Gerald gripped the cold enchanted steel and concentrated.

The golden Runes drawn across the metal were constantly siphoning Mana from the environment and empowering the magic. He noticed small chunks of various crystals, the size of a grain of rice, spread throughout the surface of the net.

He didn't notice them before, but now they were quite clear. By the looks of it, the net wasn't going to run out of energy any time soon, and the metal was too strong to simply tear apart.

That's why he had to take another approach. Utilizing his mediocre knowledge of Runes, he found the approximate weakest link in the long chain and gripped it tightly.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the flow of Mana inside the metal and tried to disrupt it. It was quite interesting how the mages managed to make steel so Mana-conductive. It had to be some special alloy he wasn't yet aware of.

At least it didn't appear the people in Myrtana knew about it. He was almost certain of that fact, he read nearly the entirety of the books in Royal Library after all.

Anyway, as minutes passed, the effort paid off, and the flow of energy was messed up enough to lead to a chain reaction. All Mana surged at once and was released into a single point, flash-freezing to the Phoenix's feathers.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" the untrusting bird exclaimed and tried to attack.

But Gerald quickly gripped the net and with a quick jank, the frozen metal shattered like brittle glass.

"What I said I would do," Gerald calmly replied. Good thing he was quick, otherwise, he would get a giant fireball straight in the face.

"Null magic," he said. "I disrupted the enchantment and broke it so all the Mana inside was released and froze the metal solid. The cold temperatures made it brittle so I could easily break it."

The Phoenix was impressed with the explanation but still didn't trust him. "Null magic, huh? I'm impressed. I wasn't aware your kind could already do it."

"Most don't. It's a new discovery for us."

Now that it was free, the Phoenix straightened its body and flapped its wings before once again speaking with an air of superiority, "Is that so? I have figured it out many lifetimes ago. Your kind is lucky I was just recently reborn. Had you waited just a few more decades I could wipe your little group with but a flick of my wings."

"Reborn?" The word carried a much deeper meaning to Gerald. Did that mean the bird was truly immortal? A mythical beast, just like in legends?

"Of course!" The Phoenix proudly displayed its chest and circled around Gerald as it spoke, "I was born thousands of cycles ago. Back then I was born from an egg when the planet's Life Force was just budding anew."

He didn't know where this was going, but Gerald let it talk.

"I have lived through a dozen lifetimes, each of them long enough to see generations of your kind be born and die! Worthless pests, thinking themselves important. Just because there is a lot of you, you think you own the place, haha! Pathetic!"

"And you are much better than us?"

"Of course! Hmph! Despite this world's weakness, I can endure. The weak Life Force might be stopping me from expressing my true potential, but with the Magma Flower, I'll be able to break through the shackles of this world and ascend to new heights! Now hand it over!"

"Erm…" Gerald hesitated.

"What is it?!"

"Well, there is just one more little thing I require, you see..."

"I knew it!" The Phoenix flared up and lowered its head to look him in the eyes, "What is it now, human, more demands?! You slimy creatures, always scheming… Hand over the vials and receive my blood so we can be done with this!"

"Yes, but first I just need…" Gerald spoke softly, "A piece of your Core."

A warm wind blew across the land, shifting dust and sand. Two beings, a human and a beast, stood facing each other in complete silence for what felt like an eternity.

"You what?!" the Phoenix suddenly erupted, breaking the peaceful atmosphere. "You dare demand a piece of my Core!?" The bird flared up again, this time for real, and started attacking with reckless abandon.

A fiery bombardment fell on Gerald who didn't even have time to react. Explosions rang out, cracking and scorching the ground beneath with immense power as dozens of fireballs exploded at once.

All that destruction, but the Phoenix was still not satisfied. It opened its beak and out came a column of flames, and like a flamethrower, it spewed out a fire that lingered on the stone and turned the rocky plateau into an inferno.

Its chest rose and fell in quick cycles as it looked at the destruction with pride. The precious flower was most likely destroyed, but at least it took the insolent human down with it.

Or so it thought.

"Cough, cough! Stop that you fucking oversized chicken!"

A storm of wind and water expanded from the center as Gerald wasted countless spell scrolls to counteract the assault.

He was currently standing there in the middle, his clothes torn to shreds and smoldering, with his skin blackened and bleeding in some places. But other than that, he was mostly fine. But he emptied a Health Potion just to be on the safe side.

"How!? You are just a lowly human!"

"What do you mean, lowly human?!" Gerald rebutted. "My body is iron, and my skin is steel. You can't hurt me with your pathetic flames! Some beast you are! A mythical beast, my ass!"

"How dare you!" the Phoenix became even angrier after being insulted. "For your information, I was reborn just decades ago! If I could continuously grow since the time I hatched, I could have already burned this world to ash! Much less hurt you! And if you knew how much effort I have spent searching for that flower, you wouldn't be laughing!"

"Oh please, spare me the tears! You want this flower or not?"

"Why you insolent little… Bah, why am I even arguing with a human? But the answer is still no! Trading a piece of my Core for just one little flower isn't worth it no matter how you look at it."

