132 A New Ability

The moment Graham uttered those words, his whole body froze. He couldn't lift even a single muscle, let alone blink; it was as if he was under the effect of Order, but much stronger. Everything around him also froze, along with his body. There was absolute silence creeping in the room.

Graham knew what was coming next, but he quite literally couldn't do anything. The least he wanted to do was close his eyes so that he didn't have to stare directly at the 'Deity' that was about to descend. He didn't know if it was the Deity Himself or His avatar, but his intuition told him not to look under any circumstances.

He tried as hard as he could to move his eyelids down to cover his eyes, but the Order was much stronger than him; he couldn't rebel against it. His eyes were wide open to see the event that was unraveling next.

The furniture in the room suddenly started moving away one by one as if they were alive. The sofa that he was sitting on was no exception; he was now sitting on thin air without falling down. It was a ridiculous sensation for Graham, but the living furniture wasn't any less absurd. They were crawling as if they were dogs obeying their master's command with fright.

Once the living room was empty except for Graham who was frozen in a seating position, slowly blood seeped out from the ceiling. The thick red liquid moved slowly and formed a sigil that he was very familiar with; it was the sigil of the Deity of the Tongue! Once the sigil fully formed, the suddenly felt a very heavy pressure on his body. It felt like a mountain was suddenly dropped right on top of him.

"!!!!"

Graham wanted to scream from the pain but he couldn't open his mouth. His eyes had gotten dry from failing to close, but he didn't even feel them because of the pressure. He stayed frozen midair without being able to lie down on the ground to minimize the force pressing down on him.

Suddenly, he saw something coming out of the sigil and the moment he laid his eyes upon the descending figure, his eyeballs burst. Blood spurted out from the now empty sockets and Graham was overcome with great pain. He couldn't even scream nor cover the wound; the only thing he could do was accept his fate.

Chuckle...

"Talmedunur..."

There was a loud voice that sounded like thousands of war drums beating simultaneously. Graham's ears drums burst right away as the vibration caused by the voice entered his ears. The pain was unbearable, but something was preventing him from fainting. He didn't even know how he was still alive in that condition.

Every inch of Graham's body was in agony and he was screaming internally. It felt like forever and he was on the brink of losing his mind.

"Grraaaaahhh!!!!"

He jolted from the sofa and screamed as loud as he could to relieve the build-up pain. When he regained his senses, however, the pain was actually nowhere to be felt. His eyes and ears were also working normally and there was no blood coming out of them. Even the furniture in the room had returned to normal and he was sitting normally on the sofa.

Pant... pant... pant...

He was breathing heavily and tried to control his racing mind. Although the pain had gone, he was still in shock.

"Val, was yours also this painful?" he muttered weakly.

Graham let his body drop fully on the sofa and relaxed all the muscles in his body. He controlled his breathing and slowly regained the stamina while letting the drops of sweat on his forehead run down.

His office still had a slight smell of essential oil from all the rituals he had performed. The hint of earthy and floral fragrance entered his nose and helped him concentrate better. The aroma also soothed his mind that was in a mess.

Once he had calmed down fully, Graham began focusing on the new piece of knowledge that had entered his brain.

"Finally, my abilities have evolved, Val. The limit to Order is fifteen times per day. If we count the two we have on Purloin, I can use it a total of seventeen times a day. It's very useful. Its potency has also increased. I have to experiment later to see how much stronger it is now,"

"My ability to talk to lingering spirits has not changed, but I will know if they are around without using divination now. It should be less troublesome to use this ability because of that."

Graham then concentrated more.

"Besides those two evolved abilities, just like you, Val, I've also got a brand new ability. I can manipulate fire now just with my words and it's a separate ability from Order, so I don't have to use up the limit of the latter. I guess this one is granted to me because I am also in contract with Fire Divination," he said while rubbing his chin.

"I'll call this ability Fire Manipulation. The limit is fifteen times per day as well,"

He stopped stroking his chin and took out a lighter from his pocket. Graham hit the spark wheel and a gentle orange flame was created.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that this flame float in the air!"

