Chapter 10: Book:1 | Arc:2 | Ch:6

Seyra was the first to strike.

A lunge and a thrust, aimed directly at Grandpa's left shoulder.

One second passed.

He swung at it, pushing it sideways. In the same moment, Seyra planted her left foot and swung it at an angle.

A diagonal block, both stopped for but a moment.

Two seconds passed.

He pushed, backing up before moving his sword towards her.

The strike he sent was a straight on one, aiming to overpower her.

Three seconds passed.

It swung towards her blind spot, narrowly dodged when she saw a glint of the polished wooden blade.

She backed off.

Both stood still, Seyra with her feet steady and sword tip pointed downwards, Grandpa with his hand low and blade aimed upwards.

Seyra was the first to move, slowly circling Grandpa's left side.

He reciprocated to a lesser degree and I didn't understand why he would do so at all if he was going to do it like that.

In the end it didn't matter that they didn't circle each other completely.

Seyra launched off her foot and charged him. The distance of two ris was covered in a second.

She slashed upwards, the clang of clashing swords resounding.

Grandpa blocked with a slash himself but was pushed back slightly. A look of surprise colored his face.

Then a smile.

Then the craziest grin I've ever seen from him.

Seyra backed off and backed up, creating distance faster than I've ever seen.

Grandpa smiled and said something that made me feel chills.

"Let's begin now shall we?"

From that point on, sight meant nothing. Everything was a blur. I wasn't able to see anything; Slashes, strikes, thrusts, blocks, not even movement. The only time I saw them clearly was during second-long clashes or when they backed off.

Their eyes looked normal to me, for once. Yet, even that normal was but an iris of fire encased in a normal cornea.

It looked like they enjoyed it.

A lot.

A grin was plastered on their faces. They were bona-fide battle maniacs.

The fight continued in blurs, flashes of swords hitting against one another. It continued, the dull sounds of the blades clashing. It continued, the brief glimpses I caught of their faces.

Their grins.

The fight in all only lasted three minutes, ending with Grandpa's sword to Seyra's throat. And yet, both looked satisfied, happy.

I wonder, even now, what exactly do they see in battle?

What drives them to do such a thing?

___

I paused, and I pondered.

Finding no answers, I went back to writing, the line I had begun to make discarded.

Right, it was after this that Grandpa smiled and nodded to himself before making the most annoyed face I've ever seen.

"Why didn't you use Aura?"

Seyra's eyes went wide, as did everyone else's. Mine included. Grandpa described Aura to me as 'The Path you've Chosen'. He said it wasn't something I should be worrying about since I'm young and I wouldn't need to worry for a long time. Surprising considering Grandpa knows I'm older than I appear.

"Ah."

I stopped at the end of the sentence.

"I probably shouldn't write that..."

Surprising considering Grandpa knows I'm older than I appear. So I and most likely everyone else were surprised. That he mentioned Aura. Above all, that he mentioned Seyra, my sister, who turned 10 not 3 days ago, HAD AURA.

Like, who does that!

The weirdest part is that Seyra does have Aura!

The moment Grandpa raised his eyebrow, not long after he asked the question, she manifested her aura.

It was beautiful.

As if there were a thousand red and white butterflies landing on, and taking off from, her skin. They surrounded her and then went to her sword.

Then, but seconds after, it disappeared. Leaving a rose-gold hue covering her wooden sword.

It flickered like a newborn flame, weak and susceptible to the winds. It was fleeting, vanished moments later when Seyra collapsed to her knees with sweat pouring down her head, her hair and clothes soaked.

A towel landed over her, big enough to cover her. Of course, Grandpa did it. Though, after that he simply left. I don't and probably won't know why.

After that, he told her she's not leaving to a school or whatever until she's 15.

Anyways, Goodbye Diary! Write you next time!

I snickered.

And I closed it.

[(D972 SR*) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 3/13]

Dear Diary,

It's been twelve days since I last wrote here, nothing much has happened, I read some books, ate some food. Not a lot happened.

Goodbye Diary.

[(D980 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 3/21]

Dear Diary,

I figured I'd check in, so to speak, and just remind myself to write here now and then.

Goodbye Diary.

[(D997 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 4/7]

Dear Diary,

I'm nearing 1000 days SR, it's a nice little milestone, way too short though. It'd be almost 3 years back on earth but here? It's only a little more than two! Jeez. Time flies by huh. Makes you think.

Bye Diary.

[(D1000 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 4/10]

Dear Diary,

Day 1000! Woo-hoo! The little victories am I right? Anyways, I might pop in now and again to talk about this encyclopedia I found. There's a lot of monsters you see, so the adventurers, oh yeah, there are adventurers in this world!

Ranks are the usual Isekai expected with a few extras. It goes weakest to strongest in this order: H to A, then it's S, SS and the legendary Triple S. I don't know why they don't just say SSS. Maybe there's some kind of unwritten rule? I'll look into it.

Bye Diary.

You are reading story The Ashen Phoenix at novel35.com

[(D1007 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 4/17]

Dear Diary,

Today Grandpa finally conceded and got me a gauntlet sword. Of course, he said I can only use it on the condition that I call it a Pata... 

It'll be fine though. I've already resigned myself to doing so. Oh, I found this entry in the monster encyclopedia that sounded awesome! Listen to this:

'The Hiris is one of the few spirit races without sentience or intelligence, despite that, or thanks to it, they are the largest known spirit race at One Ris. Living on volcanoes or near large Fire Springs, these beings worship those with a high affinity with fire due to their natural love for it. The most surprising part is that they are not of Fire mana until they reach 15 years of age. Some have been captured to be used for testing people's fire affinity and they have long been integrated into academies. Notably, the Dark-Flame Academy and the Draconic Academy.

