Ashborn Primordial

Chapter 42: Equilibrium

Only a few minutes remained before Virs heart stopped pounding in his chest, dulling the effects of Prana Vision. Settling down on the warm sand of the training dome, he got to work, determined to use every moment he had to its fullest.

He thought back to what hed just learned. When Riyan had activated the Talent Leap, Vir had clearly seen Earth affinity prana being sucked from the ground into his body. The prana had then pooled within his legs, flaring brightly. And then Riyan had lunged forth with inhuman speed. When hed finished, the prana in his leg was nowhere to be seen.

It had all happened so fast, but Vir figured hed start slow. To start, he needed to get the prana into his body, and that was where he ran into his first hurdlethere was no prana. Or, there was, but there was so little that he couldnt even see it unless Prana Vision was at full capacity.

He couldnt currently see the black prana, but he knew from prior experience that it only showed up underground, or in the ocean. There wasnt a shred to be seen in the air, so Vir reached out blindly with his will, attempting to seize motes of black prana from the sand below in the same way hed done with the prana within his neck.

It didnt work. No matter how much he exerted his will, nothing happened. It couldve been because there simply wasnt any prana down there to begin with. Or perhaps he wasnt pulling from the right place. Maybe he had to target the prana more accuratelybut being unable to actually see the prana posed a problem. Or maybe his approach was doomed from the start.

Vir mulled over his options, staring idly at the black prana that continued to leak out of his body into the air and into the ground as well.

Hang on a sec He didnt need to find prana underground! He had it within his own body, leaking steadily out. He could simply grab onto that and yank it back in. Of course, even if he did, itd be a tiny trickle of prana, whereas Riyan had sucked in a torrent to perform Leap.

Well, it was a start. And he could at least see these motes of prana as they left his body, though they disappeared from Prana Visions sight after theyd traveled a mere hand-span into the ground.

Vir aimed at one of those motes and pulled.

And pulled and pulled, and got nothing. He tried again, this time tugging at the prana before it left his body. It responded just fine. Yet the moment it left him, he lost control of it entirely.

Tanyas words echoed in his mind. Shed said it could take over a year to learn how to control prana. Time that Vir didnt have. Then again, she was talking about manipulating prana in the air, while Vir was trying to pull it from the ground.

The woman hadnt even mentioned ground prana, though that made sense if he thought about it. She claimed only six affinities existed. If she didnt know about Earth pranawhich, together with shadow and black prana, were the only affinities within the groundthen she couldnt possibly be aware of prana existing underground.

Vir punched the sand. Another dead end. And supposing he did find a way to pull Black prana into his body, would it be enough? Black prana wasnt present in anywhere near the quantities of Earth prana. While it felt more potent to his senses, that was pure guesswork. For all he knew, it may not be enough to power Talents at all.

But this wasnt all a waste of time. Hed actually done something interesting, albeit inadvertently. Hed successfully yanked black prana back into him, essentially stopping the mote of prana from leaking out.

That was just a single mote, and thousands of motes left his body every second, but Virs curiosity was piqued. Which meant that there would be no stopping him until hed had his fill.

The last two times hed taken control of his prana, hed blacked out. But then again, he had stopped blood from flowing into his head, and then tried to force it where it didnt want to go. Not the brightest idea, in hindsight. This time around, he used a much lighter touch on a much less important limbthe tip of his fingergently nudging the mote of black prana back into the blood from which it leaked.

The mote remained there, coursing through his body along with his blood. Vir tried it again and reproduced his earlier success. It wasnt hard it just wasnt all that useful when literally thousands more motes leaked out continuously.

So he started shoving multiple motes of prana back into his body as they left, turning it into a kind of game. One where he tried to see how many he could put back before he lost them forever. He soon learned that this was not a game hed ever win. At best, he could stuff a handful of motes back at once, which was a drop in the ocean. And to do even that, he had to split his attention half a dozen different ways, all while juggling motes of prana at the same time. It did not scale well.

Vir experimented with different approaches. Instead of trying to grab hold of a single mote of prana, he clutched entire groups of them, forcing them back into his body. This worked better, and he spent several hours refining that solution, grabbing larger motes of prana, faster.

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But it still wasnt enough. It felt a bit like trying to plug a waterfall by frantically scooping up buckets full of water. It didnt matter if the bucket was a small one, or a massive one, it wouldnt make a smidge of difference. This was a dead end.

He needed a different approach. Ideally one that allowed him to concentrate on other tasks, too. After another hour of deliberation, he finally had an idea.

