“How could that be?” Vincent wondered. If anything, he could be considered a prodigy with his ability to manipulate mana right from the source.

  “I don’t know either.” Faerin shrugged lightheartedly. “But, that’s what the results from the aptitude test showed. However, you were able to see the spirits, so it might just be broken. Why don’t we do this?”

  Vincent watched as Faerin rummaged around under his repaired cloak and pulled out another crystal ball. This object, unlike the first one, had some murky gaseous contents inside that reminded Vincent of a thunder cloud. Next, Faerin skipped over and placed the ball in Vincent’s hand.

  “Here, take this,” Faerin commanded and then twirled his fingers a bit more. The dark cloud in the ball rumbled and began to destabilize. “What do you see in there?”

  Vincent didn’t understand the question, but still answered honestly, “A mass of energy?”

  “Ding! Ding! That’s correct!” Faerin lightly clapped. “To be precise, this is compressed wild mana. This device is used to train young fae on how to control their mana. To decrease the risk of hurting our youths, we devised an imitation device that is used to mimic our bodies.”

  “Great Ancestor, please don’t lie. It’s just a toy children play with.” Princess Arya grabbed the ball and very quickly, the murky cloud in the ball separated, and four distinct sections appeared. There were four quadrants: red, blue, green, and yellow. “Vincent, don’t get swindled by Great Ancestor. Elves are born with an innate affinity with all four primary elements, I would expect no less from the fae.”

  “Tsk!” Faerin clicked his tongue, “Always ruining my fun.”

  “What were you trying to accomplish by lying to me?” Vincent asked.

  “It would’ve been fun to see you worship this like it’s a treasure.” Faerin didn’t hesitate and spoke his mind.

  “Godfather… I’m starting to lose my respect for you…” Vincent dejectedly answered back.

  “Oh~! Those words hurt!” Faerin acted devastated and then bounced back, “But no worries, once you can imitate what my great-great-great-great-“

  “Great Ancestor.” Princess Arya interrupted.

  “Little Grand Heir, please let me finish.” Faerin continued to add a few more “great’s” before ending with, “granddaughter. Then I can begin teaching you a skill of your grandfather’s!”

  “You want me to separate the mana?” Vincent asked and reached for the crystal ball in Princess Arya’s hand.

  “Don’t treat this task lightly, Vincent. I’ll have to let you know, humans are unlike the fae. They have little affinity with the four primary elements, at most, they would only have a dual elemental affinity. Only every once a century will there be a genius that can wield the powers of all four elements to their…” Faerin was interrupted by sight in front of him.

  The murky black cloud immediately separated into four quadrants, precisely in the way Princess Arya had done. Princess Arya was also bemused and stared up at Vincent’s face.

  “As expected of the Godslayer’s descendant.” Princess Arya grew flustered as she spoke.

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  “How can this be?! You’re cheating! Cheater! Go die!” Faerin became indignant and threw a tantrum.

  “Great Ancestor, please maintain your image in front of the younger generation.” Princess Arya kicked his shin.

  “Ow! Okay, stop is Little Grand Heir! I’ll stop!” Soon after regaining his composure, Faerin coughed lightly and said, “It seems your body is holding some sort of secret.”

  “Really? Tell me that secret.” Vincent grew interested and waited for his response.

  “I’m not sure either.” Faerin shrugged, “But I can confirm that your body holds no mana of the four elements. When the elements passed through your body, there should be a rejection of the elemental affinity corresponding to your body. How should I explain this…”

  “Do you mean perhaps the situation is similar to how the eyes can perceive the color that is bounced off when light hits an object? In my case, if the fire element is unable to enter my body, I would have an affinity with it?” Vincent tried to explain his conjecture.

  “Right you are, Vincent!” Faerin nodded and agreed with Vincent. “But what do you mean? Light bouncing off an object?” He started scratching his head.

  “I guess you don’t understand it after all, but I think I know where you’re going with this.” Vincent quickly brought the conversation along, “Then what do you suppose I do?” Vincent asked while tossing the ball up in the air.

  “Ah!” Faerin caught it and realized something. “Wait! How are you able to do that?!”

  “Do what?” Vincent asked.

  “This!” Faerin held out the crystal ball.

  “What did I do?” Vincent grew more confused but then realized. “Oh, you mean this?” He canceled his control over the mana in the crystal, and it quickly returned to a dark cloud.

  “Exactly that!” Faerin then tried to imitate Vincent. The four elements appeared, but Vincent could feel a connection between the ball and the Faerin. “You see?” He tossed the ball up, the connection of invisible mana was still maintained, but the moment he released it, the ball turned back into a murky cloud.

  “It’s an ability of mine.” Vincent quickly manipulated the mana in the ball once more, and the murky cloud once again became four colors. Unlike Faerin, there was no connection between Vincent and the crystal ball.

  “Amazing.” Princess Arya stared wide-eyed. “Vincent, don’t you understand the meaning of his discovery?”

  “No, perhaps you would like to explain it to me?” Vincent looked puzzled, and the speechless and panicking Faerin didn’t look like he was going to be sane enough to explain anytime soon.

  “As far as I know, all manifestations of a spell must be connected to a source. To do this, the caster must connect to the mana and then use their will to manipulate the mana to their choosing. This is the method elves used to cast magic. Humans are similar, but they aren’t able to directly control the wild mana and must purify it inside their body first. What you just did, has never happened before, at least amongst mortals. You can remotely control mana without connecting it to yourself, and such an ability is only limited to…”

  “The gods.” Vincent grimly concluded. He knew why he had this ability now. It all started when he obtained the skill [Origin Magic]; this skill was most likely from a god that his grandfather had slain.

  “Yes. Only gods can assert control over mana in this fashion.” Princess Arya answered. Even the Pope of the Church of Light was unable to use remote magic without the use of a supportive device, and he was considered the person closest to Thaesis.

  “Vincent! This is an amazing discovery! Come let’s go play!” Faerin finally recovered from his shock and began dragging off the youth. “I know just what to do. This ability of yours is just like your Grandfather’s. Back then, I saw him training with this ability in mind. Come! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

  “Ah?” Vincent yelled in fright as the ground whizzed beneath his feet as he was dragged off.

  “Great Ancestor!?” Princess Arya cried out from behind.

  “Little Grand Heir! Go find your brethren, I’ll be busy training Vincent. Bye bye!” He shouted as he ran off.

  “Hmph!” Princess Arya pouted, but what Faerin said made sense. “Emet!” She called out.

  “Kwee~!” Emet flew down and landed on her shoulder.

  “Do you want to help me look for my kin?” Princess Arya stroked Emet’s beak.

  “Cooo~!”

  “Alright, then let’s go!” Princess Arya giggled, her voice sounded like tinkling chimes as she took off in another direction with the hawk flying above.