====== 16 - The Sixth Chakra of Genius ==========
Strange as it may seem, in the land of fire, it was not only the capital that commanded respect with its architecture, the amount of money invested and its industrial wonders. Most of the production lines were concentrated in the city of the Fire Fountain, and the surrounding factories even caused smog to form, but few people cared about that in the current era. This place was so valuable because of the natural gas deposit located under the city, which, for example, fuelled the giant statue of Oza in the main square, which emitted flames from its mouth and hands.
As she led me through the wide streets, whose roads were paved with thick granite slabs, Azula told me with interest how she had spent part of her youth here: killing gangsters, intimidating poor schoolchildren, and just walking around to buy something. It is worth mentioning that there were indeed many children in school uniforms here — some were just hanging out during breaks from class, while others were on a field trip and were watching the metal statue of Oza with their mouths agape in awe. There were even food stalls around the square, attracting even more people.
"It looks like the living spirit from that history lesson! How cool would it be to see one in real life," said a group of children, maybe twelve years old, gathered at the foot of the statue. It was quite hot at that distance, but that didn't stop them from admiring it and enthusiastically reminiscing about their school lessons.
"But it's just a statue, and not a spirit, but the Fire Lord, you stupid kids," I said, not even surprised when Azula decided to ruin their fun. She started choking the kids and looked at them like they were uneducated rabble. "If you keep admiring it like that, the spirits will come for your parents in the dark of night and whisper in their ears that you should be sent to an orphanage for useless and backward children.
"Is it worth being so evil?" I asked in complete confusion, seeing the frightened children run away. Feeling the timidity emanating from them, caused by the inadequate bitch, I put a piece of my will into the statue. With a creak of metal, which had become slightly more elastic thanks to Yuna's technique, it arched its back more strongly and raised its arms. The combined sound of flames and the grinding of metal made the statue seem to roar loudly and menacingly - the people in shock opened their mouths at the sight and began to leave the square with some fear.
Noticing that the frightened children had stopped with enthusiastic eyes, I returned the statue to its place and looked meaningfully at Azula's downcast eyes.
"They admire the spirits we are at war with. My father built schools here to raise the level of materialism. What's wrong with them being annoyed by me?" Arching her eyebrows, she came up with a firm and clear answer that refuted my arguments. Turning away, she simply frowned at the schoolchildren and headed towards the academy.
This image of her amazes me time and time again — I could understand the feigned cruelty and terror, but Azula wasn't acting. If she awakens the chakra of love, it will only be for a feeling of all-consuming domination and power. Ozay probably thinks this is childish maximalism, but it's very possible that it's all because of her childhood complexes and the fact that her mother, who gave her such great powers, actually paid more attention to Zuko.
Even though we were working together now, it was purely aesthetically unpleasant to be around such a person, and unfortunately, the one chance to change her had already been missed: I had refused to make her my girlfriend and never thought about it again, but were there any less categorical ways? Anubis hastened to answer my question, finally offering some interesting options for how these events might unfold.
"Choose:
1 - The power of love (You have spent a lot of time with Azura and can say with certainty that she is incapable of love. This is the reason why she has not yet opened her fourth chakra, but what if you help her? Let Azula love something mundane and understandable, which would help her overcome some of her childhood complexes and become kinder.
2 - Strength in truth (Honesty is the key to bonds. But Azula has done everything possible to destroy her morals and burn her sense of trust, ceasing to trust anyone. However, you can still inspire a sense of authority — do something that will raise you in Azula's eyes and allow her to rely on you when making certain decisions.
3 - Strength in friendship and magic (You are in a place where Azula once met her best friends. Find out what they did and spend the same fun days of revelry and destruction; perhaps the key to peace lies in memories of the past).
Yeah, I don't know why I thought of that, but apparently I'm destined to be a big brother to little kids who go crazy on the weekends and kill people for fun. How nice it would be to assume that I don't need these options and can reject them, but the words didn't disappear from my eyes until I accepted or postponed my choice. Probably because Azula is now my right-hand woman, I just had to clean up after her and make sure she did her job properly.
But honestly... I didn't want to be her big brother. We weren't even really friends, since it's hard to be friends with someone who has it in for you and with whom you have a spiritual bond. I had more important things to do and people closer to me, so the best option would be to turn her into a well-rounded person who strives for her goals and loves the things that are connected to me to some extent. And, along with that, she would become more presentable.
Staring intently at Azula's back as she walked ahead, pondering the question of what she could possibly love, we finally reached the famous local academy. In front of the gates of the fenced-off area, there were both younger students who were just beginning to discover the wonders of science and older, more mature individuals with bruises under their eyes and traces of exhaustion on their faces.
