Wudang: Legends Of Qi Earth 141 Orcon Forest V : Black Ash Salamander: Xeron

[Fire destroys, it purifies and sometimes it strengthens, but regardless of what it does, once it's run it's course there would always be something left behind...…Ashes! You can't save, build or learn everything, in then end no matter how high a height you hope to reach, you would always be leaving something behind. Whether it's good or bad it's up to you, but once it's ashes; you're never getting it back.]

ANONE

The cloud of Ash began to circle around Alex's body with greater intensity, it didn't take long for the next bone spine close to the now missing horn pillar to explore into a rusty cloud of black Ash and embers, such a reaction had forced Anya and Louis back, and just in time too as the spot where they were once standing on was over turned by the rib bones of ridiculously massive creature. They kept on moving back, in shock and surprise at what was going on as Xiao Mei returned with an older man in tow.

From the look of things she seemed to have met you with someone from the academy, before she could open her mouth to ask where her brother was and what was causing all the commotion, Louis pointed at the middle of the storm of black Ash, and there was Alex sit black veins all-over his body, and his mask slowly changing.

The earth shook some more as more and more of the dead creatures body was dug up from the ground, the academy had never bothered about excavating the beast's skeleton because they felt it had no use. Apart from being an incomprehensible amount of years old, there was nothing, not a single smidge of energy to be felt from it, even the minerals in it's bones were common and absolutely useless for anything related to science or Alchemy. So it was very much to the old man's surprise that there was something that could elicit a reaction from the skeleton itself.

But even so, the more of it that was dragged out of the ground, the more it seemed to fall to decay as the bones all turned to black Ash, leaving nothing behind. Even the presence of the black Ash was somewhat surprising as the bones themselves were grey, but none the less it was probably the residual power within the bones themselves that had the attribute of black Ash. The old man watching this display had funnily pulled out a camera to record it, whilst stealthily sending a message through a special channel to the head of the academy.

Anya, Louis and Xiao Mei were quite ignorant to the situation, but the old man knew that Black Ash was a very rare poison element that's born as a combination of both the fire and poison element, though even then there's not always a guarantee that it would manifest in someone with both elements in them, either from the cultivation spectrum or the magic spectrum. And for an Academy ran by the most powerful Assassin organization in all of existence, the return of the element used by one of their most legendary figures was an event that needed to be seen.

But then again Black Ash was incredibly volatile, the black lines on Alex's body's were proof that his body was being broken down from the onslaught of the element. The old mankind's he wouldn't survive it, however regardless of whoever this kid is, if they could study his body, maybe dissect his organs and investigate his power source, and quickly before he dies extract his cultivation roots and Mana elements, then there might be a way for them to figure out how to induce the appearance of the element in someone else, someone of their own choosing and training.

More and more of the bones turned to dust until all that was left was just a floating black heart the size of basketball. This was the source of the power, and even though much of the if had saturated the bones, they were barely a quarter of a quarter of a quarter of the true power this heart held. And seeing how alive and vibrant it still looked after who knew how many thousands of years, both Xiao Mei and the old man could tell with a glance that this was a Dragon's heart, or at least a variation of it. The old man didn't think or care, he shot towards the heart using a speed that would Alex and his friends another 50 or 100 years to reach, he was obviously within the heavens gate or at the very peak of the earth gate.

*Rooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!*

A refreshing roar was heard as a shockwave was blasted out and the old man was thrown backwards over the heads of Anya, Louis and Xiao Mei. Blood spewed out of his mouth as his arm was crooked and his chest was caved in, he was seriously Injured but none of the could muster up the courage to feel sympathy for him. By this point the heart disintegrated into black Ash and melded with the cloud of black Ash that was still floating around Alex and slowly going into his body or rather, straight into his mantle.

The moment the heart joined the formation of black Ash, there was a deep rumble as lighting suddenly cracked across the sky and thunder booked in rage. The black Ash turned into a pillar that shot up into the sky, right in the middle of a storm cloud. One lightning crack and thunder boom later and bright beam of light came down with black ash pillar and slammed right into the forehead of Alex, throwing him to the ground as a crater was formed and an ensuing shockwave spread out into the forest, rapidly turning every living thing in husks of fiery black ash, a poison that destroyed a forest of poisons. Xiao Mei and Louis worked in tandem to create barriers around themselves, not even sparing a glance for the old man hunched over in pain behind them. And as for Alex, his already dark world suddenly became white.

< = >>>>>>

Alex found himself in his mantle, the fire arch was brightly lit with it's golden form intertwined with a kind of green metal and now symbols of a kind of lizard in reddish black, besides symbols of young man floating with fire wheels and a spear. And then the vision of the mantle disappeared and Alex found himself in a wasteland, a forest blacked by flames and filled to the brim with ashes of it's aftermath. Alex could only use one word to describe the scene in front of him, and that was death!

The realization left a chill in him that he couldn't understand, of maybe he did but he just couldn't come to terms with.

This was the power he now wielded, it was nothing like the blazing destruction of Nezha or the eerie invasion of Ébié, all he could see and feel was just death, no destruction, no fights or struggles just death. Across the expansive bare bones forest in front of him, Alex could make out thousands of not millions of living creatures, humanoid, or animal like, men, women, children, birds, fishes, horses, wolves,...…dragons! All of them fossilized in black ash, infected with a poison that burnt them from the inside out. And there on the horizon was the setting sun, seemingly lamenting over this scene as it seemed to say good bye, never to shine upon this land again.

"I know it's scary, and daunting, but this is my power, and now it's yours. You can not use this power to defend your majesty, if you're in a position where you have no other choice but to use it, then know that your opponent will be dying one way or the other. My name is Xeron and I'm a Black Ash Salamander, the first and last of my kind." Alex turned to look at the voice talking and was shocked at the massive size in front of him, though to be fair, he wasn't half as big as Ébié in her real form, (she was a dragon the size of an ocean!).

But Xeron was big enough that his size was akin to a mountain, skin a glossy black with splotches of red and yellow, lizard like legs, with the only thing different being the bone spines that stretched from the massive horn on his head, to the bashing spikes on his tail. A Salamander indeed, just a thousand if not a million times larger. Alex nodded his head in agreement with Xeron, this power was truly sinister, not that it was bad as only the wielder of a power is bad and not the power itself.

However the power of Black Ash was the power of death, and looking at the scene in front of him, which Alex knew was a memory, he couldn't help but agree that this power would only be the final nail in a coffin against someone he really wants dead, an example of what might happen if he lost control was right in front of him. He looked up at Xeron and asked.

"What happened here?" The giant Salamander looked down at his master and gave a somewhat melancholic grin, though how a giant lizards could grin Alex wasn't to sure, but he got his answer regardless.

"This, This is the day I died! The day I almost became...…a Dragon!"

Chapter end