Ashborn Primordial

Chapter 192: Power Training

Days bled together as Vir meditated, working tirelessly to expand his prana capacity. Through careful study and experimentation, hed learned that by injecting blood into Parais Barrier pattern and by forcing it to deviate slightly, the barrier effect weakened enough to allow prana to enter his body.

Prana Barrier was essentially a better version of Prana Damthe supersaturated layer Vir kept near his skinso with this new ability, he didnt even need the dam at all.

Slowly, Virs blood capacity stretched, though the ordeal was both less painful, and far quicker, on account of Ashanis pranites.

What would normally have taken him months now only took days, and just three weeks after Ashani had shut down, Vir was fully acclimated. Prana Barrier finally dropped, and hed suffered no ill effects from it. What would have killed him in moments just a week prior had now become benign.

In addition, Virs muscles had visibly grown, making his armor feel tight, and his body coursed with power. Thanks both to the prana and the high nutrition food and pure water Ashani had prepared for him in her absence.

Vir had never felt as strong in his life. It was all a little intoxicating. The thought of going back to his more mundane self now seemed unpleasant.

Luckily, there was little need to. Experiments with this newfound prana capacity had yielded interesting results. When full, Virs Talents charging rate diminished slightly, as expected. He had to pull prana from his legs or arms to create the vacuum effector the potential difference, as Ashani had called it. Still, the overwhelming amount of prana in the Mahdi Realm meant the charging rate was still lightning quick.

When Vir eventually left Mahdi behind, he could simply reactivate Prana Dam to prevent the monstrous amount of prana in his blood from leaking out, thereby retaining the benefits. His prana capacity had permanently expanded, and would permanently strengthen him.

It also meant he could now power Talents using the prana reserves in his own bodya feat not even Cirayus was capable of.

Eager to test it out, Vir left Janaks lab, darting up the stairs and out of the home. If he was right, his gains would affect nearly all of his abilities. Never before had he improved something so fundamental. Prana was the basis for all magic, and by increasing its capacity, Vir's potential should have soared.

He stepped onto the lift platform, giddy with excitement. It activated automatically, lowering him to the street.

The Ashfire Wolves who guarded the entrance snarled at Virs approach, but he ignored them, Leaping some distance away for his experiments.

First up was Leap. As the Talent that consumed the least prana, it made for a good test.

Vir activated the ability, coalescing blood into his leg muscles and willing himself to shoot forward.

Leap activated, draining his prana reservesbut not emptying them. It also shot him nearly two hundred paces forward. By increasing his prana capacity, hed also increased his ability to channel it. Like expanding the water pipe, his blood could support a greater flow rate now. And that meant his Talents had grown even stronger.

Five more Leaps drained Virs body to a level where he could no longer sustain that increased rate, and the Talent took him less and less distance.

Looks like its five or six full-power Leaps for now.

Vir looked up to see a couple of Ashanis Ashfire Wolves had perched themselves on nearby ledges protruding from the spires, observing his antics with curiosity. Their black hides camouflaged them on the dark towers, but they lit up like a beacon to Prana Vision.

Watch all you want, just dont get in my way, Vir thought.

As significant as his gains were, there was still an opportunity to expand his bloods capacity, above and beyond what the realm demanded. After all, he was still just in the outer reaches of Mahdi, and there were other ways of forcing the process if needed.

Blink consumed the same amount of prana as Leap, just in a shorter time for a more explosive burst. His body could support a handful of activations of that Talent as well.

Prana Blade had always powered off his blood, but now it shot out even denser, a black abyss of visible prana.

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The Ashfire Wolves perked up at the sight of the devastating blade of pure prana.

Impressed already? Vir thought, observing the beasts as the prana in his body refilled. Wait till you see what comes next!

Blade Launch was in another realm entirely, sucking Vir dry to fire off a devastating attack that ripped through the air, dying off a full hundred paces away.

Like Maiyas C Grade Wind Blade, but deadlier. Far deadlier.

Virs gallery grew.

Chakram Launch was no less impressive, sending his disks flying a full two hundred paces before coming to a stop, effectively doubling their previous maximum distance. Vir suspected theyd be deadlier, too. That was hard to test, owing to the Imperium preservation scripts that covered their buildings and roads. Nothing he had penetrated them.

Gotta watch it with those, though, Vir thought. Powering Launch from the prana in his body had left him an empty huskthat included the pranites in his blood. And unlike his blood, they couldnt be replaced. When they ran dry, they were gone for good. Hed have to be careful to ensure that never happened.

