At some point, it was clear that the Caldera woman had nothing else to say. She slipped up too many times in quick succession, and looked uncomfortable.

I could have asked her a lot more questions, maybe pressed her to explain the whole ‘sacred beast’ thing again in more detail, but I didn’t want to push her too much. Instead, we stood in the chamber in silence for a minute that stretched much longer than it had any right to before we departed.

“The Katrak will commence soon,” Zegrath said quietly, and motioned for me to follow.

I did just that and caught up to the young Caldera woman as she guided me back through the cavern system.

Countless questions flashed through my mind, but the air was tense. Zegrath paid too much attention, her crimson eyes shifting between me and the cavern tunnel ahead. She scanned me multiple times from head to toe, her scrutiny making my skin crawl.

My throat tightened, my heartbeat picked up suddenly, and I felt increasingly conscious of myself.

I haven’t showered yet!

As much as I wanted to disappear and jump underneath a shower, I could do so after today’s Katrak as well.

I didn’t brush my teeth either, I reminded myself with a groan.

“Can we make a quick stop at the bathroom? I may or may not have forgotten to wash up.”

Zegrath’s head flicked toward me, an eyebrow raised. “Bathroom? I do not know what that means. But you can use the Pyrosh to wash up.”

Pyrosh? I tilted my head – enough for the Caldera woman to point at the nearby lava veins. “Take a mouthful, rinse for a second, and spit it back into the Pyrosh to cleanse yourself. You can brush it on your skin to remove dead particles. It’s warm and cozy.” Her eyes brightened, a smile tugging at her lips. “Diving into one of the thicker streams of Pyrosh at the start of the day is heavenly. You should give it a try – I can show you one of the ponds we use to cleanse ourselves after the Katrak, if you’d like.”

My lips parted only to snap shut after a moment.

“You drink lava to cleanse your teeth and swim in it to clean your body?” I asked, more than a little befuddled.

“Of course.” Zegrath nodded eagerly, the earlier hesitation fading slowly. “But since you never entered the Pyrosh, you shouldn’t overdo it. You have to get used to the heat first. It’s heavenly, but it is also a little dangerous if you cannot control your blessing of the Primal Spirit just yet. Our youngest are guided by the Spiritcaller and our greatest, ensuring no incidents happen.”

She waved dismissively when I stared at her in disbelief. “There is no need to be afraid. You may still be an Infant, but you received the blessing of multiple sources. Considering your results in yesterday’s Katrak, your body has been tempered thoroughly – enough to cleanse your mouth and purify your body.”

As she said that, Zegrath’s left hand dug into one of the lava veins. She cupped her hand and retrieved a palmful of lava.

“I do not know your kin’s customs, but we are a little bit short on time after our earlier conversation dragged on too long.” The Caldera woman approached me, lava in hand. “But as little as I know about your customs, I know the type of person you are. You accepted our customs and followed them even when your brethren did not. You accepted the Spiritcaller’s mark, so you may join the cycle of Pyrosh too. I shall vouch for you.”

I had no idea how things turned out like that when all I wanted was to brush my teeth and take a quick shower. But now that everything had gone awry, how could I reject Zegrath when she looked so serious?

My senses stretched outward in a desperate attempt to figure out more about the lava and how, in the Rulers’ Names, she was able to cup it this easily. Sure, Zegrath and the other Caldera had little trouble with high temperatures. They were beings overflowing with heat. Lava coursed through their veins – or so it appeared. Anyway, even Zegrath couldn’t hold the lava of the Pyrosh for too long. The corner of her lips twitched, and she had to coat her palms in ether to hold onto it a little longer.

Nox tempered his body using the Pyrosh,

I reminded myself, grimacing as the memory of the Ferronox Mantis stabbing the lava veins, melting his scythes, resurfaced in my mind. It was still unclear whether the scythes would recover or not, but Nox seemed confident. Though that brute was always confident. At least, his instincts were good – or he’d be dead already.

