216 Advancement Trial: Fire.

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A bit earlier than I'd planned but I like making you guys happy.

(Aden's P.O.V)

This time, my memories were not locked and the key thrown away. No, this time I had my reason about me. I instantly knew this was my ascension trial and though it wasn't as intense from the start as my air ascension trial, I had a feeling it wouldn't be any less difficult.

That feeling was justified. For starters, I stood on the bottom of a long staircase that seemingly disappeared into the sky. Drums begun playing, causing me to look around in alarm. My breath hitched.

Featureless sun warriors, surrounded me, flanked on both sides by hills, the only way I was going, was up the stairs. Some of them were controlling fire, keeping it stable and in motion in the shape of a ring.

In canon, Zuko and Aang had had to carry the 'First fire' up the mountain and present it to the Masters, who turned out to be dragons. Was this my ascension trial? Take the 'First fire' up the mountain without allowing it to go out? That seemed easy enough. However, life had showed me time and time again that nothing truly goes exactly as you want.

"You could cut your losses and leave Aden. You've already grown so much more powerful from ascending into a god of wind."

As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like kicking my ass. I'd come all this way, whether I lost my life or something else, there was no going back.

The rest of the Sun warriors around me started beating on the drums they had. The sound was heavy and ominous. As one, the drums intensified, the sound hitting my ears and giving me visions of a roaring flame that never went out.

The flame was gentle and shifted color at uneven times. My vision of it panned narrower with each successive beat. Until after reaching crescendo, the fire was all I saw. It was beautiful, it was majestic and it was so so personal. My emotions felt all over the place. Whatever I was seeing was so intrinsically connected to me, I was completely gobsmacked.

Then the drum beats stopped suddenly. I blinked my eyes and found myself staring at that beautiful ball of flame, now resting in my palms. It was the size of a tennis ball and deceptive. Deceptive in that, the size was not an indication of just how... powerful and dangerous this flame was. It had the power to devour the world in seconds.

I couldn't stop looking at it. Different colors swirled around it's length. Silver, purple, green, blue, yellow and white. Occasional flashes of black could also be witnessed.

One of the Sun warriors stepped forward and pointed towards the Staircase.

"Climb and present your fire."

His voice was like a death whisper in the wind. It echoed out before disappearing with a sharp undertone.

My lips opened in shock at something else however...

The way he said 'Your Fire.'

I looked at the flame in my hands, swirling gently in an unseen wind. Delving deep within me confirmed my fears. I couldn't feel the comforting heat that was ever present under my belly button. Neither could I feel my connection to my new domain. I was a god now but none of that mattered to the system. Crap.

But different from my Air Divinity, my fire bending was not suppressed or locked. No, I had the entirety of it in my palm.

"What happens when the flame goes out?"

I asked the Sun Warrior.

He reached out his hand and pointed up the mountain.

"Climb and present Your Fire."

I sighed. Don't know why I thought he could be helpful. 'This is a trial Aden, that means only you got you.'

I walked forward and stepped on the first step of the stairs. Instantly the temperature around me increased. It wasn't a large increase and I could probably take 100× the temperature with my body's durability.

I took the second step, careful not to let the flame go out. This was my fire bending essence, if it went out then the least that could happen, would be losing access to the Fire element. The worst would be death or a chain collapse of the other elements due to the balance being upset. There were four fundamental elements after all not three. Plasma could be argued to be a close fifth but then so could be Spirit and wood.

The heat kept on increasing but not by more than I could handle. After the 100th step, I finally reached the top. However, what awaited to me was something unexpected. The top was only a platform. A stop gap as the staircase still continued upwards. I looked around. This wasn't like Aang's and Zuko's trial. They were supposed to meet Ran and Shaw, the two dragon Fire masters.

All I saw around me, were the flanking mountains and nothing else except for the mist that obscured the top of the staircase. I looked back the way I came from and saw nothing but a sea of endless fire. Welp, guess I gotta keep on climbing. I cradled the flame close to my chest and resumed the trek.

A sudden wall of flames appeared to the front and blocked my way, greatly startling me because of the heat exuded from the fire. I felt a presence behind me and looked back.

