Vir awoke to aches and pains. Not anywhere specific—his whole body just seemed to throb, though when compared to the torture he’d endured, it was hardly anything.

“How do you feel?” Cirayus asked, handing Vir a waterskin.

“Like a grakking fool who just entered the Ash with a death wish,” he said, relishing the sensation of the cool water on his parched throat.

The demon laughed heartily. “Indeed. Those who brave the Ash can only be called fools. Yet sometimes, it is the fools who play everyone for the fool, is it not? When they return with great power, having witnessed sights that most dare not even imagine. Who is the fool, then, I wonder?”

“I suppose,” Vir said, cracking a small grin. “Say, how did I survive the journey as a baby? If I had this much difficulty now...”

“We carried with us an Artifact that protected you. Some of the other demons did as well. The bracelets were heirlooms of your clan.”

“Sure would've been handy to have that,” Vir said.

“Aye. But not possible, I'm afraid. We couldn't risk such precious Artifacts falling into the hands of humans. I sent them all back with one of your retainers.”

“Well, I suppose I won't be needing it any longer. So, what now?”

“Now, you rest,” the demon said, placing an oversized hand gently on Vir’s shoulder. “I shall gather some food for us both.”

“Why? We’ve barely even dipped into our rations.”

“Aye, and you packed food that’ll keep. That’s good,” Cirayus replied. “I took the liberty of cataloging your food while you were asleep. I hope you don’t mind.”

Vir shook his head. “It’s fine. Then why bother going out?”

“Treat this food as emergency rations. There are vast swaths of the Ashen Realm entirely devoid of all life. Dark places of eternal night, with clouds so thick that the meager light can’t possibly penetrate. We’ll need to stock up as much as we can for the passage.”

Vir had felt even this part of the Ashen Realm was depressing. It seemed the worst was yet to come.

“I’m kinda amazed there are even edible plants here,” he said, gazing down at the field of endless ash below.

“Most certainly. Most of the beasts here are carnivorous, but the lowest critters are always herbivores. Though, I’m unsure if you could call what grows here plants.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re closer to monsters who cannot move. The same prana that makes Ash Beasts so dangerous makes the plants here grow to many times their usual size. Some even become aware of their surroundings, ensnaring those who dare venture too close. A defense mechanism, but one that can end you if you’re not careful.”

It hardly came as a surprise to Vir that even the plants in the Ashen Realm were lethal. He wondered what wasn’t.

“I’ll be back shortly. I did not wish to leave you alone while you were asleep. Even up on this ledge where few Ash Beasts can reach, there are always dangers. Stay vigilant, but try not to move overly much while I’m gone. I suggest meditation.”

“I think I’ll take you up on that. Moving anything hurts.”

“Good. Now, I know you must be hungry, but I'll have to ask you to wait a while longer. It’ll be worth the wait, I promise.” Cirayus jumped off the ledge as if it were merely a single pace off the ground, gliding elegantly down to the base of the mountain, far below.

What a cheat, Vir thought. Balancer of Scales wasn’t merely powerful, it was absolute power. Touching the tattoo on his chest, he wondered if he, too, might own that ability one day. He added it to the dozen other questions he wanted to ask the demon.

Until he returned, however, all Vir could do was sit still and wait for the pain to abide.

It took all of thirty seconds for Vir to abandon that plan out of boredom, so instead he turned Prana Vision inward. The ability had always been active in a passive state, whether or not he concentrated on it. Normally, he’d have to actively send blood to his eyes to maximize its potential.

Now, though, his blood carried far more prana than usual. Vir estimated his blood’s carrying capacity had tripled since he’d entered the Ash, and it continued to grow as prana slowly seeped into him. Even after all that effort, his body still wasn’t at equilibrium with the surrounding prana, and he suspected this was the source of the lingering pain and soreness he felt.

The excess prana had exacerbated the issue with Prana Vision, clouding his sight to just fifty paces owing to the incredible prana density.

It was odd, seeing this much prana within himself. It reminded him of when he’d first mastered Light Touch—his original ability to keep the prana in his body from leaking out. Even then, it had never been perfect. The more his prana built up, the more it leaked. He’d never been able to build up nearly as much prana before.

For several minutes, Vir just stared at the dense prana circulating through his body, reveling in the sensation.

Wonder if it’s enough to power Talents now, he wondered, but soon determined that no, it wasn’t. Even Leap consumed an incredible amount, and his gains simply weren’t enough to bridge that gap. At least, not yet.

Cirayus said this area had some of the lowest concentrations of prana in the entire realm. Which also meant the beasts here were the weakest. Relatively speaking—the weakest Ash Beasts were likely comparable to the strongest ones in the Human Realm.

But that also meant he’d have more opportunities to stretch the carrying capacity of his blood as they ventured deeper. If he could power Talents like Leap, High Jump, or even Dance of the Shadow Demon with only the blood in his body…

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

For one, it’d give him an emergency reservoir to tap into, in case the ground prana ever became scarce. Not a concern in the Ash, but it’d serve him well everywhere else.

The other benefit was that he could use Talents midair. That opened up a whole slew of possibilities. For a moment, Vir imagined himself Leaping off skyships, or even air itself, flying through the skies on his own power.

He swiftly dismissed those delusions. It was likely Dance wouldn’t work in the air at all, and he was sure there’d be issues with the other abilities as well. Still, he looked forward to the day when he could experiment.

Until then, he’d have to satisfy himself with the less exotic, but equally exciting, experiments.

“Sorry, Cirayus,” he said through clenched teeth as he rose. “I’m gonna have to ignore your warning just a bit.”

