Kai stood in place, inhaling deeply and exhaling sharply as his body accommodated the new core. Power surged through his body, and flowed through his veins like a raging river. His knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists, and looked up as he let ouprimaleval scream. This action caught everybody off-guard, and they listened as the scream turned into a roar that resembled a dragon’s, reverberating throughout the city. It slowly grew quiet as Kai lowered his gaze, and watched the group with renowned vigor and excitement. His lips parted, revealing his sharp fangs.
However, before he could even utter a word, Elizabeth’s hand flew toward his face, making his head ring as he stepped backward before suddenly getting dragged back. Finding himself in Elly’s arms shaking arms as she tightly held him. Kai didn’t have the time to process the searing pain on his face, losing himself in the comfort of her embrace.
They spent a few minutes like that, Kai’s face turning red from his inability to breathe but Elizabeth refused to let go, afraid that she might lose him. He had realized that and also realized that they had somehow found out what he had attempted. He endured though, until finally they parted and he managed to gasp for air. Coughing lightly, he finally gazed upon the group’s expressions, and whilst a hint of excitement was present in their eyes, their faces told another story. Fear and anxiety painted them, even their bodies still shaking slightly from the few seconds of dread they had felt when Kai started acting up.
Anger, however, was absent from their being, and they could only let out a sigh of relief upon confirming that nothing was wrong with Kai. A moment of awkward silence descended upon them, however, it was quickly broken by Aina, whose disappointed sigh echoed in the air. “Congratulations, Kai. You’re back at ground zero.” She stood up and gently patted his head as she walked inside the mansion. Her footsteps faltered, and she stopped to take a deep breath before continuing. Kai watched her with confusion, then turned toward Elizabeth, whose focus seemed to be lost as she looked at her mother.
“She’s going to be alright, you just gave her a scare, is all.” Her shaky voice couldn’t hide her anxiety, however, she held on better than her mother.
Euphridia’s armor rattled as she approached, looking at Kai with a gentle, yet stern expression. Grabbing his heart, she lifted him and said as he yelped. “You… when will you stop trying to kill yourself?! Every single time you do something you make us worry so much. It was the case last time, which only ended well because we were there to help you.
Do you have the slightest idea of what you’ve put us through? We could not do anything this time, only watch as you squirmed in pain! You stupid, stupid, boy!”
Her scolding rang in Kai’s mind like a church’s bell, hurting him more than any sort of cut or stab. Tears fell on his cheeks, which was when Euphy let go of him and also brought him into her embrace. Her cold, hard chestplate barely comforted Kai, but thankfully she didn’t hold on to him for nearly as long as Elizabeth did. As their bodies parted, the indents of the armor printed themselves on Kai’s face.
Kai looked over to Zarman, whose stoic expression returned firmly to his face. Noticing the boy’s gaze, a soft smile creased his lips, which he quickly shut down. He grunted, seemingly fighting with himself, however in the end his lips parted, saying in a coarse voice. “You did well kid, your parents would be proud.”
Hearing that, Kai gulped as a small tear threatened to appear on the corner of his eye, however, he pushed it back, only giving a small nod in response. Sverik also turned to him, however, he didn’t say anything, but instead gave an awkward thumbs up, bringing a chuckle out of Kai.
…
Shortly after things settled down, everyone returned to their respective homes, whilst Kai and Elizabeth went to their own room to cool down for the night and discuss more things tomorrow. He stepped into the shower and cleaned himself before donning a soft pajama. Sitting down at his desk, he noted down what had happened today in great detail. In his concentration, he failed to hear the knocking and the subsequent opening of the door.
“So this is where you keep your secrets?” Aina’s stern, weak voice startled him, making him jump backward and fall along with the chair. She reached over for the notebook, flipping its pages as she carefully read through it. Kai stood up, nervously standing next to her without uttering a word. With each page, her eyes widened more and more until she finally reached the last page, where Kai had noted down his conclusions. “When were you planning on telling me about this?”
“After I succeeded…” He replied, feeling guilty.
“And what if you hadn’t succeeded?” She asked, closing the notebook. “What then?”
“I-”
“Exactly.” She cut him off, her tone turning angrier. “I thought you learned your lesson the last time, yet it looks like you didn’t.”
She sighed and sat down on the bed, placing one leg over the other and leaning her elbow on her knee. Propping her head in her palm, she let out a heavy sigh. “Not even your father was this stupid Kai… The fusion of two cores… who knows what would have happened? You could have exploded into pieces, burnt to death… worse. And you didn’t even plan on telling me at all, you could have DIED, and then what? What would I do? Blame myself for not taking proper care of you? For rushing you? For not taking my time with helping you recover?
What about Elizabeth? You’re her best friend’s last kin, her only kin. She cares for you more than she lets it seen, and you break her heart over and over again by doing your stupid experiments on yourself! Kai, do you ever stop to think about the consequences?”
“And yet… you did it.” She said softly, raising her gaze toward Kai, tears dripping down her flushed cheeks. “You managed to do it by some miracle of Lumiera or by some sort of coincidence, you did what we previously thought was impossible…” She inhaled sharply, wiping her tears as she stood up.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Aina…”
“Save your apologies for later… We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Closing the door behind her, she left Kai and Onyx alone. The boy glanced at the notebook before finally joining Onyx on the floor. The Obborik wrapped his tail around him, warmly snuggling Kai before both of them fell asleep.
…
Kai woke up with the first rays of sunshine that somehow sneaked through his curtains. His cheek sizzled softly before turning red, eventually emanating the smell of burnt pork. That’s when he jumped up, letting out a sharp screech, waking up Onyx in the process. The Obborik started barking loudly for a second, before realizing what had happened.
