10 Years Ago (01)

Gazing outside the window, Eira was thinking about the conversation she had with Asvaldur few hours ago.

- "Mother, I'm here on your ca- "

Val entered the room but Eira got enraged after hearing him calling her 'mother'. So, without even looking back she spoke in a cold voice -

- "KNEEL"

Booom . . .

On her word, an unbearable force fell on Val which made him crashed onto his knees, destroying the floor his legs sank few inches deep into the floor.

- "Agh . ."

Struggle to even lift his head, Val suffered great pain under the magic pressure. Eira detested his existence down to her bones. She finally turned around and slowly walked toward him.

- "You really have changed Val, enough to come at the breakfast table and enough to dare call me 'mother'. "

She said in a menacing cold voice while looking down at him from 2 steps away. Her brown eyes were glowing while bearing a look of disgust.

- "Your performance in the morning was little surprising too but I doubt it as if it was an act of bravery or recklessness. Well either way, we are getting rid of a stain. You must've understood the true reason behind his holiness's decision, yes?"

Eira released her magic power and the glow from her eyes faded away. After getting free from the pressure, Val nodded to her but he couldn't able to lift himself up, his whole body was aching and his legs got numb.

'Of course I know. Like myself, you all are acting in front of others.'

Thought Val while stabilizing his breath. Theo knew, that the divine family couldn't bluntly oppressed Val or it could've come out as a discrimination against seedless. Eira, after getting a response, crouched down to Val's level.

- "But this is not what I called you for. Now tell me,"

She said before moving closer to Val.

- "Are you really Val?"

'What do you think?'

Asked Val with his eyes as he raised his head to make an eye contact with Eira. He was unfazed by the question because he had enough surprises in one day. Eira was expecting a reaction but instead, she flinched when she met with Val's indifferent eyes and expressionless face.

She never saw such indifference eyes before, for a single moment she thought that if the gods themselves bore that same kind of gaze, but soon she got back her composure and grabbed his throat

Ugh khhk kk

- "His holiness observed a change in your mana signature. Since we can't get the blessing of gods, did you get some kind of revelation from goddess in your sleep?"

She asked threateningly. Mana signature was like unique fingerprints, every living and non-living things had their unique mana signature. It was like unique vibrations which every living and non-living things have on earth. It was true that Theo's soul caused the change in mana signature in Val's body.

- "Answer me, is that why you abruptly choose to become a paladin ? "

She asked before getting back up and moving toward the study desk which was behind her. She grabbed a quill pen and threw it into the air.

- "You should've died"

Cough x4

While coughing violently, Val saw the quill pen transformed into a blue whip in the air before falling back into Eira's hand. He realized that the blue whip had a fire attribute mixed in.

'Haah. .what a waste of divinity'

thought Val as he braced himself by forming a thin mana layer in between his back and shirt. He also applied an ice attribute to minimize the damage. Then, he got back into the original Val's personality and started begging and trembling while bowing to the floor.

- " N-No Great mother, I-I apologize, I didn't-"

Slap__Slap__"You should've been dead"__Slap__Slap

Enraged, Eira started whipping him. Val clenched his teeth and endured the excruciating pain with closed eyes. His mana control was not perfect, so every hit broke his mana layer and inflicted a wound on his back while leaving small blue flames in the injuries, but the flames only lasted for 2 secs thanks to the ice attribute in his mana layer.

He also kept recreated the mana layer to lessen the next impact. Soon, the smell of burnt flesh filled inside the room and on last few hit, a vague image of blue lightning discharged rope flashed inside Val's mind.

[Vision Flash Reference: Iron Man 20:48 - 20:51]

- "You. .your existence itself is a mistake. You should've been died 10 years ago. "

Said Eira in anger after stopping. Still bowing, Val was in bad state, his shirt was tattered and burned, his back had several burnt marks. He was drenched in sweat and barely maintaining himself from loosing consciousness, but soon he fell sideways and darkness fell over his eyes and he drowned in the memories of 10 years ago.

****

10 years ago

Val - 7 years old

Somewhere in north of Kelnar

- "Sir Nozroc, where are we going? Why are we alone? What if a monster comes out?"

Asked 7 yrs old Val innocently while looking above to a burly man who sat behind him. They both were riding a white albino yak like beast. That man had Anubis like long ears and a thick beard, he was a Paladin of Kelnar wearing a bronze armor and he was ordered to throw Val in the river.

- " Well your grace, please don't worry, me and Bari will deal with any monsters, nobody can harm you in the presence of an Ixeger and a legendary beast."

