instant, its energy flaring as it was consumed by the flames, and even the floor of the mausoleum began to erode. It was made of bones and couldn’t resist the flame.

The flame swept past the seer and the man tried to block it with a shield of dark energy. Everything had happened in an instant and he was still full of mana from the ritual, so his defense approached the Fourth Evolution in strength, but it had no effect.

The wave swept over him and he disintegrated into ash that drifted through the room. 

The skeletons and the wraiths behind him followed, all of them disappearing into the raging storm as it came closer to Kelin.

If that flame hit him, he would die. 

Not as quickly as the undead, since the laws he’d woven into it would slow it down, but his control over it was limited.

He could barely move with all of the weapons stabbing into him, but at that instant, he flicked the Ember of Ash in his hand out to meet the approaching doom. At the same time, he broke the spatial seals holding the ember and the flame inside apart.

It was a simple telekinesis spell, but it took almost all of his effort. The necrotic energy in his body was hindering even the easiest things.

The flicker of white Wraithfire in the ember ignited in an instant, exploding with a fury that had hated its confinement, and a storm of ash erupted around Kelin.

The approaching flame slammed into the ash, making it turn brighter and hotter, but Ash was a world-class insulator and the storm had only spread a few feet around Kelin. 

It was like the ash had become a sphere of charred wood around him, where he was the untouched heartwood. The flame burned at the edges as they worked their way through, but it couldn’t reach the center. 

It only made the wood burn more brightly.

The intensity of the ash cloud shot upward, tearing at his body like a storm of blades, but he’d endured its impact twice before, even if it was stronger now.

The Ember of Ash floated in front of him, blocking the advance, but the Wraithfire outside was the origin of the smaller flame inside it, and after a moment, flares of blazing white-blue flame arced through the storm and lashed at the ember.

The ember began to shake, turning brighter as the intensity of the storm increased, but the Law of Ash swelled in power, dampening the effect as the storm grew even stronger.

It was holding it off for now, but it wouldn’t be able to do it forever.

Even Kelin couldn’t perfectly assess which of the two Laws was stronger, Ash or the Law of Bone in the flame, or which would last longer. He didn’t know how much power was fueling the Wraithfire or how long the Ember of Ash had left.

For a moment, there was a tenuous balance with him at the center. 

It was a moment of uncertainty and of potential, with death raging all around.

Throughout the storm around him, he could also feel that the power of the Wildfire and Soulfire he’d infused into the spell was growing along with the rest. 

They were like whispers in the night compared to a hurricane that shattered the heavens, but they were rising.

He was half dead, but if could seize the moment, there was still room for survival.

He reached out to the threads of his spell and nudged at the flames, forcing some strands to bend to his will.

Arcs of blue-white flame touched by golden light ripped through the storm and lashed across his body, tearing apart his skin and breaking bones.

It was a double-edged sword.

The lash scoured away the necrotic energy where it struck and ignited his Soulfire, turning into a mix of destruction and healing, but his bones under the lash shuddered as fragments were burned away to nothing.

Right now, his bones were filled with necrotic energy that the seer had poured in to try to control him, so he had no choice. It was set in too deeply and if he left there, it might take root and turn into a disaster.

As weak as he was, he wasn’t sure he would be able to purge it, not once it got an advantage.

That was the second reason he’d targeted the Wraithfire. 

He needed to use it to fight fire with fire. It was capable of purging the necrotic energy and incinerating his bones.

The only downside was that it came from the Dominion of Undeath, so he had to be careful and ensure that his foundation was entirely his. He didn’t need to burn away one problem only to create another and end up as a wraith.

If he did it right, however, the massive amount of energy on display here wouldn’t only purge his body. It would also force him to improve.

His body would be reforged by Laws, giving him a foundation that usually couldn’t happen until at least the Fourth Evolution.

Creating protections and guidance for that was why the spell had taken him so long to weave, and now, with his own Laws woven into it, he had a clear view of what was going on.

And just enough control.

Another arc of Wraithfire whipped through the ash cloud and sliced into his leg. It tore apart his skin and disintegrated the bone beneath, sending up a cloud of Bone essence and dark energy that boiled away into nothing.

