Chương 165: 4.32 Hot

When Irwyn awoke he was not reeling from lost senses or withdrawing clarity. That was distinct because it was something he had gotten used to when it came to his visions. Instead, he felt just wrongness. Not nauseating or anything such, just a feeling that things were incorrect. He took a few moments to steady himself but that sensation did not subside. Helplessly, he focused on the surroundings instead and instantly felt the ground beneath his back and a breeze touching his cheek.

Realizing he had lied down at some point, Irwyn slowly sat up.

"Awake at last?" he heard Elizabeth's voice beside him and found she was sitting cross-legged right next to him.

"How long was I out for?" he nodded and asked.

"Six or so hours," she replied.

"We should move now, unless you are unwell?"

"A bit troubled but that can wait," he admitted. His head was swirling with thoughts about his visions. Two visions. While the first raised many fascinating questions and implications, it was the latter which dwelled heavily in his mind. It seemed like cryptic nonsense for the most part but just the claim that something was manipulating the visions he saw had to be at the very least pondered. But at the same time, he was reluctant to do so right away given the other matters vying for his attention.

"Finally!" his thoughts were interrupted by annoyed-sounding Alice who was approaching from the right of them, just cresting over a small hill. Desir was following a step behind, his expression much more neutral, however, his attire was missing the left sleeve for some reason, revealing the sculped muscles of his arm. Elizabeth was already creating platforms similar to Irwyn's beneath everyone by the time they got close.

"I could…" Irwyn started.

"Hush," Elizabeth shook her head.

"The main reason why we always relied on you to carry everyone were your mana reserves. With a Concept, I can easily maintain these indefinitely." She raised them to a decent height and immediately began moving their group as Waylan appeared on one of the platforms. Looking down Irwyn still saw the large crater created by the demon and lich fighting as well as the remnants of a massive bonfire the others had erected for his carving. Those were only to be expected.

"Is that… an army?" Irwyn questioned. What was beyond his prediction were the several hundred men armed with spears and haggard-looking armor that were shuffling around in disarray. They must have been barely outside of his sight due to the terrain as they were standing in the direction Alice and Desir had returned from.

"More of a brigade," Elizabeth shrugged as if that explained anything. They were already leaving the gathered men far behind them, disappearing into the distance.

"They clearly noticed something was off in the area and came for a fight several hours ago," Alice actually elaborated.

"They needed to be distracted before you woke up."

"We could have moved," Irwyn frowned.

"Waking you could have led to unforeseen repercussions," Elizabeth shook her head.

"I do not fear an army without anything even approaching a threat enough to take that risk."

"Fancy coming from the person who did not have to stall them," Alice grumbled.

"Killing them would have just created more problems," Desir joined in.

"And stopping a few hundred common men is not even particularly hard with the two of us."

"It was still annoying to do for as long as it lasted," Alice sighed but did not argue further.

"Very boring stuff, stoppin' armies," Waylan nodded with mock compassion.

"So, am I the only one who is wondering why Irwyn was knocked out by his breakthrough," Desir redirected. Everyone then glanced at Irwyn who hesitated. After a few moments of thought he decided that if Desir were to travel with them it was probably not possible to reveal nothing at all - even if a few things were better left secret.

"I had a vision, not for the first time," so he began a shortened explanation.

"They usually warn me of something as well as cause a leap in personal power. Their origin remains uncertain."

"Now you have me excited," Desir nodded with a whistle.

"What did you see?" Elizabeth asked with intense curiosity.

"I think I saw glimpses of the Allfather's palace… then Starfire being manifested by a powerful being," Irwyn edited as much as he could without losing most of what had happened, which left much less than usual. The perspective of it was a much more integral part of what he had seen than ever before – he couldn't exactly mention it had likely been the very creation of Starfire as an element without causing many more questions to arise.

Irwyn also intently did not mention the second vision for the moment, if he even would. He was intently ignoring the unrelenting wrongness still lingering in his mind whenever he thought of it.

"What could that be warning you about?" Alice frowned.

"Be careful about walking through palaces? Or do walk into palaces for great power?"

"The description is a bit too vague to draw conclusions from," Desir admitted.