Said Nozroc with a smile, showing his long canine teeth but opposite to his playfulness, his mind was in turmoil. He was committing a great sin and he was aware of that but he couldn't do anything, he needed to fulfill his duty.

- "Wow, Bari is a legendary ranked beast." pat pat

Said Val in astonishment while patting on Bari. Beasts and Artifacts were categorized in 7 types, [Common > Uncommon > Rare > Legendary > Mythical > Celestial and Divine]. Soon, they reached and stopped at the edge of a canyon. Nozroc became grim as he gazed below to the river.

- "I apologize your grace"

Said Nozroc while lifting Val with his one hand, he knew that delaying it would only distract him, so after little hesitation he threw Val into the river. Out of guilt, he aimed Val's dropping position safe from the bedrocks while Val only watched Nozroc's face while falling down, dumbfounded.

Splash . .

Val drowned in the river and swept away by the strong current. He was flailing violently to break out to the surface but the flow was too aggressive which made his efforts fruitless. At the brink of loosing his breath, he used magic to break it to the surface and avoided colliding with rocks.

For a 7 yrs old not to mention a seedless, any form of magic was difficult, he couldn't able to break free from the flow much less fly out of the canyon. For hours, he maintained himself on the surface while expecting the end of canyon but soon his mana reservoir got depleted and he drowned in the river. In the verge loosing consciousness, he blurrily saw a thin black hand penetrated through water and reaching toward him.

Swoosh Splash _haah ha ha

Pulled out from the river, he was able to breath again but due to mana exhaustion his vision was blurry and had a slight deafness. For few seconds, he saw a blurry black figure very close to him and whispering to him.

- "Do..wo..I'll be..wa..fo.u..y..so.."

Val didn't hear it properly nor saw it clearly as he lost his consciousness. After an unknown time length, he felt something poking into his cheeks.

- "Hello? Are you alright ?"

- "hmmm!! Aaaaah "

As he opened his eyes, Val got startled upon seeing a girl close to his face. He screamed and crawled back to distance himself.

- "Kyaaah"

The girl also screamed as she fell back, startled by the sudden screaming of Val.

- "W-Why are you screaming?"

Asked the girl in panic. She appeared to be in the same age as Val, she had a very cute face with blue jeweled eyes and long braided blue hairs. Her voice was soft and she was looking like a fairy in her white dress.

- "I-I was startled b-but w-where am I?"

Asked Val timidly as he looked around. He was in an endless empty beach which was covered in gray sand, the ocean was in front of him and a forest was behind him.

- "It's the outskirt of Ennyar Ocean. Are you alright? I never saw someone on this side of land before, what are you doing here?"

Asked the girl in her kind voice as she sat on her knees while looking at Val, his clothes and hair were wet and messed up. His appearance resembled to a wet scared kitten.

- "I-I.."

Val couldn't able to speak, the painful memories broke him into tears, he curled up and started crying while holding his knees. It was a miracle for him that he was alive. The girl got panicked as she saw him sobbing, after contemplating what to do she toddled close to him and patted over his head.

- "Don't cry..Ummm, Do you want to see a Zeya?"

She asked while smiling at him, and she successfully captured Val's attention. He calmed down when he heard about Zeya which was a beautiful fish from a famous children's fable. He nodded his head while shedding tears.

- "Okay, come then"

said the girl as she stood up and pulled Val's hand. She led him closer to the water but Val refused to go any near because of the traumatizing experience. So, she stood in an ankle deep water, few steps ahead of Val and then bent down to put her hands into water. Few seconds later, a large Feathertail fish with a size of killer whale made of water dived out of the ocean like a dolphin.

Splash

- "How is it?"

Asked the girl with a beautiful smile as she turned around. Val never saw such a beautiful scene before. A beautiful fish diving out behind the girl who was smiling kindly at him, it was beautiful.

- "W-wow!! your magic..it's beautiful, wow"

Said Val in astonishment while clapping excitedly.

- "I-It's not really special, nobody complimented me for this before."

Said the girl blushingly in an inaudible voice while lowering her head. Val didn't heard her as he was busy admiring the fish who was constantly diving in and out of water.

- "M-May I ask for your name?"

Asked the girl shyly, and after hearing her, Val fixed his clothes clumsily and stood properly to answer her.

- "Y-yes, I apologize. I'm Val Kelnar, descendant of Goddess Heira and the youngest son of 45th Supreme Leader of Kelnar. "

- "May our God Triton bless you. I'm Mipha Ycluir, descendant of God Triton and the youngest daughter of 45th Supreme Leader of Ycluir."