Instead of leaving a complete gap, however, the trails of prismatic and golden light in that whip stayed behind. They gathered up all of the power from that destruction and rewove a lattice where his bone had been, replacing the structure completely. 

It was a shining and prismatic web of flame, one that burned with the power of Endless and Returning Flame. 

Wraithfire lashed through the storm again, striking another place. Kelin’s flesh and bone there disintegrated as well, replaced by another web of flame.

He didn’t have long before the tenuous balance of the Wraithfire and the ash was broken, so he forced the process to speed up.

A dozen lashes of white-blue flame fell at once, tearing apart a quarter of his body. Necrotic energy boiled out in every direction and was incinerated in a cloud around him.

Flames replaced his bones, preventing his body from collapsing.

Another dozen lashes fell, destroying another section of him, and then another, rising and falling in waves.

His bones exploded into fragments, dissolved, and were reformed from fire. His skin disappeared and was rewoven from the same flame.

Normally, he wouldn’t have had enough mana to heal himself, but the insulating properties of the ash kept him alive, like an ember at the heart of the storm, even as more Wraithfire fell.

Lashes tore him apart until he couldn’t feel any part of his body.

He felt it when the last of his bones shattered. 

It was one of the ribs directly over his heart. As the Wraithfire disintegrated it, all that was left was the lattice of fire that took its place. 

He had no bones and no skin left and he was as translucent as a spirit made of flames. Every feature was still there, reformed from runes and fire, but he was completely immaterial.

All of the bone weapons piercing his body had disintegrated too and there was no trace of them or of necrotic energy.

The Wraithfire had burned everything away.

He felt the Wraithfire trying to twist his soul and to remake him into a wraith, but the lattice of flames repelled it. They were made of Laws that had already settled into place, and they prevented it from changing him.

Tiny phoenixes from the Flame of Life swirled and dove through the connections, flying through where his bones had been. They looked like tiny spirits circling through his body, driving away anything negative.

The only thing left was the Law of Bones itself, which was a white fog of energy that coiled around his body, but it had no place to take purchase.

Since there was nothing for it to act on, he felt his Trait for Tempered Bones shudder. 

It had been a reward from the Path and there was an enormous amount of power in it, power that was woven through his soul and body.

It couldn’t be removed that simply.

So instead, the Trait began to change, reweaving itself in accordance with the Laws at hand. 

He felt its meaning shift and it took on principles of Endless Flame and Returning Flame, the web of power that now made up his bones. 

It also drew on his surroundings, pulling in strands of Law from the ash and flame that surrounded him.

Key principles of Destruction and Rebirth appeared spontaneously, created from the events he’d just experienced. They merged with his Laws and rewove themselves through his bones, creating something new to replace what had been there before.

Golden light blazed from his body as his skeleton began to reform. Bones started to reappear, each made entirely of golden flames that slowly became more solid.

The ash around him resonated with the meaning of it, drawing power from the Wraithfire and his spell and feeding energy into him.

The phoenixes flying through his bones became brighter, letting out soul-stirring cries as they swooped and dove, looking delighted as they flew through his reforming skeleton.

Then it all began to slow down and finally shuddered to a halt. 

His skeleton was only half formed, all woven of blazing flames and phoenix light, but he’d run out of available energy.

The wisps of golden fire from his spell were guttering out, barely able to hold themselves stable, and the Wildfire he’d created from burning the undead and the necrotic energy in his bones was almost gone.

Reforming his bones was draining it too swiftly.

Meanwhile, the Wraithfire outside the ash storm was flaring out of control and he could feel the mausoleum crumbling around him.

A second storm was spinning there, one that was swiftly expanding outward in the dungeon.

He wasn’t sure how far it would reach, but he was beginning to lose control of it.

If he threw all of his willpower into it, he might be able to stop it, but he’d have to abandon his work on his bones.

And that would leave him half crippled.

He might still be able to finish the process later, but it wouldn’t be as perfect as he wanted it to  be. He needed a qualitative change, one that was complete now, while the process of this Law was still present, with all of the current conditions.

So he turned his attention to the Path and demanded that it help.

He’d just done a lot for it, so he was calling in a favor.

