Riyxia awoke with a start, sputtering through water that didn’t exist. Finally being awake again, she was thus capable of vocally expressing her feelings of the moment.

“Sryine, what in the hells happened to you? Is that an illusion? Please tell me that’s an illusion. It’s just an illusion, right?” “So it seems my injuries are becoming a bit of a problem, and I would be very thankful if you would do the healing stuff instead of sputtering panic.. you know, before my clothes catch on fire. I think it might be smart to switch to an outfit that’s more fire resistant, especially in case this happens again. Oh, and be careful about yourself, you probably don’t want to catch on fire too.” “Fire.. what.. would.. with…” “Riyxia, later, healing first. Should be easy for you, just a few slices along my arm, nothing more. Heal that, close the wound, I’ll be fine.” Riyxia was finding expressing herself to be not as easy as she had first assumed, even being awoken by Sryine’s illusion. Having been rationally set to her task, Riyxia even noticed that there really was not much else to do. Sryine was injured with a series of cuts, first probably from the sandstorm, then later from the slices caused by her bow, then finally the beast that had reached her.. but absolutely no burns at all, despite being visibly on fire. Sryine hair moved again as Riyxia worked, marking Riyxia’s own arm with the flame.. that also left no burns. Instead, the flame felt.. soft? However, her own arm lit on fire in the process, something Sryine had to deal with using even more conjured water. In Riyxia’s case, it had actually ignited some of her clothing, which had started to burn, but her body itself left no marks more than the water. In fact, the two felt generally similar, the water and the flame. Sryine ensured an explanation covering the events that had just occurred while healing proceeded, then started to rinse herself down with a bit of conjured water so that she would stop burning.

“Vwyx is probably more of an expert in the area, but I think your body has adjusted naturally too, even despite your own design. That’s why your body doesn’t burn either. I know, I sound weird trying to claim that your body not burning sounds normal or natural, but unlike other people.. that is our normal/natural it seems... It’s like we have flame-treated bodies that have adjusted to the flame.” “Surprising, considering how the fire mountain was. That heat was unbearable, and I was suffering just as much as Ayzherie and Liyuzhe were.” “Well, you don’t know if you were suffering just as much, I’m guessing maybe a flame that strong was just too much for you. You were probably extra resistant, suffered less, was probably safer than the others.. but were still overwhelmed. Most likely, our bodies are just becoming more and more adjusted overtime. If you went back several years later, you might probably find yourself not quite as overwhelmed. We are just traces though, so it’s not like we can stand up to such raw intensity. At most, maybe your spectre.. that is almost completely just a flame after all.” Sryine took that moment to step in for Riyxia’s defense by igniting another beast in an illusion of flame with a touch.. killing that one too. She felt more warmth wash over her in the process, though she didn’t light on fire that time. Vwyx was going to love to hear that she was practically devouring minds in much the same way Riyxia devoured essences. Having had such a direct experience with her own nature, she had even accepted what she really was, and was rapidly becoming comfortable with her own flame. It was actually missed by her that she had started feeling more uncomfortable by normal fires rather than purple ones, like the non-purple ones were the strange and foreign versions.

“Riyxia, are you there? I just noticed that Sryine’s comset is offline.” “Oh, yeah, she’s fine. Needed some healing finally, so we took care of that. No idea what her comset is doing, you would have to look into it if it doesn’t come back up soon.” “Well, that might be for the best. She would probably be really troubled if she saw what I just learned I could do. It seems that while my gift for shaping stuff only applies to inorganic stuff.. my other gift can have some very.. rough applications when it comes to shifting the composition of living things while augmented.. especially when left to this level of destruction. It’s seriously close range, but while touching a beast I was able to.. I guess deprive it of its living chemistry. It felt like I .. drank its blood from my hands, through its own body. Worse, my hands are now glowing purple.. Sryine would probably faint if she saw this.” “Oh, uh, if you’re glowing like that, I would recommend maybe using your gift to make your clothes non-flammable.. especially near any injuries you might have.” “That’s very oddly specific. Did I miss something? I missed something, didn’t I?” Vwyx was clearly not being left completely out of the loop of these events either, that was all too obvious for Riyxia, even if Vwyx as of yet didn’t fully understand it all. Sryine was quietly listening nearby, doing her best to avoid laughing at the claim that she would be the first to faint at these events. Riyxia didn’t miss such either, even as she stuttered in a moment of embarrassment. However, thankfully they were again interrupted by more of the beasts, leaving no room for more discussion. Riyxia divided the essence of a couple more beasts while Sryine tore apart another mind.

