Chapter 277 P1: Heavenly Flames.
Chapter 277 P1: Heavenly Flames.
Ten minutes had already passed since Linn was trying to cure the evil energy that had invaded her magical flows, yet Alvine could see that she had not progressed in her healing.
Noticing this abnormality, he opened his eyes after treating the little information he had seen following the curse tests. 'Sigh, she should not have a problem suppressing this energy as normal, so what takes her so long?' He asks himself while checking Linn's condition with his perception.
"!"
'Sigh, It seems that the sealing spell she used to compress her core is not as simple as it looks.' He concludes after noticing Linn's magical energy, which had decreased considerably in the worst possible way.
Then, without thinking twice, he shared his energy with her through the shadow link he had established with her instead. But at that moment, he realized something even more worrying. The energy of the curse instantly contaminated the energy he had sent to Linn!
And instead of helping Linn, he somewhat unconsciously strengthened the energy of the curse that had contaminated his energy and absorbed it to strengthen itself more.
"This curse is more and more interesting! Hm? Why do I admire this skill instead of trying to find a solution? It's--
*Cough!! *
"!" Before he finished his words in his thoughts, his face darkened when he heard Linn cough while spitting black blood!
He then touched Linn's dark forehead and instantly saw the curse spread through his hand.
"Tsk, this damn curses!" While swearing in rage, He used his other hand to remove black blood from Linn's purple and crispy lips and then approached his face to his own.
"You have no right to die for the moment, not to mention keeping my promise; I also have plans for you." While whispering these words to her, he kissed her on her lips and began her toxic kiss while attracting all the energy of the curse he could toward his body.
At just ten seconds, Alvine's body also turned black. But he has not yet used his black flames to eradicate the curse that affected him; instead, he released Linn's lips out of breath.
"*Cough! * It's still not enough!" While stammering these words with red blood eyes because of the pain of the curse that seemed more ferocious for his body than Linn's.
"This pain is nothing in the face of the pain I felt during the tribulations! I can...!! Cough!! Cough!!! Damn it! I can always do it!" He thundered these words while instantly turning into his incubus shape, which was more suitable for effectively manipulating energy.
But he didn't stop at that alone; he thrust his fangs that were already exposed in Linn's neck and directly, trying to suck all Linn's contaminated blood. But at that moment, he reached his limits after just two bites!
Realizing that Linn's contaminated blood he had sucked was happily booing towards his heart, more precisely towards his central Dan-tian, he moved away from Linn, spitting the rest of the black blood that he could not swallow, and sat five meters from Linn, using full power, his black flames not only on his body but also inside, instantly annihilating the unknown energy that gnawed at him from the inside and outside.
After about two seconds, he approached Linn and proceeded, as usual, kissing her and sucking her blood to prevent the progression of the curse.
The reason he frequently used these two methods was that by embracing Linn, the evil energy that wanted to reach her upper core would be absorbed by him along the way. The same is also for the evil energy that borrowed Linn's blood flows to reach her heart and corrupt the central dan-tian. It was the most effective solution of the moment.
Thus, even if the slow and painful process had taken more than an hour, his will did not wave even for some time. He only stopped when he noticed a significant improvement in the state of Linn after confirming that the energy he had shared had arrived safely, namely, in its central core.
By noticing this detail, a satisfying smile emerged on his lips. He then closed his eyes and continued to help Linn increase her energy.
Linn, in turn, no longer had a problem getting rid of the energy of the curse with his powers. Her dark skin gradually returned to normal as the seconds evade in minutes.
Thus, after three more minutes, she slowly opened her eyes and saw Alvine sitting in front of her with the white pieces that had become half black with black blood sprinkled everywhere.
But she paid no attention to the astronomical amount of blood she had lost nor to the horror of the white room. Instead, her golden eyes looked at Alvine, who had dark black skin and was half corroded by curses.
"Don't waste... my efforts. I... can manage this evil energy...as I had done dozens...times." Alvine hardly articulated these words when he saw Linn approaching him.
"..."
She sat looking at Alvine, who was in his incubus shape and in the middle of the black flames that seemed to be harmless because of their slight heat that did not increase the temperature of the room in any way. But seeing what Alvine had accomplished so far with these flames since his heavenly tribulations until now, she could not afford to judge them with common sense.
