Felix slowly opened his eyes.

The soft sunlight slowly flitted through the windowsills, casting a warm glow on him.

Felix’s thoughts once again shifted back to last night.

Felix still harbored a deep hatred for his father. However, he realized how much his present family loved him. And perhaps, with due time, Felix would also feel love for them.

Felix slowly crawled up to a sitting position. Looking at the clock, he wondered why his mother hadn't come to wake him yet.

He slowly climbed down the crib. He really couldn't stand this prison. Who even invented the crib? The guy should be put in a crib. Maybe he’ll then know how it feels like.

As he slowly creaked open the door to his room, Felix could hear faint murmurs of voices. He could hear his mother’s voice, along with someone Felix could not recognize.

“Exactly! I felt the same when-” His mother’s cheery words halted as she noticed Felix crawling on the floor.

“Oh, look! It’s Felix. I still don’t get how you get out of that crib.” She picked him up. As Felix’s line of sight increased, he could see who she was talking to.

It was a petite, pretty woman with the same long brown hair as his mother. Her most noticeable feature was a small tattoo shaped like a star near her cheek, which seemed to radiate light.

She smiled at Felix. “Is this Felix? Wow… so cute!” She reached forward and started pulling at his cheeks.

‘Ow’ Felix winced as she tugged even harder. ‘Who is this maniac? Pretty sure the physiatrist ward ain't here.’

The woman, unknowing of Felix’s dark thoughts, came even closer to Felix. “Hey, Felix. I’m your mother’s friend. I guess that makes me your aunt, right? Here, I got you some of your favorite soup.” She waved a plastic bag filled with containers of soup.

The sight of the soup immediately brainwashed him.

‘Never mind. She’s a goddess.’ Thought Felix, salivating at the mention of the soup. He tried to crawl out of his mother’s grasp, trying to reach the soup.

His aunt looked even more closely at him. “When’s he going to get his Resurgence?” She asked, her eyes shifting towards Felix’s cheek.

‘Hm? Could that be the same thing as her tattoo?’ Felix wondered, touching his cheek.

His mother shifted him a little bit. “He’ll get it for his first birthday. Be patient, I know you want to teach him, but he’s only five months old.”

His aunt sighed. “Yeah, a five-month-old that can already talk. Seriously, what kind of genes did Odon give his kid?” Her gaze shifted back to Felix. “Hey, can you talk to me? Please?”

“Soup?” Felix asked, his stomach already rumbling.

His aunt laughed in delight. “Of course, I’ll give you your soup. C’mon, Pinera. Seat him down.” She started opening the containers, filling the contents into bowls.

‘She’s a goddess.’

***

Odon Elris’s POV

I slowly stood on the roof of a building, looking at the skyline.

“It is beautiful, isn't it?”

A voice from behind broke me out of my thoughts. I smiled.

“Yes, it is,” I replied, turning around.

With clear white hair and his indistinguishable colorless eyes, anybody could recognize him.

The Queller himself.

“How was the mission?” He asked, his powerful voice getting serious.

Dark thoughts invaded my mind. “They’re coming. We don’t have much time.”

The Queller’s face grew grim.

“We need to give the Emerald to this year’s generation. We can’t withhold any longer.” He said, his aura increasing a bit.

I trembled. How could a tiny increase in his aura be this powerful? No wonder people said the difference between Prince and the Quller was the same as the ocean and the mountains.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Who should we give it to?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“Isebella Dalton. She’s the best choice we have right now.” The Queller said,

“Yes, Your Majesty.” I said, slowly removing myself from reality as I quickly transversed the Mirror Realm.

With the familiar noise of cracking glass, I slowly stepped into the safe where we kept the Emerald. The safe was top-tier. There was virtually no safe that was better than this. Outfitted with the best elite soldiers, and also with technology that had not even been introduced to the upper class yet.

However, as I stepped into it, the sharp smell of iron immediately reached my nose.

Blood.

I reacted quickly, using a bit of my blood to create a level Eron barrier. Just as I did, a sharp attack of fire and ice slammed into it.

‘The guy’s strong.’ I thought, glancing around the room. The ripped-off and sliced bodily limbs created a ghastly red canvas. ‘To kill all of them… but where’s the Emerald?’

Just as the thought came, a sharp jab of useless information came into my mind. ‘A mental attack!’ I thought, trying to recover. But the damage was done. My barrier flickered and then vanished.

“Ugh!” I quickly deflected a speeding spear of ice with a quick spur of boiling water. I immediately saw the location of the attacker.

The person was wearing all black, with splotches of blood there and there. The first thing I noticed was a symbol on his arm. It looked like an eye, circled with hands.

I summoned a barrage of flame and sent it towards the attacker. The guy reacted quickly, raising a wall of ice. I quickly followed with a summoning spell. A flash of light appeared and a glowing sword manifested into being.