Sryine was wondering why it was the secondary gifts inherited by the flame that has provided this devouring aspect for the other two, but in her case it was her original gift that was providing her with the same. That idea didn’t make much sense.. but there was another common ground to consider. All of their devouring involved very close range to their flame, which was Riyxia’s spectre in her own case. Playing alchemy with blood was most likely just working because it held enough of a context.. though that did make her recall stories in the Terran Mythos of creatures called Vampires. It probably just required too much complexity to have a craft shaping result in draining people’s blood.. or something like that. It wasn’t even to say it was impossible, but to keep things at close range while using tools that were melded to the idea by impulse.. that still sort of worked.. it was asking for a bit much. Her own gift, conjuration.. that would be like infusing someone right beside her with an element, taking apart their physical composition, turning them into nothing more than energy, and then absorbing that. Very possible.. but absolutely terrifying. Throwing around energy in her face like that would be incredibly dangerous, it’s why she hadn’t resorted to that in the first place. But.. she knew of one person who could still test her theory.

“Riyxia, could you help me with a quick test.. something to reduce future surprises. Could you work with your gift to.. unmake a beast using your fist? Make sure your spectre is in your body for the whole thing.” “What? The last time I unmade one of these things while in this degree of destruction mode.. it turned into a puddle that lit on fire. Puddles don’t burn, I know you know that.” “Purple flames are harmless to us though, it’s nothing to be afraid of. Worse is getting surprises while not prepared.” Sryine left Riyxia staring at her again, after claiming that being lit on fire by an astral flame wasn’t something to be afraid of. Riyxia sighed, herself getting curious where this was going too. She confronted another beast and thrusted a punch towards it.. that missed. Of course, she was playing with these beasts.. and they were far too powerful to be played with. The beast danced behind her and sunk its fangs into her back. Screaming in pain and agony, she spun around in her rage and smashed her foot into the beast, still remembering to instil her gift in the motion even despite forgetting the fist request. Her foot started to itself glow purple, much like similar experiences with everyone else. For a moment, this wasn’t a problem.. but then the injury in her back changed from bleeding blood to bleeding fire, just the same as Sryine. This was thus worse, because there was quite a lot of cloth on her back, and the case of blades was suddenly in the way.

Sryine took the case for Riyxia, taking up a feeling of responsibility for the results as she warped them both to where Vwyx was. Sryine then started trying to coat Riyxia’s back with water, to slow the progress of the flame. Riyxia’s hair was already on fire too. Vwyx had just finished smashing her weapon into another beast, having been avoiding getting too close to her foes and turned towards the two girls. She knew this was Sryine showing up, so Vwyx tried to hide her hands to reduce any worry Sryine might have had. All pretense for that idea ended when Vwyx turned around.. and then screamed.

“So you know, this isn’t even a first. I’ll manage the fire, just fix her back so she stops bleeding fire, please.” “What…” “Fixing, then discussions. Riyxia is hurting right now, and there are still lots of beasts around. I think we all have some pretty serious need of flame resistant outfits too, if you can manage that quickly. Just make sure you don’t light on fire too, or I’ll have to soak you as well. At least you’re the one here with short hair, we won’t have to worry about that.” Sryine was the only one with the most free-flowing hair of the group, so she couldn’t help but appreciate how Vwyx’s short hair did work for their situation. Vwyx delivered as requested, leaving an opportunity for Vwyx to catch up to the current situation. Vwyx also realized that she wasn’t the only one with a glowing hand.. Sryine’s whole arm was still glowing. Vwyx at least did have two glowing hands, though it seemed Riyxia had a glowing leg, in addition to a series of blades.. most of which got left behind.

