Path of the Cambion: Kurou's Rising, Chapter 17

Edakura's POV

Flashback

Edakura sat on her bed, looking out at the window, gazing up at the stars and the moon that shines brightly, lighting up the night. She sighed softly, feeling jealous of their beauty, but mostly their freedom. She was the daughter of the Nobleman Mr. Taang, and while it may seem to be fun to be rich and such, it really wasn't. They had so many expectations for her that she felt like she would be crushed by the weight soon enough. Even as a genius, Edakura could only do so much, and the fact that they want her to become a doctor at the age of 16 didn't help her situation. Even she couldn't accomplish such a feat for she didn't have all the knowledge yet. One feat of her talent was being able to learn basic fire magic and lightning magic much faster than the average student, to the point she had even developed her own abilities with it, and though her training with her personal guard Kelra had helped, it still didn't seem to be enough for her parents.

It was at that moment that Edakura finally decided she would run away from home. She no longer wanted to live the life of a girl who had rich parents, but a free life where she had to work hard to earn her money, but also had the ability to live, but more than that, to live the life of a powerful respected mage, one who wasn't recognized simply because of her wealth or background, but simply for who she was, and where she could set her own rules. Underneath the roof, Edakura felt like she wasn't truly living, but was simply walking the dream of living. She was also controlled, told what to do, and never got the chance to make her own choices; she was never allowed to decide what she wanted to do.

As she packed her bag, Edakura made sure to keep her bedroom door locked so her parents didn't walk in on her escape. However, to her fears, it did unlock, luckily however, it was her guard Kelra, who'd come to give her what looked like a suitcase, she then upon opening it saw the family heirloom, Moonshine, a powerful magic staff that's been handed down to many great mages in her family. She gave Kelra a heartfelt kiss on the cheek and goodbye and without hesitation made her departure. On the way, Edakura went through her bag, making sure that she only packed the essentials so she didn't have to lug too much around and slow down her pace. After Kelra had led her out of a secret entrance, she began running, leaving the wretched memories of this house behind her as she ran, while Kelra had the rest of the guards patrol elsewhere, away from Edakura's position.

She would miss Kelra, and the memories she had made with him since being in the mansion as he supported her every action and steps, trained her to become as talented and strong willed as she is today, but the memories of this house, the memories of her so called father, upon learning he had been controlling her mother's actions, he was dead to her. And so she kept running no matter how out of breath she had gotten.

Rushing into the alleyway…

Kurou's POV

I slowly woke up in bed, rubbing my eyes as I slowly sat up, thankfully, there had been no nightmares since I had woken up, that was something I didn't want to experience even in my worst moments. However, when I was fully sitting up in bed, I smelled something cooking, and to be honest, I could eat a bear due to not eating a single thing yesterday. I stood up and began to follow the smell, all the way until I had finally made it into the kitchen, Edakura was there by the stove, cooking "Morning mom, what are you making?" I asked casually as I sat down at the table, trying not to drool out of starvation.

Edakura looked over at me, a gentle smile on her face while she continued to cook. The smell was almost heavenly, if I wasn't a demon, at least. "I am not really experienced at cooking, but I am capable of making simple dishes," Edakura said as she placed the meal onto a plate. She went to wash her hands before doing something else with the food and placing it before me. I didn't really believe that she wasn't experienced in cooking. The meal placed before me- consisting of scrambled eggs, toast, and fried potatoes- was so good that I found myself struggling to not eat it all in one bite.

I took a bite of the eggs first, chewing them for a while until suddenly, my eyes began sparkling brightly, this food was… godly, or at least I thought so in my hunger dazed state. I began eating slightly faster, but not so much that my food would run out in an instant, for a simple dish, it tasted as if a master chef had made it. Hell, this was nearly as good as when one time, me and my mother were lucky enough to have our meals cooked by a noble chef, I forgot what his name was, but he sure knew how to turn a simple meal into a masterpiece.

Edakura looked at me, and I looked back at her with a happy smile, finding the meal to be very yummy. "Would you like some more?" she asked me, giggling for some strange reason. I guess it was very obvious on my face that I enjoyed the breakfast she made. Nodding my head, Edakura took the plate from me and filled it up with what must've been some extras she prepared. I excitedly started on the meal again, looking up and noticing that Edakura wasn't eating anything and was simply watching me while drinking a cup of tea.

"Mom, aren't you gonna eat?" I asked her, I felt a bit bad that here I was enjoying the meal my mother had prepared for me, and she wasn't eating anything. It couldn't have been something Vizas did right? Edakura did need to eat after all, Cambion or not, at least in my opinion, I hoped she would be alright if she decided not to eat anything.

"I… am not used to eating in the morning. It makes me feel sick, so I will be eating later," Edakura said to me, giving me a reassuring nod, though I wasn't really sure how to feel about it. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day, wasn't it? So for her to not eat in the morning, plus her already thin looking body, I had to admit that I was kinda worried as well as feeling bad. "Do not worry about me and eat. You did not eat anything yesterday," she said, reaching over and messing up my hair. "A growing boy like you needs all the food he can get."

I showed a slight pouty face at Edakura, but smiled at her later and continued to eat my meal…

Later, after a few hours of being in the house, me and Edakura had traveled over to the pavilion. As we walked over, Edakura had told me she would be teaching me the more intermediate skills to control my flames, that excited me to no end, although, I wondered, just how much harder would it get from this point on? Soon, we made it to the training pavilion, Edakura turned around to face me once we got to the center of the pavilion and I took on a ready position.

