Isaac, an intriguing character, just like his predecessor whom he called "Administrator." Although my brother and I have only been released from our prison for two days, that does not mean that we don't know what's happening. Even though the person in charge of us seemed more intriguing than it looked.

Sure, he's an elf and sure his magical abilities are way beyond normal, but there was something else.

We have used the past three hundred years to observe various mages, even some Archmages daring enough to venture into the affairs of the "Royal Secret," the group under the orders of the Queen Mother. The same group that put us in this underground vault.

Although confined in our eggs, we had the opportunity to observe the city from its inhabitants thanks to the spiritual bridge established by the Church to supply their domes of protection.

From Royalty and Nobles to commoners and itinerant merchants, we have seen and heard almost everything. While we witnessed many things, that doesn't mean we were omniscient.

On the contrary, it was impossible for us to see everywhere and all the time, but with a little time, we learnt to get a pretty good idea of what is going on in general.

Of course, the places protected by certain barriers were inaccessible to us. The King's private rooms for example, but also the Papacy quarters, the University as well as certain places in the basements of certain buildings.

A little suspicious since basements shouldn't have to be protected by such barriers, but we understood quickly that those were often bases for cults, nobles, or unsavory merchants. Anyway, thanks to our knowledge and the observations we were able to make of the city, it was easy for us to notice how abnormal Isaac was.

An abnormality from a human point of view, but not only. Although the Kilguana kingdom is ruled and mostly inhabited by humans, other races live there, secretly or in the open. Over time, we had the opportunity to observe foxmen, dwarves and even goblins. The capital even has a brothel run by succubi.

Objectively speaking, as a conscious living being, Isaac is an anomaly.

However, having no initial basis on which to compare his strength with that of another elf, it is not impossible that this is only an elven characteristic. After all, all the stories we've heard mention the magical affinity of this race.

But that's not our main concern. No, despite his great magical power, it was my brother who revealed to me another much more disturbing anomaly.

Where I excel in the study of runic and dragon magic, my brother is unbeatable when it comes to psychic manipulation, including soul magic.

Of the rare writings that we have been able to read with the eyes of the Elders in the Royal Library, soulmancy is a forbidden and illegal discipline because it is extremely corrupting and dangerous.

But this is completely wrong. Every magic is dangerous, even healing magic can cause various diseases if used badly enough. But more importantly, there is nothing corrupting with soulmancy, on the contrary, every living being practices it daily without ever realizing it. It is humans who, when they become aware of it, corrupt their souls by misusing and overusing this art. In the same way that an ill-conjured fire spell can explode on your face, the same can be said of soul magic.

And to be honest, it is not entirely the fault of the soulmages but of the books that they read to learn this magic.

The principles described in the writings are just ridiculous. They claim the soul as a source of energy and just as their mana circuit contains mana, their soul is only the receptacle of their divine energy.

But this alone is proof that humans have no affinity with this branch of magic because their very definition of the soul is distorted.

Where the Elders think their soul is separate from their body, my brother thinks that, on the contrary, the soul is an organ like any other that is nourished through mana instead of blood and produces 'divine energy' as a byproduct.

When a living being dies, its mana circuit ceases to circulate and the mana contained within quickly diffuses into the environment, leaving behind a last reek of golden mana which, after a few days, also dissipates.

What the priests of the Church of the Sun claim to be their famous Divine Energy is only a residue produced by their soul located on their forehead, nourished by the mana it absorbs.

But it's also not entirely their fault that they didn't notice this sooner. After all, from what we have observed, the soul has no other function than to refine mana and transform it into a denser but stable version.

It seems logical to think that its only use is to transform and store divine energy.

Alas, this is not the case. Where the heart pumps blood, the soul pumps mana. To be honest, I don't even know how humans haven't figured this out yet. How do they think their circuit circulates their mana and absorbs ambient mana? By magic?

It is their soul that allows them to stabilize the external mana, to refine it into a malleable energy. This is the reason why all living beings in this world, whether microscopic or giant, have a soul located in different parts of their body.

