Adam and Segen were approaching a blackened mountain. After reviewing the places he had been that were full of spirit essence, Adam realized that they were all some sort of geological feature. Whether it was a canyon, a valley, or a lake, it was some important feature of the world that naturally collected all this spirit essence. Back when Adam was learning about deviant spirit types, Adam remembered something. Magma from a volcano was made of both fire and earth essence! As far as Adam knew, volcanoes were the only geological feature that might collect a vast amount of fire essence. So here they were, approaching a blackened mountain that was a volcano!

Adam and Segen were panting, more from heat than from exertion. Segen voiced: “whew, good thing we're approaching from this side, rather than the side that has active magma flows. It's hot enough already!”

Adam only nodded his head as he viewed the area with a critical look. The closer they got to the volcano, the more the land became barren. The heat was too much for things to freely grow. Adam also noticed death essence permeating the area!

“Segen, let's stop here. I already know the volcano will have enough fire essence for me. However, there is too much death essence around for you to stay!”

Segen started to look alarmed: “There is death essence around!?”

Adam waved his fears off. “Not enough for you to worry about. A short stay won't effect you, but if you stay for too long it will.”

Segen nodded in understanding: “There was that town, Korrin, around a week back. I will probably stay there. How long do you think this will take you?”

“If every time I purify takes around twice the amount of time as the previous one... thirty to forty-five years!”

Segen's eyes widened in surprise. He was still only sixteen. Such a long amount of time was still hard for him to truly grasp. Adam smiled and said: “You sure you don't want to go back to a city? Maybe join SILU? There will be plenty of girls there. Go find yourself a nice one and start a family!”

“Not this again, I am still too young to consider to marriage!” Segen refuted.

“Nonsense! When I was your age I was dead set on marrying this one girl...”

Adam started to faintly reminisce when Segen interrupted: “And how long ago was that? For an old fossil like you, it was probably a hundred years ago!”

“And young twerps like you should listen to their elders!”

Adam and Segen both smiled at their quips. Segen said: “For now, I will go to Korrin. It is quiet there and I can work on thoroughly studying some of the confusing formations. I know it will be dangerous to be around you during this time, but can I visit you?”

Adam nodded. “I will set up a house around here where I will be staying. I am certain it will be way too hot if I actually try to stay on the volcano itself! Just... be careful okay?”

“What, you don't trust me to stay out of trouble?”

“It's this damn world I don't trust! Something always happens when I go into seclusion like this. Even your mother's death... just be careful okay?”

Segen nodded his head, turning serious at the mention of his mother's death. After a few more words of parting, Segen left. Adam sat down on the ground and pulled his flute out. Playing long winded deep tones on it, Adam commanded the earth essence to flow! Slowly, dirt began to move and mound up until it formed a dome! There were gaps for a doorway and a few windows too! It was very simplistic and crude, but it would do. Adam lived similarly every time he purified. It was hard, but proper bedding required changing and cleaning and Adam didn't want to have to pause to go all the way to town and back to deal with it. Though, Korrin was closer than any town had been when he purified before... thinking of how many years he would be spending here, Adam thought he might try to get some proper bedding at some point.

There was something Adam found odd as he was controlling the earth essence. There was a sense of life within the soil itself. It was dormant but ready to burst out the moment it could. If the heat and all the death essence was taken away, the land here would likely become lush and rife with life. Adam wondered why this was so. How could so much potential life exist along side so much death and destruction?

Adam didn't ponder on it for too long. The world was far too complicated for any one man to fully understand it. Adam unloaded his gear into the hut he had built before setting of to explore the volcano.

Adam spent a few days walking all over the volcano to find where the best spot was. Not only did he want it to be full of as much fire essence as he could find, it couldn't be too hot or have too much death essence around. Unfortunately, the best places full of fire essence had plenty of the other two as well. Adam also kept an eye out for a guardian beast or spirit that might inhabit the volcano, but did not find any.

Adam eventually found a spot he found suitable and sat down. He pulled out a gold leaf page from a pouch. The page came from Segen's book of formations that Adam bought. When Segen was learning the formations, Adam found that they could give him some inspiration on how to control spirit essence. It was very artificial compared to what was found in nature and therefore hard to command spirit essence to do what a formation forced them to do.