"Roku was I, the Avatar after Kyoshi, the Avatar before Aang. Show me your Fire."

The voice came from an elderly man with a flowing fire Kingdom robe, a long white beard and hair and finally glowing white eyes.

Oh.

This must be a concequence of not going through the grandmaster Advancement Trial. Immediately I could tell that a fight was unavoidable. If it was easy as just, stretching my hand out and telling him to take a peek, then this wouldn't be an ascension.

But for the sake of saying I tried it...

"Fine. But only a small peek. I mean it."

My words were met with 'bruh really?' moment that was swiftly followed by yellow hot flames. I rolled away from the flame arc, still taking care not to snuff out my own.

The platform was only 20 m across by my estimate. So there wasn't a large enough distance that I could put between us. Not to mention, all my bending abilities were inaccessible. I was going to have to beat a grandmaster fire bender with my physique alone.

Roku attacked again, this time by letting gravity suck him down. Only to impact the floor with a voluminous omnidirectional tsunami of flames. There was no evading this, so I flipped over the flames, feeling the hot energy lick my coat and then landed, immediately spinning to the side on my right leg. A fire ball shot past me, from Roku's fist.

Seeing an opening, I bent, putting weight on my left leg before snapping out a kick that took the master bender by surprise. My foot impacted his chin, lifting him up slightly before I transitioned the flip into a modified pirouette. I whirled around, gathering momentum followed by a loud crack ringing out. His chest caved in under my powerful palm attack. Roku's body was pushed off the platform and into the sea of flames.

I stood there for a few minutes, my mouth was agape and in shock.

Did I just...take down Roku in two moves? But...but he was a grandmaster fire bender...right? This dude fucking stopped a volcano from blowing up. Or at least mitigated the reaction fast enough that it didn't kill everyone on the island...and I just put him down in two attacks.

My surprise soon turned into something else. Elation. This was the proof that I had grown stronger. I tightened my palm into a fist. Everything I'd done was not for naught. This was the result. And I wouldn't stop moving forwards, I thought looking at the stairs waiting for me.

My flame suddenly enlarged in my hands before reducing in size to it's earlier state but with flashes of gold joining the flashes of black.

I smiled and walked forward, taking the first step of the second staircase.

"Whooo!"

Breath washed out of me as the heat grew in magnitude. I removed my coat, noticing a burnt patch on it's back and tried to send it to my hammer space. It didn't work. My perks were also similarly suppressed.

I let the coat fall on the platform behind me while sighing.

"This just complicates things."

The second step, the temperature increased by a little and so on. Each of the steps brought about an increase in heat and on the final step which was the 100th, a thin sheen of sweat covered my forehead.

I stepped on another platform, breathing a little heavily. The flame in my hands danced gently, still stable and strong. I looked around at the platform. Another staircase leading up was directly opposite me, but I knew I couldn't move past it without defeating whoever was next.

I didn't know what to expect but a literal white dragon spewing down purple flames was not one of them. I immediately jumped away from the spot, nearing the edge of the platform. Below the edge, the sea of flames took up the entirety of the distance between the platform and the hard rock of the tall mountains, effectively trapping me.

The purple flames were so hot, my t-shirt immediately burnt up. The flame in my hand flickered a little in response to the sudden feeling of powerlessness that hit me when the dragon landed.

The platform trembled. An aura that reminded me of my current weakness spread out, seeking to kill my spirit. My resolve hardened as I remembered my promise. There's no way I was giving up. I looked into it's eyes and saw it's judgement.

"The Dancing Dragon was I, first master of Avatar Wan. Show me your fire."

I breathed in, settling into a tai chi stance. I wasn't as proficient in the art as the other Martial arts that Bronze Tiger had deemed 'worth the time to know' but given the fact that Fire bending was very similar to the Northern Shaolin martial arts, then a hard counter for the heavily offensive art was Tai Chi, something that was highly defensive.

But of course none of that mattered when your opponent could breathe fire! My speed exploded, hurtling forward on nothing but grit and will. The first of the purple flames came at me like a fan. Wide and all encompassing. My eyes widened a little, heart pumping in adrenaline. Besieged as I was from all sides, I did the only thing I could, going with my gut instinct.

