Ignite the Sun
Chapter 100: New dawn

Chapter 100: New dawn

"Very well then." Sylara nodded with a serious expression. "You will most likely lose consciousness right after activating the ability, but that’s not a problem as it doesn’t require any additional input from you."

"When will I wake up?"

"Once the flame is done with the corruption - whether it manages to destroy it or not." With a wave of an arm she created a chair for him. "Please sit, I’d prefer if you didn’t get a concussion because you passed out and hit your head."

"Okay, so how do I activate the ability?"

"No Idea, it’s your ability not mine - I can tell you what you can or can’t do, the effects of your powers and give you general tips when it comes to controlling divine power, but actual ability usage? You’re on your own here."

Martyr worked by taking the corruption from a living being on yourself, so Calen could just try to grab the core and pull it towards himself.

He enveloped it in flame once more, and yanked it with all his strength.

Before he had a chance to register that something happened, everything went black.

***

From Sylara’s perspective Calen simply went limp in the chair - she was surprised how quickly he decided to use the ability despite the danger.

He might have thought about it a little longer, had any of his companions tried to dissuade him, but unfortunately they were all currently sleeping, leaning against one of the walls of the chamber.

It was a middle of the night after all - if everything went well they would be done by dawn.

Even though Calen took all of the corruption on himself, relieving her of the healing she was supposed to do, she still could help.

Instead of healing she decided to help Kaerith’s body reverse the changes caused by the Blight - the process would occur naturally, but with her help it will be significantly faster.

The former Blightborn wouldn’t wake up for many weeks of course, but just the physical changes may tell them much about the origins of the Serakhiin.

She placed both her hands on Kaerith and begun the long and tiresome process.

***

Calen found himself in a strange place - an empty and spacious void unlike anything in the real world.

It wasn’t the spiritual space he visited many times before though, for one it was white instead of black, but he also didn’t feel restricted here.

After a quick look around he realised his initial assumption that the space was empty wasn’t entirely correct - in the far distance he could see... something. He couldn’t make out the details, but considering it was the only thing here it was probably important.

"It’s gonna get ages to reach it... Maybe I can teleport or something?"

He blinked, and to his complete surprise he was suddenly standing right in front of that object.

"Huh."

He decided not to question the rules of the mysterious void, and instead focus on the only other thing in here.

The object was about as tall as he was, and its shape was reminiscent of a rotten fruit, but the material it was made of looked more like obsidian. Additionally, it’s entire surface was threaded with stone-like veins of varying thickness and length.

Oh, and it was also surrounded by a raging inferno.

Calen didn’t guess what the object was.

"If this is the core being consumed by my flame... then where the hell am I?"

He didn’t recall having a pocket dimension inside of his body, so the space had to be a visualisation created by his mind.

Was this his mindscape then? If so it was quite depressing - he knew he wasn’t the smartest, but his mind being literally blank would sting quite a lot.

He shook his head, this wouldn’t make much sense either, as a mindscape cannot be entered by an accident - it took hours of meditation or powerful spells to get in there.

Ultimately he had to assume that the space had something to do with the piece of domain he was connected to.

His eyes were fixated in the strange growth, now that it was visible to the naked eye he could see how unnatural it looked - it was almost like a misshapen organ, but made of inanimate matter.

At first glance the core didn’t show any signs of damage despite being ravaged by fire, but Calen was somehow sure that it was being destroyed. He couldn’t use True Sight in this space though, so he had no way of confirming it.

Suddenly something popped, and a thin crack formed in the onyx material - it wasn’t much, but it was a sign of progress.

"I wonder if I could speed this up?"

It wasn’t a stretch to assume that if the core was split in half the flame would have easier time destroying it, but there was another problem.

When Calen tried to touch the core his hand passed through it - apparently physical interaction wasn’t allowed in here.

He did seem to have a degree of control over the space, considering that he only needed to think in order to teleport.

"Time to use the power of imagination." He chuckled.

He faced the core and imagined two massive hands mimicking his movements to pull it apart.

At first he thought it didn’t work - no giant hands appeared, and everything was still, but then the crack widened and spread.

Just to be sure it wasn’t a coincidence and it wasn’t the flame that damaged the core further he repeated the action.

Sure enough, the fissure grew again.

He was about to put everything he got into splitting the growth, but something made him pause - he noticed a faint purple glow deep inside the crevice.

There was something inside the core, and it only made him more eager to smash it to pieces.

After few tries it became obvious that splitting something like that with bare hands wasn’t the smartest idea - the glassy rock chipped and shattered, but it also didn’t crack further no matter what he did.

"Right, new plan."

For now maybe he should prioritise getting to whatever was in the center of the core - which still necessitated a change of method, as he wasn’t getting anywhere with those hands.

Then he frowned.

Why was he using hands anyway? A chisel would be much more effective, and it’s not like he was restricted to a shape.

So he started chiseling - clumsily at first, only chipping away small shards, but it was still progress getting him closer to the... core of the core?

With each hit the light was becoming brighter and the colour more vibrant, until he hit it - the glowing center of the rock.

Carefully he removed the source of light and brought it closer in order to inspect it.

It was a gem no larger than a walnut in the shape of a four-armed star, and it shined a brilliant purple just like before.

"Curious..."

He was nigh certain that this wasn’t a part of the Blight, which could only mean that it was something the Serakhiin had before their corruption.

Calen was about to return to splitting the core, but something completely unexpected happened - everything that remained of it turned to dust and was swallowed by the flames, which also went out shortly after.

Perhaps the unnatural strength of the core could be attributed to the fact that it was built around something else, and once that something was removed the core fell apart as well.

He was left in the white void by himself, with a purple gem in hand - he really hoped that he didn’t have it physically in his body now, as he would rather avoid cutting himself open to return it to the rightful owner.

Speaking of returning, Calen didn’t have a clue how to get out of this place.

"Sylara said I would wake up after the process is finished, but nothing is happen-"

***

Calen jolted awake in his chair - between this and the visits to the spirit space he definitely wasn’t a fan of travelling through dimensions.

"How long was I out?" He asked Sylara.

"Around three hours, it’s almost dawn." She answered. "I see that you managed to emerge victorious, congratulations."

"I found something inside the core."

"Oh?"

He opened his palm to reveal the same gem he saw before - he wasn’t entirely sure how it got there, but he was holding it when he woke up.

"Do you know what it is?"

"Its an anchor, a piece of soul that binds it to a specific element or domain." Sylara explained.

"Can we give it back to him?"

"We can’t, but he will be able to do it himself once he wakes up." She pointed at Kaerith.

Only then did Calen realised how much the former Blightborn change.

"That’s... insane."

It was the only word that could describe what he was seeing - Kaerith’s body was unrecognisable, the stretched body build was gone, replaced by completely normal proportions.

His fierce features disappeared completely, making his face an epitome of elegance and beauty. The formerly gray skin was now a completely normal shade, although slightly pale.

What did remain however where the ears - elongated compared to human ones, but not comically so.

It took Calen a while to accept it, but it was undeniable: he was looking at an elf.

Sylara looked him in the Eye

"It seems this invasion might be much more convoluted than we have ever suspected."

[End of Volume 1: Sunrise]