A Sea of Ancient Fire

Roland POV 

At that moment, he heard a distant voice disgruntled with something. A smile perked against his boyish features; he already knew the old-timer's voice. He turned towards the other side of the steeply rising hill and noticed a barely clothed old man standing by the edge. 

Roland approached Wizard Grey from the side; the Elder was crouched down, slightly perched over the edge, inspecting things below. 

"Hey, old man! I did it. I finally made the flame look," Roland proudly announced, holding his index finger in front of him. A grey inky liquid sprouted away from the tip like a stalk, and a blackish and deep blue fire soon conjured into life.

Wizard Grey turned slowly to observe him. His lizard-shaped eyes scanned the boy up and down before turning away again, slightly unimpressed. 

"Good job, at least you could do that much." His response was curt and unaffectionate, as usual. Roland thought the old-timer might've been just a little happier roaming around without being caged, but he looked a lot more annoyed than before for some reason. But Roland had gotten used to the old timer's demeanour by now. He might've felt a different way if the Elder hadn't been a source of great help to him this far.

The boy shook his finger a few times to dispel the short flame. He then took a few steps forward until he stood beside the crouched Elder. Wizard Grey's stiffened gaze seemed to be lingering towards something far away. Roland shifted his gaze between the Elder and the sea of fire before shielding his brows and staring into the distance. 

"What you staring at?" 

The Elder didn't say a word and pointed ahead. 

Roland complied but couldn't see anything unusual other than the same ocean of fire he had seen for so long since the explosion of that great Rune.

He curiously glanced at the Elder, wondering if the old man was going senile. Wizard Grey seemed to sense his lingering gaze and begrudgingly answered dutifully.

"Keep watching; it'll show itself soon enough." Roland noticed a slightly uneasy look drawn against the wizard's face when he said that.

Roland followed the instructions and pressed his eager sight towards the sea of fires. He still found it difficult to assess just how breaking the giant ancient Rune caused such a dramatic change in his sea of awareness. Beyond this, he was optimistically open to discovering what kind of power would open itself to him. 

"Huh! Wait…is that." Pointing ahead, Roland quickly noticed the emergence of a giant ball rising out of the burning sea. It looked like a whale's head until half of its surface emerged. And Roland was given the frightening impression of a black sun gently carrying itself away from the sea of fires. The sphere was perhaps twice as large as how it looked beforehand. Although he reckoned seeing it in the skies above gave it that lesser feel. Compared to it sitting so close. He felt the full extent of just how giant his mental sphere was. 

For some reason, he could sense a predatory feeling behind the floating black ball. A sense of staring into a hungry abyss, somehow eager to gobble everything up. Roland furrowed his brows because of that feeling and unconsciously took three steps back. Wizard Grey looked amused by his behaviour. A light chuckle broke through his wrinkled lips whilst he picked himself off the ground. 

"Your instincts are good, kid. Not even the most seasoned Wizard should fully trust their mental sphere. It's a foolish errand to think you can control it." 

'He's talking as though the mental sphere is somehow dangerous? Or at least it has its own will. Wait…could it be.' 

Roland remembered the logic concerning the mind and its relationship with free will. He then cross-referenced the little he did understand about the mental sphere and its relationship with mentality and casting incantations. And there was a theory he had thought on concerning the mental sphere. 

"It's almost like an organ, isn't it. The mental sphere. Only unlike the brain, it's almost…" 

"Sentient?" Wizard Grey chimed in with a patient voice. 

"That's exactly why it's so dangerous. From an objective point of view, it creates and supplies mental energy when called upon. But what people fail to remember is that perception. Its natural food exists in everything. So how does the mental sphere know what to eat and what not to eat." 

Roland didn't have an answer to that. But he did caress his own fears toward that floating dark ball, which filled him with unease the more he watched its irregular movements. 

"Whilst we wait, I suggest you use this time wisely to draw as much as possible from the ancient Rune. We cannot know what might happen sooner or later. So best to be prepared."

Wizard Grey's words weren't taken lightly; Roland had already felt that was his best option, especially amidst Omega attempting to wake him up. 

'I can only hope whatever is happening in the real world isn't too dire. And most importantly, that my body remains protected.' 

Who would've thought that a scattered Rune would produce such a result? The whole science behind Runes was still confusing for him to grasp. But Roland was getting accustomed to at least one variable concerning this. 

He sat cross legged against a random spot on the ground and poured his entire focus into keeping the conspicuous blue and grey flame against his fingertip burning. Compared to the first time he started practising this, Roland had gotten a lot better at using mental energy in this way. The moment he realized that his mental energy and the properties of the Rune were now one in the same, the mental cogs started to tick and work in his favor. Wizard Grey had already given him a subtle clue on the benefits of acquiring high levels of mentality. It would ultimately help him when it came down to understanding his mana core.

'It's almost like I'm borrowing the power I can feel from this surrounding space. Does this result from Omega, or is my perception so good that I can feel everything within my sea of awareness? And if that's the case, then the ultimate test would be...' 

His gaze trailed towards the sea of fire surrounding the little island they were on. And although he couldn't see it right now, he was aware his mental sphere was out there, lurking somewhere in wait like a bully.

Roland had already guessed he would need to find a way to understand his mental sphere. Right now, it felt as separate from him as Wizard Grey was. 

'Somehow, I must figure out how to control that thing. And then find a way to reign in all that sea of fire. Gosh, how far does it even go.'

