Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 189: Fire Thief

Three Months later

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Raul asked for the billionth time. In reality, it was more like the fifth, but Isaac was so hyped for this that any delay was driving him up the wall.

It shouldn’t, it really shouldn’t, but telling a kid to be less excited on Christmas morning might have been easier than calming down Isaac right this second.

Isaac carefully stuck his arm through the shield that Karl and Stagmer had constructed for him, prepared to yank it back and slam down the shutter the second something went wrong. It hopefully wouldn’t, but even though he was very excited, Isaac was still a cautious person.

The massive enchanted tower shield next to him was capable of standing up to dragonfire, which was exactly what it would have to.

“Alright, last chance to back out.” Raul called again “Ready?”

“Go ahead.” Isaac called back.

“I’ll give you a countdown. Three, two, one, now!”

And the world vanished in a blast of light and heat as the Solar Dragon Aurelian opened his jaws and unleashed the power of a star straight at Isaac.

Most of his body was shielded behind the shield but his hand was exposed, only protected by his general fire resistance and a compressed layer of the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior], the protective sheath of tarnished silver seeming vastly insufficient in the face of the power bearing down on it.

Isaac’s hand burned, heat washing through the hole in the shield and igniting his sleeve. It was meant to have been fire-resistant, but when dealing with the heat at the heart of a star, it was insufficient.

The protective [Aura] collapsed a moment later and flames washed over his skin directly, but at that point, it wasn’t hurting him anymore.

“Cut the flame.” Isaac called over and the flame winked out, leaving Raul standing there with Aurelian on his shoulder, once again small and looking innocent, yawning to reveal a tiny pink tongue. Aw.

Isaac stored the shield and just stood there, gazing at the bit of starstuff held in his hand, floating there.

A lot of stories described something as burning with the fury of a star, but that wasn’t what Isaac was feeling. The flame he’d snatched from the dragon’s all-consuming breath was just … there. A flame that existed peacefully, calmly, despite being made from the same thing as the star that sustained all life on Earth. Except, you know, it would utterly wreck anything it touched, should it escape his control. And then, it touched his hand and was absorbed.

“Did it work?” Raul called.

“Yep.” Isaac grinned and summoned the flame back into his palm “Who do you think will let me walk into their fusion reactor to steal that fire as well?”

Raul just laughed and shook his head “Good luck with that. Call me if you need another blast.”

As he headed back to university, Isaac checked the new status of his latest [Skill]. It had taken a damn long-time grinding, but he’d finally unlocked [Divine Fire].

Divine Fire (legendary)

Fire. What can it do? Pretty much everything, as long as you’ve got the right kind and are creative enough.

Fire. What can it be? Pretty much anything, as long as you’re not risk averse when it comes to getting it.

That is where the issue lies. Getting it. Of the countless mystic and mundane flames there are, one can only gain a few, if one takes the normal path, that is.

Stealing them … ain’t normal. But it is possible. It is audacious, ludicrous, but possible. And fully in line the promethean spirit.

This Skill grants the user the ability to conjure and control mundane flames. Initially.

The real power of the Divine Fire is its ability to absorb and assimilate all other fire, both magical and not. The user becomes immune to all fires they have absorbed (and can extend this protection to objects on their person) and are able to then wield it with the same power and ease as the original fire.

Once conjured, flames fueled by the user’s mana directly can be controlled for free while secondary fires spawned by the initial flame can be directed by spending a negligible amount of mana. All flames can be extinguished for free, be they conjured directly or merely ignited by conjured flames.

All assimilated flames can be used individually or combined to form greater forms of fire, whose patterns can be stored for later use.

Cost Patters: Creation cost per second/control cost per second

Standard Flame (10/1)

Absorbed Flames:

Grand Hellflame (75/1-10)

Campfire (5/1)

Burning Magnesium (20/1-3)

Napalm (7/1)

Stellar Corona (60/2-4)

Combined Flames:

Sticky Magnesium (20/2-5)

Isaac was in love with his new [Skill]. It was simply perfect.

Copy any flame, become immune to it, and remove one of the biggest danger to a regenerator like him. That alone would have made it invaluable, though not quite worthy of a fourth Evolution core [Skill].

Beyond that, Isaac had now gained a vastly greater degree of control over his [Grand Hellflame], making it cheaper and allowing him to extinguish it for free, so he didn’t have to reserve 200 mana to ensure his fires didn’t get out of hand.

The ability to use any flame magic though, even those that could not normally be gained by humans, that was a gamechanger.

So far, Isaac had just lit on fire a few things he’d found around the lab and absorbed that, but there were so many more flames to copy, starting with the power of a star.

Flames that ate mana, flames that ate life force more effectively than even hellfire.

Flames that were entropy solidified, flames that burned cold by absorbing all heat and turning it into grains of iron at the core of the fire, flames that ate kinetic energy.

All of the countless different dragon breaths, toxic, basically lightning, bog standard fire, cold, “burns this specific thing” fire, and so on, and so forth.

Then there were the various Phoenix variants, with one that was related to every element on the periodic table and all of the various esoteric and alchemical elements. A Titanium Phoenix with solid flames, the toxic Arsenic Phoenix, the ever-stinking Sulfuric Phoenix, and so on. Not to mention the regenerative properties of Phoenix flames

And to top all of it off, there was the power to combine flames. The only experiment he’d saved was [Divine Fire: Sticky Magnesium], which combined the intense heat of burning magnesium with the stickiness of napalm, making for one hell of a mess when he used it.

But once he got started with the magical flames … oh the fun he could have.

That just left the small issue of how mana-hungry this [Skill] was.

Of the one-hundred-and-eighty Stat points he’d gotten, fifty had gone into Magic Regeneration, bringing it up to 450, enough into Agility to bring it to 500 and he’d brough Perception up to 390. Not quite the things a more magic-leaning fighter needed, to be sure.

But after this, he’d have drop a ton of points into Magic Power.

… maybe not a ton, he was spreading himself rather thin, but a few. Still, there were tricks around the mana limitation. Just setting stuff on fire and manipulating the spreading flame should cut down on the issues on its own. He’d still be limited by both the availability of accelerant and his ability to get into position, but it would reduce the mana cost.

He could also deliver his fire directly into the weak points of his enemies using his sword.

It really was the perfect [Skill] for both him and this [Class].

Practically useless as it was, but able to be turned into something with night-infinite uses, customizable for anything he might need, if only he had the knowledge to create flames perfect for the situation.

The Promethean Spirit. Pushing forward science, the boundary of what was possible and using that knowledge to break the shackles that held the world.

See a monster, figure out what a monster’s weakness was, fry it with fire specialized for just that purpose.

To get the most out of [Divine Fire], he’d have to invest a ton of time and effort, but it would be worth it.

Before then, though, he’d have to run through a Dungeon while babysitting a bunch of politicians. That would be … tricky.