Gerald quickly came to realize he was getting nowhere. He needed that Core, and he needed it now! That's the whole point of why he made this long and arduous journey. Luckily he had one final ace left up his sleeve.

"Okay, fine! If one is not enough, then how about ten? And if that's still not enough, then a hundred! Think maybe that's a fair deal?!"

**

Fair or not, the Phoenix didn't believe a single word coming out of his mouth, "Impossible! I don't believe you have more of them. Prove it! Show them to me!" it demanded arrogantly.

Gerald rolled his eyes. "I don't have it here, duh! But I know where they-" Before he could finish though…

"I knew it! More lies from a dishonest and deceitful creature! You cannot trick me, human!" the Phoenix hollered. It was convinced its guess was on point because it knew how harsh the environment had to be for these plants to grow.

"I'm telling you, you brainless oversized chicken! I found hundreds of Ice Phoenix Magma Flowers growing in a volcano!"

"You did?" The big bird calmed down somewhat and became suspicious. "Where?!" it demanded to know.

"Somewhere in the north, I'm not telling you more than that!"

"Bah! I have scoured the continent hundreds of times over and found no traces of any active volcano! Even the islands that used to be one didn't have any of the plants growing on them! The only place where they could be found was inside what your kind calls the Forbidden Zone. But there is no way you puny creatures could enter it and come out alive. Even I nearly lost my life there, and that was at the peak of my power a millennia ago!"

Gerald scratched his head and frowned, "Peak of your power? I thought you were getting stronger with age?"

"Yes, and no. I was getting stronger at first, however, the Life Force of this world is too thin, it has barely just awakened. Don't ask me how I know it, I just do." It explained, arrogantly as ever, as if it was teaching a child of the most basic of things.

"And your powers…?" Gerald had no idea where this was going, but he wasn't going to let some juicy information slip by.

"Right…" the Phoenix said emotionally. "After each resurrection, I grow weaker. If I do not get stronger at a constant rate, I'll eventually become weaker every time my resurrection is complete. Without an external stimulus, my life will decline and eventually dissipate, returning to the void from which it came."

"What…?" Gerald had no clue what the big chicken was going on about. Was it supposed to be some kind of a sob story? It was doing a terrible job if that was the case.

The Phoenix continued with a somber voice, "I only have less than ten lives left. After that, I'll truly die… That's why you must hand over the flower right now! I'll fight for it with you to the death if I have to!"

It flared its wings, and the flames rose from its body once more, determined to do battle.

"Wait! Hold on! Don't make anything radical! We can talk about this!" Gerald shouted and tried to get it to listen to reason, "I told you I know a place where these flowers grow en mass. They are just stuck behind a broken door that is reinforced with powerful Runes."

"Runes? Haha, easy! I can break any Runes I want!" the Phoenix laughed.

"Except those that were on the net tangled around your wing?" The jab hit right where it hurt, and Gerald couldn't help but release a quiet chuckle.

"Don't laugh! It takes time to break Runes the proper way and I didn't have that luxury! Not everybody is a freak that can just brute force them apart as you did."

"Then… Are we going to trade or what?" Gerald became impatient. All this talk and the Core was still nowhere to be seen.

"Hmph!" the Phoenix snorted and turned around, gazing with its eyes into the distant sky.

"Hypothetically, if I were to agree to your demands, how big a piece of my Core would you need?" it asked after a good minute of silence, unwilling to meet his gaze.

"Um, about this big, I think?" Gerald demonstrated. In truth, he required less than half the size of a chicken egg, but he went a bit over just in case.

"That's it? Seems kinda small..." the bird commented after seeing the size from the corner of its eye. The Phoenix was genuinely surprised. It was so little!

"Well, yeah. I don't need much. What, did you think I'd need half of your Core?" Gerald replied in a mocking tone. All this back and forth was getting tiring.

"Hmm… If it's only that, then we might be able to come to an agreement."

"Really?" Gerald lifted an eyebrow. Talk about a useless headache! But now they were finally getting somewhere! They now just had to agree on all the requests and demands which shouldn't be hard. "I'm guessing you want the exact location of the volcano then?"

"Precisely!" The Phoenix confirmed immediately, "And I'm going to need the flower in your hand first as well. If I'm going to damage myself for your sake I need to have something to quickly recover."

'Finally, thank the gods! I thought this animal was going to drive me crazy!' Gerald secretly exhaled as the deal was, at last, coming to a close. Now he just had to make sure nothing went wrong.

"Alright, you got yourself a deal!" he agreed with a smile. Even if he tried to hide his expression, it was currently impossible. His genuine feelings were too much to hold back now.

"Fine, fine!" the Phoenix waved its wing, annoyed. It even considered if it perhaps made a mistake agreeing so quickly. But then again, it really needed Ice Phoenix Magma Flowers for its growth. In the last five thousand years, this was the first time it really had the opportunity to break its shackles. It had to take it!

"Sigh! Alright then, get the vials ready, and don't waste my blood, human." It said. That was it, the deal was struck, and it was going to be painful.

The Phoenix retracted its flames, puffed out its chest, and took a deep breath.