"Don't move!" Tris barked.
The red threads were tightly entwined with the Soul Fire, so burning them inevitably meant touching it. And the pain of having one's soul burned was a hundred times worse than having one's body burned.
But the more Nagini moved, the harder it became for Tris to control his Samadhi True Fire, making it more likely to burn her soul. Singeing the outside and burning straight into the interior caused entirely different levels of damage.
Even though Tris's Samadhi True Fire was still extremely weak, it was still Samadhi True Fire!
Nagini obeyed, actually enduring the agony of her soul burning without moving another muscle.
Tris did his best to control the Samadhi True Fire, burning only the outer red threads as much as possible without touching the Soul Fire.
Thirty seconds later, Tris was drenched in sweat and panting like an ox, looking as though he had just been hauled out of the water.
Ever since his physique had improved, even his strenuous daily morning workouts no longer left him depleted. Besides, the weather had not been hot lately. There was no reason for him to be sweating this much.
The strain of using Samadhi True Fire was simply too great.
After just thirty seconds, Tris felt almost completely drained. Without his life force to sustain it, the Samadhi True Fire quietly went out.
He dropped onto his backside, then lay flat on the ground, too exhausted even to speak.
Nagini, meanwhile, lay motionless like a dead snake. Although Tris had done his utmost to burn only the outer red threads of the curse, even the slightest singeing brought soul-deep agony that made her tremble uncontrollably.
Now that Tris had stopped, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
More than ten minutes passed before