Chapter 2 - Learning

Staring at the plasma flames blazing from my fiery body, I am lost at what to do. The heat I'm exuding is so great my immediate surroundings have vanished. I suddenly remember my phone but I stop myself from looking for it as now it is nothing more than ashes.

"If there could, possibly, have a way to use it again, now there isn't anymore. "

Shaking my head, I take a deep breath and try many methods to put out the flames but they don't weaken no matter what I do. The flames persistence, while worrying, isn't the major problem, the thing is that I can feel that to maintain the flames "on" it's draining something from me, very fast.

"(Alright. Same way flames needs fuel to burn, these plasma flames also uses "fuel" to burn and this something getting drained must be the "fuel".)"

Looking at myself, I realize what it is.

"(Mana. Of course. In the description of the Orb of the Living Sun, it said I could manipulate flames at the cost of mana. So this feeling is my mana feeding the flames. Great, now I know what it is... but how do I make it stop? I need to figure it out somehow. They need to do as I say.)"

Taking a deep breath, I push aside all worry, straighten myself up in the air and close my eyes. Cleaning my head from all thoughts, I focus solely on my body and delve deep into my mind.

"(I ate the Orb of the Living Sun... so I am the living sun... the embodiment of solar flames. This fire is my body... and the solar flames... are like my limbs... but they are wild... rampaging... and I need to control it... to take the reigns... and contain it.)"

Breathing deeply repeated times, I begin to feel the flames but it's different from before. Instead of just feeling their presence, I can feel a link starting to connect us. This connection becomes clearer and stronger the more I focus my mind into it. Sometimes it slips away from me but I just try again. While I'm doing it, the feeling of my mana getting consumed also gets much clearer.

"(C'mon... just do... as I want...)"

Through the link I influence the flames and force them to disappear. They are stubborn but I put my mind into it and little by little, they follow my intent. The flames just weaken a bit but as I insist and intensify my resolve, they gradually die down and my body reverts from that plasma state back to its fleshy form.

"(Yes... yes... just like that.)"

I descend from the air and my feet touches the floor. I will the flames to extinguish and they immediately disappear, including those on my surroundings. I can even feel that the immense heat around me also dissipates completely, this surprises me.

" I can control flames and heat... cool... and overpowered. (But I still need to get the hang of it.) So this is what it means to become the embodiment of the sun, huh?"

Opening my eyes, the link between me and the flames is complete, strong and stable. But all this came with a hefty cost, the "fuel" that the flames are using to burn, or the mana, I can feel that it's majority has been consumed, about seventy to eighty percent of it, and it's still going.

"This was... not hard. Surprisingly. Maybe I always had talent to be a pyrokinetic? (It's a good things I've learned to control them but it's a pity they drained me so much, seems like this is a way to balance things. Overpowered Superpowers likely costs great mana.)"

A distinct sensation spreads across my mind, I then look at myself. This feeling tells me that my body can only withstand two more Superpowers. I don't know how I know it but I'm certain that if I acquire four Superpowers, in total, something really, really bad will happen. Maybe I'll die... or turn into something far worse.

"(This is related to God. Things that are inexplicable through normal means are related to them, one way or another. They must be the ones who placed these limits on me, maybe on every living being too? That I don't know. But why three though, why not four, five or even ten? I need to find someone who has also acquired a Superpower to find out more about it. For now I should get out of here, with the Superpower of flames it should be much easier.)"

Looking at myself, I'm buck naked, so I walk to the wardrobe, I reach it and see a pile of ashes, not even a single piece of wood remained. My clothes and anything I could wear are destroyed.

"Grea-"

As I look at the destroyed wardrobe, the bathroom's door on my right bursts. It surprises the fuck out of me but I rapidly turn to it. From inside, a zombie rushes out, moving quickly like a fucking ghost.

"Fuck. (He's so fast.)"

The zombie approaches me in an instant while I, out of reflex, lift my arms. An explosion of intense flames comes out of my palms, pushing me back, engulfing the zombie's whole body and sending him flying back right through a wall. The flames I just released are floating in mid-air and burning strong, showing no signs of getting weaker. I find it weird but I don't think much about it, feeling that a decent amount of mana was consumed from that, I extinguish the fire from my arms and the floating flames.

"What the fuck? (I used the flames unintensionally, I just wanted to push him.)"

The zombie gets up from the floor as dust and small pieces of burning debris fall from him. His right arm disappeared while the rest of most of his body is heavily damaged, skin burning away as crispy flesh crumbles, exposing charred bones. He opens and closes his jaws, and turns to me. I stare at him and frown, I recognize who he is. My roommate and friend, the guy who first approached me when my japanese was ass and I was a foreigner in a unknown country: Takashi Komuro.

Zombie: ""

"(Undead: Creature wandering between the border of life and death, revived through God's influence, it has non-existent intelligence with Strength and Endurance far surpassing that of humans but is completely blind and can only locate preys through sound, weak against fire and electricity, the only way of killing is by destroying the brain. The description really comes in handy now but...) Taki? How did you turn into a zombie? And how did you get in the bathroom? I thought you were at the fire escape, skipping class, like always."

Reluctantly, I point my hand at him.

"Sorry, Taki. I didn't want any of this to happen, I'm really sorry."

