Luke opened the mithril box, and a wave of heat immediately washed over him. Inside, a flame crystal glowed a fierce, red-hot color, turning the space into a superheated furnace. The air shimmered and distorted as if on fire. He quickly slammed the lid shut, but not before snatching a small piece of the crystal.
Fortunately, the mithril box, having been specially forged, was incredibly heat-resistant; any other material would have melted instantly. The small piece of flame crystal, no bigger than a baby's fist, still radiated thousands of degrees of heat. The entire laboratory grew uncomfortably warm. Luke tested its power by placing it on an iron block, which it burned straight through. He then tried it on thick stone bricks, which cracked and melted into lava.
He finally placed the crystal on the corpse of the fire demon, the balrog. To his surprise, nothing happened—at first. The balrog's body had long since turned into hard, cold stone after its death and the removal of its magic crystal. But as the flame crystal rested on it, the area of contact began to soften. This wasn't melting from the heat; rather, the material was regaining its elasticity and vitality.
Luke's eyes lit up. This was a completely unexpected discovery. He was so intrigued he reopened the mithril box, used his wand to magically expand the interior, and placed the balrog's body inside. The entire corpse was enveloped by the crystals' intense heat, yet instead of being consumed, it reawakened, blazing with flames as if alive again. Luke was momentarily startled but quickly realized the balrog wasn't resurrected, only revitalized. The body of the balrog, an elemental being made of fire and shadow, had been steadily dissipating. Keeping it with the flame crystal would preserve it, a fact that filled Luke with joy.
He noticed that the balrog's blood, which resembled magma, had started to flow from the wound in its chest. He collected a sample in a separate mithril bottle, adding a tiny piece of flame crystal to keep it from solidifying. He wondered, "This is essentially divine blood. What will it do?"
Driven by a new idea, Luke went out and gathered several test subjects: common birds, lizards, and snakes, along with a few larger creatures like wargs and trolls. He injected the blood of the balrog into them, but the results were catastrophic. The subjects were either incinerated or exploded from the magma-like temperature.
Luke then remembered the balrog's heart fragments he had collected. He tried a new experiment on a lizard, implanting a dust-sized shard of the magic crystal into its heart. At first, there was no change. Luke began to wonder if the fragment was too small. Then, the lizard's skin began to redden, and its body grew hot. Luke, seeing the effect, injected a single drop of the balrog's blood.
The lizard thrashed in agony before its body suddenly burst into flames. Assuming it would be burned to ash, Luke watched in astonishment as the lizard leaped from the table, scurried to a nearby fireplace, and plunged into the fire. The flames didn't kill it; they transformed it. The creature emerged in a blaze of iridescent color, comfortable and fully alive in the fire, radiating the magical energy of a new magical creature.
Luke was amazed. He approached the fireplace, and the lizard, now a fire lizard, shot a tiny spark at him in a display of defiance. Luke chuckled, blocked the flame with a wave of his hand, and tried to levitate the creature out of the fire for further study. But as soon as it left the flames, the fire lizard became listless, its own flames fading. It was weakening rapidly. Luke quickly returned it to the fire, and it instantly regained its vitality. After a few more tests, he confirmed that the fire lizard could only survive within flames. To study it on his lab bench, he had to enclose it in a summoned flame.
He monitored the creature and discovered it was a completely new species. Its offensive capabilities were weak, but its very existence was a success. He took a small blood sample for study, then decided to create a companion for it, repeating the process with a second lizard. The two new fire lizards, once they met in the fireplace, began to cavort and chase each other. Luke was amused and also hopeful. If they could reproduce, his hard work would pay off. He left them to their own devices, knowing they were confined to the fireplace.
Luke then turned his attention to a venomous snake. The snake, sensing his gaze, coiled defensively. "Don't come near me, human!" it hissed in a way Luke could understand. "I'm very venomous! Don't push me!"
Luke was amused. He spoke to the snake in Parseltongue, "Little one, don't you want to be more powerful and live longer? Look at those two lizards—they're powerful now, they can even live in flames!" The small-brained snake was easily convinced, remembering only the promise of greater power. It agreed to the experiment. This time, Luke used a larger fragment of the balrog's heart . He implanted it into the snake's heart, injected the blood, and waited.
The snake writhed in pain, its body swelling and cracking open to reveal a fiery red glow underneath, as if filled with magma. It began to cry out in its language, "Fire! I need fire!" Luke immediately summoned a fire, and the snake eagerly absorbed it. It shed its old skin, and new scales grew in its place. Its eyes glowed red with an inner flame. The transformation was complete.
"What are your abilities?" Luke asked the new fire snake.
"I think... I can explode to burn my enemies," the snake said hesitantly. Luke was speechless; this was an odd ability. "My venom seems different too?" the snake added.
Luke was intrigued. The snake bit a mouse, and the mouse screamed, its body spontaneously combusting from the inside out and turning to ash. Luke's eyes lit up. The new abilities weren't useless after all.
"There's one more thing," the snake said shyly.
"What?" Luke asked, getting excited.
"I think... I'm about to lay eggs."
Luke was stunned. "You were pregnant?"
"This is my first time! I met a long and handsome male snake, and... well," the snake replied, twisting its body coyly.
(T/N : Author snakes can't be tall and handsome, changed to long)
Luke was left speechless, astonished at his luck in finding a pregnant female snake. The fire snake, like the fire lizards, needed to live in fire, but it could survive outside the flames for up to an hour. It quickly crawled to a dark, cool corner and laid seven red, intensely hot eggs. Fire snakes, it turned out, couldn't lay eggs in flames, as the eggs would explode. After laying them, the mother snake rushed back to the fire to avoid dying.