I could feel my connection with the wisp of flames in my hands. Using that connection, I was able to steal little bit of fire from the ball of flames. It immediately decreased but when the purple flames washed over me, the thin coating of flames around my body protected me from the worst of it.

I immediately moved back as far as I could. The Dragon seemed to patiently wait for me to make my move. Despite the fact that now my surroundings were covered by purple flames, My body shivered with a sudden coldness as the ball of flames I was holding started petering out.

"The Dancing Dragon was I. First master of Avatar Wan. Show me your fire."

The Dragon spoke up. I breathed in. Okay. Clearly I need to rely on more than just my physical strength. And I can't use my fire like I want to either.

The coating around my form rolled off me and joined the wisp of flames. It regained a 1/3 of it's original size.

The dragon growled a little. It became impatient and let loose another generic wide attack.

This time I decided to try something different. I ran forward, jumped and flipped, landing with a wheel like pressure blast caused by my physical strength alone.

The flames parted a little infront of me and the platform cracked under my bare foot, revealing the Dancing Dragon's hard eyes making eye contact with mine. Then my shoe landed on one of it's eyes with as much force as I could put in the throw.

The dirty move disoriented it as it howled in pain, shaking its head and spewing out flames wantonly in a bid to keep me away. I winced as the flame landed on parts of my body and left behind reddened skin.

The only thing saving me from getting completely fried, was a fancy footwork that Bronze Tiger had taught me. Man, I'm only now noticing it but everything the retired Merc showed me had so far been useful.

This would have been so much easier if I could have retained the use of my chi. But I had to work with what I had. One thing you can be sure of, I didn't hold back anything as I slammed my fist onto the Dragon's snout.

At my base, I could lift 150+ tons. That didn't exactly translate well to punching strength because you have to take into account the force generated by the momentum.

I could feel each individual bone shard as The Dancing Dragon's face deformed and then the head explode with a sudden spray of blood. I landed a second before it's huge body fell with a thud next to me.

Immediately, pain assaulted me from different parts of my body. The skin at my back was red and all my eyebrows were singed. I stumbled to the first step of the staircase and sat down to rest. My flame had decreased a little. This was just the second platform and I had no idea how many remained yet...I had almost lost.

I closed my eyes and settled in a meditative pose.

With every single exhale, the flame resonated, increasing in size and heat before going back to it's original size. 10 minutes later and the pain from the light burns had faded away. I opened my eyes and saw the corpse of the Dancing Dragon burn up in purple fire.

First it had been an Avatar, then a spirit, then going by the pattern, it will either be a god or a demon affiliated with Fire. I bet my all on it being Vulcan, Haephestus or Agni. Those were the most famous fire gods I knew.

The air advancement trial had shown me that the trials weren't restricted to using characters from Avatar alone. I was confident in my theory enough to start thinking of countermeasures.

In my current condition, things weren't looking up too much but fuck it. I could take them all on. My eyes blazed with a courage I wasn't really feeling.

I turned around and took the second step of the third staircase. The groan was swallowed as the heat increased. Each step slowly turned the dial from painful to agonizing. Stepping onto the next platform, I crawled up the final steps.

My entire skin was red and I felt nauseous at the smell coming off of me. A little fire. Too small to make a difference, covered my eyes to shield them from the hot temperatures.

The instance I stepped onto the platform...my body instantly went on lockdown as I slammed onto the ground. The sudden change from heat to the scalding cold that invaded my body hit me like a bolt of lightning. Fast and vicious.

My muscles seized as I curled into myself, cradling my flame to my body to prevent it from going out. The floor under me was so cold it numbed the pain from the burns I had sustained walking up the stairs.

A cold wind blew and with it came the next challenger.

"Ymir was I, First giant. Came to form when the hot conflagrations of Muspel met the absolute cold of the snow in Niflheim. Show me your fire."

A low rumble shook the ground under me. I rolled away to the side, clenching my teeth to get rid of the stiffness in my bones. I came up to my feet in a crouch. My previous position was dominated by ice spikes meters long shooting out from the platform.