All have this common point. This is what practitioners who manipulate the soul change when they experiment with soulmancy.

They modify this part of their body to increase its speed, refining more mana into divine energy and accelerating the growth of their circuit while exposing themselves to more pressure as their bodies and minds aren't growing fast enough to adapt to the new form of their circuit before finally giving in to insanity under either the mental or physical pain that comes with it.

Some go so far as to draw strength from their soul itself, converting part of this vital organ for an energy boost. Alas, these seldom survive more than five years after starting to do this.

Like a drug addicting them, this overabundance of mana in their body leaves them feeling lacking as they drop back down to a normal level, forcing them to tap into their soul again, destabilizing it further.

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Once their soul is damaged enough, their mana circuit begins to deteriorate. After a while, they simply stop refining the ambient mana and absorb it as is.

A poison that slowly eats away at their bodies, a toxin that after some time kills them after just a few weeks. Why does unrefined ambient mana kill when absorbed as is? Shouldn't mana be the fuel of life? Well, that would be quite the fairy tale, isn't it? But no, reality is far harsher.

Mana is not made for living beings. In its natural raw state, mana can make you drown, quite literally. Unable to move through your body, it quickly sticks to it and slowly builds up inside of you until there is nothing else.

The reason why is because mana is made to exists outside, in nature. Where its presence is harmful inside someone, mana helps elemental particles move easily and freely in the environment to fuel plants, humidify the air, create fertile dirt and much more. That's why most lifeless lands are void of mana, it's because when there is no mana, elemental particles can't circulate easily creating a harsh environment for plants, creating desert land which isn't suitable for animals and so on.

That's where the anomalies that revolve around Isaac begin.

On the one hand, his extraordinary ability to manipulate the ambient mana. No living being that we could see was capable of this, even the Archmages of the realm which adds more suspicion as to its real power.

On the other hand, and most importantly, the fact that he has no soul.

Specifically, the place where his soul should be is empty, no influx or surplus of mana or divine energy. That's where we are standing, that's what my brother and I are trying to figure out about him.

Me and my brother follow Isaac around the clock, hiding with a mixture of elemental and dragon magic to hide our presence. Although my brother told his reservations about their effectiveness to me. Strangely, he has a hunch that Isaac can see us.

Why follow him? Why not. It's not like we have anything else to do. What's more, he is the only person who is related at least to our late mother.

Of course, we could leave, but where to go? The Draconic Empire? With all the refugees arriving from the border and how they seem to hate that place, this is not the best of destinations.

Besides this kingdom, we hardly have any places that we could consider a home.

- "You will have to release the greatest amount of mana that you can emit and redirect the whole towards the four crystals here present" Kyle explained while putting himself beside Zachary.

Blue and I were currently levitating above the arena and watching with interest the fight that had taken place there. After a rather disappointing interaction, the Archmage had opted to begin their famous aptitude test that we were just as impatiently awaiting.

---

Isaac slowly moved to the center of the arena, breathing steadily and deeply to calm himself. Even after thirty minutes, he still had not fully recovered from the fight and especially the applause that followed.

His hands were still slightly shaking just thinking about all the pairs of eyes piercing him. It wasn't every day that he received so much attention.

Meanwhile, Zachary and Kyle also stepped back, and all left the center of the arena before placing the mana crystals to form a square with Isaac in the middle.

With a nod of his head, Zachary gave the signal to the mages to activate the crystals and soon enough, all complied. Each pair of mages present alongside the crystals rested their hands on the bluish surface before a faint white light appeared in the middle. A tiny shard in the center of the crystal, barely visible to the naked eye behind the reflections on the crystal surface.

Isaac would have missed it too if he didn't have his mana vision activated. Previously entirely black and empty, where with his normal vision the white spark lodged in the center of the crystal was imperceptible, with his mana vision the opposite was happening.

The spark stood out completely from the empty chasm that surrounded it so that it looked like a star. A tiny match threatening to go out at any moment.

