Vol 2: Chapter 1: Training

Ram was with Em at an abandoned Lab that looked like a horrible experiment gone wrong.

When they recovered enough Soulfire and got their eye sight, they were met with various broken robotic arms scattered here and there, a giant metallic table with chips on it at various location and with missing legs.

They also found strange broken spheres and a cylindrical metallic tube with a broken opening at front. It seemed like the cylindrical metallic tube was the source of all the blast that created a havoc at the lab.

They were a small wick of flame at that time, half portion was his orange flames while another half was Em's green with black spots here and there.

They slowly recovered enough Soulfire to create gigantic blocks of arms and moved the remains of the lab to a corner such that they had 2/3rd of the room all for themselves.

Since then, they had been waiting for recovering enough Soulfire so that they can split amongst themselves. Since this is Soul World, they can split into two different beings and Em can exist as her own person. Ram had control over whether he could allow Em access to his thoughts and memories or not.

They discovered this accidentally while they were still in flame form and experimented with it.

They had recovered enough Soulfire and today was the day they are finally going to split themselves.

"Em, are you ready?" Ram asked.

Em chuckled. "I have been ready the whole time. It's you who had to recover Soulfire. After all, I am an A.I.," she said.

Ram groaned. "Please stop taunting me and let's focus on the split," he said.

Em nodded.

They first split their flames, his orange flames distanced itself from Em's green flames and they started to consume the Soulfire available in the environment.

There was a whine as Soulfire poured into them, as if the Soulfire of Soul World fighting against them.

They converted it into their own Soulfire and the whine became a contended hum.

They began to access more Soulfire, convert it into their own and soon, they got enough Soulfire that they could manifest themselves in to human form.

Ram was that of himself, but his whole body was made of orange flames. He summoned black jeans, white shoes, white t-shirt and red jacket for himself. His hairs were more like orange flames than strands of hair.

Em was that of younger version of Emily Roxane, the fake celebrity his Aunt El had created with her illusion powers to entertain him.

Em still hated her appearance, but she had been in that appearance for so long that she liked it.

Her whole body was made of green flames with black hair, more like human hair and less flames. She had a black tank top, black jeans and black shoes.

Ram summoned orange whip, the same one he had used to defeat Veera at his Mind World when they were in The Institute.

Em turned her arms into swords.

"Shall we start?" Em asked.

Ram nodded.

Em brought a gigantic countdown timer over their heads that was set at 3 minutes 0 seconds.

She started the timer and a gong sounded. The countdown timer changed to 2 minutes 59 seconds and on and on.

Ram ignored the timer and focused on his task today.

To fight Em for 3 minute rounds and win, rest and repeat again till he mastered the Soulfire.

Ram pulled his back whip and threw it at Em's sword arms.

Em brought her swords in an x and cleaved his whips and brought her swords at him.

Ram cursed, dispersed his whip and summoned a shield just as her swords hit his shield.

Sparks produced and they gazed into each others eyes before dispersing their weapons and stepped back.

Em smirked at him. "Your whip against my sword? Very bad idea. Didn't you know?" she asked.

Ram glared at her. "I know about it now," he said, summoned a sword on his own. "Here, take my sword."

Ram crouched on his legs and sprang towards Em, raising his sword and brought it at Em.

Em brought both of her swords in an X, taking on his sword.

She pushed her swords forward, easily overpowering him and sheared his sword away.

She twisted, using her swords as the blades of a helicopter, and spun continuously, brought her blades against him again and again.

Ram cursed, dispersing his sword and summoning a gigantic orange shield and took her beatings repeatedly.

Ram strained to push Em to retreat, but she was relentlessly attacking him using her crazy spinning technique.

Ram increased the mass of his shield and pushed at her. The sword attack slowed down at first, eventually stopping altogether.

Ram used the pause to move away form Em, summoning a giant hammer.

He raised it up and swing it at her blades. Which she took care of expertly.

Just like she did with her sword, she started to cleave her way through the hammer.

Ram took back his hammer and brought it down against her blades again and again.

She glared at him, putting all of her strength and using both of blades to defend herself.

Eventually, Ram grew tired and she threw him off.

Ram flew backwards, Em came right at him and brought the tip of her sword just above his Adams Apple.

Ram swallowed.

The gong sounded and their first round ended up with Em defeating him.

Em retreated her sword and summoned her arms again, looking at him with concern. "Ram, are you alright?" she asked.

"I am," he said.

"But you looked as if you were afraid of something. Is this about the Soulfire almost destroying you?" she asked.

Ram grit his teeth. It was exactly about the Soulfire almost destroying him in his fight against Veera. If Em hadn't used The Bead of The Institute to merge with him, he would've been disintegrated into nothing back then. He was scared of Soulfire. But she didn't have to know that.

"No," he said.