The ice gleamed with sharpness and the promise of death. With the light hitting it from the sea of flames below me, the ice and snow looked beautiful. However, it wasn't what grabbed my attention. I found myself looking at a leg. Yup. At eye level, Ymir's knee was as tall as I was.

I craned my neck up and saw his full form. For starters, his body was made entirely of ice plates interlocking into a humanoid form. Between each ice plate however, lava flowed in patterns, all culminating into a red burning hot core in the middle of his chest. His limbs were long and huge. His face was set into a stern expression with a beard that went to his chest. The beard was made up of icicles that clinked together with a sharp sound.

The icicles then cracked and fell to the ground, where ice petals were created whenever they landed. I stood up to my full form, suddenly realizing I had no way to beat this dude. My fire flickered even more dangerously here than anywhere else.

I had to finish this fast before the harsh and cold winds blew it out. Iron notwithstanding. Ok, same strategy as before. Hit him hard, him him fast. The ground cracked under me and I blurred to Ymir's side. My leg was already in motion, carving a path through the cold air to slam onto his ankle.

A dull thunk! Escaped the contact between my shin and his ankle.

It felt like I had slammed my leg onto a particularly thick piece of metal. Cracks appeared where I had hit but ice started creeping my leg, prompting me to jump away. I ran around him, seeking a different spot to hit.

Ymir's huge head could not follow me but when his hand swung my way I knew he knew exactly where I was. The ground started blooming with ice petals, gaining ground on my form. He swung his other hand and boxed me in. The platform was already not big enough for the both of us, so the action forced me to stay close to his huge giant body.

I slammed a leg onto the side of an ice construct and flew towards Ymir's face, my hand cocked back in readiness to throw a punch. The plan failed when he opened his mouth and let out a blue beam of ice my way. I covered my hands on top of the wisp of flames and tried to re-orient my body so that the blue beam only grazed me.

A chill invaded my left shoulder followed swiftly by my back colliding with the hard icy ground.

A large ice spike remained protruding from the ground, its edges jagged and sharp from where the blue beam had landed in its entirety.

I didn't have time to waste, rolling away as a shadow appeared above me. Ymir's foot effortlessly crashed the ground under him, the pressure blast lifting me from my feet. I found purchase on an ice plate and used it to hoist myself up his body with a grunt. Scrambling up like a rodent, I made progress to his head only for a blast of fire to erupt out of the gaps on the plates near his shoulder blades.

I bit back the scream when my fingers were burnt badly. Bringing my legs up, I kicked him in middle of the back, cracking the spine and jumped away soon as he stumbled to his front.

I landed near the edge of the platform where some of the snow was melting into water due to the close heat. This time my breaths were coming out harsh and for some reason, my body felt cold and weak. Looking at the wisp of rainbow colored flames in my palm, I breathed out a sigh of relief. Still burning, though it had lost a little of it's light and intensity.

Ymir's back had cracks running out from the contact of my foot. Right before my eyes though, the heat blazing through the gaps roared and the cracks disappeared. That caught my attention but just as I was about to figure out why, he turned around and started running towards me.

I tensed, coming up with a risky move. I was at the edge of the platform with nowhere else to go.

"Come on! You want some, you overgrown snowflake? Well I'm right here!"

Ymir's second step was sufficient for him to cover the distance between us. The ground shook but I steadied myself, looking at the edge and the sea of flames from the corner of my eyes.

He fired out a massive punch that took over my entire vision. Hold...hold...at the last minute I ducked the blow, the pressure almost throwing me away. My hand shot out and my charcoal black burnt fingers dug into the length of the arm, boring through the ice, then I heaved with as much strength as I could.

My hand protested a little, not used to such intense muscle strain. Despite having super strength, I never had to use it due to having skills that complimented my combat better. But now with nothing to fall back on, I realized just how much I had ignored this ability.

Ymir's huge form rose up, comically. For a brief moment, I marveled at the fact that it was me doing this. Then the moment passed when Ymir sailed through the air and disappeared into the sea of fire.

I knelt down and laughed. That...that was not fun. My body had cooled off somewhat but it hadn't gotten better. My enhanced healing walked overtime to deal with the damage but it wasn't strong enough to deal with divine/primordial energy. As a concequence I wasn't unconscious to spare me the worst of the pain.