The weather seemed both faster than expected; despite being in a particular room that slowed down the passage of time, twelve hours passed yet without them even realizing it.
"So?" She asked when she saw Alvine recover from all his injuries after erasing all the evil energies in his body.
"Huff, As I have a way to remove the effects of this curse with my flames, the most important thing at the moment is to know how to transfer this curse into me." Alvine calmly pronounced these words, removing his luxurious clothes in shreds because of the insufficient control of his flames.
"Wait, instead of breaking your head trying to take so many risks, why not burn the curse directly at the source?" She proposed by designating herself.
"I had already thought about it, but do you think you can resist flames that burned this curse that you can't get rid of? As you can see, my control is not perfect with these flames. If I try to use them to burn the curse in your body, you may be the first to be consumed before the curse energy. The dangers are even more disproportionate because of the root of the curse that is embedded deep into your lower core."
"It's...we won't be able to know it without the experiment. My constitution is solid against physical and magical attacks. I am only in this state because the curse has reached the most vulnerable place against malicious attacks. But your flames must be of an opposite nature to be so effective against evil energy, even if their colors do not give this impression."
"... What do you mean by that? To my knowledge, holy flames are all white or golden colors, unlike demonic or evil flames, which are black, purple, or other dark colors. On top of that, even I don't exactly know what all the effects of these black flames are. Apart from my energy and my body, they burn everything in their passages, not to mention that they also cause frightening hallucinations when they envelop a living target. But also...bring the soul itself to refine it!" By listing the characteristics of his flames of Gehenna that he had observed so far, he gave these explanations in the hope that Linn would find an adequate solution.
But the latter frowned.
"It is impossible that such flames could exist. Even the four heavenly flames cannot have such effects." She says in a confident tone.
"Heavenly flames?"
"Yes, there are so far four celestial flames that are mysterious entities and have intellects and bait the cultivators to possess their bodies to continue to cultivate themselves more to become powerful, Have been discovered."
"Never heard of it," Alvine answers instinctively.
"The four celestial flames are flames with ranks and power that is not negligible even for the primordials! They are the flame of icy frost, the flame of rebirth, the flame of extinction, and the holy flame of the goddess."
-The flame of icy frost is a frosty white flame that can instantly freeze a lava sea in the blink of an eye. Its power lies, as you can imagine, in the cold. No matter the power of a divine mage, once touched by this flame, he is condemned to be an ice sculpture for eternity.
-The flame of rebirth is a flame that, if I rely on stories, was born with the Phoenix. It is a flame that can bring anyone back to life. Anyone who has managed to tame this flame will become an immortal who can be reborn instantly while keeping his rank even if his soul is reduced to ashes.
-As for the flame of extinction, it is said that it can burn the soul itself. But other than that, we don't know more about its powers.
-And finally, there is the holy flame of the goddess, which is also called the supreme flame. Apart from the guards who keep this flame that the goddess had sealed before her disappearance, no one knows about it anymore.
Upon hearing this information, Alvine began to ask himself questions about the nature of his black flames. It was called the géenne flame by the system, which also means hell (on earth). But as the system is not omniscient, since Randolph's knowledge created it, Alvine could not rely on this single detail to identify the nature of his black flames.
While he was in his thoughts, Linn continued, giving him more details.
"Apart from these celestial flames, there are also flames that are stronger than other standard flames but have no consciousness like the flames of the curse, the flames of hell, healing flames...etc. But none of these flames can think of themselves, and they only become dangerous if a mage cultivates them. In other words, they are inferior to celestial flames, such as divine mages that are inferior to the primordials. But the most impressive thing is that these four heavenly flames have not appeared since the ancient era of the goddess. Just like other terrifying existences that existed in the time of the goddess, we assumed that the heavenly flames had also disappeared." She concludes after her explanation.
"You are strangely more cultivated than I thought," Alvine murmured for himself.
"Fufu~, it's because I spent all my time reading the books in the library to find a solution against the curse during these millennia of isolation." She said in a proud tone.
"In short, our priority is, for now, to help you get rid of this curse," he commented, reaching out to Linn. And, according to his will, a black fireball instantly floated into his palm.
"Touch this fireball to see if it's dangerous for you or not." He then ordered.