Chapter 111: First Firebending Subskill Final Part

 

(Aden's P.O.V)

What is Fire? Fire is…life. It is also the death that heralds rebirth and flourishing. A singular focus and drive to cleanse all that stands before it. Fire is essentially hot gases. It's naturally aligned to high temperatures and manifests in a number of colors, chief of which being yellow and orange. Science, from what I understood stated that different colored flames could possess different levels of heat. The ranking went, orange, yellow, blue and then white in terms of heat.

That was science…this was Avatar. Which meant none of the scientific rules held much precedent over the power of a primordial entity governing order and balance. There were even more different colored variations to the flames produced by Firebenders. In Canon, Aang and Zuko witnessed that fact for themselves when the two dragons, Ran and Shaw demonstrated uniquely colored flames in their dance to show them the true spirit of Firebending.

I had dragons in my realm and although they showed no indication of Sapience, they could bend their natural flames into different colors. Reviewing the memories from the Avatar State, The Dragon Patriarch, breathed out violet colored flames which burned hotter than anything I'd ever felt before. That meant, I could learn the same from them and I had a feeling they weren't confined to only one unique color, something told me they could do more. And like Azula so could I.

Speaking of Azula, her flames were blue. I had an idea on how I could turn my flames into that. You see, Blue flame is produced when there is a perfect air-fuel mixture. With sufficient oxygen for complete combustion at the burner, a blue flame burns the fuel completely producing carbon dioxide, water and heat. The last part was not really important. Basically, a blue flame is a perfect flame. Given Azula's mindset to pursue perfection…it wouldn't be out of the way to say that the flame was a manifestation of her mastery over Firebending. Hotter flames as she pushed herself to be the best. The question arises why didn't Sozin or even Iroh, Grandmaster Firebenders use Blue flames? Maybe they didn't need it. Maybe they had attuned their flames to burn as hot as they wanted. Who knows?

Which brings us to the question, why the lesson on the intricate nature of fire? Well, I needed a Sub-skill, and now that holy fire was out. The option of what I would go with had fallen to two choices, different colored flames which I am sure was a sub-skill all in itself or… Lightning.

Based on where I was standing, the peak of a blackened mountain in the Fire Plane, observing and studying the unrestrained nature of Lightning, you can guess what choice I went with. To be honest, I could learn how to turn my flames into different colors but this…this was much better and cooler. Lightning bending was a phenomenon to watch.

I set Equity down in its Rapier form and crossed my legs, meditating on the ground. My energy sense spread out and suddenly my awareness was awash with supercharged energy and erratic colors. The erratic colors were actually coming off the small Dragon that would always watch me whenever I practiced Firebending in the Fire Plane. I opened my eyes in surprise as I watched it…no him. He had grown bigger and his shadow was cast upon my body whilst he lazily ran circles above me in the air. I could sense 7 precise colors in him. Something that told me I was right in my conjecture that the dragons could help me.

Upon noticing my attention on him, he flew down closer, giving me an excited little snort as if he was happy to see me. He was different from the other dragons. He was aware. I reached out a hand to touch him and he allowed it. His snout felt warm to the touch and the scales were smooth. He then pulled away and suddenly flew off, leaving me with a frown. My telepathy formed a link between us as I tried to understand what had just happened.
'not ready.'

The words appeared in my mind and I mulled them over before shrugging. It wasn't like the little dragon was going to go anywhere, so I was good. I dived back into my energy sense and focused this time on the supercharged and violent power I could feel brimming above me. Each strike felt precise and purposeful. A willful objective to leave anything it touched into charred remains.

I breathed in and settled into a Body Refining State. Using my inner fire to cleanse my body of all waste. This time I went a step further into the metaphysical. I used my inner fire to cleanse myself of all and any distractions, choosing to focus on only one thought, the nature of Lightning.

Using Iroh's simple explanation, Lightning was the purest expression of Firebending. It is known as the cold fire due it's precise and deadly nature. Lightning doesn't spread out and strategically destroy something like fire does, it's like an Assassin's blade to a soldier's machine gun, silent, cold and fast. Very fast.

I understood that. To bend Lightning one had to maintain a calm emotional disposition. Which is why I had used my Body Refining skill, to get rid of all distractions and achieve a tranquil state. Now, all that was well and dandy but nothing truly explained it's working or how one could activate it. But who was I? I had thousands of pop culture, movies, books and anime knowledge to draw from.

