Training Resumed

While App had been telling the story, Robert had used his armor to pop his bones back into place and let himself slowly heal. About an hour into this Efrit had come over to him with an expression of shame on his face. Efrit let out a deep sigh and sat down in front of Robert.

"I-I'm sorry, it's just that... seeing that glow again, well, I thought that you might end up becoming a tyrant, just like that ancient serpent was." Efrit said all of this in a somber and shameful tone.

Robert looked over to him and considered everything that had just happened. He could feel the fang in his mind, slowly dripping venom into it, and as the each drop of venom made its way inside his mind, he gleaned a sliver of knowledge about the universe he now resided in. Robert looked at the titan, at the shame and regret that was obvious on his face. Robert remembered hearing about how those who had fought in wars would suffer from PTSD and he thought back to the times in his own life when he had lost people and felt grief.

"Yeah," Robert said in a cracked and broken voice "don't worry about it."

The two sat and stared at each other for a while in silence, until Robert broke it once again "So... are we still on for that deal?" Robert asked, wearing a small smile on his face.

Efrit looked up in surprise "Eh... sure... as long as your still up to it. But... I would like to ask one more thing of you." Efrit said, staring at Robert with an expression that Robert couldn't decipher.

Robert raised one eyebrow and said quizzically "Shoot."

"By the time that you have the power to free me, your bloodline will have become quite strong. So, I want you to promise me that you won't become the same as the serpent that ruled so long ago, be better." Efrit said, with a tone that bordered on pleading.

"I swear." Robert said "Now shall we get on with the training?"

"Indeed." Efrit said, standing up and beckoning Robert to do the same.

Robert followed Efrit's example, albeit far more gingerly. Efrit asked Robert to conjure the spear that he used. "We'll start with weapon training, it should help you gain some more control for when we need to practice use of elementals again." Efrit said, a smile returning to his face.

"You seem rather happy to have the chance to destroy me considering your heartfelt shame a minute ago, you're not bipolar are you?" Robert asked jokingly.

"I prefer mercurial, besides this is teaching, it's all in good faith." Efrit retorted nonchalantly, conjuring his battleaxe once more.

Robert scoffed as he conjured his spear, this time letting App do the honors in terms of the heat looping enchantment. Robert met Efrit's battleaxe with the haft of his spear, this time the axe cut directly through without even being damaged. And so hours past, then days, weeks and months. Robert learned how to wield his spear with incredible precision, fixed any problems with his hand-eye coordination and learned exactly how much space he had to leave between him and his opponent.

Finally, Robert asked Efrit to teach him how to use fire elementals. Efrit grimaced and said that it was time to go back to that strange world . Once again they sat in silence, but this time after a week had passed Robert still felt no stress on his mind, he merely sat and marveled at the beauty of the fire elementals. After two weeks Robert felt a thread within his consciousness, when he followed that thread he found himself, yet again, in a world of elementals. Efrit seemed surprised that Robert had reached this world so quickly.

"Alright, this time I want you to just feel the elementals. I want you to know the location of every single one of the elementals." Efrit said, clearly holding high expectations.

Robert sat in a meditative pose and felt the area around him. With a start Robert saw that he could see not only the elementals but the paths the elementals followed.

"I can see them." Robert said.

Efrit raised his eyebrow "Perks of being the son of God, I guess." he said derisively.

"So now what?" Robert asked, eager to do things that had been impossible on earth.

"Just feel the locations of the fire elementals, and no god stuff this time." Efrit said.

"Okay then." Robert said and began to watch. As Robert watched he noticed that with time and effort he could change the paths of the elementals. Robert could feel that this was different from what he had done before, then he had dictated something and the universe had altered the paths but here he was just gently bending the paths and changing them temporarily. After training for a few days Robert could change the paths in seconds within his core form and in a few weeks he could do the same in his regular body.

Efrit stared at the wall of flames in the room for a while before declaring "We don't have much time left, your master's power source for the crystal is close to running out of power."

"Okay then, so what now?" Robert asked, remembering for the first time in a long time that he had a small and budding life in the world outside this place.

"We need to finish that battle, but don't worry neither of us can die in this prison." Efrit said from the other side of the room. "Let's see what you've learned." Efrit said with a smile.

Robert stood up and raised an eyebrow "So all that stuff you were saying before about how you were my doom and how we had to resolve my life?"

"Just bravado." Efrit said, shrugging dismissively.

Robert got up and prepared for this test, remembering how he had things to do outside.

"So App, how can you help me this time?" Robert asked

[Err... I can... try and block him?]