There was a pause and then the voice of the Path echoed in Kelin’s mind.

Request acknowledged, Knight Commander.

A Mark of Favor has been consumed.

Analyzing the problem.

The nature of your Trait: Tempered Bones has changed. It is undergoing an Evolution. 

You have experienced a complete destruction of your physical form, which invalidates the previous reliance on hardened bones. 

For the moment, you exist only as a spirit of flame, but you are still alive and your soul blazes brightly, preventing death.

Your skeleton is partially reformed, using the core aspects of a Law that you have discovered through personal enlightenment.

Identifying potential methods to assist.

Possibilities exist.

A large amount of available energy from your Tempered Bones that has been converted to an aspect of flame touched by your other Laws, as well as by your surroundings. 

The Law of Bones in your area has been partially consumed by the same flame, and it is directly linked to your control, providing potential energy.

Analyzing your accomplishments in the dungeon to search for additional sources of power.

Accomplishments identified.

You have experience that has not yet been absorbed.

You have destroyed a key necrotic ritual, dealt with enemies of the Path, eliminated 24 Level 299 Undead, a Level 305 Undead,and  a Level 315 opponent, all well above your own Level.

You have also met the criteria for defeating the Elite and the Challenge in which you are located. 

The experience and other rewards from these accomplishments can be used to fuel the Evolution of your Trait.

Searching for additional sources of energy.

Mana and healing potions exist in your spatial storage, as do some talismans that hold fragments of Soulfire. These items can be reduced to pure energy to assist.

I am now merging Laws and redirecting all available energy to the reconstitution of your Trait.

Your bones are changing.

As the Path spoke, a massive amount of energy began to cycle around Kelin. Explosions from inside his spatial storage followed and streams of energy began to pour out to join it.

He’d had dozens of high-level potions in there and the Path wasn’t hesitating to destroy all of them to assist with what he’d asked it to do.

A storm of golden flames spiraled around him, growing higher by the moment. It was the purified result of everything he’d accomplished.

The process of the Law that had halted began again. 

Golden flames wove through his body, following the network he’d built, and his skeleton continued to reform. 

It didn’t take long before the last bone appeared, blazing with golden light and the force of Laws. Then his organs, veins, muscles, and skin began to appear as well, all of them glowing brilliantly with soulfire.

The Path had an element of balance in it, so it could only reward him for what he’d accomplished, but he’d done enough here that it was able to help. 

It was why Marks of Favor were so important.

The Path was better at using all of those mana and health potions than he would have been. It was able to distill them into a single flow of harmonious energy and there was no need to worry about having to wait before drinking another one. Sacrificing all of them didn’t even make him blink an eye. 

What he was doing here was far more important.

It was only another moment before the process was complete and his body was completely restored.

The Path’s voice echoed in his mind again.

Your body has been reformed in accordance with the Law you created.

Your accomplishment in forming a Law concept of your own before reaching the Fourth Evolution is noteworthy.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

Your Trait: Tempered Bones has Evolved.

It is now the Trait: Bones of the Phoenix (Heroic).

Even in death, your bones hold the promise of resurrection.

The essence of Resurrection through Fire and Ash has completely infused your bones, creating a perfect foundation for future progression in the Law of the Phoenix. The energy of the phoenix now radiates throughout your body. 

Due to this Trait, your Constitution, Wisdom, and Aura have improved by 200, but you have only started to understand the Law of the Phoenix. Your bones can continue to grow in power as you reach higher levels of understanding and master more of the Law. Other energies, such as the Law of Bones, can be absorbed and incinerated to advance your understanding of them.

Since your bones are part of your physique, your Perfect Soulfire Physique has changed as a result of this Trait. 

Your physique is now the Soulfire Phoenix Physique. 

Its tier has increased from Epic to Heroic.

To be reborn from ash and flame and rise again, that is the Law your body knows. As a Heroic physique, it comes with significant advantages.

Fire and Soul Affinity Bonuses: You retain all the advantages of your former physique, but they have reached a higher level. This physique formerly granted you a 20% bonus to Soulfire. It now grants a 30% bonus to all forms of Fire and Soul Magic.

