The Golden Throne

The phoenix scowled at Liu Feng. Liu Feng felt the brunt force of a full heat wave. But, he resisted the heat, mostly because he was running for his life. At such desperate times, anything can be possible for a human.(Within logical limitations). Also, being a contractor of Pyrus, he was able to withstand the heat and resist it significantly. 

Liu Feng turned back and he could see the demon was not aware of the presence of the phoenix yet, because it continued to rush towards him. Liu Feng went in deep into the lush greens of the territory, while the demon followed. Wherever the demon set foot, the green grass immediately lost it's color and turned a pale yellow. 

But then, the demon stopped running, it's face clearly filled with fear. Liu Feng could hear the flaps of the wings of the phoenix. A huge shadow appeared, covering the two of them. Liu Feng turned to look at the phoenix for the first time. It was truly a marvelous beast. It was as majestic as it was beautiful to see. It was orange, a vibrant addition to the lush green. It had golden talons, and  majestic tailfeathers. It towered at a staggering five meters long. Standing upright, it looked down on the two enemies. 

Screeching loudly, it breathed a hot flame towards the two. Liu Feng put his sword in front of him, as he started circulating mana and trying to survive the intense heat. The demon behind him was not so lucky. He burned to a crisp almost immediately. The burning cinders fell onto the ground nearby, and the grass that his ashes touched turned yellow, devoid of all life.

"How dare you defile my sanctuary with the feet of this vile demon. You shall die this time human, contractor of a king or not.", the phoenix shouted.

Liu Feng coughed out blood from his mouth. He wanted to explain himself, but the phoenix was not giving him any choice. The phoenix spewed another breath of fire at Liu Feng. This time, Liu Feng knew that he couldn't rely on fire mana to block this attack.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Aquous, I am going to rely on you to survive.", he said with a soft voice, as he channeled the water attributed mana in his body to form a shield around him. He was literally a steam making machine, as all the fire that was thrown towards him was being converted to steam. Finally, after a few minutes of such continual barrage of attacks, the phoenix stopped to catch a breath. Not willing to let go of this opportunity to explain himself, he started speaking in a loud and clear voice.

"There is a demon army outside your gates. Forgive me phoenix, but I had no other choice but to retreat here. I am not here by choice, but by circumstance."

"That is not of concern to me, human. Look around you. Because of your arrival, my haven of peace has turned into a disaster. The demon that you have brought here has polluted this area.", the phoenix cried out.

"Why do you even think that the demons are outside? I am sure that their first order of action is killing you. I can see that there are patches of the same yellow grass here and there. The demons have attacked before. You are only one person against a whole army. You can't possibly take care of the whole army. I can help you take care of all the cannon fodder.", Liu Feng went on a limb to say this. These were all his assumptions based on the observations, and he was just hoping to god that he would be right.

"That is an ambitious statement, especially when given by cannon fodder himself.", the phoenix replied.

"Thank god, I was right. Now I have a chance.", Liu Feng sighed with relief. Now, he did not necessarily have to die.

"Give me a chance. I am on your side.", Liu Feng reiterated his statements.

"Pyrus alone cannot be enough to satiate my anger, human. You will have to die, and he will not be able to change that. You should blame yourself for having a contract with that hot headed fool. If you were contracted with any other king spirit, I would have let you go."

Now, Liu Feng was grasping at straws. Knowing that he had no other choice but to reveal his condition, he called out. "Will Aquous be able to convince you? I am a dual contractor. I have contracted two spirits."

"Two spirits? Impossible. I remember the last time a human got a contract with two spirits was at least a few hundred years ago.", the phoenix said with shock.

Liu Feng took out his shirt, and he willed the tattoos to appear. Soon, a massive tattoo of two dragons appeared on his back. One that was fiery red, and one that was chilly blue. "I speak only the truth."

"Two kings of opposing elements? That is a sight I never thought that I would see in my life. Ha! Pyrus and Aquous? Those two in one body? How the hell were they able to compromise? You interest me boy.", the phoenix laughed out.

"Can I recover now? I was in a terrible fight with the demons, and I have multiple injuries.", Liu Feng beseeched the phoenix.

"Do what you want. I really want to see how you will kill hundreds of thousands of demons when you almost died fighting one of them.", the phoenix said. Flapping its huge wings, it flew away. Even this force just knocked Liu Feng onto the ground.

Liu Feng got up, coughing blood. He sat down in the meditative state, and started channeling mana towards his body. He was about to use it to try to regrow his limbs, when Aquous warned him, "Stop. You have to expel any demon energy that you have inside yourselves. You have to slowly push it out. Did you think that it was easy fighting with demons? Recovering from a fight takes at least a few days."

"A few days? What are you saying?", Liu Feng asked curiously. He did not know about this new addition in the rules.

"The demons cannot co exist with us. You see that black mist? That can enter you with the attacks. You must expel that energy, or you shall face many problems. That simply cannot co exist with mana, and it will destroy what you have. No matter what you do, never allow the demon's energy stay within your body.

Liu Feng nodded, and he stopped everything that he was doing. He struck his heart area thrice. blocking all the mana flow into the core, where all of his pure mana was located, and he started breathing in and out. Liu Feng slowly pushed out the demon energy in his body towards the end of the pathways of mana, but it was a slow and excruciating process. Slowly, piece by piece, black mist seemed to exit Liu Feng's skin.

A few days later. 

Liu Feng was finally battle ready once more. He spent the past few days expelling the energy, but the last bit was the most annoying. It seemed to keep generating more and more of that black mist, and Liu Feng could not understand why.. Now that Liu Feng was recovered, he started to work towards the promise that he gave to the phoenix.

He started inscribing magic circles on mana stones that he had brought.

"It seems like you are making full use of the book we used for the trial of learning boy. But remember, that is only a starting point. You have stagnated in many ways than just your power.", Primitus warned him.

Liu Feng nodded, and he continued on his array. After inscribing all the stones, he arranged them around the phoenix's territory. The total area was huge, and it took a whole day just to put the stones in their place. 

"I have to ask Pyrus, how is the phoenix able to use mana? Especially fire mana? Does it have a contract with you?"

"There are a few mysteries in the world that we do not know how it happened. Spirits are not the creators of mana. We are just beings who were blessed with the ability to control it. By who, we do not know. As for the phoenix, it was born from fire itself. As long as there is fire in the world, the phoenix is immortal. The dragons are not like that, and they are just superior species in general. The phoenix is an embodiment and part of the continent itself. It hates demons and humans more than most other magic beasts. It believes that these two are the reasons for the decline of the continent's mana. But well, there is one more actually who hates them more, but why talk about him now."

"So there has been an overall decrease in the continent's mana?"

"Yes. Mana is not an infinite resource. All continents have their own supply of mana that is reused in a cycle, and it seems that demons have disrupted that cycle a long time ago."