“Shit…” Kai cursed as he glared at the place where the curtain had seemingly gone out of place, and he quickly covered the fresh burn with his hand as he rushed down the hallway. Knocking on Aina’s door, he didn’t wait long for an answer as the door creaked open.
“What is it so early?.. Ah!” She immediately dragged Kai inside, noticing the wound. After taking a closer look, she sprinkled some medicine on it and began healing him with magic. A few seconds passed and the burn disappeared completely, prompting both of them to release a relieved sigh.
“It’s getting worse… Aina.”
“I know… soon enough even the moon- Let’s not think about it. Go back and get some more rest, I’ll get things ready and wait for you and Elizabeth in the living room.
Kai nodded gently, going back into his room and sitting down on the bed, where he knew that the sun wouldn't be able to reach him. Deciding to take his time to study the changes in his body, now that things had relatively calmed down.
Observing his core and how the mana flowed through his body, he felt like the first time he had formed it, seven years ago. Except this time things were different, very different. Taking a closer look, he noticed that unless he forced himself to focus, he could barely see the Mana Core. Otherwise, all one could detect was a Body Core with a slightly higher mana capacity.
Interesting… but this may also be because I am weak, I’ll need to ask Aina to look at it as well… Besides that I- I can’t believe it. It’s there, my old Mana Core is there, along with the weird mutation that saved me at the last stretch… Aina was right, I’m too reckless. It’ll be the death of me someday.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, circulating the technique imparted to him by his parents. His core gleamed with a soft light as the mana gathered around him, entering his veins through his pores. Unlike before, however, when they started shattering at the slightest chant, they held on strongly. Although they aren’t as strong as before, they can at least handle seventy percent of the input… but the biggest hurdle will be casting spells.
Inhaling deeply, he stopped the technique and decided to wait for Aina and Elizabeth to be present for the worst-case scenario. Until then he trained his control over mana, and he felt his heart skip a beat upon realizing that it bent to his will better than ever before.
If back when he had a normal Mana Core, the energy would reply to his call like a normal worker doing a nine to five, after he could barely use any kind of magic the mana would rebel like a teenager. Right now it beckoned to his call like a puppy, listening to his every whim. Amazing… He wasn’t sure why this happened, but at this point, all that he knew was that more testing was necessary, due to this new core variant.
Kai sat in meditation, watched over by Onyx as he waited for the time to pass. However, even he couldn’t sit like that for too long, despite all the new exciting changes. His eyes snapped open and he looked under his bed, spotting a big ball and grabbing it. Onyx’s ears instantly lit up as he stood up, his tail kicking up a storm. Rushing to the door and opening it with his paws, he waited eagerly for Kai to throw the ball. And he did. Kai launched the ball as far as he could into the hallway, sending it down the stairs and who knows where. Onyx rushed after it, his large frame making the staff cower in fear as they got out of his way even after this time.
Screams rang within the entire manor, and Onyx returned in less than two minutes with the ball, placing it at Kai’s feet and waiting for him to throw it again. “You know,” Kai chuckled. “For such a feared beast, you sure act like a puppy.”
Onyx’s head turned sideways, letting out a soft cry as he nudged the ball closer. “Yep, like a puppy…” Kai pat the Obborik’s head, losing himself in all the fluff before throwing the ball again, much to the staff’s horror.
…
The living room rustled with activity as Kai sat down on the couch, and opposite him were Aina and Elizabeth. Both of them have calmed down since yesterday, although Elizabeth still felt a bit anxious about everything, and she had a dreadful sense of unease that she couldn’t let go of. Although she hoped it was only her imagination.
Kai fidgeted with his fingers as he waited for one of them to speak, at least. And it didn’t take long before Aina’s voice resounded in the air. “Did you play fetch with Onyx again?”
“I… uh… yes…?” He replied, unsure why she had asked it in the first place.
“The staff told me he made quite a mess running up and down the stairs…” she sighed, “You should-”
“Mom, stop avoiding the question.” Elizabeth intercepted, annoyance evident in her voice.
Aina sighed and lowered her gaze slightly before lifting it back up at Kai. “Fine… Kai,” she said slowly. “What did you do to your core? Even after I read your notes it’s quite clear things didn’t go as you wanted them to, how did you salvage the situation?”
“Ah- Well…” His faint voice barely escaped his lips, taken aback by their sudden curiosity.
“You don’t have to explain it if you don’t want to but it could be useful in the future… in case this happens again,” Elizabeth said with a reassuring tone.
“No, no. It’s fine, but I don’t think it will apply to anyone else.” He felt quite bad about it, however, he started explaining everything in detail, not even hiding the fact that he had a mutated core. However, he didn’t t say how and why he got it, although the two could easily come to a conclusion based on past experiences.
“Fascinating…” Aina said, standing up and sitting down next to Kai. Her eyes glowed and peered into his mana core, however, her pupils widened upon realizing something. “I can’t see the Mana Core, only the Body Core… this is interesting. That means you can hide your power as much as possible and people would be none the wiser about it… I wonder how well the people from the Magic Academy could make a difference, or the people with special eye powers…”
“That’s a good thing though, normal humans wouldn’t be able to tell he’s a Mage, though he still doesn’t have any stars. I wonder how that would change the form.” Elizabeth added, feeling quite curious herself.
“We’ll see… for now he just needs to train and achieve the first star… and let’s hope it all goes smoothly.” Aina sighed softly, caressing Kai’s disheveled hair.