Blessing of Fire: Your endurance and regeneration have improved, both physical and magical. Exhaustion will affect you less and whenever you are in the presence of a significant source of flame, your recovery will accelerate. Most natural and some magical flames will not be able to harm you. 

Resistance of the Phoenix: You have gained a significant resistance to negative energies, which will struggle to affect your bones and by extension the rest of your body. These resistances include Ice, Poison, Disease, Curse, and Ash. 

For those resistances you didn’t have previously, they have been added to your status sheet and their tiers have all risen to Advanced. Due to the influence of the Law of the Phoenix, these resistances can all be upgraded to Heroic in the future.

For those resistances you had at a higher level, they remain as strong as before but with greater potential.

Nirvanic Rebirth: Should your body be destroyed, if you have sufficient energy and a suitable place to be reborn, such as a shell of ash and flame, you will have a chance to restore yourself and return to life. This resurrection is dependent on circumstances and is not guaranteed.

Ash Magic (Basic):

You have gained a High Affinity for Ash and some innate ability to manipulate the Element. This ability provides a foundation for future studies of the Law of Ash and related magic.

Since it is linked to your physique, the potential of your Ability: Soulfire Body Refinement has been affected by this change. It may be upgraded to Heroic when the opportunity presents itself.

With that, the voice of the Path faded away.

It was an incredible series of changes and it promised great potential in the future, and Kelin was pleased with it.

In terms of pure power, it wasn’t an immediate upgrade, and he’d had to sacrifice the experience and other rewards from this battle, but it was more than worthwhile.

This calamity had given him a chance to push his advancement in a necessary direction and his future Path as the Lord of Reincarnation was slightly more likely.

As soon as he finished reviewing the changes, his eyes opened and the storm around him began to fade away.

The cloud of ash was still around him shielding him, but now there was a golden layer of light as well that came from him. It was merging in strange ways with the ash, making it incredibly dense and protective, like an eggshell.

He could feel a deep connection to the ash as well now, like it was almost a part of him, and despite how dense it was, it was transparent to his eyes, allowing him to see straight through.

Outside, the Wraithfire was still burning and without the minimal control his spell offered, it had already burned through the mausoleum and was working on the walls and surrounding buildings.

Fortunately, its power was fading.

It had destroyed the altar where it had been confined and without that foundation, it was swiftly turning into loose and chaotic energy.

Kelin scanned the area and raised his hand, which glowed with flames, and the ash swirled around him. It was like a great wind spinning as the ash came under his control and settled down.

Soon, there was only a small storm of it spinning above his hand, all of it concentrated around what was left of the Ember of Ash. The artifact was only a tiny fragment now and as soon as he touched it, it began to break apart.

He held the remains carefully in his fingers and the cloud of ash closed around it, turning into a hard grey sphere, which he put into his storage.

Then he turned his attention to the Wraithfire.

He didn’t have any mana potions left, but his energy had recovered and there were still some strands of his spell woven into the flames. 

He carefully began to break apart the Wraithfire, dispersing it into chaotic energy. It fought him fiercely, but he divided it into smaller sections and tore it apart. Then he called up flares of Wildfire to clash with it.

The two flames warred as they fought each other, but one was designed to burn bones and had no focus to support it, while the other was designed to burn energy and had a master controlling it.

Slowly, Wildfire tore it apart. 

Eventually, it was done and the sky was clear. 

Kelin sent the flickering remains of Wildfire to swirl around him, where they felt more comfortable than ever, and studied the dungeon.

The City of Bones stretched out for miles, most of it untouched, and violet lines from the ritual outside still arced through the air.

As fierce as that fight had been, it had been mostly personal.

The ritual energy was slightly unstable now, since he’d destroyed the node that was the mausoleum, but there was still the other challenge and the boss left to deal with, as well as plenty of undead.

He wasn’t too concerned about the rest of the dungeon, but it should be enough to test out the changes to his body and to get a few more levels. 

He was confident there would be no more interruptions from Sarathia, at least for today, so he might as well get started.

His staff appeared in his hand and he took a deep breath, feeling a flow of flame through his organs and bones, and then he set out, whistling a soft and haunting tune.