Sryine perked up in alarm at this insight, leaving Riyxia in Vwyx’s care as she rushed back to check on the blades. Instead, she found a blazing purple inferno. She knew she couldn’t move the blades, they weren’t at all designed to be carried, she would instead have to deal with the flame itself. The disaster that had caused this situation had also sparked the idea that she needed to resolve it. Riyxia had proven, they had options when it came to the flame. Riyxia could use her spectre to take the flame, or steal it with her gift. This implied that either of Sryine’s gifts could negotiate the flame, but one of them was designed for energy much like the flame. She tried to move and manipulate the flame before her, but Riyxia’s flame would not respond to her will. Of course, the three traces were basically on par with each other, there was no way she could hope to control Riyxia’s flame. However, Riyxia wasn’t here, this flame was free, she just needed to first make it her own.

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Illusions would not help her against a foe that wasn’t living, so again she was left thankful for the understanding she could rely upon either gift. It’s just, there would be a minor cost to pay before she could achieve much of anything with that knowledge. She still had the case of blades on her back, which gave her a simple edge to work with.. actually literally. She pulled her sleeves back and took the case off, drawing a portion of her arm across the blade that opened a wound once again. Just the same, the blood ignited instantly. This flame was her own, something she had learned to control, and thus it was perfect for her goals. She took control over the flame much like she might have any other flame, the sphere of purple fire blazing in the air. She dipped this flame in turn over each of the other flames, letting her own flame drink from the free fire, taking it all in. She continued until she had gathered all of the flames discarded by the blades, leaving the blades on the black glass she had found them on.

All that was left was to do something about the massive collection of flame. Her first thought was to try and give the flame to the fragment she was still carrying around.. but that didn’t prove successful at all. Was the fragment really incapable of using her own flame, the flame of a trace? That implied that, while the fragment had a lot of raw energy, it was a lower grade flame than her own.. which was probably why they were able to feed from its flame rather than it fed from their own. That also meant there was nothing else around her that could sustain her flame.. other than herself. There was nothing else she could do about it, she would have to try to inject her flame into herself. Carefully manipulating her flame through the process, she made use of her own injury to infuse herself with her own flame, leaving her whole arm to glow even brighter. The presence of the flame balanced itself out, leaving a portion of her torso to begin taking on such a purple hue hidden under her clothing, her neck exposing the progression. It was very obvious she had far too much of the flame at this point, and really needed to pass the shield off to someone else. Knowing this, she returned to the others to see how well Riyxia was doing.

“Disaster averted.” “Wait, what happened?” “The blades were freely burning up the sands. There was quite a lot of fire there, who knows how far it would have spread before fading away.” Sryine was starting to get tired of being stared at like this, but Riyxia took note of Sryine’s neck. Sryine hadn’t just dealt with the flame, she had immersed herself in it, and was now working with more than any of them. Riyxia took the shield in her concern, a point Sryine didn’t fight against. At this point, Riyxia was actually the least infused of all of them, so that was only fair. Vwyx knew however that she herself wasn’t that far off, Sryine was the one with a considerable advantage here. For the one who was so terrified of the very flame she had so completely immersed herself in… Vwyx suspected there would be a lot of exchanges of the fragment between herself and Riyxia for a while before Sryine would get it again. Vwyx also ensured that Sryine’s outfit was updated with non-flamable material too, something Sryine had missed during her absence. This might have been for the best too, as Sryine hadn’t remembered to disclose her own self-inflicted injury yet, and no one else had noticed. Since the blood was effectively just flame at this point, Sryine’s control over the flame was leaving no obvious signs of any flaming bleeding.

Meanwhile, the three of them had been compacted into a single area for long enough for the collection of beasts remaining to assume that such a place was the place to hang out. Thus, the three girls found themselves overwhelmed very quickly. Riyxia possessed some of the blades Sryine was still carrying, taking the remainder back in the process, while Vwyx turned to her supply of grenades and the giant hammer she had been using. It was at this point too that Sryine recalled that she had continued to neglect her bow.. the quiver of arrows.. and had now even misplaced the rapier. She created an illusionary crossbow, something that would provide her with enough range that she wouldn’t be consuming even more flame as she defended herself. At this point, she needed less flame, not more, it would almost be preferable to find a better way to spend the flame faster. Actually.. that might really work. Rather than leaving the illusionary crossbow to load an illusionary bolt, she let the flame drip from her arm into the illusion, gathering and controlling the flame as she had earlier. The flame was itself raw destruction, but the flame was in her blood at this point.. and her gift was empowered by her blood. At this point, destruction was inevitable with anything her gift might attempt. She knew her flame would fade quickly if dispersed, much like the flames of her victims, so there was even less concern for consequences here. She just needed a very wide area, her gift wouldn’t even be designed for destruction.. only transport. It was her flame that would be taking over from there. Knowing this, as the others brandished weapons and prepared to face the beasts for themselves, she fired.