The more he ruminated on his strength gains, the more it ate at him. Ultimately, he’d succumbed to temptation. Who could resist wanting to test out new powers? Especially after suffering so much for them; he felt like he’d earned it.

I’ll start small. Just one Micro Leap. Shouldn’t harm a thing.

Vir allowed a sliver of prana to enter from the ground through his feet… and found himself in great misery. The pain from slamming into the mountain face first was the least of it. He crumpled, holding his leg as the throbbing sensation turned into full-blown pain.

“Definitely a bad idea,” he hissed, wincing.

Out of habit, he directed prana to his leg, as that usually aided his recovery. This time, however, it was the worst thing he could’ve done. The pain flared even brighter, and darkness crept in at the edges of his vision.

Thinking quickly, he activated Parai’s Reverse Channeling technique, instead sucking the prana away from the wounded area.

That did the trick. The pain lessened enough for Vir to contemplate what had just happened.

Peering at his leg with Prana Vision, he groaned.

The blood in his leg had ruptured. It was obvious, in hindsight. His body had undergone an incredibly stressful change only hours prior, tripling its prana capacity.

Leap worked by drawing in prana from the ground… then supersaturated the blood in his body. That extra-dense flow of prana gave his muscles the explosive energy for the Talent. It was also what had hurt him.

His body was at max capacity before he’d activated the Talent. By adding even more from the ground, he’d rapidly and violently exceeded his blood’s capacity. When he’d activated Parai’s Reverse technique to acclimatize to the air, it’d been a relatively slow, gentle process. Stretching, Not bursting.

Vir lay there for a solid ten minutes, allowing the pain to subside before righting himself.

Definitely not doing that again, he thought, chuckling wryly.

After a moment’s reflection, his expression darkened.

This means I can’t use any Talents…

Not unless he wanted to cripple himself.

“Grak it!” he shouted. He’d just grown stronger. Even injured as he was, the fresh prana flooding his body made him rip with vitality. His Talents had grown far stronger—a lowly Micro Leap had sent him as far as the fully powered version normally did!

And now he couldn’t access that power? No. That wasn’t acceptable. There had to be another way.

There was. A bad one. Like when he’d first learned Empower, there was an easy solution to this. A hack. He could just expel prana from his body. In fact, he had two ways of doing exactly that. Parai’s Reverse Channeling technique, and Light Touch.

Except, instead of holding prana within him, he’d focus on pushing it away, like a dam holding back a raging river. Between the two, Light Touch was far more preferable, as it was something he could turn into a subconscious habit with practice. As he’d experienced earlier, Reverse Channeling took every ounce of his concentration. So much so, he wasn’t able to even move while maintaining it.

Of course, he couldn’t know whether this idea would work. It was just a guess; he’d never tried actively to expel prana before.

Vir focused on taking hold of the prana in his body and actively pushed it out. After having done the opposite for so long, it felt bizarre. Wrong.

The task was more difficult than he’d thought. Back in the Human Realm, he just let the dearth of ambient prana do the work, sucking prana out of him. Here, he had to push against the dense prana that dominated the surroundings.

To start, he mimicked the process from when he’d learned Light Touch at Riyan’s place. By focusing on controlling a small amount of blood, he could focus all his attention on the task. Controlling the blood was no problem—it was second nature to him at this point. Pushing it out of his body, however, was harder. It wasn’t just the pressure. The moment prana exited his body, he lost control of it as usual.

It turned out that merely pushing the blood to the very edge did nothing; it wasn’t as if he was shooting his blood out of his body, after all.

But then, he already had a technique that forced prana out of his body, didn’t he? Prana Blade did exactly that. And the key to making that work had been equilibrium.

Of course…

All he had to do was boost the density near his skin, and the equilibrium forces would take care of the rest. Pulling on his prana, he concentrated it next to the edge of his skin, and sure enough, once he’d attained a higher density than the surroundings, it escaped out into the atmosphere.

Which meant he’d need a thin layer of supersaturated blood near his skin, all around his body. It’d stretch his blood’s capacity to the max, but he felt he could swing it.

Vir spent the next two hours applying the technique to more and more of his body. Like Light Touch, it initially required active concentration, but unlike Reverse Channeling, it didn’t occupy every ounce of it. He was confident he could turn it into a subconscious process that persisted even while he slept.

The moment he reduced the saturation level of his blood within his body, all traces of lingering pain disappeared.

And that meant he could experiment with Leap.

He’d initially feared that lowering his body’s prana would weaken both his vitality and the ability. His fears were unwarranted. True, he had less prana now than before, but it was still several times more than what it had been in the human realm. He brimmed with energy.

Leap actually benefited. The ‘prana suction’ effect was now active the entire time. He didn’t even need to move blood from his feet up his legs anymore. Merely relaxing his control of the supersaturated prana near his skin caused ambient prana to rush in.

By keeping his body at a relatively lower prana level than his surroundings and only saturating the thin layer of prana near his skin to keep the ambient prana at bay, he’d essentially turned his whole body into a prana suction. And, because Ash prana dominated the air, he no longer needed to channel it from the ground up through his legs. It was there wherever he wanted it—his arms, his legs, even his head!

Vir laughed. He wondered if his past incarnations understood as much about prana as he did. If they came to the same solutions to overcome prana poisoning as he had. Or perhaps they had even better techniques for dealing with it?

“What’s so funny?” Cirayus asked, hopping up onto the ledge at that very moment.

“I’d always thought limitations were a bad thing,” Vir replied. “Guess sometimes, the workarounds end up being even stronger.”

“Oho?” Cirayus said, a hint of pride in his expression. “Show me what you’ve learned.”