'He's the one that Grandmother told Mother and Father to warn me about, is he not?' Reinheart thought. 'Grand Templar Sigmund is coming here to kill him... Will I gain the credit If I do it myself instead?'

Underneath his perfect external appearance and kind personality lay an extremely religious and filial young man. His loyalty to his grandmother, the archpope of the Church of the Primals, in particular, was very strong.

If she wanted this foxkin dead, then wouldn't she be incredibly happy if he, her prized grandson, was the one to make so? 'He's a triple-S-ranker while I'm only a C-ranker, but there's no way that someone like him with a personality like his wouldn't have committed several crimes in his life. The holy magic of my spirit should be able to kill him if I focus its power into his helmet's mouth and eye holes.'

"I'll be attacking now, Lone," Reinheart announced.

Lone nodded. "Go ahead."

'Spirit of Light, Use all of your energy and funnel it into his helmet's mouth and eye holes,' Reinheart ordered via their spiritual link.

The spirit looked at him and spoke directly into his head. 'All of my power? Are you sure? The price will be heavy. At best, you won't be able to walk for a month, at worst, you may permanently lose an eye and several bodily functions. You are still a fresh and weak vessel.'

'Yes, all of your energy. Every last drop. He is a very strong and resilient man. I doubt anything less than your best effort could end his life. I will bear the consequences of channelling your power through my body, do not worry. Grandmother won't punish you if I speak up for you,' Reinheart answered.

'Very well. So be it.' Raising her hand, the spirit pointed her palm at Lone's chest.

A split-second later, a blinding light wrapped in fire burst forth from her palm and shot straight towards Lone. It was so bright, in fact, that everyone was momentarily blinded, Professor Ruairidh included.

Using that moment when everyone was desperately shielding their eyes or adjusting to the light, the spirit tilted her aim so that the beam of fiery light was now heading towards Lone's head. It quickly split into three smaller projectiles which then each entered an eye hole or the mouth hole.

Lone didn't react. He didn't scream nor flinch. He simply stood there as he endured the blasting heat and incredible pressure of the attack.

Only 2-seconds had passed before a massive hand appeared out of nowhere and blocked the attack. Immediately, the spirit lowered her own hand, stopping the beam.

Professor Ruairidh slowly shook his now-smoking palm as he lowered his arm. "Student Reinheart, What was th-"

"Wow, that was pretty cool," Lone said before he laughed shortly.

The students were still readjusting to the room's light levels, but Professor Ruairidh and Reinheart both wore shocked expressions on their faces.

"You're okay, Student Lone?" the Lorian Giant asked with a disbelieving tone.

Lone scoffed. "C'mon, like something that weak could ever kill me. Heck, it barely even hurt me." He willed the bones of his helmet to recede back into his body, revealing his perfect and handsomely arrogant face.

He was smiling from ear-to-ear and not even a single hair on his head seemed misplaced. Why, even his short stubble was perfectly fine.

"I-Impossible..." Reinheart was beyond shocked. He was downright mortified. 'This... How... Is he actually pure of heart? Has he never committed even a single sin? No, but then the fire damage would have still burnt his mouth to cinders and eradicated his eyes before seeping into his head and doing the same to his brain... Do-Does he have total immunity to fire magic? But that's not possible... Perhaps master rank in Fire Magic Resistance? But even with a 95% weakening effect, there would still be traces of the attack left...'

Lone smirked at the young man. "Why'dya look so confused?"

"E-Eh?" For maybe the first time in his life, Reinheart was genuinely flustered.

"I told you guys, right? I've endured the breath of the late Ancient Darkness Dragon Ythmagobla. Something like this won't hurt me, though mind you, it stung like a real bitch. I'm guessing you misfired or something though, right? You hit my helmet's face holes, after all, not my armour," Lone's grin couldn't get any smugger even if he wanted it to. "Right?"

"Ah, um, yes, I don't yet have perfect control over this skill since it's new and still only beg... inn... er... lev..." Reinheart couldn't finish his words. His Spirit of Light glanced at him before it left for the realm that it came from.

The man's body collapsed onto the floor as blood began pouring out of his eyes. The younger and more sheltered students screamed in terror while the more wizened and battle-experienced ones frowned as they watched the perfectly healthy young man fall into unconsciousness.

Professor Ruairidh immediately checked on Reinheart's condition. "Hmm... It looks like he overextended himself. He allowed his spirit to channel too much of its energy through him. I wouldn't have expected such a beginner mistake from him. Regardless of the skill's rank, he is still an expert at handling Mana Points from what I've heard... He may never be able to walk again and there's a huge chance that his vision will become blurry. I'm also sensing some weakness in his left ear..."

The Lorian Giant was overcome with massive regret. 'I'll probably lose my job over this, won't I? It was my responsibility to look after my students, and I was the one who encouraged him to use his subskill... I suppose the best thing that I can do is announce my resignation and offer a formal apology to the church before returning to the tribe...'

Lone stroked his chin as he wore a ponderous expression. "Nah, he'll be fine. He's just exhausted. I think you're panicking a bit too much, Professor."

"Sorry?" Professor Ruairidh looked at Lone with a sceptical and confused gaze.

Lone smirked and placed a hand on Reinheart's shoulder. a moment later, he used his other hand to slap the man across the face.

"What do you think you're doing?! You're going to kill him!" Professor Ruairidh was, suffice to say, furious. From his perspective, Lone was only making a horrible situation even worse.

"Uh... Wha... What's going on?" Reinheart muttered as he woke up from the resounding impact and stinging pain coming from his cheek.

