== 18 - Absorption of spirits ==========
The technology symposium was a completely ordinary event for representatives of various industries of the nation of fire. Scientists and spies flocked to one place to discuss cutting-edge scientific discoveries and make important announcements. Others socialised and exchanged experiences, hoping to join some prestigious team. Today, the reason for such communication was supposed to be two technological breakthroughs being prepared by the Fire Nation, which would allow them to rule both in the heavens and on earth. But one thing was clear:
Everyone entering the banquet hall was admired, and therefore the place was worthy of them. To emphasise the importance of his legacy, that it was THIS man who allowed everyone in this room to unleash the potential of their minds, Oza arranged the surroundings in the form of high-tech rooms filled with pipes and gears, working lifts and superb bright lamps.
When the hall was completely full, the lights in the common area began to dim, and a spotlight began to shine on a separate loggia where a man sat with a glass of wine, looking important.
"It is gratifying to gather for another meeting in honour of our nation's achievements, in honour of the metal from which we, our nation, create works of art and add to the magic. The science of fire is the best in the world!
Standing up, he glanced at the crowd with a commanding gaze and, as if at the snap of a finger, was surrounded by ovations and applause. Everyone ignored the standard greeting ritual, but as soon as the Master of Fire descended, everyone was already in a state of genuine excitement and eager to talk to him personally. As representatives of the highest scientific society, they would all have a more formal meeting later, in private, but right now they were here to kiss Oza's ass.
One such shrewd individual, who was the first to squeeze through the crowd of greedy hyenas, was a bald and plump man. He met Oza at the bottom of the stairs and respectfully placed his hand on his heart.
"Your Majesty, allow me to congratulate you and your daughter on receiving the title of 'Dragon'. We have made you a small gift, a statue of your daughter cast in pure silver, and we would be delighted if you would accept it." The back of the still unfamiliar man was pierced by many angry eyes - the newly successful businessman aroused insane envy because of his incomprehensible luck. And some hated him simply because they understood that this newcomer was bowing too obsequiously to the Fire Lord.
"Yes, I remember you telling me about that... Mr. Loban, am I right?" But Oza still expressed interest. He expressed his gratitude for the creation of a statue depicting the new Dragon Slayer and started a conversation that no one dared to interrupt. "How is the iron being processed at the site you found?"
"It's a real miracle, Your Majesty. I've never seen such a pure and easily workable material in my life. I think we'll be able to increase supplies in a month, so in honour of this, I'd like to announce another gift," making sure no one was listening, the bald, bespectacled man approached the interested Fire Lord and whispered, "I have a theory that there was a burial site of an ancient civilisation there: we found a strange and gigantic iron mask made of the purest material, which I would like to send to you.
"Something ancient, you say? Let's talk about it separately," Oza did not hesitate to shake hands and only then moved on to the rest of the people, where he began to discuss the exclusively good news of scientific discoveries.
The Fiery Sage Bjorn, who supports the production and creation of airships; the creator and designer of the blueprint for a huge drill; founders and owners of factories, some of whom were ladies in elegant dresses that would catch the eye of any world leader, everyone here worked hard for a place close to Oza himself. Therefore, the average lucky entrepreneur was viewed with some ambivalence.
"Hello, ladies," the bald man approached a crowd of beautiful women in expensive fur coats and smiled charmingly at them, "I'm new here, would you like to meet me?
And he didn't know his place yet.
***
The spirit wreaking havoc before my eyes could hardly be called dark, even with a stretch of the imagination. In the dark yellow scales that settled on the walls and tried to surround me, there was no sign of instinctive cruelty or even cunning malice. I was afraid that the beetles would try to gnaw on my beads, but these creatures, which spoke with children's voices, did not attack first. Rather, they simply arrived and gnawed on anything except the two of us.
"Why won't you share? Are you greedy?
"We want to try it, give us a bite. And then another piece. And then another," they buzzed like mosquitoes, loudly and unpleasantly.
