"Thanks!"
John's eyes widened in surprise as he heard the word 'thanks' echo in his mind. It had clearly come through the companion soul connection between him and Kirii.
"Kirii…you can talk now?" John asked, his voice tinged with surprise.
His communication with Kirii thus far had been done through feelings and general emotions, and each party could only vaguely understand the intentions of the other. However, John had definitely heard the word clearly in his soul.
"I can now," the voice appeared in his mind once again. "The heavens have blessed me with many gifts, one being the ability to understand human speech."
The voice sounded a little immature, like that of a young teenager. John stared at Kirii in silent shock for a moment before asking another question.
"Can you speak out loud? Or only through our soul connection?"
"I cannot speak physically, only mentally," Kirii replied through their soul connection once more. "The structure of my mouth does not allow me to make human sounds, although I can project my words to others with my soul power if need be."
John stared at Kirii for a moment longer, before he walked up and patted him warmly on the head.
"Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad I can finally understand you buddy," John replied with a smile on his face. His face quickly turned stern however as he remembered something from Kirii's ascension.
"Kirii, when you blocked that last tribulation attack during my tribulation…did you focus on absorbing the tribulation lightning instead of just blocking it?" John asked.
Kirii had clearly used a tribulation lightning attack during his fight with the Lightning Kirin, and John was surprised to see such a thing. However, it now made more sense why Kirii had been in such a bad state after blocking that attack all those months ago. Instead of just blocking it, Kirii used the opportunity to absorb the lightning.
While John had done the exact same thing, he had the Celestial Lightning Script to rely on, while Kirii didn't.
"Uhhhh, maybe," Kirii replied sheepishly, clear on the fact that John was interrogating him.
"Maybe my ass," John replied with a huff. "You clearly used that tribulation lightning."
"Hey, I just did what you were already doing. Why could you absorb the tribulation lightning but I couldn't? Also, I saved your life back then, so why aren't you being grateful instead? Besides…that tribulation lightning looked so delicious, I just couldn't resist," Kirii replied in protest.
John stared at Kirii for a moment before he rubbed his head in frustration and defeat. Kirii describing pure annihilation tribulation lighting as delicious truly was a shocking thing to hear.
"Ah, forget it," John replied as he switched topics. "So, what did you obtain with your ascension to Heaven Tribulation? I saw you absorb that Lightning Kirin through the crystal on your forehead. What exactly is that crystal?" John asked.
"I got plenty of things," Kirii replied as he danced around on his hoofs like an excited child. "Firstly, my body is so much stronger than before, and absorbing that fake Kirin also gave me many ideas about lightning as well."
'Ideas about lightning? Kirii must be talking about lightning comprehensions. I guess he still is new to speaking like a human.'
"As for this crystal…I'm not sure," Kirii replied. "I just know that I can use it to both unleash and absorb lightning attacks."
John stared at the bright blue crystal on Kirii's head, which glowed brilliantly. He had never read about Kirin's having crystals on their head, and knew it must mean something. However, it was far beyond his scope of expertise, and decided to ignore it for now.
"Well that's fine if you don't know," John replied while patting Kirii once more.
"Let's fight!" Kirii suddenly exclaimed. "I want to test my new strength!"
John considered Kirii's request, before his mind suddenly thought of another topic, which was now a potential possibility with Kirii's newfound strength.
"How about instead of us fighting, we go fight something else that's strong instead," John replied.
"Something else that's strong?" Kirii asked, before its eyes lit up in comprehension. "Do you mean that flamey bird? Lets go, lets go!" Kirii replied as he danced on his hoofs once again.
John stared at Kirii once again, as his childlike antics had started again.
'I guess it makes sense, as he is only like a year old…but where was this energy before he could speak?' John mused.
Kirii had almost exclusively slept in his soul space and rarely showed any emotions, but now was like a child. However, John didn't mind it at all, and instead found it quite endearing.
"Yep. If I left you alone to fight the bird for say…two minutes, could you prevent it from reaching me in that amount of time if I stood nearby?" John asked.
"How long is two minutes again?" Kirii asked, as his concept of time was not firm yet.
"Uhhh, don't worry about the time. Do you think you can handle fighting against that flamey bird for a while without getting harmed or injured?" John asked. Kirii had seen him fight the Fire Falcon through their soul connection, and so he had a decent idea of how strong the Fire Falcon was.
"That's easy!" Kirii replied excitedly. "I don't think I can beat it, but fighting against it without being harmed for a while should be easy."
"Perfect. That's all I need from you," John replied with a smile as he suddenly turned around and shot off into the distance. Kirii followed closely behind as the two flew for a while before arriving at a familiar location.
Screech!
A shrill screech boomed across the nearby land as the Fire Falcon noticed the arrival of the two trespassers. It's nest was located at the top of a nearby mountain, and it instantly took to the sky and dove towards John and Kirii.
"Have fun!" John said to Kirii, who nodded his head and instantly shot into the sky to meet the Fire Falcon.
Boom!
The two creatures collided, sending flames and lightning scattering in all directions. John watched the battle take place in the sky between Kirii and the Fire Falcon for a while to ensure that Kirii could handle it without risk of injury. Despite battling for a short while, Kirii truly was able to hold his own against the Fire Falcon.
While his attacks were not quite strong enough to injure the Falcon, Kirii's speed was even greater than the Fire Falcon, whose speed was famed amongst Heaven Tribulation Beasts. Kirii was able to dodge almost every attack the Fire Falcon unleashed at it, all while counter attacking after dodging those attacks.. It was like Kirii was a bolt of lightning itself, dashing around the battlefield with absolute speed and control.