Elemental Cats

It was only natural that materials with special effects would also suffer drawbacks. The universe might not be fair, but it strived to maintain some semblance of balance.

Since the innermost layer of the cell was already mostly destroyed by Dissolution, Toz didn't bother getting rid of the rest. There wasn't enough left to impede the progress of his plan, anyway.

Toz stood in the middle of the room as he began concentrating. He didn't know how much he would have to focus, but since he wasn't as adept at turning up the temperature as Mindle, he couldn't leisurely hold back.

With his mana vision still active, Toz roused his fire mana as he filled the room with his fire magic. At first, since it was nothing more than his fire mana, there were no noticeable changes.

Toz took it slow as he observed every step of the process with his mana vision. Although it was his attempt to break out of jail, it was also a vital opportunity to learn and improve his magic.

At first, the only difference between Toz's mana and the wild fire mana was their quality. Since Toz had transformed, processed, and purified his fire mana, it was obviously of better quality than the wild mana.

As Toz continued controlling his fire mana, gradually manifesting the phenomenon that would transform his mana into magic, it became more and more active. The evenly spread out mana began glowing brighter in Toz's mana vision and seemed to be on the verge of transforming into real fire.

With Toz's regular eyes, the mana actually began creating flames and generating heat. But no matter how much Toz increased the intensity or the temperature, his mana vision still only showed him fire mana on the verge of transforming into fire. Toz quickly realized that the mana would finish transforming if he managed to awaken its true nature.

In order to test out his theory, Toz conjured and cast a Fireball on one of the walls. He held back since the explosion would affect him as well if he went all out. Since it was his magic, the fire itself wouldn't affect him, but the shockwave and explosion would since they weren't purely magical.

The Fireball confirmed his theory. His mana vision saw a sphere of pure fire flying and exploding. Seeing it like that, Toz got inspiration on how he could improve his spell, but now wasn't the time for that, and he redirected that inspiration to try and make his fire mana around the room awaken its true nature.

Even with his fire magic blazing at close to the maximum temperature he could create, the walls only got slightly charred. At least, the trembling and wavy air reminded him that without enchantments, the cell would run out of breathable air, even if he didn't unleash his fire.

He had already started feeling short of breath. But even if he retracted his flames, he would still run out of air to breathe sooner rather than later. Toz decided to stick with it, even if the walls didn't show signs of melting.

He kept his eyes open so that he could continue using his mana vision as he manipulated his fire mana, but his head was almost empty as he put away all distracting thoughts and filled his mind with fire.

The blank space housing his clone mirrored the outside world in response to Toz's absolute focus on fire. The fire mana didn't burn the mind space or the clone, but they also didn't seem to be doing anything useful.

At least not until the clone opened his eyes.

The clone's eyes shone with a faint light as it instinctively looked around at the fire mana that was on the verge of transforming into real fire.

The clone closed its eyes again as it reached out with its hands. The clone slowly copied Toz's stance, and when it finally stood exactly like Toz, with the exception of its eyes, the clone disappeared in a flash of light, which stretched out in all directions.

Toz didn't notice the clone's actions since he was so busy trying to push the fire to greater temperatures. The heat and lack of air were beginning to affect him, but it was too late to stop, so he continued controlling the flames.

However, as the clone disappeared from the mind space, Toz felt a strange but familiar feeling fill his body. He couldn't quite place it as he was busy and distracted by the fire, but he didn't try to resist it as it felt quite comfortable.

While he let the feeling overtake his body, Toz didn't stop manipulating his flame, but when the feeling completely overtook him, he felt his control over magic stutter for a moment.

Toz quickly noticed how the fire magic around the room was about to slip out of his control and die down without his constant supply of mana, so he didn't think about how his mana control was canceled for a second before he returned to manipulating the magic around the room.

However, he was almost stunned at how easy it was to regain control and increase the temperature of the flames after the short, almost instantaneous, break. He was confused, but he didn't let it stop him.

Toz continued manipulating his fire magic. After the short stutter, it seemed like the previous ceiling of the fire's maximal temperature was blown away.

Before long, the heat accumulated at the cell's ceiling slowly began to soften and melt the rock-like material.

Toz dodged the drops of molten rock by instinct as he continued increasing the temperature and even directed it toward the walls.

Toz looked on happily as the boring and dreary walls melted away like sandcastles under the rain. He had been stuck with them for who knows how long, and now he would never have to see them again.

He was slightly worried that his actions would alert and allow any guards or captors to react and prepare for his breakout, but he didn't care. If he could keep up this sudden boost in his control over fire, he was confident only someone at Yill's level would be able to fight him.

Eventually, due to Toz's continued fire, the walls began melting even quicker, and it didn't take long for the several meters thick walls to buckle under the weight of the remaining ceiling. Toz stood in one of the places where there was practically nothing left of the ceiling as the rest came splashing down in a shower of molten rock all around him.

The thin sheet of rock above him didn't even remain intact long enough to begin dropping before it melted. Since Toz was the source of the fire magic, the air and fire would naturally be hotter the closer to him it was.

As the walls to his cell finally came crumbling down around him, Toz could look around and see what kind of situation he was in. And since he didn't sense any danger targeting him, he guessed that the cell might have been even more isolated than he first thought.

The sight of the world outside confirmed Toz's guess.