Release Seals

Guinevere heard everything, from start to finish about Blade and his goal. He was planning to strike me down and send Apotheosis into a new host, believing I didn't have what it takes to be the world's hero.

Well, a part of me wanted to say that he was right, but another part of me wanted to prove him wrong.

I don't like to be belittled so much, especially from my personality. I try my hardest, even in the face of death. I know myself more than anyone else in this whole world—and I'm self-aware of my own actions, and attitude.

Though, even with that in mind... what if he's right?

What if someone like me taking on the role of hero will doom the world, when there are billions of others out there that could do better than me?

Just thinking about it demotivates me.

I just wanna give up, but I knew Apotheosis chose someone like me for this specific purpose out of those billions out there.

I just had to become better.

"Hey… kid."

If I didn't become better, then what good am I to the world with the strongest power in my hand?

"Yo, kid."

I have to keep pushing myself.

"Emmeline!!"

"Oh, huh?"

I snapped out of my negative thoughts, looking up at Guinevere who thumped my forehead.

"Ow-!"

"So, Blade, you said he was trying to replace you, right? Well, somethings not adding up."

"W-Well… what is it?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"He had all the time in the world to actually… kill you if he wanted to—but he refrained from doing so—as if he was testing your capabilities. Am I right?"

I lowered my head, sighing to myself, saying, "Yeah, you're right. He was way stronger than me, and even with Apotheosis in my grasp, I can't beat him if it were a real fight."

"That son of a bitch."

I looked up, mutating my expression into confusion.

"What is it?"

Guinevere sighed, taking the cigarette out of her mouth. "Blade is definitely after your head. It's in his nature to test his prey before striking them down when they least expect it. He's smart. That bastard gains intel on his enemies before making his moves."

"W-What?! S-So… he's probably watching us right now as we speak!?"

"He could be." Guinevere looked around us, smacking her lips in annoyance. "Use Ein Release, just in case. I'm not taking any chances."

Huh, what the heck was she talking about?

"Ein… Release?" I asked, lifting my brow.

"Ehh? Don't you know how to use Ein?"

"Y-Yeah, I do, but I never heard the 'release' part yet."

"You have to be shitting me." Guinevere looked toward my direction, scratching the back of her head. "That damn Apotheosis. She teaches you about Ether but refuses to tell you the basic part of Release Seals."

I just stood there, scratching my cheek.

"I uh… never heard of that term before until now."

"Alright, alright! Let me think of the best way to explain this…" Sticking the cigarette back in her mouth, she crossed her arms and gazed at the ground.

"Ether, it's consciousness energy that comes from the brain, however, the brain isn't the only thing that stores this energy. Once a sleeper turns to an awakened, the Ether from their brain spreads through their entire body, and after this happens, the body evolves over time and creates the other elements."

"The other elements? You mean Yoh, Ein, Sehk, Kah, and Jio?"

"You're sorta right, however, Yoh is an element of Ether that has always existed. Yoh keeps Ether stored inside the brain and prevents it from leaking out. It acts as a seal."

Guinevere lifted her hand into the air, showcasing the Ein release.

"Ein Release!"

She created a sort of hand gesture by raising the index, and pinky fingers while folding the other fingers.

All of a sudden, her Ether vanished from her body, and she was undetectable, but for some odd reason… I could still see her.

"As of now, I'm completely invisible to your eight senses. You can't feel, see, hear, or perceive me. I could lift your skirt and you wouldn't even know it's me." Guinevere jokingly said, blowing a cloud of smoke from her mouth.

"Huh? But I can see you perfectly fine."

"What the fuck?!" She leaned her head back and took a step behind her. "You're seriously one freak of nature."

"I-Is that not normal?"

"Hell no it's not normal!! When you use Ein, you're basically invisible to all Eight senses!"

"Uhm…" I widened my eyes and thought back to a few days ago when I met Absceline.

She said something about me existing separate from the collective consciousness.