But my senses saw the beams used to reinforce the capital disappearing — I didn't even notice when the bunker where Oza could have hidden disappeared. It was hard to believe that it was possible to negotiate with them, so Azula didn't ask any questions. She flooded her hand with electricity and released a rapid stream into the centre of these small degenerates, filling their small, seemingly metal bodies with a deadly discharge... Well, it would have been deadly for me, but the small ones simply distributed the discharge among themselves and were completely unharmed.
"Cool. But give me the tasty treat anyway!
"Hey, Dagoth, they don't even care about lightning. Why don't you try your metal on them? Azula glanced at me grimly, but I had no choice but to refuse. They weren't attacking, just spinning around and begging for food, and according to Anubis, using metal magic would cause problems. Instead... I released a small stream of sand, which surrounded a couple of Rustlings and managed to corrode them. The bodies of the two little creatures began to disintegrate until they died.
The rest didn't give a damn, they didn't suspect a hint of aggression in this attack and would have let me dry them all out, but the problem was approaching much faster. The beetles were eating not only the iron-filled beams, but also the iron-rich soil, causing cracks to appear and the ceiling above our heads to shake.
Crash*
It got to the point where our ceiling, covered with large stones, almost collapsed on our heads. Azula's emotions broke through the tension for the first time, and she crouched down and covered her head with her hands. Her eyes closed tightly, as if she was about to feel a lot of pain, but there was only silence in response. All the collapses and falling rocks froze in place, and only a quiet wheezing remained. Raising her head, she saw me standing with my arms raised, holding up the ceiling with a very, very unhappy expression on my face.
"You little bastards, you probably don't give a damn about being buried under a pile of earth," I sneered, trying to think of a way to kill them all, and glared at the spirits. "Guys, want a deal?
"We do. We want to. We want to eat," and in the next moment, I began to notice something strange... the tone of the spirits began to change, and with it, their size also transformed. They seemed to swell from within, as if they were being fed by dark emotions. Whereas before they had kept their distance, now they began to approach, not afraid to make contact.
"Enough, let's just take it.
"I can smell iron in the man himself. He's hiding iron INSIDE himself.
"Looks like they're tired of begging for mercy," Azula found time for jokes.
"Fuck. What kind of faggot is spreading so much negativity? I'll cut that bastard into ribbons.
The first attack happened the moment I blinked. A large iron gnat tried to fly into my leg and sink its fangs into me — and considering that it normally ate steel, I didn't want to test its teeth at that moment.
"Damn, I'm holding the ceiling!" My leg was in danger, I couldn't even take a step to the side... and at that moment, a blue flash of light flashed by. Azula cut the mosquito at my feet with a purple flame roaring from the tips of her fingers. Hard... she decided to use steel with a suppressive temperature," "If that's the case..."
Breaking direct contact with the ceiling, I switched to holding the ceiling with one control, one mind.
Standing behind Azula, I glanced at them all with annoyance and released it: a sand whirlwind, which, as is well known, was many times more dangerous in a confined space simply because there was nowhere to run. Fully understanding that they had to be absorbed, I tried not to destroy anyone. Let them come, even if new ones appeared out of nowhere.
"The sweet smell of steel! They jumped out almost at his feet, causing Azula to catch them in mid-air, piercing them as if she were using a lightsaber. Others were still devouring their surroundings, making the volcano terribly heavy. But that wasn't the worst of it, because soon litres of red-hot rock began pouring out of the walls.
And while it wasn't particularly difficult to move them aside, all I had to do was lead them out of the caves to a place where there were no civilians, the black smog forming in the caves, which couldn't be removed with my sandstorm, could have killed them.
"Phew!" To my delight, at that very moment, Azula stretched out her hand and pulled all the hot steam towards her fingers, and began to remove it with her other hand. I even made another path for her, where she sent all the toxic substance. "I'll cover you."