"I obviously don't know how much alacrity you have in these visions but the truth can often lie in something you would not even consider relevant."

"It could also just be a side effect of carving your first Concept," Elizabeth opined.

"A unique occasion like that could bypass the usual warnings attached. The timing seems too coincidental otherwise."

"Exact details, huh…" Irwyn paused and he shared a look with Elizabeth. They had both reached Conception and were well out of the way of any spheres of influence from the Duchy Federation. Their excuses to avoid the chat which might change so much were becoming increasingly thin. Soon, he silently promised and received a nod as if she had heard him.

"I will count myself lucky to be trusted with this much," Desir interrupted before Irwyn could outright say something along those lines.

"Though if they have prophetic powers, have you tried getting someone proficient in divination to check if Fate stirs? Just seeing a direction of it could lead to great insights."

"That is impossible with Irwyn," Elizabeth shook her head.

"For whatever reason his Fate is completely tangled – to the point my family's best specialists gave up on grasping anything. What's more, this spreads to even other predictions. All divination of people in contact with him will receive results as if he had suddenly stopped existing."

"Fascinating," Desir nodded thoughtfully. Even Irwyn had not been completely aware of the latter part.

"Which reminds me, what happened to your sleeve?" Irwyn wondered. He was pretty sure Desir wanted to be asked, otherwise he would have changed or at least cast an illusion.

"You burned his arm off," Alice cheerfully answered.

"Not really," Desir shook his head as Irwyn stared with widening eyes.

"Just almost," Elizabeth spoke her own piece.

"And would have if I wasn't here to stop the Flame from spreading."

"What?" Irwyn was looking between them unsure if it was a prank or the truth.

"After you suddenly fell unconscious - which we all agreed shouldn't happen after carving a Concept - I tried to cast a diagnosis spell on you," Desir nodded.

"Since you were doing the carving much more physically, I figured it might have been from pain and wanted to make sure there were no lethal side effects. Instead, the arm I was touching suffered from a bit of arson."

"And by bit, he means scorched to coal," Alice helpfully added.

"Are you… alright?" Irwyn asked, looking Desir's arm over but it looked mostly unharmed. In fact more than that – downright sculpted and flawless.

"Burns are actually one of the easiest wounds to heal with grafting," Desir nodded.

"Since almost no matter gets lost, just a bit transformed. As long as it's still technically my own flesh, turning it back fast enough is doable at my level."

"You have remarkable concentration to push through the pain and maintain the focus for it," Elizabeth still complimented.

"The bane of many Life mages is succumbing to pain before the wound they could treat."

"Thanks," Desir grinned.

"Unfortunately, not the first time I have gone through something like this. Anyway, how are you feeling after your breakthrough?"

"Powerful," Irwyn nodded. He had not had time to feel it out until then so he took a moment. Magic permeated every fiber of his being, yes, but it was more than that. It felt, for the lack of a better word, deeper. To see what exactly that meant Irwyn would need a practical test though - and he would not want to risk friendly fire if he misjudged things.

"We can take a break here," Elizabeth as if reading his thought began to descend. Irwyn nodded in thanks and began to get better grasp of his body. For one, the mana in his Vessel has grown, permeating through every bit of his flesh. By his estimate his body became many times tougher than it used to be with his Starflesh spell and equally stronger even without any dedicated empowerment. When he moved on to where the Concept had been carved though, he noticed something off.

"The carving is still going through the vein?" Irwyn asked with a frown. The original plan had been that Desir would build a bypass after the Concept's power had settled in his Soul, as to avoid blockage. Yet there seemed to be no such thing implemented.

"I had only realized it well after you fell unconscious and lightly singed me," Desir explained.

"My original thought was that having something physically carved where your bloodstream goes through would be a problem, but it is clear now that the Concept is not actually physical."

"It is definitely still right there," Irwyn re-examined to be sure. Their group just landed though they continued the conversation.

"Yes, but not like a rock would be," Desir nodded.

"There is no issue with blood flow or any degradation of its composites. Everything just passes straight through the Concept without any visible issues. The only real side-effect is that the area around the concept seems to be beyond boiling hot, but your physiology has shown no signs of being bothered by that."