Taki: ""

Taki slams his foot on the floor, cracking it, and dashes at me much faster than before, his remaining arm outstretched at me, however, I am prepared. As soon as he moves I release a powerful stream of flames, like a super flamethrower, in Taki's direction. He doesn't dodge and face it head on but the flames swallow him.

"I'm sorry, man. This shouldn't have happaned the way it did."

After a few seconds, I immediately stop and wait for the flames to die out. I then notice that the floating flames won't die out, or so is the nature of plasma flames, so I get rid of them myself. When the flames around us disappears, Taki's remains are revealed as nothing, not even ashes remained, besides where he is supposed to be a pair of strips of meat hovers like a game's item. Memories of us skipping class to play videogames or to simply talk about things, of him teaching me japanese and how to play baseball, and of me showing him my song playlist plays inside my mind as I stare at the burnt floor. Shaking my head, I approach the it.

" So unfair. Why the good people die? (Why did this had to happen? You were such a nice guy.)"

Grabbing the strips of meat, I look at the bones.

"It hurts so much but I won't cry over your death, Taki. I know you understand why: I've told you I was not right in the head. Didn't I? But bear something in your mind, I'll always keep you inside my memories: you won't be forgotten. It's like they say, don't be sad because it's over be happy because it happened. I'm happy that I met you, Taki. You were a true friend, my only true friend thank you for everything. I'll miss you, I'll really do."

Looking at the strips of meat, I understand what they are.

"(Delicious Jerky Beef: Perfectly seasoned and having immense flavor, it's safe to eat, consume it all to instantly replenish stamina and boost recovery rate, dropped by undead. Great, a snack. It's just like in a game.)"

Going into the bathroom, I grab a towel and wrap tightly around my waist. On the ground I see trails of blood, most likely Taki's blood.

" This really shouldn't have happened. Poor Taki... but I guess this is for the best. He was too much of a good guy. (But it's curious that Taki came out of the bathroom only after I learned to control the flames. Maybe it was God who interfered? Can't possibly know but I believe so.)"

Drinking water from the sink with my free hand, I then wash my face.

"(I still don't know much about this Superpower yet, so I need to test it out more, but this mana consumption makes it so difficult to do that. I'm already almost empty. I should be careful of when to use it from now on... But thankfully enough, even though it took more mana than I wanted to kill Taki, I now know I can get rid of the zombie with my flames, though I have to burn their entire body until nothing remains. Not efficient but it's something.)"

Staring at the mirror, I lift my wavy brown bangs, that are hanging over my face, to look at myself but when I do so I'm taken by surprise by my eyes. Their irises are glowing bright orange.

"Is this... the side effect of eating the Orb of the Living Sun? It's like there is a sun burning inside them. At least I don't look that ugly anymore, it gives me a supernatural air. Like I'm some otherwordly entity. . If I was just a little slimmer I'd look even better though, but hey, that's me. Can't change it. (Unfortunately.)"

In my mind, however, a sudden knowledge makes me frown.

"(Human Boss: A variant from the Human race with the unique ability of understanding the true nature of everything at a glance and compelling those of the same race to comply any order but like all humans the attributes are low, born from the influence of God. It basically forces others to do as I say? Fuck, sounds too wrong. It that's it then I could use it to do anything I want to pretty much any human... Scary.)"

Turning my attention to the beef jerkies on my other hand, its delicious scent calls for me so I shove one of them in my mouth. Chewing on it, I feel intense flavor and it indeed is "seasoned perfectly".

"Hum. Umm. (Wow. It tastes really good.)"

Its effects are clearly noticeable as any tiredness in my body instantly disappears. Even my mana that steadily replenishes itself at a very low rate, which would require many hours to completely fill up, recovers much faster.

"(In a game this would be mandatory to any character.) Should I eat the other? Nah, I better keep it, dunno when I'll need it. (Anyway, knowing that I can burn an undead to ashes to kill them isn't really useful as this means I'll likely run out of juice before I can even get out of here, but that is assuming that the place's going to be swarming with zombies, in other words the worst situation possible... But wait, there is no need to spend more mana than necessary. The description said I just needed to destroy the brain to kill them. For that, instead of burning their whole body with a continuous torrent of flames, I could focus the flames on their head and shoot.)"

I look at my index finger and ignite it, turning it into fire. Pointing my hand to the side, in a finger gun, I focus my mind on my finger.

"(To shoot flames is easy, I just have to will them out from my body in a constant flux, so I shouldn't have any problem. I just need to compress the flames and shoot it out in a very small point. Alright, let's try it out. Focus... use your finger's size as reference.)"

My fiery finger glows very bright and emits intense plasma flames. Holding my wrist with my free hand, I aim at a spot on the wall and shoot out a jet of flames from my finger that easily pierce the wall. The flames floats in the air even after I stopped releasing them from my finger.

"The power is pretty much the same but since I'm using way less flames, it consumes just a fraction of my mana. (What efficiency. I can use it a lot before I get empty. And the range is good too. Seems like the greater the flames I create the greater the mana cost.)"

Putting out the flames, I stare at my flaming finger when I notice someone rushing at me through the open door from the corner of my eyes. I rapidly point my finger at whoever it is but I get tackled and taken to the ground.

"(Fuck.)"