Lone patted his shoulder a few times then happily said, "See? He's fine."

Reinheart stumbled up onto his feet and looked around in bewilderment.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Oh, thank the Primals... He's okay..."

"I was so worried for a minute there. Professor Ruairidh made it sound like he was crippled..."

"I guess he was just being overly worried."

"Well, he's a professor, so he has to be worried about his students."

"Right. Still, I felt like someone had stabbed me when I saw the blood coming out of Reinheart's eyes."

"Spirit-related skills have always been taxing on the caster. Reinheart must have pushed himself too much."

"Still, Lone didn't take any damage at all..."

"That demi is weird. I bet I'd have died if I took that attack head-on."

"Right, likewise."

The older and more knowledgeable students kept their mouths shut. They, like Professor Ruairidh, were stunned into silence.

They all knew how foolish and dangerous it was to allow a contracted spirit to overuse its contractor's body as its conduit and vessel. They could all only hope that Reinheart had accidentally overestimated his abilities and not purposely risked his life to endanger Lone's.

They also couldn't help but fear Lone's ability to endure such an attack and seemingly reverse the side-effects on Reinheart's body from his fusion subskill.

Lone smiled once again and glanced at their Lorian Giant teacher. "Well? Was that a good enough demonstration? I don't mind showing off my Bone Armour a bit more if you want me too. I can attack myself with non-blinding magic so everyone can see my armour's effects and strength."

Seeing this as an opportunity to move past this situation, Professor Ruairidh nodded. "That would be great, Student Lone." He then leaned in and whispered into the foxkin's ear. "Stay after class for a moment. We need to discuss what just happened."

Lone shrugged in acknowledgement.

----------------------------------------

"So, Student Lone. How did you do that? No skill nor subskill I'm aware of is capable of reversing the effects of Spirit Burden." Professor Ruairidh had brought Lone to a lounge.

Apparently, The Academy had hundreds of these lounges with each classroom having a sub-dimension that's sole purpose was to act as a lounge. Lone saw that as a bit wasteful, personally.

The Lorian Giant scratched his chin as he added, "The best that I can come up with right now is some sort of newly discovered time magic skill, but time magic is very theoretical and experimental. At most, even the best time mages - excluding Divine Time - can only rewind time by 5-seconds, and, of course, only on their bodies, nothing else. If you have somehow learned how to reverse time on another person's body and make the newly reversed aspects the permanent aspects of the person's body... Well, that's revolutionary, Student Lone. You'll be rewarded handsomely by the Society of Time Monarchs if that's the case."

'Headmaster Erion is Divine Time, right? I wonder if he can do anything as powerful as Soph's Minor Time Control...' Lone stopped thinking about things that he wouldn't get answers to here and instead lifted his head and said, "Can you please not talk for, like, 5-minutes? I'm busy going over my skill level-up notifications."

"Ah, uh, my apologies," Professor Ruairidh responded instinctively to Lone's almost chiding tone. 'That... That was unexpected. He gained some level-ups from that short lesson? What a shock.'

Lone stopped paying attention to the Lorian Giant and instead returned to his notifications.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 9.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 9.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 10.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 1.

The host has developed the passive skill: Holy Magic Resistance.

The host has developed the active fire magic skill: Fire Spirit.

The host has developed the active holy magic skill: Spirit Reinforcement.

Lone paused the notifications at that point. For now, he wanted to see exactly what these three new skills did, in particular, the latter two. Resistances were pretty cut and dry, but he still pulled up the information for the newly ranked up Fire Magic Resistance as well as the new Holy Magic Resistance.

Passive Skill: Fire Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Fire Magic.

Fire Magic used on the host will be weakened by 60% [+30%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Expert Level 1

'Nothing new, just like when Water Magic Resistance hit expert-rank. I guess master-rank is when the normal resistances gain extra effects,' Lone theorised.

Passive Skill: Holy Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Holy Magic.

Holy Magic used on the host will be weakened by 5%.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'As expected,' Lone commented internally before he pulled up the fun-sounding new active skills.

Active Fire Magic Skill: Fire Spirit

A skill that allows the host to channel the essence of fire and connect themselves to the fire region of the Land of the Primals.

Once connected, the host may attempt to call out to a suitable fire spirit to contract themselves to.

Cost: 50,000 MP (The cost shall be adjusted to match the power of the contracted fire spirit after the contract is formed) Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Wow. I've only ever heard about the Land of the Primals and read about it in books... I wonder if I can enter it astrally or something? I'm kinda hyped to test this skill out. Still, that's one beefy initial cost. I guess that explains why not everyone has a magical spirit bound to them. Just connecting to the Land of the Primals is so pricey, and even then, you're not guaranteed a successful attempt at contracting a spirit,' Lone thought before he looked at his final new skill.

Active Holy Magic Skill: Spirit Reinforcement

A skill that allows the host to reinforce their connection to the Land of the Primals.

Each attempted reinforcement has a 5% chance of success. Upon a successful reinforcement the host's connection shall be strengthened by 0.5%.

As the host is a demi, their connection level starts at 50%.

As the host is the avatar of Void, Sky, Darkness, and Radiance, the host's connection level has been boosted to the maximum.

Current connection level: 100%

Cost: 7,500 MP per attempt. Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Uh, okay... So, a useless skill, but, like, only useless to me? That's a damned shame. Well, I can kinda feel the Primals in my soul a bit now, so maybe my connection to the Land of the Primals will help me find the remaining 5 Primals?' Lone hoped before he cracked his neck and continued reading his notifications.