87th of Season of Fire, 107th year of the 32nd cycle

  After the diplomatic mission came to an end, Newt returned to his order and his routine. He took his big brother’s advice to heart once more, and kept a low profile, sculpting his realm and perfecting his skills.

  Years passed in a slow grind, and as the stellar alignment approached, Newt started feeling his core resonate with the stars on the noon of the summer solstice, confirming his theory.

  Next year… Newt couldn’t wait. He could feel it in his bones. The wrath of heavens would return.

  45th of Season of Fire, 132th year of the 32nd cycle

  A quarter of a century had passed since the engagement party. Newt and his master were far from Explorer’s Gate, having left the order in secret. Gatemaster Greenthorn had decided on Neverleave desert, where sun was already unusually harsh, life scarce, and non-awakened and awakened alike absent from the area.

  “Here?” Newt asked, half an hour before noon.

  “As good a place as any. Are you sure about that theory of yours?”

  “Not really,” Newt admitted, “but coming here costs us little, and we need to be careful.”

  Gatemaster Greenthorn nodded. “Your friend warned me to make sure you remain hidden in the grass and said our enemies have exceptional short-term foresight regarding your actions.”

  Newt was a little surprised Dandelion would also warn his master, but kept his thoughts to himself, wondering why the next two hundred, or more precisely one hundred and seventy-five years were so important. Instead, he asked something else that interested him.

  “Master, did you get any benefit when interfering with my wrath of heavens?”

  Greenthorn nodded. “I did. I managed to absorb about half the energy I drew from your body and funnel it into my realm. Some of it was tainted with earth, which isn’t my element, but most of the pure flames I benefitted from. And since I know you well enough after all these years, that benefit was greater than the seals you ruined. Even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have you foot the bill for them. Your growth and power are those of the order. I think you understand that now.”

  Newt did. After meeting his parents at the engagement party, he finally understood what felt so weird years ago. The order was his second family, the one he chose. Within it were people who would risk their lives to save his, and he would risk his to save them.

  Back when the Blood Cult had attacked, many overseers had died for his sake and for the sake of other elites. The blood of the covenant runs thicker than the water of the womb. Not to say Newt had any intention of being unfilial or abandoning family, but saving a life and death sister like Em felt more important than running to his father’s aid.

  “The time approaches. Are you ready?”

  Newt looked up; he could already feel the flames gather around him. It was just motes of mana, but even those were rushing towards him faster and faster.

  Like a deep-sea leviathan opening his mouth, Newt opened his realm, drawing in the energy of the world. Noon approached, and a beam of light and heat slammed into him from the clear sky. Newt circulated his mana, but instead of protecting himself with Magmin scales like the last time when he was at the third realm, at the peak of the fifth, he consumed the energy and guided it through his body.

  The pressure grew. His clothes burned on his skin, but Newt ignored them. The only thing to exist in his mind was the fire and earth and their profound flow through his body as they soaked his bones and muscles and tendons. Instead of searing, the flames were nurturing.

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  A single flicker of inattention was all that stood between Newt and spontaneous combustion, but he could manage the level of stress. He had endured it when his realm and power were but a fraction of his current capability.

  Time passed, and Newt’s body grew purer. Flames from above, earth from below flowed into him and strengthened him, the power growing until it peaked, then started dwindling.

  “I am sure of my path, Master,” Newt said as soon as the pillar of fire vanished.

  “That’s excellent.” Gatemaster Greenthorn nodded approvingly. “Now put on some clothes, and let’s leave this place.”

  The next year they returned to Neverleave. Newt barely endured the celestial phenomenon accompanying him, an event he stopped calling heavenly wrath or heavenly punishment, simply because the description was false.

  A year later, Newt’s master had to step in, as the stress had grown beyond Newt’s ability to handle.

  “Are you still certain?” Gatemaster Greenthorn impassively asked Newt once his trial had ended.

