The Phoenix's Maiden

Attack

Cain’s soldiers are getting ready to travel to the land of the blazing souls led by the abaddon that’s been blessed with power by his king. The army consists of spider demons, real spider demons unlike himself that’s just been turned into one, the best fellow abbadons that he could find, and harpies. They are estimated to be in thousands to make sure that they can overwhelm the enemy guarding the crystal, by numbers.

“Harpy – a creature in Greek-Roman mythology that is believed to be a wind spirit. Often described as a fabulous creature and in other versions like in video games and the legend of Jason as demonic flying creatures that feasts on flesh. In Homer’s Odyssey, Harpies are believed to be the winds that carries people away. They had the faces of a woman but has bird like wings and feet. They leave disgusting smell after snatching food from their victims.”

“My men!” Chigumo shouted to the army and their wailings and screaming were stopped. “Today is the beginning that we will make our king happy,” he added and the army shouted with pride in their hearts. “Retrieve the fire crystal at all cost,” he announced and he shouted while marching outside their cavern. “March to the land of the blazing souls!” he screamed again and again the army behind him screamed their battle cries.

Meanwhile in the land of the blazing souls, where the three is currently improving and training themselves for the soon big battle, unaware of the surprise attack that Cain has sent to them. Amber still separated from the two, is frustrated that she cannot master the art of controlling her aura while being monitored by Amaterasu who’s been tirelessly watching her.

“You need to put more focus and do not let your emotions overwhelm your mind. Casting spells is not that easy but you need concentration like making an art,” she remarked after noticing the maiden’s frustration when she fired a big fireball again. Her goal is to make a small but power concentrated fire ball that will destroy just one target. This is to conserve her energy and aura in a big battle.

“How?” she asked frustrated. She looked at her own hands reminded that she is just a failure after all. Amaterasu heard it but she paid no attention in that attitude of hers since she knew that spoiling her would not improve her. This is a part of the training and she needs to overcome it, to prove that she is worthy on keeping the crystal. If everything goes wrong for her, Amaterasu is willing to wait for another hundred years or even thousands just to pass the crystal on someone worthy.

“You learned channeling your aura to your hand but what you are doing is just letting it loose free leaking,” she said. “You need to prevent it from leaking, imagine that your hand is a faucet and you will just turn the handle to produce enough but efficient water,” she explained and now it’s much clearer what will Amber do when she uses human terms.

“Oh,” she replied cheaply. “I see, I will try that,” she added and she points her hand again on the rebuilt target for the 128th time. She closed her eyes and let her aura flow through her body to her hands where she will produce a fireball. Unlike before her whole body is tensed trying to prevent the aura leaking in her hands. She felt heat in her hands and she tried to propel it towards the target When it’s all over she opened her eyes and saw the target still standing in front of her unscratched.

“Embers, you produced just embers,” Amaterasu remarked and sadness hits Amber’s face.

“Oh,” she is saddened that she still did not get the result she wanted. She looks at her hands and clenched it after. Why? She asked herself, it’s been three days since she’s been training to control her aura that she can produce with control.

“Your mind is tensed,” she said telling the errors she saw. “Remember, the mind is the one commanding the flow and the body is the vessel, you need to take in mind these factors. All three should be connected to each other, you do that and you can control your aura at free will,” she explained the whole concept of it because she thought that mystic like her just needs a little push to move forward. It’s ironic that she gave her an advice and she does not want to spoil the maiden.

She thought that she will train her mental state piece by piece and mental strength can only be achieved by experience. “I will leave you here alone so that you can focus on your training and after some time I will see the result of your efforts,” she knew that she is pressured by her existence and expectations. She walks away and went straight to her room to get some rest.

While Amber is left alone in the chamber, she took a break and sits on the floor and let her back rest on the wall. When Amaterasu walked away it actually helped her relax a bit. She took a breather and thought about the goddess’s advice.

“Connecting all aspects into one huh,” she whispered to herself while staring at the rocky ceiling of the cavern. She closed her eyes and she visualize the time where she is beaten by her foster mother because she did not accomplish the order that was given by her. She cried all day long that time and she was reminded how useless she can be. She opened her eyes. “Snap out of it Amber,” she told herself while mildly slapping herself. “All that mental training for nothing, you are strong now and you are in your new world right now, mother is not here and no one will harm you again,” she told herself afraid her whole body is shivering. She is not aware that she’s been traumatized. “I am strong now and I can defend myself from her,” she told herself again and she did her best to stop the trembling. She stood up to resume her training.

She shook herself to focus on her training. Amber faced the target dummy and raised one of her hands again to shoot it with fireball. This time Amaterasu is not around so she thought that they will not be rebuilt again so she needs to be more careful to prolong her practice. Little what she know, the goddess puts a curse on the target dummies to be rebuilt when destroyed but she did not notify the maiden so that she will be wary of her actions.

“Weak but powerful,” she thought to herself. She generates her own logic that seems ironic to others but she just translated what Amaterasu meant in her own terms. Small fireball that can destroy the target easily. She closed her eyes again and she relax her body, she concentrates and discern her flowing aura inside her body.

Flow, she commanded herself and her hands mildly clenches as she starts to feel heat in her hands. Like a faucet, she reminded herself and she imagine a bullet when firing her fireball. In her hand she formed a small fire ball, size of a ping pong ball. She imagined a bullet firing rate and Amber opened her eyes and she pushed the fire ball towards the target. Like a bullet the small fire ball flew towards the target. Upon impact the fire ball exploded only destroying the dummy that she targeted.

Smile quickly formed in her lips and joy filled her heart. Her depression was instantly eased and she celebrated her achievement by jumping all around in the training room. Amaterasu was awoken because of that joy and she stands up in the bed to check on her.

Back to Amber, she witnessed how the target was rebuilt from pebbles again, but she did not pay much attention to it and she raised her hands again towards that target. Remember that feeling Amber, she told herself. She let’s her aura flow to her hand again and when the aura is about to form a fire ball, she immediately mildly clenched her fist to feel what closing the faucet really is, but this time she is witnessing everything because her eyes are opened. When a fire ball the same size as a ping pong ball was produced, she imagines a bullet again and shoots it towards the target and instantly it destroyed the dummy. She repeated the process again and this time towards the target much further than the previous one.

“Fire bullet,” she named her move and shoots it again. The target was destroyed but soon rebuild itself. She heard a clapping in her right and when she turned her head, she saw the goddess happily watching her.

“Bravo Amber, bravo,” she commended the maiden. “All you needed is just a little simple push,” she said. “I am really impressed on how a quick learner you are, but just a tip you can create hand gestures based on your move so you can use it efficiently and much faster, for example that move you just created, I believe bullets comes from a g*n. Am I right?” she asked and Amber nodded. “Then try forming a g*n in your hand and do that move again,” she instructed.

Amber faced the target again and she raised her hand towards it, this time instead of open palms she formed a g*n in her hand, where the thumb is raised and one of the fingers is pointing towards the target while the rest is clenched.

“Fire bullet,” she shoots a fire ball again and it happened much faster than before.

-The Phoenix’s Maiden-