549 Astoria's Enlightenment
Holy Capital, Imperial Palace Back in Astoria's bedchamber, she did not prepare to attend any of her day activities after Vaan left. Instead, she informed a palace servant to postpone all her meetings to the evening.
Once the room's cleanliness and pleasant scent were restored, Astoria sat on her bed in a loose white gown and meditated, performing self-introspection with her consciousness. She did not feel the slightest fatigue from the passionate overnight activities. Rather, she was overflowing with energy. Her body was still burning, giving her cheeks and fair skin a smooth, rosy hue.
Dual-practicing with Vaan had repeatedly stimulated her Golden Dragon Bloodline.
Although she had suppressed most of it to enjoy her moment with Vaan, she could no longer hold it back, nor did she need to.
Her Golden Dragon Bloodline appeared to be proud and arrogant; it refused to mix with Vaan's mixed dragon essence. The Golden Dragon Bloodline, despite its scarcity, completely denied being tainted by Vaan's mixed dragon essence.
After all, it was a noble dragon bloodline; it looked down on all inferior dragon bloodlines.
As such, a fierce battle was waged inside of her body. The Golden Dragon Bloodline was roused awake by the presence of Vaan's dragon essence and sought to rid it from her body.
At the same time, Vaan's dragon essence was tenacious and wouldn't go down without a fight.
Each time Astoria awakened her Golden Dragon Bloodline, her body would experience tremendous benefits due to the nature of the superior, noble bloodline. Although now wasn't one of those moments, the constant stimulation still brought her closer to her next bloodline awakening.
More importantly, the stimulated Golden Dragon Bloodline greedily absorbed her light-attribute mana and the surrounding light elements to fuel its fight.
There was no better time for her to comprehend the Law of Light than now.
Astoria recalled her previous meditation experience and retraced the steps to reach her moment of enlightenment.
Previously, the light particles could be found everywhere in the darkness when she closed her eyes. But this time, she found the light particles converging, forming a single point of brightness, like a lone star in the depths of the dark void.
Astoria spent her time in silence and tranquility, studying the converging light particles.
...
Everyone knew what light was, where it came from, and what it could do, but these were all superficial understandings of the sun's light.
Very few, if any, knew what it was made of and how it was produced.
It was most commonly believed that the sun was a big ball of fire. However, that was not the case. The sun would have died out long ago if it was simply made of fire. In truth, it was a large body of gas heated to terrifying temperatures through a process she had yet to comprehend.
What she just understood, however, was that the sun's light was a form of energy made up of tiny particles that were too small to be seen by the human eye. It didn't have a color, but it could also be any color.
It also existed in a fourth state of matter, which seemed only reachable through extremely high temperatures.
'If light can only be made by heating gas to extremely high temperatures... then light should also be extremely hot... However, direct sunlight only feels warm at best...' Astoria mused.
Is it because the distance between Pangea and the sun was too great? Or is it because the power of light was too spread?
Both were the answers.
The closer to the sun, the more concentrated the power of light, and hence, the hotter it is - Astoria thought.
But then, she also thought about her specialized magic, Light Solidification, which could turn light into solid objects.
The power of light was definitely concentrated for it to be firm, but its temperature was far from burning, let alone scorching hot like the sun. It was only a little hotter than normal sunlight at best.
So where did all of the heat power go? Was it because she didn't understand the Light Law then? Or was it because her light power didn't reach an adequate concentration level?
After several hours of meditation, Astoria's eyes suddenly snapped open with a golden glint. She had finally grasped an initial understanding of the Light Law.
She didn't hesitate to confirm her comprehension immediately.
Astoria lifted her index finger and concentrated a large amount of light power to a single point at its tip. At first, the point of light was only lukewarm and glowing. But as more light power was concentrated, it became hotter and brighter.
By squeezing the particles of light power together tightly, they become very active, as if they were scrambling to escape from each other.
The stronger their activity, the greater the heat produced!
Within moments, Astoria's bedchamber became especially bright due to the single point of light focused on her fingertip.
Its temperatures were so frighteningly high that it actually melted her fingertip!
The accompanying pain was also agonizing!
However, Astoria couldn't just release such a concentrated power of light. Thus, she immediately thought of a solution and wrapped concentrated light power with her Light Solidification.
She used the firm shell of her Light Solidification to contain the concentrated power of light before releasing her control to heal her melted fingertip.
Shockingly, the concentrated light power was more difficult to contain than she thought. She was forced to focus more magic power on increasing the shell's firmness.
Even so, it was still stretched and turned into a short light beam.
Nevertheless, Astoria immediately noticed the synergy between her Light Solidification and the Light Law. Before she could gain a deeper comprehension of the Light Law and control it properly, she could use her Light Solidification to support her control.
Voom... Voom...
Astoria waved the light beam around and studied its viability as a weapon. She quickly confirmed its cutting and penetrative power when she easily sliced through the reinforced wall of her room.
'It's too light. No, it's completely weightless. This is very different from my usual choice of weapon...' Astoria analyzed.
She wasn't used to wielding light weapons, but the light beam's offensive power was hard to ignore.
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