I tried the first way, attempting to 'rub' the fire against each other if that made sense to achieve a charge. I immediately stopped that when I felt an explosion about to occur inside my body. Well, at least I had the direction towards combustion bending. Failing that, I changed directions and clearly delved back into what Lightning bending was.

Iroh had repeatedly tried to teach Zuko, the importance of having a calm state of mind when bending. But Zuko due to the hatred, self loathing and guilt he possessed, could not get past that point until he had handled his issues. A light bulb went off in my mind. That's it. The simple explanation was actually the way to go. It wasn't complex in practice. It actually was that simple. Bleeding all emotion from Firebending, leaving behind a cold focus. That's why it was known as cold fire.

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I rose up to my feet, breaking the body refining skill and breathing out a thick steam. Sweat was matted in my eyebrows as well as covering my skin in light perspiration. I spread out my legs to the side and leaned my body forward. Two of my fingers extended on both of my palms, the index finger and middle finger. I breathed in and out, settling into a slow but strong cycle. The flame inside me, ran the already established course inside my body, excited and warm. Every time I Fire bend, my emotions were aligned into a positive mindset. My drive was iron clad and my will unshakeable. Appreciation, excitement and contentment were chief among the emotions I felt. They didn't add anything really…but it felt right. Fire was a pure expression of life and death. It was fitting to appreciate it's beauty.

This time however, the iron clad will remained, my unshakeable resolve remained but the emotions I felt were tightly clamped down upon. I let them wash over me and remained stubborn. My focus became razor sharp. The energy inside me changed. It went steely, cold and hard. I moved my left hand to the side in a slow dance. Sparks started appearing above the two fingers. Blue and so bright, it was hard to look. The skin on my appendages felt tingly. I leaned heavily on my left leg as the dance transitioned to the right hand, the sparks increasing in intensity and power. Then I stepped forward, and brought my two palms to meet in the middle, each of the two fingers extended and with electric energy dancing at their points. The energy combined and I pointed my hands out.

5 wide streaks of lightning power, buzzed through the air, as if heralds to a mighty storm that would destroy everything in its path. I swept my leg out and flipped, holding the charge deep within me for a few seconds. I landed on my right leg and leaned far back, lightning exploded out of my fingers in a shower of erratic energy, bigger and more intimidating than my last try. The lightning stroke an adjacent mountain to my right and it's rocky exterior exploded into pieces of stones and dust.

I fell into a trance, sending random strikes of lightning for a continuous hour before the painful sensation covering my palms became too much and I shouted, channeling the last burst of lightning I had to the clouds. The response cane back swift and deadly. Natural lightning fell upon my position, decimating my surroundings through the unfocused strikes while the bulk fell upon me. I clenched my teeth in pain, refusing to scream and grabbed hold of the energy, channeled it through my body, plotting a course through it and then spun, fingers pointing towards the mountain I had earlier destroyed sections off.

My senses were hit with an overload of awareness. The air cried as a massive streak of lightning this one more white than blue shot out of my fingers. The energy crossed the distance between the two mountains faster than I had predicted and landed.

A deep rumbling occured, the whole area was suffering from an earthquake as the Lightning destroyed that mountain and the ridge of hills behind it. I opened my eyes to see, charred boulders and a groove wide enough to be a friggin highway and as long as 300 meters, extend out from my position, the peak of the mountain I was on. I sucked in a deep breath, wincing as I saw the state of my hands.

Damn. The skin was red and angry. Nothing my enhanced healing wouldn't handle but it was growing more apparent that the one thing holding me back was my physique. I would have to handle that soon. That said, I was shocked and stunned at the power output I could access when it came to lightning. This…this was crazy. Looking at the effect left behind, none of my enemies would be spared. This power would hopefully be the thing I needed to complete Lucifer's missions. Lightning has been associated with purification before, maybe this would hold true here? And if it failed, Equity was guaranteed to harm just about anyone.

A prompt from the system blinked before my eyes. I accessed it and smiled.

Fire Element (Master)

-Lightning (unlocked)

-Locked

+

Oh yeah. Now we talking. I dismissed the prompt and left the Fire Plane. I spent a few hours doing preparation for the next thing I had on my agenda. A week long meditation. I ate well, a healthy meal this time not just Grangos, took a shower and checked on Lucifer and Maze to tell them that I would be gone for the length of the week. They still hadn't come back. Instead of needlessly worrying about the Devil, I sent each of them a text and got back to my elemental dimension.

The next time I settled on the meditation pose, I wasn't moving until I had mastered Lightning in all it's entirety. I used the perk, Spark of Enlightenment and my mind fell into another trance.

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