Chapter 105: First Firebending Subskill Part 1

(Aden's P.O.V)

The first stop upon leaving the Fro-yo shop was a good donut place where I got a special order. I had used a portal to get there because of the distance between the two places. I opened another boom tube to Sanctuary and made that portal disappear in favor of another one that manifested at my front. I jumped in without a second thought and walked out of the boom tube to find myself in the garden belonging to the local Parish. The Catholic church where I went to ask for holy water. I needed some more for…an experiment. More specifically, my first Firebending Sub-skill.

It was a 20 minute affair. Probably helped by the donuts I got for the nice priest. I left the church with a bottle of holy water and a prayer upon my soul by the priest that I be saved from whatever was troubling me. Another Boom Tube on the empty garden and I found myself in Sanctuary. I walked towards the make shift Gazebo I had built over time since getting the Elemental Dimension and immediately settled into a meditative pose.

It would have been better to do this in the Fire Plane due to the deeper connection it provided to my firebending but, what I was going for was calm focus. Something I wouldn't get with the stuffy feeling of my air bending being suppressed. I breathed in lightly, holding the breath for a few seconds before letting it out. Then I held that for a few more seconds and repeated the cycle.

I fell into the breathing routine easily and my mind emptied of all distraction as I sought to keep one thought in my mind. Fire. Pure burning flames. The life and death it brings. A perfect cycle of destruction and rebirth. A familiar and warm stirring appeared below my navel. The hearth. My source of flame. Gentle tongues of this wonderful source of energy were stoked by the breath running inside my veins and it rose up to follow a pre-determined route. A route through my body…

This time I let it go unrestrained as I followed an instinctual feeling. My powers had to this point, been completely different from the normal bending. How far that notion went was something that I had never tested before. However, sitting in that meditative position…I was in tune with the flame inside my body more than I had ever been before.

So I followed my intuition, I let it burn freely. And something happened. I felt it get rid of every toxic substance in my body as it run rampant through my body. I felt warmth, encompass my whole form in a cocoon. I didn't know it at the time but had you looked at me from the outside…you would have noticed a shroud of red flames burning around my body. The gazebo remained untouched however as were my clothes. What was even stranger was the black liquid that was being produced from my body, covering my skin in a black coating before it was burned to nothing by the flame, leaving behind unblemished dark skin.

I opened my mouth a few hours later and exhaled. A blackened cloud of steam escaped it and I opened my eyes to a new reality. The world seemed brighter. The details much more clearer. I listened and I could even hear more. I rose up and stared at myself. I was still dressed in a loose t shirt and black sweat pants but they radiated heat as if they were freshly ironed. They also gave off a fresh smell. As if they'd just been washed and dried a few seconds ago.

The way the fabric felt on my skin was strange as well. My skin felt… more sensitive. All my sensory skills were somewhat heightened. I stretched my body and felt the kinks in my bones disappear.
"Ok, that felt better than every massage I've ever gotten. I wonder what…"
My statement was cut short by a blinking text box at the corner of my vision.

I sat back down and accessed the display box.

(Congratulations! Fire is unique amongst the other elements. And you my friend have just figure out one of the reasons why! To put in simple terms, Fire is active, the rest are passive. Kinda. It gets iffy sometimes. But you get the point! Anyway, Your efforts have rewarded you with a new perk:-)

(Body Refinement:- Stoke your inner flame and use it to burn away weakness. By using the energy of flames, your body is refined continuously. Getting rid of poison, toxins, dirt and other unsavory bits. Shower in a can baby. Be careful not to overdo it though. Just as fire can cause the rebirth of a phoenix so can it turn the world into a burning wasteland.)

I closed the display box a little shocked. This new perk was a surprise. An unexpected but very welcome surprise. It had the same utility as my Adaptive physiology but, I had never tested the limits of that perk fully. Call it what you will but the truth is my focus had been split between mastering the elements I had access to and getting more skilled to ensure I wouldn't die in this world. So much had happened over the course of a few months it was crazy.

Anyway. The new perk was awesome and I could see myself using it limitedly but occasionally when I'm meditating to refine my body. This skill was straight up Xianxia. The other good thing about it was that it would help me burn away any harmful substances from my body. But…it wasn't really what I had wanted to focus on. So I moved on to the reason I was there.