Vir mulled over these new discoveries. Powering Talents with his blood freed him from dependence on prana-starved lands. Useful both for offense and escape; a single invocation of Dance of the Shadow Demon could mean the difference between life or death. This would serve him well in the Demon Realm, assuming the shadows there were strong enough.

It also meant he could use Talents while airborne in the Demon and Human Realms.

Bet people will get a kick out of that, he thought.

While the ability to power Talents from his blood was less useful in the Ash, the vitality boost would certainly help.

But not enough, Vir thought darkly.

He held no notions of actually fighting the Yaksha guardian. He didnt dare try. Even with his offensive gains, this was an Imperium Automaton he was up againsta machine created by the gods. It had survived for thousands of years against foes far greater than Vir.

Vir would be stealthy, leveraging Dance of the Shadow Demon to sneak past the guardian. Hed grab the cores and escape as fast as he could.

That was the plan, but Vir wasnt navehe was venturing into the maw of death. He needed better defense, and his seric armor alone wasnt going to cut it.

He needed Prana Armor, and he had a pretty good idea of how to achieve it.

In fact, Parai had given it to him already. Vir had kept Prana Barrier off recentlynow that hed acclimatized to the ambient prana density, it was more an impediment than an aid.

Prana Barrier worked by repulsing ambient prana. Ashani had even called it a Repulsion Field.

If so, what would happen when Vir ran prana through the pattern backward, as hed done with Prana Channeling when hed entered the Ash?

Luckily, Prana Barrier was subconsciousingrained into his muscle memory. Shifting it to run in reverse should

Got it!

The pattern reversed, and instead of being repulsed, prana surged into him over-saturating his blood.

Well, this would be a good way to train up my blood capacity, I suppose, he thought, canceling the ability.

That wasnt quite what he was going for, but the good news was Parais Prana Barrier moved such little blood, it was possible to run two of them simultaneously in opposite directions.

Because of its subconscious nature, itd taken Vir a while to wrangle the knowledge into his conscious mind. Luckily, the task had proven far simpler than learning it from scratch, and so Vir had managed it in the weeks he took to expand his bloods capacity.

By running one repulsion pattern and another attraction patternand by adjusting the blood flow such that the attraction pattern was slightly stronger, Vir slowly coalesced prana against his skin and kept it there.

But the two forces fought each other, and so the attraction effect was weak. It forced Vir to wait several minutes before prana accumulated around his skin to a level that rivaled the Domain Lords hed fought on the Mahakurmas back.

Definitely not something I can summon on demand, he thought.

There was another issue with it as wellwhenever he sucked in prana to power a Talent, the layer of armor would be damaged. Made of pure prana as it was, it simply got sucked into his body to feed the Talent.

Which meant that part of his body would be armorless for a minute or two until the cycling patterns restored the prana layer.

It was certainly a restriction, but not a crippling oneVir could always suck prana from the ground instead.

The other interesting observation was that when active, the attraction effect was always active. And that meant it never stopped pulling prana toward him, condensing it around his body, tighter and tighter. There would naturally be a limit beyond which the attractive force would be insufficient to compress the prana armor any further, but even after ten minutes, Vir hadnt reached it.

Good for surviving a single, lethal hit, but bad in a protracted battle.

Still, Vir couldnt wipe the grin off his face. It was more protection than hed ever had before. It was more power than he'd ever had, and that felt so incredibly satisfying.

Yet power was useless without purpose.

Vir strode up to his gallery of canine onlookers whod now gathered on the street.

Easy, easy! I mean you no harm. He opened his palms, scanning the pack for

Found you, he said, noticing the runt of the litter.

Vir walked up to the wolf, who eyed him warily.

Youre the one who found me at the Ash Gate, arent you? Youre a little smaller than your brethren.

The wolf growled, baring its teeth.

Okay, good. So you can understand me. Normal Ash Wolves are smart, but you guys are just more. I figured you might be able to help.

Vir pulled out the two broken halves of the orb hed destroyed and slotted them together.

The vault. Where these are. Can you take me?

The other wolves closed in around Vir, surrounding him.

Listen to me! Vir said, raising his voice to be heard. Ashaniyour masteris dying. I can help her, but I need you to guide me. Will you help me?

The wolves looked at each other. The Alpha had perished in their earlier battle, and so Vir sensed some confusion among them.

To his surprise, it was the runt in front of him who howled, attracting the attention of its brethren.

The wolf barked sharply, then turned, loping away. Several others followed.

Ill take that as a yes, Vir said, pocketing the broken orb. Lets do this.