One thing that had struck him as inefficient about his solutions was that he was attempting to grab the motes of prana reactivelyafter theyd separated from his body.

Was there a better way? Could he actually restrain the prana and keep it flowing within his body without ever allowing it to leave? So far, all itd taken was an application of his will to control the leaking pranawhat if he applied that same will to his blood instead?

Well, he knew what would happen. He could very well stop the blood flow in his body, and hed already experienced what happened in that case.

So hed need some finesse. If he controlled the prana in his body just enough to prevent them from leaking out, but not enough to alter his blood flow, then maybe hed stand a chance.

There was no doubt about the danger here. He was playing with concepts beyond his understanding, and failure might very well mean death.

But to give up now meant stagnation, and that was worse. He took a deep breath and went for it.

Vir started smalljust a single finger, concentrating his will upon it. His enthusiasm got the better of him; hed applied a bit too much pressure, causing his digit to flare with pain. He immediately aborted and waited for the throbbing to subside, praying to the gods that he hadnt messed himself up badly enough to seek Riyans aid.

The sharp pain dulled to a muted throb, though his pinky swelled up a bit.

Hed need to be even more careful. Vir chose the same finger on his other hand, and this time applied his will with the weight of a feather. Imperceptibly, gently coaxing his prana to stop leaking.

The result was immediate. The amount of prana that leaked from this finger abated significantly. And yet, his blood flow remained normal, without deviation.

He continued ramping up the intensity of his will until the pinky leaked no more. But that was when he ran into his next issuethe amount of willpower required to prevent any leakage of prana from his body caused his pinky to hurt. Not a lot, but he wasnt comfortable maintaining this over long periods of time.

So he backed off, and after some experimentation, settled at a point where only thirty percent of his prana leaked from his body. If he clamped down any further, his finger would throb.

Vir needed to sustain this technique, ideally indefinitely. He had a theory about what was going on here. If he was right Well, itd have many interesting ramifications.

The theory was a simple one. After spending endless hours observing Maiya and Riyan, and after analyzing his own body, hed concluded that prana sought equilibrium. The density of ice and wind affinity prana in Maiyas body exactly matched the density of those affinities in the air.

Riyan was slightly different. The density of the life prana in his body matched the life prana affinity in the air, but the earth prana in his body matched the density of its underground counterpart instead. And interestingly, none of his earth prana leaked into the air. It was as if the air and the ground were mutually incompatible. At least, as far as Earth Affinity prana was concerned.

Regardless, this theory explained why Virs own prana continuously drained from his own bodybecause there was no black prana in the air, and only trace amounts in the ground.

Vir spent the next hour expanding the area over which he exerted his will. From one finger to two, to all five, then to an entire hand. He eventually worked his way up to his arm, both arms, both legs, and finally, his entire body.

The effort became harder and harder the more he spread his will. It took a decent chunk of his mental faculties to prevent prana from leaking out of his body but it was doable if he concentrated hard enough.

It wasnt perfect, not by any means. Hed reduced the leakage to a third of what it was before, but a sizeable quantity still leaked out. He couldnt completely stem the leak without crippling his own body.

And yet, he already noticed a change. The prana in his body was denser than before. It was slight, but still noticeable. Which meant that his body was now producing more prana than was being sapped away by the air and the ground. Vir had some ideas about what that meant for him, but he didnt let himself get excited just yet. Not until hed verified his theory.

Of course, the issue with this was that he had to apply a significant amount of mental effort to keep the effect going. The instant he released the prana from his mental grasp, the dissipation rate tripled. This was not an automatic process yet. Vir had only been at this for a few hours. How would he have progressed by tomorrow? A week from now?

It didnt matter what it took. He had to turn this into a subconscious process. And if there was one thing Vir was good at, it was diligence. Hed practice this day in, day out, until he mastered it. Maybe then, hed be one step closer to manifesting a Talent. He couldnt know for surehe was in the dark, after all. Blindly messing with concepts he didnt understand.

But if no one would teach him, hed simply have to teach himself. Maybe hed mess up. Maybe hed injure himself. But in the end, hed prevail.

Vir gingerly stood up. Hed wanted to spend several more hours sitting there, practicing the ability alone, but the world didn't wait for him. Maiya was due to have her afternoon lesson, and he had to be there.

The next best thing was preventing prana leakage while in motion, but he soon found that was harder than it seemed.

Good, he thought. Itll help me master this faster.

He stumbled to the doorway, stubbornly refusing to deactivate the technique, giddy with excitement. All he could think about was Tanya's upcoming combat magic demonstration.

Next time: 43 - Whiteout