"I don't burn," Irwyn muttered thoughtfully. That unsurprisingly applied even to the blood in his veins. Actually, Irwyn pondered whether that would remain the case once the liquid left his body - something to test, but there were more urgent things on his mind.

"The warmth actually pierces to the surface," Elizabeth said, poking Irwyn's arm right above where the Concept was.

"Not quite scalding but definitely hot." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"What an appropriate word to…" Desir started, then paused as Elizabeth shot him a glare and redirected.

"Either way, I am not sure if it will have some magical side effects, but physiologically I see no reason to interfere with how things turned out. I will keep observing you in case there is a real problem so that we at least become aware of it."

"It could have been far worse given the unorthodox carving method," Elizabeth nodded.

"Talking about that, I shall try it out," Irwyn nodded, then channeled the Concept for the first time. Instantly, he knew that the breakthrough had been a success. Whether it had actually transferred to his Soul already or still mostly remained on his hand Irwyn had no way to tell but he could feel it. Flame. What was Flame to Irwyn but a tool of burning? Those were the intentions he had invested into it and that was its purpose.

Irwyn did not really need the conveniences of magic to be any more versatile, he needed a weapon without match. Something that would devour his untold quantities of magic to obliterate any foe. His reserves would have definitely multiplied, but it was difficult to differentiate between two canyons that seemed bottomless. Irwyn had literally no way to discern whether the mana in his Reservoir barely doubled or multiplied by a two-digit number. Not that it was particularly relevant - endless was still endless.

A much more important experiment was seeing how much power he could squeeze into a single spell. Irwyn pushed, manifesting a ball of flames before him - after making everyone get some distance. Slowly, unhurriedly, he tried to see just how much could be squeezed into it before proper 'saturation' compared to before. Which was not the same as the bare minimum. What Irwyn meant by that was literally overcharging the spell until it would not take a drop more of mana.

From his experience, that meant about five to ten times more than the minimal mana needed to manifest the effect - though it varied, less complex spell generally able to take in more. Hence the simple shape he had chosen for his test. Yet in the first moment, Irwyn realized he had already far surpassed any nine-intention spell he had ever managed. In his estimation, even the most basic magic utilizing his Concept took up more than 100 times more mana needed than for a nine-intention spell.

A ludicrous number way above his expectations. Moving between each intention would multiply the cost but not to that absurd degree. Mathematically, a nine-intention spell required 362 880 times more mana than a one-intention construct of the same structure. That meant that in raw mana this Concept using spell had more than 36 million times the resources of a one-intention spell. He had known magic was said to be exponential the further one climbed but the degree of it baffled Irwyn.

And there was far more to that calculation than just the raw amount of magic. Half the advantage of Imbuing had always been to add indirect power through the empowerment of different intentions that made the spells better. Concepts went far beyond that. Rather than making some aspects more powerful or versatile, they would enhance everything and to a greater degree. And all that was true before even actually saturating his spell.

As per his original plan before his internal analysis, Irwyn began channeling more magic into the orb at a gradual pace, trying to feel the changes. A process he expected to stretch over several minutes However, in just a few seconds he ran into an unexpected problem: The ground beneath his feet had literally melted, soil turning to orange-red liquid while he hadn't been paying attention to it. Irwyn might not burn but his shoes and clothes certainly could.

He realized that the front half of his clothes had literally been incinerated by the sheer heat, not to mention the poor shoes. He has had issues with lightly singing cloth before despite his attire being supposedly more fire-resistant than was the norm but never before to a degree of actual incineration.

The only things that remained undamaged were his spacial pouch - high quality and very resilient - as well as the amulet made by Han Daut that Irwyn had long struggled to find a good use for but still usually wore. With a frown Irwyn refocused to the issue at hand. He summoned faux attire from far weaker – not containing even a hint of the Concept - and heatless flames before willing for the orb's heat to retract. Which proved to be a bit of a surprising challenge.

The orb wanted to burn things, as Irwyn had intentionally aligned his Concept with that idea. That meant that getting it to not do that at all became almost as difficult as maintaining the spell in the first place. Not optimal for limit testing so Irwyn gave up on the idea. With no other choice, Irwyn summoned a platform and stepped on it instead of staying in the molten sludge.

