“Dance of the Shadow Demon is truly powerful. And yet, you see its weakness. The Iksana that protected you as a baby also struggled to deploy that power in this land.”
Vir sat back heavily onto the ash, kicking up a small dust cloud. “Did he figure out a workaround?”
“The same one as you, apparently. By fueling it with more prana, he could enter the shadows, though the grimace on your face tells me you ran into the same issue he did.”
“Overdid it. My body doesn’t like that. Blink didn’t help any.”
“Yes. Prana saturation. It afflicts us all.”
Prana saturation? Vir struggled to recall Tanya’s words when he’d snooped in on her lessons. He’d never really understood what that was, as it hadn’t ever affected him. Quite the opposite, in fact. The more prana he held within his body, the stronger he felt. He’d never forget the sensation of prana flooding him once he’d learned to prevent it from leaking out.
But then, it wasn’t just his legs that hurt. His arms did too, from channeling Prana Blade.
Could it be the same reason?
Never before had he cycled so much. For the simple reason that there just wasn’t enough prana to do so. He’d always rationed his consumption as aggressively as possible to allow more Talent uses in a prana-starved land.
With that limitation removed, the prana he consumed was incomparable, even with Parai’s technique boosting his prana efficiency.
“Prana saturation… Is that when the body reaches its Prana Channeling limit?”
“Aye. No one knows why, but after channeling a certain quantity of prana, the body begins to resist any more. It is as though prana burns us out. Luckily, the situation is temporary. A day or two of rest generally fixes the issue. One of our most gifted researchers, Saunak, once experimented with it, but his results were inconclusive, if I recall. And highly unethical. The man was rather insane.”
“Demons have prana researchers?” Vir asked. He’d never heard of anything similar in the Human Realm.
“Oh yes. Plenty. I think you’ll find our knowledge of prana far superior to that of the humans. If I’m honest, felt like I was watching children play with toys.”
“Agreed,” Vir replied. Humans had copied inscriptions for millennia, yet there had been nearly no advancement in that time. To this day, all of their spells are hailed from the Age of the Gods. Hadn’t anyone tried to change the inscriptions? Hadn’t anyone studied prana?
Or was it something else? Was there danger involved in doing so?
Vir didn’t even need to think about that—there was lots of danger playing with prana, as he’d found out firsthand. Yet humans were often reckless. Surely there was bound to be someone who didn’t mind losing their life, who progressed the science?
It has to be something else, then…
Like a restriction. Some limitation that prevented humans from changing the script. Too bad Vir couldn’t look into it until he was back in the Human Realm. He doubted it’d be soon.
“You’d best conserve your prana,” Cirayus said, as he skinned the hide off of some of the beasts Vir killed. “Seems counterintuitive, but here, your body is the limiting factor. For our purposes, prana is essentially infinite.”
Cirayus was right. Prior to the Ash, Vir could never have guessed just how nuanced controlling his abilities here would be. What would it be like for mejai, then? How many learned the tricks before prana poisoning took them?
First Dance, now saturation… Vir had several developments to consider. Not to mention how Prana Vision continued to obscure his eyesight even now, with Ash Affinity obscuring most everything else.
If only I could tune it somehow…
It was an idle thought, but not a bad one. Until now, he’d simply sent prana to his eyes, and that was that. If he could selectively filter out affinities…
A dozen applications unfolded. If he knew someone’s prana signature and could tune it for only that particular signature, he’d be able to spot anyone, anywhere, anytime. If he wanted to scout for Lightning Affinity mejai, he could easily locate everyone. Even those with dual or triple affinities.
As it was, Prana Vision was good at analyzing an individual. It was largely useless for looking at a whole crowd of people and picking out an individual unless they had strong affinities.
And if I can filter for strength… Vir could tune out all the weaklings, focusing only on the highest-priority threats.
Of course, this was all conjecture. He didn’t know if any of this was actually possible, but something needed to change, or Prana Vision would be more an impediment than a boon in the Ash.
“Your training foundation is passable,” Cirayus said, plucking a fang from a downed Ash Wolf. “Your foundation is sound. Your instincts, your sense for the flow of battle, and your tactics are all logical and well-honed. Few at your level of strength can get an Ash Wolf pack to rout. Even weak ones here at the edge of the Ash.”
“Thanks to Dance of the Shadow Demon. I’d have been in a lot of trouble without it.”
Though, maybe I can match their speed now with Blink.
“It is good that you realize it. If you understand that much, I’ve no doubt you’ll come up with countermeasures.”
“Thanks,” Vir replied, thinking of how differently Cirayus treated him compared to Riyan. Riyan would just throw Vir into danger and force him to figure things out. Even when Vir succeeded, the man was conservative with his praise. And when he failed? There’d be no end of criticism.
Respect, Vir thought. That’s the difference.
Cirayus treated him with respect. Yes, the demon pushed him to challenge his limits, but in all situations, he’d been there to back Vir up in case he got himself in trouble. Cirayus pointed out his shortcomings, but also recognized his strengths, and lauded him for his accomplishments.
It felt good. Maybe it was because Vir knew just how incredibly strong Cirayus was. There was just something about the man’s bearing. The way he spoke and carried himself spoke of endless wisdom. The aura. It made his words have weight.
I guess it’s no wonder if he’s lived for four hundred years…
“Now, let us review your performance in depth, shall we?”
8LEGACY OF THE AKH NARA
“The first thing you did right was to attack the enemies you knew you could defeat,” Cirayus spoke slowly, stroking his beard. “Your first mistake was assuming the other beasts would let you.”
Vir grimaced. The giant had a point.
“I had a time limit.”
“No, lad, you succumbed to artificial pressure. Tell me, would you have died, had you taken longer than ten minutes?”
“N-no.”
“Would you have been crippled, or otherwise severely injured?”
“No,” Vir said, understanding where Cirayus was going with this.
“Would I have been in danger?”
Vir scoffed. “I doubt there’s anything that can threaten you.”
“That is a bet I would not take, lad. Though, in this situation, it is true that I was in no danger. You allowed your ambition to override your good sense.”
Vir hung his head. He’d done exactly that. He’d been so blinded by the time limit, he didn’t even bother to understand what he was getting himself into.
“Knowledge is power, and information keeps you safe. There are times that force one to act without knowledge of their enemies, true, but this was not one of them.”