It was very fortunate that their clothes were rendered with tolerance to the flame for that moment, as Sryine’s flame was all too eager to spread destructively. A mass area around them was submersed in a short period of flame, which was still incapable of lasting much longer than a few moments, but indisputably made the most of the time that was offered to it. A purple haze of flame washed over everything, leaving the sand partially shifted to black glass, from the coast near the fire mountain straight to the mountain range, only barely stopping a distance from the last remaining tree presence in the area. Any creature in that same area, excluding the three traces of the flame.. nothing more than a husk of ash. The augmented beasts affected had each burst into flames in their deaths. It was fortunate that the camp wasn’t anywhere close to that area, or there would have been possibly some serious casualties. Liyuzhe’s camp would have been fine too, but it was certain their other party had already departed.

“So, honestly, that actually feels a bit more comfortable. Carrying around all that dense flame is kind of uncomfortable.. like taking off a heavy jacket during a warm day. On the other hand, now I can see why we might be called very destructive.. as this sort of destruction is something I just called comfortable. That feeling.. leaves me a bit less comfortable. I hope we can find a better way to do this, because I still have a lot of.. enriched blood to work with.” Sryine had put a bunch of flame into that one shot, hoping it would be enough to deal with the threat before her.. and surprised to find she might have used a bit too much. Her neck was no longer purple.. but her flame hadn’t receded much further than that. By estimates, if she had saturated her whole body to a flame of the same level, and then unleashed everything in a fiery blast.. taking out an entire continent of the world might not be beyond her. Worse, she wasn’t even sure if that was her limit, she might even be capable of more than that. Destroyer of worlds.. that actually was starting to feel like it might fit. Even as just a trace, any of them had the potential to end a world. If Celese’s flame was fully unleashed, it could easily do far more. If the Source was unleashed completely…

Vwyx, the only one who still had a comset that was working, confirmed that there were no survivors.. at least on the sands. Still, each of them feeling rather infused, they decided that taking a bit of a walk back.. maybe with the occasional warping.. might be better than going back with the others. After a quick report of the situation, Ayzherie set off without the three girls, having been successfully waiting in the air already as things stood. On their return trip, they didn’t detect any augmented beasts. In fact, along their way, they weren’t confronted by a single beast. Still faintly glowing in their purple haze, all of the wildlife on their path took great efforts to get out of their way, including any beasts. Not even their sleep was disturbed, leaving things rather quiet for Riyxia. While sleeping, she noticed that her body would quickly lose its purple hue.. most likely because that same hue was instead following her spectre around. She had even asked the others, learning that while she doesn’t show up as purple patches anywhere, she does seem to shimmer far more brightly than before. Walking around, she noticed that the shimmer of her friends was also much brighter.. especially Sryine. Such a shimer was actually harder to notice with the purple glow exposed, it was only a visible difference when she couldn’t see them directly. The glow probably was simply too.. vibrant. Sryine’s exposed arm left the night sky bright enough that none of them needed a campfire. Vwyx was even perfectly capable of lighting her own way in the dark with her own arms. Riyxia was starting to feel disappointed at having only delivered her circumstances with a kick, her covered leg generating no real light. However, it was in those moments that she found the shield glowing in response, providing a light for her own use. Sryine had actually found it hardest, her own subtle brightness making sleeping a bit more elusive for her without the special cover Vwyx had prepared for her to dim her flame.

Each day they spent in their serene journey, they noticed their flame had partly receded back towards normal. By the third night, the three girls had finally returned to the camp, having made a few shortcuts with the help of Sryine’s gift.