  “I am, Master. I will need your help in two years, when the stars align perfectly. I plan to guide the purest flame energies into my realm and advance when they reach the peak.”

  Despite losing control, Newt had remained conscious throughout the entire ordeal. He had chosen to practice for the day that would come. He had forsaken any potential visions, since he found it more important to get used to the experience and blaze the path towards his perfect realm advancement.

  The next year, the damage grew worse. Beyond simple burns, parts of Newt’s body were charred to the bone. The shock and pain from being burned alive threw him out of balance and threatened to knock him unconscious, but Newt persevered. He gritted his teeth and survived the ordeal. His master helped, as did a high-grade healing potion.

  Finally, the fateful year approached. Unlike the previous years, as soon as Newt felt the fire mana gather around him, he closed his eyes, and entered his realm, abandoning his body. The world of lava and glowing sigils stretched into infinity when looked from the top of the volcano. It was an optical illusion, naturally. While Newt’s realm was huge, so large he wouldn’t have believed it back when he had first formed it, what gave it the appearance of infinity was the barrier rippling with power, waiting to shatter.

  And with a thought, Newt let it crumble. As it did, Newt’s volcano exploded with lava, fountaining thousands of feet up into the air. The side vents too sprayed lava into the reddish sky as mana flooded Newt’s realm.

  Instead of expanding a little bit and stopping, Newt’s realm quaked. The surging torrents of lava pushed the boundary, the realm barrier drawing further into the distance, but that wasn’t the only change.

  The black, rocky ground of Newt’s realm pulsed. Veins of orange red spread through the black granite of Newt’s fifth realm in the moments in which it grew immutable, the power and change forever captured.

  Newt laughed. That was the effect he was going for. Dandelion had called him a star. A mass of earth and fire, and why not turn his volcano into something resembling a star?

  So, Newt drew the pure energy of the sun and the fiery stars and the earth, infusing it into his realm, forever changing its nature. Newt commanded his energy, and it was no longer fire mana or earth mana, it was magma, the searing, solid blaze of the celestial bodies erupting matter and energy into the cosmos.

  Newt drew a deep breath and tingled with excitement. Suddenly, he felt more real.

  “You’ve done something great,” Magmin flew over and told Newt. “Perhaps, you will be able to summon my form into the world soon.”

  “I promised, and I’ll do what I can.” Newt reassured his old friend. No matter how odd, how humans and saurians fought and slaughtered each other, Newt couldn’t deny Magmin was indeed his friend. “But I’m afraid I will have to develop that technique in secret. I don’t know how the rest of the order would react if they knew I am friends with a dragon.”

  Magmin snorted, but didn’t comment.

  Soon, Newt’s realm stopped expanding. Feeling full of life and energy, Newt left his realm and opened his eyes, only for the world of agony to wrack his mind.

  “You really shouldn’t be awake in this state.” Gatemaster Greenthorn opened Newt’s jaw, and Newt felt something fall off.

  He was a living piece of charcoal, teetering on the verge of death, held together more by will and mana than any biological law, most of which would have declared him dead.

  “That said, good job,” the gatemaster continued evenly after feeding Newt a dose of the extremely potent healing potion.

  The warmth and blessed life spread down Newt’s throat, then bloomed from his abdomen, consuming his entire body and restoring the ruined flesh.

  “Your mana signature matches someone at the late stages of the seventh realm, despite you being at the sixth, which is an unprecedented achievement. I don’t think even the imperials have a seedling like you. We just have to see how you are going to survive the suicide mission the imperials have issued. We still have twenty-seven years to prepare. That’s enough for you to fully expand your realm to the limit, and to master your new strength, but little else. Even without your friend’s warning, I wouldn’t have let you wander around and cause trouble.”

  Newt agreed. It seemed like he had ages to grow, but the next onslaught would come in merely a quarter of a century, and the opportunity to step into the seventh realm would come in mere eighty years.

  He had so much to do, and so little time to prepare.