Ch 5 - Healing

Wings gently caught the wind, pushing her upwards, higher and higher into the clouds far above. Her flames burned bright, lighting up the world around her. But the higher she flew, the closer she came to the dark clouds. Until at last, they met.

At first the dark clouds hid her bright flames, then they suppressed them. Finally, they corrupted them. Her beautiful flames of red and orange bled black. She tried to descend but her wings caught the wind and pushed her higher. She tried to fall but the world had completely filled with dark clouds.

Something from the darkness connected to her. Her flames sputtered and died, while a cold darkness poured in faster. No red or orange flames to hold them back. She flailed around, kicked, screamed, begged and cried. Was she dying? Was this the end?

For a moment, the connection lapsed and changed, then all of her power and more were at her winged tips. With all of her will power she pushed, flames exploding out of her like the wrath of God. If her fire held back the darkness, then she would become fire's incarnation.

She willed fire and her flames grew but now they burned black. The dark clouds that suppressed her before, fueled her now. The more clouds she burned, the stronger the connection grew. When at last the final cloud was consumed, she felt the mysterious connection destroy the restriction that bound her. A restriction she never even noticed.

With no more clouds to consume, she drew on the power connected to her. But what she got was death. In a moment of twisted pain, her world shattered, her own flames consumed her, and only the mysterious connection kept her from falling into the void of death.

This unknown entity kept her alive and safe, held her close and breathed new life into her. Little by little she felt reborn, as black flames rose from her winged tips.

She was black-fire, reborn from death's merciful embrace.

*** Ma Xiaotao ***

Waking up after losing control is never good. Muscles usually pulled or torn. Clothing doesn't usually survive. And the Property damage is always substantial. Worst of all, her victims don't always survive.

'I hope they stopped me quickly.'

Her body started to curl up as she hugged herself. Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes remembering the past. From how bad things have gotten, and can always get.

'NO. Keep calm. It might not have been bad.'

She got up from her bed and immediately noticed she'd changed. She felt lighter, as if she could fly without the use of a spirit ring skill. Contrary to her lightness, the mirror showed her to be fuller and more developed, as if she went through a second puberty over night.

'The last time this happened was when I got my first 10,000 year spirit ring.'

Rising through the ranks and passing major cultivation milestones can lead to growth spurts, but that shouldn't apply to someone who's already an adult. At least not to this extent. Her clothes were too tight and felt immensely uncomfortable. But that didn't deter the happiness that began spreading through her.

'Rank 69. How, how did I break through three entire levels?! And what happened to the evil in my fire?! What happened in my rage?'

Her only clue was that strange dream.

"Xiaotao are you awake? Can I come in?"

A knock, quickly followed by the voice of her teacher Xuan Zi, snapped her back to her situation. He didn't need to ask if she was awake, at his level, he knew. The real question was if she was presentable and ready to talk about what happened. Checking the mirror again, she decided that under the blankets was better. Entertaining any company in clothing so tight it left nothing to the imagination wasn't acceptable.

"Come in."

"Xiaotao, you made a big mess. Three students injured. Two will be in the hospital for the next week while the boy is... not likely to recover."

"I didn't realize it had gotten so bad. I thought- I thought I could still handle the demonic fire in me. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Her voice was choked up as she held her legs to her chest. It was all to easy to imagine, to remember, what her demonic flames had done in the past.

"I would normally tell you to take a break as we rethink your coping methods, but by now you've probably realized the change within you. A change we cannot quite explain. We've figured out what happened, but not how it happened."

"Is my Demonic fire gone, truly gone?" It was easier to think on her changes, than her past actions. But that wouldn't be responsible.

"Yes, or rather it's changed hosts."

"What?!" That was too shocking a statement to comprehend. Xiaotao wouldn't wish that burden on anyone. "How? What happened? Please just tell clearly."

"Calm down and listen. From what we gathered, you attacked three new students, one of which has a mutated Body spirit. He used a skill that, at first, negated your fire. When the other student realized the fire energy in you was just building up to an extremely dangerous degree, she had him synchronize with you through that skill. This not only allowed him to survive your fire, but lead to the two of you fusing. During that fusion, we believe your evil transfered in to him."

