Author's notes: I have not slept in many hours, so if there are parts that dont make sense just tell them to me and I will fix them and try to explain. I wanted to get this out hours ago but my 13 year old Niece, Katrina, came down today and i spent a considerable time talking and catching up. I like her, we have similar interests and she is fun to talk to, but she is getting pretty annoying right now though, monopolizing my cat. Damn woman.

Anyway, enjoy

Uh, she says hi. And that she is better than me. At what, i dont know. Perhaps at being a brat? If so, yes, she is better than me. Ah, she says she will split me in half in my sleep. Im being threatened by a 13 year old kid!

Meh, enough of our ramblings.

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Reina awoke some time later to see Roland sitting on an ornate white, metal chair that looked to have padding on it for comfort. In front of him stood a large table which displayed a variety of foods and snacks.

He was calmly sipping tea, looking the very picture of refined elegance.

Reina blinked a few times, unsure about how to handle the strange sight before her.

Noticing her gaze, he turned his face towards her.

“Ah, so you’re finally awake. Good. Come, sit” he beckoned.

With a snap of his fingers another chair appeared at the table.

She wondered if she could do that too.

Slowly, she picked herself up, feeling like she just had the worst headache imaginable.

“You know”, she said, “It wouldn’t have killed you to be a bit gentler” she complained to him.

He shrugged. “It wouldn’t have killed me, sure, but in the long run it would have killed you. Who knows what kind of situation you will find yourself in someday? Going easy on you would have done you no favors” Roland said, completely unrepentant. “Besides,” He added. “I was merely defending myself.”

Reina snorted coldly. “Against a delicate maiden like myself?”

“What delicate maiden? You were aiming directly at my vitals you know. Any regular person would have died.” Judging from that smile, he seemed to find the thought amusing.

“Ah, that’s right! I’ve never been able to move like that before, and those attacks of mine. . . I absolutely never learned how to do that. I never even used that type of sword before. Just how did I . . .?” she trailed off, lost in thought

“That, my dear Reina, was battle sense"

“Battle . . . sense . . .?” she never heard of that before

“Indeed. Plainly speaking, you’re a natural born fighter.”

“But . . . those moves, how did I . . .? I mean, I never learned how to attack using a sword before, not to mention one like that. I’m useless at fighting. Strange. It was like images just appeared in my mind and my body just moved.” She recalled

“Not surprising. You have been connected with me through the blood link and I allowed you to enter the depths of my mind. It truly wouldn’t surprise me if you subconsciously absorbed some of my experiences with a blade, especially since I use Katanas quite often. Picking up some skills would be normal. But not just that, your own natural ability helped you a great deal. Didn’t you feel yourself getting stronger? Every time you struck your attacks kept getting sharper, more skilful. That was your innate battle sense. As I said, you’re a natural.”

“Amazing. I never thought this training method was so incredible. Actually, now that you mention it, I do feel a bit different?” She could vaguely feel it. Like she felt. . . Lighter? Or something like that.

"You'll feel it more once we leave here. Which will be sooner than you think. It seems we wasted a lot of time here. Look, this place is already beginning to fade away.”

He pointed to the left.

Reina saw a growing blackness, like ink stained on white paper.

It looked kinda scary.

“I wanted to help you control that flame, but I guess we can do that later. Hm, though, if that flame is what I think it is, you could be troubled in the future. Ah, time truly passed by so fast. It feels like we just got here. Though time itself is distorted in this pace so perhaps that isn’t entirely wrong. Ah, it seems I’m the first to go. Well, I’ll see you in a bit.”

Wait, what?

She had no idea what he meant.

Then she understood.

His figure, the table, and the chair suddenly seemed to gain a bit of transparency.

“ Wait!” she called

But they had already faded away.

Reina fell down, her own chair already ceasing to exist.

From the distance, the blackness had already consumed a third of the white space.

Soon, all that was left was her, and all she could see was darkness.

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Roland was the first to wake. He searched the cave, but the barriers he placed held steady and nothing bothered them.

He looked towards the girl. She exuded a dense wave of both spiritual energy and mana, the two energies spreading out from her body in violent gusts, lashing out creating marks on the cave walls.

The energy took material form and emitted a strange malevolent aura that should not be present.

The method Roland used would continuously refine Reina’s body, spirit energy and mana to match the progress she made during the time in the white space. But this was much more than he expected.

She could not practice magic or martial arts because of the curse, but her inherent talent that was being suppressed was still there. Her mana and spirit energy must have already been enormous. But now it seems they were tripled, even quadrupled in both quality and quantity.

If she awakens now. . .

The amount of energy in her will not just cause her damage, but could even cripple her.

The space where spirit energy and mana were held was not a physical place, meaning if they ruptured, Roland would not have the means to repair them.

He acted quickly.

He carried her body out of the cave, knowing that it would not withstand the continued onslaught of mana and spirit energy combined. Roland coated himself in mana to ward off the violent energies.

