Dragon of Rochester
patreon
AFS 2: Strange Flame Strangeness - Part 5 - Spring POV!
🕑 Added 2025-03-30 17:54:37 +0000 UTCPart 5
Wang MingRen, well, he was called Spring now, knew that he had to stop her.
There was no possible way anyone, even someone with an SS-rank physique, could survive getting close to lava that unnaturally hot without a mech designed for it.
Really, he’d been too naïve before, thinking that she would add something to the mech to allow it to face the heat, or that she’d be able to use her strange spiritual powers to have it come over to be tamed. He thought it would be easy. She barely talked about it, as though it would be easy. So when she said that she was just going to head over there with no protection, he unconsciously grabbed her wrist.
He was desperate to keep her away from the massive lake of lava. It was something that would definitely kill her. He didn’t even recall what he said to get her to stay and what she responded with because she removed his hand like it was a cat’s paw. Then she grinned like she had complete confidence in herself before taking a step back into midair.
While he’s seen her do this before, right then she had a tumultuous lake of lava behind her. The wind caused her hair to whip around, and her black pilot uniform really suited her. Frankly, she carried herself like a powerful goddess.
Then she turned around and sprinted over the lake like it was nothing. She didn’t even care that her uniform’s functions wouldn’t survive that heat.
She was so damn cool, and she didn’t even know it. Okay, maybe she did know it. But from what he’d seen, she hadn’t picked up on how everyone’s eyes always seemed to turn towards her whenever she entered a space. Hell, even Prince Chad would pause when he saw her, as if sizing up someone who could kick his ass someday.
Fairy Lin had charmed Steve, a damn spy bot, just by existing!
She felt more real than anyone else MingRen had met, and he was sure the others who met her thought the same thing. It was just that it made them feel off while, to him, it felt the opposite.
Actually, over the past few months, he’d felt so comfortable whenever he was by her side that he started to worry. What if he started to like it too much? What if he got used to it and her craziness and couldn’t go back to his normal life.
So, for his own mental health, he spent more time away from her. Part of that was getting to know his actual blood related older sister.
YaoYao talked to him about her hard life on the garbage star. How she grew up as an orphan with amnesia, and had only recently remembered she had a cute younger brother. She remembered how, during the star bug attack, they’d been separated, their parents had been killed and she’d been left for dead.
He’d been so glad to get to know her... It was to the point that when she told him that she was uncomfortable getting adopted by Duchess Lin; he decided to be removed from the Lin family registry so he could rejoin his sister’s family, even if that meant he’d have to earn his own way through school.
The only reason he hesitated was because of that comfortable feeling.
Eventually, his mech designer/engineer partner bailed on him for this challenge. When he realized that he had an excuse to spend time with Fairy Lin, he realized that he felt a little too happy about it. As if being by her side was exactly where he needed to be. As if he’d lost his chance once already, and couldn’t let it get away in this lifetime.
Spring watched Fairy Lin casually wave before plunging into the center of the lake. His hand tightened on the bag she gave him. He had to trust her. And he had to be someone she could trust.
He pulled out the spray she told him about and jumped down from the mech’s cockpit.
The artificial muscles that mechs used was an almost magical substance, both hard and elastic. But just like with real muscles, they could be strained or overheated. That was why repairs were necessary, even if higher-quality muscles required less maintenance overall. As a mech pilot, Spring had to learn the basics of upkeep in case he was ever separated from his unit and forced to fix things on his own.
He quickly found the muscle in the ankle that needed to be sprayed, used his spiritual energy to unlock the armor piece covering the muscle, then removed it. It exposed the gray strands that looked a lot like a bunch of ropes made out of carbon fiber. Part of the muscle closer to the ankle had darkened due to use. They’d have to replace it sometime in the next couple of days. While Lin’s lightening formation she added to the mech had certainly decreased the strain on the muscles from weight, their increased speed had caused them to work harder and overheat faster.
He uncapped the can and sprayed the darkened areas. The chemicals worked their magic, and the muscle started to turn from black back to gray.
Spring wiped the sweat from his forehead and returned the piece of armor to its proper place and locked it in with his spiritual energy. Even with his SS-rank physique, being so close to a lava lake like this drained him.
He turned to look out at the lake. It started to bubble and boil, especially where Lin had disappeared. A half dozen small lava spouts erupted from that area.