“You temper your bodies – insides as well as outsides – using the Pyrosh, don’t you?” I asked, hands trembling as they reached out to Zegrath, palms cupped.

“We do not swallow the Pyrosh, if that’s what you suggest. Spit it out once you are done,” Zegrath said seriously before dropping the lava into my ether-coated palm.

The temperature around me seemed to increase by a thousandfold all of a sudden. My back was already drenched in cold sweat, hair sticking to my forehead. Yet … the lava in my hand did not burn through skin, flesh, and bones. It didn’t even burn through the thick ether layers protecting my palms from the worst.

“What in the–”

“If you take too long, it will hurt. I do not wish to have to drag your corpse to the Katrak.” Zegrath gently pushed my cupped hands closer to my mouth. “That wouldn’t look good, would it, Pyaera?”

The last bit struck me harder than it probably should have. Zegrath calling me Pyaera was nothing to take lightly, but I doubted it should have been enough to burn my worries and uncertainties to ashes. A smile tugged at my lips as I guided the Pyrosh’s lava to my lips.

A fleeting doubt crossed my mind as a wave of pain and heat filled me, but it vanished as the lava filled my mouth.

“Now rinse and spit it back into the Pyrosh. No swallowing.” Zegrath guided me, her hands cradling my cheeks as the Caldera’s warm ether flowed into me, protecting me.

Her words reached my ears, but they were muffled. So were the sounds of the world around me as the tugging sensation from yesterday reappeared. This time, it was not as subtle. It was strong. It filled my body and reached my inner World, stirring it. The tug intensified, yet it was the resonance of my World that caught me off guard. The inner World shuddered and flared up in a brilliant light as an orange-red spark coalesced.

A thin thread, familiar yet different from my experience, came to be and attached to the spark, which erupted in a tiny flamelet.

But as suddenly as the flamelet appeared, it disappeared just as quickly when heavy hands slammed against my back.

“You’re going to kill yourself if you don’t spit it out!” Zegrath hissed as the flamelet reformed into a spark.

The world around me regained color and sound as I spat out the lava. A moment later, the spark evaporated as well.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, shuddering. Searing pain flowed through my mouth and traveled down my throat, but there was little damage given how painful it felt.

“That is what I wanted to ask you. The spark of life escaped from your eyes.” Zegrath grunted angrily; however, the anger did not reach her worried features. “Instead, there was a flame. As if– No, forget about that.” She shook her head vigorously. “That was my mistake. I shouldn’t have pushed you. I am sorry.”

I had a lot more to say, but I couldn’t focus on my thoughts. My mind was a rambling mess, and my attention flickered back to the World that longed for the sensation it had just experienced.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” I smiled at Zegrath once I was sure my mouth was not a mess of burned flesh and charred teeth. “In fact, you need to show me those lava ponds later.”

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The Caldera woman looked hesitant, but I was not going to give her any leeway. “You promised. If something happens to me–which, for the record, I won’t let happen–it’ll be my fault.”

“If you say so.” Zegrath was far from confident, though she nodded anyway. “The Katrak first.”

“Of course.” My smile widened. “And a lava bath after that.”

She could not understand my excitement, not after the ‘spark of life’ escaped my eyes, but Zegrath did not have to understand it. I only needed some of the Pyrosh’s lava and to figure out a way to bathe in it without dying. That was a weird way to shower. Then again, it was even weirder that my World responded like that to the Pyrosh. It was odd, yet it was something I had to research. That much was clear.

“To the Katrak!”

***

“Please show us your blessing.” Zegrath gave a slight bow, which drew some attention toward us.

The Caldera woman was still hesitant after what happened earlier, but she felt a little better now that it was clear I was fine.

“Adam!” Ruler Kazriel called out from the other side of the arena–the Ring of Pyrosh–as Zegrath walked away. Zegrath approached the Spiritcaller, greeted him politely, and spoke to him. The Spiritcaller’s eyes swiveled toward me for a second before he focused back on the Caldera woman.

