Temple of Air

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We defrosted the ship's crew, but not completely, removing only the ice that would have prevented them from breathing, but otherwise, they will have to make some effort to free themselves. Finding the loudest officer, the one who most often gave commands to kill us, I decided to interrogate him.

- What's your name, officer? - I asked him a question.

- You won't learn anything... Lieutenant Jao! - He was reluctant to speak at first, but quickly changed his mind when I held my finger up to his face, concentrated flames coming out of it, starting to burn his skin.

- Lieutenant Jao, answer me, how is Fire Master Azulong doing? I hope that old fart has already died.

- How dare you! - Jao started to get indignant, but when he felt the heat of the flames on his face, he became more humble, - Great Azulon left our world three years ago, the new Fire Master is Prince Ozai. - replied the officer.

- Ozai? What the hell? Why not Iroh? How did that arsehole Ozai become the Fire Lord? Answer me! - I created a spinning ball on my hand and held it up to Jao's face, making him not even think of keeping quiet.

- Three years ago, during the storming of Ba Xing Xie, Prince Airo lost his son Lu Teng, after which he retreated, admitting defeat, thus ending the assault on the capital of the Earth Kingdom, which had already lasted six hundred days. Prince Airo returned to the capital, but unable to bear the loss of his son, he committed suicide by taking poison. The news of Prince Airo's death was not withstood by the elderly Fire Master Azulon, and another father died, unable to bear the death of his favourite son. After that, Prince Ozai had no choice but to take power into his own hands and ascend to the throne of the Fire Nation. - replied Jao.

- I have a sneaking suspicion that Airo didn't die on his own but was helped by his power-hungry brother Ozai, and that Azulon died after the news of Airo's death is also unlikely, he was always a hard bastard, Ozai probably did it here too. One more question then, did you realise who she was? - I pointed to Korra.

- Avatar. - Jao answered through gritted teeth, his voice filled with pure hatred for the girl.

- That's right, she's the Avatar. Tell Ozai that the Avatar will be coming for his head soon. - I said, and gave a strong blow to Jao's head, which knocked out the officer... or rather, he pretended to be unconscious, - Well, we can't sit in the south, we've learnt Water Magic there, we can move on. There's an Air Temple nearby, I've been there once, the temple itself is ruined, but I saw a massive door there, I couldn't open it last time, but together with the Avatar we'll be able to look behind it, maybe it holds knowledge about Air Magic. The Air Nomads are all exterminated anyway, so we'll have to learn their magic from books and scrolls. Anyway, our next stop is the Southern Air Temple. - I said it so that Jao could hear me.

- And then where, after the Southern Air Temple? - Korra asked.

- Then we can visit the Eastern Temple of Air, it is also relatively close, and on the way we will visit the islands of the Kingdom of Earth, maybe there will find you a teacher of Earth Magic. - I answered, and we jumped from the ship to the water, where I created an ice track and a hang glider, and we flew north, which was perfectly seen by Jao, who stopped pretending to be unconscious.

As we flew to the Air Temple, Korra decided to ask:

- Hela, why did you talk about the Fire Masters as if you knew them personally? - The girl asked.

- Because Ozai is my father. - I answered briefly, and there was silence, which was interrupted by a loud scream:

- WHAT!!!????? - Korra asked very loudly, leaning down from her seat to see my face.

- Huh, didn't expect me to be the prince of the Fire Nation, huh? Haha. - I looked at Korra's shocked face with a smile, ''My great-grandfather is Sozin who started the Hundred Years War, my grandfather is Azulon, the past Fire Lord, and my father has recently become the new Fire Lord. My other great grandfather is Avatar Roku. My father and grandfather were both assholes, and to them I was a scum unworthy of the title of Crown Prince, so I ran away from home to the South Pole when I was eight years old, and learnt Ice Magic from an ice phoenix.

- What the hell, Hela?! You're the goddamn prince of the Fire Nation! - Korra shouted with offence.

- Well, you know, I didn't choose who I was born to be.

- So after you escaped, they didn't look for you at all? - Korra calmed down a bit.

- I escaped on a boat cruise, and before I left, I faked my death by pretending to be eaten off the deck by a sea serpent. And as I said, I was a burden to my grandfather and father, they would hardly be upset by my death, so no one was looking for me. And now I'm considered the dead prince of the Fire Nation.

- ... eh... I don't know what to say. I'm so shocked, I'm speechless. - Hela said, and sat back in her chair, 'Hela, you helped the Avatar just like that? What's in it for you? You think I'm going to help you take the throne of the Fire Lord?