Users of Apotheosis follow their own logic values, such is why I can outright bypass a lot of systems of reality, including Ether, I think.

But maybe it has something to do with Equilibrium.

I lifted up my arm, staring at it through my unclean glasses.

"…I guess that means if I can sense people who use Ein, then I'll be able to tell if Blade is watching us, right?" I asked, clenching my fist, and stuffing it back into my jacket pocket.

"Huh…" Guinevere looked at me, lifting her brow as she crossed her arms. "Damn, I guess you're right about that… but still! Nothing explains how you can see someone with Ein. Seriously, kid, your potential is unreal."

"Ahaha, oh c'mon, I'm sure other users of Apotheosis did the same thing, right?" I laughed, shrugging off her words of praise.

"No. Not even they could interfere with the rulings of Ether."

"H-Huh?" I widened my eyes in shock, blinking multiple times to take in that information. "Y-You're kidding, right?"

"Why would I be lying about that?"

So I was wrong. Me being separate from the collective consciousness has nothing to do with why I can overrule the systems of Ether.

The only logical conclusion I could come up with was Equilibrium.

Yeah, that has to be it.

Apotheosis herself said she's never merged with her hosts in their bodies, but instead took on the form of weapons and items.

I'm apparently the first person who's ever merged with Apotheosis.

That has to be the reason why I can do these feats.

"We're getting off-topic here." Guinevere sighed and ruffled my hair with her hand. "Focus on me, I hate that look in your eyes."

I snapped back into reality, nodding my head, and saying, "Oh, right, sorry."

"Now where were we? Ah, right." She smirked, proceeding with my lesson. "After the body evolves, it creates the other four elements; Kah, Sehk, Ein, and Jio. These elements are seals placed around our bodies."

"S-Seals?" I asked.

"Correct. The Seal of Yoh is located in our brain, the Seal of Ein is in our stomach, Kah is located in every joint of our body, as Sehk exists in our chest. For Jio, however, it only exists in the palm of our hands, to create weapons out of energy."

"So… these seals, what purpose do they serve?"

Guinevere chuckled. "Good question, that's what I'm going to explain. Releasing these seals allows one to bring out the full potential of the element they're trying to use. For example; using Sehk without releasing its seal would allow for the basic effects of this element. You could turn paper hard as a rock, release your aura to clash with others, and create passive forcefields that block out all conventional harm."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, that much I know."

"Good… but what you don't know is about what happens when you Release the Seal of Sehk. When this happens, the user can use the full potential of the element, allowing the piece of paper that can become hard as a rock to now become hard as steel. Or for one's aura to become heavier and more potent than the Earth's gravity, etc."

Woah, that sounded insane just hearing about it.

"I-I see… so it's basically shattering the limitations of the element to bring out its full potential?"

"Precisely that. It's why when we hunt, we use Release Seals to bring out the element's full potential, this way, we can kill Phantasms much easier without risks of death."

"So… these seals, are they performed by creating hand gestures?"

"Yeah, each Release Seal has its own gesture. These hand gestures represent the seal's symbolism. Making these hand signs allows us to connect with the element in our body, and unshackle it from its seal, it's why it's important to learn them, one by one."

I scratched the back of my head, huffing a sigh.

"Man, I guess I don't know enough about this Ether stuff like I thought I did. This is gonna be exhausting."

Guinevere laughed at me, bumping my arm with her elbow. "Lighten up some. If you do everything right and train hard, I'll take you to the strip club. You're old enough for that, right?"

"S-Strip Club? Seriously, what the heck is wrong with you?!"

"What? That's how I met some of my girlfriends, maybe you can find one."

"No thank you!! I already have a boy I like!"

"Oh, really? Well, what's his name?" She leaned into my face, smug as ever.

"None of your business, shut up." I crossed my arms, turning away with a visible blush.

"Don't keep me in the dark, I wanna know about your love life."

"Put a sock in it!"