Said Mipha and they both bowed to each other. Mipha was a Siren and the 3rd and youngest child of the Supreme Leader of Ycluir. Ycluir was the underwater city of Siren, one of the 8 mega cities of lower realm. It was located in Ennyar Ocean which was in northwest of Kelnar.

- "Ummm..but Val, I heard that Kelnar is very far from here. How did you get here?"

Asked Mipha carefully in low voice as she didn't wanted to make him upset. Although, the canyon in which Val thrown into was ended into Ennyar Ocean, but by land, Kelnar was months far away from that beach.

- "I-I don't know..I was in the canyon and then I-I don't know.."

Said Val in quavering voice. After hearing Mipha, the painful memories of betrayal and struggle flashed back up again into his mind. He slumped down on the sand and tears filled his eyes. He didn't know how he got to that beach, he thought, he drowned inside the canyon after mana exhaustion. Val didn't had any recollection of the mysterious black figure.

- "D-Don't cry Val, It must be because of an unprecedented magical phenomena, yes. Don't worry, I'm sure my father will help you to get back to your home. Just wait here I'll go and ask my father-"

Said Mipha to console Val. Several unknown magical phenomena existed on lower realm and some of those caused a random teleportation to the objects which accidentally came in contact with it. She was feeling bad for Val but when she turned around to run inside the ocean, Val stopped her before she set off

- "N-No, I-I can't go back there...not there"

Said Val, trembling in fear. Mipha started to feel even more bad for him. She was a very kind and caring girl, after seeing Val in a sorry state, she wanted to help him. Mipha also thought of inviting him to the underwater city Ycluir but she understood that Val was afraid of water, so she didn't asked him.

- "But your family must be worrying about you, why are you refusing to go back home?"

Asked Mipha in her soft voice as she sat down beside him. Her voice felt very soothing to Val as he looked at her but then he turned his head away from her. He was embarrassed of himself.

- " Unlike you Mipha, whose magic power is great and who born with a seed, I'm born as a seedless. The goddess has abandon me and my mother detest me. I'm useless to Kelnar, I'm nothing but an unfortunate existence."

Said Val in sadness. He thought, after learning about his seedless identity, Mipha would also hate him. He started to admire her, he didn't wanted her to hate him.

- "Unfortunate hmmm?. . then I'm not really different from you."

Said Mipha with a thin smile as she was gazing to the ocean while her hair danced with the wind. Val looked at her as he found her statement absurd.

- " I'm always called an unlucky person and scolded almost everyday. My brother don't like anything about me and actually...y-you are the first person who complimented me."

Said Mipha turning her head away blushingly at the last statement. But Val still didn't able to understand her.

- " I don't think there is anything that makes you unlucky though. You are more capable and amazing than me."

Said Val as oblivious as before.

- "S-Stop it, how should I put it ? It is like whatever I do, it ended up into a complete disaster. Do you want me to show you ?? "

Asked Mipha raising her eyebrows and smiling. Val, who was curious, nodded without giving a second thought. Mipha stood up and started searching for something and Val followed her.

- "Okay, that'll do. Val, stand behind me."

Said Mipha with little excitement as she took a stone in her hand and turned toward the forest.

- "B-but what are you going to do with that stone? Is it dangerous?"

Said Val timidly as he moved behind Mipha. He looked toward Mipha in confusion as she stood in confidence.

- " Just a precaution, anyways, look."

Said Mipha shrugging off at Val. Then she threw that stone using magic into forest and that stone went in like a bullet, but even after few seconds nothing happened. They both stared at the forest blankly.

- " Hmmm, is it not working today? "

Said Mipha to herself, being confused as she rubbed her chin. She turned to Val and found him giving her a questionable look, like saying 'is this it?'

- "W-what? I was not lying, it's true that I'm called an-"

Mipha was explaining herself to Val but suddenly they heard a loud roar from the forest and both turned their head in that direction.

Roar

- "See, I told you."

Said Mipha as she slowly turned to Val, wearing a proud smile and posed boldly. While Val got pale upon hearing the beast. He didn't understood why Mipha seemed satisfied while he was hanging to his soul who was threatened to leave.

Roar

- "Hiieek.. r-run, I-I think we should run."

Said Val with a pale face while stepping behind Mipha.

- "Hehe, yes, let's run."

Said Mipha while smiling and holding Val's hand as they both ran away from the outcry of beast.