27 Flame balls

…

At a beach,

Juin was sitting on a swing with Max, with their feet barely touching the water, and they were having a great time, sipping from a coconut and enjoying the sea breeze...

"Juin…" Max suddenly called out, putting the straw that she was using aside. Her red hair swayed lightly from the light sea breeze as she stared out at the wide sea.

"Yeah?" Juin looked at her with eyes that were full of adoration. Her face was so refreshingly beautiful even though she barely had any makeup on, and Juin thought that she looked extremely cute in her navy blue and white stripes skirtini.

"There's something that I have been wanting to tell you…" Max said in a low voice as she looked down at her fingers.

"What?"

"I… I love you," Max suddenly blurted out, and she jumped down into the water below with a light splash.

Splash!

With the water reaching her knees, she then turned around to look at Juin, who was wearing a startled expression. "I… I want to do something with you, Juin… It has been a long time, and I've been saving myself for this…"

She then reached out behind her neck where the straps of her top were at.

Juin gulped and slowly licked his lips as he looked at her, hoping that this was going where he had been dreaming of for a long time.

"P-please close your eyes, Juin… I… I'm shy…" She then put her right hand out with her fingers spread open and pointed upwards. "J-just 5 seconds!"

Juin nodded, and he quickly closed his eyes with both his hands. He slowly counted out loud, "5… 4… 3… 2…"

"One!" Juin yelled and removed his hands from his eyes.

The first thing he saw when he removed his hands was the scariest looking handsome face in the world.

"ARGGH!" Juin yelled and fell back into the water. After struggling for a few seconds, he stood on his knees in the water, holding onto one of the ropes of the swing while glaring at the person who appeared in his dream; the same person who had been torturing him the whole day.

"LUCIFER!"

"It's Your Majesty to you," Lucifer said with a frown. He then folded his arms and said while grinning, "So that's the kind of dreams you like? Why don't you just go and chase after her in real life? Where are your balls?"

"Why are you here?!" Juin snapped as tears threatened to fall down his cheeks. "It's my rest time!"

Lucifer nodded. "Yeah, it's your rest time… I remember saying that..."

"So?!"

Raising a brow at him in amusement, Lucifer said, "For your physical body. I didn't say anything about letting your mind rest. Do you think you have a lot of time to rest now?"

Juin's eyes went wide, and he gasped as he pointed at Lucifer with an angry finger. "Y...you… You tricked me!"

He had been hoping to have a couple of hours off from Lucifer's torture! And Max! He was about to have a nice dream about her! Why did this happen to him?

Snap! Snap!

Lucifer snapped his fingers twice and sneered, "Enough drama! Chop chop! Off to the white world! We don't have that much time!"

Juin sighed, and with tears trickling down his cheeks, he focused his mind. In a few seconds, the environment around them changed into a completely white area, and Juin was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of black pants.

"Wipe those tears off, you sh*thead…" Lucifer sighed.

"I was having a great dream…" Juin mumbled as he wiped the tears with his shirt. He then took a deep breath and asked, "What are we doing here?"

"Continue practicing Soul Fire."

"Oh, by the way, what happened last night?" Juin asked as he sat down in the lotus position, having given up any hope of fighting his way out of this. He was too weak to negotiate anything with the guy at the moment. "I don't remember much…"

"Nothing. You just fainted," Lucifer lied as he set out the yellow fires around Juin. "Sit up straight, close your eyes, and focus your mind on the flames."

Juin sighed and did as he was told. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the flames.

"This is your world, so even without using your eyes, you should be able to see your surroundings." Lucifer's voice drone on in the background.

Juin frowned as he tried to "see" with his eyes closed. Everything was dark, and other than the heat that was constantly assaulting him, he could not feel anything at all. He kept trying to feel his surroundings, starting from the heat, which was the only sense that he could feel.

Whenever he felt the heat licking a part of his body, he imagined the flames as tiny flaming balls that were giving his body a massage.

Unknown to him, his body was starting to slightly glow in red.

Lucifer was sitting opposite Juin as he watched the guy's reaction. Juin did not know this yet, but his soul was currently taking in the flame little by little.

Juin did not know how long he closed his eyes for, but suddenly, he heard Lucifer say, "Open your eyes, Juin. Slowly, and don't be shocked by what you see."

Juin's lips twitched slightly as he wondered what Lucifer was up to now. However, he quickly calmed himself before slowly opening his eyes.

He saw a blurry image of Lucifer in front of him, and when his eyes adjusted to the white environment, he asked, "What happened?"

"Look around you," Lucifer said with a somewhat serious expression as he moved his chin up slightly.

Juin frowned slightly and slowly turned around, and what he saw caused him to open his eyes wide.

Balls of hot yellow flames… Tens… No, hundreds of them… They were all floating in the air behind him while exuding an ominous feeling… like death.

"What the…" Juin gasped as he stared at the balls of flames.

Lucifer floated to stand behind him as he asked in a calm voice, "Can you control them with your mind? Try it."

Juin nodded, and using his mind, he tried to will the balls to move, but there was no movement at all.

"Try using your hands. Focus your attention on your hands. Put your will in them, and see if you can move the balls," Lucifer said. There was no tone of indifference or disappointment in his voice, only a calm tone.

Juin nodded. He glanced down at his hands as he tried to put his will into them.

"Move, move, move," he thought to himself as he raised both hands and faced the balls with his palms. He then moved his hands slightly as he tried to gather the balls toward him. The balls of flames in the air quivered slightly, but they did not show any inclination to move toward him.

Juin then tried again, focusing so hard that veins were formed on his forehead. "Come!" he roared as he moved his fingers inwards slightly. A few seconds passed, and just as Juin was giving up hope, one of the balls of flames shot toward him and hit him in the face before dispersing.

BAM!

Juin fell a few feet away from the point of impact. However, instead of being in pain, he was mostly stunned as he looked up at the endless white ceiling. After a while, he sat up and looked at Lucifer, who was still standing at the remaining balls of flames. "I did it?"

Lucifer grinned and nodded. "You did it."

He then looked at the balls of flames, and with a nonchalant wave, he dispersed the remaining balls of flames. Lucifer then looked at Juin and floated over to him. Looking down at Juin, he smiled at the guy sincerely for the first time. "Now, that's my vessel!"

"Huh?" Juin looked at him. "I did well?"

Lucifer nodded. "I have never seen a human who managed to conjure up so many Soul Fire balls before. Even though you are still lacking, especially in the ability to control them properly, you are obviously talented in using flame-based magic. We will focus on learning control in our next lesson. There's no point in conjuring so many flame balls if you don't know how to control them."

Juin nodded. He tried to move when suddenly, he felt something was wrong. "Erm, Your Majesty?"

"What?"

"I can't move…" Juin said worriedly. He looked afraid as he asked, "Is it because I was hit by that flame ball earlier?"

Lucifer chuckled. "No. You overexerted your soul strength with those flame balls. We are done for now. You can just rest for now. Once you're awake, we will study on the theory part."

Juin could not even reply him. By the time he heard the theory part, he was already completely unconscious.