Enlightenment

What do you call a person who intentionally let's himself get bullied even when he knows that he can stop it if he wants? A fool? A mad man? No! It's Charles!

It had been a year since he started training with the other kids, they were all supposed to be three year olds like him but all the three year old intakes were still struggling to learn how to run properly, they couldn't even move properly, they were all trained lightly untill they were five years old, when the proper training began.

Charles skipped this process as he was evaluated far above them in terms of physicality and the explanation for that was, of course him being a Flameworth.

Everybody agreed with it. Just like all his other siblings before him, He'd started training early with all the five year old kids. Building his body, and intellectual foundation to be able to carry the weight of flame magic.

Of course, the other trainees hated it, Sparking minor conflicts between them everyday.

This conflicts led to Charles being hated by all of them, but the thing was, Charles didn't care, if anything, he was more happier that way, he wanted everybody to tink of him as worthless and non-existent.

"Arguing and fighting with kids is another level of low." Charles said as he took of his clothes.

He was in his room, he had a long day of stressful training, they had to analyze the spell that creates fire balls extensively and find ways to increase the casting speed.

This was after they had done their daily body building exercises, tearing and shedding their muscles with hard exercises to build it up and increasing their agility and endurance.

They even practiced and perfected their movement techniques and what they also combat techniques. This combt techniques were basically Martial Arts that enabled them to be able to defend themselves and their bodies and also spar and train their bodies further.

"You can tell a Flame mage just by looking at them." Is a saying that is so rampant among mages and it's true, flame mages are always built because of the amount of training that they go through.

'ive been focusing on flame magic for a year now. Trying to learn the fundamentals of it.' Charles looked at his outstretched palms, he could feel himself oozing with power, both potent pure mana and physical strength could be felt by him as he clenched his fists.

He increased his control over pure mana whenever he had the time and he found out details about mana that he never knew about before.

> Normal materialized Mana is either Liquid, solid or gaseous.

> There exists a state of mana that is neither of these.

> That mana is called 'pure mana' and is invisible to normal eyes. It can only be felt by mages and it's bent to create new states of matter from it.

> Pure Mana controls and creates matter and materializes to that state most of the time.

> He is the only person with the ability to see pure mana.

> He can control pure mana freely but others have to cast spells and learn the complex formulas to be able to use the refined mana in their body or circle.

> Pure mana is stateless and formless, neither gas nor liquid nor solid, it is simply a glow of light that changes state depending on the willpower and natural mana affinity of the mage.

> Ones affinity is simply the type of element you can bend the pure mana to proficiently, it doesn't mean that they can't use the other elements, they can, but it'll be mediocre.

> He can bend pure mana to any state of matter using science and by knowing their chemical reaction and formula.

> Pure mana is attracted to him and finds it's way into his body, he can control the pure mana however he desires, if he chooses not to use it elementally like an avatar.

After training, all he did at home was to increase his proficiency and control of mana and the flames attribute, he had neglected other attributes for now, tossing them aside to learn the one that would enable him to survive.

While meditating on his bed like he does normally, something happened.

He felt a burning sensation in his chest, it was painful, excruciatingly painful. He plopped on his bed and screamed in pain as he clutched his chest tightly.

He didn't know why he was feeling such pain, it had never happened to him before, hi body was getting visibly blue as he was suffocating.

He struggled to gasp for air as he kept wriggling on his bed like a worm.

He felt something hot round his heart, his brain rang with pain.

'ugh! What is this pain? I don't want to die yet!! I still have to see Marcelle!!! I refuse to die!!'

He sat down in a lotus position, admit the pain.

'i have to do something about this hot energy surrounding my heart. It feels like it'll burn my heart to ashes!!' Charles gritted his teeth, blood was trickling out of his mouth, ear, nose and eyes.

He closed his eyes and began circulating the pure mana he had absorbed in his body round his body, in a race to detect the foreign energy close to his heart.

He could see his entire body like a 3d scanner, or an x ray, his little skill that he learnt in the mana pool had become sharper.

He quickly detected the flames around his heart and saw a red ring like object moving round his heart in circular motion, orbiting it like the moon orbits the earth.

He recognized it immediately. It was the flame of eternity. It had suddenly awakened. The gift left to him by the Phoenix, it created a ring around his heart. It was a circle, his first circle. He quickly filled the ring with mana, taking all the mana that was in his body and inputing it there.

Charles coughed out blood. The pain had stopped, but the effects were still many.

'McGregor did say that creating the first circle is always an excruciatingly painful process but I thought of it as nothing. No, it must have been extra painful because of the flames that the Phoenix granted to me.' He was lying down on his bed. Exhausted, tired and breathing heavily. He took large gulps of air to stop himself from passing out due to lack of air.

'my first circle must have automatically been created because of my accumulated knowledge and knowledge of science that no one else knows and my persistent daily training coupled with my new found enlightenment of pure mana.' He thought to himself as he put one hand across his face to cover his eyes.

He was feeling sleepy.

'Haha, I'm going to see you sooner Marcelle, I hope you appear in my dreams tonight.

'First circle huh?' He thought to himself as he slept off, his entire body was smelling like rotten corpse as the residue from his first circle creation. He didn't care, he just dozed off.

END OF CHAPTER