Helios rising

The two of Hao and Ning'er had been out in the wild for over a week by now. They had traversed from mountain to mountain, through valleys and canyons, until they had finally found what Hao had been looking for. Well, a part of it.

Before them, pincered in the middle of two mountains, sat a volcano that was clearly active. The slight vibrations its rumbling sent through the rocky ground below their feet was all the signs they had needed to come to that conclusion.

"Finally. Took us long enough to find one. Now all that's left is to venture inside through that tunnel over there. Once we are inside though, you'll have to employ your soul force to shield yourself at every moment or you'll be in quite a bit of pain. Should you manage to endure long enough, until we return back to the surface, you may find yourself surprised a little." Hao said, turning around slightly to glance at the nervous looking Ning'er, who kept glancing at the mighty display of nature's overwhelming might before her.

"I-I see. I will do my best, I promise." She replied, concentrating on her newly discovered soul force that had formerly slumbered in the depth of her now awakened soul, and directed the elusive and mysterious energy into her limbs, forming a slightly glowing sheen around her whole body.

Ning'er had, in the last two days, managed to enter the bronze ranks of cultivation. And after a night of mentally taxing exercises given to her by Hao, had managed to get a hold of her soul force and began to learn how to direct and strengthen it in the process. Now they would see how far along she had come in her training.

Turning back around, Hao walked calmly into the dim tunnel before them, immediately picking up on the smell of brimstone that wafted through the air, accompanied by a clear rise in temperature.

While Ning'er was glancing around furtively, always sticking rather closely to Hao, he was walking through the tunnel with only one thing in mind, namely if he would find the spirit he came here to look for.

Soon, the formerly dark and gloomy tunnel turned brighter and brighter, the newly radiating light flickering and dancing over the walls of the thin tunnel, while the heat had become so strong by now that Ning'er was sweating bullets while the air had become so hot that it felt like breathing in liquid sand.

Glancing around once again, her gaze soon came to rest upon Hao, though once she saw that he looked as he usually did she was stunned into confusion.

"Why are you not sweating? You aren't even using your soul force to shield you as far as I can see!" She asked him, clearly cracking a little under the pressure, the further into the volcano they went. Understandable, really. Nature has that particular ability to show you how insignificant and small you really are by simply existing.

"I don't need my soul force as I am an Onmyodou. A true Onmyodou. Though words are of little use to you to truly understand what the name Onmyodou means when you stop being a novice and enter the rank of a master of my level." Hao replied. By now they had reached the main chamber of the active volcano, which was a sight to behold indeed.

Before them laid an underground chamber the size half of Glory city, brightly illuminated and filled with slowly traversing and bubbling molten stone in the form of magma, occasionally causing a stream of fire to rise up after melting another nearby rock.

Besides the rare sight of magma flowing right before their eyes, their feet stood upon a slightly stronger vibrating surface made of superheated rock that clearly carried quite a bit of the heat from the nearby magma over to their position.

The air meanwhile had become so hot that it had begun to flicker and warp in distortions, occasionally transforming into a flicker of rainbow coloured light, which disappeared as fast as it had emerged.

Motioning for the fearfully trembling Ning'er to stay where she was, Hao simply kept walking, even when Ning'er cried out for Hao to stop in a natural reaction at seeing what lay before them and seeing his action as pure suicide to continue.

Hao however ignored her and just kept on walking, straight towards the magma in front of him.

Under Ning'er's disbelieving eyes, Hao never stopped walking and marched straight into the magma without even a slimmer of hesitation.

However, contrary to her expectations, Hao didn't begin to cry out in pain or trembling from the strain. No. To her it looked like he phased right through the magma as if it was water. Not even his clothes caught on fire, something that stunned the trembling girl into absolute silence.

"This is what an Onmyodou of my level is. We are a part of nature in every sense of the word. Nature flows through us and we through it. It is an extension of our very own being, instead of harming us it is embracing us like a long-lost son returning to its mother.

The magma I am standing in right now, simply is another form nature takes. It could just as well be water or sand for all I care. It matters not to me." Hao said, his voice clearly cutting through the deeply rumbling sounds of the active volcano around them, reaching Ning'er's ears as if he stood right besides her. Though, his words registered only on a miniscule level with Ning'er as the poor girl was clearly unable to comprehend what was happening right now.

Hao had, with nothing much but a single step forwards, put everything she believed true and logical onto a pile and literally set it on fire, while she had no choice but to stand there and watch as her understanding of the world went up in flames.

While Ning'er stood there, stunned into incomprehension and disbelieving silence, Hao kept on walking forwards, his eyes roaming over the slowly bubbling and flowing magma, while his soul felt for some sign of spiritual activity.

He kept looking and as luck would have it, Hao actually came across a presence deep below in the slowly awakening depth of the volcano, whose eruption was only a matter of time in his opinion.

Brushing over the presence with his Furyoku, Hao began to expect whom he had come across so deep inside the volcano.

It felt…different to the usual demon beast they had come across occasionally while out in the wild.

