Death, Devotion, Dissonance

<Wait, regarding the duel, ask them what kind of magic they consider better, and also remind them you can only use the World of Fire."

"Wait, before we start, you should know that I can only use the World of Fire. And also, what would be considered better magic in the first place?" Evin parroted.

The noble boy seemed to think for a bit before replying.

"Alright. We'll only use Irratas and whoever can create the bigger fire will be declared as the winner. I'm sure Vice-chair Bokh here can make sure that none of us cheat."

Evin nodded and waited for the snobbish boy to cast his magic.

Decatur grasped the lodestone in his hands and Evin could feel him absorbing the mana inside it again. The boy seemed to shine red in Evin's eyes for a second, before a wave of heat hit Evin's face.

Suddenly, something cracked in the air, and Evin could see a faint bluish spark appear in the boy's palm. The next second, it turned into a full-fledged flame as it greedily started to swallow the surrounding air. With every bit of air it absorbed, the flame grew bigger and bigger, until it reached the size of a two-story house. It also didn't act normally, with its fiery tongues lashing out towards every direction, instead of waving upwards like a natural fire would.

Moreover, the heat that came off from these unruly tongues was absolutely insane, as Evin couldn't help but flinch in panic when one of the tongues reached out a bit too close for comfort.

<Impressive firepower…> The voice, of course, was as calm as ever.

But, as impressive as the flame was, Decatur's show quickly ended as the mana inside the lodestone started to die out. Of course, the boy himself seemed quite confident in himself, as he glanced towards Evin with his signature look of superiority.

"Striking, young master Carew," the Vice-chair added.

"Naturally." Decatur nodded and glared towards Evin, his eyes challenging him to create a better flame.

Evin, of course, was at peace. He wasn't the one casting magic, and the voice didn't really seem like the type to get stage fright. He simply held the mana lodestone in his hands, and waited for the voice to do its thing.

<Alright, try to absorb the mana inside it.>

Evin did as ordered and had the mana to make way to his mana-core. But then he met a problem. When he had only absorbed about a fifth of the mana inside the lodestone, he could feel his chest starting to feel a bit stuffy and full. His body told him that trying to absorb more mana would probably end up in something dangerous.

<I guess there's a limit to the amount of mana you can absorb... Not that I think about it, there was a class called Cultivation of the Mana-core or something, right?> the voice commented thoughtfully, <Well, nothing we can do about that. Turn the mana into Fire energy and just think of creating a flame bigger than the one that he made. Don't think of creating the biggest flame imaginable.>

Evin felt a bit worried, but he did as the voice ordered and wished he could create a fire, larger than a two-story house. A moment later, he could feel his mana-core starting to work on something.

There wasn't any spark of fire to be seen yet, but Evin could tell that the voice was gathering a lot of air in one spot in the air. The Fire energies must've been trying their best to draw in and hold an enormous mass of the 'oxygen' that the voice was talking about in one place. Evin could also feel his breath becoming somewhat more labored and some perspiration wetting his forehead.

"What are you doing? You've been doing nothing but stand there for three minutes now. If you can't do it, then just say you can't do it," the noble said impatiently, "Vice-Chair Bokh, please stop this boy."

"Well, let's just wait and see what happens," the man said with a smile. He seemed to know what Evin was trying to do, even though Evin wasn't really sure of it himself.

After five more minutes, the gathering of air had become much larger than a simple two-story house and Evin could notice how the voice was struggling to keep it in check. Evin could feel that his mana-core was reaching its limits, but he knew that the organ wasn't in his control anymore. At this point, he could only hope that the voice knew what it was doing.

<I think that's enough,> the voice grunted, <Go stand behind the vice-chair.>

Evin guessed that he needed something, or someone in this case, to shield him from the fire, so he gladly walked behind the bulky man. The man didn't seem to mind as much and let Evin do as he wished.

"What are you doing now? Stop wasting everyone's time here!" the noble boy couldn't take it anymore and started to sing complaints at Evin and the vice-chair.

<Shut up, bitch! A-ha-ha!> the voice suddenly shouted, before falling into a fit of cackles.

Evin's head was briefly filled with the voice's shouts and the noble's whining, but it was soon replaced by a loud, deadly boom.

The next moment, a powerful wave of heat hit his body hard from all sides, searing his skin and burning off his clothes. Then came a shock-wave, that battered his already burnt skin, causing wave of immense, sharp pain to assault his mind.

Everything was muffled and distant as if he was in a dream, but he knew he wasn't. Evin found himself looking around, and saw that a wall of earth had appeared in front of him and the vice-chair. He also noticed the noble boy lying on his back a couple dozen meters away, the right sleeve of his shirt burning unceremoniously.

A second later, all the muffled sounds became clear to his ears and hit him all at once. The voice's mad laughter, the crowd's panicked shouts, the vice-chair's angry grunts, and his own raspy coughs.

He looked at his body and found it full of burns and sears, and once again, he remembered the pain he was in. Panicking, he started grunting violently, trying to keep his hands from taking hold of the burnt spots, as that would surely sting like hell.

"Fuck..." he cursed. "What the fuck did I do?"

"What the hell did you do?" the vice-chair shouted at him from his side.

Evin tried to reply, but his mouth was taken over by the voice again.

"I- I don't know... I just thought it would make a bigger fire..." Evin found himself saying, "This is all an accident... I didn't mean to do it."

A wave of exhaustion hit his mind, and his mind blacked out.

...

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