Apollyon’s POV
“Papa?” Theodore’s voice was small and ‘echoed’ as Papa explained the funny thingy, but he wasn’t saying anything now.
The longer Papa stayed silent, the tighter Theodore squeezed my hand, and I felt his breath getting faster next to me, making me do the same.
‘Papa is here, everything is okay.’ I took a big breath and looked at Papa. He was staring back the way we came, searching for where the scary noise came from.
“P-papa, I’m scared,” Theodore whispered, his hand tightening even more.
Papa turned to us, and my hand relaxed. Papa wasn’t worried. He had a smile on his face. He bent down and wiped the tear in Theodore’s eye.
“Don’t worry Theodore. While I’m here, nothing bad will come close to you.” Papa’s voice was calm and just as warm as his smile.
Theodore’s grip relaxed as well. Papa then looked at me. “See Theodore? Lyon isn’t scared, and you shouldn’t be either.”
I gasped, and my hand went over my tummy on its own. There, it felt warm. It felt nice. How could anything bad happen after that? Papa’s words were meant for Theodore to calm down, but him knowing I was fine made every bit of worry inside me vanish.
Papa patted our hair playfully. “Besides,” his voice grew steadier, “back in my day, I was even greater than—“
The scary sound echoed once more, even closer than before. Theodore jumped and squeezed my hand tight again. In the distance from where we came from, a fiery figure appeared. It walked in four legs, but it was the same height as me and Theodore. I gasped again when I saw its big claws and giant teeth the size of my hand, but most of all, its fur. It was red like a fire, and it also looked like it was flickering and waving like a candle’s light, a perfect fit with its fiery orange eyes.
The beast’s sharp fangs and claws were black as coal and the worry that had vanished a moment ago returned.
‘Can Papa do it? Is Papa going to be okay?’
Theodore’s breathing got faster, and I turned away, closing my eyes.
‘Papa is here. Everything is going to be okay. Papa is here. Everything is going to be okay.’
“Heh.” A laugh echoed.
Peaking with one eye, Papa was smiling. “We got worried over this little thing?” He said, turning to us, his back facing the scary beast that found its quick meal.
My brows turned pointy. ‘Little thing? Papa, it’s bigger than us! Just because you are much bigger than it doesn’t mean it isn’t bigger than me and Theodore!’
“Hey, what’s with that look on your faces?” Papa asked with a brow reaching close to his hair in a questioning look. Theodore was also frowning.
Papa took a big breath. “Sigh, so much for trusting in me…” He shook his head and looked very sad, but then he suddenly smiled with all his teeth. “Well, anyway, this is a good opportunity. I wanted to show this to you when you were a bit older, but alas…” He half-turned and pointed to the beast.
“See that little guy over there? That’s a Quint Beast known as an Emberfang. It may look scary to you, but I promise, with me here, there is nothing to worry about.” He smiled mysteriously before fully turning around. “Aren’t you curious about what an Elemancer is?”
Almost jumping, I forgot about the Emberfang. For the past few days, I’ve been hearing awakened this, Cain that, and today we learned awaking meant he was an Elemancer.
‘What’s an Elemancer?’
Earlier I was reading the book, but I also wanted to know what it was.
Papa must have read my mind because he answered my question. “Well, let me show you.”A moment passed, and suddenly, he looked like he was... shining? Rubbing my eyes, I checked again. Nope, nothing wrong. Papa was glowing! And his hands looked even shinier!
Wind blew and my necklace sparkled in front of me. But then something changed. Before Papa was glowing, but now I could see tiny dots all over his body and especially on his hands!
My breathing got faster, but as I took another breath, I stopped and gasped. The lights in his right hand changed from an open yellow, like someone was sick yellow, to a fiery orange before turning into a deep red, while the lights in his left hand took a cool blue one.The faster I breathed, the slower everything seemed, except for the tiny dots that only got faster. Breathing out, my eyes widened as the lights vanished and suddenly a burst of fire and water appeared in Papa’s hands. With that, everything started moving back to normal again, and I felt tired.
