Jiran’s Perspective

The moment Jiran felt the man’s aura, he knew something was wrong. The slimy surface of energy pressed against his own. It rippled and undulated like a sea urchin swimming through a sewer. He could feel it trying to corrupt his own energies, but he repelled it as easily as he had blocked the mana cage from stealing his mana as a child.

The man’s entire body glowed with an eerie red light just before he began to convulse with powerful seizures. A low, keening scream left his lips, prompting Jiran to make his move.

There is no way I can keep the girls safe and fight that thing at the same time.

He went to the twins first, not bothering with their chains or shackles he merely ripped them from the wall. Stone brackets with long metal nails embedded deep into the stone were torn free and dragged along behind the girls.

Without sparing a single second to check their condition, Jiran rushed to Mayalyn’s side and tore her shackles free. With girls and chains in tow, he flew out of the hole in the ceiling.

He had remained vigilant as he rescued them, never taking his attention away from the man who was rapidly progressing into a feral state. Luckily the process took several seconds, more than long enough for him to create some distance.

With the girls safely wrapped in his aura, Jiran rocketed away from the keep at his highest speed. The dilapidated keep crumbling behind him from the energies he released.

He didn’t stop until they made it to a high ridge at the edge of the valley. The twins were still unconscious as he set them down.

Mayalyn was not so fortunate. She puked the moment her knees and hands touched the ground. The incredible acceleration and rapid deceleration had been too much for her. Bile was all that escaped as she dry heaved onto the damp, prickly grass.

She must be starving. You don’t have to worry anymore, Mayalyn. I’ll get you some dinner soon.

Jiran’s eyes locked onto the figure floating above the keep far in the distance. A burning rage boiled in his veins.

He did his best not to look at Mayalyn. Seeing her bruised, nearly-naked body nearly made him explode with fury. Had he allowed those emotions to run wild, it would have put the girls in danger.

I can’t allow my emotions to get the better of me. Feel them flow, let them go.

Jiran took a deep, calming breath. Despite his efforts, his fists remained clenched.

I haven’t fought a tier six since the graymin Rook. This time is different though. I’m much stronger now.

Jiran spoke to Mayalyn while he focused on his enemy.

“You did a great job, Mayalyn. This will only take a minute. Then we can go eat plenty of delicious food, okay?" His tone was gentle but firm.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand while looking up at him. He could feel the fear in her eyes without returning her gaze.

“I’ll be fine. You just sit tight with the girls for a minute and I’ll be right back. I promise.” He allowed feelings of reassurance and confidence to seep into his aura, hoping they would help calm her.

“Please, don’t die,” He heard her whisper with a barely restrained sob on the edge of her voice.

Jiran leaped into the air and raced back toward what was left of the keep. He closely examined the changes that had come over the man since he became lost to the wilds.

His blond hair was now silver, and his eyes which once shone with the light of intelligence, now gleamed a menacing red. Sprouting from his chest and mouth, black vines pulsed with a sickly green light and spread across his skin like a vile parasite.

His aura was even more corrupted than his body. It vibrated constantly like a groundshake with no end. The tainted feeling from before now permeated his entire aura, manifesting it as a red-green bubble, visible to the naked eye.

When the wild creature saw Jiran, its eyes lit up and a shockwave of red light burst from its aura in every direction. The keep, once consisting of thousands of tons of rock and stone, was crushed into the ground, leaving only a flat discolored smear in the depth of the valley.

A keening wail escaped its lips.

“Miiiiiiiiine, Taaaaaaaaaake,” As the red wave of energy expanded across the valley, destroying everything in its path, it eventually reached Jiran.

Jiran stiffened his aura in preparation. When the red wave reached the protective layers of pressure within his aura, he felt the creature's emotions roiling like a thick stew.

Jiran could feel the creature's desire to consume. To take everything it saw as its own.

The wave of energy smashed through five of Jiran’s barriers before coming to a halt. Knowing the girls would be safe, now that he stopped the wave from traveling further in their direction, Jiran prepared for his own attack.

His mana pumped thickly through his fifth channel where it was converted into photons of light. He understood the basic duality of light, being both a particle and a wave. This understanding allowed the mana to become malleable while maintaining the speed and heat of a sun’s rays.

Once converted, the mana was forced into his first three channels. Three rings glowed a bright blue on the surface of his chest.

The luminous energy shone through his clothes as if the light they produced was not affected by solid matter. Had his opponent been anywhere close to sane, the sight would have served as a warning of immense danger.

He forced more and more of his reserves through the rings until nearly forty percent of his mana swirled within at the speed of light.

It doesn’t matter how hard I can swing, if I can’t hit.

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For the second time that day, Jiran activated his sixth mana channel.

Mana speared painfully through his brain and eyes. They began to glow bright green as if they had turned into fluorescent neon light bulbs.

The mana coursing through his brain amplified his processing speed, while also bridging the small gap between his ocular nerves and parietal lobe. This allowed sensory information to travel near-instantly between the two.

The visible world slowed to a crawl in an extreme exaggeration of a slow motion film.

A headache bloomed as his mana forced the sensitive organs to function at a far higher rate than they were meant to. Undaunted by the pain, Jiran held his focus in an iron grip, eyes never leaving his opponent.

“Miiiiiiiiine, Taaaaaaaaaake,” The red-eyed lost rushed at Jiran while wailing, closing the several-kilometer gap between them in a flash.

