Rebirth of the Phoenix\_-Chapter 53: Fly High

Then a tiny resistance appeared.

A faint tingle.

Like two currents brushing against each other in opposite directions.

Luis’s eyes widened slightly.

Rejection.

Not strong.

But there.

Then pain.

Very slight.

Almost ignorable.

But real.

Luis immediately turned his awareness inward.

He had never done that so deeply before.

His perception dropped into his body. Towards his aura cores.

He saw them.

His first aura core the one containing the adolescent rock golem blessing glowed with its usual reddish hue, the Phoenix influence faintly surrounding it.

And that’s where the discomfort originated.

The new water energy didn’t conflict directly with the blessing itself.

It conflicted with the surrounding resonance.

Fire. The Phoenix essence.

Opposing element.

Luis focused harder.

The pain wasn’t spreading.

It was localized.

A flow issue of aura throughout Luis’s body that he now did instinctively. When the aura that flowed from the first core made contact with the fourth core aura is where the pain would start.

Aura from the first core was mixing with the newly integrated water energy pathways.

Interference.

His mind sharpened.

Then he tried something he had never attempted before.

Instead of directing aura outward from his cores.

He tried to reduce it.

To isolate.

To cut off specific channels.

It was difficult.

Like trying to stop breathing in only one lung.

But he pushed.

Slowly.

Carefully.

He restricted the output from the first core.

The aura pathways adjusted.

The flow rerouted automatically toward his other cores.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

The interference weakened.

Then

Disappeared.

The pain vanished completely.

Luis inhaled sharply.

It worked.

He held the configuration for a few seconds, stabilizing the circulation pattern.

Then he opened his eyes.

The cloud entity was still hovering in front of him.

Sera watched him closely.

The cloud pulsed once.

"Interesting. Looks like it is done."

The presence began drifting upward again, already losing interest. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Before leaving completely, it added one final whisper.

"Balance carefully, fire child."

Then it vanished into the mist above the lake.

Silence settled over the cliff.

Luis stood there, still processing what had just happened.

Sera stepped closer.

"Well?" she asked.

Luis blinked.

"...I got it."

The blue-haired clan member laughed.

"That much is obvious."

Luis flexed his fingers slightly.

He could feel it.

A new layer inside him.

Cool.

Fluid.

Responsive.

Sera tilted her head slightly.

"You felt rejection," she said.

Not a question.

Luis nodded.

"Yeah. From my first core."

"And?"

"I... rerouted my aura."

Sera’s eyes sharpened.

"How?"

Luis hesitated.

"I reduced output from that core," he said slowly. "Used the others instead."

For a brief moment, Sera’s expression shifted.

Surprise.

Then satisfaction.

"Good," she said quietly.

Luis blinked.

"That’s... good?"

"Very," Sera replied. "Most people cannot consciously isolate core outputs at your level."

Luis stared at his hands again.

He hadn’t realized it was unusual.

Sera folded her arms.

"This confirms something important," she continued.

Luis looked up.

"You are capable of advanced internal aura control earlier than expected."

The clan member beside them nodded approvingly.

"That’ll make training much easier," he said.

Luis exhaled slowly.

Relief.

"How bad was the pain and do you feel it now." Sera asked.

"The pain was almost not noticeable but now that I stopped the flow I don’t feel it anymore."

"I see that’s good, you can stop it for now to not feel pain but it is important that you get used to the pain. We can work on you changing how your aura flows through your body so you can still use your other cores. But for now let’s go back and train the water blessing and we need to study your cores as well."

Sera turned toward the lake briefly.

"From this point forward," she said, "your real training begins."

Luis smiled slightly.

"I will explain the next part." The Xoliti clan member spoke. "The blessing you have got is from a high tier rank 3 water elemental cloud. The blessing is called water manipulation intent level. Typically elemental manipulation blessings have three tiers beginner, intent and supreme levels. Beginner is from mid tier beast, intent is from high tier and supreme is from unclassified tier creatures."

"What’s the difference between the tiers?" Luis asked.

"It’s about understanding and feeling. If you get a beginner level manipulation blessing. You cannot feel or understand it, you have to discover it yourself. Think of it this way it’s like when you first learned to use aura. You had to learn to gather and control it. You will have to learn to find the water blessing in your core. It will be slow and arduous. Right now you should be able to feel your water blessing but you can’t control it, well not as freely as someone who gets a blessing of a water bullet."

The Xoliti clan member shot a water bullet as an example towards the ground. Which Luis could barely see with his eyes.

"Let’s end the long explanation now." Sera cut in. "Luis at the supreme level they can feel and control the element way better. But there’s a way you can discover that control level quite easily and won’t have to waste time on it. Remember your training on making a aura shield. Make one again right now but only use aura from your water element blessing not other cores."

Luis nodded and did as he was told, he stretched out his right and closed his palm in the motion that he was holding a shield. As Luis did that, slowly aura started taking the shape of a handle around his palm and then a shield attached to that handle.

To Luis’s own shock he hadn’t tried to use the blessing but only used aura from his fourth core but the shield didn’t just form with aura but also water. Certain sections of it were formed with water as well.

"I didn’t try to use my blessing." Luis spoke in surprise.

"That’s because elemental manipulation blessings change your aura by themselves. But that change is slow and limited unless you learn how to do it in your core yourself. Since you brought out aura only from your fourth core, you brought out some of that aura that was turned into the water element."

"Now luis" sera continued "focus on the water, see where it comes from in your aura core. Find how it happens and control it. We are in the perfect environment Sera said as she looked at the lake, while in the water feel your surroundings and find the similarities in your core."

"While in the water?" Luis questioned

Luis’s eyes widened when the feeling of a hand grabbing Luis’s shirt from behind was felt by him, a not so fun memory.

A smile appeared on Sera’s face "I’m happy you still remember when I taught you how to learn to swim. Now this time no swimming up, you’ll be taken out before you drown."

"I’ll GO MYSELF DONT THROW ME!"

Sera’s smile vanished. "That’s no fun and I remember in the forest it looked like you might have been afraid of heights, not a good fear to have."

The hand coming from the shadows beneath Luis effortlessly lifted him and chucked him high into the sky, above the lake higher than the initial cliff height.

A scream was heard for a second before it disappeared because of distance.

The Xoliti clan member shook his head in amusement at the sight of the flying Luis.