"That shouldn't be possible." She wasn't sure what to say to that. It really shouldn't be possible, and yet, here she sat with a changed martial spirit.

'Maybe this boy knows something'

"Yet it happened. Xiaotao, this boy has an extremely compatible spirit with your own. Not only improving your spirit, but fusing too. There may be more benefits between you two as time goes on, as you get to know each other more personally."

"You're not saying- Teacher, you said he's a first year, that would just be wrong." She understood what he was getting at. Many fusion capable spirit masters get married. Not only do they spend a lot of time training together, but fighting together makes them bond through overcoming hardships.

She didn't feel ready for such a relationship, even less so with someone she nearly just killed. They haven't even been properly introduced.

"I am saying that. And I'm taking you to meet him, now."

*** Adlet ***

He'd never felt so alive. And yet so dead. Adlet activated his body spirit, and for the first time ever, he felt power within the dead portions of his spirit. Distinctive black stitching appeared all over his body and emanated faintly shadowed flames. His eyes now held a dark shadow and patches of his skin were sickly pale. Well, more so than before.

What drew his attention first, however, were several dozen flaring points of pain in his body. Adlet barely began meditating before he noticed the distinct points, but was confused why these seemingly innocuous pin point pains were occurring. It took a few minutes to realize that his cultivation technique was split into two different energies moving in two different ways.

First, was his known spirit power flowing through his meridian network. This mostly consists of four major and eight minor clusters of meridian points. There are plenty of other points in the body but being able to use so many depends on the quality of a person's cultivation technique. Adlet had the stolen Tang Sect technique, Mysterious Heaven Skill, that used all the known points in his body.

That's what made the second energy flowing through him almost as concerning as it was intriguing. The evil energy inside him was trying to go through another path. No, It was moving through another path, just very slowly and faintly. He sat and focused on this second energy pathway, feeling out what it is and what to do about it.

Adlet was broken out of his meditation after a few hours by two people coming in, unannounced. The first was an old man with sharp eyes and a gourd in his hand, followed by the woman who attacked him. Not that he hadn't been hoping for that. Ma Xiaotao was a red-headed buxom beauty that inspired a feeling of wanting to comfort her as she failed to meet his eyes in shame.

'Don't you know acting demurely only makes horny men like me want to eat you all the more.'

"Good to see you're awake young man. You've been unconscious for almost a full day." The old man's tone was subdued and somber as he went on to explain that the evil fire in his disciple somehow transferred in to Adlet's martial spirit.

'Of course it did. That's literally what I was trying to do when I noticed our spirits were connecting. Doing so made me stronger and the dominate one in our spirit fusion.'

"That would be my fault. When our spirits started to connect, I felt something evil restricting her, so I tried to remove it." Adlet gave a self-deprecating smile as if he had messed up, then turned to the redhead. "I think I succeeded, from the looks of it. Or are we both screwed?"

There was always the possibility that he hadn't eliminated all of the evil in her. Thankfully that wasn't the case. "No, we're okay- I mean, thank you, I'm okay now. Thanks to you."

"Are you well enough to get up?" The old man's voice helped cover his disciple's embarrassing expression. She was unable to properly look him in the eye. This was in no small way, absolutely adorable.

Spirit fusions partners have two roles, support and control. Almost all fusions are made of a single control and the rest support. Hence why the one in control is ofttimes called the king. What most don't know, as most don't learn the in-depth nature of fusions unless they are apart of one, is that this affects everyone in the fusion afterwards. It's not mind control though, it's social conditioning.

Adlet put Xiaotao in a position where she supports him and hands over control. The more they fuse, the more comfortable they'll become in their roles.

"I feel well enough. In fact, I feel pretty good." He said getting up and lightly stretching. Looking around the room, he felt it was a little odd that they were his first guests, but it was the middle of the day.

'It's probably still class time, Mirellia and Raven might not be able to visit for a few hours. I think they'll be ecstatic once they learn we successfully caught a wild Moltres.'

"Let's go to a training field and see for certain." The old man drank from his gourd and led them out of the room.