Adam first examined the area around him with his elemental sight. The fire essence was swirling in the hot air, forming currents. While controlling the current might have been enough for Adam to purify himself, it had hardly any utility that he desired. If he could have gotten closer to the magma on the other side of the volcano he would have studied that for a bit, but it was far too hot over there. So instead, Adam came here with the formation pages in hand. After he examined the fire essence in its natural form, he peeled apart the gold leaf page exposing a spirit formation. Adam attentively watched as the fire essence started to get sucked into the formation. Adam reached his own hand out and began to hum. The first thing to do was to gather fire essence. He began to experiment with ways to do so!

With the formation as an inspirational guide, it only took Adam a few days to start collecting fire essence and begin his purification. In his spare time, he would continue to study the fire essence under the influence of the formation in an attempt to replicate it. If he could, he would have one of the basic formations many people thought of when imagining spiritualists; fireballs! Unlike wind, fire was very visible. Unlike water, fire was very volatile and wild. Unlike earth, fire was extremely fast and fierce! When someone thought of the destructive force of spiritualists, they always first think of their control over fire!

Every now and then, Segen would come by and visit. Seeing the deplorable living conditions Adam was in, he brought over a few necessities for Adam. He brought some proper bedding and more cooking tools and spices than they normally carried when traveling. Adam was able to live a much more comfortable life while purifying this time thanks to Segen.

Segen himself started to settle In Korrin. It was out of the way town that was not prosperous, but the people managed to get by. Since there wasn't a huge divide between the people's wealth here, there was little in the way of crime that came to Korrin and it was a peaceful place. Segen seemed to really like the inn he had chosen to stay at. There seemed to be something behind Segen's like for the inn but Adam couldn't quite pin it down. Segen even tried to avoid the subject while acting slightly embarrassed! Adam had a suspicions about all of this, but kept it to himself.

One day, Segen visited Adam with an extra companion. Seeing the rose colored aura surrounding their souls, Adam couldn't help but smirk. They hadn't even made it to his hut when he stepped out and gave a hearty greeting: “What's this Segen? Is that your wife you're bringing to come see me?”

Segen and the young woman he brought with him turned crimson in embarrassment. “Not yet, she isn't.”

“Well don't laze around boy! Bring her in and introduce us! Spirits know you have avoided mentioning her for quite a while!”

Adam had a wide grin plastered across his face. He was going to enjoy this situation as much as he could. Segen and the young woman timidly entered Adam's hut. Adam had long ago mad the hut bigger than he first had. With Segen visiting him often enough and everything he brought over during his visits, Adam had to make his little hut larger to accommodate. There were two rooms in addition to the main hearth area that included the kitchen, dinning area, and living area all in one.

Originally, there were only two chairs at the rather small table Adam had made. Adam began to hum as he stretched his hand out and the earth suddenly came alive as it stretched up to form another chair! It took a few minutes to complete it, but Segen's companion was utterly enthralled by the process. After he was done, Adam picked up the chair and placed it before the table before beckoning to the young woman. “For you.”

As though in a dream, she cautiously approached the chair and poked it a little. It had looked as though Adam was making it out of dirt, but he had also solidified and strengthened the dirt while forming it. While not quite as strong as wood, it became a close approximation. The young woman was near breathless as she said: “Amazing!”

Segen just gave Adam a disapproving look as he said: “Show off.”

“Oh come on Segen, this is the only time I get to show myself off! Let me have my fun. Now, let's get introduced.”

The woman giggled at the interaction between Segen and Adam. Seeing her like this, Segen couldn't help but smile too as he said: “Uncle, this is Annette. She is my fiance. Annette, this my uncle I have told you so much about; Adam.”

Adam took a few days off from purifying to spend some time getting to know Annette and talking with Segen. Just like Adam has suspected, Annette's family actually owned the inn that Segen was staying at! The reason Segen liked the inn so much was more that he liked Annette. Segen had been a little too embarrassed to broach the subject with Adam until recently. After all, Segen had told Adam he was too young for marriage not too long ago! There was one thing that Adam was worried about. It was that he thought Annette's parents would be very against having any of their patrons hooking up with their daughter. It seemed, though, that Segen had somehow managed to convince them that he was the right man for her.