He peered out towards the far end where the cyan-coloured skies met the sea of fire far off into the immeasurable distance. The sheer scope of it all was breathtaking, and equally terrifying when he put everything into its contextual place. After he spent enough time playing with fire, Roland stood upright again and searched around the broad floating rock. Since there was nothing but both he and Wizard Grey, it became practically impossible to not see where he was or what the old timer was doing. 

'Why's he just standing there staring at the sky?' Roland thought to himself. He measured his walk towards the old Wizard carefully. Upon his arrival, the Wizard shuffled away a little to give him some space without looking at him. 

Roland followed the Wizard's line of sight. There was nothing there but a blanket of spotless azure. But the boy wasn't clueless enough to think that was all. Something else was likely settled on the old Wizard's mind. Roland narrowed his brows a little. He was still trying not to react to the fact that the old man had been half-naked all this while. 

He seized the old man's slender frame a few times. The old man was skin and bones, and it's still strange to imagine that he once tried to take over his body. Roland finally stepped forward with the courage to ask him. 

"Say...this might sound a little odd...But you aren't cold, are you?" 

Wizard Grey made a low growl, but he didn't react. Instead, he kept his head tilted, and his glossy blue eyes affixed on the faux sky. 

"Did you ever get around to finishing my testament?" 

The question surprised Roland a bit, given all the strange things that had happened thus far. Why was his personal diary the topic of discussion right now? But he didn't mind answering truthfully. 

"I've started it, but not quite finished." He lied; he only glanced at a few pages at best. 

Wizard Grey's eyes twitched in slight annoyance before slowly falling towards the boy again. 

"You should study it. If you want to have any chance of surviving the Wizarding world out there…Heh. Trust me when I say this, despite the 100 years I dedicated to my craft. I perhaps only scratched a tiny bit of the truth." 

"I had just reached the apprentice rank when I first came face to face with my mental sphere. Happened by accident, of course. I attempted to skip ahead and learn more advanced incantations before I knew the difference between somatic and verbal casting. And I perceived my sea of awareness between a backlash and my failed attempt. 

It was nowhere near as vast as your own kid, but it still operates under the same set of principles. Bettering your mentality is one of the hardest things you could do as a wizard. But it will be the most rewarding once you get it right. I spoke of it in detail. Perhaps more so than casting incantations and all the glorious duels I won. Improving your mentality will save your life, kid. Trust me. 

And I say this to say...do not cut corners. Regardless of how deeply sophisticated this all looks. Your mind is still the same as anyone else's. Fragile, just as much as it's quite capable. " 

Wizard Grey concluded his speech with a stern glare poised towards Roland. The boy creased a boyish smile and nodded obediently. Deep down, he wondered if he needed to pay attention to such intricacy of details despite having a sophisticated system like Omega. 

'Speaking of which...Omega are you there?' 

{Yes, my Host, the system is still conducting a full scan of the sudden Mental Palace changes. Unfortunately, there are inconclusive variables that Omega cannot structure into a coherent or fluent reason. Because of this, Omega must still ask for the Host's patience before clearance can be given on the Host reconnecting the conscious link back to Hosts present body} 

Roland turned towards Wizard Grey; there was no change in the old man's stiff expression. Concluding that Roland was still the only one who could hear Omega. 

'I don't really have an option but to wait then.' He breathed a deep sigh before shuffling his feet a little closer towards the edge. He could feel Wizards Grey's gaze lingering against him from the side.

"Say, do you suppose after all of this, I'll become stronger then?" Roland thumbed his smooth chin in deep thought.

"Perhaps. But just like all things. Power comes from wisdom. How you use these skills separates you from dying a terrible death or overcoming a series of incantations from a seasoned wizard. Your mentality helps you learn and cast incantations a lot more fluently. But it's part of a bigger process of simply understanding the numerous powers in this world."

Wizard Grey paused. His aged gaze shifted towards the sea of fire below, with a strange dream-like feel lingering in his blue eyes. Roland felt that disturbing what was obviously a deep thought would be rude. He perched himself beside the Elder, and Roland stared dreamily towards the endless cyan-coloured sky.

He still remembered the lingering memories of his old life. His parents lost their lives when he was pretty young. Roland was 8 years old. And his little sister was 2 years of age. Those days felt like a distant dream, but he still caressed the growing pains of what living in such a way had done to him. Some wounds were too deep to heal; that's what he was taught to believe in anyway.

'I wonder if she managed to escape...' Naraiyah was the only soul he cared for more than his own life. He practically joined the fleet and rose to such ranks to keep her safe. Roland held a deep anguish over leaving her the way he had done. But perhaps she was spared. He shook his head from side to side to free himself from those thoughts.

"Hey, brat, I just thought of something. Your desire for a breakthrough. I have one daring idea." He heard the elder's voice lingering behind him. Roland lazily twisted around, wondering when Wizard Grey had risen to his feet.

"Hm, and what's that?" he managed to say, but in the next instance, Roland felt the ground beneath him being clawed away. In a bizarre, sudden turn of events, Roland found himself freefalling away from the floating rock. Wizard Grey stood proudly by the edge after pushing him off.

A single sound barely managed to leave his mouth.

"Eh?"

"Ara! See you soon, you damn brat! Try not to die as well whilst you're down there...oh- and good luck wrestling that thing...buahahaha"

Roland cursed beneath the whipping winds drowning his voice out. He couldn't believe what that old fogey had done. But just before his body hit the sea of flames, he stuck out his middle finger as his body was consumed by the lake of ancient fire.