I rose up after a few minutes and faced the fourth and hopefully last staircase. Hopefully because I wasn't sure I could keep on doing this. I walked forward and stepped on the first step.

I don't know what saved me. All I know is that for a brief moment, all I felt was a brief sensation of pain before my body threw itself to the side. I tumbled to my feet and stood, suddenly feeling unbalanced.

To my shock, the sea of flames parted and Ymir walked out of the fire looking no worse for wear.

"Ymir was I, First giant. Came to form when the hot conflagrations of Muspel met the absolute cold of the snow in Niflheim. Show me your fire."

Fuck, I felt like slapping myself! It's right there in the fucking title, 'the conflagrations of Muspel.' As in Muspelheim. If that wasn't enough then the burnt fingers on my right hand should have clued me in. Fire was part of his domain, of course it wouldn't pose a threat to him. I looked at said hand, blinked and closed my eyes with a sigh. I now knew why I felt imbalanced.

My right arm was gone. Burnt.

Ymir raised a hand and fire and ice rose up in two tornadoes that started swirling around in his palm. The two fused and formed a new matter. A gray fire. Ice and fire kept on pouring in, as if to provide continuous fuel to the flame.

In response, the flame grew so hot and so cold I could feel the contrasting effects from the distance between us. That's what had taken my arm. It wasn't simply burnt to ash. The gray fire shared certain properties with my silver fire.

This just became harder. I looked at the flame cradled in my left arm. God...it was dimmer than ever. From the size of a tennis ball to a golf ball to a grape. I closed my eyes and sighed.

There's only one thing left to do. I got up and started walking towards Ymir. He swiped out his hands and gray fire erupted to cover my sides, leaving me only one clear path. The path towards him. This was basically me telling him that I had given up.

Each step felt heavy. And before long I was standing before the Ice and fire primordial. Only then did I notice that he had fire for his eyes. Blazing red orbs that made eye contact with my own. In this position... I was fully at his mercy.

We stared at each other for a long time. I had no idea what was going on inside his mind. In mine I said, 'this is it. It's over.' I nodded and presented my flickering flame to him. His body shifted with a multitude of sounds. The result being an open palm before me. The message was clear. I clutched the grape like flame on the tips of my thumb and my index finger, then dropped it in the palm of his hand.

To be exact, the crevice between 2 ice plates.

"You made me realize something." I stated after a second. Ymir's head cocked in question.

"Fire burns. But to burn efficiently...it needs fuel."

A sudden heat exploded out of the gap's in Ymir's body. He looked at me in surprise.

"Yes...my fire is consuming you from within."

He raised a hand and created a huge hammer construct, before dropping it down on me in shocked rage. But it was too late. Like napalm my fire consumed him quickly. The hammer hit the top of my head and broke apart into shards of ice, mist and water. The gray fire around me rose up to consume my body.

My skin withered into a fine ash, leaving behind raptured blood vessels that were cauterized by the heat and exposed flesh. Crashes sounded out and before long Ymir's entire body was reduced to chunks of melted ice. I walked forward through the blaze. My vision was swimming. My body was numb and all I wanted to do was to stop, lay down and rest.

Above the remains of the giant was a small speck of flame still persistently burning in the air. It's grape size had been reduced to a the size of a small grain of corn. I reached out and gently cradled it to me. The fire felt warm despite me losing sensation.

I couldn't stop here. The fourth Staircase beckoned to me.

I took a single step and the heat washed over me. The exposed flesh started burning. The screams of pain ripped out of my throat as I stumbled. My eye lids disappeared and my eyes popped and liquefied when I stepped onto the second step.

By the tenth step, I was nothing but a black skeleton walking forward on will. The speck of my inner fire kept on burning though and that was enough for me.

By the 30th step, I lost my body. My bones crumbled into ash and all that was left of me was a spiritual bubble shield over the flame, to keep it burning. I floated upwards agonizingly slow. I had no idea why. It wasn't like I was going to fight anyone at all anyway. Without a body I was screwed.