After Annette and Segen had rested a few days, they journeyed back to Korrin. During the entire time, Adam was thinking of all the things he could that parents would normally use to embarrass their children. As Annette and Segen were walking away, he added one last quip with a jovial wave: “I still have to stay here for quite a while. I expect you two to have at least three children by the time I am done here!”

After that, it was back into the grind of purifying. A year passed. During that time Annette and Segen got married. Korrin was only a week away and unlike the wind valley in the past, Adam didn't feel like the volcano was going to disappear if he left. He could leave and would be able to find it again with no trouble. Adam was actually able to attend Segen's wedding. As he watched the happy two complete the ceremony, Adam felt happiness and joy. He also felt some melancholy. He thought to himself: “Is this what Alfred and Helen felt when their kids married? Is this how I would have felt if I had attended Emilia's wedding?”

After greeting and politely talking with the others at the reception party, Adam drank in a corner by himself. Thinking of the bygone days and his family. About the life he could have possibly led, but didn't. A desire to run all the way back to Hessler filled his heart. Adam was barely able to suppress this sudden desire. Before anything else, he had to finish his purification.

A few months later, Adam sat by his hut. His fingers were dancing as a ball of fire whistled about under his command! Adam had formed his own version of the fireball formation and was practicing and experimenting with it. Fire was so interesting and hard to control. It had to be constantly fed to keep the fire strong and it resisted Adam's efforts to move it. It wanted to move and rage wildly on its own and fought Adam's every twirl of his fingers. After playing with it for a while, Adam placed the fire down in a pit he had dug out. Now it was time for an even more difficult and interesting practice. Adam carefully tried to weave fire and wind together to make an even stronger fire! Adam wasn't quite sure why, but wind could definitely help stroke a fire. Too much wind, though, and he would loose control of the fire or it might even go out! It was an interesting balance game.

As Adam was immersed in weaving his song, he suddenly heard a shout that was empowered by a wind formation: “UNCLE ADAM!”

Alarmed, Adam stopped controlling the fire and wind and quickly picked up his staff as he sent his elemental sight into the direction of the shout. Around six hundred meters away, he could see a frightened and exhausted Segen running with the power of a wind formation while holding onto Annette with one arm. His other arm appeared to be recently severed!

Many emotions surged through Adam. Concern, worry, and a hate for whoever caused this to happen. Adam spread his gaze around and found a person following Segen. The man's soul was gleaming with the desire to kill as he though he was enthralled with a hunt! The man was not nearly as fast as Segen, but was still able to keep up. Earth essence was circulating through his body as he empowered his limbs with the strength of the earth. This detestable spirit martial artist was trying to hunt and kill Segen!

Unfathomable hatred flared within Adam. A desire to kill this man grew strong within Adam and the death essence in his body started to wiggle with glee within his bones. The meager amount of death essence in the surrounding land also started to resonate with the death essence in his bones! From Adam, an icy aura spread out that would make most people somehow cower or fear him! The fire in the pit had yet to die out as Adam immediately resumed his control over it. He was done playing a balancing game and poured as much strength as he could in the fire as he flung it at the martial artist that was just over six hundred meters away! With Adam's enraged self, he had somehow managed to turn the previously red fire into a blue color as it soared through the air! Annette was quite frightened when she saw the fire ball approaching. Segen was shocked too, but completely trusted in Adam. The fireball flew closely over their heads and they felt the scalding heat of it, but were otherwise unharmed. The martial artist was very alarmed when he saw the fireball, though.

You would think that traversing six hundred meters would take enough time for the martial artist to be able to easily dodge. However, the fireball was truly going too fast. Segen and Annette had only just seen the fireball when it whistled over their heads. The martial artist was not too far behind, so he was not any better off. He could only attempt to block the fireball! The martial artist stopped empowering himself with strength and switched over to using earth essence to bolster the defense of skin and the strength of the sword in his hand. He held his sword up in an attempt to block the fireball that was barreling straight for him! You would normally think that fire would be weightless, but this fire was not. It was very dense and full of both fire and wind essence. Lacking the strength he previously had, the martial artist was suddenly pushed back! While the martial artist staggered back a few steps, Adam lost control over the fireball. And it quickly fell apart and lost its blue color. The martial artist regained his posture with little more than a few scald marks on his body, despite the fire surrounding him. The man cracked an even wider grin and said: “Oh, this is gonna be fun!”