The only way to help her, the way he had always planned to do, was to siphon off the excess energy.

He sat her down outside, her body eroding the grass around her. The trees nearby showed signs of breaking. This wasn’t the result of her alone . . . could the curse be showing signs of awakening?

If so, then it meant that the curse was destructive in nature. It seemed like life itself was being devoured. No, was she absorbing it? Her body would have been broken by now, right?

She was already like an overflowing glass of water before, but now she was being filled with even more power.

How much could she take?

It was best not to find out.

He placed a hand in her chest. As soon as it connected an intense wave of power spread throughout his body.

However, it was not enough to cause any disturbance. This much power was like a drop of water in the ocean to him.

He began to absorb her excess energy bit by bit, careful not to drain her dry.

Slowly, he released the energy into the air, sending vibrations throughout the land. His body sent out pulses of mana and spirit energy, the resulting force uprooting trees and creating cracks along the ground. However, there were impurities in the energy like poison.

Reina’s face grew pale.

A thin stream of black blood ran out of her mouth. She grew colder, a look of pain upon her face. Right now she should still be within the white space. Although to her it likely felt like mere seconds since he disappeared in front of her, in actuality a good few minutes had already passed by.

As the overflowing energy slowly subsided, the malevolent force that he sensed within her gradually lessened, yet it was still very present. Suddenly her body grew hot, unlike its previous cold and pale state. Now she emmitted a fierce heat wave, her skin feeling like the inside of a furnace. Her body glowed with a golden tone, beautiful and healthy. She burst with golden flames from every pore.

This. . . was this. . . the divine phoenix flame? It felt heavy, oppressive. Was this truly the gentle flame he witnessed before?

Somehow, it felt much darker.

Roland inserted a stream of spirit energy into her, thoroughly examining every inch of her for signs of harm. Suddenly he found a small black bead lodged just over her heart and under her flesh. He torn off her clothes roughly, exposing the flawless skin beneath. He placed a hand on her left breast, ignoring the soft, elastic feel. Slowly, he lifted his hand up and the black bead emerged reluctantly out of her, not even causing a ripple on her skin. The bead was pitch black and there were minute movements within, as if there was something living within it's core. He didnt really want to find out what. He quickly stored it in his pocket to examine further at a later time. Perhaps Loki would have some idea as to what it was, because even Roland did not recognise it. He had to admit that on the knowledge front he was not quite Loki's equal.

He noticed now that the golden flames did not carry any malice. No, rather, it felt protective. Almost as if guarding her. Once the bead was gone, the threatening aura faded from the flames, once again becoming calm. And the evil presence further diminished. Yet even now it persisted, faint as it may be.

A golden seal appeared on Reina's forehead that shone with a brilliant radiance before disappearing completely.

It was a sign of protection. Apparently Reina gained the flame's full approval.

Roland went over what just happened in his mind. When he began siphoning the excess energy out of her body, it felt like some other force was trying to interfere, absorbing the life energy of all things around it. Could it have been the curse itsef or some other entity behind it? or perhaps that strange bead? No, the bead didnt feel agressive, simply. . . tainted. He wasnt sure, but immediatly after the energy was within safe levels, the interference weakened. Perhaps whatever was causing that was trying to break free using the energy it was absorbing. Exactly what was going on inside her body. . .

Then after that the golden flames appeared violently. Once the bead was out, they quieted down and that seal was formed. The flames should have appeared sooner if they sense a threat to it's host. Were they being suppressed by that malevolent force?

Afterall, it was only once the force diminished did the flames appear, seemingly reacting to that bead. So maybe the bead was also a threat but the flames could not do anything as they were somehow restrained. Meaning that whatever was interfering and absorbing the life energy was far more dangerous than the black bead and was strong enough to overwhelm the golden flames.

The divine flame he saw was gentle, yet at that moment it was fierce and almost threatening. This was all strange. Roland could only assume that the flames did all they could to stop whatever was trying to interfere and could spare no time for the bead. If he had not been here to help keep her power levels normal, what would have happened, he wondered.

He shook his head. It isnt important right now. He should focus on the task at hand. Once Reina woke up, she would still not be able to handle the sudden increase in strength. Right now all he did was release enough of the excess energy to keep her from erupting. She went from powerless to suddenly attaining a fair amount of strength in a mere few hours. a change like that was simply like being reborn.

But the backlash of that would not be pleasant. Not to mention the blood she drank of his was considerable. That may also make her current condition even more unstable. She would need to train a bit once she woke up to get a feel for the state of her body. She would be faster, stronger, her senses sharper. It would be overwhelming later if she didnt get a grip on them now.

He didnt know how long until she would wake up. If she woke up with her shirt all torn and exposing her cleavage, he felt that it wouldnt go over well with her.

He quickly used a spell to repair the fabric to it's original state.

As soon as he finished she began to stir. She let out a small moan before slowly opening her eyes. Roland noticed one thing instantly.

Her eyes, previously a brilliant emerald green. . . .were now a startling azure blue.