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With that background knowledge, it was a fair estimate to say that Nero would be able to handle himself better than others in a given situation. In the case of pain, especially, he was confident, for he exposed himself to great pain every time he trained.

Not only was it extreme physical exhaustion that he subjected himself to, but there was also the emotional equivalent of forcing himself to do things he knew would hurt, only for a long distant dream or goal he had no way of knowing he would ever achieve.

So when the pain came initially, he handled it well. But in this one situation, Nero had overestimated his ability, simply because he did not understand the situation well enough. It was not that he was being exposed to pain, no. It was that he knew nothing save pain.

His mind was incapable of thought, since it was consumed by pain. Time became an abstract concept, since the passage of time became irrelevant. The past was pain, the present is pain, and the future would be pain. Without any distinction between the three states, what was the point of distinguishing them?

He had no self awareness either. There was no Nero to exert self control, or consider things such as the difficulty he would present to Gabriel for further injections. No, his brain had no spare capacity to consider such things.

It was doing its utmost to fully comprehend, and then experience, the pain that Nero was going through.

Gabriel had said that he wanted to rip his throat out, but Nero had not even enough thought power to consider such forms of death, since the pressure he was experiencing was far greater than anyone else.

Yet, like the flip of a switch, the pain ended, and a strange force took hold of his brain, and reached deep inside of it. It swept through the ocean of pain, diminishing the memories as if they had existed many years ago, casting a cloudy filter over those memories.

Instead, it took hold of the being that was Nero, at least before he experienced such terror inducing pain, and wrapped itself around him, as if to protect him from changing.

With his memories of pain slowly fading away, and his very being artificially entered into a state where he could not experience any character growth, the trauma of such indelible pain slid off him like rain sliding down a pane of glass. He could see it, but even if he tried to touch it, he would only touch the glass, not the rain on the other side.

At the same time, his brain was experiencing life as it was normally. Yet having just experienced such extreme pain, normal itself was greatly euphoric, as if it was the best feeling in the world, which filled Nero with a sense of glee.

Nero smiled as he looked up at Gabriel, and then focused on his innate card deep in his chest.

The card had experienced the slightest bit of change.

Name: Cryoflame

Image: A large, deep blue flame

Type: Innate

Star rank: 0

Ability: [The Cryoflame burns with a hue of brilliant, deep blue, its flames shimmering with icy tendrils and frosty wisps. Instead of consuming fuel and emitting heat, it consumes only heat and produces aetheric flames, leaving behind a frozen kingdom instead of soot and ash.]

Flavour text: "The death of a Kolari is written, and it is on the battlefield," - Marilyn Grant

For a moment Nero was confused. It seemed like nothing had changed. Yet his current state, Nero had eidetic memory of everything that happened before the \'pain episode\' which was, even at this moment, continuously fading from memory till he could barely recall it. As a result, he recalled word for word what his card used to say.

It used to read, \'The Cryoflame burns with a brilliant blue hue, its flames shimmering with icy tendrils and frosty wisps. Instead of consuming fuel and emitting heat, it consumes only heat and produces more flames, leaving the target frozen whole instead of ash.\'

There were a few changes. First, the colour seemed deeper, for whatever reason. Second, instead of producing more cryoflames as a result of absorbing heat, it only produced aetheric flames, whatever that meant. Lastly, instead of leaving behind a frozen target, it left behind a frozen kingdom.

Nero analysed the differences, and immediately got to the crux of the matter. His flames did not gain any new abilities, likely, and instead just grew stronger in effect! It would need to be tested to be sure, but it more or less seemed like that was it.

"Gabriel, my innate ability grew stronger!" Nero exclaimed, wearing an ecstatic grin. It felt like he was having the best day of his life, while at the same time it felt like he was looking at the world through a special lens.

Was this what it felt like to be drunk or high? Why was that outlawed? This was great!

Then he realised that Gabriel was looking at Nero glumly, with a black eye and quite a few scratches on his face.

"Oh no Gabriel, what happened?" he asked. "Were we attacked? Don\'t worry, with my new ability I\'ll kill them all!"

He raised his hand, as if to display his newfound power, yet nothing happened. He was just holding out his hand in front of him like a kid pretending to be a superhero.

"Forget it," Gabriel said as he suppressed his dour mood. "Focus on recovering your ability and let\'s get out of here. I think I might be beginning to develop some anxiety - the fog is making me increasingly nervous."

Nero looked at his friend, wondering how he could possibly be in such a bad mood during such a wonderful day. Then he looked at the fog, and something deep within himself trembled, as if it sensed something immensely dangerous.

Yet in his highly euphoric mood, even danger felt exciting and thrilling!

But while he was going through a rush of emotions, his decision making processes were not compromised. He knew what was important, so he quickly began working on regaining full control over his ability.

At first he was unable to produce any flames at all, at most releasing a few sparks and embers. But the more he practised, the easier it became, though he noticed a distinct difference in the use of his ability. Producing flames had become significantly more difficult, and it was not just due to him needing to relearn how to control his ability.

It was because the flames did not innately produce more flames as a result of devouring heat. So every single flame, he had to use his own aether to create them.

It seemed like he had suffered a loss. But the truth couldn\'t be further from the truth. He snapped his fingers and a tiny flame appeared on his fingertip, almost like it had been lit on a tealight candle.

The mesmerising blue flame stood steady on his finger, not dancing or moving about, yet the temperature of the room began to drop drastically. Frost began to appear on the floors almost instantly, and Gabriel who was nearby felt a chill travel down his spine! He had to coat himself in red sand to keep himself from feeling cold.

Yet Nero felt none of that. No, all he felt was the single flame, its life fueled from his aether, greedily devouring all the heat around it. As it did so, the colour in the flame became deeper and deeper, with tiny blue embers beginning to rise from the single flame, almost making it look like the flame was shimmering. The more heat it devoured, the stronger his flame was becoming!

Yet before he could see what the flame turned into, Nero snapped his finger again and closed the flame.

He turned to look at Gabriel, the massive grin on his face suddenly fading. He was still feeling euphoric, but now he was returning to his normal self, which meant he was less easily distracted.

"The fog is extremely dangerous," he said, stating the obvious.

"Yes. Yes it is," Gabriel replied.

Whether it was because they had experienced a change, or the fog had, was unknown. But what mattered is that the both of them suddenly felt grave danger from the fog, and could not, for the slightest moment, consider spending more time there.

Even though Nero was not completely used to his ability, he did not want to waste more time here. They immediately gathered their stuff and departed.