When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again-AFS 2: Strange Flame Strangeness - (4) - The Strange Flame Strangeness

Since I used my divine sense to help us avoid any beasts, we made it to the beginning of the mountain within two hours.

Spring turned slightly. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, showing just how difficult older-style mechs like this were to pilot. “Fairy Lin, isn’t this going a bit too smoothly?”

I sent a flick of spiritual energy at the back of Spring’s head. “Did you seriously just jinx us like that? It’s been going smoothly because I’m just that good.”

He ran up the volcano. The steep slope made our speed decrease significantly, but there were at least fewer trees to interrupt our path. About two-thirds of the way up, nothing but thick thorny bushes hindered our path. While this helped us move faster, it also left us exposed. If anyone decided to look at the volcano, they’d easily see our bright white mech with its neon pink lights in the dead of night.

“Just hurry into the crater before we get recorded. I don’t want to have to hire a team of hackers to delete evidence.”

“...” He let out a breath, then pushed forward, jumping as fast as he could until we moved over the lip of the volcano. A massive lava lake spread out in front of us.

A geyser of hot liquid earth burst from the lake’s surface, sending flecks of fire everywhere. No, ‘geyser’ didn’t do this thing justice. It was closer to facing a tower of lava that suddenly collapsed.

Our mech jerked as Spring miscalculated and stepped poorly. We began sliding down the slope toward the glowing surface. Error messages and warnings popped up on the mech’s viewing screen. I opened my light brain and quickly worked to correct them from here. Unfortunately, it looked like we pulled an artificial muscle in the mech’s ankle. The heat from the unnatural lava here was also a bit too hot for the shitty exterior armor this thing had. The ground melted the rubber parts of the mech’s feet.

This mech was not rated for extreme environments like our personalized mechs were.

We finally brought the mech to a stop a mere four meters before we reached the burning lake.

“Back her up. There is a semi-flat ledge ten meters to the left.”

Spring limped us over to the ledge. I quickly unstrapped myself and moved past him to open the cockpit.

“This mech isn’t rated for extreme heat environments. But don’t worry. I plan to go alone from here.”

Spring caught my wrist before I could leave. “What do you mean, go alone? Can’t you just summon that strange flame here?”

Ah, look at this kid. I messed up his hair. “Don’t worry about me. This isn’t my first time.”

I passed him the repair kit. “While I’m gone, use the relaxant spray on the mech’s ankle. That should get you back into fighting shape. Though make sure you don’t go anywhere too slippery. The rubber on the feet is already melted.”

His brow furrowed.

I pulled his hand off my wrist and took a step back, onto a cushion of my divine sense.

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I briefly waved while in midair before creating more cushions that I used to casually jump toward the middle of the volcano.

Of course, the heat was excruciating, but this new body of mine could take it.

When I reached the center of the lake, I noticed dots of blue in a bright yellow circle, surrounded by a donut of bright pink. This was definitely caused by a strange flame.

Next came the hard part. Strange flames were built differently. They had an illusory portion that was more visible to people. Those who tried to touch this part would often find themselves burned to a crisp. Those who weren’t, would soon realize that they were fooled. Of course, the strange flame would then move from its actual spot.

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There was only one way to collect one successfully. And I was about to attempt that.

I contorted my fingers into hand seals and cast a heat repelling shield around my body. Then I practiced the turtle breathing technique. This would make it so I could keep going for over an hour or two without air. I wasn’t sure if I could tame the flame in that time, but I’d have to.

Then I waved at Spring, who probably couldn’t see me that well before dropping into the lava, right next to the signs of the strange flame.

At first, due to buoyancy, I floated a bit on top of the lava. I had to create cushions of divine sense to use as handholds to push myself deeper into the lake.

The lava surrounded me. Even with the shield spell, the blistering heat hit my skin. My lips, mouth, and eyes seemed dried out already. This was a very powerful flame I was about to face.

After about ten minutes of climbing down, I suddenly dropped and landed ass first onto a hot cavern floor.

“Goddamn it!” I stood and checked my mech pilot uniform to make sure it hadn’t been burned. Fortunately, it was made of sturdy SS-rank material, even if it was the cheap school provided one.

I walked down the pink tunnel until I reached a cavern where I saw a glitch in the universe.

On the ground was a small strange flame that looked like yellow fire, intersected with yellow and blue lines. Above it was long blue and yellow lines reminiscent of the metal in a computer motherboard. It was as if the strange flame knew this universe’s theme was different and had changed itself to match.

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So, which one was the true strange flame? The large top, or the small bottom?

I could only make the attempt once. And this was a style of flame I’d never encountered before. But it would work for my purposes.

I scanned them both with my divine sense. Yeah, that wasn’t working. They both felt equally real.

I crouched down next to the flame at the bottom to study it in greater detail. It was almost as if it was bending space.

“...”

No. it couldn’t be that simple, right?

I spread my divine sense over both parts.

Fuck me.

I shoved my hands into my hair and let out a breath.

Well, it was a good thing my soul was at the Immortal Ascension stage, because I wouldn’t be able to handle something like this if I was actually only at Golden Core. A goddamn strange flame that affected spacetime to the point it created its own wormhole! What the actual SciFi fuck?

Instead of having an illusory version, it just split itself into two, so anyone who tried to tame just one part of it would fail. Diabolical!

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Now to tame it.

I surrounded both sides with my divine sense, or rather, I attempted to. The strange flame must have sensed my intentions, because the space around it began to distort. When I moved my divine sense left, it would go up. When I moved it closer, it would suddenly appear on the other side.

It was seriously getting on my last nerve.

I pulled back all of my divine sense, then I absolutely flooded the area with it, leaving no possible escape. It didn’t matter if up was right and left was back, because I was everywhere.

I began to pressure the strange flame and condense it.

The surrounding cave began to melt, the lava above boiled.

I split my mind into two. One part handled my fight with the flame while the other took charge of my body. Spears of molten stone shot toward me. I dodged them.

The flame shrank further and burned hotter. The yellow light of the flame turned white while the blue glitches became darker and gained an ultra violet hue.

Small geysers of lava blasted up from under me. I casually side stepped them.

A massive glob of white hot heat fell on top of me. I almost screamed from the intense heat, but my shield was still working. I pushed the glob off of me.

This thing was not gonna go without a fight. It was time to up the intensity from Immortal Bone Creation to the Immortal Ascension stage.

I coughed up a mouthful of blood. My body could just barely handle me using my divine sense at my highest level, but only for a short amount of time.

“Muahahahaha! Give up! You’re mine. Mine!”

I folded the flame in on itself until it condensed into a small fire the size of my palm. I made a grabbing motion, bringing the flame to me. Then I saturated it with binding spells, taking it away from its place in nature, and this universe, and making it my servant.

I squeezed the flame in my hand and stared at it. “I am your master now. Obey me and prosper. Fight me and suffer. From this moment on, you cannot exist without me.”

The flame wilted a little. I grinned.

While they weren’t sentient, each one had a spirit. That was why they tried so hard to not get captured.

Now to hide it. I wrapped it in my divine sense and brought it into my soul space. It would be uncomfortable for me since nothing was supposed to go there aside from myself, but I had no better option.

The once white hot lava cooled suddenly and unnaturally to yellow.

I had to get out of here fast before I got stuck in the middle of goddamn solid volcanic rock.

That was when the cave collapsed. Literal tons of lava fell on top of me.