“You are the first to fight today, Adam.” Ruler Kazriel’s voice rang in my ears rather than throughout the room this time. It was intense and commanding, so much I flinched and spun toward the Ruler. “I don’t care how friendly you are with the Caldera, but you will crush them. You do not want to look weak in front of the forces at play!”

I didn’t need the Ruler to tell me that. The Caldera respected strength, and I was going to demonstrate to them just how strong I, a mere ‘Infant’, was. That didn’t mean I liked the edge in the Ruler’s voice. The threat in his tone and words was barely concealed. Ignoring that part, I met Ruler Kazriel’s eyes and nodded slowly.

The Thekor sword appeared in my hands, yet I did not step right into the Ring of Pyrosh. My feet carried me toward the Spiritcaller. I received the mark before stepping inside the arena, taking deep breaths as I prepared for combat.

My opponent received the mark next. She carried herself with the grace of a predator, her lithe body gliding across the hard floor.

She was a Caldera woman with long black hair and stripes of leather covering her small chest and bottoms. Despite her minimal clothing, I did not expect her to burst into flames. Quite the contrary, I expected no flames to join this fight. Her skin was not as bright red as that of her kin; instead, it appeared dark and murky, almost washed-out gray under the Pyrosh veins’ light. Only traces of what could have been red skin remained, highlighted by faint red veins.

“You defeated Orieath?” Her voice, hoarse yet soothing, rang through the arena. “That’s surprising. You don’t look like much.”

I raised an eyebrow at her while Predator helped me analyze her swiftly.

My opponent was definitely not an Infant. She had to be a Youngling to fight me, but I was confident she was older than Orieath. Yet, Orieath’s pressure had been more intense. If anything, she was the one who didn’t look like anything special.

“I’m sorry,” I said lightly.

“What?” She stopped and scowled at me. “What are you sorry about?!”

“I don’t know. You looked angry, so I thought I did something wrong.”

Although I didn’t think I had broken the Caldera’s customs, it was not like I knew all of them. I might have been extremely rude to her unknowingly, so I apologized instead.

“Are you that weak?” She hissed and shifted her stance. A pair of obsidian daggers manifested in her hands as anger and ether surged out of her.

Something heavy crashed onto my shoulders, trying to push me down to the ground, but I stood strong, feet pressed firmly into the ground. The hard floor cracked as the pressure increased, and the battle commenced.

Her lithe body disappeared in a blur, her daggers flashing dangerously like a predator’s fangs.

There were no flames, no sudden spike in the surrounding temperature. Instead, the pressure weighing on me shifted continuously, growing heavier only to loosen when I adapted to the change.

Can she alter gravity? I wondered as Predator picked up movements in the corner of my eyes.

She was upon me in the blink of an eye and slashed me. Yet as her high-speed attack was about to carve deep marks into my flesh, I caught a second shift. My opponent’s attack speed slowed suddenly as the weight on me reached a new all-time high.

Even though I could clearly see the incoming attack, I couldn’t step aside. Ether surged through my body, augmenting it enough to stir and struggle against the increased gravitational pull, yet the blades moved faster than I could.

Still, they never reached me. A stone wall jutted from the ground between us, forcing my opponent to a screeching halt. She leaped across the wall, ready to strike again, but I had already moved. The gravitational pull shifted and nearly dissipated at the wall’s emergence. Absorbing the information, I triggered Predator again to locate several weak spots in the woman’s defense. More weak points materialized before my bare eyes as she shifted mid-air, attention fixed on me.

A few spikes bursting from the ground could have deprived the woman of her greatest advantage, but I was not in the Caldera’s home for a mere victory. Maybe that would have been the case before I got to know them; however, that was no longer the case. I wanted more.

I steadied my feet, prepared for the inevitable shift in inertia that followed a second later. Then, as my opponent landed on the ground, she propelled forward with a light kick, reaching top speed near-instantaneously.