Demon beasts normally, no matter their level of cultivation, had a certain animalistic aura to them, clearly identifying them as demon beasts. Not to confuse with real demons from hell however, who were just a concentration of purely negative emotions condensed by Furyoku.

This…being however, as it was clearly sentient, if currently slumbering, felt more like an aspect of nature given a sliver of sentience.

It was however, contrary to what his spirit of Fire had been, not just an elemental aspect that had been artificially taken from inside of the great spirit but had been brought to life through no will of the great spirit but rather through the absence of its will and interference.

It was, in the most simple expression, the most natural spirit of nature brought to life through nothing but the condensation and amalgamation of fire in the depth of the earth's crust.

It was pure fire incarnate. Beautiful.

'Fascinating! I wonder what the great spirit's intentions were when he decided to not interfere in this matter? This being of fire even possesses a freshly born soul of all things! It is the purest being I have ever seen in my whole life.' Hao thought, for the first time in a long time a little stunned at the feeling this being of fire gave off.

Calming his desire to claim this spirit for himself, Hao instead decided to take a different approach this time. The last time he had claimed a spirit forcefully, the spirit of Fire, it had never truly been meant to be his. It had, of course, still been under his control and served him faithfully throughout his long life but it had never shared a deep connection like his former twin brother had had with his spirit at the time.

Thus, this time, instead of forcing his will onto this being of purity and innocence, Hao simply nudged it awake softly and offered it to join him on his journey, laying bare the essence of his very being to this incarnation of fire for it to inspect in detail, upon which it could make its decision if he was worthy to wield it or not.

The being, after being nudged awake gently, at first looked around a little in confusion before its attention came to rest upon Hao's massive soul that hovered before it, though no intention to harm it was obvious to its conscious and so it simply began to look through his memories, inspect his character, dove into his active mind and even observed his unconsciousness.

Like this the two of them, connected in this weird state of semi-fusion, stayed for one hour. One hour turned into two until finally, the two beings disconnected and suddenly the volcano began to rumble as if it was slowly awakening from it slumber.

Returning his soul back into his body, Hao waited for the being to come to a decision and to his happiness he was not to be disappointed.

Slowly rising out of the churning sea of magma beneath Hao's feet, the being he had only seen through his soul before, appeared before his mortal eyes for the first time.

At first it was but a sphere made of deep red fire with a weirdly smooth surface. That sphere however soon began to change its shape into something different.

Two legs grew from the bottom, seemingly possessing no solid form, and yet retaining its shape somehow. The legs were short, like those of a child, but Hao didn't mind, completely captivated by an event he had never witnessed before. The birth of a spirit that truly bonded with him of its own volition!

Its feet transformed from humanoid looking feet into more claw like humanoid feet, its toes growing longer, thinner and sharper while an additional claw like appendage burst into being at the back of its heel, granting it more stability and a weapon all the same. Flexing all those appendages shortly, the being continued with its arms. Just like with its toes, its fingers grew sharper, longer and thinner until they had reformed themselves into truly lethal weapons of its own. Still, it didn't stop there. From its back did not only a long tail with a sharp knifelike serrated blade at its end sprout but also four fiery whip-like tentacles that wafted around its body before wrapping along its arms like chains made of fire twisting around them.

Last but not least its head followed. Twisting and turning from left to right, as it pushed its way out of its fiery cocoon, it finally regained its freedom, and thus blew apart the rest of its former chamber of rest, swiftly condensing it into its upper body that fused together the rest of its body.

Its head possessed, instead of hair, some kind of horn-like protrusions that littered the top of its head in short and sharp shards, forming a sort of helm like crown atop its head, all of them growing in obvious temperature the sharper they grew towards their tips.

Hao meanwhile was captivated by its beauty and couldn't help himself but step forwards to its side, running his right hand over its young but fiery torso, feeling the clearly pulsating heat under its surface, radiating outwards like a hidden sun, just waiting to consume.

He was ripped from his marvelling however by a small gasp from behind him, and turning around slightly he remembered that he hadn't come here alone. Ning'er, who had done her utmost to stay inside the volcano alongside him, had finally reached her limit by the looks of it and Hao decided she had done well enough and it was time to leave this place.

Putting his flat hand onto the left side of this being of fire's chest, Hao send out his soul once again and, clearly understanding Hao's desire, the being of fire, which had given itself the name Helios to Hao's amusement, accepted his offer to become his spirit and entered the confines of his soul, and thus formed a soul bond with Hao, becoming his spiritual companion.

With a small combustion, Helios turned into a thin flame and rushed into Hao's chest where it turned into a fiery tattoo upon his back and upper arms in the form of glowing and pulsating flames that seemed to be alive upon closer inspection.

This done and over with, Hao turned around and, producing a miniscule amount of Furyoku at the bottom of his feet, disappeared in a flicker of movement, reappearing right next to the kneeling Ning'er who was trembling and sweating on her whole body.

Gently picking the girl up Hao once again flickered away leaving behind this wonderful place after finally having achieved what he had prepared for. He finally had a spiritual companion once again. Now all that was left was to cultivate his partner's power before he could truly begin pushing onwards on his path!