The orange flame from the lighter slowly rose in the air and magically kept burning there. Graham put down his unlit lighter and stared at the floating fire in front of him. He touched it with his right index finger and it still burned him.

"This is great. Let me try something else,"

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that this flame become bigger!"

The tiny orange fire grew in size little by little until it matched the size that Graham had in mind; as big as a football. It burned brighter than before and illuminated the dark office room with its orange light.

"With this ability, we should have more diverse options of attack. If the enemy is weak against fire, we'll just use this, Val."

Graham looked at his watch. It was only barely eleven at night, so he still had two more hours before one o'clock, the time when he could begin his ritual. He had bought all the necessary materials at the bazaar earlier, so now he only had to wait.

"Let's go out and test our new abilities some more. It will be reset after I sleep tonight anyway," he said.

He focused on the football-sized flame in front of him and concentrated. Graham wanted to do divination first before actually leaving the house.

'Is it dangerous for me to go out tonight?'

After he repeated the question enough times, an image slowly appeared in the center of the flame and became bigger and bigger. It showed an image of a piece of paper being burned. The paper very slowly turned entirely into ashes, which meant going out was dangerous. However, the rate at which it burned was slow, so the level of danger was still manageable.

"It should be safe enough then. Let's head out, Val. But we need to go far enough so if I encountered danger, they wouldn't know I live nearby,"

He then concentrated once more on the floating ball and repeated another question in his mind. He didn't like to go out unprepared, so he would like to know the specific danger that he would meet.

'What kind of danger am I going to encounter tonight?'

Another image began appearing in the floating ball of fire. It showed his figure standing alone in a dark and secluded alley with a ball fire floating over his shoulder. However, its size was comparably bigger than the football-sized one he was using right now. Suddenly, there were six people approaching him from one side of the alley. After that, the image disappeared slowly.

Graham leaned back on the sofa and rested his chin on his right hand. His eyes were staring straight into the space before him, thinking.

"I don't think they are members of the Pale Society. They are usually clad in robes from head to toe. Maybe thugs? But why would they approach me even after seeing the floating fireball above me?"

Graham didn't have the answer, for now, so he could only let things flow.

He finally sat straight and focused on the floating ball of fire in front of him and once again issued an order to it.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that you follow me!"

The floating ball got closer and hovered above his right shoulder. Graham could feel the warmth emitted by the flame and it also became a source of lighting for him. He was a bit worried that the fire would burn his hair or sofa, but it seemed to be safe so far, as long as they didn't come in contact with the fireball.

"Val, I wonder what this fireball uses as its fuel. If it burns magically, I'm guessing it uses up my stamina as its sustenance," he said thoughtfully and then got up. The ball of fire also adjusted its height so it was always floating at a certain distance.

Graham Hymes put his rotten skull mask back on and left his apartment. He walked down to the street below that was already quiet and went towards Oosteinde. He wanted to test out his new abilities with actual targets, so he would use the pile of boxes that were usually present near dumpsters in the alleys. The six people that were going to approach him could also become his practice targets.

His figure looked terrifying in the dark night, and people in the street quickly got away when they saw him. His costume alone was already intimidating, but now there was a floating mini sun above him, so they didn't dare approach Graham who was walking quickly towards his destination.

He reached a quiet and barren alley that fit his need not long after. There was no one there at all, and there were piles of boxes lying around near the many dumpsters. Graham walked to the center of the dark alley and stood there while focusing on his surroundings. The fireball floating above him gave enough lighting for him to see things well.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that the ball of fire become bigger!"

He used his fourth Fire Manipulation and the floating flame grew rapidly in size until it was the size of an exercise ball that had recently become popular. It couldn't get any bigger than that, though. Graham felt slightly tired after that, which confirmed his theory that the fireball was using his stamina as its fuel.

"It seems that's the biggest that I can create, for the time being, Val," he muttered.

Graham looked at the piles of cardboard boxes scattered around and then issued another order at his giant fireball.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that you shoot those cardboard boxes!"

Whoosh!

