Essentia Animus

62-Bloody Inferno

Riyxia awoke with a start, sputtering through water that didn't exist. Finally being awake again, she was thus capable of vocally expressing her feelings of the moment.

"Sryine, what in the hells happened to you? Is that an illusion? Please tell me that's an illusion. It's just an illusion, right?" "So it seems my injuries are becoming a bit of a problem, and I would be very thankful if you would do the healing stuff instead of sputtering panic.. you know, before my clothes catch on fire. I think it might be smart to switch to an outfit that's more fire resistant, especially in case this happens again. Oh, and be careful about yourself, you probably don't want to catch on fire too." "Fire.. what.. would.. with..." "Riyxia, later, healing first. Should be easy for you, just a few slices along my arm, nothing more. Heal that, close the wound, I'll be fine." Riyxia was finding expressing herself to be not as easy as she had first assumed, even being awoken by Sryine's illusion. Having been rationally set to her task, Riyxia even noticed that there really was not much else to do. Sryine was injured with a series of cuts, first probably from the sandstorm, then later from the slices caused by her bow, then finally the beast that had reached her.. but absolutely no burns at all, despite being visibly on fire. Sryine hair moved again as Riyxia worked, marking Riyxia's own arm with the flame.. that also left no burns. Instead, the flame felt.. soft? However, her own arm lit on fire in the process, something Sryine had to deal with using even more conjured water. In Riyxia's case, it had actually ignited some of her clothing, which had started to burn, but her body itself left no marks more than the water. In fact, the two felt generally similar, the water and the flame. Sryine ensured an explanation covering the events that had just occurred while healing proceeded, then started to rinse herself down with a bit of conjured water so that she would stop burning.

"Vwyx is probably more of an expert in the area, but I think your body has adjusted naturally too, even despite your own design. That's why your body doesn't burn either. I know, I sound weird trying to claim that your body not burning sounds normal or natural, but unlike other people.. that is our normal/natural it seems... It's like we have flame-treated bodies that have adjusted to the flame." "Surprising, considering how the fire mountain was. That heat was unbearable, and I was suffering just as much as Ayzherie and Liyuzhe were." "Well, you don't know if you were suffering just as much, I'm guessing maybe a flame that strong was just too much for you. You were probably extra resistant, suffered less, was probably safer than the others.. but were still overwhelmed. Most likely, our bodies are just becoming more and more adjusted overtime. If you went back several years later, you might probably find yourself not quite as overwhelmed. We are just traces though, so it's not like we can stand up to such raw intensity. At most, maybe your spectre.. that is almost completely just a flame after all." Sryine took that moment to step in for Riyxia's defense by igniting another beast in an illusion of flame with a touch.. killing that one too. She felt more warmth wash over her in the process, though she didn't light on fire that time. Vwyx was going to love to hear that she was practically devouring minds in much the same way Riyxia devoured essences. Having had such a direct experience with her own nature, she had even accepted what she really was, and was rapidly becoming comfortable with her own flame. It was actually missed by her that she had started feeling more uncomfortable by normal fires rather than purple ones, like the non-purple ones were the strange and foreign versions.

"Riyxia, are you there? I just noticed that Sryine's comset is offline." "Oh, yeah, she's fine. Needed some healing finally, so we took care of that. No idea what her comset is doing, you would have to look into it if it doesn't come back up soon." "Well, that might be for the best. She would probably be really troubled if she saw what I just learned I could do. It seems that while my gift for shaping stuff only applies to inorganic stuff.. my other gift can have some very.. rough applications when it comes to shifting the composition of living things while augmented.. especially when left to this level of destruction. It's seriously close range, but while touching a beast I was able to.. I guess deprive it of its living chemistry. It felt like I .. drank its blood from my hands, through its own body. Worse, my hands are now glowing purple.. Sryine would probably faint if she saw this." "Oh, uh, if you're glowing like that, I would recommend maybe using your gift to make your clothes non-flammable.. especially near any injuries you might have." "That's very oddly specific. Did I miss something? I missed something, didn't I?" Vwyx was clearly not being left completely out of the loop of these events either, that was all too obvious for Riyxia, even if Vwyx as of yet didn't fully understand it all. Sryine was quietly listening nearby, doing her best to avoid laughing at the claim that she would be the first to faint at these events. Riyxia didn't miss such either, even as she stuttered in a moment of embarrassment. However, thankfully they were again interrupted by more of the beasts, leaving no room for more discussion. Riyxia divided the essence of a couple more beasts while Sryine tore apart another mind.