To Jiran’s enhanced senses, the creature moved through molasses as it advanced. It used multiple short-range teleports each second, allowing it to bridge the distance far more rapidly than Jiran could have moved.

Jiran lifted his arm in the direction of the oncoming disaster. The difference in his speed of thought and how quickly he could make his limb move almost caused him to lose focus. With great effort, he got his body under control and his palm pointed in the correct direction.

For a fraction of a second Jiran allowed himself to marvel at how far he had developed from his time as a child, when he could barely hold two shapings active at once.

Jiran refocused on the foe barreling toward him.

Jiran formed his aura into the shape of a thirty-meter-long cannon barrel. In the single second it took him to direct the energies, the wildling had traveled another four kilometers. It stopped its advance and raised both arms toward him.

A fireball began to form from its raised arms as its aura and mana condensed into a single cohesive attack.

That’s not good. Just forty percent isn't going to punch through that attack and the lost.

I’ve never gone above twenty percent before, forty was pushing my luck. Should I really go beyond?

Fuck it!

I’m going to be pissed off if this blows me up.

Throwing caution to the wind, Jiran forced eighty percent of his mana through his fifth and then into his first three channels. The light expelled from his chest became so bright that it washed out all the other colors in the world around him.

Jiran shielded his eyes from the incredibly bright black and white in his immediate vicinity. Meanwhile, the extreme fluctuations of particles within his body began to leak out and affect his surroundings.

The molecules in the air began to rapidly dance until their friction became so great they vaporized all the moisture around him. Matter began to split and tear from the stresses, creating an abundance of free neutrons that formed electric arcs which surged between his body and the air.

Jiran barely held the unstable reactions together. His emotions began to fade, and with them, his will crumbled.

No.

You came into MY house!

You hurt MY friends!

You touched MY woman!

DIE!

The blinding light of the sun bloomed from his palm. It crossed the space between them as if they were touching. The heat of the sun's surface washed over the feral, lost man. Both the creature and its blazing attack were consumed in the same instant.

Jiran screamed as his arm began to melt. He threw the last of his mana into protecting his body. He forced his cells to remain stationary amidst the heat-death that he unleashed onto the surface of Madra.

As the light faded, he looked on with a gaping mouth at the damage.

The beam had seared a path of black, scorched ground all the way to a two-hundred-meter tall hill at the far end of the valley. The top half of that hill oozed a steaming liquid. Molten rock and metal now washed down the remainder of the hill like melting butter.

The powerful Tier six was nowhere to be seen. Jiran marveled at the destruction his attack had wrought on this once-peaceful valley as a red mist descended upon him.

Olive’s perspective

Olive, held suspended in her father’s aura, watched Jiran with barely suppressed worry. She worked her lower lip between her teeth, unable to ease her own emotions. She had no fear for her own well-being as the feral creature once known as Silver unleashed a red wave of death across the valley.

Contrary to her fears, Jiran easily brushed off the higher tier attack with just his aura. His display of control once again left her frustrated at the gap between their skills.

“Impressive for a tier four,” Her father’s deep voice broke her train of thought.

“What?! I thought he was fifth tier,” Her disbelief was displayed in her wide-open eyes and mouth.

“If he’s only tier four, why aren’t you helping him? What if he gets hurt. Please don’t let him get hurt, Father!” She thrashed as panic seeped into her voice when she realized just how dangerous the situation was for her first real friend.

I finally found someone I can have conversations with that isn’t trying to use me or control me and I’m about to be forced to watch him die.

“Why are you making me watch this?” Fear gave way to defeat as her struggles to break free from his aura yielded less than no results.

“Just watch, daughter. You’re about to see something truly amazing.

“Can’t you feel it? Open yourself to the mana,” His deep voice calmed her.

Olive looked at the two, still figures. Jiran glowed a soft blue while the wildling blazed into a red inferno.

Suddenly, the light given off by Jiran escalated massively. They were so far away from the fight that the two figures were no more than pinpricks in the distance, yet the light was so bright, she had to squint her eyes.

She watched the lightning crackle around Jiran as his blue light condensed into an attack, formed at his palm.

So this is the Fireling.

Only a single moment in time later, an enormous beam of energy surged from his outstretched arm. It was taller and thicker than a three-story building. It crossed the distance between Jiran and the rogue Tier six before colliding with a distant, large hill. She could feel the heat of his attack from where she floated.

Her father must have wanted her to feel it. To not just see, but to fully understand the implications of what she witnessed.

The attack faded as quickly as it began, leaving a scar of destruction that would remain with this valley for a thousand years.

Olive did not realize she was holding her breath until her brain forcefully kick-started her lungs, causing a deep gasp of air to enter her body.

“Now do you understand why we need to question him, daughter?”

Olive carefully considered his words before responding.

“No, I still don’t agree with you,” She gently shook her head.

“He is already teaching his methods of his own volition. We should not do anything to jeopardize that goodwill of his. If we push him away, we stand to lose far more.”

“You’re not wrong, but I won’t risk him falling into the wrong hands,” She knew the resolute tone of his voice for what it was. Dominus had come to a decision and nothing in the empire could sway him.

“Father, what are you going to do?” The worry returned as she once more worked her lower lip between her teeth.

“Come, let us go say hello. It’s rude to watch a man work without praising his efforts.”