“P-Papa?” Both me and Theodore said, turning to each other before giggling with one another. I didn’t know how I looked, but Theodore’s mouth was like an ‘O’ hehe.
Papa laughed a little, seeing our reactions. The water and fire in his arms got smaller until they disappeared.
‘Hey! Where did they go? Papa!’
Walking a few steps away, Papa said. “Hope the light show was enough to take your worries and attention from the Emberfang, because you’ll need to focus on what I’m about to tell you.”
The Emberfang was still just like us. The moment it saw Papa’s arm return to normal, its face looked scary again, and it greeted its teeth as it came closer.
“What I just showed you is the control, or better said, manipulation, of Quint. Quint is present everywhere, from the ground we step foot, into the water we drink, and even, the air we breathe. When harnessed, directed into the body, and condensed, it gives rise to a Quint Core. An Elemancer is one that has successfully formed a Quint Core and that is dictated by the marking, or better said, Tattoo that is formed over the solar plexus...”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
As Papa spoke, he turned the other way, just in time to dodge the Emberfang’s jump attack. Grabbing it by the tail, he took it off its feet and sent it flying.
‘Manipution, quint, quint core, tattoo, solar… solar what?’ With so many difficult and new words, I didn’t understand anything Papa said!
“Sol… sol…” Theodore tried. “Ah! Papa, use easier words!” he screamed, not able to say the solar… ah… what was it again?
Papa scratched his bearded cheek. “Ah… right. The solar plexus is around here,” He said, pointing at his tummy.
“That’s—“ Before Theodore could yell at Papa for using solar whatever instead of tummy, a roar stopped him.
In the distance, the Emberfang was furious, its teeth revealing and its saliva drooling to the ground. Before it was coming slowly, but now it was running and it looked even scarier, growling angrily.
“It’s a lot more complicated than what I’ve just told you, but, for today, let’s just stay in the essentials, ah... I mean the basics.” Papa took a few more steps away and prepared himself.
“Since I have started with the Core and the Tattoo, I’ll continue from there. You see, the Tattoo has two primary uses…”
“Papa behind you!” I screamed, just as the Emberfang’s fangs reached him.
In response, Papa dodged like… like… ah yes! Eforesly! Yeah, Papa dodged eforesly, but the Emberfang only continued its attacks. Fangs and teeth, and bites, and slashes. Papa dodged every attack, and he made it look so easy! ‘A walk in the fountain’ was probably what he was thinking.
‘So cool! I wanna do that too!’
Theodore was as amazed as I was. He had let go of my hand and every time Papa dodged the Emberfang, his hands would react accordingly. Dodging another bite, Papa finally made his move. He grabbed it by the neck and dropped it to the ground, holding it in place.
Thud!
“The first is their color.” Despite the loud noise, Papa’s voice was clear.
“When one first awakens, the Tattoo is black, symbolizing the many impurities mixed with the quint that flow inside the body, however, the more the Elemancer evolves and the purer his quint becomes, the color of the Tattoo evolves together with them, opening up in color. In total, there are seven colors ranging from Black, Purple, Red, Orange, Yellow, Silver, and White, with each color or differently named stage, bearing a set of five shades before advancing to the next color, until the yellow stage. From Silver and above, the shades differ, but more on that another day. Whenever one advances a shade, their color brightens up, showcasing the purification of the Quint core.”
He turned to us only to find one head turned to the left and the other to the right. He then looked up, thinking as his hand shook from the Emberfang before turning back to us. “Erm… the brighter the color of the marking, the stronger the Elemancer is.”
“Ooo.” Theodore and I said the same thing.
‘I get it now!’
While Papa was explaining, the Emberfang wiggled and growled, but Papa was more than strong enough to keep it in place. As Papa was about to continue, suddenly the Emberfang lit up, like how Papa did a few moments ago. However, it wasn’t the same. I couldn’t see any of the tinny dots around the Emberfang.
Squinting my eyes, I jumped back when fire came out of the Emberfang’s neck, freeing itself from Papa. Theodore screamed from the shock, but what surprised me the most was Papa. He was relaxed the entire time now, but for the first time, he looked surprised or even angry.