‘Flame’s First Step: Ember’s Whisper’

With a whisper of fire, I quickly ran forward, weaving an intricate pattern of flames with my sword.

‘Flame’s Third Step: Inferno’s Veil’

Immediately, a wave of fire quickly blocked me from the attacker’s sight.

‘Flame’s Seventh Step: Ignis Celestis’

I shed a few pints of blood as I activated my most powerful step. My Resurgence came flaring to life, giving me back the blood I had lost.

Using the weaves of fire I had created from the first step, I propelled forward, a loud boom echoing as I broke the sound barrier.

Suddenly, my flames decapitated, revealing the black figure once more.

What?

‘He’s an Air user too?!’ I stumbled back. An Air user was a Flame user’s worst nightmare. They could suck all the air from an area, swiping away any fire style the Flame user might have used.

‘This is beyond me.’ I thought to myself, quickly calling the Queller with a mental alert. ‘We can’t lose the Emerald.’

However, my alert never reached the Queller. It seemed this place was being guarded by another powerful Mind user.

‘Ugh.’ I thought as I deflected another attack of ice with a shield of water. Although I could use water a bit, I had mainly focused on training my flames, resulting in me not being able to fight back properly.

‘This is going to be troublesome,’ I thought, activating my Resurgence to its full potential.

‘Alright then. Come and fight me.’ I thought, taking a fighting stance.

***

Felix hurriedly slurped up the soup. ‘So delicious.’ He thought as he drank more faster.

Felix’s mother laughed. “How can he eat so much, I can't imagine.” She said, glancing at his aunt.

“Ah, let him be. He has to grow big and strong. After all, I’m gonna torture him as soon as he gets his Resurgence.” His aunt said, grinning.

Eh? Torture? Was it just Felix, but did his aunt's grin look a little dark?

His mother slapped her on her arm. “Stop scaring him.” She turned to the clock. “Where did Odon go? He did say he was gonna meet the Queller, but he should have been back an hour ago.”

“Oh chill, he’s probably getting held back.” His aunt reassured his mother. “I bet he’s jus-”

The door suddenly opened, revealing Felix’s father. The first thing he noticed however was that the place where his right hand should be…

His hand was gone.

It looked cauterized, with the blood flow stopped, but what was even more surprising was seeing his mother not fret over his missing hand, but rather a large cut on his cheek.

Although Felix was worried, the weirdness of the situation began to get on him.

“Are you okay? I- I thought you were just meeting the Queller? Why are you injured?” She asked, hastily grabbing medicine and smoothing it over his cut.

All Felix could do was stare. ‘Is this a physiatrist ward? Are we all insane? Wait.. am I insane?’

As Felix was pondering over his existence, he saw something nestled in his father’s arm. A tattoo that was shaped like a star, emitting power from it.

‘Huh? That looks just like my aunt's.’ He thought, staring intently at it.

And just as he did, it suddenly flashed with light. And Felix felt the gaze from the void wash once more over him, just like it did with the magician.

However, he did not have time to think this over long, as suddenly his father’s hand began to grow back! Tiny little bits of nerves and skin slowly began rebuilding itself as the light from the tattoo pulsed harder.

Felix’s mouth dropped open.

‘Was that what the tattoo does? What did aunt call it? A ‘Resurgence?’ Could it be that it heals? But then why didn't it heal the cut?’ Felix’s thoughts began running rampant as he pondered over this phenomenon.

‘If I could heal myself like that… to grow back missing limbs…’

Felix’s greed sparked to light with a bang.

‘Resurgence… mother said that I’ll get mine when I reach the age of 1, right…’

Felix smiled, looking on as the twitching nerves of his father slowly began to finally look like a hand.

‘I want that.’

***

Odon Elris’s POV

Sigh.

To think I would have had to use that.

I sunk into the chair.

‘At least I was able to get the Emerald back. If we had lost that…’ I trembled just thinking about it.

Also..

Who was that?

‘To think that the guy could hold his own against me, a Prince. He had to be someone powerful. And to also be able to escape from my most powerful magic.’ I pondered, scratching at my Resurgence.

After I had quickly found the Emerald that I had managed to knock from his hand, I had transported myself to the Queller. For some reason, he didn't seem to be much surprised when I told him about the attack. Instead, he had taken the Emerald and instructed me to look after my family.

“Go and take care of your wife. I’m not giving you any more missions anymore. I can’t have it in my conscience if you die. Also… look real carefully after Felix.” He had said, pocketing the Emerald.

Sigh.

Although I was disappointed in not being able to be in action for a while, I wasn’t that sad. After all, I would be able to hang out with Felix for a while.

Maybe even if I had missed some of his firsts, if I acted especially close to him, my relationship with him wouldn't be any different.

Although I was rather happy to be back home, I just couldn't shake the feeling of something being wrong.

Something was happening.

And it didn't feel good.