She looked me in the eyes, and I could see how serious she looked just by looking into them. I was prepared, nodding my head as I waited for my instructions. "Alright Kurou. Let me see your flames," Edakura said to me, I would nod and I would let my flames burst around my body as powerfully as I could, the flames rising high into the air. Soon, the flames slowly began to form into what looked like three heads… of a hydra, just like the symbol on my spirit weapon, the heads thrashed around and hissed violently, and yet in spite of this, I felt completely calm, as if I was part of them.

She nodded her head in approval at me, walking around, obviously assessing them in some sort of way. She nodded her head again, folding her arm across her chest while I watched her, my eyes following her while she walked. "They are looking stronger than before," she praised me, smiling slightly before she frowned against, the mood starting to grow serious. "This is my own trick, but you should be able to do it too," she said, flames swirling around her like a tornado. Suddenly, from the bottom going up, they turned into sky blue crystals. "Change the properties of your flames."

Changing the properties… of my flames, that seemed very similar to what I did with soul cores, forming them with my own hands, condensing the energy, making it into a material that can be felt and touched physically, forging it into a weapon… this should've been no problem. I let the flames around me begin to cover my body, almost as if it was infusing itself with my body, and from the top, they began to descend down my body, slowly forming until finally, I was now wearing my own set of emerald green crystal armor. This would be useful against future opponents, especially opponents like Kaiza.

Edakura looked at me, her arms folded and I could tell she was assessing the results. I felt proud of myself, and I hoped she was proud of me as well. "Kurou, come here," Edakura said sternly, a frown on her face, making me confused. I had done exactly what she asked for, with a bit of a twist on the way it was shown, so I didn't understand what was going on, but I didn't question it and walked over. She raised her staff and smashed it into the crystal armor, and it shattered like it was glass. "Hah… Of course, I did not expect it to happen on the first try. But you did really well. However, you need to work on the strength of the crystal."

My eyes widened a bit at the shattered green crystals, but I sighed, Edakura was right, I got the forming and structure of the crystal right, but I didn't even pay attention to the armor's durability. I put on a determined look, trying again, my flames surging around me more powerfully than before, forming another set of crystal armor, this time I had focused on the durability as well, this had to be better than the last set of armor. I watched as Edakura raised her staff again, then slammed it into the crystal armor once more, cracks appeared over it, but not enough to completely destroy it.

Edakura nodded her head in approval, sending her staff down one more time, smashing the crystal armor to pieces. "Good, it is getting better," Edakura said, taking her staff and drawing on the ground a diagram. "This is the molecular structure of a diamond. Carbons are used to join together and make this structure," she explained to me, and I started to get confused about the scientific information. "Diamonds are the strongest, so you should use this structure when making a crystal armor."

I didn't exactly understand the scientific part all that much, but I was able to get the point, by using the structure of diamonds, I suffered less chance of my armor shattering next time I materialized it. I let my flames burst around my body once more, staring at the diamond diagram as I did, I walked over to it until I was standing over it, the raika around my body causing the diagram to glow, and hellfire came spewing out of it, bursting around my entire body and crashing through the ceiling of the pavilion. Thankfully, the ceiling had regenerated itself, and when the flames around me cleared, I was now wearing much more durable armor, made of demonic raika diamonds, a confident look on my face.

"You've done well Kurou. Now all that's left…" Edakura said, closing her eyes before opening them back up with a fearsome expression, Midnight blue hellfire burning all around her body ferociously in the form of a phoenix "Is for you to survive." she said in a calm tone. I watched as potent midnight blue fireballs began to suddenly form in the air, rushing toward me, placing my hand in my palm, I would quickly pull it back out in a burst of green energy, summoning my spirit weapon and fired multiple arcs of green energy toward the fireballs. They managed to destroy some of the fireballs, but not all, the rest coming crashing into me, thankfully, I was unharmed thanks to the armor around my body.

Edakura would let more midnight blue flames explode around her body, gathering them all until forming a giant phoenix, my eyes widened as the beast came rushing toward me and I quickly jumped out of the way. It re-maneuvered itself while in the air and came rushing at me again, I was forced to block with the blade of my sword, and the phoenix made a gigantic explosion of blue flames on impact, luckily, I had managed to escape harm yet again, the armor still holding around my body. Although, I was in for a shock when I looked above to see clouds forming within the pavilion up high, with a colossal dark blue meteor of hellfire now coming down, if that wasn't enough, azure blue lightning crashed into it, powering it and making it rush toward me with even more speed.

Gritting my teeth, I would muster all of the hellfire in my body, the flames rushing around me chaotically as I launched forward to the fireball, screaming as I had, within just a few moments, I clashed with the blast, struggling to push it back. I felt myself getting pushed back by the Midnight fireball, Edakura powering it up with even more blue lightning, I grit my teeth, my eyes beginning to glow and surge out raika wildly. With a final push of my strength, my sword began plowing through the fireball, going through more and more until finally slicing completely through, the two halves exploding around me.

I managed to land gracefully to the ground, slowly unsummoning my spirit weapon, as for the armor I didn't come without scratches or burns, but for the most part, it stayed intact. I looked up at Edakura, panting heavily from the back to back attacks that she had sent to me. "You did well, Kurou. I am very impressed by how fast you learn," she said, walking over and hugging me in her warm and gentle arms. I smiled and leaned my head against her, happy that I made her proud.