Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Just a moment after Mira's call with the Principal ended, he appeared right in front of her.

He only glanced at Mira for a moment before he determined she wouldn't be able to help him with the state she was in.

Emotions were good, they were what made us human. But Mira's emotions right now would only hinder her.

"What happened here?" The Principal asked Mira, but kept his eyes trained on Alex at all times.

Alex looked like he was experiencing the typical processes burn victims go through, only 100x slower.

"H-He was attempting a breakthrough to the first stage of his Energy Condensing technique… it all seemed fine for the first hour, but then this happened out of nowhere… *sob* Please help him Principal!"

Mira pushed out an explanation through her tears, receiving a nod from the Principal as he looked inquisitively at Alex.

'What on Earth caused this reaction from the kid?'

Even while standing right in front of him, he couldn't tell what was wrong with him.

He inspected Alex's energy, but that seemed fine. In fact it seemed more than fine, it seemed harmonious.

Like he had already succeeded in breaking through to the first stage of his energy condensing technique…

"What Energy Condensing technique is he using?" He asked Mira.

He knew of every technique that the university held in their arsenal, but he hadn't heard of any of them having a reaction like this after breaking through.

"H-Heart of the Phoenix…"

Mira replied meekly.

'Heart of the Phoenix huh? That's an interesting and relatively powerful technique, and it would explain why he's burning so slowly, since he's probably regenerating at incredible speeds while constantly receiving the pain and torture of his body burning to a crisp.'

The Principal thought to himself.

This was at least one good bit of news, as it meant that Alex had much more time before he reached a point beyond redemption, where he couldn't be saved.

It gave the Principal more time to figure out how to save him.

'But this still doesn't explain why this phenomenon is happening to him.'

His thoughts reached a standstill, and the Principal looked like he had hit a roadblock.

This rarely happened to him at his rank, and with the abundance of experience he held within him.

And he didn't like it one bit.

With nothing else coming to mind, he decided to take action.

'This girl was too weak to help him. I can only commend her for trying though, she must really love him.'

The Principal noticed the burned skin and black marks on Mira's hands, which indicated she had already tried.

He respected her for this, as not many people would take such a risk to their own lives for the sake of trying to save another.

Moving at a normal pace, he approached Alex from behind.

Alex was still in the same position he had been when it started.

He was in the motion of standing up from the meditative position, half crouched and half slouched over from the moment he clutched his chest in pain.

Copying the same actions as Mira did before she called him, he reached his hands forward to press onto Alex's back.

He had the same intention as Mira, to draw the chaotic energy out of Alex's body.

But contrary to Mira, he would absorb the energy himself, to study it.

He was curious to find out what caused this phenomenon, and he had a feeling the root cause had something to do with Alex's energy.

However, Mira, as well as the Principal were utterly shocked by what happened.

The Principal couldn't even draw his hands in close to Alex, as he felt pain immediately overwhelm his hands, which wasn't a big problem for someone with his willpower, but there was a bigger issue at hand.

His hands were in the same state as Mira's…

He, a King class S+ rank awakened, was injured by the flames surrounding Alex's body.

Even he had to take a step back and look at his hands in shock, as this was never something he would have considered to happen.

'This is much more serious than I thought.'

His hands regenerated back to their peak form in seconds, but the shock from what had just occurred still lingered.

But something didn't make sense to him.

If his hands were injured so easily, then how was Mira alive right now?

If she put her hands anywhere near the flames surrounding Alex, she'd be burnt to ash in a matter of milliseconds.

Yet she had received the same injury as the Principal.

"Tell me exactly what happened, from the beginning to end. Describe everything, I don't care how small or insignificant the details seem." Experience adventures on m _v _lempy _r.

He instructed Mira with a very stern tone, emphasising to Mira how serious this situation was.

Just like he asked, Mira recounted from beginning to end, not forgetting to add every minor detail she could remember.

For awakened like them, their memory was impeccable, so everything she described was accurate, straight from her memories like a video on playback.

After a few minutes passed, the Principal understood the bigger picture more clearly now.

'I see, so she placed her hands on him right as she noticed when something had gone wrong with Alex, before these mysteriously strong flames appeared. That explains how she's not dead right now.'

The Principal didn't forget to remind her of this, of how lucky she was to be alive.

If she had even kept her hands on Alex a second longer, then she'd probably had lost her arms, or perhaps even her life.

This left her shocked, but it only made her even more worried and terrified for Alex.

She had only experienced that pain for a fraction of a second, while Alex was undergoing that pain constantly for the past 10 minutes.

She couldn't even imagine what Alex must be feeling, both physically and emotionally in that state.

But contrary to both Mira's and the Principal's thoughts, Alex was in quite a… unique state…

In fact, he didn't even feel any pain at all now.

'Where am I?'

Because he wasn't even in his physical body anymore…