By the 60th step I was losing hope. The flame had flickered a few steps back and the light in the darkness had dimmed. To keep it burning, I started feeding it bits of myself. My knowledge was the first to go. Containing all I had learnt from school and a few other things I was unattached to.

Then the second thing I lost was my combat skills. I fed them all into the fire and managed to make it to the 70th step. It still wasn't enough, so I fed it my emotions. The flame roared up before suddenly reducing back into the size of a grain after only a few steps.

At this I stopped. Only two more steps left. I was at the 98th step. I had nothing left to give. Nothing to feed into the flame.

'liar.'

The flame whispered to me.

I couldn't. I couldn't...I couldn't give them up. Please...

'do it.'

The faces of Kori, Sai, Kai, Breeze, Yaotl, Paige, Vaatu and Michael flashed in my eyes.

The flame enticed me with an image of the next platform. It was just at the edge. A risk. A chance. I had no idea if it was the last platform or not. There could very well be a million more staircases left. Or there could only be one. The end of it all.

A choice.

A question that came down to 1 thing. How selfish was I?

I always thought that no matter how challenged or big an obstacle, no matter how dire the situation, I would never give up the love I held for those closest to me. And as I stood there, I realized it. I wouldn't and couldn't do it. I couldn't give up that love...but everything else...

Their faces disappeared into the fire along with the memories. All the time spent together. The happy moments...all of it disappeared into the void. I cleared the final two steps.

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The old titan walked slowly. His steps landed with might as he walked down the stairs. A wisp of blue danced around his head.

An expression of gentle understanding and love was painted stark on his face. He stepped off the final step of the stairway to heaven and landed on the hard, harsh ground of Earth.

In his hands he cradled something beautiful. Something pure. Something that chased away the darkness. A fire.

Humanoid forms started approaching the light from the darkness that had been with them for most of their existence. With faces of gentle awe, they reached out to the beautiful flame...and Prometheus gifted it to them.

Then he turned around and walked back the way he came. His steps carried him to the edge of the dimensional walls separating earth and Olympus. One more step and he would arrive at Olympus, where punishment for his actions awaited. Stars and beautiful heavenly bodies colored the open space of the young universe.

The wisp of blue floated gently Hy his side.

Prometheus smiled and gazed at it.

"The essence of a flame is to spread. Whether to destroy or give rise to something new, those are both just side effects of it's essence. It's raw and untamed."

"However even the strongest of flames can only spread and devour all of creation before they ran out of things to burn and lose purpose. True fire on the other hand, burns regardless of whether there is something to fuel it or not. To burn with nothing to burn. True fire is Hope. "

The blue wisp bobbed up and down. Whether it understood or not, no one knew.

"Hope. That is what I gave them. Hope that they can fight against the dark."

Prometheus added before falling silent, content to watch the stars.

The blue wisp dimmed a little after a while. Prometheus looked at it.

"It is not all to do with passion, resolve and will. You might strive to not give in but there comes a time when those things are not enough fuel for your flame."

A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Prometheus' face.

"So what fuels you? Your flame burns. It burns with nothing to sustain it. It's fitting to say you lost almost everything except for what truly matters." The Titan grew thoughtful.

"If a true flame burns with nothing to sustain itself except hope, then what about a flame that burns sustained by something everlasting?"

The blue wisp was silent. Prometheus hummed.

"I know you might be confused, so I'll try to be clearer. Hope by itself is unrefined and stagnant. It relies on an outside force to sublimate and change into something more. Your flame burns sustained by the core of your soul. A great and selfish love. That love sustains your flame. The same kind of love that fills me with hope even as I walk towards my suffering."

Prometheus reached out and gently cradled the blue wisp.

"You have no reason to worry young one. You risked everything precious you had. You put it all on hope and your hope answered...your flame is Eternal."

Prometheus, much like he had gifted fire to mortals, reached out his hand into the wide expanse of creation and let the wisp float away.

"SO SPREAD AND BURN FOR ETERNITY. UNTETHERED BY EXISTENCE OR NON EXISTENCE. RISE AND ASCEND OH GOD OF ETERNAL FLAMES."

A conflagration of rainbow flames bloomed anew and swallowed everything.

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Everything came rushing back like a flood.

(Authority Acquired: Hope)