The earth literally being unable to serve as foothold due to the power of his spell was not a problem he had anticipated but thankfully it was easy enough to remedy. Curiously, he stayed at ground level, curious about how the unintentional destruction would progress. Pouring more and more mana into it, Irwyn noticed how the power within the spell slowly transformed, the magic condensing in an unfamiliar way.

Rather than more being forced into a limited area until it ran out, it was as if its sheer quantity was twisting reality to artificially create additional space... Probably not literal Space as Time mages understood it but the word was close enough of to describe what he was perceiving. Irwyn was not sure if that was the product of his Concept, the sheer quantity of magic, or both. But clearly, it allowed for a lot of extra power to be integrated into the magic.

As the orb was becoming more powerful it melted the ground and warped the air in an expanding radius, but with increasing difficulty. That confirmed that it was not sheer heat that made the ground melt, but something magical that was part of it - likely a manifestation of the Concept. Just heat would not be affected by Finity while this effect clearly was. Irwyn found the limit of saturation to be at roughly 83 times the original spell cost.

That was a bit too arbitrary to hold any deeper meaning, so the boundary was likely either 90 times or there was no hard limit and things depended solely on his proficiency. He tried for a bit longer to see if anything more could be squeezed in, then moved the spell around slightly. There he found another pleasant surprise. The range at which he could maintain perfect control over the spell - in other words, as if it was directly in contact with his body - had extended to two meters.

Most likely the curve at which spells became increasingly difficult to control with distance would also loosen, though that was for later testing. The moment Irwyn went beyond that boundary a minuscule fraction of the spell's flames leaked as a colossal pillar of scorching flames aimed at the defenseless scenery in front of him. Irwyn withdrew the orb back closer to him, refilled the lost bit, and tried lowering it towards the ground. There Finity became much more apparent than before.

At about one and a half meters, the molten soil began to slowly evaporate. But if Irwyn moved it faster, that evaporation would be instant at around one meter away from the potent orb. He had no real way to test what it might do on touch as the materials in the surrounding area were simply not durable enough to even get close.

"I will try throwing it," he turned back towards the group, seeing that they had moved further back and Elizabeth had already erected a barrier of Void magic around them. She gave him a smile and a thumbs up so Irwyn raised the sphere above his head, then launched it forwards like a projectile with all the speed he could muster. The impact was actually practically instant, even though it was aimed at a small hill some 100 meters away from Irwyn.

The resulting explosion shook the ground and sent shockwaves through the air, requiring him to compensate for the not-insignificant force. He had also meant to observe how far the epicenter would stretch diagonally, how far it might throw some remnant flames and how powerful those would be, as well as what the impact might cause visually. Those plans were interrupted by something else completely beyond his expectations.

About half a second after the original spell's detonation - while Irwyn was trying to eyeball its area - a secondary explosion suddenly surged. With a new deafening boom, a tidal wave of crimson magical flames surged forth at great speed, crossing half the distance to Irwyn in another half of a second. He was briefly startled but still managed to forcefully drag the wave to a stop before it could reach him, much less his companions. Or at least he had usurped the part of it heading their way.

From what his senses were telling him, the secondary explosion was actually spreading in all directions at a similar speed, quickly getting so far away Irwyn could no longer even properly sense it after just a scarce few seconds.

"What happened?" he half-yelped, bewildered. He had not felt his spell going out of control in such a way. If it were part of his orb's detonation, Finity should have made a widespread effect like that impossible. Moreover, even if the secondary explosion had been much weaker - perhaps equivalent to a one-intention spell – a flame not directly linked to him should have fizzled after traveling a few meters at most without a source of mana.

"I think you just ignited the ambient magic," Elizabeth laughed, having at some point appeared beside him to answer the unspoken question.

"Amazing!"

"Really?" Irwyn paused, gaping. But he quickly realized it fit.

"That would explain why Finity or attrition doesn't quickly stop it. If it's using up ambient magic, it would practically be constantly recasting the same spell in thousands or millions of instances as it spreads. Have you seen this before?"

"Not with Flame," Elizabeth shook her head.

"But I have witnessed Void spells of much higher level able to tap into ambient magic in a similar way and Flame clearly has the better affinity for making it happen, perhaps even best of all the elements. Though I assume most cannot manage these feats with just one Concept."