"It can't be, is that the princess herself?
"Damn, it's the Sand Mage! He's walking behind the princess. Could he be personally watching over the members of the royal family now?
"But why are they here?" The level of whispering and the gathering of people wanting to discuss such an unusual event gradually reached its peak, and even the teachers outside froze with beads of sweat on their foreheads at the sight of two such distinguished figures. Soon, an adult woman in a red dress, black-rimmed glasses and a long braid on her head ran up to us, bowed her head and asked as respectfully as possible why we were there.
Azula didn't go into detail about my plans, but she thought it would be super unnecessary to ask why we were there now that we were already there. She looked at me, thought for a second, and quickly said,
"We want to see what methods of killing you are teaching the younger generation.
"Um... it's, like... - the woman fluttered her mascara-coated eyelashes, trying to collect her thoughts after such words in a place of learning, and smiled stiffly," - Of course. I'm a science teacher - my name is Hey-Ran. I'll show you around.
"New here, huh? I know where to go," Azula grunted and calmly walked ahead. Nevertheless, Ms. Hey-Ran followed us, adjusting her glasses with her sweaty hand, trying to warn us about something in a muffled voice. "Hmm... There used to be a staircase here!
"Oh... The building was renovated after the fire you started... Ahem, now the offices are not in the same places they were five years ago," scratching the back of her head, she piqued my interest in what had happened here before and became our guide. As we walked, I asked our guide about Azula's actions without any qualms. As it turned out, she really didn't know much, only the general details, but... apparently, so as not to offend the princess herself, she spoke in a deeply respectful and thoughtful tone. As it turned out, Azula threw the wildest parties with special effects, when she could bring a bunch of fireworks inside the building; her friends, including Tai Li, mocked every couple and publicly shamed the guys if any of the three confessed their love, and as for what what they did in the bathrooms, ugh... I didn't expect that from Ty Lee, but I didn't see anything that would damage my psyche. Just the antics of crazy girls.
Azula, on the other hand, remembered those days with a smile and wasn't even embarrassed to go into the different rooms where some of those things happened to remember the old days, but the way people reacted to her...
Familiar teachers froze with pale faces, as if they had seen a ghost, cleaners for some unknown reason grabbed their cleaning supplies and ran to the storerooms, and one man in an excellent and expensive uniform, who met us right as we were leaving the toilet, abruptly grabbed the door and locked himself back in.
"Hmm, was that the director? - Azula scratched her chin uncertainly and simply shrugged. Poor man, he leaned against the back of the door and clutched his heart, which was about to explode. Fortunately, when we reached the large hall with many braziers — not burning with charcoal or wood, but with gas — no one was hurt.
Here, according to teacher Hae-ran, the master students began to look at the fire from a scientific point of view. Now there was only one man in the hall — he had hidden in the teachers' room and locked the door, which is why the accompanying woman, her fists clenched, explained what was happening and how experiments with fire helped children develop an interest not only in magic but also in the power of high temperatures.
"We didn't have lessons like this in my day," Azula said, looking with interest at the flames burning in completely different colours. One was green, another burgundy, and even purple. "Science is advancing every year. "The colour of fire can change depending on the gases that affect it and even just minerals," Azula nodded with interest, but quickly began to glance at me, silently asking what else I wanted here. And then I realised — wasn't this a good opportunity? If Azula took a liking to this kind of research or studied the power of her flame more deeply, she might change for the better. Yes, I wouldn't say that studying a deadly element would make her kinder, but...
"Mrs. Hay-Ran, fire is not only a force of destruction, but also of life, right? Could you tell us some interesting ways to use its energy?
My smile calmed her down, and the peaceful topic of conversation restored the teacher's professional demeanour. Perhaps it wasn't her area of expertise, but the young and energetic lady enjoyed telling new things and engaging in debate.
"Now look how this glowing yellow flame, with the addition of oxygen, begins to roar and change colour to sky blue. This happens because of... - I was even envious. I didn't attend the schools of the people of the earth, and they didn't teach anything there that was interesting enough for even a magician to put to practical use. We were taught by life and hard work in the mine. Even Afka, who always followed me around, listened with interest to the young lady, demanding that I take notes on such magnificent wisdom. If she had known what research would soon be conducted all over the world, she would have been amazed.
The only thing I had to do was to pique Azula's interest so that she would never let it go. So that she would truly love doing this research and devote more time and energy to it than to bullying. Afka helped a lot with that again.
