The Cursed Iris

Sprout 62: The Essence of Spirit Energy and the Country of Astoria

Ayame screamed as Tenma threw a massive orb of wind at her. She dodged it while Tenma started laughing, "Ayame the way to utilize sylph magic is spiritual freedom. Let your soul be free!" she yelled.

That confused Ayame because she wondered exactly what that meant. She panicked as she continued to dodge. Tenma snapped her finger, and a massive tornado appeared in front of Ayame. "You Dragon Emperors are insane!" she yelled as she sliced it with the Dragonaut.

"Think about the feeling you had when you resonated with your wolf friend there," Tenma explained. Her body began to pulsate, then she became enveloped in a green light. There was a massive halo over her head, a dragon tail and wings sprouted, but the thing that was the most impressive was the aura around her.

"As Tenma said before the essence of sylph magic and spirit energy itself is all about freedom. If you truly want to master your abilities, you have to learn how to free your spirit. Tenma can tell you that it's difficult, but one has faith in you that you will find the answer."

Tenma chuckled as her form wore off, "Well, that's enough for today. Kaiya, you should try to help Ayame understand what Tenma means by spiritual freedom," she stated.

Atsuko stared at Ayame as she sat down next to Toru. She was amazed by how much Ayame has grown, the way she was able to handle a sword and herself in a fight. She smiled, "Ayame you really have grown a lot. You're not the nervous little girl you were when we first arrived. You know Homura explained to me the same thing about freedom. I think we're both trying to learn that as well," she explained.

Ayame sighed, "Yeah, but it's tough because even if you think you're free, you're still bogged down by either your past or something else."

"That's not true." Tenma retorted. "Ayame Akiyama you have the power to change fate. Just look at what happened to Natsume Hoshinomiya for example, if that girl hadn't met you then she would've followed in the same footsteps as her master. You and Katsumi both helped her defy and change the fate she was dealt. That is why you both are considered a massive threat to Takamagahara."

"So we can say that Natsume is truly free?" Ayame asked.

Tenma shook her head. "She has attained some spiritual freedom, but not all the way. Anyways what one wants to explain something about utilizing spirit energy is that having the freedom is another way to remove limitations. Take Chiyoko or any of the Dashavatara, they're all able to utilize their soul force freely and without limitations. Just take that into consideration."

"Toru is that true?" Ayame asked.

"It is, using natural spirit energy and rune requires utilizing that principle. Remember that little lesson we had about being able to change the element of the wolf fang?" he asked.

Ayame remembered it, but she didn't realize that was a thing. She summoned a few of them, and she noticed that some of them were floating above the Dragonaut. She noticed some were a lot different than others, then she noticed what looked like a wolf's head, "What's this one?" she wondered.

"I actually don't know." Toru replied confused.

"That's helpful, well I've got to say that your powers are amazing Tenma." Ayame stated.

Tenma chuckled, "That was one's own dragon cry: Aurora. It's not the most power among the Dragon Emperors, but it's definitely the most versatile," she stated clearly boasting about her powers.

Ayame could feel Kaiya getting riled up, but everyone could visibly see that Ayame's cowlick was moving erratically clearly showing that she was excited.

"What is it Ayame?" Atsuko asked.

"Well, I just wanted to get to know more about the essence of spirit energy. I get the whole spiritual freedom thing, but I don't know. Something about it has been bugging me a lot."