Without wasting any time, Isaac took this as a starting signal and placed his hands at his side, arms outstretched and open palms facing up to the sky.

As he had done long before and did it daily, he began to amass the ambient mana in his hands but this time by deploying his mana circuit.

The result was as he hoped, and the concentration of mana in the arena suddenly skyrocketed. Within a few moments, the once calm and serene atmosphere was replaced by powerful squalls.

The mages in the arena were surprised by the sudden rise and almost lost control of their levitation spell on their respective crystal, causing some of them to deviate slightly from their position.

Seeing this, Zachary immediately took the lead and gave some help to the groups who were struggling to stay in their assigned location. This was not entirely surprising, with the concentration of mana and the movement of elemental particles that followed, Zachary concluded that without the arena's magical wards, the winds that would have resulted would have been strong enough to lift a countryside house.

Not entirely extraordinary for a practitioner of magic, except here, the only thing Isaac did was concentrate mana. If he were to cast a spell with that, he could probably wipe out a good chunk of the University.

On the other side of the protective barrier, in the stands, the spectators and especially the headmasters suddenly stood up. Although shielded from the powerful squalls, the movement of mana in and around the enclosure was easily noticeable, even to non-mages.

All around the arena, manicles and elemental particles began to concentrate inward, creating a concentric breeze. It was a completely abnormal phenomenon and the guards were well aware of it and the look that the headmaster of the Academy had did not reassure them either.

- "Gideon. Gideon. Gideon!" repeated the principal of the School of Arms, recognizable by his light armor and his sword attached to his waist, to a quite old man dressed in the robe of a Master mage.

Suddenly awakened from his trance, Gideon turned to his interlocutor and shook his head slightly.

- "Yes? What? What do you want Franck?" he asked urgently before returning his gaze to the arena without even waiting for an answer.

Franck sighed lightly and put his hand on the hilt of his sword before looking at the arena and the elf there.

- "I told you it was not a good idea. It's a walking bomb that could explode on our face at any time" he said with concern.

Gideon chuckled without taking his eyes off Isaac.

- "Doing magic is a risky practice on its own, don't talk to me about risks. I almost lost my life more often than I can admit and yet, I'm still here, in one piece" the old man replied tacitly in response to his colleague.

The head of the faculty then laughed.

- "It is to be discussed; some may say that you lost your sanity ages ago" he commented mockingly.

Gideon had neither the time nor the will to respond. He was totally focused on Isaac. To tell the truth, at the beginning, the fact that an elf arrived in the capital was for him only a farce made up by the King or the Magus of the Court to amuse the High Nobility.

A vulgar stupid thing that young aristocrats liked to do from time to time. Rumors that a Noble House is linked to a drug cartel, or that a Duke is in cahoots with another kingdom. This kind of story was constantly plagued throughout the capital.

Nonetheless, his thoughts changed the very moment Isaac stepped through the barrier surrounding the University. As headmaster, he had access to many things including the comings and goings of everyone but also the statistics returned by the identification bracelets of the visitors of the University.

Mana usage, mana circuit flow speed and those kinds of numbers were constantly sent through that little bracelet to identify potential troublemakers. What was his surprise when he received an alert in his office of an "immeasurable profile" sent by the central office?

Only one person, the Magus of the Court, had been able to return such a result. A person whose mana feedback was so high that the monitoring bracelet would return a null value. It was what an "immeasurable profile" was.

The old man was immediately interested in the character. He had initially planned not to participate in this duel. Although he knew about it, he frankly didn't have the time. But after knowing what the bracelet had sent them back, it was his duty to see it with his own eyes. And what a great idea was it.

Not only was he a real elf. Not an imitation as many people had tried by trying on multiple kinds of disguises. No, in this case there was no doubt; His clothes, his mana circuit, his aura. Absolutely everything about Isaac was alien, and mysteriously unknown.

His soul as a researcher was on fire at the idea of being able to welcome such a person into his Academy.