3047 Primal Spark (Part 1)
Anything that pa.s.sed through Tista's wings while empowered by any kind of Flames was destroyed rather than empowered by Queen's Blessing, and no feather detached itself when she tried to activate Prismatic Wind.
"Please stop." Valtak interrupted them after a long streak of failed attempts while he studied them with a combination of Dragon Eyes and Life Vision. "Normally, I'd follow Grandfather's teachings.
"I'd give you a few tips and let you learn things by yourself. Experience is the best teacher, but Origin Flames are different.
"You have only a finite number of attempts every day before you start endangering your life forces and not even a Dragon can afford to wait decades for their hatchlings to fully understand the power of the Flames through training.
"That's why Grandfather became the first Father of Fire and taught us all. Without him, most of us would still be fire-breathing brutes. That's why Fire Dragons are so important and we were chosen to carry his torch."
The Elder Wyrm touched their foreheads with his fingers.
"Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and listen to my voice." Lith didn't like the situation one bit but obeyed. "Now, conjure magical fire and keep it away from everything else. Any fire will do."
Lith and Tista shrouded themselves in the violet flames of a tier three spell, Combustion, leaving unaffected only their foreheads where Valtak's fingers were.
"Good. Now, what is magical fire? It's the fire element you take from the world energy after you bound it to your will with your mana, correct?" Valtak asked and the two students nodded.
'What's the point of stating the obvious? I learned all this while working for Nana.' Tista thought.
'I wish Solus was here to keep the Eyes of Menadion on us.' Lith thought. 'I have a hard time focusing while I'm so exposed.'
"Now, think about this. What are Origin Flames? They are world energy ignited by your life force, correct?" Lith and Tista nodded again, failing to see the Elder Wyrm's point.
"Yet mana is nothing but the six elements that course through your body after mixing with your life force. Which means that the only difference between normal and Origin Flames is that you must consume all elements, not just fire."
A tap of his fingers and Combustion turned into Origin Flames that kept not harming Lith's and Tista's bodies. Even their equipment was unaffected.
"How is this possible?" Lith opened his eyes in shock, almost losing control of the mystical flames.
"Thanks to me." Valtak replied. "Now close your eyes and calm down or you'll burn yourself to a crisp. Focus on the Flames, not on your fears. Believe it or not, I'm not your enemy."
Lith cursed and followed the Father of Fire's instructions.
"Can you feel the Origin Flames burning the external world energy with nothing but a strand of your mana to fuel them?" Another nod followed. "Then while keeping this status, try to activate your bloodline abilities."
Once again, both of them managed to conjure Origin and Cursed Flames but failed at the rest. The major difference was that instead of spending their life force, they had consumed but a few drops of their mana.
"It usually takes two or more Dragons to generate Primordial Flames because it's the only way to preserve our life forces, but this doesn't mean it's impossible. White cores can use Primordial Flames on their own because, for them, world energy and life force are the same thing.
"They are the only ones who can restore their life force with a breathing technique like it's just stamina or mana. To conjure Primordial Flames on your own, you need to consume more life force while making sure of igniting the same amount of world energy as usual. Try it now."
Lith and Tista injected more mana into their spells. Lith's Origin Flames turned immediately white while Tista's became violet, bright violet, and then white in quick succession.
"I did it! I conjured Primordial Flames at the deep violet!" She was so excited that she lost control of her spell.
Valtak smothered her Flames with his own and saved her from a fiery death.
"Control, hatchling!" He roared. "Also, you did nothing of sorts. You conjured Primordial Flames thanks to my help. If you tried that on your own, now you would be comatose at best. There's a big difference between mana and life force. Look at your brother!"
Lith still had his eyes closed, unaware of what had just happened to Tista. He was too focused on making sure that the Primordial Flames didn't become diluted by more world energy to pay attention to his surroundings.
'f.u.c.k me sideways, Fire Dragons are overpowered.' He thought. 'Using mana to practice Origin Flames is amazing. Not only am I consuming the mana equivalent of a tier four spell, but I also have absolute control over the Flames.
'I can manipulate the willpower imbued inside the Flames at any time instead of only while igniting them in my lungs. It allows me to determine exactly how much life force I need to conjure Primordial Flames without wasting one iota of my life force and how to reject the excess world energy.'
Tista followed Valtak's instructions and resumed practicing. It took her the mana equivalent of a boosted tier five spell to turn her deep violet flames white but it was nothing compared to the consumption of life force that Primordial Flames would require.
She too focused on keeping the quant.i.ty of world energy low and the quality of the Flames high. Too much world energy and the white flames would revert to violet. Too little and they would go off.
"Once you have grasped control of the Primordial Flames, I want you to move them away from your body. Keep your eyes closed. Always." The Elder Wyrm said.
Lith sent the white flames in the opposite direction to Valtak to safely check if distance affected his control over the Primordial Flames or Valtak's bloodline ability.
'Cheeky of you to study me while I study you.' The Fire Dragon smirked, using a mind link to not disturb Tista's focus.
He had demanded them to keep their eyes closed so that rivalry wouldn't affect their focus. One of them was supposed to progress faster and he didn't want the other to rush things or lose concentration out of envy.
As Lith pushed the white flames farther and farther away, feeling his control waning, Tista focused on keeping the Primordial Flames stable. It took her a bit to control the insatiable hunger of the fire for the world energy and project them outward without diluting their power.
"Good. Try to use them to purify something. Anything will do." Valtak said a few seconds after Tista's Flames started to wander around as well.
"Purify?" Lith asked. "You didn't give us anything to study and if we don't know the position of the impurities in advance, we just break stuff."
"That's why I said anything, not something precious. Get over yourself, hatchling." Valtak grumbled. "Your trust issues are annoying. If you don't want to learn from me, just walk away. Otherwise shut up and follow my instructions!
"I've trained thousands of Dragons during my life. I know what I'm doing."