"That actually almost sounds useful... what's the catch?" Robert asked warily.

[No catch, think of it as... recompense for my... problem earlier...]

Robert shrugged "Well, if you insist." he said.

Robert brought forth his spear, while Efrit brought out his usual axe.

Robert rushed forward with his spear pointed at Efrit. As Robert got within a few metres he saw that Efrit's body was fully composed of fire elementals.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun" Robert thought as he entered Efrit's range.

Efrit began to spin, turning himself like a giant spinning top of death.

"You have made quite the mistake" Robert thought, stabbing at the titan's exposed back.

As Robert's spear reached the titan's back, Robert suddenly remembered something.

"Wait, didn't I try this already?" Robert remembered. Robert's spear caused a shallow cut on the titan but Efrit continued with his swing and struck at Robert with his axe, Robert slammed his spear's haft into the axe blade. As the blade was separated from the axe head, it embedded itself in Robert's chest. Before the rest of the axe could hit Robert, Robert controlled the elementals in Efrit's legs to pull Efrit away from him.

There was a break in the battle as Efrit was pushed away. They both stayed still and watched their opponent. Robert awkwardly stared at Efrit and casually brushed his shirt as if there wasn't a metre long axe blade embedded in it.

"Soo... did you see the game last night?" Robert jokingly asked Efrit.

"What." Efrit said, clearly confused.

"Never mind." Robert said as he detonated a ball of fire elementals he had been gathering behind his back during the conversation. Robert went flying across the room, right over the confused titan's head and ended up slamming into the wall above the obsidian throne. Efrit began to follow, seemingly still in a daze.

"Note to self," Robert said "avoid doing any of the things that I have done since arriving in this room."

[Never did I imagine that human idiocy could reach such heights...]

"I think you mean ingenuity." Robert supplanted.

[I know what I said.]

Efrit had almost reached the throne by this point, once again ready to fight.

Robert closed his eyes and began to focus on the throne. The throne was cold, unlike everything else in the room. Robert began to pour fire elementals into the throne until it was glowing and then... he removed every last one. The giant throne shattered into thousands of pieces.

Robert then took the elementals that he had removed from the throne and placed them in a ball of plasma behind the throne and once again Robert let go. Robert conjured his mana armour before the blast hit him and was barely affected, Efrit however seemed annoyed by his throne's destruction and had been glaring at Robert.

Efrit brought down his damaged axe and wreathed it in fire, at the same time he summoned his ancient, bladed hammer and swung it horizontally. This move stopped hundreds of the projectiles from slicing into Efrit but he was still impacted by hundreds more.

Robert sat down on the ground and gathered fire elementals once more while laughing out the words "You look like a buff fire hedgehog."

Efrit's eyes bulged and his obsidian armour covered his body again, the flames that covered his head flared up and an aura of fire surrounded him. "I think that it is time to push you a little harder, I really liked that chair." Efrit said.

[Edgyyyy...]

"Oh no!" Robert mentally exclaimed "He's entered his second phase! I sure hope that he doesn't get fifty percent faster."

Robert brought forth his spear and charged Efrit. Unfortunately, every thrust of Robert's spear was easily stopped by a swing of Efrit's ancient axe-hammer. Robert concentrated a ball of plasma in one hand and used the other to move a wall of fire between him and Efrit, obscuring their sight of each other.

"So, how is my progress?" Robert asked, still wearing a smile on his face.

Efrit looked at him and said "Good, but your still going to lose."

Efrit grabbed Robert by the neck with one hand and grabbed his head with the other. "Nice try but I'm not in one of nine undisputed positions for nothing." said Efrit, and with that... he snapped Robert's neck.

"Uhh, I know this is a little awkward but you do realize that I am undead, right? It's gonna take more than that to kill me." Robert said, as he removed the axe blade from his chest.

"Ah." Said Efrit, embarrassed.

"And one more thing actually," Robert said, lining the ball of plasma in his other hand up with the axe blade.

"What's that?" Efrit asked, keeping his hands on Robert's head.

"Your position probably isn't as stable as you think." Robert said, letting go of the ball of plasma as he noticed that Efrit's hands were getting hotter.

The axe blade flew towards the centre of Efrit's armor and cut directly through him. Efrit's eyes were filled with shock as he looked up at Robert, before changing to an expression of joyful pride as his lower body reformed from the surrounding fire elementals.

"Very impressive, you almost got me." Efrit said, and let loose a torrent of flames from his hands that burned Robert to ash inside his armour.