Small fire bullets shot out from the big fireball and pierced through the air. There were a total of five fire bullets and they hit the boxes that Graham had designated as targets. The boxes caught on fire and it quickly spread to the adjacent boxes, creating a big flame. The floating fireball above his shoulder had become significantly smaller after shooting out five bullets, but still bigger than a football.

To prevent the flames from spreading further and burning the nearby buildings, Graham quickly used Fire Manipulation on them.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that the flames stop burning!"

The raging fire suddenly became gentler and gradually shrunk in size until they disappeared completely. Smoke rose from where they had been and the burned cardboard boxes turned into ashes.

Graham analyzed what had just happened.

"Do you think I can put out a fire the size of a building, Val? I don't think so, but if I could, I could just become a firefighter..." he said in amusement and smiled satisfiedly.

"There must be a limit to what I can manipulate," he added thoughtfully.

Suddenly, his spiritual intuition was triggered and he looked at the entrance of the alley where he came from. The things he had been expecting was happening.

There were six people walking towards him arrogantly like they owned the place. Graham observed them carefully and decided that they were drunk. That was why they still approached him although he had a ball of fire floating above him.

"Hey! Clown! The circus is over!" said the man who was walking at the spear of the group.

Sounds of mocking laughter accompanied the man's words.

The man who had just spoken reminded him of Jacco but he looked even rougher. His muscular body covered only with a vest despite the cold night.

"Man, he must be a dakloos. He must have found that costume in the dumpster over there, hahaha!" said another man who was very short for an adult.

"Let's have some fun then, boys!" said another man whose hair was spiky and whose ears were full of piercings.

The six men looked arrogantly at Graham with their red alcohol-induced faces. They approached Graham slowly as if enjoying every second of it.

"Val, they are hopeless..." muttered Graham.

"Look, he is scared shitless! He starts talking to himself! What a loser!!" said another one from the group.

"Do you always beat people up when you are drunk?" asked Graham loudly, then looked over his shoulder, "Val, alcoholism is a serious problem."

"What did you say, punk? Who told you you could talk to us?" said the tallest man in the group.

They were only several meters away from Graham now and was smiling sinisterly. They readied their fists to start beating him up the moment he was close enough.

"It seems that it's not their first time doing this. Let's teach them a lesson then, Val," muttered Graham.

His muttering to himself seemed to irritate the group of drunk men. They increased their pace and their faces looked like a tiger that was about to pounce at its prey.

"Just shut up and enjoy our 'treatment'!" said the man with a vest, followed by laughter from the others.

Graham shook his head in disapproval and then raised his head and focused on them.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, ask that the fireball burn these men's clothes!"

Whoosh!

Five fire bullets shot from the fireball and hit five of the six-person group. The looked very surprised and when they realized what was happening, they quickly rolled on the ground while screaming frantically.

"Fuck! I'm on fire! Fuck! Help!" said the tall man.

"What the fuck is this! It's not coming off!" shouted the man with the vest.

The flame didn't disappear although they were rolling wildly on the ground. It slowly burned off the clothes they were wearing.

The only person who wasn't on fire quickly charged at Graham with a fist ready to punch him.

Graham focused on the man and quickly chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to stop in your track!"

He also wanted to test out how long his order would last against weaker targets, so it was the perfect opportunity for him. The man that was about to attack him was now frozen in place. He couldn't move a muscle and stayed in that position without being able to do anything.

Meanwhile, the five people rolling on the ground were now naked because their clothes had been burned to ashes. Strangely, their skin wasn't burned. It was as if the fire was obeying Graham's order and burned only what it was asked to. When they realized that the fire was no more, they quickly got up and covered their exposed private areas.

"Fuck! What did you do?! Fuck!" shouted the men who had been wearing the vest. His expression was that of confusion and fear, the same as the other five. The arrogance that they were showing was now completely gone.

Before they could do anything, Graham had quickly finished chanting again.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to stop moving!"

He chanted in quick succession four more times and all the six people there were now frozen. There were five naked people and one fully-clothed person who were not able to move at all.

"Let that be your lesson," he said.

The six people could only hear him without responding.

"Now, Val, let's do some cleaning up before we leave," said Graham meaningfully.