I eyed the bottle of holy water in my palm and unscrewed it's lid. Then I gently poured the liquid onto my palm and closed my eyes. Time to come clean about what I was doing. You see, for my first Firebending Sub-skill, I could go the route of Lightning bending or combustion bending. The two most prominent Firebending Sub-skills known. But here's what I was thinking. While those two were very powerful and cool, Lightning bending being especially versatile, given the ideas I had on how I could use it to even increase my speed, they just wouldn't cut it at the moment.

I had two more missions going up against demons and if it wasn't for my timely use of a boom tube to send Mammon to my dimension where I was stronger, I couldn't really hurt the powerful ones. Unless I had a way to use their weaknesses against them. The fight with Mnemoth had shown me that holy fire was basically their kryptonite. I could choose to master Lightning bending or Combustion now or choose to master Holy Fire as my first sub skill and have an easier time with the next demons and then get back on the grind and master the other two later.

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Here's the thing, turns out there wasn't a quota on how many sub skills I could get. 2 mastered Sub-skills was just the minimum requirement to carry out the advancement trial to grandmaster. And with the air bending advancement trial being Aang, I wanted to tip the scales in my favor this time, knowing I would go up against any of the best Firebenders. Having three or even more Sub skills before I took the advancement trial would no doubt make it much easier to contend with beasts like Iroh.

Aaaand it doesn't stop there…see, I most definitely knew I was fucked once Lucifer withdrew his 'protection' so to speak. So I decided to go even further. If I could find a way to not only increase the effects of the Holy Fire into not only affecting demons or impure beings but also any being that could turn me into sheesh kebab, no matter their alignment, I would have a really powerful card up my sleeve. I was aiming for something like an All Devouring Flame. But that was far off. I first needed to see if I could even do this.

I spread out my nascent energy sense that was growing stronger by the day, just like my Telepathy and observed. My fire started burning the holy water. I was trying to delve into the same mindset I had just before I'd confronted Mnemoth. I had been following instinct at that time as well. The water evaporated even faster this time. A small explosion of electric energy erratically streaked through the air and...time stopped.

It was different from the temporal anomaly back at the Watchtower. This time I could feel my body actively fighting off the effects. My thought process slowed down as a bright pinprick of light appeared in my mind. The light was surrounded by a void of darkness from all around. I lost all my sensations as the light grew increasingly bigger in my vision.

My whole being was pulled away from my mortal shell. I couldn't feel the light breeze on my skin anymore. I couldn't smell the scent of the ocean, I couldn't hear the soft waves rock the seashore. All that I was was occupied by the light. Like a fire burning in the middle of a canvas, the light pushed away the void of darkness. The Darkness lashed out but was ultimately defeated and fell back, to slumber. Waiting, biding it's time.

My hand reached out into the light, intent on capturing it's divine and pure essence. I didn't understand what I was doing. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't feeling. All I knew was that fulfillment was just a touch away. I touched it.

Instantly, I felt gazes lock onto me. Onto my soul. I felt my soul be judged and found unworthy. Terror gripped the entirety of my core as the gazes turned hostile and the light...pulled away. No, I was pulled away from it. My eyes opened up suddenly into my Elemental Dimension. They opened up to one of the scariest and strangest scenes I had ever seen.

A blinding light of glory and BE#-:"+_$### BEAUTTDBBHHUY!!! BEAUTIFUL! BEAUTIFUL!!!! SOOOOO BEAUSARGCSTTHH!!!!! I blinked and all that was replaced by him. I had just seen his true form and my mind had been mere seconds away from going totally insane. His back was to me. His black wings spread out in their full Majesty. But the most surprising thing was the billions of light floating in the air to oppose him. Blinding figures dressed in armor, carrying huge swords and spears. They were easily 7 feet tall and huge.

Angels. The heavenly host.

At the front, stood six beings. Their white wings were larger and more substantial than the rest of the angels. The Archangels. My heart hammered in my chest and my brain went blank. What...what...

What the fuck have I done???!!!!

Lucifer looked over his shoulder at me. His face seemed sharper. His jaw line more defined and his eyes, they weren't the red color I was expecting...instead, they were gold. A gorgeous gold that saw through everything. A smile was spread out across his face.

"I'll be honest with you Aden...I am impressed." He laughed before turning his attention back to the heavenly host. I rose up urgently to get ready for the fight when I immediately found myself stumbling in my room back at the penthouse in Club Lux.

I looked around in shock. He'd teleported me away.

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