In the fresh light of the sun, Adlet could truly appreciate Xiaotao's strikingly beautiful red hair. It swayed side to side with dark tips reaching her waist, synchronized with the movements of her hips as she walked. So hypnotized, he didn't even notice Xuan Zi smirking as they reached a flattened dirt training field.

"This is only a spar. Let's start with Xiaotao focused on defense and Adlet on offense."

The elder sat on the sidelines after giving his orders. Adlet hadn't told anyone he was defense focused when he applied to this school, so it was understandable that the elder didn't know that.

Adlet summoned his two purple rings much to the surprise of everyone. Xiaotao and Xuan Zi hadn't known about his spirit ring configuration, and were naturally shocked at the two purple rings. Adlet was shocked at the black markings on his rings and the change in his abilities. Not just his spirit rings, his spirit bone too.

He activated both spirit abilities, Physical Displacement and Elemental Tuning. Using multiple abilities at once isn't as draining as it might seem. Physical Displacement is a reactionary ability that really only drains spirit power when being hit, while the tuning ability only really costs spirit power to tune to a new element and then maintain that tuning. As he got stronger, he would be able to use these low costing abilities for days without issue, but for now he estimated only about fifteen minutes.

He ran up to Xiaotao, knowing he must be painfully slow in her eyes, and punched straight at her. She caught his right hook in her left hand and twisted, throwing him off-balance. His displacement ability spread the twisting force through his body, corkscrewing his entire body sideways. A solid kick launched at her face was stopped by her other hand. She retaliated with a left handed jab at his now airborne body, missing as he unnaturally twisted in midair.

He fell into a sideways roll as she looked on in surprise. Dodging a single strike of her's was definitely praise worthy considering their gap in strength.

Previously his Displacement would spread the damage over a greater area of his body, blunting and negating much of it. Now his ability was displacing the force of the attack. Allowing him to use the twisting of his hand and apply that to his whole body. Not just when she twisted but also when she let go to punch him.

After he took a moment to admire the change in his first ring, he decided to try out his second. "Hey, do you mind shooting a bit of fire this way, I wanna try something out."

"Alright."

Xiaotao was confused but did so anyways. He decided to ask for this because he doubted he could force her to bring out her flames. Without using any spirit ability she launched a fist of fire towards Adlet. He let the fire wash over him as he tuned himself to her flames, then resonated with them.

The black stitch markings across his skin drank in her fire and flared to life. Black evil fire burned right through his clothes and cascaded over his body like water. He focused the dark fire around his fist and punched towards the right of Xiaotao. The flames were stronger than Xiaotao's weak attack and showed great potential for a combination attack for them, if it didn't leave him stark naked afterwards.

Xiaotao blushed and smiled as he was hit by a change of clothes. "Put those on." Adlet quickly did so, embarrassed by Xiaotao's unabashed evaluating eyes.

'Damn it. Give me a couple more years and you can look all you want. But not now, I'm still in my growing phase damn it!'

Xuan Zi called them both over and began discussing Adlet's abilities. He understood their functions and limitations with just that brief display. "Clearly you're heading in a defensive path, but may I ask why? Most body sect cultivators I've seen prefer to take the path of power attack or agility attack. With a spirit that utilizes your whole body, wouldn't power attack make more sense?"

"My two wives, Mirellia and Raven, are focused on control and power attack respectively. I felt it would benefit us the most if I chose to become a defender." Adlet chose to ignore the looks of shock and concern when he mentioned his wives.

"We don't have children entering Shrek put down their marital status because... you're children."

Seeing the implied question the elders statement was, Adlet explained that although they weren't legally married, they have always been in love with each other. He expected the response from Xuan Zi to be a rebuttal about children not understanding love or a congratulations on finding love so young, but neither occurred. Instead, he looked concerned as he spoke.

"Those two young ladies that were with you when Xiaotao attacked, are they your wives?"

From the quiet that stilled the air, Adlet knew something had gone wrong. He should've been more concerned about them than he initially realized. As far as he could remember, Xiaotao never attacked them as he kept her focus on himself. That's why he never assumed something could've happened to them.

