Chapter 631: 631: Great General(2)

Chapter 631: 631: Great General(2)



The reason Alan had wanted Edward to stay back was simple. He wanted to try out the various methods listed in the manuals that had been given to him. He had studied these damn manuals for two weeks.

And although he was still a bit confused at some parts, he understood the majority of them.

The avian tribes, those that descended from the mighty Phoenix, didn't necessarily all use fire. That was the first surprise to Alan. He expected every one of them to use fire. This was helpful in some regards.

Alan was, before everything else, a frost dragon. One that did not go well with fire at all. Even with the increase in affinities, he had experienced due to absorbing the drop of ichor of Ariel. He didn't have a single one that was similar to, or even had some compatibility with, fire. Hell, one could even say that with all these attributes he had, his major weakness was fire.

Frost was the direct opposite to Fire, Shadow and Darkness didn't blend well with it too, Space was still ambiguous, Chaos may have some affinity to the element of fire as well, but that was out of the question.

His major weakness was a user of fire, one could say. Vice versa, he was also the nightmare of every user of fire as well.

His aura, as well, didn't have the fire attribute despite having the blood of the Phoenix. It had his space element as well.

A unique thing to note was that, even if they didn't possess fire, all the tribes related to the Phoenix worshiped something known as the Eternal Flame, and their techniques for aura breathing were also derived from these forms of worship. Most of them, anyway.

Most of the time, they described the Eternal Flame as an entity of sorts. With all the descriptions provided, Alan concluded it was another title for the Phoenix. However, what bugged him next was that the Eternal Flame was something else as well.

It was a fire, that was well, inherently inside every living being. At first, he thought that was referring to Aura, the power of life, but he was wrong. The eternal flame was separate from the aura, but still within every living being.

The descriptions of this part varied. Most of the tribes described it as the essence of existence, something that was akin to a god that watched over them as part of their very bodies. An omniscient, omnipotent presence.

That was bullshit, to Alan.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Moving on towards the techniques, however, understanding what exactly the Eternal flame was important. Because...it was the basis of it all.

The tribes noted how one must feel their entire bodies with the power of life, and must sense what the Eternal Flame wanted from them.

What this 'want' could be, was different many times. Sometimes, it could want them to be happy, other times, it could want them to be angry.

Knowing what it wanted all the time, however, was the fundamental key. And how to use the blessing of the Eternal Flame was the result.

Something important Alan found was, that to truly cultivate the Eternal Flame, one had to have awakened aura. The manuals stated that it would make the process much, much easier and also yield better results. This was the part that made Alan think that Eternal Flame and Aura were different.

Both were defined as the power of life... so it was a bit confusing at first.

But, it wasn't really necessary. Aura could also come with the Eternal flame, some cases had been noted down. Everything else was simply how to use it, according to their own body types and what the tribe specialized in.

At first, Alan had pursued those methods, using his aura as the manuals dictated and trying to feel whatever they meant by the Eternal flame, even doing that was difficult.

It hurt his pride to resort to this, but since the previous method showed some progress, he was willing to do it.

He stopped his regeneration consciously, since it would heal wounds of that magnitude instantly, and allowed the fire to flow into his body through the wounds.

It worked, brilliantly. The fire started to flow into his body at a greater speed. One could visibly see large swathes of it being absorbed into his body. Alan didn't feel anything strange

for a while.

He enjoyed the process, as painful as it was. Because it was progress. Alan could feel something in his body foreign to both his aura and mana, but it was so, so, so little.

"Damn it..."

And with every second, it was diminishing. Before it could fully diminish. Alan felt the strange thing enter his body once more, and his aura and mana had the same reaction, this

time more violently and more quickly.

'Shit!'

He was preoccupied with feeling the Eternal Flame and was a late to respond to the change. His mana and aura collided, and all Alan could do was limit the damage to his palms.

They were in a sorry state, and he didn't even want to look at them.

Edward was horrified, and hurriedly took out a healing potion out of his spatial ring, but Alan

stopped him.

He healed his own wounds with the bloodline of the Phoenix, and looked at the pile of burnt wood with a sigh as he moved them back to his inventory.

But he wasn't that sad though, although his reserves of wood were running low, he was happy

that there was some progress, and believed that with time, he could make sure something like

this wouldn't happen.

Alan took out the remaining wood from his inventory, and worried Edward more by excitedly

telling him to start another fire.

But before it could be done, both Edward and Alan froze.

Time froze.