"I don't think that was powerful enough to be useful against a foe that can resist a concept, unfortunately," Irwyn shook his head remembering the force. Though it had covered a large area, the spell that had triggered it was mathematically speaking 36 million times more mana intensive.

"It's the implication of it!" she shook her head, still joyous.

"Just think about what that might mean." Irwyn paused, considering and quickly coming up with a few ideas. There was a distinct difference between burning and burning. When Irwyn destroyed something through incineration that did not mean the target was becoming fuel to the fire. Magical flames consumed only Irwyn's own magic to sustain their destructive power. But if his flames were hot enough to actually ignite magic independent of what he was pouring in?

"Maybe I can much more easily burn hostile magic in combat."

"Most likely," Elizabeth nodded cheerfully.

"If your spells can feed off of others to sustain themselves it has incredible destructive potential. Especially against stationary spells like barriers! Rather than just destabilizing them by the heat and conceptual 'burning', you will also actively usurp part of the power that sustains them as fuel! Not to mention that you could probably leave some of them to burn by themselves without maintaining control."

"Additionally, this is a foundation of some tricks that help lower the strain of Finity, though I have unfortunately not studied those. Lore on advanced Flame magic is a bit limited in the Duchy of Black and for Void something like this is considered to be in the realm of domains – thus it had not even crossed my mind to explicitly look for it."

"Concepts are truly terrifying," Desir sighed, shaking his head. The rest of the group had approached and listened in for most of the conversation.

"No shit," Alice also shook her head in disbelief, glancing over the aftermath. Literally as far as the eye could see the ground had been scorched by the spreading ignition.

"There was something else I noticed, give me a moment," Irwyn smiled and closed his eyes. Earlier when channeling that spell, he had noticed a slight discrepancy in how the magic traveled throughout his body. Before the breakthrough, magic used to course the fastest across his bloodstream and through organs to a significant degree. Wherever Irwyn wished to summon a spell, the magic first had to move through those pathways into the spot physically closest to where he would manifest the spell.

Since speed was more important than efficiency with his reserves, moving the magic across these slightly more efficient pathways had long become second nature to Irwyn. But when using that spell, Irwyn had noted that the flow had been noticeably faster in his left arm. In particular around the area where his Concept had been carved. A subtle thing he might have missed due to how subconscious channeling had become to him, but with his full focus Irwyn could go much further in exploring the cause.

He began moving his magic again, going back and forth in a few simple experiments. The outcome he arrived at was outstanding. Any magic that passed through the Concept within his left arm would briefly move twice as fast… with an asterisk. The catch was that it would be forced to slow down again if the magic traveling in front of it wasn't fast enough. Also, by 'briefly' Irwyn meant a fraction of a second. That would render it mostly useless except for one particular scenario as Irwyn quickly realized.

That short amount of time was actually just enough to almost reach the palm of his left hand. Not quite but so close Irwyn had an idea on how to bridge that last bit. His old spell, Empyrean blood, was explicitly built to make magic channel faster throughout his body. This speed had already been multiplied by reaching conception and then again by the Concept's carving so the returns of adding the spell were somewhat diminishing but to his joy it made the difference.

Even though it was outdated and not incorporating his new Concept, it was just about exactly enough for the hastened magic to reach his left palm. Which was very significant. Casting magic directly from a random spot in his arm would be possible but it had major downsides. Besides being less comfortable because of habit it was also generally 'disliked' by the world.

Much like incantations appeased Fate's thirst for flair, so did visible effects or gestures such as pointing before manifesting the magic through that finger. Therefore, the difference in speed and power between casting the magic from some random spot beneath his elbow and through his palm would actually be several percent, possibly even in two digits before he got practiced.

Therefore, if Irwyn could learn to channel every single magic he was drawing into his spells directly through the carving and into his palm, it would instantly become the single best way for him to cast magic quickly. Speed was not always the focus - large-scale spells for example would have magic exit from every part of his body and thus would not benefit from that - but if he was trying to rapidly use overcharged, heavy-hitting, singular spells or small barrages he would be able to do so significantly faster.

But that only made him wonder: What other effects might channeling mana through that carving achieve?