Flame of Eternity

Alex was a simple man, anything he said he would do, is what he would do, he was a man of his words.

He had been in his room for a month, using isolated training as an excuse, but everybody in the household knew that he was waiting for his youngest child to reappear from the mana pool.

They were all shocked by the attention he gave to Charles, he hadn't done the same for any of his other children.

For the other children that survived, they didn't meet their father, he would always be out doing something else when they survived and came out of the pool in his room.

And in rare cases, some didn't survive at all, and Alex didn't care, this was the first time he had ever waited for a child of his, it sparked interest among the workers and soon became their topic of gossip.

"I hear that the kid knows a big secret of the patriarch." A maid whispered to the ear of the other maid as she escorted her,they passed door of Alex's room in the hallway.

"That sounds absurd.. but how did that Kid convince that stone cold man to wait for him? And a month? This is the first time in Flameworth history that one stayed a month in the Mana pool, are we even sure he's not dead?" The other maid quickly whispered a reply as they walked hastily, not wanting to run into Alex.

Alexander was seated on the floor in his room, his eyes were closed and he was in a lotus position.

Flickers of flames twirled around him in a circular motion, like the motion of electron shells round an atom.

He took a deep breath, causing all the twirling flames to vanish.

He opened his eyes and he sighed, his exhale was coated with exasperation, he had been meditating for a month straight, wrapping himself with flames, trying to increase the sensitivity of his flame control.

'It didn't work again this time, just how do I need to train to increase my sensitivity? I feel like I've hit a bottleneck.' He thought to himself as he rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger, his eyes were twitching, tired and blurry because it had been closed for a whole month.

He scratched his eyes with his palm and thought to himself: 'At least I increased the space of my mind realm, that's the only benefit I got from this.' He then remembered something, it was the reason he decided to train in the first place.

"That kid... Is still not out? Judging by the dryness off my skin, I think it's been about a month? Has any Flameworth ever survived that long?" He was thinking of the possibilities, there was a high chance that Charles was dead. A deep frown formed on his face.

His fingers curled into tight fists, with flames sparking around it.

"He can't die!" He yelled In frustration, an unprecedented genius had finally been born after his eldest son George, and now he's dead? Just like that? He wanted to see just how far the little boy could go, what ranks he'd climb.

He stood up from the ground and released his fists, letting out a deep sigh.

"I guess there's no helping it.." He shot a final glance at the area where the entrance of the pool was supposed to reappear on the ground.

"I'll let his nanny know his last words." He turned his head to the door to open it.

Just then, something happened, the temperature in the room spiked dramatically.

Alexander could not take another step. He froze where he stood, it was an oppressive feeling for even him who was hailed as an archmage.

The temperature sky rocketed and an oppressive heat that pressed on everything in the room, threatening to burn even reality itself was felt by Alexander.

Alexander felt a sinking sensation on his chest.

'this is just like the first time I saw HIM, what is this insane pressure?' He thought to himself.

Alexander coated his entire body with mana immediately, guarding himself from the heat of the energy. He turned his neck to look view the entity that carried such soul crushing pressure, preparing for a battle to the death.

His eyes couldn't believe what he saw.

Charles was standing in the middle of where the mana pool was supposed to be, he appeared from no where, the mana pool was no where to be found, it was as if he had teleported.

His eyes glowed a ferocious glow of red, his pupils had lost it's light as it seemed he was unconscious, leaving only that glow that was supported by a mixed trail of flames in his eyes. His entire body surged with flames, these flames weren't ordinary flames. They were red and mixed with Charles's mana.

'That? Those flames?' Alexander's eyes widened, his jaw was slacked, it was the first time he had openly lost his composure since he became the head of the Flameworths.

"Th-Th- The flame of eternity?!" He shouted out at the top of his lungs like a child that finally found the toy they had been looking for.

The entire room was radiating with heat, furnitures were getting very hot and light things like paper were burning to ashes.

Charles still stood at the same spot, radiating this energy, he was unconsciously doing it.

Alexander was about to knock Charles out when the temperature in the room suddenly returned to normal.

Charles's eyes stopped glowing and the flames around him disappeared.

Charles passed out, he fell limp on the floor, leaving his body at the mercy of Alexander.

Alex walked slowly towards the passed out Charles, he leaned down to take a closer look at him. The energy he had emmited had immediately disappeared like it was never there.

It was a fearful flame energy, one that could put pressure on Alexander, an Eight Circle archmage, but it couldn't harm him or hurt him.

"It looked just like how my father said it would look like, the flame of eternity..." He poked the passed out Charles on his face with a smug grin tugging at his lips, His eyes were blazing with new found excitement.

'I don't know what happened to you in there or whether this is really the flame of eternity, but it will be fun to watch you grow.' He thought as he laughed maniacally, clutching Charles's head to raise him up, to take him to his Nanny for treatment, he had visible burn injuries from the water of the mana pool that needed immediate treatment.

END OF CHAPTER