Yes, she covered me well. But since that was the case, we boldly went forward, and the lava and even the rocks parted in front of me, helping me get to the soul of every little bastard. They were caught in a sandy net, like in a natural fly trap. So as not to drag everyone behind me, I also checked the possibility of absorbing them all on the spot, right away. Taking a small handful, which even stained my hands the colour of iron, I felt little souls, separated into different entities. Tying them all together with ropes would be no problem. Together, they might have been capable of causing a collapse, but individually, they only provoked laughter.
Am*
Throwing the bundle of spirits into my mouth and passing through the iron shells, I spat out the outer shells, now devoid of souls.
"I'm hungry too," I thought, feeling souls inside me. And I should mention that I felt some kind of effect on my magic — a couple dozen absorbed chubriks didn't give it away, but after a hundred, I could say for sure — the corrosion process wasn't just fast, it was flying. One gust of sand was enough to make the clouds of these creatures fall almost lifeless, and I held back so that their souls would not return to the other world.
The advanced magic itself began to yield to me more easily, and my understanding of the corrosion grew.
"At this rate, the entire capital will collapse. I can hear the volcano trembling, I don't want to stay here any longer," Azula gently hinted at her desire to leave. But I had a chance to fix everything — finding the remains of a splattered pillar and seeing a pile of red ochre in its place, I simply touched it with my hand and slowly began to restore the properties of the material.
The gnawed sand first formed granules, tightly pressed against each other and wanting to merge together. Then the colour returned to normal, eventually returning to its place in the form of a large steel beam. The same thing began to happen all around, restoring the foot of the volcano.
Azula had no time to be surprised; she had to cut down creatures that were no longer so small. Each gnat became ten times larger, and she had to hold the fiery dagger constantly, as well as come up with ways to kill them all faster.
"The last ones got out. Hold on to me," the heat was already unbearable, so when I finished, I quickly took Azula by the hand and almost immediately lifted the stone beneath our feet, flying out through the tunnel that had formed. The coolness and freshness hit us first. The rock hanging in the sky was a couple of hundred metres above the ground, and below us was the city in turmoil. The capital itself was tilted simply because for a moment I was holding it ALL on my shoulders. People were screaming, and there was chaos in the palace because of the huge termite eating the roofs of the buildings," - Let's correct the mistake first.
Lowering my hands, I moved them slightly, a couple of extra centimetres, and returned the volcano to its former straight position. The tilt was only a couple of degrees, but it caused another wave of panic because there was a loud crack, like an eruption right under our feet.
As for the last breath... unfortunately, I didn't manage to take it. Another flash of electricity burst from the ceiling of the palace and dissolved the creature into atoms. The Fire Lord leapt onto the roof with a light jump, accelerated by his jet boots. Noticing me and Azura on a levitating piece of stone, he quickly realised that we were busy with our main task - eliminating the spirits.
"Looks like we interrupted his meeting a little," Azula shrugged in response to her father's disapproving glance.
"Is it important? - Putting my hands behind my back, feeling the horde of subordinate souls inside me, which only formed some kind of power in such a large gathering, I forced a smile.
"Not really. Boring meetings with boring people.
But we saved them, nonetheless. Now we can hope that the production lines won't slow down. If so, I had to figure out who would be next — the conqueror of the heavens, or Old Iron, for whom I had a new power in store?
Well, Anubis had his options. For better effect, he decided to raise the stakes.
"One-third of the task has been completed. Proceed to the second part of the plan.
Choose:
1 - Greening (You decide to take the spirits under your control to use them for the good of the people. Use your powers to find the spirits of greening and prepare for future burnings. Note that you are capable of restoring the desert and creating large areas of life)
2 - Subjugator (You have been inspired by Yoon and have decided to use the spirits to gain the power of other elements. Instead of merging with them, simply force the spirits to fight alongside you. Warning: you will have the ability to turn some spirits against others. Your goal will change; from now on, you will subjugate the weak and rule the strong)
3 - Foresighted (You know that the spirits have their own prophet, so you decide to get rid of him. Be careful, choosing this option means that he will learn of your attack and take action. Think of a way to get out of this)