Her obsidian daggers swirled in her hands, and her attention shifted to the ground for a moment, expecting the hard floor to tear open, revealing another wall that would stop her advance. But the wall never came, and her full attention returned to me and the golden slits burning in my eyes.

Too distracted by her own ability, the ground, and my movements, she failed to recognize my Soulfusion. It wasn’t as obvious as Daniel’s explosive growth or the others’ Soulfusion, but my eyes burned golden and shone brilliantly as I triggered Paralyze.

A trace of ether was all Paralyze needed with Soulfusion active. My opponent staggered, the smile frozen on her lips.

Digging deeper into the Soulfusion with Aureus, I followed the Earthheart’s desire to teach “the rude lady” a lesson. Spikes burst from the ground, piercing and penetrating deep into the Caldera woman’s calves as she stood there unmoving. She regained control of her body a moment later, letting out a pained scream, and lunged at me.

Gravity increased again. The stone underfoot cracked and caved in, yet I remained rooted, lifting the Thekor sword, blocking her first strike.

Now that she had lost her greatest asset–her blinding speed–the Caldera woman was far from problematic. She had greatly tempered her body, but so had I.

Raising my sword, I cleaved down, using my opponent’s power against her. The strike forced her to use both obsidian daggers to block. Her concentration faltered, and gravity returned to normal, so I did the only logical thing I could think of: I used brute force to crush the woman.

Replacing Aureus’ Soulfusion to focus solely on Nox, I felt a burst of power. Embracing raw strength, I attacked, moving fast to strike her weakest points deliberately. She managed to strike me once too. Her blade carved through my clothes and dug into my flesh–or would have if a black exoskeleton hadn’t blocked her strike.

I thanked my opponent for the strike with two of my own, carving a pair of deep cuts across her chest.

As the battle continued, it became quickly obvious that she had no chance against me. The spikes in her legs crumbled, but the wounds were too severe for her to retain her mobility. She tried to crush me with her martial experience, great physical strength, and sudden shifts in gravity, but she failed to surpass me in any aspect. I pushed her daggers aside with a brutal sword swing and shot forward, fingers clamped around her neck.

She struggled against me and tried to attack again, but a second burst of Paralyze ended her struggle.

Lecture her.

Aureus said, his demand surprising me.

But it was not on me to do more than I had already done. I had crushed her–humiliated the Caldera woman in front of her people. That should have been enough, yet I did not release her right away. My hand tightened around her neck, and I unleashed Paralyze once more when she regained control of her body.

“Am I strong enough for you now?” I asked quietly, cringing at my own words and actions, and released the Caldera woman.

The Soulfusion ended, and a wave of exhaustion passed through me, yet I turned to the spectating Caldera, mixed feelings rising within me.

“I was unsure if I did something to deserve my Katrak’s ire, but I would like to apologize if I did.” I pressed the flat side of my blade against my forehead and hinted at a bow, only to receive utter silence.

Looking up, I noticed the confusion of many and added, “She called me weak and was unnecessarily angry.”

At this point, I was fairly sure I had not broken any lesser-known Caldera customs. If anything, some of my actions seemed to have angered the Caldera woman. Regardless, I was fine now that I had crushed her. But the same did not seem to apply to the Spiritcallers’ followers and the spectating Caldera. Their attention diverted to her, eyes blazing in anger.

“We gave you food, shelter, and a place to grow stronger, and you step into the Katrak to disgrace us in front of our guests?” one of the followers snapped, and even the Spiritcaller looked visibly angered.

Did I say something wrong? I wondered, feeling bad for putting my opponent into that position, especially after crushing her like that.

“She sounded a little agitated that I defeated Orieath. Maybe she wanted to defeat him first?” I chimed in, my earlier frustration having faded.

“Is that so?” The Spiritcaller sounded unconvinced, but the fire in his eyes subsided a little. He waved his hand and had one of his followers tend to her.

“We postponed long enough. Let the Katrak continue,” he declared, his attention shifting to me before returning to Zegrath standing beside him.