"Don't worry, they'll be fine. They just need to rest for the next week. Thankfully I found them just as the two of you began to fuse and safely got them out of there."

Although Adlet couldn't see how pale his face had gotten, Xuan Zi could. He decided to cancel their sparring and take Adlet to the recovering girls. Xiaotao came along, intent on apologizing to them.

*** Raven ***

"Ahh that feels good."

Raven was lowered into a milky white herbal bath. Beside her was Mirellia, not quite as expressive about her pain relief. When the flames of Xiaotao washed over them, there was no escaping the inevitable burns, blisters and scarring that would be left in her wake. The hospital they were being treated at possessed a wealth of talented staff that knew exactly how to treat them and reduce the scarring on their bodies.

"Admit it, I look bad*ss"

"You do, but I'd rather not have any of these reminders etched into my skin Raven."

"Then be thankful it's on your back and not your face."

Raven spoke while gesturing to her own face, where she got "Zuko'd". A snort escaped her as she realized she missed a great "That's what she said" moment. Raven rested half her face in the bath, using the wall mirror to make sure all the scarred tissue around her eye was submerged. She had an eye patch that was made to be worn even in the bath. With Mirellia's help, it now adorned a white skull and crossbones.

Mirellia was laying face up in her bath, contemplating the ceiling. She knew what Mirellia was thinking about, how stupidly dangerous their plan was. And how stupid they were for forgetting to put on their defensive spirit guide tech at the first sign of the Phoenix girl.

"It's always the little things that make or break us, isn't it? I believe the saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

"As the control master, it was my responsibility to remember and remind us to equip the defensive guides. We lack experience."

"True words, true words. If only their was some kind of school we could go too and get combat experience. A place that could teach us all sorts of spirit master specific subjects to better improve our-"

"Shaat uup. Sass Raven, really. I expected better from you. I thought you were a swords-woman not a sass-woman. Is that your new ultimate technique, gonna sass or enemies into surrender."

The two of them broke into laughter. Focusing on their wounds wasn't healthy in her opinion. Laughter is always the way to go when things are getting depressing. After the two of them finished their treatment for the day and got back to their room, they found some guests waiting for them.

"Hello ladies, I hope you don't mind we made ourselves comfortable in your absence." A jovial old man feasting on a sizeable chicken leg stated. If the bones in the trash can were to be believed, he had eaten through a lot of them.

"You must be Raven, and you Mirellia." The Redhead bowed to each of them correctly as Adlet wrapped them up in a delicate hug. He asked with only a look if they were okay, concern clearly visible.

"We were just eager to look more like our husband." Raven's joke didn't elicit any laughter so she stopped chuckling and seriously talked. "Well be fine. A few scars and a bad memory, but we're alive and healing well."

After another hug from Adlet, the woman gave a slight cough to get their attention. "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. My evil fire got out of control. I thought I still had a handle on things but I was wrong. Please accept this small token of apology." She bowed while handing them both a pill. Raven could tell this was a treasure by the aroma alone. "Thanks to Adlet, my evil fire will no longer be a problem for me. I hope after this failing on my part we can learn to become friends."

"How exactly did Adlet help you?" Mirellia's tone became sharp a she stared at their husband. Upon closer look, she could see a small faint fiery haze wafting off very distinct black stitch marks along his face and hands. They each grabbed one of his ears and pinched.

" "How exactly did you help her?" "

It was clear he did something dangerous and stupid as well. It was probably necessary, maybe even an act in desperation, but their gut instinct knew he did something bad.

"I didn't do anything bad, tell them Ma Xiaotao. Everything-that-happened-was-perfectly-safe, practically-routine. Stuffthathappensallthetime!"

His lies were pitiful.

"Would you two please give us a few minutes alone, we need to punish- I mean chat with our husband in private."

"You two are injured, you should resting right now-yeoww"

Raven, with her hand still pinching his ear, twisted. Whatever it was he did, didn't matter. He needed to be punished for endangering himself.

'We've all been given a second chance, don't you dare think to put yourself in a position where we could lose you. That's unacceptable.'