“Fucking—“
“EEEE! Papa, that’s a bad word! Don’t say bad words!”
Papa’s eyes turned big. “Ah, sorry Theodore,” He apologized, as he should! There were only a few times when I heard Papa say bad words and every time, he would check if either me, Theodore, or Cain were there.
‘Wait, did Papa forget we were here?’
“Papa!”
“Sigh, it looks like I’ll need to speed things up a bit. Quint can be used in a couple of ways, but the two most common are enhancement of the body with quint and emission of quint to the outside world. Ah, that probably sounds a bit confusing, instead let me show you. First…”
Mid-sentence, Papa suddenly vanished from where he was standing and reappeared next to the Emberfang, punching it upwards, once again, taking it off its feet to the air.
“... enhancement of the body.”
“As you’ve just seen, I got a lot faster, and of course, a lot stronger. By letting quint flow from the core to the rest of my body, I augment myself. Erm, augment means the same as enhancement. Think of it like walking and running. We walk in many different ways. Sometimes we walk slowly, and some other times we walk faster or even run. Augmentation works just like that, does that make sense?”
We both nodded, and he continued.
“Depending on the level of quint used in the augmentation, the enhancement becomes more clear. Here, let me show you.” He opened his arm for us to see clearly. “If I push a little more quint in my augmentation…”
Suddenly, water appeared in his palm out of nowhere.
“I can manifest an element, thus the name Elemancer. There are four common elements an Elemancer can use: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth, but more on that later. Now…” Papa paused and looked at the Emberfang that was still falling from his previous attack. “…for the emission of quint to the outside world.”
Papa stretched his hand, and the water from his hand turned into a bubble bigger than me. When the Emberfang was close to hitting the ground, Papa fired the bubble, sending the beast crashing to the wall and dust rising.
‘That. Was. Awesome! Papa is so cool! I want to be an Elemancer too! But why is Papa holding his tummy? Does his tummy hurt? Is it something he ate?’
“What you just saw was the utilization.. em, the use of Quint in the atmosphere to form a spell. You probably didn’t notice but, when I first covered my hand in water, it came from the center of my body, the quint core,” he trailed his hand from his tummy all the way to his hand to show us what he meant, “whereas when I made the bubble, there wasn’t any water reaching from my hand, but the bubble grew from the ambient quint…”
As Papa spoke, the smoke cleared. The Emberfang was still on the ground. Its tummy going up and down, but its eyes were closed.
“Perfect. It looks like we won’t be having any more interruptions,” Papa said. “Those that fit for the first category are named Augmenters, while those that have an easier time using the ambient Quint are named Evokers. When one first awakens, the second use of the tattoo tells us to which of the two classes they belong. Tattoos that are more reserved or closing in on themselves usually mean the Elemancer is going to be an Augmenter while those that look like they spread outwards or are more open typically are for an Evoker.”
Papa clapped his hands. “Now, I believe I’ve told more than you can chew, so we’ll stop at that for today. Do you have any questions?”
“Papa, you said there are these two classes. Which one are you?”
“Actually, there is a third type, but it gets a lot more complicated, so we’ll be leaving that for another day. Now, to answer your question, when an Elemancer progresses the colors, the distinction - distinction means difference - between Augmenters and Evokers reduces. It is said that when reaching the white tattoo, there is no difference between the two. With that being said when I initially awakened, I was an augmenter, but I’m able to control the ambient quint to an extent.”
“Amby what?” Theodore asked, frowning.
“Right, it means the quint in the surroundings.”
Suddenly, growls echoed again deeper within the cave. In one of the darker tunnels, there was something like fire moving and getting closer to us.
“Shit,” Papa said a bad word again.
“EEEE! Papa!”
Unlike before, Papa didn’t apologize.
“Papa! Papa!”
“Now is not the time, Theodore.” Papa cut him off, his tone serious.
The moving fires weren’t fires at all. They were Emberfangs.
“Why do they look so different?” I asked.
“Because the one I faced was a cub... These two are adults.”