- If you remember, you and your sister came to me, and you asked me to accompany you on your journey. I'm helping you because you've become my friend, but if you doubt my good intentions and don't want me to accompany you, I can go back south to my cosy ice palace. And for the record, I don't need the throne of the Fire Master, if I were interested in power, I wouldn't have run away from the palace. - I replied.

- I'm sorry, Hela, for doubting you, I just don't know what to think after your revelation. I'd better keep quiet and think it over... and Katara better not say who you are... at least not yet. - Korra said quietly, and then she stopped talking.

It only takes me three hours to fly to the Air Nomad islands, and if I work hard enough, I can do it in two hours, but now, on a hang glider, it would take me eight hours to get there. Korra was just silent at first, but soon I felt her fall asleep. After arriving at the island, the girl continued to sleep, at the same time, Bing Xi Feng along with Katara also flew to us across the sea, and when morning came, they were already at our place.

- I'm hungry. - Bing said with a hint as she landed on the shore with Katara. Bing was now a three metre tall ice bird, and on her back, in addition to Katara, were some of the girls' belongings they would need on their journey.

- Yes, yes, I was just getting you some fruit. - Next to it was a basket completely filled with fruit, after unloading it, Bing shrunk down and started eating the fruit. As a spirit, she didn't really need food, but some fruits she just liked the taste and could eat them in huge quantities.

- Sister, when we were flying, we saw that huge ship, it's frozen in ice and it's not moving anywhere, you did that, didn't you? Was it difficult? Were you or Hela hurt? - Katara started asking questions while she looked us over.

- I'm fine. - Korra looked at me for a moment. How are the parents, what did they say?

- They... it... - Katara looked at me and blushed, - I'll tell you later. - awkwardly replied the girl, blushing a little more.

- Yeah, I have something to tell you too...' said Korra, looking at me, 'Okay, so is there really an Air Temple on this island? - Korra asked.

- Yes, and it would be a bit dangerous to fly there on a hang glider, the temple is on a cliff and there are a lot of rocks around it, it's better to fly there on a more manoeuvrable Bing.

- I'm not going anywhere right now, I've been flying for half a day without a break. - complained the phoenix.

- Well, we can go there later. Even though we've kind of started travelling, there's still no one stopping us from training... at least for now. So, girls, let's go practice our battle magic. - I nodded at the sea, and freezing the water beneath me, walked away from the shore. The sisters murmured a little behind me, and soon came to me, starting our training.

As the battle with the Fire Nation soldiers had shown, I was already a good mage, Korra was inferior to me in skill, but she made up for it with more strength, and together we were able to stand up to the crew of a warship. When Korra entered the Avatar State, her strength was enough to disarm the dreadnought in a couple of swings without any tricks, just in the forehead. At this point, she showed strength greater than Esdeath's when she and I were fighting to the death... not in bed. Esdeath grew stronger afterwards, but Korra is only sixteen now, she can't handle all of Rava's spirit power. Anyway, it's best not to become the enemy of an Avatar that's at full strength.

My strength right now, however, is as follows.

≪Status≫

Life 4580/4580/229 per hour.

Qi 5342/5342/890 per hour.

Characteristics:

Strength 459

Dexterity 453

Endurance 460

Intelligence 294

Soul 3850

I haven't reached the limit of human strength yet, but I don't feel the lack of physical characteristics, I have enough strength and speed. And since I'm not injured that often in this life, and my wounds aren't too serious, I haven't even lost a limb, so I'm fine with my stamina, and the excess of life energy doesn't weigh on my mind, causing excessive lust. It won't make me monogamous, but I won't need a harem.

The internal energy is not bad either, besides the natural regeneration of Qi, I can freely replenish energy from the environment, so the reserve is more an indication of the maximum amount of energy that I can safely use in a single magical technique. An ordinary fireball the size of a human head takes about a hundred units of Qi, but in my spiral ball I can pump energy from fifty-three fireballs at once, I can, in principle, and more, but then I start to lose control of the technique, although if you need a really big explosion, you can take the risk.

In the technique of absorbing heat to replenish internal energy, there are a couple of limitations. Firstly, this energy can only be used for Ice and Fire Magic, and secondly, the absorption of ambient energy causes everything to freeze, which makes the technique less effective if you don't move all the time, moving to an area where you haven't absorbed heat yet. These disadvantages don't really bother me, I have enough Ice and Fire Magic to get by. Ice is great in defence and Fire is great in attack, and with these two elements I can fly at supersonic speeds.