She jumped onto Azula's shoulders just as she released her blue flame for the experiment, and before Azula could react in confusion, she began to snort and give advice in her own language. And if at first Azula looked at me with irritation, warning that if she didn't get lost, she would turn into fried dog meat, then when my fox sat down on the building's paws and began to demonstrate some kind of frightening figure with a huge mouth and giant wings, she paused.
"What are you showing off, red flea?
"What are you, a bitch?" Afka glanced dryly at her face. "Dragon, you idiot. Remember how that dragon almost fried your insolent face? Don't you want to repeat his beautiful magic?"
"Hmm... This is the first time I've seen a flea communicate with gestures. What are you showing me? Ah, that dark dragon spirit I killed. Well, of course... - Her heart skipped a beat, she looked at her flame and became genuinely interested: is it possible to somehow replicate the beautifully structured rainbow dragon flame, and what would it take to do so? What can I say? I had never seen Azura so interested in anything before; it was love at first sight. She sincerely wanted to get to the bottom of this, so I kicked open the door to the teachers' room and found a teacher who could give her all the necessary advice and research that would allow her to master the highest level of flame control.
Hay-Ran breathed a sigh of relief, the beast fell behind her, and we could relax. She even gave me a small thank you, so I didn't hesitate to take advantage of it. After all, I was only here for one reason: to approach the transformation of matter with the right approach.
"I'm interested in just a couple of things: as a teacher of exact sciences, can you tell me how to calculate the correct expenditure of force; how to use compressive force as correctly as possible, and... could you show me ways to change thermal conductivity? - I arched my eyebrows, making the young lady blush.
"I don't quite understand. If you demonstrate what you want from me, I may be able to find the answer.
***
It could be said that even with my knowledge from the previous world, I was as far from metallurgy and other achievements of even the current era as Yoon was from me, and I was not ashamed to admit it. After all, that's how I became better. Probably not many people would understand the pleasure of being able to ask for help in learning your magic and being helped; of having access to accurate data and the ability to calculate your power in a mathematical model - in short, I learned the abilities that interested me. The academy not only provided teachers who studied basic earth magic with such enthusiasm and interest and came up with unique possibilities for it, as if they had never seen earth mages before, but also took us on excursions. For example, would it be interesting for an ordinary inhabitant of my world to get a job at a factory and work there on behalf of their educational institution? Yes, I can already hear the applause and see the forest of hands, but in this world, all the factory jobs were filled to capacity, and there were few complaints.Of course, I didn't visit the factories just for fun: I was interested in the process of processing materials and metals, more advanced forging methods, and even machines that I had never seen in my own world. And I saw something else very interesting. A restricted area where ordinary visitors were not allowed to enter, with amazing machines and huge devices that were then taken away somewhere on ships. When I asked what was happening in some of the factories and what they were creating that was so grandiose, I was told, "None of your business, son." No, to understand the scale of it, even Azula couldn't give me access, which meant it was something classified as "top secret." They showed me only one hint and one drawing hinting at the creation, probably because it wasn't classified.
A simple drill. The technology for spinning, which I copied and stole for my advanced magic, which allowed me to dig the ground. It seemed like nothing unusual, but then I remembered that the day was approaching. The siege of Ba Sing Se had not been cancelled, and I had to be the first there.
"You have learned the essence of magical metamorphosis. Congratulations on merging the elements and the magic of energy, your sixth chakra is open, which means the next step in your conquests is available.
Choose:
1 - The Commander (You have learned about the great and powerful Old Iron. His giant footsteps can greatly change the landscape of the continents and correct the maps on which the cities are displayed. Make him the first target of your campaign. Please note that if you choose this option, the coastal part of the kingdom will be protected from attacks by powerful spirits. It will be easier for you to conquer your enemies with the help of your fleet.
2 - Guardian (Wang Shi Tong has pointed out a harmful spirit to you. Rust eats steel and factories, and a swarm of spirits can begin to terrorise the entire archipelago and reduce the fighting power of the country of fire. Please note that if you choose this option, the archipelago will not be subject to spirit attacks and will retain its mechanical troops. It will be easier for you to attack disobedient fortifications.
3 - Traveller (Great wings tear through the clouds, causing downpours. The Soaring Spirit is hardly an intelligent incarnation, but it will not tolerate flying mortals. Please note that if you choose this option, the Fire Nation's airships will be able to show their full power. It will be easier for you to stop well-hidden militias in the mountains, in cities with natural defences, and in heavily fortified settlements.
4 - Frightening (This option can be combined with any other. You have joined forces with Azula and given her the gift of love, which means you can gain support after conquests. Suppress all those who want to submit to the spirits and force them to help you in your expansion).