She was going to be alright, right?
The lake continued to burst and blast out spurts and waves of liquid earth.
Spring, unable to risk getting hit and having to suffer through the spike in temperature, returned to the cockpit and booted the system up again. As soon as he could move, he bolted toward the edge of the crater.
The lava level started to rise as if the whole mountain would explode.
Oh no! Neither he nor their mech could survive at this rate.
The center of the lake changed from yellow with blue dots to white and purple.
A pulse of energy flowed out from the center of the lake. When it struck Spring, he had to take twenty steps back in the mech to dissipate the energy. In the end, he couldn’t take it and the mech fell down right as he made it over the rim.
He pressed his hand to his heart, which was beating wildly.
Fairy Lin was okay, right? Was that wave of energy her or the strange flame?
He slowly stood his mech back up and peeked over the edge. Instead of a lake of lava that was about to explode, he found the colors change from white to yellow, then to red. The crimson parts of the lake began to turn black.
He tightened his hands into fists and his mech copied him.
The strange flame was no longer there, causing the volcano to remain eternally melted.
He swallowed.
She’d done it! Though what if, in doing so, she’d hurt herself?
He had to get close to her. As close as his mech could make it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen until the lava cooled enough that he could walk over it. Maybe he could do it on foot? What if she was in the middle of the earth when the lava cooled around her? How long could she last?
What if she succeeded, then died?
If she was going to return, wouldn’t she have returned by now?!
He found himself parked halfway down the crater again before leaving the mech. The mech was too heavy and would sink and get stuck.
Unfortunately, he was wearing a uniform with specs required for this survival challenge instead of his regular armored suit. It had some electronics that couldn’t take the extreme heat of lava for that long, so he left it along with his light brain inside the cockpit. He did grab a survival shovel, though.
This left him in nothing side from some shorts and a tank top that doubled as light SS-rank armor. He didn’t even have shoes. But he did have an SS-rank physique that should be able to take the current, more realistic temperature of lava, unlike a normal human who would die before getting close to the black stuff.
His first step onto the lava scared the shit out of him. He sank down several inches, but remained on top of it. His feet burned something fierce. The only way to get through this was through.
He began running on the solidifying lava. Actually, it seemed to be hardening unnaturally as well, as if something was speeding the process along. He swallowed, but the air in his lungs was already dry. Moisture left his body fast.
He neared the center of the lake. This part was the hardest and coldest of them all. Something was definitely not right about it.
He closed his eyes and felt for it. That comfortable feeling. The place that seemed more real than anything. He used all of his strength to shove his shovel into the hardened ground and dig.
Blisters had formed on his toes. He kept digging. Whatever sweat left his body evaporated away immediately. He kept digging. His vision blurred and turned black at the edges. It didn’t matter. He dug more anyway.
Just as he felt his body about to give out, his skin glowed and a pool of energy he didn’t even know he had access to, filled him up. It allowed him to keep going until he unearthed something special.
There. A pale, flawless hand. It moved.
He dug around it as quickly as he could, loosening the steaming stone. Then he grabbed it and pulled.
Fairy Lin practically flew out of the semi-solidified ground. Spring’s knees gave out, but he refused to let go of the hand he had desperately dug for. When fell onto his back, he accidentally pulled Lin down with him. Of course, she immediately rolled off and held both fists in the air as if celebrating.
“Hah! I’m out! Muahahahaha!”
Spring covered his eyes with his forearm and laughed.
Her knuckles tapped his side. “Hey. I could have gotten out by myself, but... You did well.”
Shockingly, she looked relieved and happy.
He felt her thick spiritual energy examine his body and flinched in surprise.
He lifted his arm and turned to look at her.
She grinned. “And congratulations on reaching SSS-rank in your physique!”
Author’s Note:
I wrote this last part during the hours I was supposed to be asleep. It came to me all of a sudden, and I couldn’t sleep until I finished writing it down. It felt amazing. Though I imagine it reads like shit considering I was half asleep when I wrote it. Please forgive me for my lack of quality. T.T It’s just an April Fools story, right? Right?
Comments
Federico
Nah, its a good chapter. Don't sell yourself too low
Meredith
Yay! Fairy Lin! Spunk and confidence!
