Chapter 232: Chapter 232
Metsaitti stood before the shrine, specifically the God of Fire’s brazier. He knelt before it and placed the hide and butchered meat of a wolf-mole within, then broke off a small chunk of the fire honey and tossed that on top of the rest. The burning honey immediately caught fire, causing the flame to flare up and consume the meat and hide. Even the fireproof wax began to melt in the heat of the divine blaze. Metsaitti bowed his head.
“Let your fire come down upon me and find me worthy.”
The fire flared out, singing his face slightly. With that, Metsaitti rose. He walked up the slight incline back towards the karnuq settlement, carrying the tray of burning honey in his hands, ignoring the heat building in his palms. Chief Rohsuak was standing in front of a newly erected structure made purely of stone, with several holes arranged around bottom of the walls and a large one in the center of the roof, while much of the rest of the clan gathered around it. Even the Tower Keeper and his ever-present bee companions stood off to the side, observing the proceedings. Fire began to spill out from the chief’s mana, wrapping around her body and lifting her hair. Smoke drifted out of her mouth.
“Are you ready to walk through fire and smoke, to embrace the God of Fire with your very flesh?”
Metsaitti held her gaze.
Chief Rohsuak nodded and stepped to the side.
“Then enter, and let your trial begin.”
Metsaitti nodded. He stepped inside and then disrobed, handing his clothes to a karnuq waiting outside the door. Then, he took the tray of honey and stepped into the center of the room. He knelt down and took a deep breath.
“Yes! If we can help him, then let’s help! However we can!”
The flow of mana through Niobee exploded and grew several times in size, pouring down into the hut and the karnuq within. Belissar could only help that whatever Niobee was trying would work…
Metsaitti ground his teeth and tried desperately to regain control over his body. But every time he did, a new wave of pain surged through him and drove all thoughts out of his mind. He knew there was a reason so few karnuq had ever been blessed to the level the chief was, but even he was not prepared for this level of pain.
But, just as the pain nearly knocked him unconscious, a small beacon of light broke through his perception. He just managed to notice the words appearing in sight, trying to grab his attention.
Accept improved dungeon bond?
Metsaitti didn’t have the presence of mind to consider the meaning of the words. All he knew was that someone was reaching out to him…and so he grabbed onto the lifeline.
Another stream of mana began to pour into him, this one yellow and buzzing though with hints of fire as well. It healed and soothed his burning body. It wrapped around the flames and his own mana and brought them together. It brought images to his mind.
He saw his exterior body melt down and rearrange around his interior structure before rebuilding his body piece by piece. That…frightened him far more than burning to death. But then he saw something else. Images of an injured bee with lightning surging through and burning her body. He watched as she endured the lightning, then adapted to it, then harnessed it for herself until it became a part of her own body.
He decided to try that one.
He no longer tried to resist the flames, or grab hold of them. Instead, he tried to flare his mana along with the fire as the bee had done with the lightning. The mana pouring into him attempted to assist with this, guiding him like a karnuq parent holding the hand of a cub walking for the first time. When the next surge of pain came, he surged his mana with it. He gritted he teeth again as he nearly loss consciousness, but the mana held him in the present. Bit by bit, his mana harmonized with the flames, following their burning path through his body.
And then, he moved his mana…and the flames moved with them. Just a bit, just a tad. He couldn’t control the flames…but, ever so slightly, he could guide them. Move them away from a part of his body in great pain to one already numbed. Or even out of his body entirely.
He chose not to do this. To survive was not the point of this. So, instead, he concentrated the flames where they hurt less, just enough for him to think and act once more.
And then he began to eat the rest of the honey.
Pain surged through his mouth and throat and stomach once more, but this time he was ready for it. He flared his mana along with it and guided it across his body, spreading it out so that his entire body could share the pain. He even found that he could move some of the fire outside of his body temporarily before pulling it back inside, allowing him to push it aside whenever the big waves of pain came so that it never overwhelmed him entirely.
Outside, Chief Rohsuak stopped clenching her fist. She blinked, and then she slowly began to smile.
“Yes, that’s it. Keep it up.”
She then stepped over and knelt by one of the holes at the bottom of the hut. She took a deep breath.
Then she burst into flames…and sent them pouring into the hole.
Flames filled the room and surrounded Metsaitti, scorching his skin and hair. But he found he could treat these flames no differently from the ones inside his body. Rather than letting them burn him, he pulled them inside of himself, into the fires already rampaging within, before pushing them out again, letting the fire flowing out of him shield him from the fire all around him.