Chapter 122 - Baptism

Jason only knew that his whole body was burning, while there was no way for him to run away from this hellish fire, streaming through his mana channels, veins, through his heart where it was distributed in all directions.
It was unknown how much time passed, but he could only think about the pain he felt and him being unable to move a single inch.
When his connection with the black flame was formed, it entered his soul world before it began to connect with his body.
Not only was this flame connected to his soul, but it also burned through his body causing a metamorphosis to happen within him, as well as on the outside.
Unknown to him, Jason was lying inside a king-sized bed, while an old but refined woman with silver hair stood next to Shane.
While the woman looked worriedly at the heavy sweating, panting black-haired youth in front of her, Shane looked jealous at Jason.
"How can he find an Origin Flame just like that?! What is such a treasure doing within the goblin settlement?" He grumbled and the woman next to him consulted him with a gentle slap on his shoulder.
"It's not like you can do anything with it, my old geezer, right?" She chuckled lightly before she returned her gaze to Jason.
Shane sighed and he couldn′t say anything against her argument as it was true
"Argh...If I only had a spot for another soulbond left.."
Suddenly Jason cried out in pain and the room temperature increased by another two to three degrees.
Black flames spurted out of him with a black, reeking mixture of impurities and old skin, which caused both the old woman and Shane to widen their eyes.
"Dalia? You′ve never heard about a black origin flame either, right?" Shane asked, and the old woman could only shake her head, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.
Touching the flame with her hand, she sensed a terrifying heat that wanted to devour her, as she took it back after a few seconds. There was not a single burn on her hand and she seemed fine but her words shocked Shane a little bit
"This is definitely not an average Origin flame... It should be at least a B-rank Origin flame... Maybe even A or S, but I'm not sure about that... Even if the Origin flame has only awakened a few hours ago, it′s might be comparable with matured D-Rank Origin flames, which underwent its first evolution."
Doubts started to run through Shane′s head and he whispered quietly
"Was the Goblin King supported by someone? Was it a human clan that wanted to reign over humanity or one of the foreign intelligent races? Handing out an unawakened A-rank Origin Flame should be impossible for a human and a waste of resources.…"
Shane was unsure and only Dalia, his wife could hear him and she was as confused as Shane, maybe even more.
Since they had to flee from Canir in order to hide because of her special physique, many things changed for humanity and even Shane began to change his attitude from trying to save everyone into someone rational who would sacrifice thousands of people to save millions in exchange.
This caused her to feel dejected with her guilt accumulating.
Shane only showed his emotions to her since many things happened in his past and it was only a few months ago, that he showed signs of taking interest in someone else.
And it was apparently this black-haired youth in front of her who underwent the first baptism originated from having bound an unawakened Origin flame.
Even if she knew that Shane only began o show interest in him because of his mana eyes and his soul-awakening, she was also aware, that his observances and interest began to increase the more time passed.
She had the feeling that it was not only his dream that kept Shane on observing Jason.
Dalia thought Shane could see himself in Jason, at least a little bit and she was happy seeing that.
She couldn′t bear children due to her special physique and maybe Jason could replace her dream of having someone similar, but that was only a distant dream from her and would most likely remain something like that.
A dream.
First Jason would have to survive his baptism.
Even for D-rank Origin flames, one had to be at least at the Expert rank to ensure one′s survival and Jason was only at the 1st Adept rank, while he underwent the baptism of an unknown ranked Origin flame.
Jason seemed to be under constant pain and black blood oozed out of his pores and seven orifices while Dalia couldn′t look at this anymore when a lush and vibrant green magic circle appeared in front of her with another dark green magic circle next to it.
Two 1.7 meter tall humanoid-looking trees appeared in front of her. One had shoulder long dark green vines representing her hair while the other one had blue hair, while a vibrant distinct green gem represented their eyes.
Their bodies were similar to gorgeous women with voluptuous curves while barks covered their bodies except for the head and limbs as they looked around curiously.
These two beasts were Dryads and if Jason saw them, he would be extremely astonished to see them.
Dryads were thought to be extinct and seeing two of them and at such a high rank at that, was an extremely rare sight.
Furthermore, their complexion was almost the same as humans which indicated a well-defined intelligence.
This would cause Jason′s curiosity to soar even higher but unfortunately, Jason was burning in hell′s fire at the moment, oozing out black heaps of impurities while Shane wondered how much impurities more would be expelled from Jason.
But his thoughts were not based on facts, logically seen a Baptism should only force out some impurities inside a body, but considering that Origin flames were even beneficial for Lord ranked humans, it was only obvious that Jason who was at the Adept rank would have to force out a huge mass of impurities.
Furthermore, due to them not knowing what grade his black origin flame was, they could only estimate the baptism′s degree roughly.
This whole scenario could be observed for hours, and Jason was filled with a huge pile of his own impurities, which were enveloped by mana and thrown somewhere else with Shane′s spatial magic.
The two Dryads were using their mana to energize and regenerate Jason′s mana and support his mental state.
It was only after a long time that he stopped roaring out in pain as the leaking blood lessened, leaving an exhausted youth, without any energy left behind
Jason felt completely numb and hours passed without him even being able to open his eyes and it was only the constant supply with a cooling sensation that caused him to feel alive, as he was finally able to open his eyes after an eternity passed
Jason didn't know where he was and he could only remember that Shane appeared behind him and the black flame entering his soul world, causing chaos.
His body began to heat up and he felt as if he was burning alive.
But this burning sensation was already comparable to the pain he endured when he ate the Devilish-Valkyrie-shield fruit and Jason shuddered being reminded about the pain.
Weirdly enough, he could remain much calmer this time, even after enduring this kind of pain once again, which was definitely not normal.
Trying to move his body, Jason felt as if he was filled with energy to the brim.
As such he decided to sit up straight before looking around curiously.
The room he slept in was empty, without much furniture except the king-sized bed, while the walls seemed to be made out of high-grade wood because it seemed to be extremely refined.
Jason didn't even know how much time had passed since he formed a bond with the weird black flame.
Looking at the date, Jason's eyes widened in shock.
'It's already Monday?!' More than 30 hours had passed and Jason was unsure what the Fler′s would say about him being out once again.
'Maybe they don′t care?' Jason thought, trying to reassure himself because he was not their child or relative, but it was hardly possible that this would happen and he went out of the bed.
Firmly standing on the bottom, Jason felt like he was a newly born because his skin seemed to be much fairer than before and upon looking closer, it was almost transparent displaying his veins and even mana channels, that were directly joint with each other, clearly.
Jason′s muscles were much firmer than before, while every cell inside his body was brimming with power.
He punched out with his fists and he could see marginal air currents manifesting, which astonished him.
Sensing throughout his whole body, Jason detected many differences inside his body.
But more importantly was, that he could have never imagined that his body could be so clean from the inside as most impurities he sensed before had been exhaled.
Furthermore, even his mana core was shining faintly, which astonished him.
But that was not the most shocking matter.
After inspecting his physique, he concluded that he had most likely reached the physique of a normal 4th Adept rank which astonished Jason, while his mana core increased also uniformly to the 4th Adept rank.
'Was all of this caused by the tiny black flame my soul desperately wanted to contract?' Jason thought, doubting everything in the world, as he entered his soul world, where he could see the tiny flame flickering next to his soul world core.
'Why are you so close to my soul world core!?! Don′t you dare to do anything to my soul energy' Jason thought and even if he was thankful for the metamorphosis he had undergone, he was still extremely suspicious of this tiny flame which caused him excessive pain