[WHAT THE FUCK?!]
Korven screamed loudly in a hellish screech as him mind screamed at me with the massive wave of heat waking him up as I incinerated the corpse, controlling the fire to swirl back and upwards so it didn't extend past the worm.
[You wouldn't wake up. I thought an explosion would do.]
[Wha-What the ACTUAL FUCK?! You scared the fur off of me!]
I shrugged. I didn't really feel patient right now.
Was I being a dick? Maybe, but I felt this... need to move faster. To do something. Like I'd finally glimpsed something important.
And however stupid and not-great a choice it would be, I couldn't shake the desire to try and gain darkness magic... even without absolute proof that it would work.
[Korven, was it hard on your body to awaken? You look like a normal raccoon to me.]
Korven pauses mid-stretch in surprise.
The white parts of his fur began to glow, while the brown darkened to black and seemed to emit an anti-light, like Black was emitted by his fur somehow.
[Yes. Awakening is a process with physical effects and ramifications, this fact is undeniable.]
[So... how do you strengthen your body to increase the maximum amount of magic you can handle?]
Korven thought for a second. [Its... simple yet complex. We awaken to an element and fuse it into our body, which is why using your innate magic to empower yourself is "fusion magic". So you draw magic into yourself and refine your body and stretch its limits with it bit-by-bit.]
[So you run mana through yourself to slowly increase your tolerance?]
He sorta denied this. [No, but yes? You place your body under stress from magic to increase tolerance.]
So if I purposely shoved as much magic into my body as it could handle, and pushed the limits, I'd slowly gain more space within myself to hold magic as the container of my body repaired damage and grew stronger?
[You were born with magic, so let's put it like this: an awakened refines an element within themselves to gain its magic and craft a body able to handle it simultaneously.]
[An element? As in, a single one?]
Korven gave me a look. [Just because 2 elements is the max a mortal body can handle doesn't mean you automatically get 2. I'm actually pretty talented for awakening light so soon after dark!]
Oh. Well that's a lot to handle. Also 2 is the max for a mortal body... yeah if I tried to actually absorb the full might of all my elements I'd explode.
I stretched out one last time. [You know, it's weird. Originally I'd swear my fire was strongest, with light and water tied for second and wind as the weakest, but after over a month I think they've somehow all reached the strength of the fire element?]
Korven looked at me weirdly. [...well... yeah. You can produce and manipulate multiple kinds, being stuck with less of one would make no sense.]
I nodded. Maybe I won't mention that I now have earth... though not really as I can't use it yet.
Can't use normal magic of all elements cause I can't accept outside mana into a body already stuffed to the brim with mana.
But instead I have most of the elements already, in a stronger way than a mage. So... I don't feel I've made a loss I guess.
Korven hopped onto my back, and I took off again.
~ ~ ~
Kire woke up, the space and the dragon lingering as more than a dream, lucid and real in his mind.
He looked at the wooden walls of the inn the army had set him in, and he instinctively felt the air being breathed in the lungs of the people outside, "protecting" him.
He could feel the moisture in the air, the oxygen and fluid in the blood of everyone around him, and he had to focus slightly just to shut it all out!
'I couldn't feel all this before... did going there, to the source of this power, somehow make me more sensitive to the elements I wield?'
He contemplated this for some time, simply lost in thought as to the changes the last few days had brought to his life.
"Sir Kire?" A knock interrupted his thoughts.
"Come in."
A young woman, maybe 19 or so, came in with a basket of fine clothes.
"They want you to wear these."
Kire stood up, and began stripping off his shirt and pants without a thought, casually noting that his muscles seemed more defined, not bigger... longer? Was he taller? It felt like he was.
Certain parts of him certainly seemed to have gotten longer over the past weeks...
The young lady flushed pink in embarrassed shock as this man simply stripped in front of her and took the new clothes out of the basket she was still holding.
Kire was used to marching in a military camp by this point. You expect privacy? Please, when camping in an open field in cold nights, without a tent, you're lucky if nobody happens to see you while you're taking a shit, much less changing.