As I saturate earth or metal with my Fire Qi, I quickly melt them into lava, which I can't control right now, but it doesn't make it any less dangerous.... it's lava. Simply put, I can easily take away the protection of those who rely on stones or metal, such as Earth Mages and Fire Nation soldiers, who all wear metal armour and use metal equipment like tanks or ships.

I can still control lava and molten metal a little bit, it's just not enough to use in combat right now, but I used to be bad at controlling Ice too, it's all solved with training and practice.

The training with Korra and Katara was not too long, I started it mainly for them to try to use magic in a different environment, it was not as cold here as in the south, so Ice Magic required a little more effort, but to control warmer water, on the contrary, required a little less effort. We also trained in the interior of the island, where there was no close access to water, and here I showed that water can be condensed directly from the air, or drawn from the soil. I showed this with an example of ice fog, but it was water that the girls were able to condense out of the vapour. That was the end of our general training, I went to train Lava Magic, and the two sisters decided to walk around the island and chat.

Katara didn't seem to have changed her attitude towards me, Korra hadn't told her who I really was, but Korra had started to look at me a bit strangely after talking to her sister, and sometimes a blush appeared on her face.

When Bing had rested, she was kind enough to take us to the Temple of the Air, or rather she took Korra and Katara, I flew next to her. The sisters liked the view of the temple from afar, but up close it was sad, just a shambles and some scattered corpses.

- It's horrible, I've always known that the Fire Nation people are terrible people, but the further I get from home, the more I'm convinced of it. It's like they're monsters instead of people. - Katara said as she walked through a ruined hall where child-sized skeletons lay, children must have been hiding here during the attack, but when they were found, they were just killed.

- Yes, the Fire Nation's reputation has been tarnished over the last hundred years, and for good reason. - I commented, and led the sisters to a huge door locked by a strange mechanism that could only be opened by an Airbender, who had to pump air into three pipes, and then the air currents would open the three internal locking bolts, otherwise the door could not be opened unless I melted the four thick metal hinges... which I actually did, and the closed gate simply fell, freeing the passage to a huge hall, everywhere furnished with statues.

- Statues... very useful. - I commented, entering the hall with Katara and Korra.

- Who are all these people? They all look different, this woman's robes look like those of the dead monks here, this warrior looks like a member of the Water Tribe, this woman is probably from the Earth Kingdom, and this old man looks like he's from the Fire Nation. - Katara said, examining the nearby statues.

- These are the past incarnations of the Avatars, you can notice a pattern that each statue in turn belongs to one of the Nations: Air, Water, Earth and Fire. - I remarked, - There are already many Avatars, there are more than a hundred statues here. - I looked round the hall, it was tiered, and on each tier there were statues in a circle.

- Hela is right, these are past Avatars. This woman's name is Yancheng, she was the Avatar of the Northern Air Temple, the next Avatar was Kuruk, the Waterbender of the Northern Water Tribe, after him the new Avatar was Kyoshi of the Earth Kingdom, the penultimate Avatar was Avatar Roku of the Fire Nation, the Avatar before me was the Airbender, but his statue is not here. - When Korra looked at the statue of some Avatar, the eyes of Korra and the statue began to glow, and apparently this is how Korra recognised the name of her previous incarnation.

- So that's probably my great-grandfather. - I pointed at the statue of Avatar Roku, Korra also briefly looked at the statue of Roku, but then moved her gaze to the statue of Kyoshi and stood next to it for about a minute, staring into the glowing eyes of the statue of Kyoshi with her glowing eyes.... It was a little creepy. Korra's eyes soon became normal, but all the other statues' eyes suddenly lit up brightly.

- What happened? - Katara asked.

- Well, we can assume that since this Air Temple has a hall of Avatar statues, there are similar halls in other Elemental Temples, and maybe at this moment the statues of Avatars from all over the world have their eyes glowing as well, signalling that a new Avatar has appeared. I'm not entirely sure, but it sounds pretty plausible, somehow people from all over the world were recognising the arrival of a new Avatar after all.

- I've just been looking at the statues and I've seen fragments of memories of past Avatars, I'll have to visit a couple of places I've seen in those memories. - Korra spoke as she rubbed her temples, 'One of them is not far from here, and it's related to Avatar Kyoshi, it's where she was born and lived.

- Well, I saw Kyoshi Island on the map, is that where you want to go? - I took out a map and pointed to a small island in the south of the Earth Kingdom, it was indeed very close to the southern islands of the Air Nomads.

- Yes. Do you mind? - Korra asked.

- It's your Avatar journey, you choose the route. Let's leave tomorrow then, if we fly with stops on the nearest islands, we'll get there in three days without any effort. - I said. We stayed in this temple for the night and the next day we travelled onwards.