Aside from this, these beings are considered to be one of the most dangerous spirit races. This fact comes from their worship. Should anyone attack a high affinity for Fire in their presence, they will swarm them and burn their life force to kill them.

Until now, this is one of the most mysterious things we've ever seen.'

Isn't that freaky? I wonder how high my affinity is... I should have a pretty good one, Grandpa said you'd need a B-Rank affinity with an element to 'eat' it as I did. Though, he said he's never seen someone do it at my age.

Heh, maybe I have the legendary S-Rank Fire affinity! It's certainly be nice to have as a cheat.

Bye Diary.

[(D1021 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 4/31]

Dear Diary,

I found the monster that appeared outside our carriage during the attack! That three-armed monkey creature. So, they're apparently called Tels, short name, and they have a tendency to coat parts of their body in minerals after melting them with fire. They apparently live near volcanoes to do so.

They're definitely weird. Why would they be all the way out here? Maybe there's an annual horde of monsters or something. I should look at history soon, the geography leaves much to be interpreted. Like the fact that there's a city on one side of a huge river that belongs to one kingdom and another city on the other side belonging to the neighbouring kingdom. What does that say about the current world and it's many mysteries and politics?

I have no fucking clue.

I am nowhere near being a historian... or a politician.

Bye Diary.

[(D1052 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 5/31]

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow is the day when the slow change from cold to normal temperatures spikes and it becomes a mild cold. Still shocks me how drastic the changes in temperature are in this world. I wonder, is it exclusive to this world or does it happen to others?

Something to think about.

Bye Diary.

[(D1101 SR) Year 224, Steel Calendar: 7/18]

Dear Diary,

How have you been? It's been a month and a half since I last wrote here, the temperature has settled down and people are already preparing for the Time of Flame in 4 months. You know, sometimes I have to force myself to remember my original name. After all, despite my name being Igni Vatra now, my previous name is also important to me... emotional value and all.

I'll be going for now.

Bye Diary.

[Year 227, Steel Calendar: 2/26]

"Are you sure it's around here?"

I glanced over at Cyr and Grandpa.

"I'm sure," I answered.

I was in the ruins of my room at the mansion. Everything was charcoal black and burnt beyond repair. I rejoiced in my heart the moment I had seen the broken and burnt wooden pony. Not only that though, the kid's books I read were all ashes now.

I smiled lightly.

'At least those are gone now.'

I looked over at the nook, the window smeared with ash and the cushions burned. I felt tears well up as I picked up the burnt pillow, only for it to fall apart in front of me.

'Maybe I shouldn't have practiced a Traveler-Class spell in my room.'

Regret welled up as I lamented.

'These were my favorite pillows.'

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath.

The last thing I wanted was to be scolded for the 80th time this year alone by Cyr. 

I continued scouring the ashen floor and moving charred furniture as my search yielded nothing as time went on. Minutes later I heard Cyr shout to me and Grandpa.

"Found it, I think?"

I stood up and traversed the broken wood strewn along the ruined room. In Cyr's hands was a familiar book. The silver threads had long been burnt and the crimson cover was now almost completely gone. The only remnant left were a few entries of my diary, all unmistakably were my handwriting. My old handwriting. I smiled, reminiscing as I looked at the old pages.

I summoned a few mana strings from my makeshift core and brought them out, forming them into a flame that incinerated the rest of it. I watched as its ashes fell and turned to see Cyr with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Why'd we search for it if you were just going to burn that too!?"

I shrugged.

"I don't want someone to read my diary, it's embarrassing. I thought I might as well burn it if it wasn't already."

"That's just stupid!"

"...you aren't wrong. Still, I wanted to get rid of the room anyways."

It had been nearly 5 years since I'd written in that diary. In but 12 days after, Seyra would leave for the academy.

In 3, it'd be Seyra's birthday. Grandpa and I worked nonstop making cuisine and he had said we'd almost filled his spatial item which was surprising to even him.

That said, we were ready for the greatest feast I'd ever seen.

And the only I would ever see.

[Year ---, Steel Calendar: --/--]

{{ PoV: 3rd person }}

While Igni and #$%!(& prepared, a Train had arrived at a new world.

{{ PoV: ??? }}

[Aleks Tomasson, please get off.]

I turned towards the silent monk.

"So, this is your stop?"

He nodded. His continued silence made my eye twitch on more than one occasion.

"Hmm, I wonder when my stop will be. I didn't enter the traditional way after all."

[You may leave when you wish. You are not considered a Passenger after all.]

Aleks stood up and was about to leave when I stood too. He looked back at me and I smiled.

"You still haven't accepted my deal, of course I'll follow you."

We got off and I turned around to nothing but the environment around us.

*CRACK*

Both me and Aleks looked around immediately, seeing nothing that could have been the culprit for the noise. Then, the earth began to shake. It continued for hours on end, the trees tilting and ground vibrating. It was powerful, to the extent that I had to focus to stay standing.

'Fuck this, I need to unlock flight asap.'

My irritation ended as I couldn't spare any emotion as I concentrated. Hours passed and that became days. Only when it stopped could I think on why that happened, though, that didn't last long either. Aleks spoke very, very alarming words.

"Is that, a dragon?"

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