Em glared at him and tried to access his thoughts.

Ram blocked her.

Em sighed. "Fine. Do you want to rest or continue the next round?" she asked.

"Next round," he said.

The countdown timer started from 3 minutes and a gong sounded.

Ram summoned a shield in his left hand while he summoned a sword in his right hand.

Em summoned two swords and held them in her arms.

She gave him a nod and made her first move.

She attacked him using both of her swords.

Ram used the shield to defend against her sword attack, while using his sword to wait for an opening.

He found one and swung the sword at her waist.

Em turned into a flame and his sword passed harmlessly over the air.

Ram stumbled and fell to his side. He dispersed his weapons just as his body touched the ground.

Ram groaned. "You cheated," he said.

Em winked at him. "No. I am not. In a real battle, who knows what cheap tricks your enemy might use. You have to prepare yourself against every possible attack," she said.

"But that doesn't mean you can start using them right at the first day of our training," he said.

She ignored him and resumed an attacking position.

Ram sighed and rose to his feet, summoning his shield and sword.

"Isn't it fun?" she asked.

Ram growled.

She shook her head and made her first move, similar to the one she did earlier.

Ram summoned his shield and pushed against her relenting sword attacks.

But he couldn't.

Em's attacks became more overbearing and soon, Ram was pushed back.

He gritted his teeth and tried to push again.

And failed.

Ram felt like a failure and he lost his concentration for a moment.

Em's attack dispersed his shield and Em's next attacks directly met his arms.

Em stopped at the last moment.

She looked at Ram.

Ram shook his head.

Em cursed under his breath and kicked him with her right leg.

Ram fell on his back and Em brought her sword, the tip pointing at his chest.

And the gong sounded, with Ram losing the second round.

Usually, Em would've been cheerful, boasting her win against him.

But this time she didn't.

"Ram, are you really alright? You looked like a someone with something heavy on their mind," she said.

Ram shook his head. "No. Nothing's wrong. I am perfectly alright for our third round," he said.

Em looked like she didn't believe him, but the 3rd round started with a gong.

This time, Ram summoned a shield and didn't attack.

Em grew angry with ever strike of her sword against his shield and soon, she let out her frustration on his shield, attacking again and again, letting out curses every time her sword clashed against his shield.

"You are not alight," Em said, cleaving his shield, dispersed her sword.

Ram dispersed his shield and stared at her. Watching her next move.

She glared at him. "You totally deserve this," she said, then assumed a boxer pose.

She threw a barrage of jabs and hooks at him, using him as a punching bag.

Ram's ears were ringing with all the attack he was taking and soon, Ram couldn't even defend himself.

He was just like a punching bag, responding to her attacks by moving in the direction she had punched him.

Em let out a frustrated cry and kicked his chest.

He flew and crashed to the wall. If he were in his human form, Ram was sure that his bones would be cracked by now.

He slumped to the ground and didn't got up.

He stared at his hands legs as he heard the ticking of countdown timer.

With a gong, the third round finished.

Em won again.

This time, she didn't try to talk with him.

She left him alone, muttering something under her breath.

Ram was frustrated at his inability to attack Em. Even though they wanted to use this training to help him master Soulfire, Ram couldn't bring himself to put all the effort.

Part of the problem was that he was scared.

Scared of Soulfire.

Even though he had abundant Soulfire in the Soul World, he couldn't bring himself to commit to use it as much as he should.

After all, when he had fought with Veera, he used so much Soulfire that it almost destroyed him.

Em had to use the powers of The Bead of The Institute to merge with his soul, to save whatever she could.

And that led them straight to the Nonliving Soul World. They were supposed to land in Living Soul World instead.

Even though there was abundant Soulfire, what if he mastered how to use the Soulfire and during future battles, he would try to use Soulfire more than he should and disintegrate himself?

Back with his fight against Veera, he had been alone. This time, he was not. Em was merged with his soul.

If he was destroyed, she would also be destroyed along with him.

He can't allow to do that.

The only way to overcome this was increasing The Well of Soulfire inside of his Mind World, from which he can access Soulfire outside of his Mind World.

But he was afraid he would face a situation in the future where he had to use even more Soulfire than his Well could give him and …

Ram shook his head.

He was thinking in loops.

He don't know how to control his use of Soulfire.

The purpose of this training was to learn when to use it and recognize when his Well of Soulfire was almost dry and stop himself.

But he don't know how to do it or how long it will take.

Em knew.

She was an A.I. and she had necessary data.

She was his friend, now merged with his soul and all she was asking was for him to trust her.

Leave the training to her and do as she asked.

He couldn't do this without her.

But there was another matter that was consuming him.

He had to speak with her.

He don't know how she would react, but he wished she would take it in a positive way.

If possible, he didn't want to talk with her.

But he had to.