He pulled on the new shirt, a light sky blue, loose on him but with tight bands with the ends of the sleeves to work as cuffs creating the stylish baggy appearance that was popular now.
He looked up to see her wide eyes staring at his torso and waist, and her face gone pink.
"Oh..." he faintly let out as he began to go pink as well.
"Um. Sorry. Not used to polite company."
He ducked his head in apology, embarrassed as could be.
"I-it's fine Sir Kire." She coughed against her arm, turning her eyes away and dropping her head a bit.
"Just Kire."
"Huh?" She looked up in confusion.
"I'm not a knight miss. I'm Kire, a simple peasant soldier with no surname."
She began hastily shaking her head. "No no, that won't do! You're a hero, a rare awakened able to stand on par with the god's chosen! My father even sent me personally because of that-" She clamped her mouth shut in mortified shame.
"Your father?" Kire looked her up and down.
Her dress wasn't exactly overly fancy as one might expect of a noble lady, but it certainly seemed of fine make, yet very practical considering this town was full of soldiers preparing to march back to battle soon.
"Yes." She clearly wasn't willing to elaborate further.
Kire shrugged, grabbing the coat he loosely put on over the shirt, and putting boots on.
"So you're supposed to lead and direct me then I'm guessing?"
She nodded, the basket now cradle against her stomach as she seemed unconsciously posed.
"Can I have just a moment alone? I'll be out in a minute."
Kire asked with a smile, as polite as can be, but a small chill entered the room unconsciously.
She shivered for second before fixing a bright smile to her face. "Sure thing!" She Shut the door behind her and leaned shakily against the wall next to it.
'HOLY SHIT HE'S HOT!' Her face flushed pink all over again as she remembered the size of him!
He was cute in his humility and kind-seeming expression, scary in his power as he changed a rooms temperature on a whim, and hot as hell. Scarred and manly, yet young and cute. A strange dichotomy that shook her to the core!
Meanwhile, Kire knelt and clasped his hand in prayer.
He should be dead. He did die.
During that battle, with that half giant there on the enemy side, and with the reveal of hidden forces, they should have lost. Looking back, and seeing the enemy's preparations, if he hadn't been awakened, they would have been slaughtered.
But he was, and the enemy had not been able to prepare an equal foe because they had no way of gaining intelligence on an awakened who wasn't noticed by even their own kingdom!
"That's twice now that I'm saved by your power. Thank you, young godling." He didn't know where the term came from, but that's how he addressed the nameless dragon.
"Thank you for my life."
He stood and bowed to the air, his mind remembering the appearance of that beast, and left calmly, only to find the lady with her head against a wall seemingly muttering under her breath.
"...is this really proper behavior for a woman of higher society?"
"Hello?"
"AH!" She jumped, dropping the basket.
A pause of embarrassment, and then she tried to naturally go on. "Let's go!"
She walked past the basket and him, trying her damndest to ignore it.
"I am Zerena Irfush, but most just call me Zanna."
"Kire."
She smiled back at him. "Seeing as you're introducing yourself as a powerful individual, you might want to make a surname for yourself. They'll have to make it official if you say it to the people."
Kire nodded, entering deep thought.
She brought him out the door and to a carriage, and they headed off to the town square where many people stood as a speaker yelled his speech on the rise of a common soldier, and a loyal man of the kingdom!
"For the honor of our king and country, he drove back the Sattix invaders!"
Kire stepped out of the carriage, and saw the steps up to the stage before him.
"Put on a show" Zerena had said.
He did.
Lightning raced around him as he leapt up the stairs in a single step, air pushing him higher, and he landed on the stage with a small but clear breeze pushing out from his landing, pushing past the faces of the entire audience as lightning lit him up.
"I am a soldier, and I shall fight to protect us from the barbarians who would kill, rape, and enslave us all!"
He stood as his words echoed clearly, enhanced by his air magic.
"I am Kire Rizen."
'I am risen, for I was once dead. May this name mean I never forget the debt I owe.'